Anth 2 Flashcards
Taxonomy
assign and organize organisms to categories based on their relatedness or resemblance
Homology
similarities used to assign organisms to the same taxon
Analogy
common traits due to similar environmental pressures
Convergent Evolution
Two different species evolve similar traits but did not come from a common ancestor. EX: bats and birds
Primate Family Tree
Prosimians/Anthropoids New World/Old World Monkeys
Apes
Primate Tendencies
- Grasping Ability 2. Reliance on Sight over Smell
- Reliance on Hand over Nose
- Brain Complexity
- Parental Investment
- Sociality
Prosimians
Our most distantly related primate. Relatively small with a small brain. Nocturnal. Solitary
Anthropoids
Diurnal. Gregarious and more social. A larger primate than prosimians.
New World Monkeys
Prehensile tail. Arboreal (tree-dwelling). Nasal Morphology. Mainly in South America
Old World Monkeys
Terrestrial. Greater degree of sexual dimorphism. Located in Africa and South Asia.
Ape Species
Gibbons, Orangutans, Gorillas, Chimpanzees, Bonobos
Sexual Dimorphism
In Old World monkeys, there is a notable physical difference between males and females. For Apes: (chimpanzees) females are 88% the size of males. There is less difference in New World monkeys.
Orangutans
-Diet: varied diet of fruit, insects, bark, leaves -Locomotion: more arboreal and climbs trees
-Social arrangements: Males forage alone, females and young stay together, also marked sexual dimorphism
Gorillas
-Diet: vegetation rich diet in bulk -Locomotion: terrestrial (do not spend time in trees)
-Social arrangement: groups of around 20, lives in Africa, marked sexual dimorphism
Chimpanzees
-Diet: prefers fruit, omnivorous -Locomotion: lighter weight so more arboreal
-Social arrangement: smaller degree of sexual dimorphism, communities of up to 50 chimps
Similarities (between humans and apes)
- Learning2. Tool Use
- Hunting
- Symbolic Commutation
Differences (between humans and apes)
- Share Food2. Plan, Carry out complex, multistage tasks
- Spoken Language4. Classify others as kin of various types and interact w them for life
Primate Tool Use
Termite fishing by Chimpanzees
Jane Goodall’s Wild Chimpanzees
Discovered that Chimps make tools, eat and hunt for meat, and have similar social behavior to humans. Completely transformed our understanding of chimps
Bonobos
-Diet: omnivorous, like chimps-Locomotion: arboreal-Social arrangement: the community is centered around females
Hominid
Refers to the taxonomic family that includes humans and the African apes and their immediate ancestors
Hominin
refers to the human line after its split from ancestral chimps
Hogopan
hypothetical last common ancestor. the split 6-8 mya into different ecological niches and their diets became specialized
Earliest Potential Hominins
Ardi: Most complete hominid specimen
Close to 4 feet tall, 120 pounds
4.4 mya
Hominin Taxonomy
A. anamensis (4.2-3.9mya) KenyaA. afarensis (3.8-3.0) East Africa
A. africanus (3.0-2.0) South Africa
A. garhi (2.5) Ethiopia
A. robustus (2.0-1.0) East/South Africa
A. boisei (2.6-1.2) East Africa
*Homo habilis lived alongside A. boisei for about a million years.
A. anamensis
kenya; 4-3 mil
A. afarensis
(3.8-3.0) East Africa
A. africanus
(3.0-2.0) South Africa
A. garhi
(2.5) Ethiopia
A. robustus
(2.0-1.0) East/South Africa
A. boisei
*Homo habilis lived alongside A. boisei for about a million years.
