ANT 323 - Anthropomorphisms

4 credits (Fall or Spring)

What does it mean to be human? How distinctive are we? Can studying analogous or homologous phenomena in non-human animals shed light on our evolutionary past? Can uncovering interconnections with other species help us to reshape an increasingly precarious future? Through multiple lenses–biological and cultural anthropology, history and philosophy of science, literature, art, and mythology–you will seek answers to these and related questions. Fundamentally, you will grapple with Darwin’s conclusion in The Descent of Man (1871) that “the difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind.”

Prerequisite: ANT 280.
Instructor: Marshack