Human Prehistory exam 1 Flashcards
What is anthropology?
Anthropology is the study of people, focusing on the biological and cultural aspects of humans
4 fields of anthropology, and what they study
- Cultural: The study of modern societies
- Linguistics: The study of languages, both written and spoken, and gestures.
- Archaeology: The study of past societies
- Biological: The study of the evolution of humans
Topics covered in Biological Anthropology
Pathology, Primatology, Primate Paleontology, and Human Paleontology
What is science?
Systematic observations of the measurable world that can be repeatably tested
Hypothesis
A testable explanation that can be falsified
How does science differ from other ways of knowing our world, such as tradition?
Science takes a lot of time and knowledge to understand even a small bit of it. Tradition is a man made concept that forms from culture.
Miasma Theory
Bad air (or weird looking fog in the woods) can make you sick.
Been proven false
Germ Theory
The existence of micro-bacteria that can affect your body both positively and negatively.
Robert Hooke
Discovered that fossil wood was once alive
Georges Cuvier
Discovered that organisms can go extinct and discovered that different fossils could be found in different layers of rock (Geological Strata).
James Hutton
A geologist that came up with the concept of Uniformitarianism and reinforced the idea of Geological Strata
Uniformitarianism
The theory that changes in the earth’s crust during geological history have resulted from the action of continuous and uniform processes.
(Basically, everything is connected to give the Earth that we know today)
Charles Lyell
Formed the concept of Deep Time (Earth being very old)
Carlous Linnaeus
Came up with the naming system for all living organisms that we still use today
Thomas Malthus
A demographer that figured out that population growth is limited by the amount of food a population has. Thus, promoting competition among populations.