In the list below, the numbers indicate lecture topics. Click on one, and you'll get the slides I showed in class. Under each lecture topic, the open circles indicate reading assignments. Many of these are clickable too and take you to the reading itself, in pdf format. If the reading is under copyright, you'll be asked for a username and password. If you didn't get this in class, then email me (sregorra@gmail.com).
Links labeled "optional" are for students who want to dip into the professional literature.
As the semester progresses, I will add new readings and may subtract old ones. These changes will mainly affect the list of optional readings. The lecture slides will change too. As the semester begins, the available lectures are from the last time I taught the course. I will replace these with current lectures as we proceed.
DNA; Molecular fossils [24 August 2021 16:14:48.]
Jumping genes [26 August 2021 15:46:23.]
Pseudogenes [20 January 2016 17:23:41.]
Molecular evolution [31 August 2021 16:16:00.]
Mitochondrial genetic evidence about population size [02 September 2021 16:08:30.]
Rogers and Jorde. 1995. pp. 1-8 only.
The first few pages of this review paper explain why genetic differences contain information about the history of population size. The review itself is out of date, so I am only assigning these introductory pages.
Reich. 2018. Ch 1.
Nuclear genetic evidence about population size [10 September 2021 18:58:27.]
Genetic evidence about subdivision and gene flow [09 September 2021 16:29:31.]
Genetic evidence about selection [14 September 2021 16:19:47.]
Archaic admixture [23 September 2021 16:18:05.]
Superarchaic admixture [28 September 2021 15:11:49.]
Origin of modern humans [19 October 2021 20:32:08.]
Early Modern Eurasians [19 October 2021 20:57:02.]
How archaics shaped the modern immune system [07 October 2021 16:33:46.]
Mesolithic Scandanavia [19 October 2021 19:08:01.]
Adaptive contributions of European Mesolithic foragers [23 April 2016 18:18:32.]
Genetics and the European Neolithic [23 October 2021 23:35:23.]
European Neolithic: movement of people or ideas? [19 October 2021 20:15:10.]
Health in the Neolithic [19 October 2021 20:01:02.]
Hemochromatosis (John McCullough) [27 October 2021 22:52:53.]
Digesting starch [26 October 2021 16:22:53.]
Crohn's disease [11 March 2018 15:36:21.]
Language and history [02 November 2021 15:54:37.]
Veeramah and Novembre. 2014. Demographic events and evolutionary forces shaping European genetic diversity.
This is a rather long review, which you need not read all at once. It will be useful throughout the semester.
Indo-Europeans [07 November 2021 20:24:47.]
Bell Beaker culture [09 November 2021 03:27:08.]
Manco:10
Reich:5
Milk in Europe [04 November 2021 21:37:08.]
Ecology and biogeography of human infectious disease [09 April 2018 17:41:38.]
Skin color [11 November 2021 17:25:34.]
Males and females in stratified societies [09 April 2015 21:02:08.]
Native Americans [18 November 2021 18:45:59.]
South Asia [23 November 2021 17:30:00.]
Denisovan Anatomy [30 November 2021 03:53:30.]
Callaway 2019 First portrait of mysterious Denisovans drawn from DNA
Learn 2021 How do you tell a Neanderthal from a Denisovan?
Geographic population structure [23 April 2015 18:58:26.]
Gross. 2015. Genetic traces of mankind's migrations.
In this article, Michael Gross provides a good review of recent work on human gene flow. He also adds an unfortunate political spin. As Gross tells it, evidence of past migrations shows that migration is natural and good, so we ought to welcome immigrants into our own borders. Perhaps we should, but this conclusion doesn't follow from the fact that migrations happened often in the past. Immigration into an area is not always good for those who already live there. Ask the Native Americans.
Africa [07 December 2021 17:26:43.]
Milk in Africa and Arabia [01 April 2016 16:23:13.]
Wrapup [09 December 2021 17:30:44.]
[gibbons20:superarchaic] https://www.science.org/news/2020/02/mysterious-ghost-populations-had-multiple-trysts-human-ancestors