Lecture 2 Flashcards

1
Q

For most of human prehistory, we have contemplated our biological origins in terms of…

A

For most of human prehistory, we have contemplated our biological origins in terms of our respective religions and cosmologies

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2
Q

Prior to the 17th century, Western consideration of our origins was based primarily on _______

A

Prior to the 17th century, Western consideration of our origins was based primarily on the Old Testament

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3
Q

In the West, 2 ket assumptions underpinned all inquires into the natural world what were they

A

Humanity is unique amongst living things and has dominion over all “lower” forms of life, just as god had dominion over humanity
humanity in its current form is as it always has been, and is physically unalterable

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4
Q

who was Archbishop James Usher (1581-1656)

A

an Irish anglican bishop, he was one of many who developed a biblical chronology

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5
Q

when did Archbishop James Usher say the world was created

A

god created the earth on October 23, 4004 BC… at 9am
he gets this time from counting the decedents of all characters in the bible (Noah, etc)
this was 6000 years only

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6
Q

why was Archbishop James Usher’s beliefs a problem

A

this statement constrained the time that evolution could occur

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7
Q

what is the Young Earth Hypothesis

A

humans were considered separate from the natural world
this c. 6 000 year chronology left no time for slow processes like evolution to occur, and implies that there should be no extinct ancestral species

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8
Q

In the 16th century, advances in astronomy and human anatomy were establishing what

A
  1. conventional wisdom can be challenged

2. empirical investigation is necessary to know the truth

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9
Q

around the 16th century, what paradigm shift was happening

A

around this time was the shift from a geocentric model to a heliocentric model— this was a paradigm shift

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10
Q

what was the enlightenment of the 18th century—

A

a gradual movement away from churches and monarchies towards emporium and scientific endeavours

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11
Q

what was the enlightenment a time for

A

progressivism

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12
Q

what is progressivism

A

is the idea that foreword movement and betterment of societies is possible through the advancement of knowledge and industrial capacity

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13
Q

what does progressivism imply

A

it implies prehistoric and historical social development is both linear and progressive

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14
Q

Adherents of progressivism believed what

A

Adherents believed that improvement of the human condition has a universal solution— knowledge and innovation— and that a culture could move from “savagery” or “barbarism” to a civilized state

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15
Q

what is the problem with the progressivism mindset

A

these thinkers would subscribe to the thought that other countries were less developed and that they were behind

this idea assumes the existence of a cultural hierarchy
so this was both a good and bad mindset because that assumed some civilizations were better than others

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16
Q

what was the order of the Ladder of Being

A
the great chain of being
god
angels
heaven
humans
beasts
plants
flame
rocks

Scala Naturae: Racist and Eurocentric

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17
Q

why is The march of progress; Early Man (1965) a misleading image

A

misleading image: unilinear evolution
the idea that things can only move and progress in one upper direction… the humans are the result of perfection and have had one straight line of evolution

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18
Q

who came up with the The march of progress

A

Anthropologist f. Clark Howell

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19
Q

what did many naturalists attempted to do

A

reconcile their scientific observations with a universe created by God

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20
Q

deists believed what

A

that there was a supreme being ordering the workings of the universe, but doubted divine revelation and rejected organized religion defined by it
believed that through science we can better understand what the bible tells us

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21
Q

many deists adhered to the loose concept of what kind of philosophy

A

mechanical philosophy

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22
Q

what is mechanical philosophy

A

which imagines the universe as a complex machine— like a clock— designed by god, but with each component moving in response to another force not necessarily compelled by god

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23
Q

who was John Ray (1627-1705)

A

an english clergyman and amateur naturalist, he conducted extensive comparative research on plants

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24
Q

what did John Ray do for anthropology

A

he was the first to develop the categories of “species” and “genus”

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25
Q

what did Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) want to do

A

he wanted to observe and classify the world around him, his goal was not to disprove the bible

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26
Q

who was the “father of modern taxonomy”

