ANTHRCUL 101 - Exam 2

hominini

the tribe to which humans and our direct ancestors belong, who are referred to as hominins 

• modern humans and now-extinct human species 

• from about 7 mya on 

• not the same as hominoid (apes and humans)

species of hominins

• sahelanthropus tchadensis

• ardipithecus ramidus

• australopithecus afarensis

• paranthropus boisei

• homo habilis

• homo erectus

• homo neanderthalensis

• homo sapiens

sahelanthropus tchadensis

• earliest

• 7-6mya 

• West/Central Africa 

• relatively small canine teeth

• small brain (slightly smaller than modern chimps)

• extremely limited evidence

ardipithecus ramidus

• opposable big toe

• 4.4mya 

• East Africa  

• a more bowl-shaped pelvis allows for some bipedal walking, but also had features of a climbing ape

• grasping, unarched foot more suitable for climbing

• brain the same size as a modern chimp

australopithecus afarensis

• 3.8-2.1mya

• East Africa

• thick chewing muscles 

  • large zygomatic arches

• growth cycle closer to modern chimps than modern humans 

  • short growth period 

  • less time for socialization

• smaller cranial capacity than genus homo

paranthropus boisei

• 2.3-1.3mya 

• East Africa

• megadontia: having large molar teeth relative to body size 

  • thickest tooth enamel among hominins 

• robust features - sagittal crest, massive zygomatic arches 

  • the bigger the cheekbones (zygomatic arches) are, the more surface area for large chewing muscles to attach 

  • the more muscle, the greater ability to chew tough/abrasive food like raw vegetation 

  • chewing muscles run under the zygomatic arch to connect to the lower jaw 

homo habilis

• 2.8-1.44mya 

• still only in Africa 

• looks a lot like Australopithecines 

• better at tree climbing than us 

• place in genus homo has been questioned bc of similarity to Australopithecines

• associated w/ Olduwan tools, but NOT the first confirmed toolmakers among hominins

homo erectus

• 1.9-0.5mya 

• 1st known migration of member of the genus homo outside of Africa and into Asia 

• longer legs, s-shaped spine, bipedal

• adapts to a wider variety of landscapes than previous hominins 

• associated w/ Acheulean tools and fire

homo neanderthalensis

• 300,000-30,000ya 

• Europe and Western Asia 

• stockier and more robust than modern humans 

• at some point, there was interbreeding b/w neanderthals and modern humans 

homo sapiens

• AMH (anatomically modern humans)

• 300,000ya

• bigger cranial capacity

• smaller teeth

• around the world in 1000s of years

skull features

• sagittal crest

• zygomatic arches

• brow ridge

• dentition

• cranial capacity

• foramen magnum

sagittal crest

a bony ridge on the top of the skull formed by strong chewing muscles 

zygomatic arches

cheekbones

• large cheekbones that flare to the side - sign of powerful chewing muscles

brow ridge

ridge above the eyes that indicates the position of the face on the skull, relative to the brain case

dentition 

tooth size and dental palate/arcade

• big molars - sign of eating fibrous vegetation

cranial capacity

head size (indicates brain size)

foramen magnum

the opening at the base of the skull where the spinal cord enters and connects to the brain

• position tells us how the skull sits on the spinal column and if posture was upright or horizontal 

shared characteristics

traits or structures that are shared by all or most species in a group bc they are inherited from a common ancestor

derived characteristics 

traits unique to a species that evolved after 2+ species who have shared a common ancestor diverged 

3 morphological characteristics that make humans unique

1. bipedalism

2. brains

3. teeth 

advantages of bipedalism

• arms/hands are free to carry objects 

• reach higher 

• better view 

• long distance walking/running 

• heat regulation 

• foot absorbs shock

• performing ballet

disadvantages of bipedalism

• back, knee pain 

• circulatory system works harder 

• painful birthing process 

skeletal changes associated w/ bipedality

• foramen magnum

• lumbar lordosis

• bowl-shaped pelvis

• longer lower limbs

• angled femur

• widened tibial plateau

• foot as a stable platform

skeletal changes associated w/ bipedality - foramen magnum

in humans, it is anterior (under the skull, towards the center/front) to balance the head on the upright body

