“Discovery” Assignment
Anthropology-Sociology 101, Human Origins
Part I. Imagine yourself as a dashing young anthropologist who's just made a sensational new find that will change our picture of human evolution, either by resolving some existing controversies or raising some new ones. Your find consists of two fossilized hominid bone fragments.
(1) Describe the details of the fossils and give information about the site (stratigraphic context, age, dating methods, etc.) sufficient to support your conclusions.
(2) To what species do you assign your fossils, and how do you view this species' relationship to the other known hominid fossil forms? (It’s a good idea to use diagrams in order to clarify your interpretations). What issues seem to be resolved or raised by your work?
(3) Bearing in mind that it is the job of scientists to challenge one another, on what scientific grounds do you anticipate that your interpretations are most likely to be challenged? Is there anyone in particular who might be expected to make a certain challenge?
Part II. You've hit it big. Your fossil interpretations have been accepted by many experts and have generated much discussion. You have received tenure and several offers of marriage, appeared on the cover of TIME magazine, and been offered a fat stipend to give a public lecture at your Alma Mater, Knox College. Your old anthropology professor, feeling terribly embarrassed that he once gave you a B- in "Human Origins," is in the audience. So are a number of hecklers from a local anti-evolution league, Galesburgers Against Godlessness (GAG).
Your lecture topic is "The Behavior and Social Life of [your fossil species]." Your objectives are (1) to offer some speculations about the behavioral capabilities, social organization, life history, reproductive strategy and ecological niche of this species (including how this species differed from any other hominids that happened to be around), and (2) to explain how various kinds of evidence (such as archeology, primate studies, ethnology, evolutionary theory, etc.) support these speculations, so that the GAG contingent can't accuse you of fabricating wild stories.
Length: 3-4 double-spaced typed or printed pages per part.
Due date and time to be announced in class
(See advice below)
General Advice on Discovery Essay:
Three or four pages isn’t much, so you should get quickly to the point. A little color is fine, but avoid devoting too much space to literary introductions about the heat of the African sun, your surprise, and all that. This exercise is demanding, but the overall quality of past student work on this assignment has made this assignment a real pleasure to read.
Never turn in work that is not spell-checked, proofread, page-numbered and stapled. It's a good idea to learn how to make a header with your name on each page. Make sure you know how to write genus and species names properly, and consult the taxonomy handout or ask if you’re unsure.
Advice for part I: Your imaginary find must be unique in order to be important, but be careful not to get too far out. A 20,000,000 year-old sapiens in a space helmet, or even an early hominid from the Americas, would be very hard to relate to the scientific issues and evidence presented in the course, and would thus present some real obstacles to writing a good paper. In short, avoid “weird science.” On the other hand, a fossil that virtually duplicates other previous finds, or which does not reveal anything particularly new or surprising, would not satisfy the requirement of being a “significant” find.
I only set a “two bones” limit to keep you from getting in over your head–you may use more if you feel you can accurately describe and interpret them within the assigned paper length). Be sure to specify just how much of each bone you found. Naturally, you are not expected to know anything more about skeletal anatomy than has been presented in the course. It shouldn't be necessary to do extra research for this paper.
You may use a real or an imaginary site, but give its general location and basic information about the geology. You are not expected to know any more about general geology, or the geology of particular places, than what is in presented in the course; therefore, you are free to invent any plausible geology for an imaginary site.
As you check over your essay, you should consider the following questions: Are the fossils adequately described? Bones and fragments clearly identified? No self-contradictory statements? Is the site located, and information given about strata, associated archeological evidence (if any), dates and dating methods? Does the species name fit the description, and is it a hominid? Is the evolutionary interpretation clear, logical and consistent with the information given? Are the scientific challenges anticipated realistically, and are they truly scientific (rather than merely opinionated)? Overall, does the paper demonstrate an understanding of important issues and methods in the study of human evolution? These are the criteria on which your work will be evaluated.
Advice for part II: Goodall’s work on chimp behavior, Lovejoy (in Johanson) on reproductive strategies, Leakey’s extensive discussion of primate and hominid behavior, adaptation, and life history, and the class lectures and videos on ecological adaptation and behavioral evolution are all potentially useful in this essay. You have to exercise your judgment of what is relevant to your find and your interpretations.
Be sure to cover the topics mentioned in the question. Goals 1 and 2 need not be relegated to separate parts of the essay. Be especially careful not to ignore evidence that would go against your interpretations. Remember, the GAG folks are in the audience, and they've done their homework!