ANTH44915: Advanced Studies in Technological Primates

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• To appreciate the significance of technological behaviour in primates and humans, within the wider context of animal tool behaviour
• To explore the potential for technological primates to contribute to the comparative understanding of human cognitive and cultural advancement
• To discuss current hypotheses and ongoing debates in the field of technological and cultural evolution.
• To practice communicating science to general audiences.

• The distribution and diversity of tool use and associated cognition across the primate lineage
• Methodological advances in the study of primate tool behaviour
• Current debates surrounding the emergence and evolution of tool use and associated cognition in the primate lineage.
• Outstanding hypotheses surrounding the adaptive significance and evolutionary consequences of tool use on human cognition
• Science writing and peer review.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• At the end of the module, students will be able to:
• Explain the range of tool behaviour across the primate lineage and their significance for understanding the evolution of technology, cognition, and culture at an advanced level.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Advanced ability to evaluate hypotheses surrounding the evolutionary origins and consequences of tool use, integrating evidence from primatology, psychology, and palaeoanthropology.

Key Skills:

• Advanced skills in accessing and assimilating specialised research literature of an advanced nature.
• Advanced skills in translating complex issues, questions, debates, methods, data, interpretation and arguments for diverse audiences.

• Classes will comprise seminars and workshops, these will be supported by asynchronous discussion, directed reading, and other self-study activities.
• Seminars integrate lecture and discussion elements to provide students with an outline of key knowledge and debates in the topic area, discuss the literature that students should explore, and provide relevant examples and case studies.
• Workshops will focus on scaffolding students towards completing their summative assessments.
• Student preparation and reading time will allow engagement with specific references in advance of classes and general and particular reading related to the assessment.
• Summative assessment will comprise a Science Writing Portfolio (70%) containing 2 Research Digests and 1 Commentary article, and peer reviews (10%). Research Digests are short plain-language summaries of target articles, while a Commentary is a science communication article that highlights a piece of new research and explains its importance to the field. Research Digests will be posted to the class blog over the term (1 formative and 2 summative) and students will be guided through the process of providing written peer reviews on each others posts. The critical reading log (20%) is an annotated bibliography in which the evidence and arguments presented in readings selected by the student and relevant to the development of their summative assessment are evaluated and critiqued. This along with the other summative component should show evidence of a higher level of engagement expected at postgraduate level.

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