University of Arizona 3 credits Anthropology, Sch of
Human minds seem unlike those of any other animal. But what is it that makes human cognition unique? How and why did these traits evolve? This seminar will explore these questions by evaluating several leading hypotheses regarding human cognitive uniqueness. The first part of the course will explore which aspects of human cognition are shared with other animals, and which may be uniquely derived in our lineage. For example, are humans the only animals capable of teaching, cumulative culture, language, or mental time travel? The second part of the course will explore evolutionary scenarios that may be responsible for the evolution of uniquely human cognition. For example, what roles did cooperative breeding, living at high population densities, or exploiting novel environments play in the evolution of our species' psychology? The formal requirements of this course are the same for graduate and undergraduate students. However, graduate students are expected to understand and engage with course topics at a deeper level than undergraduates, and to make connections to other areas of biological anthropology, psychological science, and evolutionary biology. Graduate students will be evaluated according to these additional expectations for both in-class presentation and discussion, and in their writing assignments.
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