Hominin Evolutionary Trends
- Body size2. Locomotion (movement towards bipedalism)
- Cranial capacity (bigger brains)
- Tool use
- Dentition (diets based on teeth)
- Cranial morphology (brow ridge, sagittal crest)
- Diet
Bipedalism
Ability to see over tall grassAbility to carry items
Reduces body’s exposure to solar radiation
Bipedalism and Physiological Traits
Pelvis forms a basket that balances the weight of trunk Ability to carry items
Dentition and Diet
large molar size in correlation to diet; coarse gritty vegetation for heavy chewing on fibrous foods
Gracile and Robust Australopithecines
Robust - large post canine teeth, large molars, incisors canines reduced, flatter faces, large chewing muscles = heavy brow ridge, large zygomatic arches Gracile - reduced zygomatic arch, less robust features in general
Oldowan Tools
- used for animal butchering enabled some species to become omnivorous - Cores and flakes - flakers were good for cutting and animal butchering
- Choppers for pounding, breaking, or bashing
Competition and Australopithecine Extinction
- Tool users displaced other hominins, pushing them into drier, less diverse zones, and some ultimately to extinction - Ppl thought Homo habilis was first tool user but A. garhi also used tools
H. habilis
- coexisted w A. boisei for a million years (2.4 - 1.7 mya) - relatively large brain
- long arges, small body (similar to a chimp)
- used Oldowan tools
H. erectus
- 200,000 yrs after habilis - modern body and limbs
- even larger brain size
- rapid evolution
H. neandertalensis
- adapted to cold enviornments - large torso with shorter limbs
- face pulled forward and broad long nose for added insulation for the brain
- more cranial capacity than modern humans
- used Mousterian tools
- wore fur hides
- diet was all meat
H. floresiensis
- 95,000 - 12,000 BP - found on an island near Indonesia
- hobbit-like, human features
- very small brain
Hunting and Diet and Fire
- Ability to make and control fire enabled humans to cook veggies, meat, feed young and old members soft foods, eliminated parasites - Increased reliance on hunting created a less robust cranial morphology and dentition
Anatomically Modern Humans
Homo erectus split into two groups: ancestral Neanderthals and Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) early ones are known as Cro-Magnon
Behavioral Modernity
- symbolic thought, elaboration cultural creativity - explosion of creativity - more developed/mentally and with the natural habitat
- EX: Lascaux cave paintings. Cauva de Las Manos, Argentina cave paintings of hands using red ochre (9,000-12,000 yrs ago)
Punctuated Equilibrium
periods of stasis followed by periods of rapid change
Hominin Tool Traditions
- Oldowan associated w Australopithecines 2. Acheulian associated w Homo erectus
- Mousterian associated w Homo neaderthals
- Upper Paleolithic (blade-like tools) associated w Homo sapien sapiens
Out of Africa
Immature Birth
Elastic skull (malleable) was how genus homo dealt with problem of brain size and birth canals
Bipedalism and Brain Size
Too big of birth canals impede with bipedalism Narrow birth canals = smaller heads but brains continue to grow outside of the womb
Barwinians to Lamarckian Selection
group selection becomes major factors in species success and inclusiveness
Neanderthal DNA
Neandertal DNA, when compared to modern human DNA, is different at 27 locations. The same section of modern human DNA, gathered from populations around the world, has only 5-8 differences. This suggests that the neanderthal ancestors split from Homo sapiens about 300,000 years ago (last common ancestor)
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Video we watched in class w the big cave. Can’t walk on the ground. in Chauvet Cave, France. Up to 32,000 yrs old. Shows complexity and modern thought.
