What is Anthropology?
Anthropology is a study that examines human variation(differences) across the globe. Anthropology also study human evolution( how humans were created).
Anthropology uses a holistic approach to studying humans in society, it study the entire history of humans. Anthropology examines the location were people are, religion, language, political systems, and food systems.We also study the similarities and differences in human physical traits.
What are the fields of Anthropology?
There three major fields of study in anthropology. Cultural Anthropology, Biological Anthropology, and Applied or Practicing Anthropology.
What is Cultural Anthropology?
Cultural Anthropology focuses on how and why society vary from past to present. There are four fields within cultural anthropology that examine society.
- Archaeology-is the study of past cultures, by examining the material remains of that culture. Archaeologist are interested in understanding and tracking the cultural changes. Most Archaeologist are interested in pre-historical change. A Archaeologist may examine the great wall of china or the pyramids left from previous society.
- Anthropological Linguistics -study the changes in language that have taken place over time and the variation of language.Linguistics are also interested in the differences in past and present language.
- Ethnology (Cultural) anthropology- study the similarities and differences between cultures, they also look at how past and present cultures are different one another and how this has an impact on behavior and actions. Remember the example of marriage I gave you in class? there are different types of ethnology, ethnographers, ethnohistorians, cross cultural researcher- all definition of each could be found in your text.
What is Biological Anthropology?
Biological Anthropology looks at the physical or biological differences (DNA, genes, phenotype) charateristics in humans. There are two major focuses in Biological(physical) anthropology.
- Human Variation-focus on the differences between human beings biologically. Remember the example I gave you about skin color and eye color?
- Human Paleontology-is the study of human evolution through reconstruction of human evolution using fossils as well as geographical location, environments, plants, and animals population.
- There are three ways in which Biological/physical anthropology study human variation and human evolution: human genetics( traits that are inherited), population biology(environmental impact on humans), and epidemiologist( the study of diseases)
Applied Anthropology- anthropologist may only conduct research on human variation and human culture.
Practicing Anthropology- may conduct research and use their finds to help some part of society.
Chapter 2
Evolution Theory
Marcobois was a philosopher who coined the tern the Great Chain of Being and arranged society in hierarchical position.
-GOD
-People
-Animals
-Plants
He believed that we all were interconnected in needed one another, but our evolution was separated from one another and fixed.
- Lineanus classified human society different. He believed that animals and humans were in the same category and share a common ancestor.
- Lamarck- believed that animals were not fixed and could evolve over time, he believed that certain characteristics were inherited and passed on to other generation for survival purposes.
- Lyell argues that animals and humans evolved over time and he examined fossils and argued that geological and paleontological changes impacted species
- Charles Darwin was influence by Lyell's work and believed that animals were not created one at a time and were not fixed. He too believed that both animals and humans could evolve. He argued that Natural selection was the key evolution.(make sure you know what natural selection is)
Early Anthropology
Lewis Henry and Edward B. Tyler- believed that societies evolved from simple to complex. Furthermore, Henry and Tyler believed that people could evolve from "simple-barbaric" to "complex-civilized" beings.
Henry, Tyler, and the leaders of evolution theory contribute to race theory in early anthropology.
Race Theory-basically argued that human culture differed in behavior from one another because they represent different subspecies groups. Race theory divided people into four different races : "American, European, Asiatic,and African" each group were defined by physical, behavioral, and emotional characteristics. This classification justified colonialism and slavery.
Diffusionism- is the borrowing of different cultural characteristics. There were three different diffusion schools: The Britain School of diffusion, The German-Austrian School, and The American School. Please make sure you understand what diffusion is and how it was used in each school of thought.
Later Anthropology
Frank Boas, was anti-evolution and race theory. He believed that in order to understand humans we must collect as much anthropological data as possible and then cultural variation would emerge. He focused on research instead of theory. He also believed that human variation(racial and biological) depended on geographical location.
There are different Approaches in Anthropology make sure you understand what each approach examine in human beings
- Psychological Approach
- Structuralism Approach
- Ethno-science and Cognitive Approach
- Evolutionary Approach
- Feminist Approach
- Interpretive Approach
Chapter 4 Genetics and Evolution
What are the principles of natural selection? There are three principle of natural selection they are:
- Variation-every species is composed of individuals who vary/ Some of these individual are able to adapt better to certain environments.