skeletal changes associated w/ bipedality - lumbar lordosis

s-shaped curvature of the spine allows for the upper body to be stabilized over the hips and lower limbs 

skeletal changes associated w/ bipedality - pelvis

• shorter and broader iliac blades 

• a bowl-shaped pelvis in hominins has a stabilizing function 

• helps to hold up the internal organs 

• allows for bigger muscles to attach 

• allows for upright walking 

skeletal changes associated w/ bipedality - angled femur

inward-angled femur brings support of the lower limbs under the body/center of mass

skeletal changes associated w/ bipedality - wide tibial plateau 

the place where the tibia meets the femur at the knee is broad enough to disperse force and acts as a shock absorber 

skeletal changes associated w/ bipedality - foot

there is a platform for upright walking 

• the arch absorbs shock 

• this means that our big toes are smaller and don’t grasp 

basic differences b/w chimp and human dentition 

• smaller canines

• reduced shearing complex

• shorter, wider jaws 

• diastema: a gap b/w the canines and adjacent teeth for the canine on the lower jaw 

Why are hominin fossil so rare?

• fossilization: when hard tissues (bone, teeth) slowly turn to stone and keep their shape 

• the fossil record is extremely limited 

• the conditions for making fossils is very specific 

traits of australopithecines

• large zygomatic arches (thick chewing muscles)

• smaller cranial capacity than genus homo

• bipedal - had anterior foramen magnum

• more bowl-shaped pelvis than a chimp

• big toe was in line w/ the rest of the toes (helps w/ bipedal walking)

Lucy 

• adult female Australopithecus Afarensis 

• 3.2mya 

• discovered in Hadar, Ethiopia 

• significant portion of the skeleton 

  • 47/207 of bones

• might’ve fallen out of a tree, but we don’t know

features of Lucy’s skeleton that made her bipedal

• has anterior foramen magnum

• like Ardipithecus Ramidus - more bowl-shaped pelvis than a chimp

• unlike Ardipithecus Ramidus - big toe was in line w/ the rest of her toes to help w/ bipedal walking

Laetoli footprints

• from Tanzania (East Africa)

• about 3.6mya

• footprints of australopithecines

• one foot slightly in front of the other

• shows a balanced stride and a pattern of walking

split into lineages (paranthropus vs. homo)

genus homo emerges from one of the australopithecine lineages 3-2mya, going a different direction from the robust australopithecines (genus paranthropus)

• genus homo is associated w/ larger brains and the making and use of stone tools 

Why do later hominins lose their fur?

• humans are the only mammals that do not have fur 

• evolution of bipedalism - more ideal running body 

• allowed homo erectus to hunt using persistence hunting (chasing prey until it collapses from exhaustion) 

  • no water break needed 

• persistence hunting lead to the risk of overheating 

• hominids w/ less fur could sweat more efficiently and cool down w/o having to take breaks in the shade and lose valuable hunting time

• locomotion is connected to our loss of thick fur

What are the benefits of fire to hominins?

• warmth for survival in cold climates 

  • hominins can reasonably live in a wider range of climate 

• cooking food allows for a wider variety of foods to be consumed and makes it easier to chew, affecting chewing muscles

• kills the parasites in meat during the process of cooking 

neanderthals to know

1. Shanidar 1

2. Shanidar 3

3. La Chapelle-Aux-Saints 1 

Shanidar 1

• a male that lived into his 40s or 50s 

• b/w 35 and 50yo

• missing hand 

• withered arm 

• fractured skull 

• fracture to the left side of his eye socket, which might have caused blindness or brain injury

• he had bony growths in his ear canals, which probably impacted his hearing

• he survived many years, around 2 decades, after the injuries were inflicted 

• strong evidence for neanderthals helping to care for one another and living in groups 

• looking after vulnerable community members = compassion

Shanidar 3

• a male in his early 40s 

• probably broke/sprained his right ankle, which healed

• ended up w/ bony spurs and degenerative joint disease in the ankle that caused him pain and limited his mobillity

• has a groove on the top edge of the left 9th rib, which is evidence of a wound deep enough to have potentially collapsed his lung

La Chapelle-Aux-Saints 1

• “The Old Man of La Chapelle”

