Exam 2: Week 6 Flashcards
how does Locke think ideas are furnished?
experience since the mind is a white void without ideas
Tabula rasa (Blank slate); nurture or nature?
individuals are born without pre-programming and are instead shaped by learning and experience
- Nurture instead of nature
who as Alfred Kroeber
an anthropologist (super organic) who argued we have biology from the neck down but culture inhabits our heads
- Inuit have cultural adaptations for dealing with the same environment
Superorganic
there is organic evolution in our bodies but above that in our brain we have a cultural adaptation to the world
- evolutionary interaction over time between technology and the genes in our bodies
what is the exception to the superorganic?
instinctoid reaction of infants to sudden withdrawals of support, to sudden loud noises, the human being is entirely instinctless otherwise
- Man is man (humanity) because he has no instincts, because everything he is and has become he has learned, acquired, form his culture, from the man made part of the environment, from other beings (Ashley Montagu 1937: Man and Aggression)
why did some of the early anthropologists have a blank slate ideology?
Their world was concerned with WW1 and WW2 and the Cold war
in what other ways does society directly penetrate an organism? (2) Why?
sexuality and nutrition; both sexuality and nutrition are grounded in biological drives, biological constitution does not tell someone where to seek sexual release and what to eat (Berger, Luckmann)
what did Gasset believe? What did he engage in?
man has no nature, what he has is history
- political efforts to reshape humanity such as in the soviet union and china ⇒ human nature is so flexible that we can shape it how we wish (no inherent nature)
- If we want to create a better society we can create a new humanity via education
- Many political projects taken throughout the 20th century-now
how do we know social learning matters? (Anatomical)
humans have large brains (3x expected)⇒ areas that are especially big in humans are the ones good at learning (cerebral cortex)
- Much of what we know we learn from others
- humans have very large forebrains compared to other animals
how many languages are there today?
3,000-6,000 languages spoken today
- Any child can learn any language
what aspects of language are invented and not biologically determined?
writing systems
- other ways of communicating are with hand and face gestures like ASL
what are other common human specifics that are variable across societies and within societies but always present? (2)
food preferences and beauty standards
what things generalize in human societies? (3)
- language
- food preferences
- standards of beauty
T/F no other species have languages universally?
True
what are universal food preferences?
Protein (umami), fat, salty, sweet
what traits are related to beauty standards? (4)
- youth
- nubility
- fertility
- good health
T/F compared to other primates, humans live in a limited range of societies?
True, diversity of cultures is what stands out
- In no human society to people regularly live like ape relatives
what kinds of societies do orangutans have? Gibbons? Gorillas? Chimps?
solitary individuals; isolated couples; isolated harems with 1 male and multiple females; isolated promiscuous communities
who started the idea of how humans compare with other species?
Darwin after he came up with natural selection
- Whole new theoretical perspective explaining human nature as a product of natural selection
- Comparison with other species could provide insights
Ethology
the study of behavior ⇒ logy means study of and ethos means behavior
- Effort to study an animal behavior in a scientific way and relate it to evolution
- Idea that animals (including humans) have adaptations
who influenced the understanding of animal learning?
Konrad Lorenz
Fixed action patterns
something an animal performs as a behavior that is fixed so it is seen again and again
- Ex: dogs spin in circles before lying down
imprinting (Konrad Lorenz)
when a young organism is born it has to learn what species it is by observing who takes care of it
Dance communication of bees (Karl von Frisch)
dance in a way that communicates to their tribe the distance and direction to a certain resource
Niko Tinbergen 4 questions?
- Proximate or mechanism
- Ultimate or function
- Ontogeny
- Phylogeny/evolutionary history
Proximate or mechanism
the underlying biological/physiological process for how something works
- Ex: how birds fly? Their feathers and wings provide aerodynamic lift
Ultimate or function
why it functions a certain way ⇒ important for evolution
- Ex: why birds fly ⇒ to escape predators, to catch prey, to travel to find food/shelter, to migrate
what is a trivial answer to ultimate or function?
the answer is always fitness/reproductive success
Ontogeny
how it develops in the individual
- Ex: how do birds develop flying?
Phylogeny/evolutionary history
what its evolutionary history is
- Ex: how did flight evolve in birds? Their ancestors evolved this at some point
what of Tinbergen’s 4 questions is especially important for nurture?
Ontogeny because development includes learning
- Culture can be seen as a mechanism that underlies an individual’s traits
ethogram
each species when focusing on a particular set of behaviors displayed
- behaviors were seen as the product of natural selection
- each species had its own nature shaped by natural selection
what did Donal brown come up with?
30 universal human traits
- All societies have language, but many different languages are spoken
- Some form of marriage appears worldwide, but not every person marries
universals
Those features of culture, society, language, behavior, and mind that are found among all peoples known to ethnography and history
T/F a feature may be found among a people without being present in every person?
True
what is special about the Mosuo ethnic minority in china?
