Lynn Poole reads from Carleton S. Coon's The Story of Man to introduce this program on anthropology. Loren Eiseley discusses the range and depth of anthropology and some of its branches, such as cultural, physical, and applied anthropology. William Straus, who specializes in primates and evolution, introduces Dr. Tom, a chimpanzee. He discusses the increase in size and complexity of man's brain compared to apes' and compares several skulls as evidence of man's probable evolution from apes. Dr. Straus also considers a skull from Pithecanthropus man from Java. A film clip of gibbons indicates their similarity to man in many respects. Dr. Eiseley explains a map of early man's migration related to his eating practices and increased brain capacity. He also shows photographs of archaeological sites in Oregon yielding 10,000-30,000 year-old fossils as well as Folsom man projectile points found in New Mexico. He explains that findings can be dated by geological strata, paleontological research of bones, and anatomical determination of human skeleton ages. Thus students seeking careers in anthropology should have a broad background in science, history, and the humanities. Opportunities are increasing as the government, industry, armed forces, and medical education are all beginning to employ anthropologists.

Dr. Loren C. Eiseley, Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, lectures from material in his 1958 prize-winning book, "Darwin's Century." He explains why he teaches and how man's brain receives impressions and profits from experiences. He reads from Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species" as well as from Alfred Russel Wallace's work that recognizes man's brain as the totally new factor in the history of life. Man has the ability to invent, progress, and make changes in his surroundings; and man's ethics, arts, and religions determine his cruelty or humaneness. Dr. Eiseley notes that man is relatively young in the total history of life, but with his mechanical inventions and implements of war and power of choice for good or evil, man and his science have made humanity's extinction possible. Showing a chart of anthropoidal skulls of man's ancestors, Dr. Eiseley says the potential destiny of man is unknown. Because of the Cold War, we need to take responsibility now for spiritual greatness. He warns that man should not abandon or forget how he has always tried to transcend himself spiritually, and he quotes C. S. Lewis on the rationality of man.