CSUEast Bay Discovering the Remains of German and Russian Soldiers at Stalingrad Essay All students will complete a five-page (double-spaced) final researc

CSUEast Bay Discovering the Remains of German and Russian Soldiers at Stalingrad Essay All students will complete a five-page (double-spaced) final research paper for the course. Students are free to choose whether to write about a bioarchaeology OR paleoanthropology topic. Resources and themes for both areas of study are found below.

Bioarchaeology

Students choosing to write a bioarchaeology research paper will focus on a particular time period, culture, and site. A comparison of sites is also acceptable. There are myriad cultures that left behind material culture, but remember that the paper must focus on bioarchaeology or the analysis of human skeletal remains. A detailed description of skeletal remains, size of the burial site(s), time period, associated grave goods, and general understanding of the life experience of the past populations should be included. The focus of the paper is up to the student (e.g. status/wealth, male vs. female experience, elites and commoners, children, health, diet, migration, etc.). The best papers will include:

Dates and detailed description of the site
Detailed description of the burials
Critical analysis of mortuary behavior (e.g. How and why did the living choose to bury the dead in a particular fashion? Was there social difference in death? Etc.)
Description of grave goods and meaning of the goods if relevant
Summary of cultural attitudes toward these particular individuals or population

Bioarchaeology resources

This is not an exhaustive list! Students will be required to do research on their own to find appropriate academic websites, journal articles, and books. There are many sources online and it is up to each student to determine the validity of the source. Please message the instructor if you are having trouble locating appropriate sources.

Journals (available online through LCC):

Bioarchaeology International

Archaeology Ireland

Archaeology International

Archaeology

Archaeology Oceania

Anthropology and Archaeology of Eurasia

Books (available through LCC):

Across the Alps in Prehistory: Isotopic Mapping of the Brenner Passage

The Bioarchaeology of Dissection and Autopsy in the United States (e-book)

Bioarchaeology of Impairment and Disability (e-book)

The Bioarchaeology of Social Control

Bioarchaeology of Socio-Sexual Lives (e-book)

Bioarchaeology of Women and Children in Times of War (e-book)

New Developments in the Bioarchaeology of Care (e-book)

Exploring Sex and Gender in Bioarchaeology

Children and Childhood in Bioarchaeology

Colonized Bodies, Worlds Transformed (e-book)

An Archaeology of Prehistoric Bodies and Embodied Identities in the Eastern Mediterranean

Bones of Complexity: Bioarchaeological Case Studies

Blogs:

These Bones of Mine

Bone Broke

Powered by Osteons

Grave Thoughts

Paleoanthropology

Students choosing to write a paleoanthropology paper will focus on a particular hominid fossil(s) and site of discovery. A review of the fossil(s) should include a detailed description of the anatomy, comparative fossils from the site (or in the region), and any stand-out features that were crucial to the understanding of the fossil and its place in an evolutionary timeline. Each paper should include details on timelines (including disputed timelines if relevant), cultural and social reactions to the find (if relevant), and a description of the excavation at the site. The region should be described as well. The most successful papers will also include the following:

Dates of the fossil
Discussion of the excavation (including where the fossil is currently housed)
Critical analysis of the fossil in the evolutionary “tree” (Where does it fit and why?)
Detailed description of the skeletal anatomy of the fossil
Detailed description of the comparative anatomy of the fossil (What is the closest ancestor? How do paleoanthropologists determine this?)

Paleoanthropology resources

This is not an exhaustive list! Students will be required to do research on their own to find appropriate academic websites, journal articles, and books. There are many sources online and it is up to each student to determine the validity of the source. Please message the instructor if you are having trouble locating appropriate sources.

Journals (available online through LCC):

Physiological Anthropology

Books (available through LCC):

A Companion to Paleoanthropology (e-book)

Anthropology Without Informants: Collected Works in Paleoanthropology (e-book)

The History of Our Tribe (e-book)

New Perspectives in Southeast Asian and Pacific Prehistory (e-book)

The Strange Case of the Rickey Cossack and Other Cautionary Tales From Human Evolution

High Resolution Archaeology and Neanderthal Behavior (e-book)

Modern Origins (e-book)

Born in Africa: The Quest for the Origins of Human Life (e-book)

The Fossil Chronicles (e-book)

The Last Human: A Guide to 22 Species of Extinct Humans

The Great Paleolithic War

Websites:

The Human Evolution Blog

Talk Origins

Johnhawks.net

Humanorigins.si.edu (the Human Evolution Evidence tab has many fossils listed!)

Becoming Human

GRADING: 100 points

Title page with name, class, date, and title = 5 points
Body of paper with relevant content = 65 points
Proper citations within the body of the paper = 10 points
Proper citations on separate Works Cited page = 10 points
Proper page length = 10 points

CHECKLIST FOR SUBMISSION:

Five-page research paper with sources cited if you used any (this means five FULL pages – no creative spacing! Fill every page to get full credit!)
12 pt. Times New Roman font
1 inch margins
Double spacing
Put your name and title in a header or on a title page
Citations properly cited in the text
SEPARATE Works Cited/References page with citations properly cited
At least five scholarly sources
SEPARATE title page with name, class, and title information
Numbered pages