Introduction to Biological Anthropology

Year
0
Academic year
2024-2025
Code
01002111
Subject Area
Área Científica do Menor
Language of Instruction
Portuguese
Mode of Delivery
Face-to-face
Duration
SEMESTRIAL
ECTS Credits
6.0
Type
Elective
Level
1st Cycle Studies

Recommended Prerequisites

NA

Teaching Methods

The lectures are taught interactively with audiovisual resources in order to stimulate student participation. Powerpoints, laboratory classes and documentary visualization and discussion are part of the teaching methodologies. Reading and critical discussion of texts. Osteological and etnhonographic storerooms are visited and diferent topics are discuss.

Continuous assessment with 2 texts (50% each) or final written exams (100%). 

Learning Outcomes

The course aims to present the context in which Biological Anthropology arose and its later developments until the present day. Particular emphasis is given to the trends of the discipline in Portugal.
To show the fields and actions of Biological Anthropology. Acquire the basics concepts of human anatomy. Why study the human skeleton? To value biological and cultural diversity of humankind.

To prepare students for a critical understanding of the issues and challenges of Biological Anthropology.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

From Physical Anthropology to Biological Anthropology and its areas. History of Anthropology in Portugal and influences from abroad. Documented osteological collections - the importance of this heritage. Issues related to the repatriation of cultural property, re-burial and exhibition of human skeletons. Brief notions of human anatomy. Introduction to Funerary Anthropology. The anthropological excavation. Funerary practices: examples of different chronologies and geographies. The bones and teeth as testimonies of health and illness and cultural practices in populations of the past. The beginnings of Criminal Anthropology in Portugal and its initial connection to Phrenology. Approach to studies of human variability. Ethical and research in Anthropology. 

Head Lecturer(s)

Ana Luísa da Conceição dos Santos

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Other: 100.0%

Bibliography

 DiGangi EA; Moore M.K. 2013. Research Methods in Human Skeletal Biology. Oxford, Academic Press.

Jurmain R. et al. 2013. Introduction to Physical Anthropology. Belmont, Thomson Higher Education.

Larsen, C. S. 2010. A Companion to Biological Anthropology. Wiley-Blackwell.

Martin D, Harrod RP, Pérez V.R. 2014. Bioarcheology: an integrated approach to working with human remains. New York, Springer.

Murphy E. (ed.) 2010. Deviant burials in the archeological record. Oxford, Oxbow.

Rebato E., Susane C., Chiarelli, B. 2005. Para compreendrr la antropologia biológica. Navarra, Ed. Verbo Divino.

Umbelino C, Santos AL. 2011. Portugal. In: Márquez-Grant N, Fibiger L. (eds). The Routledge handbook of archaeological human remains and legislation: an international guide to laws and practice in the excavation and
treatment of archaeological human remains. London, Routledge: 341-352.

White TD, Black MT, Folkens PA 2012. Human Osteology. London, Academic Press.