ASB 211

Several genes help determine what makes a human embryo develop female or male sexual anatomies. This session examines recent findings which have challenged previous beliefs about the roles of anatomy, environment, and genetics in the determination of gender, and the evolution of sexual determination.

By this point in the course, it should be no surprise that biological sex and our construct of gender are much more complicated than they seem. Here, Professor Lacy unpacks the cultural and biological questions of sex, gender, and sexuality using genetics, twin studies, and more to show the breadth of human diversity as well as a common humanity.

Civilization has given humanity extraordinary advances, but what does it look like from the point of view of women? Dr. Amanda Foreman explores how early civilizations dealt with the roles and status of women and asks profound questions about the legacy they left behind. In Anatolia, she visits Catalhöyük, one of the world's earliest settlements. In Mesopotamia, she explores the world's first law codes written to regulate women's status and behavior. Across Europe and the Near East, she uncovers a group of extraordinary women who created their own routes to power in male-dominated worlds. These include Enheduanna, the Ukok Ice Maiden, and Hatshepsut. She also explores the darker legacy of gender inequality in ancient Greece, whose influential ideas on the inferiority of women have cast a long shadow over women's lives across the globe to this day.

Anthropologists study religion as a way of studying humans, and this lecture surveys the origins and history of religion, from primate grieving and early human rituals through organized religions and the scientific worldview. Anthropology may not offer new answers about God and the great beyond, but religion offers a fascinating window into humankind.