Exam 1 Flashcards
anthropology
The holistic, integrative, and comparative study of humans
Anthropos: “man”,”human”
Logos: “study of”
holistic
study the whole of the human condition
integrative
combine evidence from multiple sources and multiple fields
comparative
take a cross-cultural perspective in most of the research
four fields of anthropology
cultural, linguistic, archaeology, biological
culture
a uniquely human means of non-biological adaptation, learned behavior (def. gave by E.B. Taylor)
ethnology
the science that analyzes and compares human cultures, cross-cultural comparison
ethnography
the descriptive documentation and analysis of a contemporary culture, often involves fieldwork
ethnocentrism
judging other cultures using one’s own cultural standards
cultural relativism
the idea that to know another culture requires full understanding of its members’ beliefs and motivations
linguistic anthropology
focuses on the formation and relationships between human languages and the relationship between language and culture
archaeology
the study of human and artifact interactions in all times and all places (material culture)
biological anthropology
the study of present and past biological variation in humans, human ancestors, and human relatives
hypothesis
an educated guess based upon observation
theory
a framework for generating hypotheses
scientific law
a statement of fact meant to describe an action or set of actions. generally accepted to be true and universal
culture is…
learned, based on symbols, shared, patterned
enculturation
the process by which culture is learned and transmitted across the generations
symbol
something, verbal or non-verbal, that stands for something else
international culture
cultural traditions that extend beyond national boundaries
national cultures
cultural features shared by citizens of the same nation
subculture
share some features with dominant culture but have distinctive attributes of their own
diffusion
when a cultural trait moves from one culture to another
acculturation
an exchange of cultural features between groups in firsthand contact
independent invention
the process by which humans innovate, creatively finding solutions to problems
etic perspective
outsiders perspective
emic perspective
insiders perspective
Franz Boas
father of American anthropology. cultures progress through their own historical trajectories, there are no set stages
unilineal evolution
all cultures progress through set stages
multilineal evolution
distinctive cultural histories are emphasized
sociocultural evolution
describes how cultures have developed over time
what distinguishes humans from other animals
culture, only living bipedal mammals, nonhoning canine tooth, organized hunting with tools, speech, relatively large brains
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach
(1700s-1800s) attempted to classify humanity into discrete groups on physical characteristics
James Cowles Prichard
(1800s) identified Africa as the origin place for humanity
Java Man
found by Eugene Dubois (late 1800s), earliest human fossil ever discovered
Piltdown Man
thought to be unknown early human, debunked in 1950s. mix of human and orangutan bones
taung child
published by Raymond Dart. first fossil of Australopithecus africanus, found in 1920s
Ales Hrdlicka vs. Franz Boas
Hrdlicka believed that human evolution was in stages(with Indigenous ppl at the bottom as early humans, and Europeans at the top as developed humans)
Boas believed in cultural relativism. Cultures cannot be ranked, and are all valid and can only be understood in their own contexts
Sherwood Washburn
1900s, pioneered study of primates in natural settings
Anthropometry
measurement of body form, earliest focus in biological anthropology
biocultural anthropology
explicitly concerned with the relationship between culture, behavior, and human biology
genetics
central biological anthropology in the 21st century, mapping genetic diversity and linking genotypes to phenotypes
primatology
a large subfield of biological anth with its own subfields, focus on wild and captive non-human primates. goal is to better understand humans (behavior, non-behavioral biology, the fossil record)
paleoanthropology
the study of human ancestors and their relatives, the grey area between archaeology and paleontology
bioarchaeology
study of human remains in archaeological contexts
paleopathology
study of disease in past populations. based on morphology and histology of bone
