Anthro Test 3

Question 1

Paleoanthropology

Answer 1

the study of ancient humans

Question 2

Paleolithic

Answer 2

Old Stone Age”, 3MYA- 14 KYA, lithic = stone

Question 3

Cultural adaptation/ Biological adaptation

Answer 3

Climate change caused hominins to adapt
Environment: 8-5 MYA, global climate changes, cooling and drying, daytime temp= warm to hot, nights= cool or cold, dense forest declined patches of trees + grassland

Question 4

Paleolithic

Answer 4

Old Stone Age”, 3MYA- 14 KYA, lithic = stone

Question 5

Boxed Article: Chemical Analyses of Bones and Teeth

Answer 5

• Physical anthropologists and archaeologists study ancient diets in several ways, most of them indirectly.
• Chemical analyses of bones and teeth, the most common remains found in excavations, can reveal distinctive traces of the foods that metabolically went into the bones and teeth
• ratio of strontium to calcium in bone: relative amounts of plant and animal in the diet
• carbon isotope ratios: can tell us what types of plants people were eating ex: trees, shrubs, and temp zone grasses
• People in China were relying heavily on cereal
• non chemical analyses of teeth and bones were used to study difference between people in different geographic regions

Question 6

Boxed Article: Migrants and Immigrants

Answer 6

• homo erectus was supposed to be the first to leave Africa
• but recent evidence suggests that it was actually the homo habilis followed by the homo erectus
• homo erectus migrated the far and fast

Question 7

Boxed Article: Facial Reconstruction

Answer 7

• facial reconstruction is based on knowledge of the skull musculature and the thickness of soft tissue, determined over many years
• forensic anthropologists have established a standard set of 21 to 34 locations on the skull where the average soft tissue thickness are known
• first step is mark on skull and put clay on it
• the size and shape of the nose are reconstructed based on the size and shape of nasal opening
• size and shape of lips are harder to determine
• artistic

Question 8

Boxed Article: Mother Infant Communication

Answer 8

• hunters communicate with hand signals rather than speech during hunts
• hunting and tool making are typically male roles
• language may have developed through mother-infant communication
• problems faced by hominid mothers and infants may have also played a big role in language
• infants communicate distress and desire to mothers
• language may have begun to develop before toolmaking hunting

Question 9

Boxed Article: Depiction of Women in Upper Paleolithic Art

Answer 9

• most depictions of women show them in some motherhood role- pregnant, in childbirth, or carrying an infant (and perhaps walking with older children)
• “womanhood” rather than “motherhood”

Question 10

Boxed Article: The Archaeology of Environmental Collapse

Answer 10

• “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
• archeologists developed a program called ARCHAEOMEDES project for the EU with the expressed purpose of developing a long term perspective on the problem of land degradation
• Rhone Valley triggered land degradation because the infrastructure could only be sustained during good times

Question 11

Neolithic Revolution

Answer 11

• Domestication of plants and animals
• food collectors become food producers
• Population increases
• Humans go from being an insignificant form of life on this planet to a major one

Question 12

Jared Diamond

Answer 12

• Worst mistake in the history of the human race- a revisionist theory
• People actually less healthy after Neolithic/ have a less varied and healthy diet
• Smaller bodies
• More diseases
• More food shortages/ If 80% of your diet is rice what happens if the rice crop fails?

Question 13

Characteristic of civilization

Answer 13

• Urbanization
• Writing systems
• Metallurgy – bronze. Copper, gold
• State society
• A society does not have to have all these things to be classified as civilized but it has to have some of them.*

Question 14

Upper Paleolithic Tools

Answer 14

1) The more recent the tool kit, the higher the standard of the workmanship
2) The number of different items in the tool kit increases.
3) Increased specialization
4) The mode of manufacture exhibits more efficient use of raw materials.

Question 15

Evolutionary Discordance Hypothesis

Answer 15

As you evolve things aren't as a big deal as they once were. 
Examples: 
-Sweet tooth 
-Obesity 
-Periods 
-Repetitive stress injuries

Question 16

Broad spectrum

Answer 16

• Mesolithic time period

- having a wide range of usage

Question 17

Mesolithic

Answer 17

in-between Paleolithic and Neolithic) Transitional stage between Hu/Ga and the domestication of plants and animals. Broad Spectrum existence. Humans experiment with technological and subsistence practices that helped provide a base for the shift from nomadic hu/ga to village life.

Question 18

Mosaic evolution

Answer 18

bike heel, big brain, we can use tools, evolution does not occur all at the same time

Question 19

Evolution of hominid pattern/bipedalism (list of 6)

Answer 19

Hunting, gathering, fishing 
99% 
Small group size 
Total population = small 
Populations widely dispersed 
Nomadic 
Marginal

Question 20

Boxed Article: Peopling of the New World

Answer 20

• Archaeologists have found stone tools in locations that would have been coastal during the last ice age
• An alternative model for human entry into the New World, which solves some of the problems with the Berigina model, suggests that some people came to the New World from Asia by boat

Question 21

Paleolithic

Answer 21

Old Stone Age”, 3MYA- 14 KYA, lithic = stone 
Hunting, gathering, fishing 
99% 
Small group size 
Total population = small 
Populations widely dispersed 
Nomadic 
Marginal