A

Carl Linnaeus

27
Q

what did Carl Linnaeus do

A

a Swedish botanist and zoologist, he standardized Ray’s binomial classification system, adding “class” and “order”

binomial nomenclature

28
Q

what was Carl Linnaeus the first to do

A

he was the first to place humans in a classification scheme:

order: primates
genus: homo
species: sapiens

29
Q

4-level system became the basis for what

A

taxonomy

30
Q

did Carl Linnaeus believe in evolution

A

believed that the species were immutable (unchangeable)

31
Q

who was George Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788)

A

a french intellectual, one of the first to propose a non-biblical explanation for the creation and age of the earth

32
Q

what did George Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon say created the earth

A

said a comet collided with the sun and then creation started (not sure where he got this conclusion from)

33
Q

why is George Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon important

A

he was able to extend the time period of the Earth many more years

he argued for the spontaneous organization of matter into life

34
Q

he also believed migration to new environments could effect hereditary changed in animals– how did he explain this

A

idea that were an organism was on the planet, it gave forms to different forms of life (all elephants had a fixed internal mould, but where they were on the planet would result in what they looked like… the african, indian and mammoth were all elephants that just looked different but essentially had the same “mould”)

35
Q

who was Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829)

A

a french naturalist

36
Q

what did Jean-Baptiste Lamarck do

A

he developed a concept of evolutionary change over time that came to be known as “Lamarckism”

37
Q

what is Lamarckism

A

he argued that certain acquired characteristics could be passes on to succeeding generations

giraffe example…

38
Q

who was George Cuvier (1769-1832)

A

french naturalist and zoologist

39
Q

what did George Cuvier do

A

founded the field of vertebrate palaeontology

40
Q

what was George Cuvier a proponent of

A

catastrophism

41
Q

what is catastrophism

A

a theory that there have been multiple creations interspersed by great natural disasters

example of massive natural disasters would be the Great Flood with Noah’s Arch… god wiped away what he didn’t want anymore

42
Q

what George Cuvier an evolutionist

A

he was very non-evolutionist in his ideas

43
Q

who was James Hutton (1726-1797)

A

a Scottish geologist

44
Q

what did James Hutton do

A

he developed the theory of gradualism

he also argued the earth was incalculably old
couldn’t offer exact calculations, but said millions of years old

45
Q

what is gradualism

A

idea that what we see around us is not the result of a big change (like catastrophism), but slow and gradual change

46
Q

his idea were directly at odds with what

A

catastrophism

47
Q

who was Charles Lyell (1797-1875)

A

a Scottish geologist

48
Q

what did Charles Lyell ( do

A

further developed and popularized Hutton’s theory of gradualism into the concept of uniformitarianism

49
Q

what is uniformitarianism

A

idea that the same processes and natural laws that act on the earth in a natural sense (earthquakes, shifting of the earth and stuff that contributed the form of the earth) is STILL happening… that gradualism isn’t something just of the past but it is still happening

50
Q

who wrote “principles of geology” that actually influenced darwin

A

Charles Lyell

51
Q

who was Thomas Malthus

A

an english economist and demographer

52
Q

what did argue for

A

argued that a society’s capacity to reproduce will always exceed the environment’s capacity to support such growth
basically organisms, including humans, over produce and the environment cannot keep up (too many humans for the amount of food available)

53
Q

what did 19th century archaeology bring rise to

A

three-age system

54
Q

what did C. J. Thomsen (1788-1865) do

A

system of relative chronology with the three-age system

55
Q

what is the three-age system

A

the Stone Age
the Bronze Age
the Iron Age

56
Q

why is the 3 age system important

A

applied this taxonomy system to material culture (tools/tool productions)
this showed that taxonomy and that classification was not just to be applied to living organisms

57
Q

what is important about Boucher de Perthes (1788-1868)

A

records archaeological evidence of the existence of prehistoric Europeans (stone tools from deep down in the Somme Ricer gravel deposits)

58
Q

when and where was Neanderthal discovered

A

1854 by quarry workers (Neander Vally, Germany)

59
Q

in one word, explain what Linneaus did

A

taxonomy

60
Q

in one word, explain what Lamarck did

A

—evolution

61
Q

in one word, explain what Curvier did

A

— palaeontology

62
Q

in one word, explain what Hutton did

A

— gradulaism

63
Q

in one word, explain what Lyell did

A

— uniformitarianism