forensic anthropology
attempt to reconstruct a person’s age, sex, pathological characteristics, and physical identity through their remains
human osteology
study of human skeleton, functional morphology, histology, biochemistry
medical anthropolgy
intersection of human health and human biology, cultural dimensions and conceptions of health
diet and nutrition
what did humans eat in the past and today? focus on non-industrial societies, relationships between diet and human biology
human reproduction and sex differences
consequences and tradeoffs for reproductive strategies, life history theory
Travels of Herodotus
400BC, accounts of people in western Asia and northern Africa
Aristotle
300BC, contemplated what separates humans from other animals, Universalist in approach
Michel de Montaigne
1500s, early cultural relativist (the noble savage)
Giambattista Vico
late 1600s-early 1700s, four stages of humanity
four stages of humanity
bestial condition, age of gods, age of heroes, age of man
Baron de Montesquieu
late 1600s-early 1700s, cross cultural study of legal systems, comparative in nature
Jean Jacques-Rousseau
1700s, humanity began in the state of nature, societal development increasingly corrupts individuals
Lewis Henry Morgan
1800s, technological stages for society: savagery, barbarism, civilization
Karl Marx
1800s, social change is driven by dialectics
Herbert Spencer
coined “survival of the fittest” in 1850s
James Ussher
1500s-1600s, reconstructed age of the world using Biblical chronology
James Hutton
1700s, idea of uniformitarianism
uniformitarianism
the same natural phenomena that occur today, occurred in the past
Charles Lyell
1800s, calculated how long it would have taken for the world’s strata to form (Earth’s age)
law of superposition
recent geological layers near the top and older layers near the bottom, establishes relative age
Robert Hooke
1600s, compared ammonite fossils to living invertebrates and fossil wood to living trees, concluding that the fossils were once living
Georges Cuvier
1700s-1800s, applied anatomical studies to fossil animals (Catastrophism)
Catastrophism
fossils in different strata are the result of major catastrophies.
Carolus Linnaeus
1700s, developed taxonomic system, all organisms can be named with a species (combination of genus and specific epithet)
order of taxonomic system
domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species (dear king philip came over for good soup)
Thomas Malthus
1700s-1800s, population growth is limited by food. survival and reproduction depends on individual abilites. anticipated social Darwinism
Georges-Louis Leclerc
1700s, estimated Earth to be 70,000 years old. species spontaneously arose in different regions and could change with migration
Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet (Lamarck)
1700s-1800s, evolution via disuse (acquired characteristics), new characteristscs inherited by offspring, increasingly complex
Erasmus Darwin
1700s, grandfather of charles darwin, all life originated from a single form, evolution driven by strongest members
Charles Darwin
1800s, HMS Beagle voyage to chart the coast of South America, recognized similarities of fossils with modern animals, natural selection (finches)
natural selection
those with traits better suited for their habitat are more likely to survive and produce offspring
Alfred Russell Wallace
1800s-1900s, similar conclusion to Darwin, collected specimens in the Amazon Forest, lost everything when ship sank, went to Malaysia and Indonesia, Wallace Line
Wallace Line
faunal boundary, transitional zone between Asia and Austrailia
consequences of Darwin
mechanism for evolution that allows predictions about modern life. hypothesis testing. triggered search for human ancestors
mode of inheritance
the manner that a trait is passed down generations
gregor mendel
1800s, contemporary of Darwin, bred pea plants to see the frequency in which traits were passed down
alleles
discrete unit inherited from one parent, dominant and recessive forms
genotype
paired allels
phenotype
physical expression of genotype
hetrozygous genotype
the allels are different
homozygous genotypes
the allels are the same
Thomas Hunt Morgan
1800s-1900s, replicated Mednel’s work with fruit flies, demonstrated that genes are transported on chromosomes
mutation
the source of variation
modern synthesis
combination of Darwinian natural selection with Mendelian inheritance.
