˗ˏˋ exam one ´ˎ˗

Question 1

who is franz boas?

Answer 1

• german-american anthropologist
• four-field anthropology in the U.S.
  founded the american anthropological association (1902).
• skull dimensions depend on cultural and environmental factors.
• social learning influences human behaviors.

Question 2

what is a species?

Answer 2

a group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding.

Question 3

what is eugenics?

Answer 3

• idea that society should be improved by breeding better kinds of people.
• first appeared in american laws in 1896 in marriage laws.
• in 1903 the american breeder’s association was created to study eugenics.
• in 1924, no immigrants from “feeble minded stock”, jews and italians.
• in 1927, states could (and did) legally sterilize “feeble minded stock” involuntarily.

Question 4

who is gregor mendel?

Answer 4

• bred different generations of pea plants.
• discovered the concept of dominance and recessiveness of characteristics.
• no blending of inherited characteristics and that characteristics are inherited and expressed independently of each other.
• created mendelian genetics, a classification given to phenotypic traits that are controlled by a single gene.

Question 5

what is natural selection?

Answer 5

process by which the survival and reproductive success of individuals or groups within an interbreeding population that are best adjusted to their environment leads to the perpetuation of genetic qualities best suited to that particular environment at that point in time.

Question 6

what is an aneuploid?

Answer 6

• a cell with an unexpected amount of chromosomes.
• the loss or gain of chromosomes can occur during mitotic or meiotic division.

Question 7

what is sexual selection?

Answer 7

natural selection arising through preference by one sex for certain characteristics in individuals of the other sex.

Question 8

what are the four subfields of anthropology?

Answer 8

archaeology, cultural, biological/physical, and linguistic.

Question 9

who is lamarck?

Answer 9

• french naturalist.
• developed the idea that offspring inherit any traits their parents picked up during their lifetimes with the giraffes.
• though that traits like muscles could be passed on.

Question 10

what is a dominant trait?

Answer 10

an allele for which one copy is sufficient to be visible in the phenotype.

Question 11

what are clines?

Answer 11

a continuum of gradations (i.e., degrees or levels) of a specific trait.

Question 12

who is aleš hrdlička?

Answer 12

• czech anthropologist.
• wrote that physical anthropology was “the study of racial anatomy, physiology, and pathology.”
• founded the american journal of physical anthropology (1918).

Question 13

what is adaptation?

Answer 13

the ways in which human bodies, people, or cultures change, often in ways better suited to the environment or social context.

Question 14

what is a prokaryote?

Answer 14

a single-celled organism characterized by the lack of a nucleus and membrane-enclosed organelles.

Question 15

what is paleoanthropology?

Answer 15

the study of our human ancestors from distant past to learn how, why, and where they evolved.

Question 16

who is donald c. johanson?

Answer 16

most well know for discovering the remains of a 3.2-million-year-old fossilized skeleton of australopithecus afarensis (or lucy).

Question 17

what are non-concordant traits?

Answer 17

the fact of genes or traits not varying with one another and instead being inherited independently.

Question 18

what is a non-synonymous mutation?

Answer 18

a point mutation that causes a change in the resulting protein.

Question 19

what is a haploid?

Answer 19

cell or organism with one set of chromosomes (n = 23).

Question 20

what is a diploid?

Answer 20

an organism or cell with two sets of chromosomes.

Question 21

what is the sapir-whorf hypothesis?

Answer 21

• the principle that the language you speak allows you to think about some things and not other things.
• also known as the linguistic relativity hypothesis.

Question 22

what are the different biological subfields of biological anthropology?

Answer 22

primatology, paleoanthropology, molecular anthropology, bioarchaeology, forensic anthropology, and human biology.

Question 23

who is carl linnaeus?

Answer 23

• wrote systema naturae (1758).
• developed binomial nonenclature.
• first to group humans with apes and monkeys.

Question 24

what is human variation?

