For this Review, you will select and read one of the three following journal articles:
Caldwell & Millen (2008). Studying cumulative cultural evolution in the laboratory.
Soler (2012). Costly signaling, ritual, and cooperation: Evidence from Candomble.
Urciuoli (1991). The political topography of Spanish and English
I recommend that you also read Jennifer Raff’s blog post called How to read and understand a scientific paper: a guide for non-scientistsLinks to an external site.. You don’t have to do everything she recommends as you read your selected article, but you’ll find what she has to say quite helpful.
After you read your article, type up answers to the following questions in a short paper, using your own words (no relying on direct quotes!).
Why did the author(s) do this study? In other words, what does it contribute to the scientific literature? What unanswered questions do they hope it will help answer?
Briefly describe their methods, specifically: What did they measure and how did they do it? (If you read Hill’s paper, it is a linguistic/cultural anthropological article, so “methods” may not be as clearly stated as they would be in the other two.)
(a) If there is a key figure or graph, what does it show? Why do you think it is important/how does it connect to the results? Don’t just give the title, but “interpret” it. (b) OR: Connect the findings of the research to appropriate topics covered in lectures and/or the textbook.
How do the findings fit in with other, similar research? Does they support the other studies or refute them? (Usually you will find a discussion of this at the end of the paper.)
What does the authors feel are the implications of their results? (How do they apply to the real world, or to our broader understanding of the topic?)
Your paper should be formatted as follows: 2-3 pages in length, 12-point Times New Roman Font, 1 inch margins, double-spaced, and.doc, .docx, .odt, or .pdf files.