• erroneously framed as hunched 

• primitive caveman

• b/w 25 and 35yo or older than 40yo

Svante Pääbo’s sequencing of the neanderthal genome

• b/w 1-4% of neanderthal DNA has been incorporated w/ the DNA of some modern humans 

• neanderthal DNA could have been initially beneficial to modern humans, but is not beneficial today 

• if neanderthals and anatomically modern humans could produce viable offspring, our definition of species is called into question 

genetic relationship b/w neanderthals and anatomically modern humans 

two separate species that are still able to interbreed and produce viable offspring

• DON’T think of them as the same species just bc they interbreed

What happened to neanderthals when they met AMH?

lived concurrently, some interbred and some fought

• interbreeding and violent confrontation

• JUST GUESSES - AMH are more cognitively advanced than neanderthals, climate change

• we do NOT know why neanderthals declined and how AMH persisted

3 models of human origins

1. Recent African Origin Model

2. Multiregional Evolution Model

3. Multiple Dispersals Model

Recent African Origin Model

modern humans arose as a new species in Africa b/w 200,000 and 180,00ya 

Multiregional Evolution Model

modern humans are only the most recent version of a single species, homo sapiens, that has been in Africa, Asia, and Europe for at least 2 million years 

Multiple Dispersals Model

incorporates complexities in genetic datasets to argue that humans left Africa in multiple waves 

tools to know

• Olduwan

• Acheulean

• Mousterian

• blade 

Olduwan

• core becomes tool

• the core stone hits another stone (hammerstone) to create flakes 

• flakes have a sharp edge

• etic term/given to the type of tool by anthropologists 

• associated w/ homo habilis 

Acheulean

• more symmetrical than olduwan tools 

• bifacial flaking produces a handaxe 

• better edges

• follow predetermined forms 

• more varied in style 

• more complicated to make 

• flake pattern has to be more consistent 

• associated w/ homo erectus 

Mousterian

• flake become tool

• different tools for different tasks (shows some specialization of tools)

• Levallois technique 

Levallois technique

flake-tool manufacture

• flake is what become the tool, not the core 

• requires a lot of prep, but yields a higher quality tool

• hammerstone prepares the core to make a specific kind of flake

• a tortoise-shell shaped flake that has an acute angle 

blade

a stone flake that is at least 2x as long as it is wide 

• an example of growing specialization of tools

• based on the size of the core 

• core maintenance + core being used to create multiple tools 

• different blades serve different purposes 

• can also be used to make a scraper 

tool specialization 

the manufacture of special tools for a particular job 

• corresponds to more environments to adapt to as humans spread out across the globe and greater access to nutrition 

• some tools could have helped w/ clothing production (needles)

creative expression

an expansion in variety of stone and bone tools, adornment, abstract carving

symbolic expression - cave at Lascaux

• 20,000yo 

• France 

• paintings are painted on the walls of the cave

• mostly images of animals 

• not sure what was used to paint the images (finger, spit?) and also how the images were painted (fire inside cave?)

• storytelling 

• definitive evidence of humans rendering the human body artistically 

symbolic expression - Venus figurines

sculptures from 20-25,000ya are also of women 

• ex. Venus of Willendorf from Austria and Venus of Brassempouy from France

• Central Europe

• there is a lot of emphasis on head, breasts, hips, thighs

Venus of Willendorf

• a small female figurine/sculpture

• found in 1908 in a village in Austria

• 11 cm tall

• dates from about 25,000ya

• no feet, very thin arms rested on top of her breasts, a reed hat

• symmetrical 

• meant to be held 

• no context 

• other sculptures from the same period are also of women 

Venus of Willendorf - Why do they call her “Venus”?

given the name of the goddess of love

• assigning meaning as a goddess figure 

• fertility 

• prevailing modern cultural norms assume that nude women are renderings of Venus 

artifact

an object made or modified by humans

• a collection of meanings, relationships, cultural processes

materiality 

having the quality of being physical or material

• the objects made and used in any society combine to form its material culture

site

locations where evidence of past life and materials can be discerned

habitation site

places where people lived at some point in the past 

archaeological methods

• excavation

• aerial/satellite survey 

• ground survey/surface collection

• remote sensing 

• test pits 

• GIS

• visual documentation 

ground survey and surface collection 

• wide regional surveys can identify specific areas where an excavation should take place 

