Conference Schedule - Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study

“The Invisible Aspects of
Human Evolution”
April 14, 2014
NOTES
This Templeton Colloquium at the NDIAS
is offered due to the generosity of
the John Templeton Foundation
and through a grant to the
Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study.
Cover Image: The Hunter Gatherer
Artist: Todd Schorr
In Grateful Appreciation
The Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study is grateful to the following
campus units and individuals for the generosity of their creativity, expertise,
unique talents, and time.
Anthony Travel
Neil Arner
Harriet Baldwin
Christopher Ball
Robert J. Bernhard
Susan D. Blum
Eric Bugyis
Catering by Design
Conference Center Staff
DCL Copy Center
Melanie DeFord
Claude Devaney
Connie Dosmann
Timothy Flanagan
Agustín Fuentes
Sean Gaudio
Brad Gregory
Jen Hendricks
Iona Hughan
Peta Katz
Mary Kowalski
Ian Kuijt
Linda Lange
Mail Distribution Center
Nicholas Ochoa
Rahul Oka
Grant Osborn
OIT Multimedia
OIT Special Events
Lauri Roberts
Liz Rulli
Susan G. Sheridan
Carolyn Sherman
Donald L. Stelluto
Thank you to
Todd Schorr
for permission to use The Hunter Gatherer.
—- —— —We extend a special thank you to
Jonathan Marks
who envisioned this colloquium, developed its program, and whose
commitment and service as the colloquium’s organizer was invaluable.
—- —— —We would like to extend a special thank you to
The John Templeton Foundation
for their generosity and support of this event and the Institute’s grant
“Pursuing the Unity of Knowledge: Integrating Religion, Science, and
the Academic Disciplines.”
—- —— —The Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study:
Eric Bugyis, Undergraduate Research Coordinator
Brad Gregory, Director
Nicholas Ochoa, Research Assistant
Grant Osborn, Operations Coordinator
Carolyn Sherman, Programs Administrator
Donald Stelluto, Associate Director
4
Program
for
“The Invisible Aspects of
Human Evolution”
A Templeton Colloquium
by Jonathan Marks,
University of North Carolina, Charlotte
and
Templeton Fellow at the NDIAS, 2013-2014
April 14, 2014
Notre Dame Conference Center
McKenna Hall
“The Invisible Aspects of
Human Evolution”
People of 100,000 years ago were “anatomically modern,” meaning that they
had heads, bodies, and brains like ours; indeed, far more like ours than like
those of their European contemporaries, the Neandertals. Nevertheless, those
people of 100,000 years ago—our ancestors—lived lives that were far more like
Neandertal lives than like our own. While we have traditionally focused on
physical and technological differences between Neandertals and early modern
humans, their lives were far more similar than different, and certainly far
removed from any recognizable human lifeways today; even art lay several tens
of thousands of years in the future.
This colloquium brings together scholars from a range of fields to discuss the
transformation of an anatomical human into a behavioral human. This
transformation occurred 100,000 and 50,000 years ago, during a timespan
whose eventual products would become art, kinship, morality, religion, and the
myriad other features of what we call “humanity.” Contrary to scholars who
have postulated that an invisible, unknown genetic mutation lay at the root of
this transformation and that morality and religion may be reducible to altruism
and cooperation, early modern humans were instead situated at the origin of a
great learning process; the origin of the human condition more likely emerged
from new relations among people, rather than from new intrinsic properties of
the people themselves.
Our distinguished guest panelists, representing a range of fields in
anthropology, including archaeology, biological anthropology, and social and
cultural anthropology, are:







