Human Adaptation

Question 1

What is Diversity

Answer 1

Diversity can be defined as a concept which encompasses acceptance and respect by understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing the individual differences as well as appreciating interdependence of humanity, cultures, and the natural environment.

Question 2

Biocultural Evolution

Answer 2

Humans live in cultural environments
that are continually being modified by
human activity.
• Natural selection pressures operate
within specific environmental
settings.
• Wild animals and humans living in
nature without the luxuries of today’s
cultural context are still exposed to
pure natural selection that Darwin
had in mind.
• For most humans and even many of
our hominin ancestors this means an
environment dominated by culture.
• Culture is passed from one
generation to the next mainly
independent of biological factors.
• However, it is important to remember
that the ability to assimilate culture
and function within it is influenced by
biological factors.
6
Biocultural evolution
• Culture and biology interact.
• Modern humans are the result
of a biocultural evolution.
• Biology makes culture
possible and developing
culture further influences the
direction of biological
evolution.

Question 3

Biological Interactions resulted in:

Answer 3

Anatomical

Biological(Physiological) and

Behavioral Changes

Question 4

Gene Pool

Answer 4

The genes already present in a population of sexually reproducing organisms create a gene pool.

Question 5

Synthetic Theory of Evolution

Answer 5

The Modern Synthetic theory of Evolution, describes the merging of the Darwinian evolution with the Mendelian genetics, resulting into a unified theory of the evolution.

This theory is also referred to as the Neo-Darwinian theory.

The modern synthetic theory includes the scientific evidence from the genetics.

The genes already present in a population of sexually reproducing organisms create a gene pool.

The random assortment and independent segregation during meiosis and the recombination during reproduction reshuffles the genes and provides the mechanism for variation in the gene pool.

The only source of completely new variations is mutation.

Evolution (“adaption”) is a change in frequencies of alleles in the gene pool of a population.

Question 6

What is looked at for Sex Determination

Answer 6

Pelvis

Skull