Final Exam Flashcards
Atapuerca
Spain, cave site “Pit of Bones”, around 33 individuals found that date to 350-600,000 years ago, hand axe found in the pit showed mortuary treatment/ ritual ceremonies (symbolic behavior with Heidelbergs)
Swanscombe
England, cranium found by A Marstin in the 1930’s, complete occipital bone and left parietal bone, 200-230,000 years old, mixture of traits!
Steinheim
Germany, cranium found in 1933 in a gravel pit, dates 200-400,000 years ago, post depressional deformation which makes the cranium look modernly human, double arch over eye orbits similar to neanderthals
Petralona
Greece, almost complete cranium except few teeth, Homo. heidelbergensis with a mosaic of erectine and Neanderthal traits, cc=1230
Kabwe
(Broken Hill) Zambia, “Rhodesian man”/ H. rhodesiensis, viewed as an African Neanderthal, cc=1325, sagital keeling present, no occipital bun, face has receeding zygomatics and nasal bones less prominent
Bodo
Ethiopia, cranium from the middle Awash, vrey robust, 600,000 years ago, cc=1250
Shanidar Cave
Iraq, evidence for burials, and neanderthals living longer than once said
Cro-Magnon
France, found in 1868, often used as model for modern humans in Europe, dates 30,000 years old fully modern
Qafzah
Isreal, found 1930, dates around 92,000 ya, 3 burials recovered
Liang Bua Cave
Indonesia, H. florensis
How has brain size and body mass changed over time?
Brain size= increased in cranial capacity
Body mass= increased
When did H. heidelbergensis live?
between 400,000-200,000 years ago
4 cranial homo erectus traits found in H. heidelbergensis/ archaic homo sapiens
1st hominids to display modern human brain size and cranial capacities
(nuchal torus, max breadth near cranial base, low cranial vault, receding forehead)
cranial capacity for H. hiedelbergensis/ archaic homo sapiens
1230, the 1st to exhibit modern human brainsize
Neanderthal 1
Found in 1856 in Neanderthal, Germany
Neanderthal 1: interpretation #1
Schoaffhausen and Huxley 1857, didn’t recognize it as a human ancestor, claimed that skeleton represented a barbarian race from before the Celts and Germanic tribes
Neanderthal 1: interpretation #2
Virchow(1872), antievolutionist, thought fossil was pathological member of the “civilized” race
Neanderthal 1: interpretation #3
W. King, Irish scientist thought that this fossil was a primitive relative to H. sapiens and named it H. neanderthalensis, subhuman mental capacity of modern apes
19th century Neanderthal interpretations
heavily influenced by: Colonialism, bring civilization to barbarians, racism, more ferocious and gorilla looking
20/21st century Neanderthal interpretations
influenced heavily by: equal rights for Af. Americans, women, changinf understanding of environment and genetics
Neanderthal cranial and facial morphologies
- low and long cranial vault/ thinner cranial bones
- massive facial skeleton
- prognathic face
- occipital bun
- gap behind the 3rd molar
- large frontal sinuses
- reduced chin
- mental foramen is more posterior
- shovel shaped incisors
Neanderthal Post Cranial morphology
- very robust
- wide thorax and hips
- larger joints
- shorter tibia/ forearms
- adapted to cold environments
What is violence? general definition
harmful interaction between people (interpersonal violence)
What is violence? human rights definition
behavior of people towards others that is likely to cause injury or personal damage
Key points for the BIOLOGICAL argument for the nature of violence…
Early anthropologist believed that humans had an intimate predisposition or genetically programmed to be violent, “Killer Ape Hyp” was disproven, but violence still argued to be genetic/ innate, competition for resources and mates, violence is primitive and arose before modern humans)
Key points for the CULTURAL argument for the nature of violence.
A composition of work conducted by ethnographers and cross cultural research since 1950’s, generically used for non centralized societies, violence is voluntary can be controlled, aggression can be present but does not have to become violent
other animals that practice COALITIONARY violence
chimps (infanticide, adult vs. adult, territory and boundary), wolves (territory and boundaries), spiders, ants, lions, hyenas, cheetahs and tasmania native hens
Human Origin Model: Recent African Origins (RAO)
Chris Stringer/ Peter Andrews (1988)
- modern human arose in Africa around 100,000ya.
- migrated out of Africa and replaced neanderthals and Heidelberg
- total replacement no gene flow
- supported mtDNA (mitochondrial eve)
Human Origin Model: African hybridization and replacement
- slight modification of RAO model
- allows for minor amounts of gene flow
- still emphasizes: African origins of modern humans and replacement of archaic humans by mod. humans
mtDNA Eve Study
(1987) Africa has the greatest amount of genetic diversity, using the molecular clock tracked mtDNA back to a common female ancestor living 200,000 years ago
mtDNA Eve Study: problems
- assume constant rate of mutation
- contradictory genetic studies
- samples were not equally distributed
- assumed no interbreeding between archaic and modern humans
How many individuals were sampled for the Neanderthal genome project?
