Syllabus:

Anthropology 462, Human Growth and Development across the Life Cycle
Fall 2015


Maureen J. Devlin
Office hours:
222B West Hall

Thursdays 1-3 pm or
mjdevlin@umich.edu
by appointment
734-615-3293

GSI: Abagail Breidenstein
Office hours:
421 West Hall
Thursdays 11:30-
abstein@umich.edu
1:30pm or by
734-769-9896
appointment


Lectures: Tu-Th 10-11:30, B844 East Hall

Sections: Tuesday 12:00 - 1:00PM, 238A West Hall
Wednesday 9:00 - 10:00 AM, 238A West Hall

Course website:

The class website includes the course syllabus, readings, announcements, and pdfs of lecture slides.

Course Description:

This course tracks the human life cycle from beginning to end, with comparison to other primates including
earlier hominins. The goal is to understand how human growth and development came to be, and how it
intersects with the modern environment. The first part of the course is an overview of life history as it relates to
somatic growth and development. The next unit traces human growth and development from gametes through
birth, including discussions of 1) prenatal growth, perinatal developmental programming, maternal-fetal conflict,
and the evolution of human birth; 2) postnatal growth and development, including the evolution of childhood,
puberty and reproduction, and secular trends in both skeletal and reproductive maturation; and 3) adulthood
and aging, including fertility and lifespan. The final unit covers human adaptation to environmental factors,
including climate, stress, and nutrition.

Grading: The final grade for the course will be based on lecture attendance (5%), two midterm exams (20% each),
a final exam (25%), section attendance and participation including 2 quizzes (10%), and a project (20%).

Exam format: The midterms and final exam will consist of multiple choice/definition/short answer questions
(about 60% of points) and 2-3 medium answer questions (about 40% of points).

Discussion sections: Discussion sections are essential to the course, and your attendance is expected. Your
section grade (10% of course grade) will be determined by your GSI, and includes contribution and participation
to discussions, and as well as attendance.

Project: Students will complete a project analyzing a podcast or TED talk on the intersection between 1) human
growth and development and the modern environment OR 2) biological and cultural understandings of illness.
Projects are due (upload to Ctools) by the start of lecture on November 24, 2015. Students will augment the TED
talk or podcast with 2-3 primary literature articles, and prepare a 3-4 page analysis. More details and the grading
rubric will be provided in section.

Attendance: Students are expected to attend and participate in all classes. If you know you will miss a class,
please let your GSI know ahead of time. In case of sudden illness or emergency, please contact your GSI as soon
as possible. If you have any questions please refer to University of Michigan attendance policy here:
http://www.lsa.umich.edu/facstaff/saa/studentclassattendance

Academic accommodations: Please let us know what you need, either in person or by email, so we can plan
ahead and accommodate you effectively. If you havent registered with the Office of Services for Students with
Disabilities but think you will need their services, please do so and provide a copy to us by September 22:
http://ssd.umich.edu/accommodations

Academic integrity: Academic misconduct, including cheating, misuse of i>clickers, and plagiarism, will not be
tolerated and will be reported to the Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Education. Please familiarize yourself
with the guidelines here: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/academicintegrity/index.html

Classroom civility: This class is a community in which everyone is welcome and valued, and my expectation is
that we all treat each other with mutual respect and dignity. If you have any concerns please speak to me or to
your GSI. For more information, please refer to UMs Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities:
http://oscr.umich.edu/statement/

Lecture schedule

Date
Lect Topic

9/8/15

9/10/15

9/15/15
9/17/15

3
4

9/22/15

9/24/15

Reading

Unit 1: Human life history
Introduction: study of human growth
Life history theory: tradeoffs and
constraints

Evolution of the human life cycle
Embryonic development

Later gestation, maternal-fetal conflict,
programming

Cameron & Bogin Ch. 1

Birth

Ellison Ch. 3, Grant 2013

Cameron & Bogin Ch. 2 p. 24-37
Hawkes Ch. 6; Ellison Ch. 4

9/29/15
10/1/15

7
8

Neonatal growth
Lactation and weaning

10/6/15

Hour exam

Unit 2: Childhood to adulthood

10/8/15

10

Childhood growth, adrenarche

10/13/15

11

Adolescence and puberty

10/15/15

12

Bone growth, nutrition, and exercise

10/20/15
10/22/15

13

10/27/15

14

10/29/15

11/3/15

15

16

11/5/15

17

11/10/15

18

NO CLASS Fall Study Break
Secular trends in growth

Are human childhood and adolescence
unique?
Pregnancy and biology of lactation

Testosterone and male fertility
Later adulthood, lifespan, allostatic
load

Hour exam

Unit 3: Human adaptation

11/12/15

19

Aging, mothers and fathers

11/17/15
11/19/15

20
21

Variation in human growth
Cold climate

Cameron & Bogin Ch. 11 (11.1-11.3)

