Midterm Flashcards
The lower _____ has evidence of both gradualism and adaptive radiation in human evolution, leading to many species of hominins
palaeolithic
The human capacity for culture relies on many things, but the key piece that allow culture to change are selection and ______
innovation
______ may be positive, negative, or neutral
mutations
Platyrrhini have ______ fingers, toes, and tails
prehensile
A trait that occurs because of common ancestry is referred to as a ______
homology
This suborder of primates includes lemurs, but not tarsiers
strepsirhini
Cultural ______ is a debunked hypothesis that suggested that humans are forced to behave in a particular way because of our culture
determinism
Reduced ______ is a primate evolutionary trend that continues throughout human evolution, leading up to our species
prognathism
_______ is the study of processes that affect bones, for example weathering, scavenging, and fossilization
taphonomy
This characteristic of the anthropological lens would suggest that we need to understand humans both in terms of culture and biology, for example
Holism
Ethnography
- one culture in detail
Ethnology
- compares across cultures
Evolution
- change over time
Culture
- learned behaviours and ideas
Subfields of anthropology (4, kinda 5)
- biological
- cultural
- linguistic
- archaeology
(- applied)
Typology
- study of classes with common characteristics
Emic
- cultural insiders view
Etic
- outside observer’s view
Cultural relativism
- all cultures equally valid
- understanding the whole
Enculturation
- process of a child learning their culture
4 aspects of culture
- learned
- symbolic
- shared
- holistic
ethnocentrism
- others are wrong or abnormal for being different than us
- our way of life is correct
How many species of primates?
- around 500
common primate characteristics
- prehensibility
- large brains
- diverse diets
- forward facing eyes
adaptive radiation
- animals evolve to fill ecological niche
- ex. dinos go extinct
primate phrenology (4 terms to remember)
- strepsirhini
- haplorhini:
- platyrrhini
- catarrhini
wet nose
- strepsirhini
dry nose
- haplorhini
folivery
- mainly eat leaves
kinds of strepsirhini
- lemur
- loris
kinds of haplorhini
- tarsiers
- monkeys
- apes
- humans
platyrrhini characteristics
- flat nose
- nostrils point out
- prehensile tail
catarrhini characteristics
- no prehensile tail
- nostrils point down
- sexual dimorphism
hypothesis
- must be testable
- can collect and analyze data
- support/reject
theory
- multiple well-supported hypotheses
gene flow
- genes move between populations
- members of the same species but don’t normally mate
genetic drift
- random factor in evolution
- small group leaves, parent population begins new population
gradualism
- speed of evolution
- slow and steady
punctuated equillibrium
- speed of evolution
- slow and steady, interrupted by brief significant change
speciation
- new species emerge
genetics
- study of individual genes and role in inheritance
Linnaeus
- binomial system
- 2 names (homo sapien)
Lamarck
- organisms respond to their environment by changing
- changes are passed on
- made Darwin’s theories possible
Covier
- studied fossil records
Lyell
- world is product of gradual changes over time
- uniformitarianism: changes are ongoing
Darwin
- common origin
- natural selection
microevolution
- small changes
- single species
- few generations
macroevolution
- changes lead to new species
- diversification over millions of years
misconceptions about genetics
- single genes code for most traits
- mutations are always bad
- inbreeding leads to mutations
- DNA is fixed at birth
when was the earliest tool use?
- 3.3 mya
fossil
- any preserved early human remains
fossil record
- interpretation of human evolution
- the assembly of human remains collected
osteology
- study of the human skeleton
determining age of fossils (3 methods)
- potassium argon dating
- radiocarbon dating
- dating by association
defining characteristics between hominins and hominoids
- bipedalism
- teeth
- skulls
lower palaeolithic
- hominoid development
- about 4.4 mya - 500,000 ya
middle paleolithic
- neandertals and homo sapiens
- about 500 kya - 40 kya
upper palaeolithic
- homo sapiens
- about 40 kya - 12 kya
ape and hominin differences
- prognathism (we are flat faced)
- brow ridge
- sagittal crest
- cranial capacity
australopithecus
- 4.2 mya
- 1st clearly bipedal hominid
- everything other than skull looks human
homo habilis
- 1.5 mya
- may have evolved into erectus
- 1st of our genus
homo heidelbergensis
- transitional species between H. erectus and H. neanderthalensis/sapiens
