Teaching plan for the course unit

(Short version)

 
Catal� English Close imatge de maquetació

 

Print

 

General information

 

Course unit name: Human Biodiversity I

Course unit code: 568577

Academic year: 2021-2022

Coordinator: Nieves Martinez Abadias

Department: Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences

Credits: 2,5

Single program: S

 

 

Estimated learning time

Total number of hours 62.5

 

Face-to-face and/or online activities

22
 

-  Lecture

Face-to-face

  

18
 

-  Seminar

Face-to-face

  

4

Supervised project

20

Independent learning

20.5

 

 

Learning objectives

 

Referring to knowledge

— Describe the principles behind the discipline known as biological or physical anthropology, explain its history and discuss the challenges involved in studying human diversity. Analyse the concept of race and human morphological variation.

— Identify the factors that impact on the diversity of human populations. Explain differential fertility and migrations. Describe the adaptations of the human species to the environment.

— Identify the main demographic indicators used to describe human populations and to predict the state of populations in the future.

— Describe and discuss the importance of health and disease in human populations and their evolutionary history.

 

 

Teaching blocks

 

I. Human biological diversity

*  Historical background. Defining and analysing human biological diversity. Changes in scientific paradigms. The concepts of population and variation. The analysis of the history of human populations and continental settlements using anthropological characteristics.

II. Human morphological variation

*  Skeletal and craniofacial variation. Morphometrics: from traditional measurements of size to virtual reconstructions. Evolutionary constraints: the "obstetric dilemma" (the birth-relevant dimensions of the human pelvis). From genotype to phenotype: the principles of quantitative genetics and implications for human evolution. Pedigree-structured skull series: Hallstatt.

III. Demographic change: lifecycle, demography and life history traits

*  Basic concepts of demography. New demographic profile of human populations. Evolutionary aspects of the human life cycle and life history traits. Life history traits in context: Hallstatt. Human population natality, growth and mortality: from the Paleolithic to 2050.

IV. Current patterns of human variation: social and ecological implications

*  Racism and sexism. Critique of the concept of human races and the lack of a gender perspective in science.