Anthropology Flashcards
Subfields of physical anthropology
Biological anthropology
Primatology
Forensic anthropology
Subfields of cultural anthropology
Archaeology
Linguistics
Ethnology (studying living cultures)
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was based on his study of the diverse groups of _________ found on the Galapagos islands
finches
Because each island had a unique environment, Darwin hypothesized that the finches adapted through the process of _________________
natural selection
T or F: No 2 members of a species are exactly alike
True
Natural selection
Members of a species that survive pass on their unique characteristics to their offspring so that over time, successful variations produce a new species
The peppered moth → light moths blended in with the light-coloured trees, but once the trees were darkened by soot, the dark moths were able to camouflage themselves from predators (e.g. birds), live longer and breed more
Example of natural selection
Does natural selection mean that species are improving?
NO - those best suited to the environment are more likely to survive
K-T extinction event
Dinosaurs and 3/4ths of other species went extinct → temperature and oxygen levels dropped
Dinosaurs vs. Shrews
Dinosaur:
- Large, cold-blooded reptile
- No parenting skills
Shrew:
- Small, warm-blooded mammal with fur
- Care of young
Features humans share w/ primates (name 4)
Opposable thumbs
Large brain
Binocular vision
Dependent offspring
Social nature
Aggressive and territorial
Opposable thumbs allow for _______________ and _______________
fine motor control
use of tools
Binocular vision allows for _______________ and _______________
depth perception
spotting food sources & predators at far distances
Features unique to humans
Bipedalism
Language
An ancient ape-like species whose physical traits represent a transition from ape to human
Australopithecus (A. afarensis)
The jaw of an australopithecus is _________ than that of an ape and it walked _________
upright
Difference between the feet of a chimp and the feet of australopithecus/human
Chimp → grasping foot
Australopithecus/human → bipedal
Australopithecus to homo erectus
2.4 million years ago, a genetic mutation caused ____________ to become weaker
This resulted in smaller ____________________ and gradual recession of the ____________________
jaw muscle
zygomatic arches (cheekbones)
sagittal crest
Smaller jaws (australopithecus to homo erectus) led to an increased in ____________________
cranial capacity (brain size)
Positive impacts of smaller jaw/larger brain (name 3)
- Tool creation
- Language development
- Cooking food
- Weapons for hunting and defence
- Symbolic thought (art, religion, culture)
Negative impacts of smaller jaw/larger brain
Smaller jaw: Inability to process tough foods, more vulnerable to predators
Larger brain: Requires more calories (20% of caloric intake), increases food demand
How did bipedalism lead to a smaller birth canal?
Pelvic bones shifted to provide more stability for upright movement
Positive impacts of bipedalism (name 2)
Can scan horizon to avoid predatory attacks
Frees hands to use tools and transport food
Travel long distances
Obstetrical dilemma
Larger brain + smaller birth canal = pain
To pass through birth canal, babies were born with…
soft skulls and underdeveloped brains (for this reason, young are altricial)
Structures that have lost their original functions but give us clues about our ancestors
Vestigial structures
5 vestigial structures
appendix
wisdom teeth
male breasts & nipples
coccyx (tailbone)
body hair & erector pili
Original purpose of appendix
Help digest a largely herbivorous diet
Why is the appendix now obsolete?
Our diet is no longer mainly rough vegetation
Original purpose of wisdom teeth
Ancestors needed larger jaws and more teeth to grind a largely raw diet
Lost several teeth due to wear and poor dental hygiene → wisdom teeth to replace lost teeth
Wisdom teeth are now obsolete because
1. They’re trying to grow into a jaw that is too ________
2. We now have __________
3. We now have __________
small
cooking (softer foods)
improved dental hygiene
All mammals (male and female) have _______________ and nipples present in early stages of fetal development
In a later stage of fetal development, testosterone in males cause male traits to develop, but the __________ remain
mammary glands
nipples
Mammals use tails for balance, communication, and in some primates, as a _________ limb.
As ancestors were learning to ______________, the tail became unnecessary
prehensile
walk upright
Erector pili
tiny muscle fibers that cause body hair to stand up, causes mammal to appear larger when threatened
Why body hair & erector pili is now obsolete
Humans developed other methods to stay warm
Primates share these characteristics with humans (great apes)
Tool use
Learn through observation
Develop complex social hierarchies
Form culture
Orangutans (Camp Leakey in Borneo) learn to use tools by ________________
Chimps (Congo) use tools to ___________
Chimps (Uganda) establish dominance hierarchies through ___________ (social connections established through social grooming, hunting, and sharing of meat)
observing humans
crack nuts
aggression
One piece of evidence of upright walking → early human footprints found in Tanzania. Why might they have walked upright?