5 living humans from different parts of the world, it was found that Europeans and Asians share 1-4% of nuclear DNA with Neanderthals
2 genetic similarities between Neanderthals and modern humans
- FOXP2 gene for language
- ABO blood type
- ability to taste bitter food
When did anatomically modern humans appear?
between 200,000-100,000 ya AMH evolved in Africa
Cranial characteristics that paleoanthropologists use to define modern humans… (5)
- short, high, round skull
- high frontal
- uniformly curved occipital
- supraorbital torus not continuous
- mental eminence present
Problems with defining the difference between modern humans and archaic humans…
- Some skulls with modern morphology fall outside the metric range defined for mod. humans
- suggests that human variation has decreased over time
- geographic origin/ ancestry in mod humans
archaic vs modern humans : femora
the linea aspera pilaster is unique to modern humans, aus and early homo have circular femora and modern humans have tear dropped shaped femora
range in cranial capacities for modern humans
- 1427 +/- 81.6 cm3 males
2. 1271 +/- 82.9 cm3 females
what continent do the first fossils of modern anatomical humans appear?
they 1st appeared in E. Africa around 35,000 years ago
Where was H. floresiensis discovered?
found in 2003 in Liang Bua Cave on the island of Flores, Indonesia
H. floresiensis/ LB1
dates approx 18,000 ya, skull, long bones and pelvis, adult 3ft, 50-80lbs, 417cc.
Hypotheses for the size of LB1
- Brown suggested that it was island dwarfism
- Martin suggested fossil represented abnormal microscopic humans
- others have suggested that LB1 is a descendent of Australopiths
Symbolic behavior examples
- language: written and oral
- rituals: weddings, funerals, graduation
- personal ornamentation: clothing choices, jewelery, makeup (social status)
- art and architecture
- everyday things: road signs, money
* symbols change over time
Neanderthal growth rate
the growth rate of neanderthals is still relatively faster than modern humans, this affects their capability for culture by not allowing them as much time to learn and pass on their culture unlike the grandmother effect in mod. humans( a long childhood and lifespan=multigenerational families and the ability to pass along what the elders have learned)
cranial (neanderthal) traits found in H. heidelbergensis/ archaic homo sapiens
occipital bun, flattening of vault at lambda, wider parietal breadth, long broad face, broad hard palate, browridge arches over each eye orbit, expanded maxillary sinuses
translate Neanderthal
neander= pen name for local composer thal= valley
Neanderthals mostly found in…
Europe and West Asia, 400,000-300,000 years ago associated with the Mousterian culture
Does violence make us human?
No other species show it
Why are bioarchaeologists and paleoanthropologists suited to study violence in the past?
they can analyze osteological and archaeological material to evaluate factors that contribute to violence: environment, social, economy, health…TRAUMA analysis
How do we see violence in the arch record?
TRAUMA= skeletal analysis to determine ho the injury happened and potentially what caused the injury
2 circumstances:
1.accidents( legs and appendages)
2. interpersonal violence (head)
…can distinguish between the two by location of trauma and type (BFT or SFT)
Trauma in fossils is due to what 4 circumstances?
- interpersonal
- carnivore activity
- cannibalism
- accidents
When did modern humans reach Europe?
about 35,000ya
When did modern humans reach the Middle East?
around 70,000 ya Skhul Cave(Isreal)= mosaic of traits, modern vault, prognathic face, retromolar space, chin present, no occipital bun Qafazeh 9= female double burial, modern vault but face shows neanderthal traits
bottleneck effect
=lack of genetic variety because something happened that caused a severe decline in population
what is the difference between mod humans and neanderthals vocal tracts?
length of pharynx, position of larynx and hyoid bone
kinship/ social structure (Sussman, Hrdy, Hawkes and Rosenburg)
help with children/birth, alloparenting, Grandmother affect,relationships
brain development ( Campbell, Seyfarth/Cheney)
- the lack of a fully developed “theory of mind” and motivation to share information with others
- selective pressures that led to larger brain centered on group interactions that continue throughout a lifespan
defining culture (Stiner/ Kuhn)
culture is about knowledge building, conservation, and transfer, it can be shared among individuals ad across generations independently of genetic inheritance.
genetic definition of humanity (Weiss and Pollard)
- its a platonic ideal, a DNA sequence assembled from perhaps, more than one person, that’s repeatedly updated and corrected
- humans are not especially fast evolving, instead it appears that a few key changes in the right DNA sequences had big effects, modifying traits such as bone morphology, dietary repertoire, and disease susceptability, all of which distinguish humans as a species