- Herediability-This is the process of acquring your parents traits
- Differentail Reproduction Sucess- is the idea that individuals who adapt better to a certain environment are better able to pass their genes on to their offspring. They are also able to produce more offspring.
What are the different types of natural selection?
- Directional selection- is when a particular trait is positively favored and the average value shift over time towards the "adaptive" positively favored trait
- normalizing selection-the average value doesn't change but over time natural selection removes the extremes(think about the case of the black moth in your text book)
- balance selection occures when a heterozygous gene is positively favored, even though the gene in the pair are homozegous and disfavored. (for this section of natural selection just know the different types of natural selection, don't worry to much about explain each type of natural selection process)
What are recessive and dominant genes?
- Recessive genes are genes that we inhert from our parents but they are the weaker genes and they usually do not appear
- Dominant genes are genes that we also inhert from our parents but they are stronger and more visable.
- (Remember the video i showed you? refer to this video if you are still have trouble with recessive and dominant genes.)
What are Genotypes and phenotype?
- Genotypes is our genetic makeup, they are internal and you can not see them.
- Phenotype is our physical appearences or physical traits.
What are Chromosomes and what is Mitosis and Meiosis?
- Chromosomes are made up of protien and DNA and they are located in the necleus of our cells. We have 46 chromosome, 23 from each of our parents.
- Mitosis is the reproduction of cells
- Meiosis is the separation of sex cells think about how the (46 chromosomes are separated during this process. you can review the video for additional help)
What are the sources of variability?
- Genetic Recombination
- mutation
- Genetic Drift
- Gene Flow
What are the theories around the origin of population
What are the links between behavioral traits and natural selection?
There are several approaches that explain human and animal behavior through natural selection. These theories argue that we act the way that we act because of our genetic make up and natural selection. In particular the behavioral and sociobiology approach argue that history, biology, genes, and environment shape our behavior.Make sure you understand each of these(they can be found in chapter 4)
- Sociobiology
- behavioral ecology
- evolutionary psychology
Chapter 3 Research Methods in Anthropology
What is an explanation?
- is an answer to a what question.
What is an theory?
- Theory explain why things exist. Theories can never be proven with absolute certainty.
What are the different types of research in Anthropology?
- ethnography
- within-culture comparison
- regional controlled comparison
- cross-cultural research
- historical research
There are different techniques that are used to study the distant past make sure you know and understand each of these.
- Artifacts
- Eco-fact
- Fossils
- Feature
- Absolute or chronometric dating
Chapter 5
Acclimatization what is it?
- Acclimatization is the physiological adjustment to
environmental conditions in individuals. Acclimatization does not occur because
of genetics; however, they could have genetic factors. Meaning we are not born
with acclimatization instead we develop them later on in life.
Physical Variation Among people
- Bergman’s rule: argues that there is a general
relationship between people and their environment. He believed that people’s
body size depend on temperature. He argued that slender population of species
live in warmer parts of the world, and
people who are heavier, live in colder parts of the world.
- Allen’s Rule argues that arms and legs are shorter
in cooler areas than in warmer areas.
- Gloger’s Rule: animals and mammals who live in sunny climates have dark pigmentation, in these regions people
produce more melanin which protect them from the sun.
- Lighter skinned people live in cooler regions,
they may not produce as much melanin as dark people but they are able to absorb
more vitamin d.
- Height is related to temperature; taller and heavier
people live in cooler areas and skinner and shorter people live in hotter
areas.
- Race and Racism: Race is a term that biologist used to categorize
people. Anthropology argue that race is a construct-basically not real. One of
the main reasons for this is that there are too many similarities genetically
between people who supposedly belong to different “races.”
Chapter 6 living Primates:
What are primates?
Primates are mammals, they are warm blooded, all mammals give birth to fetus that grow inside their mothers womb,
these baby’s could be feed by the mother’s milk. Most mammals behavior are
learned.
What are the physical features of primates?
- Arboreal-
meaning tree living.
- Omnivorous-
they eat all kinds of food including insects small animals, nuts, fruits,
and plants.
- Teeth-
all primates have molars, premolars, incisors, and canines.