In general, foraging societies tend to be
egalitarian (equality for all people)
Kottak and the Bible place humans in an original ________ which is preferable to the kinds of societies we live in now
state of nature
Western history idealizes ________ societies
hunter/gatherer
Broad spectrum revolution
hunted, collected, and fished a broader spectrum of resources in multiple locations -varied and diverse diets
______ was revolutionary in the middle east because it led to food production
Broad spectrum revolution
By 7K BP, people were abandoning broad spectrum economies in favor of economies based on ________ sources of food
few domesticated
The vertical economy
Consists of 4 geographically close, but very different env. zones: 1. highland plateau (highest part of land)
2. Hilly flanks (subtropical wooded zone)
3. Piedmont steppe (treeless plain)
4. Alluvial plain (very fertile soil region)
The fertile crescent is in the
middle east
The hilly flanks or vertical economy is analogous to the
garden of Eden (because food grew easily and didn’t require too much toil from humans)
Agriculture origination in the Middle East
-When? Around 10,000 BP -Why? The end of the ice age brought greater regional and local variation in climatic conditions (foragers could adopt a sedentary lifestyle) also the Natufians needed to produce more food than what was available in the wild
-How? around 11,000 BP drier conditions forced the Natufians to adopt new subsistence strategies like moving the wild grains to a well watered area
Impacts of the origin of agriculture
-intensive agriculture has significant environmental effects
Domestication was the gradual result of attempts to recreate the Hilly franks economy in new _______
climates
In contrast with broad spectrum foraging, domestication was more _______ and focused on a smaller number of food sources
specialized
Wild Wheat/Barley
Wild: brittle axis, hard husks (brittle axis will break and seeds spread, insures future generation)
Natufians
(12,500-10,500 BP) -worked out the initial adaptation to this array of climates
-Built permanent villages in the Hilly Flanks
-became sedentary to remain close to their grain
-Surplus!!
Surplus presented 4 challenges
- greater organization of harvest 2. greater limitation of access
- increased routinization of distribution
- new limits on on consumption
Key attributes of early cities/states
- larger and more densely populated than previous settlements 2. productive farming economies supporting dense populations, often including cities
- taxation (accumulate resources to support specialists, increased control and power)
- monumental architecture (signify the rights and status of the rulers)
- had some form of record-keeping, usually a written script (like cuneiform)
- social stratification (unequal access to wealth and power)
Domesticated Wheat/Barley
-Hard axis, brittle husks (hard axis stays on the stalk, makes it easier to cut and transport) (brittle husks make it easier for people to break into)
Sheep and goat alterations
-bred to be smaller and more docile -bred to be more efficient producers of wool, hair, milk, fat and meat
Suplus resulted in the emergence of the
state
Surplus takers
ruling elite, clergy
Production organizers
oartisans, officials oversaw food production
food producers
commoners and slaves
Pyramidal Social Form
-Top tier= surplus takers, the elite -Middle tier = production organizers, includes artisans and specialists
-Bottom tier= food producers aka commoners, peasants
Adaptive strategies (refers to main economic activity)
- foraging (hunting and gathering) 2. horticulture (small scale, not intensive, not permanent)
- agriculture (more permanent, higher yield)
- pastoralism (pastoralists consume milk, butter, meat from their animals as mainstays of their diet)
- industrialism
Correlations and features (to adaptive strategies)
-more complex tools -permanent plots and fields (more labor intensive and sedentary lifestyle)
-increased specialization
-higher productivity
-radical alterations to the environment (deforestation)
-individual ownership over land and crops
Foraging
-until 10K years ago, all humans were foragers -all foraging economies share one feature: people rely on nature to make their living
-in foraging communities, MEN usually hunt and fish while WOMEN gather and collect
Horticulture
-the cultivation that makes intensive use of none of the factors of production: land, labor, capital, and machinery -horticulturalists make use of simple tools such as hoes to grow their crops
Agriculture
-requires more labor than horticulture, and uses land continuously and laborously -sometimes includes irrigation, domesticated animals, and terracing (an ag. strategy is to put all eggs in one very big and dependable basket)
Pastoralism
-people who focus on domesticated animals such as cattle, sheep, goats, camels, yak and reindeer -live in symbiosis with their herds
Industrialism
-based on machines and chemical processes (fuel) which make it possible for the development of manufacturing, mass production and mechanization -produces specialized jobs
Yehudi Cohen’s typologies (1974)
based on correlations: associations or co-variations between two or more variables(not perfent, some groups possess some correlated features but not all)
(NOT an evolutionary schema or mutually exclusive)
Economics
the study of production, distribution, and consumption of resources
Economic anthro
the study of economics in comparative perspective (like making a living and foraging for food) **(the part of the discipline that debates issues of human nature that relate directly to the decisions of daily life and making a living)
Making a living VS foraging for food
until 10,000 years ago, there was NO difference between these two -this changed w/ the advent of domestication and new forms of food production based on farming (today, nearly 30K ppl make their living by foraging and its decreasing)
Modes of production
ways of organizing production; “a set of social relations through which labor is deployed to wrest energy from nature by means of tools, skills, organization, and knowledge”
Means of production:
major productive resources, such as land (territory), labor, and technology
Production, Distribution and Exchange in Different Economic Systems
-Production in Non-Industrial Societies: traditional division of labor between age and gender, mutual aid in production. -Among food producers, rights to the means of production comes through kinship and marriage.