Answer 24

the range of forms of any human characteristic, such as body shape or skin color.

Question 25

what are populations?

Answer 25

• a group of humans living in a particular geographical area, with more local interbreeding within-group than interbreeding with other groups.
• a limited or restricted amount of gene flow between populations can occur due to geographical, cultural, linguistic, or environmental factors.

Question 26

what is macroevolution?

Answer 26

changes that result in the emergence of new species, how the similarities and differences between species, as well as the phylogenetic relationships with other taxa, lead to changes that result in the emergence of new species.

Question 27

what is adaptationism?

Answer 27

TBA.

Question 28

what is epigenetics?

Answer 28

• changes in gene expression that do not result in a change of the underlying DNA sequence.
• these changes typically involve DNA methylation and histone modifications.
• changes are reversible and can also be inherited by the next generation.

Question 29

what is sickle cell amenia?

Answer 29

• autosomal recessive genetic disorder that affects millions of people worldwide.
• most common in africa, countries around the mediterranean sea, and eastward as far as india.
• homozygotes for the recessive develop the disorder, which produce misshapen red blood cells that cause iron deficiency, painful episodes of oxygen-deprivation in localized tissues, and a host of other symptoms.
• sickle cell allele confers a greater resistance to malaria.

Question 30

what is monogenism?

Answer 30

pertaining to the idea that the origin of a species is situated in one geographic region or time (as opposed to polygenetic).

Question 31

what is polygenetic?

Answer 31

• having many different ancestries, as in older theories about human origins that involved multiple traditional groupings of humans evolving concurrently in different parts of the world before they merged into one species through interbreeding and/or intergroup warfare.
• these earlier suggestions have now been overwhelmed by insurmountable evidence for a single origin of the human species in africa (see the “out-of-africa model”).

Question 32

who is zhang qian?

Answer 32

• military officer in china.
• assigned by emperor wu of han.
• travelled china for 25 years.
• emperor used this information to establish connections.
• discovered many trade routes (e.g.: silk road)

Question 33

what are knowledge systems?

Answer 33

a unified way of knowing that is shared by a group of people and is used to explain and predict phenomena.

Question 34

what is blending inheritance?

Answer 34

gregor mendel said that traits cannot be blended.

Question 35

who is rosalind franklin?

Answer 35

• in 1953 discovered the first DNA structure by using x-ray crystallography.
• found the unique, double-helix shape.
• credit given to watson, crick and wilkins and they
  received the nobel prize in 1962.

Question 36

what is a recessive trait?

Answer 36

an allele whose effect is not normally seen unless two copies are present in an individual’s genotype.

Question 37

what are the misconceptions of human evolution?

Answer 37

• humans did not evolve from chimpanzees.
• evolution is not gradual and progressive; nor is it intentional and directional; and that there is an end to it.
• also does not necessarily progress in the same direction over time.
• natural selection cannot create entirely new anatomical structures out of thin air in response to changes in environmental pressures.
• some species are not “more evolved” than others.
  natural selection can only act on characteristics that influence reproductive success.
• all humans are equally close to apes, despite the attempt of some people to question the essential humanity of certain populations by suggesting that some people are more apelike than others.
• evolution is more like a tree than like an escalator.

Question 38

what is DTC genetic testing?

Answer 38

• done without the guidance of medical professionals.
• should be used as a starting point for further testing of genetic diseases.
• 23andMe was the first to offer DTC health testing and
  currently offers “late-onset alzheimer’s disease” genetic risk reports.
• can be problematic because it offers no further help or information, it may be difficult to interpret by nonmedical professionals, and the “burden of knowing.”
• can offer benefits like it can be a starting point for genetic carriers and can help guide lifestyle moving forward.

Question 39

what is microevolution?

Answer 39

changes in allele frequencies within breeding populations—that is, within a single species.

Question 40

what is the modern synthesis?

Answer 40

the integration of darwin’s, mendel’s, and subsequent research into a unified theory of evolution.