Anthropology 101 Test 1

What is anthropology?

The study of humans throughout time

Why should you be careful of when studying another culture?

Judging another culture due to the values of your own culture can introduce bias into your data or written literature, that you analyze cultures through the lens of the people who participate in them.

What are the 4 sub-fields of anthropology?

1. biological

2. cultural

3. linguistic

4. archaeology

biological anthropology

The study of humans as biological organisms.

• formerly known as physical anthropology

• analyzes fossils and observes living primates to reconstruct human ancestry

cultural anthropology

The study of contemporary human cultures.

• focuses on human behavior, thoughts, and feelings

linguistical anthropology

The study of human languages in an attempt to answer how language influences or reflects culture.

• descriptive linguistics

• historical linguistics

• studies the social setting of words

archaeology

The study of human cultures through the recovery and analysis of material remains and environmental data.

• artifacts

• features (firehearths, rock cairns, house pits, etc.)

• associated flora and fauna

• excavation is controlled to preserve context

sub-disciplines of anthropology

Biological:

• paleoanthropology

• molecular anthropology

• human variation

• primatology

• osteology

• forensic anthropology

Cultural:

• biocultural anthropology

Linguistic:

• descriptive linguistics

• historical linguistics

Archaeology:

• bioarchaeology

What jobs would an anthropologist in each discipline hold?

Biological:

• forensics

Cultural:

• cultural research/education

Linguistics:

• cultural research/education

Archaeology:

• GIS

• cultural resource managment

What questions are anthropologists trying to answer?

• How have humans evolved over time?

• How has human culture changed over time?

• How has language shaped humanity, and what does human language say about the cultures it arises from?

• What can we learn about modern humans from studying the lives of our ancestors?

Evolution

The changes in a population of organism over time due to natural selection, genetic drift, and other factors.

Natural selection

The evolutionary process through which factors in the environment exert pressure, favoring some individuals over others to produce the next generation.

Genetic drift

The chance fluctuations of allele frequencies in the gene pool of a population

This person standardized scientific classification of life on Earth.

Linnaeus

The first classification system for life on Earth

taxonomy

Human Classification

Kingdom: Animalia (ingests food, moves)

Phylum: Chordata (chordates)

Class: Mammalia (breathe air, body hair, mammary glands on females, etc.)

Order: Primata (primates)

Super-Family: Hominoidea

Family: Hominidae

Tribe: Hominini

Genus: Homo

Species: Homo sapiens

Sub-Species: Homo Sapiens Sapiens

Mendel’s Laws:

Law of Segregation: When gametes (sex cells) are produced, allele pairs separate and retain their separate identities through the generations.

Law of Independent Assortment: The principle that genes controlling different traits are inherited independently of one another.

Modes of Inheritance

• Autosomal recessive: trait appears only when a person has two recessive genes
  
  Autosomal dominance: trait appears when one dominant gene is present

• X-linked traits

• Polygenetic inheritance: when two or more genes contribute to the same phenotype.

ABO Blood Type System:

A and B are co-dominant, O is recessive

Genotype: ABO Blood Group (Phenotype):

AA, AO Type A blood

BB, BO Type B blood

AB Type AB blood

OO Type O blood

Characteristics of Order Primata

• Grasping hands and feet

• Reduced sense of smell

• Acute vision

• Flexible shoulder girdle