Visit our textbook-specific Online Learning Center Web site at www.mhhe.com/relethford8e to access the exercises that follow.
Human Migration Hypotheses
http://www.learner.org/channel/courses/biology/textbook/humev/humev_5.html.
Go to the Annenberg Media Web site and read the article "Out of Africa?" You will become familiar with the two major competing hypotheses concerning the origins of modern humans, the "out of Africa" (or "replacement") hypothesis and the "multiregional" hypothesis.
What is the scientific evidence that supports the "out of Africa" hypothesis?
What about the "multiregional" hypothesis?
Who is "mitochondrial Eve"?
Why is there so much controversy in human evolutionary genetics today?
New Analysis Showing Three Human Migrations Out of Africa
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/02/060209184558.htm.
Read the Tony Fitzpatrick article "New Analysis Shows Three Human Migrations Out of Africa" from the Science Daily Web site. The article discusses the work of Alan R. Templeton, PhD, of Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Templeton suggests that three, not two, major waves of human migration came out of Africa. The older theory, the "out of Africa" or "replacement" theory, is challenged by Templeton's work.
There are major differences in the two scenarios suggested by these competing theories. How is the story of Homo sapiens ' exodus out of Africa radically different in these two versions?
What might you infer from this concerning hominin behavior?
What is GEODIS?
What evidence do Templeton and his colleagues offer to refute the "out of Africa" theory?
What is a "haplotype tree"?
Does this new evidence suggest that we seriously consider genetic interchange between African and Eurasian populations?
The Venus of Willendorf
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/willendorf/willendorfwomen.html.
Christopher L. C. E. Witcombe's article, "Women in the Stone Age," considers the reasons "Venus" figurines found throughout Europe in modern H. sapiens sites had such unusual proportions. A great deal of speculation still surrounds these figurines today.
What does Witcombe have to say about "stone age" women being fat?
Why are there so few male figurines found?
What is the religious explanation for the abundance and similarities in the overall shape and proportions of the Venus figurines?
Is there a possible explanation for Paleolithic social organization from the Venus of Willendorf?
