The goals of this volume are twofold. First, it aims to provide a novel focus on adaptive explanations for cranial and postcranial features and functional complexes, socioecological systems, life history patterns, etc. in early primates. Second, it aims to offer a detailed rendering of the phylogenetic affinities of such basal taxa to later primate clades as well as to other early/recent mammalian orders. Thus, in addition to the strictly paleontological or systemic questions regarding Primate Origins, the editors plan to concentrate on the adaptive significance of primate characteristics. These questions are best approached through both paleontological and neontological comparative research on a variety of primate and non-primate materials.

Roots of Human Behavior - TTC
(12 lectures, 30 minutes/lecture)
Course No. 168
Taught by Barbara J. King
The College of William and Mary
Ph.D., University of Oklahoma

While human history is usually studied from the perspective of a few hundred years, anthropologists consider deeper causes for the ways we act. In this course, anthropologist Barbara J. King uses her wealth of research experience to open a window of understanding for you into the legacy left by our primate past. These lectures look for the roots of human behavior in the behavior of other primates: monkeys, apes, and human ancestors.
In these lectures, you explore such questions as:
• Are language and technology unique to humans?
• Have human love and loyalty developed from emotions of our primate cousins?
• Do the ways in which human males and females relate to each other come from our primate past?
• Have we inherited a biological tendency for aggression?
• How much of our behavioral, cognitive, and cultural identity have we inherited from our closest living relatives?
• How can the study of monkeys and apes lead us to a fuller picture of who we are?