Flooded grasslands necessitated wading upright through the water
Humans once only obtained meat by persistence hunting (e.g. the San people of the Kalahari desert). What is persistence hunting?
tracking and outrunning an animal
Animals who submit to _______________ (e.g. wolves) were chosen for domestication
dominance hierarchies
Hominids are members of the family __________
Hominidae
Were the young of Australopithecus afarensis altricial or precocial?
precocial
Ape and human characteristics of Australopithecus afarensis
Ape characteristics:
- Small brain
- Strong arms for climbing
- Plant-based diet
Human characteristics:
- Bipedal
Which hominid is the handy man?
Homo habilis
Homo habilis had a slightly larger brain and smaller face + teeth. What was evidence of its larger brain?
- Evidence of tool use
- Varied diet = more calories to feed big brain
Which hominid is the upright man?
Homo erectus
Homo erectus is the oldest known human to have ____________________
modern human-like body proportions
How did homo erectus get enough energy to fuel its tall body and large brain?
- Calories from meat, honey and tubers
- Shorter digestive tract → nutrients absorbed faster
Which hominid is the hobbit?
Homo floresiensis (very small)
Homo floresiensis had stone _____, used ____, and hunted ____________
tools
fire
mini-elephants
Homo floresiensis is a result of island dwarfism, which is an evolutionary process…
that results from long-term isolation on a small island with limited resources and a lack of predators
Homo heidelbergensis had short, wide bodies to ________________
conserve heat
Homo heidelbergensis…
- Had control of ______
- Routinely hunted ___________
- First species to build shelters from _____________
fire
large animals
wood and stone
Homo neanderthalensis adapted to ______ climates
cold
How did homo neanderthalensis adapt to cold climates?
short, stocky bodies
huge nose for humidifying and warming cold, dry air
Which hominid is our closest extinct human relative
Homo neanderthalensis
What contributed to the extinction of homo neanderthalensis?
Competition w/ modern humans
Humans’ love of sweet foods is proof of…
Our herbivorous past (sweetness correlated to nutritional value in the natural world)
___________ are social
Herbivores are ________________
meat eaters (hunting meat requires cooperation and sharing of spoils)
solitary and selfish
_____________ theory suggests that as our ancestors pursued fish as a food source, they physically adapted
Aquatic ape
Evidence for aquatic ape theory (name 3)
Newborns can swim underwater
Diving reflex → heartbeat slows when face is underwater
Fat under skin = buoyant
Nose shape prevents water from entering lungs when diving
Partial webbing between fingers and toes
Flexible spine
Tears to keep eyes moist
Hunting = uncertain
Agriculture and domestication of animals = predictable and secure
How do modern humans seek the hunt in symbolic “kills”?
Sports → pseudo-hunting (chasing a ball)
Photography
Collecting → pursuing prey
Jobs → require strategies
Cultural anthropologists are interested in _____________ and ______________
material culture
behavioural culture
Material culture
The “stuff” that cultures create (technology, art, shelters)
Behavioural systems
Ways in which groups are organized (family structures & gender roles, political & economic systems, education)
Cultural anthropologists collect information using ____________ and ___________
Ethnology
Archaeology
Ethnology
Study living cultures through participant observation
The ethnologist may live for ______________ within the culture (observing, talking w/ people and recording their thoughts and behaviours)
a year or more
The ethnologist must __________________, __________________ and __________________
learn the language, remain objective and not disturb the culture
An ethnologist must try to avoid _______________
ethnocentrism (judging other cultures based on one’s own cultural experiences)
Why did the !Kung mock Richard Lee’s gift (a black ox loaded with fat and meat)?
