ANTH 4030/6030, Brent
Berlin, Instructor
MWF 9:05– 9:55 G34 Baldwin Hall Laboratories
of Ethnobiology
Department of Anthropology University
of Georgia
Cognitive anthropologists have begun to ask the following kinds of questions
about the nature of human thought:
- What are the biological bases of human
consciousness, cognition, and ultimately, language?
- If intelligence is the
product of regular evolutionary change, what links can be found between human
intelligence and the mental activity of other animals?
- What are the most
likely scenarios for the emergence of consciousness and the appearance and
evolution of human language?
- What is the physical evidence concerning the
origins of language from a linguistic perspective?
- What is the evidence
from a biological, neurological, and paleontological
perspective?
- What do we know about
the evolution and dispersal of languages from their earlier states?
- What are the principal
universal linguistic categories encoded in human language that organize the
social and natural world?
- In what ways are the
universal properties of human reasoning influenced by the different linguistic
and cultural settings represented by human societies?
- How are the statistical
uniformities and regularities found in the semantic structure of language
related to other aspects of human behavior in time (history), space
(distribution), and scale (complexity)?
- In what ways will
advancing technology that allows for the study of brain activity (e.g., non-invasive
brain imaging [fMRI]) change our notions of brain
function, modularity of cognitive processes, and ultimately, our understanding
of the mind/brain?
In this course, we will
examine these questions from an interdisciplinary, cross-linguistic, and
evolutionary perspective. The general
focus of the course will draw on findings from recent and on-going research in
the fields of anthropology (especially paleoanthropology,
primatology and cognitive/linguistic anthropology), cognitive
ethology (the “mental experience of animals"),
neurobiology, psychology (especially cognitive psychology, developmental
psychology, psycholinguistics, evolutionary
psychology), cognitive science, and the philosophy of mind/brain. The literature in this interdisciplinary
field is enormous. We can touch but a
fragment of this literature. However,
the materials we have selected for you to read will point you in the direction
of where to look for more in-depth coverage.
Required texts include:
The Biology of Mind:
Origins and Structures of Mind, Brain, and Consciousness,
M. Deric Bownds (Fitzgerald Science Press, 1999)
Origins of the Modern Mind:
Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition,
Merlin
Donald (MIT Press, 1991)
The Seeds of Speech:
Language Origin and Evolution, Jean Atchison, (Cambridge University Press,
1996)
This is a split-level course (4030for
undergraduate credit, 6030for graduate credit).
Lectures are on MW and a required lab/discussion section is held on
F. Grading is based on
performance on the mid-term and final exam (70 percent of the grade) and lab
quizzes (30 percent). Graduate students are required to write an original 20-25
-page research paper. There will be no
make up exams. This is not a required
course Students who choose not to attend all lectures and labs should enroll in
some other class.
NotaBene All academic work in
this class must meet the standards described in the UGA regulation handbook “A
Culture of Honesty”. Each student is
responsible to inform themselves about these standards before performing any
academic work.