Unit 1: Introduction to Anthropology

Question 1

Describe the concept of biocultural evolution

Answer 1

• it essentially means that biology and culture both effect the way evolutionary change happens

Question 2

Explain the logic of the scientific method as it is applied in anthropological research

Answer 2

• the central rule is that a scientific idea must ne empirically testable
• you start with a hypothesis and the process of reasoning which is called induction
• then there is a process called deduction, which is where you test the scientific hypothesis

Question 3

Define Basic anthropological concepts and outline their relationship to the goals of anthropological research

Answer 3

• Their basic concept is to understand the anatomy and psychology of a human and how they are linked to people in different societies, and they usually provide an expansive and inclusive overview of human experience
• Their main goal while doing research is to take a holistic approach to prevent their own cultural values and ideas from shaping their research

Question 4

What are the four different subfields of anthropology and what do each of them research ?

Answer 4

1. Sociocultural Anthropology
   - Focuses on ability to create ideas , behaviours and technologies that we share with one another - that is our culture
2. Linguistic Anthropology
   - It studies the human language
3. Physical Anthropology
   - Focuses on humans as biological organisms and studies such topics as human genetics , human evolution , the biogeochemistry of ancient human remains and the biology of living primates
4. Archaeology
   - Archaeologists describe , reconstruct and interpret past human behaviour on the basis of the material remains left by those groups

Question 5

Explain and give examples of the relevance of anthropology to modern, everyday life

Answer 5

1. Medical Anthropologist bring together sociocultural anthropology and biology/medicine to study health and disease. This is very helpful to modern life as a lot of new diseases are variations of the old disease
   2.Applied Archaeologists , they study material objects in contemporary settings and help us understand garbage dumps and what happens to them in the landfills which is helpful in the modern day.
   3.Forensic Anthropologists , and they are helpful in modern day to locate and identify human remains for legal purposes..

Question 6

What is Globalization ?

Answer 6

• Worldwide Interconnectedness