This course will employ a variety of instructional methods to accomplish its objectives. These may include: lecture, video presentations, group work/projects, small group discussion, case study analysis/projects, low-stakes writing assignments and presentations.
1. Introduction
Introduction to the disciplines of anthropology and archaeology.
Introduction to world prehistory.
2. How We Know What Happened in Human Prehistory
The basics of archaeological method and theory.
Archaeological survey and excavation.
Archaeological dating methods.
Methods of material culture analysis
3. Becoming Human
Introduction to human evolution: earliest hominins, Australopithecines, Early Homo, Homo erectus, Premodern Homo sapiens, Neandertals and Homo floresiensis
The origin and evolution of premodern hominins.
The origin of stone tool production and lifeways of premodern hominins.
The dispersal of premodern hominins outside of Africa.
4. Becoming Modern
The emergence of modern humans: Homo sapiens sapiens
The genetic, anatomical and behavioural origin of modern humans.
The global migration of modern humans out of Africa.
Pleistocene hunting, gathering and foraging cultures around the world.
5. The Holocene: After the Ice
The Mesolithic and Archaic Periods.
Complex hunters, gatherers and foragers.
Early sedentism and the roots of food production.
6. The Origins of Agriculture
The process of domestication of plants and animals.
The beginnings of agriculture and its spread.
The consequences of agriculture.
Earlier agricultural cultures in places such as Southwest Asia, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas.
Anthropological explanations and theories for the origins of agriculture.
7. Civilization: The Origins of Complex Societies
The definition of social and political complexity, cities, states and empires and their identification in the archaeological record.
Anthropological explanations and theories of social and political complexity, urbanism and state formation.
Anthropological explanations and theories of social and political collapse.
8. The Archaeology of Complex Cultures
The archaeology of complex societies such as Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Shang China, the Indus Civilization, Ancient Mesoamerica, the Central Andean Inka and their ancestors, the North American Southwest, Mississippian cultures of Eastern North America, Bronze and Iron Age Europe and Neolithic Africa.
Each semester the instructor will choose a selection from among these examples to focus as a series of more in-depth case studies.
9. The Power of the Human Past
Understanding the changing representations of the past and why these changes occur.
The influence of the human past on contemporary societies.
The political use of the human past.
The human past as represented in popular culture and the media.
At the completion of this course successful students will:
- possess an understanding of many of the methods, techniques and theories that archaeologists use to reconstruct the way that humans lived in the past from their material remains
- be able to describe the broad outline of human prehistory, including the major events that led to our current human condition and understand the cultural diversity that existed in the human past
- be able to describe the specific geographical locations, cultural chronologies and material characteristics of key prehistoric cultures
- be able to describe a number of the different theories that archaeologists have proposed to explain major transitions in human prehistory such as the origins of sedentism, the origins of agriculture, the rise of social complexity and the emergence of the state
- understand that the contemporary world is a result of a long human history and how our view of the human past can affect society today.
Evaluation will be based on course objectives and will be carried out in accordance with ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ policy. The instructor will provide a written course outline with specific criteria during the first week of classes.
An example of a possible evaluation scheme would be:
Low-stakes Writing Assignments 20%
Research Paper Proposal 10%
Research Paper 20%
Midterm Exam 20%
Final Exam 20%
Participation 10%
Total 100%
Students may conduct research with human participants as part of their coursework in this class. Instructors for the course are responsible for ensuring that student research projects comply with College policies on ethical conduct for research involving humans.
A required textbook will be assigned for this course and the textbook will be updated periodically. In addition, academic articles on specific case studies may be assigned and these will be available through the ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ library.
The textbook will be similar to one of the following:
Chazan, Micheal
2015 World Prehistory and Archaeology: Pathways Through Time. 3rd Canadian edition. Pearson, Toronto. ISBN 978-0-205-89670-7.
Fagan, Brian and Nadia Durrani
2013 People of the Earth: An Introduction to World Prehistory. 14th edition. Prentice Hall, New York. ISBN 987-0-205-96655-4.
Olszewski, Deborah
2016 Archaeology and Humanity's Story: A Brief Introduction to World Prehistory. Oxford University Press, New York. ISBN 978-0-19-976456-3.
Scarre, Chris (editor)
2013 The Human Past: World Prehistory and the Development of Human Societies. 3rd edition. Thames and Hudson, New York. ISBN 978-0-500-29063-7.