Date, Topic and Reading

Tuesday, Aug 28
How Do We See "Prehistoric" People?
Video

READING: Carefully read this entire syllabus.

Wednesday, Aug 29
DISCUSSION: Creation Stories

READING:
Click to read several creation stories from around the world;
Genesis, Chapters 1 and 2, in Course Reader, pp. 57-59.

Thursday, Aug 30 What is History -- And Does Biology Have Anything to do with It?

READING: Carl Sagan, The Universe in a Year (handout).

Click to read an August 23, 2005 New York Times article, "Grasping the Depth of Time as a First Step in Understanding Evolution"

Click to read an June 25, 2007 New York Times article, "Life as We Know It," on the development of evolutionary thought since Darwin.

Tuesday, Sep 4 What's It Feel Like for a Girl?
Does Evolution Cause the Sexes to Behave Differently?
Audio

FILM (to be shown in class):

Gender: The Enduring Paradox.

Audio

READING: Excerpt from Robert Wright, The
Moral Animal, in Course Reader, pp. 1-16.

Wednesday, Sep 5 Discussion

Thursday, Sep 6 Can We Learn About Humans from Apes?

Audio

READING: Click to read about a recent study comparing human and chimpanzee genomes, New York Times September 1, 2005;
Click to read essay, "Darwin Still Rules, But Some Biologists Dream of a Paradigm Shift," New York Times, June 25, 2007;
McNeill, pp. xiii-6.