Midterm Study Deck Flashcards
Anthropology
The study of humanity, present and past
Anthropological Perspective
Evolutionary, holistic, and comparative methods applied to the study of humans.
Branches of Anthropology
Biological
Cultural
Linguistic
Archaeology
(Applied anthropology)
Biological Anthropology
Looking at humans as biological organisms, including evolution and contemporary variation.
Includes human biology, Primatology, Palaeoanthropology, and forensic anthropology.
Examples of applied biological anthropology: DNA analyst, epidemiologist, ergonomics (product developer)
Cultural Anthropology
The study of living people and their cultures, including variation and change.
Examples of applied cultural anthropology: business (market research), poverty reduction, community development, disaster planning/management.
Typology
The study of how we classify things.
Lumping vs splitting
Archaeology
The study of past human cultures through their material remains.
Examples of applied archaeology: cultural resource management, museums, historical sites, and historic preservation.
Linguistic Anthropology
Study of communication, mainly among humans, including origins and contemporary variations
Examples of applied linguistic anthropology: Supporting Indigenous language efforts, forensics linguistics
Archaeological Typologies
Can help date artifacts
Can be associated with chronology, morphology (shape), function, style, etc.
Cultural Typology
Used to study patterns in human behaviour
Linguistic Typologies
Help identify relationships between language families.
Cultural Relativism (Boas)
All cultures are equally valid and each can be understood only in its own context.
Ethnocentrism
Evaluating other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one’s own culture (European).
Ethnography/Ethnology
Physical description of a culture
Process of studying a culture.
Lens of Anthropology
- Holistic
- Evolutionary
- Comparitive
- Qualitative
- Focused on linkages
- Focused on change
- Done through fieldwork
Unilinear Theory (Morgan)
19th century
The notion is that culture develops in a uniform and progressive manner.
Participant Observation
Method of an ethnographer: participating and observing a culture.
Salvage Ethnography
19th century
Study of cultures that are under threat of colonization.
Historical Particularism (Boas)
Every culture is a product of its own unique history.
Holism
All aspects of human biology and culture as interconnected.
Culture
The learned and shared things that people think, do, and have as members of a society.
Race
A term used to describe varieties or subspecies of a species; inaccurately used to refer to human differences
Enculturation
The process by which child learns his or her culture
Adaptive Cultural Practices
Ways that humans use cultural knowledge to adapt to their environments.
Maladaptive Cultural Practices
Cultural practices that are harmful/not productive for a culture’s survival in the long run.
I.e. Female Genital Mutation
Ethical Field Study
Follow a code of ethics - AAA
Weigh the possible impacts of work and strive to do no harm
Attributes of Culture
Learned
Shared
Symbolic
Holistic
Emic
Insider’s view
Etic
Outsider’s view
Entomophagy
Insect eating
3 Parts of Culture
Cognition: What we think
Behaviour: What we do
Artifacts: What we have
Ethnicity
Shared culture, language, and history.
Dependence Training
A pattern of enculturation in child rearing favours the family unit over the individual.
Independence Training
A pattern of enculturation in child rearing that favours individuality
Ideal Behaviour
What people say they do (think)
Real Behaviour
What people actually do
Informants/Associates/Interlocutors
Study subjects; the people in a community
Random Sample
Selecting informants randomly
Equal chance to be interviewed, searching for an average, works for smaller homogenous communities.
Judgement Sample
Selecting informants based on skill/knowledge/insight/sensitivity
Snowball Sample
One informant suggests/refers to another informant.
Key Informant/Key Associate
Main informants that are chosen for special insight that the ethnographer spends a lot of time with - likely to become close friends
6 Methods of Participant Observation
- Formal Interviews - same set to each
- Informal Interviews - The fieldworker siezes an opportunity to ask questions
- life histories + oral histories
- Case Studies - particular event is examined from multiple perspectives
- Kinship data: family tree/genealogy
- Photography
3 Ways of Relating to a Culture
Confront
Complain
Conform
Cultural Determinism
The belief that we are programmed by our cultures and have little agency.
Agency
The control of our own life.
Our capacity to think and make choices
Why is it important to study evolutionary theory?
Making sense of human biology requires an understanding of human evolution.
Ex. Lactose tolerance
Theory
A term used to describe multiple well-supported hypotheses and data in support of a fact.
Charles Darwin
Natural Selection
Natural Selection
- There is variation in a population
- Only a part reproduces (die young/no mate)
- Traits are inheritable
- Advantageous traits eventually become more frequent
Gregor Mendel
Monk who used peas to prove theories on inheritance, creating the foundation of genetics.
Key discoveries: genotype, phenotype, allele
Genotype
What the genes code for
Phenotype
The physical expression of the genes
Allele
An alternate form of a gene (units passed down by parent)
Mutation
Errors in DNA replication.
Mutation in reproductive cells that cause variability.
Random, can be natural or caused by radiation, chemical, and viruses.
Gene Flow
Genes moving between populations that don’t normally mate with each other.
Genetic Drift
Changes in allele frequency.
I.e. A small population leaves the parent population.
Adaptive Radiation
Species rapidly adapt to an ecological niche.
The quick expansion of a population that diversifies into multiple species.
