ANTH& 104 World Prehistory (5 credits)
Distribution Area Fulfilled Social Sciences; General Transfer Elective
Formerly ANTHR 105 - CCN
Course Description
An archaeological exploration of human lifeways from 3 million years ago to the development of written records. Topics include: early hominins, humans settle the world, climate adaptations, the first farmers, and early complexity.
Course Content
Scientific approaches to understanding the past
Survey of past hominins and their lifeways based on archaeological and paleoanthropological evidence:
Key biological distinctions among major hominins
Where they lived, their subsistence, technology, and culture
Why they disappeared
Modern human cultures of the Upper Paleolithic, interactions with pre-modern humans
Trends in technological and cultural change over time
Human settlement of Australia, the Pacific Islands, and the New World.
Archaeological evidence for the timing, mode, and reason for moving into each region
The locations and significance of key sites
Late Pleistocene and post-Pleistocene adaptations: Africa, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia, and the Americas
Impacts of climate change in the late Pleistocene
Broad Spectrum and Focused adaptations
Simple and complex foragers
Mesolithic / Epipaleolithic / Archaic cultures
Origins of food production in Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas
How and why plants and animals were domesticated and how we know
The major domesticates in each region
Cultivation: the reasons and process for a transition to a farming way of life
Unintended positive and negative consequences of early farming
The beginnings of social complexity in different regions of the world.
Simple (egalitarian) vs complex (ranked and stratified) societies
Factors that support and factors that limit increasing complexity
The characteristics of select early complex societies, such as: Ubaid (Mesopotamia), Mississippian (North America), Olmec (Mesoamerica), and Chavin (South America).
The locations and significance of key sites.
Student Outcomes
- Apply methods and theories of scientific archaeology and paleoanthropology to construct the prehistoric past.
- Explain past hominin lifeways, based on fossil, archaeological, and paleoanthropological evidence.
- Discuss trends in cultural and technological change over time.
- Critically evaluate archaeological interpretations of human geographical expansion into Australia, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas.
- Explain regional patterns of adaptation in the Mesolithic.
- Discuss the independent development and consequences of food production in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
- Explain the emergence of early complex society in different regions of the world.
Degree Outcomes
Social Science: Graduates analyze and interpret social phenomenon using social science theories and methods.Critical, Creative, and Reflective Thinking: Graduates will evaluate, analyze, synthesize, and generate ideas; construct informed, meaningful, and justifiable conclusions; and process feelings, beliefs, biases, strengths, and weaknesses as they relate to their thinking, decisions, and creations.
Lecture Contact Hours 50
Lab Contact Hours 0
Clinical Contact Hours 0
Total Contact Hours 50
Potential Methods
Examinations
Quizzes
Individual written assignments / essays
Individual or group work in class
Research assignments
Class presentation G. Large and small group discussions H. Group assignments
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