1. Over the course of the past 2.5 million years, the fossil evidence shows that changes in skull shape come with increasing brain size. These changes are associated with culture in the form of the earliest stone tools, coordinated hunting efforts , the controlled use of fire, language, and eventually an explosion of innovations and symbolic expression in the Upper Paleolithic. As our discussion gets closer to the present, how do the two major hypothesis for modern human origins relate skull size and shape to cultural difference? Can skull shape and size account for cultural differences among contemporary peoples?

2. Do you think evidence from a single bone is enough to determine whether an organism from the past was bipedal?

3. Paleoanthropologists can be characterized as either lumpers or splitters depending upon their approach to recognizing species in the fossil record. Which of these approaches do you prefer and why?

4 How do you feel about the possibility of having Neandertals as part of your ancestry? How might you relate the Neandertal debate to stereotyping or racism in contemporary society?

5. Do you think that gender has played a role in anthropological interpretations of the behavior of our ancestors and the way that paleoanthropologists and archaelogists conduct their research? Do you believe that feminism has a role to play n the interpretation of the past?