Sexual Selection/Non-random Mating
Personal mate selection unrelated to the increased survival of the species occurs.
Speciation
The process in which new species emerge.
Ex. geographical isolation - the congo river splitting chimps and bonobos
Extinction Causes
Natural evolution into another species
Environmental Change
Outcompeted by a new species
Mass Extinction
When 1/2 the earth’s species go extinct
Genetics
The study of an individual gene and its inheritance.
Genome
Entire genetic make-up of an individual or species
Genomics
Epigenetics
The study of changes in phenotypes without a change in the genotypes and the associated patterns of inheritance.
Carolus Linnaeus (1707 - 1778)
Devised the Linnean taxonomy (1735) that is still used today.
Binomial system (2 names)
Jean Baptiste Lamarck (1744 - 1829)
Lamarckian Evolution/Inheritance of acquired traits
Inheritance of Acquired Traits
Organisms responded to their environment, and those changes could be passed down through generations.
Ex. Giraffes stretch their necks to be longer, and their children will have longer necks.
Georges Cuvier (1769- 1832)
Catastrophism
The lower the stratum, the more different its fossil animals were from the species living in the present.
Catastrophism
Natural disasters are responsible for the extinction/replacement of species.
Sir Charles Lyell (1797 - 1875)
Uniformitarian
Can examine geological remains for answers to the past
Uniformitarian
Gradual change over time is observable in geography.
Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882) and Alfred Russel Wallace (1823 - 1913)
Common Origin - massive changes occur ver a long period of time
Natural Selection
Microevolution
Small changes, single species, few generations
Genetic data (gene pool) is rearranged/altered.
i.e. resistance to a disease
Gradualism
small changes resulting in big changes over time
observed in the fossil record with similar but different species
Macroevolution
large changes, (resulting in) multiple species, millions of years
Result of a deletion/addition in the structure of the gene
i.e. Sifka lemurs + 9 species in the genus
Punctuated Equilibrium
Large amounts of no change followed by a sudden large change
Lacking transition species
Paleoanthropology
The study of early humans, using both archaeology and biological anthropology
Finding Paleoanthropological Sites
Looking in places where human remains have already been found (Great Rift Valley - East Africa)
Targeting sites where sediments from the time period of interest are exposed.
Fossil
Any preserved early human remains no matter the condition.
The Human Fossil Record
Interpretation of history based on data of collected remains
The assemblage of remains (very little in total)
Why do teeth preserve the best?
Contains dentin in the enamel.
Mandible preserves second best because it is thick.
Taphonomy
Study of what happens to organic remains after death.
Knowledge of natural/cultural causes that leave behind physical attributes to fossils.
Osteology
The study of the human skeleton
Dating Techniques
Potassium argon dating (K/Ar) - older than 200, 000 years
Radio Carbon Dating (C-14) - younger than 50, 000 years
Dating by Association
Potassium-Argon Dating (k/Ar)
Volcanic sediments contain potassium. The rate that potassium changes into argon is known and can be tested.
Best for determining sites over 200, 000 years old.
Radio Carbon Dating (C-14)
All living things contain carbon-14. The rate it decays starting at the instance of death is known.
Best for determining sites below 50, 000.
Dating by Association
When two things are found in the same stratigraphic layer, and only one of them can be dated - the other is assumed to be the same age.
Hominins
All members of Homo genus and taxa with evidence of habitual bipedalism that emerged since split of common ancestors with chimps/bonobos.
The Killer Ape Hypothesis
Aggression and violence are/were the driving forces of human evolution.
No evidence. Used to justify violence.
1970s Bipedalism Theory
Brain size, tool use, and bipedalism evolved together.
Disproved by Australopithecus
1970s-1980s Bipedalism Theory
Adaptation to savannah-grassland environment
Effective heat management/exposure to the sun
Explanations for Becoming Bipedal
Carrying model (food, children, rocks, sticks)
Effective heat management
Greater endurance (energy efficient)
Increasing height (for vision, more food, and display)
Walking in trees
Skeletal Changes Accommodating Bipedalism
Repositioning of foramen magnum
Curves in the spine
Changes to pelvis
Lengthening of femur
Modification to knee
Angling femur inward
Changes in the foot
Homo Habilis
Tool-makers (stone) and associated with meat-eating.
Homo Erectus
Body and brain size much larger
Cultural inventions like full-scale hunting, fire, and cooking
Homo Heidelbergensis
First early humans to live in colder climates
Neanderthals
Similar to homo sapiens
Trends In Human Biological Evolution
Becoming more efficient at bipedalism
Larger in body and brain
Larger/longer foreheads
Less prognathic faces
Smaller teeth
Ardipithecus
Bipedal with their toe sticking out
Australopithecus Afarensis
Dinkesh, Lucy - 40% complete fossil
Selam - 3 year old
Suggested adapted to climbing - chimp toe and cling to mother
Palaeolithic Timeline
Upper Palaeolithic: measured in tens of thousands of years - Homo Sapiens
Middle Palaeolithic: measured in hundreds of thousands of years - Neanderthals/Homo Sapiens
Lower Palaeolithic: measured in millions of years - hominid development
Analogous Traits
Similar in function but not due to common ancestry
Homologies
Similarities due to common ancestry