-Capitalist society bargaining is common; the buyer and seller trying to get their “max money’s worth”
-etc…
Reciprocity principle
exchange between social equals that are usually tied by kinship, marriage or another close personal tie (it is more dominant in egalitarian societies, like cultivators, foragers, and pastoralists)
Generalized reciprocity
exchange w/ no exception of immediate return (parent-child giving, foragers)
Balanced reciprocity
exchange with anticipation of equal return
Negative reciprocity
the attempt to get something for nothing (cattle raiders, expecting something selfishly)
The Kula Ring
-Malinowski carefully traced a network of exchanges of bracelets and necklaces across the Trobriand islands, and established they were part of an exchange that was clearly linked to political authority -MWALI armband=male
-SOULAVA necklaces= female
-system based on trust, obligation and shame
-Kula objects must be passed on, taking 2-10 years to make full cycle
-creates social networks and marriage options
Silent trade
also called silent barter; a method by traders who cannot speak each other’s language can trade without talking
Redistribution
An example: A portion of our money earned goes to support the government but some comes back to us in the form of new roads, social services, health care, education
Rationality Markets
-based on supply and demand -all-purpose money (as a relation substitute)
-fluidity, diversity, and diversity of exchange
-neutral relation w/ the other side of the exchange
(principles of exchange are NOT mutually exclusive)
Unilineal Descent
descent rule that only uses one line, so either matrilineal or patrilineal
Matrilinieal descent
membership based on relatedness through FEMALE ancestors
Patrilineal descent
membership based on relatedness through MALE ancestors
Potlatches and the profit motive
• Competitions to see who can give away the most stuff. Who is the most generous -do this to gain social standing and esteem -Classical economic theory: profit motive is viewed as a human universal, potlatching is IRRATIONAL and WASTEFUL
-Such a mindset is ETHNOCENTRIC and fails to consider alternative meanings and social function of potlatches
(CRONK argues that potlatching was a substitute for war AKA rivals can compete without shedding blood)
Bilateral descent
associated with our society, kinship systems do not have descent groups (we consider our cousins from our dad/mom’s side all cousins)
Affinal kin
relatives by marriage
Consanguineal kin
an individual related by common descent from the same individual; A BLOOD RELATIVE. (opposite of affinal kin)
Collateral Kin
Siblings and their descendants (Any other kin aka siblings, cousins, neices, nephews etc)
Cross Cousins
children of the opposite sex siblings of Ego’s parents ex: ego’s mom’s brother has a son and daughter, they would be cross cousins
Ambilineal descent
descent rule that recognizes either male or female line, which a person can choose
Parallel Cousins
children of the same sex siblings of Ego’s parents Ex: Ego’s dad’s brother has a son and a daughter, they would be parallel cousins
Bilateral Kinship Calculation
-Ego= refers to the reader
Functional Explanation for Marriage
love, sex, choice. a system of alliances between families and descent groups
Marriage and Legitimacy
Marriage everywhere involves the legitimation of sex, procreation, gender, and kinship
Marriage and Exchange
outside of industrial societies, marriage is often a relationship between the groups of family from both sides
Bridewealth
gifts given by groom’s family to bride’s family
Dowry
gifts given by bride’s family to groom’s family
Endogamy
seeking a mate within one’s own group
Exogamy
seeking a mate outside one’s own group
Homogamy
marrying people who are similar to you (class, ethnicity, race, etc.)