population genetics
how genes vary and evolve in groups of living organisms
gene flow
the diffusion of genes between populations
genetic drift
random fluctuations in allele frequencoes across a population; stronger force in small populations
the four forces of evolution
natural selection, mutation, gene flow, genetic drift
James Watson and Francis Crick
discovered the double helix shape of DNA (stole work from Rosalind Franklin)
Niko Tinbergen’s four questions
development, mechanism, evolutionary history, function
gradualism
evolution takes milltions of years, its gradual
Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge
proposed punctuated equilibria, long periods of statis broken up by periods of rapid evolution
Macroevolution
evolution that can be noticed in the fossil record
inclusive fitness
organisms as carriers for genes
WD Hamiltion
1900s, named and mathematically formatlized inclusive fitness
V.V Wynne-Edwards
1900s, main proponent of group selection
group selection
groups of individuals who cooperate will outcompete those who do not
sociobiology
sought adaptive explanations for behavior, human and non-human
evolutionary psychology
assumes mismatch between modern behaviors and current environment
behavioral ecology
assumes high behavioral malleability, unlike evolutionary psychology
phenotypic gambit
concerned only with phenotypes, how they are inherited is not important
optimal foraging theory
assumed tight link between optimizing caloric intake and Darwinian fitness
cultural transmission theory
takes as a given that phenotypes can be transmitted through genes and culture, not adaptationist
epigenetics
heritable changes in gene expression
prokaryotes
organisms with cells that lack internal compartmentalization, all unicellular
eukaryotes
organisms with cells that contain internal compartments separated by membranes, unicellular or multicellular
viruses
no DNA or cell, requires a host cell to replicate, unable to grow or produce energy
chhromosomes
a threadlike structure of tightly pacled DNA
gene
each protein generating segment of DNA
genome
the complete set of genes in an individual
homoplasmic
identical in every cell in an organism’s body
heteroplasmic
differs across cells, even those that comprise the same tissue
DNA structure
right-twisted double-helix that resmbles a ladder
proteins
template for protein synthesis, comprised of amino acids
mitosis
entails the division and replication of diploid cells
law of segregation
only one allele from each gene is present in gametes
law of independend assortment
alleles from different genes are sorted into gametes independent of each other
meiosis
replaces cells
structural genes
responsible for generating all of the body’s tissues and structures
regulatory genes
control when structural genes are expressed
hox genes
control general body plan of most complex organisms
polymorphisms
when a gene varies across a population
microsatellites
highly individualistic segments of repeated DNA
epigenetics
modifications to the way that DNA is regulated and expressed, but the sequences themselves remain unchanged
deme
members of a species that can produce offspring
gene pool
all genetic material within a population
species
all members of all populations that can produce fertile offspring
mutation
copying errors, exceedingly rare events at the locus scale, only passed down during meiosis
synonymous point mutation
an altered nucleotide base triplet that contains the original amino acid
nonsynonymous point mutation
a new animo acid is produced
frameshift mutation
the insertion or deletion of a base
transposable elements
genes that copy themselves to other locations along a DNA sequence
spontaneous mutations
mutations with an unknown cause
induced mutations
caused by known environmental agents
directional selection
favors one form of a trait phenotype
stabilizing selection
favors the average trait phenotype
disruptive selection
favors multiple forms of a trait, with the exception of the average
melanic
gene is CC or Cc
nonmelanic
gene is only cc
genetic drift
random change in allele frequencies not subject to natural selection
endogamous
populations do not reproduce with other populations
exogamous
populations reproduce with members outside of their populations
founder effects
a specific type of genetic drift that occures during migration
gene flow
introduction of genetic material
geographic clines
some genes that spread due to logical environmental adaptations are easily phenotypically observable
the prenatal stage
begins at fertilization and ends at birth
zygote
fertilized egg cell
blastocyst
cells begin differentiating, forming an embryo and memranous layers around the embryo
postnatal stage
neonatal, infancy, childhood, juvenile period, puberty, adolescene
the adult stage
includes the reproductive and postreproductive periods
functional adaptations
biological adjustments that occur within an individual’s lifetime
indirect approaches
studying populations in their natural environments, participant observation
direct approaches
replication of environmental conditions, lab experiments
Bergman’s
optimal body size decreases with increasing temerature
allen’s rule
limbs become longer and thinner in warmer climates
Wolff’s Law
mass is produced where and when it is needed and removed where and when it is not needed
