Syllabus, Anth 199H, 1 credit
Meets Tues, 9-10, Waldo 132, winter quarter, 2006. R. Hall, Instructor (Professor Emeritus), Office, Waldo 272, Tues. 10-11, or by appointment (rhall@oregonstate.edu)
Text: Lewis-Williams, David (2002) The Mind in the Cave Thames and Hudson Ltd. London.
The consciousness of modern humans provides the key to understanding the niche that our species occupies, but we know much less about it than about the prehistory and evolution of our unique anatomical features. Nor do we know how to assess what it does for us, and how it affects our view of ourselves, our societies, and other societies. For a number of years, psychologists, neuroanatomists, philosophers and even anthropologists considered the prehistory of consciousness a taboo topic, off-bounds because they thought it could not be pursued in a scientific way. In the past two decades this attitude has changed; interesting research has been going on; and a wealth of papers and books now exists related to this topic—which of course remains tantalizingly open. This course will explore the topic. Rather than simply providing an overview, we will read closely a very remarkable book that has special insights and challenges to offer in a study of the prehistory of consciousness.
We all will read the text, beginning to end. We will take a few minutes each session to make sure we are all together on the reading, answer questions about the text etc. Each student will choose from the reading list two articles or several parts of one of the books to report on themes, data, and methods, comparing these with those of the text and with themes discussed in class. Students will report in class on these and on their own thoughts on the topic and will turn in a 5-8 page paper by Wednesday of finals week (March 22—turn into my mail box in Waldo 238, or to me in Waldo 272). Grading is based on attendance, 15%; contribution to class discussion, 25%; in-class report, 25%; and paper, 35%.
| 1-10-06 | First week: Introduction/overview of human evolution |
| 1-17-06 | Second week: Paleontology and constructs of Anatomically Modern Humans; clues to AMH behavior and cognition. Text: Preface (pp. 7-17), chapter 1 |
| 1-24-06 | Third week: Text, chapters 2-3 |
| 1-31-06 | Fourth week: Text, chapter 4; discussion of content/focus of readings in the selected bibliography |
| 2-7-06 | Fifth week: Text, chapters 5-6 |
| 2-14-06 | Sixth week: Text, chapters 7; choice of readings for reports |
| 2-21-06 | Seventh week: Text, chapter 8 |
| 2-28-06 | Eighth week: Text: chapters 9-10 |
| 3-07-06 | Ninth week: Re-visit, integrate past chapters; consider text and the final section “Envoi”–what does Lewis-Williams mean in this section—is there a single take-home message, or many possible ones? Begin reports |
| 3-14-06 | Tenth week: Continue reports and discussions |
| Wed., March 22 | Final report due |
Books and articles from anthropology, philosophy, psychology, literature, and neuroanatomy, a selection among the many important ones to address one or more issues in the evolution of consciousness in recent years; each student will choose one or more selections from this list.
Baars, Bernard J (1997) In the Theater of Consciousness. Oxford University Press, New York.
Becker, Ernest (1962) The Birth and Death of Meaning. The Free Press of Glencoe, New York.
Chalmers, David J. (1996) The Conscious Mind. In Search of a Fundamental Theory. New York: Oxford University Press
Domasio, Antonio R. (1999) The Feeling of What Happens. Harcourt Brace and Company, New York.
Conkey, Margaret (1981) A Century of Paleolithic Cave Art. Archaeology 34(4): 20-28.
Golding, William (1955) The Inheritors. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World.
Juergensmeyer, Mark (2000) Terror in the Mind of God. The Global Rise of Religious Violence. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Laughlin, Charles D., John McManus, and Eugene D’Aquili (1992) Brain, Symbol, and Experience. Toward a Neurophenomenology of Human Consciousness. Columbia University Press, New York.
Lieberman, Philip (2000) Human Language and Our Reptilian Brain. The Subcortical Basis of Speech, Syntax and Thought. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
Lohmann, Roger Ivar (2000) The Role of Dreams in Religious Enculturation among the Asabano of Papua New Guinea. Ethos 28(1): 75-102.
Maschner, H. D. G., (editor) (1996) Darwinian Archaeologies. Plenum Press, New York.
Mithen, Steven (1996) Prehistory of the Mind. Thames and Hudson, London and New York.
Riel-Salvatore, Julien and Geoffrey A. Clark (2001) Grave Markers. Middle and Upper Paleolithic Burials and the Use of Chronotypology in Contemporary Research. Current Anthropology 42: 449-480.
Searle, John R. 2002 Consciousness and Language. Cambridge University Press, New York.
Searle, John R. 1992 The Rediscovery of the Mind. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
