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ADAM VAN ARSDALE: Looking at the world around us, it's not hard to be amazed
by the creativity, ingenuity, and resilience of the human species.
It might even be tempting to think that the ascendancy of humanity was
inevitable.
But in reality, humans are the product of a specific set of events,
environments, and changes in our evolutionary past.
Why is it that we're no longer apes, eating fruit underneath some tropical
forest canopy?
How come, with a single misstep, it's so easy to sprain your ankle?
How did we survive as a species giving birth to babies that are so fragile
and so dependent on our care?
How come I'm able to have a glass of milk with my breakfast as an adult and
not regret that decision the rest of the day?
And how can I, with just a limited number of sounds, say a sentence that,
as long as I follow a few basic rules, even if you've never heard it before
and no one in humanity has ever heard it before, you understand?
These are all evolutionary questions that we'll address in
Anthropology 207x.
My name is Adam Van Arsdale, Professor of Anthropology at Wellesley College.
The goal of paleoanthropologists, such as myself, is to try to uncover and
piece together our evolutionary history, in order to better understand
who we are today and how we got to be that way.
This class will provide you with an introduction to human
evolutionary history.
Regardless of your prior background, we will introduce you to the major
fossil, archaeological, and genetic discoveries that have shaped our
understanding of our evolutionary past.
We will provide you with an introduction to the theory and methods
used by paleoanthropologists to create knowledge.
By taking this course with thousands of your peers, you will also have the
unique opportunity to see human variation in its vast array in a
single classroom, as it's been shaped by and is a product of our
evolutionary past.
It is my hope that you will share in this journey to the major sites,
discoveries, and ideas that have shaped our understanding of humanity's
evolutionary past.
Welcome to Wellesley's Anthropology 207x.