- Brain-
our brains are bigger than other species. We depend on our brain for
survival.
- Flexibility-we are able to grab things with our hands and feet.
- Oppossable
thumbs- we all be to grip things with more poor.
- Reproductive
system is different from most species, we are able to breast feed, and
carry a fetus full term.
What are the Social Features of primates?
- primates are social creature, our lively
hood depends on it.
- primates are very active during the
day.
- primates are dependent on relationships with others,
our mother especially- if this is lacking we aren’t able to develop properly.
- Primates at play- we are very
dependent on play which is very important during the dependency stage of
development. Play is extremely important for learning.
What are the Classification of primates?
- Prosimians
- Anthropoids-new
world monkeys
- Hominoids:
apes and humans-there are three different groups the lesser apes,
Hylobates, pongids/ Hominids
Physical traits
- Bipedalism-dish-shape pelvis, lumber
curve spine, straight lower limbs, and , arched feet
- Cerebral Cortex- the center of speech
is larger in hominids.
Behavioral abilities
- Toolmaking-
we have the ability to make tools
- Language-we
have modern language abilities as humans-our language are symbolic,
however, there have been studies done on vervet monkey have the ability to
make different alarming sounds. Chimpanzees are also said to use communicative language specifically sign language.
- Hunting
Hominids also hunt other mammals
What are the Primates Adaptations
- Body
Size- body size vary among primates, some argues that body size adaptation
is contributed to the time of day a
species is active, where it is active, and the kinds of food it eats. One
thing to note is that nocturnal primates are small compare day primates
- Relative
Brain Size- larger primates have larger brains and there is a difference
between fruit eating primates who generally have larger brains compare to
leaf eating primates.
- Group size-primate group size generally vary, primatologist argue that the time
of activity has a lot to do with
group size, animals who do activities such as hunting or gathering
food maybe more at an advantage to have a bigger group compared to
nocturnal primates.
Chapter 7 Primates early Evolution:
When did the first
primates emerge?
- This question is extremely hard to answer the current fossil
record. Some argue that the first primate emerge during the paleocene epoch
which dates back to nearly 65 million years ago these fossils where found in Europe
and in north America which both use to be connected. Other argue that the first
primate emerge during the eocene which is about 55 million years ago these are
the adapis and omoymid. Some argue that
these fossil where found towards the end of the Paleocene and the beginning of
the Eocene, they agrgue that there is a another common ancestor between the
primates and this is the carpolestes
simpsoni.
What about the
environment?
- Its agree that the first primate
emerge during the Paleocene which was between 65 million and 55 millions years
ago.
- Geological transformation- most
animals that live before this period became extent. the dinosaur extinct is
among one of these phenomenons
-
During this period the environment was
damped and mild
-
However temperature began to change,
and it became dried and swamp like
-
The continental draft played a major
role in the temperature changes
What is the Arboreal Theory?
- The arboreal theory- which argue that
primates evolve from insectivores that took
to the trees in order to find food.
The emergence of
the anthropoids
- The anthropoids emerge during the
Oligocene epoch which dates back to 34 million to 24 million years ago.
- Very tropical area
- Warm like climate
- Two groups: parapithecids(monkey like)
and propliopithecids(ape like)
The Miocene Anthropoids : Monkeys, apes, and
hominids
- Emerge
during the Miocene which is dated as 24 million to 5.2 million years ago
- During
this period monkeys and apes diverge
- Various
types of apes emerged in Europe, Asia, and Africa
Early Miocene
Proto-apes
- Proconsul found in Kenya and Uganda
dated to about 20 millions year old
- Lacked tails
- Extremely big
- Modern hominoids are very similar to
these animals.
Middle Miocene
apes
- Pierolapithecus
found in Barcelona
- Kenyaapithecus
found in Kenya
- Have
proconsul feature but teeth and face more modern
Late Miocene Apes
- Apes
diversified and migrated to many areas
- Climate
cooler and drier
- 8 million
years old
Sivapithecids
- 13
million year to 8 million years ago was thought to be our ancestor
- Had flat
thick teeth
Dryopithecids
- Appeared
about 15 million years ago
- Ape like
features
- Live in
Eurasia
- Looks
like African ape and humans
- Divergence of hominids from other hominids
