Mid-Term Exam Flashcards
What are the 4 basic principles of Natural Selection?
1) Variation exists within populations
2) Variation can be inherited
3) Populations can have way more offspring than environment can handle
4) Competition for resources + heritable traits that affect individuals’ fitness variations in survival and reproductive rates
Subset of Physical Anthropology
The study of nonhuman primates, the closest living relatives of modern humans
Primatology
What are the characteristics of primates?
Opposable thumb Large brain Good stereoscopic vision (i.e. both eyes point in the same direction making 3D vision possible)Ability to brachiate (i.e. the ability to move arm over arm on a limb) Flexible elbows for hand rotation Grasping feet
What are the characteristics of apes?
Social mammals
Grasping hands
Bony, enclosed eye sockets
Relatively large brains OR intelligence
Manual dexterity OR skilled with hands OR opposable thumbs
Visual acuity OR excellent vision OR stereoscopic vision (3-dimensional vision)
Generalists – live in wide variety of environments
Locomotive flexibility OR collarbones at shoulders
Longer gestation (pregnancy) OR longer childhood
Study of the human past through material remains of human and hominin activity
Anthropology
A tested and repeatedly supported hypothesis
Scientific Theory
An object that has been manufactured or intentionally modified by a human or hominin
Artifact
Evidence of human activity that is non-portable (cannot be excavated and taken to a lab)
Feature
These make it clear that we share common ancestors
Homologous structures
How much of our DNA to we share with chimps?
98%
how well a species is able to reproduce in its environment
fitness
What are the Primate group types?
- multi-male
- single male
- Variable group formation w/habitat
What are the characteristics of a multi-male group?
Open, dangerous habitat
Several males needed to protect females
Competition between males, but cannot be too destructive
What are the characteristics of a single male group?
Resource poor habitat, but safer
Smaller groups of females
Males compete only for access to a female group
Males not in direct, daily competition
What are the characteristics of a variable group formation?
Move between habitats
Group structure changes with habitat
Difference between the average size of males and females
Sexual Size Dimorphism (SSD)
Artifacts that are found together and that presumably were used at the same time or for similar or related tasks
Assemblage
What do assemblages help to do?
help archaeologists make hypotheses about human behavior in a site or how artifacts were used
is the scientific and systematic study of human material remains
Archaeology
What are the four phases of archaeological research?
- Survey
- Excavation
- Laboratory Analysis
- Writing
What is the survey phase?
The physical examination of a space in which promising archaeological sites will most likely be found
What are the aspects involved in the survey phase?
GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar)
Magnetometry
Areal Photography
Lidar (Light raDAR) (by plane)
What is the excavation phase?
The systematic uncovering of cultural material
What are the aspects of the laboratory analysis phase?
Stratigraphy
Dendrochronology
Radio-carbon dating
Archaeologists using strata to determine what archaeological period an artifact is from
Stratigraphy
Radar pulses can detect and map subsurface archaeological artifacts and features
GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar)
Technique to measure and map patterns of magnetism in the soil
Magnetometry
Allows archaeologists to see the outlines of former buildings and features that may not be visible on the ground
Areal Photography
Pulses of light (i.e. from a laser) can measure minute differences in elevation
Lidar (Light raDAR) (by plane)
software to input Geophys data and make maps that help them to make educated guesses about where to put test pits or larger excavation pits
GIS (Geographic Information Systems)
When archaeologists test hypotheses by replicating or approximating ancient tasks or activities
ethnoarcheology
The technique of dating sites or artifacts using the characteristic patterns of annual growth rings in tree trunks
Dendrochronology
or tree ring dating
A method of determining the age of an object containing organic material (e.g. cannot be used on rocks) by using the properties of radiocarbon
Radio-carbon dating
What are the aspects of the writing phase?
Field reports
Scholarly Articles
something that is meant to represent something else
symbol
ability to learn and communicate a shared set of ideas, meanings, or beliefs
symbolic culture
What tools and what species were associated with the Acheulean tradition?
hand axes, flakes
lilmya/homo erectus
What tools and what species were associated with the Mousterian tradition?
smaller more sophisticated hand axes, flake tools, toothed instruments, wooden spears (Neanderthals)
What is cultural material?
physical evidence of culture (objects, architecture, and features humans make/have made
Define hominid
Great apes and their extinct relatives
Define hominin
Humans and their immediate (extinct) relatives
-defined by habitual bipedality
What are the two hypotheses to explain the evolution of habitual bipedality?
1) Climate Change:
- see predators
- carry infants, food, and tools
- reduce skin exposure
- energy efficiency
2) Bipedalism evolved in trees
- increased maneuverability
- use of hands at all times
- balance
- pre-adaptation