Cameron & Bogin Ch. 11 (11.4-11.6)
Ellison Ch. 2, Coe 2015

Haig 1993; Cameron & Bogin Ch. 12

Cameron & Bogin Ch. 2 p. 37-56;
Ellison Ch. 5

Cameron & Bogin Ch. 3-4
Magarey 2000; Ackerman & Misra
2011


Cole 2003; Parent 2003

Hawkes Ch. 4, 7
Ellison Ch. 6; Muehlenbein Ch. 20

Muehlenbein Ch. 21
Ellison Ch. 9; McEwen & Wingfield
2003




Marlowe 2000; Hawkes & Coxworth
2013

Muehlenbein Ch. 15
Muehlenbein Ch. 10

Section


NO SECTION

Introductions and Lecture
Review

Lecture Review and
Synthesis of Assigned
Readings


Exam Review

Bone Lab 1 Growth and
Development

Bone Lab 2 Aging and
Sexing

NO SECTION

Modern birth

Exam Review

Lab Activity

Aging and Project Help

11/24/15

22

11/26/15

12/1/15
12/3/15

12/8/15
12/10/15

23
24

25
26

High altitude (GUEST LECTURE)

PROJECT DUE on Ctools by 10 am
NO CLASS, Happy Thanksgiving!

Tropical forest
Growth in humans vs. other hominins

Human life history in modern world
Human uniqueness and wellness

Muehlenbein Ch. 11


Bailey 1991, Bailey et al. 1992
Schwartz 2012

Lieberman Ch. 10, 12
Lieberman Ch. 13

Obesity Epidemic in
America

Variation in Human
Adaptation

Final Review

FINAL EXAM: THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 4:00-6:00 PM, IN CLASSROOM

Readings: These review theories and concepts covered in lecture, with examples drawn from humans and other
mammals. The readings for each lecture above are drawn from these texts or the following list.

On Fertile Ground: A Natural History of Human Reproduction, Peter T. Ellison, 2003
Human Growth and Development, 2nd Edition, Noel Cameron & Barry Bogin (eds.), 2012
The Evolution of Human Life History, Kristin Hawkes (ed), 2006
The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease, Daniel Lieberman, 2013
Human Evolutionary Biology, Michael Muehlenbein (ed), 2010

Ackerman KE, Misra M. 2011. Bone health and the female athlete triad in adolescent athletes. Phys Sportsmed.
39(1):131-41.
Bailey RC. 1991. The comparative growth of Efe pygmies and African farmers from birth to age 5 years. Ann Hum
Biol. 18(2):113-20.
Bailey RC, Jenike MR, Ellison PT, Bentley GR, Harrigan AM, Peacock NR. 1992. The ecology of birth seasonality
among agriculturalists in central Africa. J Biosoc Sci. 4(3):393-412.
Coe C. 2015. The Prescient Placenta. The Scientist.
Cole TJ. 2003. The secular trend in human physical growth: a biological view. Econ Hum Biol. 1(2):161-8.
Grant B. 2013. Why So Soon? The Scientist.
Haig D. 1993. Genetic conflicts in human pregnancy. Q Rev Biol. 68:495-531.
Hawkes K, Coxworth JE. 2013. Grandmothers and the evolution of human longevity: a review of findings and
future directions. Evol Anthropol. 22(6):294-302.
Magarey AM, Boulton TJ, et al. Bone growth from 11 to 17 years: relationship to growth, gender and changes
with pubertal status including timing of menarche. Acta Paediatr. 1999 88(2):139-46.
Marlowe F. 2000. The patriarch hypothesis: An alternative explanation of menopause. Human Nature 11:27-42.
McEwen BS, Wingfield JC (2003) The concept of allostasis in biology and biomedicine. Hormones and Behavior
43: 2-15.
Parent AS, Teilmann G, Juul A, Skakkebaek NE, Toppari J, Bourguignon JP. 2003. The timing of normal puberty and
the age limits of sexual precocity: variations around the world, secular trends, and changes after
migration. Endocr Rev. (5):668-93.
Schwartz G. 2012. Growth, Development, and Life History throughout the Evolution of Homo. Current
Anthropology 53(S6):S395-S408.