The Nuer
The daughter steps in as a son to keep the family line going in the absence of a male heir
The Lakher
Half-step sibling relationships are acceptable with a mother’s lineage but not with the father’s lineage because they share the same last name
Incest
sexual relations with a close relative
Extended family household
kinship network of social and economic ties composed of the nuclear family (parents and children) plus other, less immediate relatives ex: aunts, uncles, cousins
Relationships Between Kinship/Descent and Modes of Subsistence
Making a Living aka Subsistence - the satisfaction of the most basic material survival needs; food, clothing and shelter
Lineal Kinship
either the direct ancestors or descendants of a particular Ego
Iroquois Kinship Terms
-matrilateral distinctions -Ego’s mother’s sister is also referred to mother, and her offsprings will be Ego’s brother and sister too
Nayar Descent
Matrilineal society in which extended families live in compounds called ‘‘terawads’ each headed by a senior female, without emphasis on biological paternity -many Nayar children did not know who their biological father was
-total disregard to paternity
-this shows that the nuclear family is NOT universal
Kinship Systems
1) Bifurcate Collateral Kinship, Bifurcate merging, lineal
1) Bifurcate Collateral Kinship
-distinguishing collateral relatives both from lineal relatives of the same generation and from one another on the basis of the sex of connecting relatives
2) Bifurcate Merging Kinship
-identifying collateral relatives with lineal relatives of the same sex and generation when the connecting relative is of the same sex but distinguishing them when the connecting relative is of the opposite sex in a bifurcate merging terminology a father’s brother would be identified as father but a mother’s brother as uncle
Incest Taboo
Every culture in the world has taboo against incest. But how cultures define their relatives, and those incest, is variable and culturally specific
Explanation for Incest Taboo
- inbreeding avoidance - familiarity breeds contempt
- prevention of domestic chaos
- marry out or die out
Levirate
widow marries one of her deceased husband’s brothers
Polygyny
one man, several wives reasons:
- men marrying later than women
- inheritance of widow from a deceased brother
- increased prestige or household productivity
- an infertile wife
Polygamy
having more than one spouse
Polyandry
one woman, several husbands
Serial Monogamy
going from one relationship to another
Fraternal Polyandry
one woman marries all the brothers
Sororate
widower marries one of his deceased wife’s sisters (or another woman from her group if the sister is not available)
Nuclear family
parents and siblings -small and impermanent (this is largely due to an industrial society, so we have to move where the jobs are)
-matrilaterally skewed because women do more kinship work (ex: ModernBride)
Neolocality
post marriage residence (new families are highly mobile)
Descent group
permanent social units whose members claim common ancestry
Patrilocality (also known as Virilocality)
the rule that when a couple marries, they take residence with the husband’s kin group so their children will grow up in their father’s village
Matrilocality (Also known as Uxorilocality)
residence with a wife’s kin, group or clan
Same-Sex Marriage
Americans are currently arguing over the legitimacy of “same-sex marriage” but no one seems to be advocating incestuous ones
Family of orientation
the family in which one is born into or grows up in
Family of procreation
the family formed which one marries and has children (procreates)
Utopian Cosmologies
Kottak and the Bible place humans in an original “state of nature” which is preferable to the societies we live in now. We conceptualize other ways of life that are not urban and industrial.
Advent of Agriculture
- reduces ecological diversity by cutting down trees and focusing on a few staple foods - Productive farming economies, supporting dense populations often cities