Jason Antrosio, Hartwick College
Rachel Caspari, Central Michigan University
Deborah Olszewski, University of Pennsylvania
Jill Preutz, Iowa State University
Anna C. Roosevelt, University of Illinois, Chicago
Russell H. Tuttle, University of Chicago
Margaret Wiener, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
◊ ◊ ◊
2
All sessions will be held in McKenna Hall, rooms 100-104
8:00 a.m.
9:00 a.m.
Continental Breakfast
“The Origin of Language”
Moderator: Susan D. Blum*
Rapporteur: Christopher Ball*
10:30 a.m.
10:45 a.m.
Break
“The Origin of Kinship”
Moderator: Ian Kuijt*
Rapporteur: Rahul Oka*
12:15 p.m.
2:00 p.m.
Lunch
Lower Level of McKenna Hall
“The Origin of Religion”
Moderator: Susan G. Sheridan*
Rapporteur: Neil Arner, Department of Theology
3:30 p.m.
3:45 p.m.
Break
Questions and Answers
Moderator: Agustín Fuentes*
* Indicates faculty from the Department of Anthropology at the
University of Notre Dame
3
“The Invisible Aspects of
Human Evolution”
People of 100,000 years ago were “anatomically modern,” meaning that they
had heads, bodies, and brains like ours; indeed, far more like ours than like
those of their European contemporaries, the Neandertals. Nevertheless, those
people of 100,000 years ago—our ancestors—lived lives that were far more like
Neandertal lives than like our own. While we have traditionally focused on
physical and technological differences between Neandertals and early modern
humans, their lives were far more similar than different, and certainly far
removed from any recognizable human lifeways today; even art lay several tens
of thousands of years in the future.
This colloquium brings together scholars from a range of fields to discuss the
transformation of an anatomical human into a behavioral human. This
transformation occurred 100,000 and 50,000 years ago, during a timespan
whose eventual products would become art, kinship, morality, religion, and the
myriad other features of what we call “humanity.” Contrary to scholars who
have postulated that an invisible, unknown genetic mutation lay at the root of
this transformation and that morality and religion may be reducible to altruism
and cooperation, early modern humans were instead situated at the origin of a
great learning process; the origin of the human condition more likely emerged
from new relations among people, rather than from new intrinsic properties of
the people themselves.
Our distinguished guest panelists, representing a range of fields in
anthropology, including archaeology, biological anthropology, and social and
cultural anthropology, are:







Jason Antrosio, Hartwick College
Rachel Caspari, Central Michigan University
Deborah Olszewski, University of Pennsylvania
Jill Preutz, Iowa State University
Anna C. Roosevelt, University of Illinois, Chicago
Russell H. Tuttle, University of Chicago
Margaret Wiener, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
◊ ◊ ◊
2
All sessions will be held in McKenna Hall, rooms 100-104
8:00 a.m.
9:00 a.m.
Continental Breakfast
“The Origin of Language”
Moderator: Susan D. Blum*
Rapporteur: Christopher Ball*
10:30 a.m.
10:45 a.m.
Break
“The Origin of Kinship”
Moderator: Ian Kuijt*
Rapporteur: Rahul Oka*
12:15 p.m.
2:00 p.m.
Lunch
Lower Level of McKenna Hall
“The Origin of Religion”
Moderator: Susan G. Sheridan*
Rapporteur: Neil Arner, Department of Theology
3:30 p.m.
3:45 p.m.
Break
Questions and Answers
Moderator: Agustín Fuentes*
* Indicates faculty from the Department of Anthropology at the
University of Notre Dame
3
In Grateful Appreciation
The Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study is grateful to the following
campus units and individuals for the generosity of their creativity, expertise,
unique talents, and time.
Anthony Travel
Neil Arner
Harriet Baldwin
Christopher Ball
Robert J. Bernhard
Susan D. Blum
Eric Bugyis
Catering by Design
Conference Center Staff
DCL Copy Center
Melanie DeFord
Claude Devaney
Connie Dosmann
Timothy Flanagan
Agustín Fuentes
Sean Gaudio
Brad Gregory
Jen Hendricks
Iona Hughan
Peta Katz
Mary Kowalski
Ian Kuijt
Linda Lange
Mail Distribution Center
Nicholas Ochoa
Rahul Oka
Grant Osborn
OIT Multimedia
OIT Special Events
Lauri Roberts
Liz Rulli
Susan G. Sheridan
Carolyn Sherman
Donald L. Stelluto
Thank you to
Todd Schorr
for permission to use The Hunter Gatherer.
—- —— —We extend a special thank you to
Jonathan Marks
who envisioned this colloquium, developed its program, and whose
commitment and service as the colloquium’s organizer was invaluable.
—- —— —We would like to extend a special thank you to
The John Templeton Foundation
for their generosity and support of this event and the Institute’s grant
“Pursuing the Unity of Knowledge: Integrating Religion, Science, and
the Academic Disciplines.”
—- —— —The Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study:
Eric Bugyis, Undergraduate Research Coordinator
Brad Gregory, Director
Nicholas Ochoa, Research Assistant
Grant Osborn, Operations Coordinator
Carolyn Sherman, Programs Administrator
Donald Stelluto, Associate Director
4
Program
for
“The Invisible Aspects of
Human Evolution”
A Templeton Colloquium
by Jonathan Marks,
University of North Carolina, Charlotte
and
Templeton Fellow at the NDIAS, 2013-2014
April 14, 2014
Notre Dame Conference Center
McKenna Hall
NOTES
This Templeton Colloquium at the NDIAS
is offered due to the generosity of
the John Templeton Foundation
and through a grant to the
Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study.
Cover Image: The Hunter Gatherer
Artist: Todd Schorr
“The Invisible Aspects of
Human Evolution”
April 14, 2014