Kung are a foraging culture whose social structure is egalitarian
Mocked Lee because he was threatening their social structure by trying to demonstrate his superiority
Archaeology
Cultural anthropology of the past (especially prehistoric times) - archaeologists analyze the material culture and the human remains left by ancient cultures
Presence of pottery at an archaeological site reveals (name 3):
- Food storage → food surplus (extra) → presence of agriculture
- Complex society that can support specialization in jobs (potter)
- Permanent settlement → storing food, pottery is fragile and can’t be easily transported
- Design and craftsmanship → art → leisure
Types of cultures (name 5)
- Foraging
- Horticultural
- Pastoral
- Agricultural
- Industrial
- Communication-based
Foraging cultures…
- Have a hunting and gathering economy
- Supports a ________ population
- ____________ social structure
- Nomadic
- small
- egalitarian (everyone’s contributions equally valued)
Horticultural cultures
- Cultivation of plants and domestication of animals (_______ years ago)
- “_______________” cultivation
- More settlement + ________________
- Increase in ________________
- 10,000
- Slash and burn (cut and burn foliage to make way for cultivated land)
- personal possessions
- food production
Pastoral cultures
- Domestication of ___________ (10,000 years ago, Middle East)
- Use _________________ to sell to get other products
- _______ with herds in different seasons to find fertile pastures
- herd animals
- meat, milk and wool
- move
Agricultural cultures
- _________ and _________ working of the land to produce food (8,000 years ago)
- Use of manure, fertilizers, irrigation, and plowing animals or machinery
- Generates surplus food to _________ or _________
Increases population → cities → _________________
More complex political organizations, inequalities in wealth and power
- intensive, continuous
- store, sell
- work specialization
Industrial cultures
- Industrial revolution (_____ century)
- Non-_________ energy powers complex machines
- ___________ produce consumer goods
- Ppl move from the _______________ to the city in search of factory jobs (increase in wealth, health & lifespan)
- Overcrowding and overconsumption
- Economic inequalities → ____________ and ____________ are responses to how wealth should be distributed
- 19th
- human
- factories
- countryside
- capitalism, communism
Communication-based cultures
- Increase in electronically generated data (mid _____ century)
- Mass media provides information to a broad audience
- ## 20th
Which types of culture are nomadic?
A. Foraging
B. Horticultural
C. Pastoral
D. Agricultural
E. Industrial
F. Communication-based
A. Foraging
C. Pastoral
Which type of culture involves the domestication of herd animals?
A. Foraging
B. Horticultural
C. Pastoral
D. Agricultural
E. Industrial
F. Communication-based
C. Pastoral
Which type of culture involves “slash and burn cultivation”?
A. Foraging
B. Horticultural
C. Pastoral
D. Agricultural
E. Industrial
F. Communication-based
B. Horticultural
Which type of culture FIRST allowed for more settlement + personal possessions?
A. Foraging
B. Horticultural
C. Pastoral
D. Agricultural
E. Industrial
F. Communication-based
B. Horticultural
This type of culture burns foliage to fertilize the soil, farms for a few years, then moves on
A. Horticultural
B. Agricultural
A. Horticultural
This type of culture involves intensive and continuous working of the land to produce food
A. Horticultural
B. Agricultural
B. Agricultural
In this culture, non-human energy powers complex machines and factories produce consumer goods
A. Foraging
B. Horticultural
C. Pastoral
D. Agricultural
E. Industrial
F. Communication-based
E. Industrial
Overcrowding and overconsumption became a problem in this culture
A. Foraging
B. Horticultural
C. Pastoral
D. Agricultural
E. Industrial
F. Communication-based
E. Industrial
Capitalism and communism became responses to how wealth should be distributed in this culture
A. Foraging
B. Horticultural
C. Pastoral
D. Agricultural
E. Industrial
F. Communication-based
E. Industrial
In a purely oral culture, knowledge is…
what you can recall from memory
In oral cultures, how did language evolved to aid in the storage of complex information in individual memory?
- diction and syntax became highly rhythmical
- information encoded in common turns of phrase (e.g. clichés)
In oral cultures, a special class of _______________ are responsible for storing cultural knowledge by composing verses and singing/chanting them aloud in public
poet-scholars
Scriptura continua
Early writing mimicked continuous speech → no spaces to separate words
Not yet rules for grammar, so there wasn’t any meaning in the word order
In written cultures, why were scribes were hired to record and read aloud?
Reading and writing were difficult and required significant cognitive energy
1500s development of the printing press made texts widely available. How did that impact culture? Give 2 reasons.
- Emphasis on personal interpretations and individual thought
- Reading is solitary, separates us from others
- Info processed in linear fashion –> lead to linear values & rigid organizations (assembly lines, formal schooling, etc)
______________ hypothesis: structure of a language influences speakers’ cognitive processes and how they conceptualize their world
Sapir-Whorf
Give me 4 pieces of evidence that support the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Colour perception
Cognitive anumeracy
Futureless languages
L’académie française
Language & colour perception:
- In ________, several different colours are perceived as one (e.g. “Serandu” = red, orange or pink)
Himba
Language & cognitive anumeracy:
The __________ people of the Amazon (Brazil) only have 3 terms for quantities. They are unable to count or perceive distinct numbers of items
Piraha
Futureless languages:
According to Keith Chen, futureless language speakers are 30% more likely to have saved money because…
When we speak about the future as distinct from the present, it feels more distant
L’académie française is responsible for…
maintaining the French language (and thus the French culture) by preventing foreign words from infiltrating the culture
In a TED talk about texting, John McWhorter said texting was…
- A new language that mimics natural speech
- A form of “finger speaking” that is constantly evolving
