ESP/ANT 105. The Evolution of Societies and Cultures.  MWF 10:00 - 10:50 1132 Bainer

The course material leverages theories and data from anthropology, psychology, and biology to help make sense of human cultural diversity and how and why it changes through time.

  TOPICS: Human cultural diversity in time and space. The evolution of subsistence systems. Evolution of social systems. The relative importance of genes, environment, and culture. Psychology of social learning; diffusion of innovations. Climate change and human evolution. Conflicts between genetic and cultural systems, the demographic transition. The evolution of cooperation. The evolution of symbolically-marked groups. Evolution of complex societies. The origin of agriculture. The origin of complex societies. The origin of modern societies. Contemporary trends.

                                                               19th Century cartoon of Charles Darwin

                                                                                   as an ape.