Partners do not live together ⇒ i.e same house
- Children raised by mother
- Male partner visits female partner at night
- They usually only have one partner at a time based on mutual affection
- Most partnerships are long term and may even last a lifetime
- Fathers of children are commonly known
what is the root of the Mosou marriage tradition?
relic of feudal past, where patriarchal, patrilineal upper class sought to weaken male inheritance among peasants ⇒ required to practice by overlords
what are the mechanisms of universals? (3)
- diffusion of ancient, generally very useful cultural traits
- Cultural reflection of physical facts
- operation, structure, and evolution of the human mind ⇒ biases our behavior in certain ways
Note: comes from studies of the visual system ⇒ a lot of how we see/perceive the world from light is determined by adaptations in the brain and liver/kidneys are also not blank slates
if we are blank slates, who writes them?
In standard social science model, our ideas, scripts, and behavioral tendencies come from society
why would we do what societies want based on gene perspectives?
- Society might not have our own best interest at heart ⇒ propaganda made up of other people
- People are competitors ⇒ reproductive success (certain people vs. everyone)
what do people who promote blank slate ideology concern themselves with?
group level benefits ⇒ genes eye view promoted skepticism that it would adapt whatever is written on it
society
collection of competing individuals who each have their own interests
what did Vero Copner Edwards argue?
- Argued that much of animal social behavior evolved for the good of the group
- Inspired critiques leading to genes eye point of view
Note: the idea that nature promotes the good of the group in some way
Functional anthropology
cultural practices in terms of group benefits ⇒ popular in 20th century
- Each society did things for the good fo the group as individuals have a blank slate
- We learn how to behave in many ways
- we were taught to be mindful of others and the good of the group instead of selfishness
sociobiology
the new synthesis
- focuses on the gene as the unit of selection
- Much altruistic behavior is done for the benefit of kin and thus genetically self interested
- Individuals are more inclined to help close kin than strangers
- Social behavior involves conflicts of interest between organisms with different levels of relatedness
who popularized sociobiology?
Dawkins and E. O. Wilson
- developed by W.D Hamilton, G C. Williams, John Maynard Smith, Bob Trivers and others
game theory
mathematical tool for evolution strategies and which succeed
Evolutionarily stable strategies (ESS)
a strategy that cannot be invaded by another strategy
T/F group selection strategies are invaded by individualistic strategies
True
why might we want to be against sociobiology?
- gives room for deterministic theories for privileges of certain groups
- enactment of sterilization laws and restrictive immigration laws/eugenics
why do people favoring nurture claim a moral high ground?
If differences among people depend on nurture rather than nature, there is no natural basis for discrimination based on membership in groups such as class, race and sex ⇒ concern about biological determinism as a concern for fighting discrimination
what are the downsides of nurture arguments?
Many atrocities have been committed in the name of nurture
- Millions suffered and died in totalitarian regimes devoted to reshaping human nature ⇒ Stalin’s USSR, Mao’s China, Pol Pot’s Cambodia
- Eliminating private property, eliminating inequality, building a perfect society
Behavioral ecology
understanding animal behavior as adaptive strategies in response to ecological pressures
- Emerged from ethology and Tinbergen’s four questions
- Recognizes that organisms adjust their response according to their environment
T/F most people are interactionists between both nature and nurture
True
what disciplines are subsets of evolutionary anthropology? (6)
- Paleoanthropology ⇒ human ancestors
- Human behavioral ecology ⇒ people living today in response to the environmental conditions
- Life history theory ⇒ how individuals grow and develop, how life history stages evolve
- Human biology ⇒ mechanism of how our bodies work and evolutionary function
- Genetics
- Primatology ⇒ the study of apes
evolutionary psychology
the brain contains cognitive mechanisms (modules –discrete or networks) that can be shaped by natural selection just like any other organ
- Through reward and punishments we act in ways that shape our behaviors ⇒ nature perspective
- Jerome Karkow, Leda Cosmides and John Tooby
Environment of evolutionary adaptedness
the environment to which a particular evolved mechanism is adapted ⇒ happened at some point in evolutionary history to shape a particular trait
- specific to traits in question
when did the genus homo originate? Modern homosapiens? Agriculture?
about 2.5 MYA; 300,000 YA, 10,000 YA
- For 95% of the existence of modern homo sapiens, everyone was a hunter gatherer
where did the first states emerge?
near complex farming societies
- Agriculture people expanded at the expense of their neighbors
when did modern humans disperse from Africa?
50,000-100,000 years ago
They settled throughout the world
- Everyone lived as hunter gatherers until food plants were domesticated 10,000 years ago
- Hunter gatherers lived in a wide range of climates, habitats, and societies
when did people disperse to the Americas? Australia? Arctic?
reached americas about 20,000 years ago; australia 60,000 years ago; Inuit expanded from Alaska east to Greenland around 1200-1300 AD replacing older Doreset culture
what is required to live in the arctic?
sophisticated technology
- Warm, waterproof clothing
- Toggle harpoons for hunting whales, seals
- Seaworthy boats ⇒ kayaks, umiaks
- Dogsleds
- Warm shelters in treeless land (igloos)
what did northwest coast of N America heavily rely on?
salmon aș a source of food
- had technology to store food on a large scale
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