Ch 1-4, 14 & 17 Flashcards
Human Culture
Cultural
Humans as a biological species
Biological
Study of past populations through material remains
Archaeology
Human Language
Linguistics
-Integrated, interdisciplinary
-Evolutionary framework and underlying theme
Approaches to biological anthropology
Paleoanthropology: What traits are bipedalism?
When did bipedalism emerge?
Biological
Paleoanthropology: What’s the evidence for tool use and culture?
Behavioral
Paleoanthropology: How does brain size differ among human species?
Comparative
Human Biology: How do humans respond physiologically to extreme conditions?
Biological
Human Biology: How do cultural values and social behaviors affect growth, development?
Behavioral
Human Biology: How does skin color vary across populations differing in latitude?
Comparative
Genetics: (Molecular anthropology)- How do environment & genes interact to influence form?
biological
Genetics: (Molecular anthropology)- what behaviors have genetic bases?
behavioral
Genetics: (Molecular anthropology)- Can human populations be distinguished genetically?
comparative
How did this person die?
Can we reconstruct a person’s lifestyle from bone?
Can we distinguish broad human populations from bone?
Anthropology+ forensic science+ law
Forensic Anthropology
From what population did these remains originate?
How did these people live?
-Diet
-health
-growth development
What is the history of the population?
Migration?
Biological Archaeology
-Why biological anthropology is anthropology
-Personal fundamental Questions:
-Where do we come from?
-How did we get here?
Human Origins
Judge William Overton (1982)
-It is guided by natural law
-It has to be explanatory by reference to natural law
-It is testable against empirical world
-Its conclusions are tentative i.e, not necessarily the final word
- It is FALSIFIABLE
McLean v. Arkansas
-Broad explanation of a phenomenon
-framework or lens through which we interpret facts or observations
-useful for generating and testing hypotheses or predictions
-constantly tested against accumulating observations
-can be changed or abandoned
Theory
-Searches for universal “laws” in nature
-Given A,B, and C,D, always happens
-seeks testable explanations for observed phenomena
Anthropology as a science
No Change = No evolution
Fixity of species
No time for evolution to take place
Young Earth
-Late 1400s to peak in late 1700s
-Birth of: Modern philosophies, arts, sciences
-Separation of science and religion
The Renaissance
-Polish Mathematician and astronomer
-First intellectual upheaval in Western world
-Heliocentric theory
– Undermines Anthropocentric universe
(1473-1543)
Nicolaus copernicus
-English physicist/ mathematician
-“Principia” (1687) introduces modern era of physics
-Theory of Universal Gravitation
-Mechanistic universe
–A move towards natural laws
(1643-1727)
Isaac Newton
natural laws can explain and even predict the center of the universe
Mechanistic
-Scottish geologist, naturalist
-“Theory of the Earth” (1795)
-Earth transformed by slow processes
– Erosion
–Deposition
–Uplift
-Establishes deep time because slow processes require time.
(1726-1797)
James Hutton
-Scottish Geologist who wrote “Principles pf Geology” (1830-33)
-promoted deep tome alongside Hutton
-Undermines supernatural catastrophes as. explanation
-Uniformitarianism
Charles Lyell
-Slow geological processes produce continuous changes to earth’s surface
-No need for supernatural catastrophes
Uniformitarianism
Young Earth model –> Deep Time
Static Earth history –> Dynamic earth History
Catastrophism –> Uniformitarianism
Changed view of Earth
-Swedish botanist
“Systema Naturae” (1735)
-Formalized classification system
–Binomial Nomenclature
—- e.g. Canis familiaris (Genus species)
– Humans included (multiple origins)
-(1707-1778)
Carolus Linnaeus
-French comparative anatomist & catastrophist
-Fixity of Species
-Function is more important than form for taxonomy
–Similarities between species could only come from similar function
-(1769-1832)
Georges Cuvier
-French anatomist
-“Philosophie Anatomique” (1818)
–Organisms can be modifications of a single type
Idea that became Homology
(1772-1844)
ÉTIENNE GEOFFROY SAINT-HILAIRE
-Structures in different organisms can be modifications of a type
- Parts change in shape/size but remain connected in the same pattern
Homology
-French naturalist
-“Histoire Naturelle” (1749)
-Questioned Fixity of Species
-Recognized Environment- Species interaction
-Climate change as agent of species alteration
-but no mechanism proposed
(1707-1788)
GEORGES-LOUIS LECLERC,
COMTE DE BUFFON
-French naturalist
-Followed Buffon and others in thinking that life is not fixed
-Offered first mechanism for evolution
-“Philosophie Zoologique” (1809)
– Theory: ‘Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics’
(1744-1829
JEAN-BAPTISTE LAMARCK
-Activity can change anatomy
-Change is inherited
-Unit of change and selection= INDIVIDUAL
-No “struggle” for existence
-Directional Evolution
Acquired Characteristics
Organisms were driven by nature to become more complex
Directional Evolution
-English intellectual
-Med school dropout, Divinity degree form Cambridge
-Also studied botany, geology
-Familiar with work of Lamarck, Cuvier, and Lyell
-Prior to trip on the HMS Beagle, accepted Fixity of Species
(1809-1882)
Charles Darwin
-English economist
-“An Essay on the Principle of Population” (1798)
-Competition: ‘struggle for existence’
(1766-1834)
Thomas Malthus
-Scottish naturalist
-Also integrated Malthus, let him to conceive of natural selection independently of Darwin
-Wrote to Darwin
-Read to the Linnean Society of London
Alfred Russel Wallace
Essential ingredients for:____________
- Variation
- Mortality (differential reproductive success)
- hereditary
Natural Selection
LAMARCK OR DARWIN/WALLACE?
-Use/Disuse
-Vital fluids and forces
-Inheritance of acquired traits
-Individual evolves
-No extinction
-Increasing Complexity
Lamarck
LAMARCK OR DARWIN/WALLACE?
-Variation
-Differential survival
-inheritance of trait already present
-Population Evolves
-Extinction
-Not Directional
Darwin/Wallace
-Mechanism of evolution
-non-random process leading to evolution
-acts on the individual while evolution acts on the population
-a mechanism that can explain emergence of new species.
-Fixed species vs. Biological continuity
Natural Selection