• ground survey - dividing a specific area into a grid pattern, walking over the area, collecting any artifacts that are exposed 

• walking an area can give archaeologists perspective on the landscape features and any places where concentrations of artifacts are more dense 

remote sensing 

• produces pictures/schematics of a site 

• gives a fuller picture of a site than an excavation can allow

• disturbs the site less than excavating

• good way to preserve and figure the nuances of the site

test pit

• a small excavation (a square of a meter or less) that is a preliminary way to assess artifacts below the surface of the ground, and if a fuller excavation is necessary

• allow archaeologists to note stratigraphy

stratigraphy

layers of deposits

excavation

• if test pits reveal artifacts or features, then archaeologists may choose to move forward w/ excavation of larger units (trenches)

• detailed notes and photographs are taken throughout

• artifacts are tagged and catalogued 

feature

an attribute found in an excavation that was formed, created, or modified by humans 

visual documentation

• digital photography of the excavation process

• artifacts in situ (in the place where the artifact was found)

• after conservation/cleaning, recognizing that the process of excavation permanently destroys the original context

• allows for reconsultability 

GIS (geographical info systems)

• laborious

• can produce highly detailed digital maps for systematic analyses of sites and regions 

What does it mean that archaeology is a destructive science?

• excavation will permanently alter a context 

• those conditions can never be replicated 

• this doesn’t mean “don’t dig”

• it means that both careful planning and thorough documentation are needed when excavation is occurring 

How should we look at material objects?

• easy to think about an object either in terms of its physical properties (dimensions, what it’s made of) or its aesthetic qualities (as art)

• we should deepen and complicate these processes of understanding further 

• we put meanings to things based on our own cultural perceptions 

Why do objects in museums have cards beside them?

• familiarization of the object 

• defamiliarization of the object 

• constraints/guardrails on meanings - gives a functional or artistic interpretation and is not in situ/context 

3 ways objects change

1. material change

2. meaning change 

3. “hands” change 

material change 

the form or the use changes over generations

• an individual object wears out/is modified 

• technical/style changes in the type of item 

meaning change

the broader social significance changes due to a changing context

• new or changing tech can have impacts on existing tech

“hands” change

an individual object passes into different hands and the significance/meaning changes

• when a functional object is placed in a museum, its meaning changes bc of how it is being displayed and who it is being exhibited to  

ethics of excavations, display, storage

questions of ownership

• “Shouldn’t the people whose direct ancestors made or used these objects have some rights over these collections?”

• “Who has has the moral right to display and interpret them?”

• “Who has the right to say what significance they held?”

• “Do the museums that own these objects have the right to say whatever they want about another culture’s objects, or should the people from whom the objects were collected have a say?”

Slack Farm (1987)

• MS habitation site near the OH river in what is now KY, which included over 1000 Native American graves

• after paying $10,000 for land rights to dig, looters desecrated the site

  • dug up the site

  • scattered skeletons and grave goods 

• led to publicity and public outrage

• public outrage contributed to several legislative changes at the state and federal levels 

  • changes for the greater protection of graves and of archaeological sites more generally 

NAGPRA (Native American Graves and Repatriation Act) (1990)

law that established the ownership of human remains, grave goods, and important cultural objects as belonging to the Native Americans whose ancestors once owned the

1. repatriation

2. consultation w/ descendants

3. increased transparency in which institutions inform tribal rep’s of their holdings

• can lead to petitions for the repatriation of objects 

• caveat - NAGPRA only covers materials from groups w/in the geographic bounds of the US even though Native American boundaries also included places in Canada and Mexico

repatriation

the return of human remains or cultural artifacts to the communities of descendants of the people to whom they originally belonged 

modes of subsistence 

the social relationships and practices necessary for procuring, producing, and distributing food 

• correlations are associations that correspond w/ a particular mode of subsistence (usually present but not guaranteed)

Neolithic revolution 

when humans began to produce their food (growing crops and raising animals) rather than relying exclusively on foraging

• hunting → food production (cultivating, farming, herding)

• sometime around 10,000ya - plant and animal domestication practices develop independently in several areas

ramifications of food production, sedentism, agriculture

• development of cities (monumental architecture)

• writing

• changing/limited diets

• public health and epidemic diseases

• social inequality

• rise in war and human bondage

• harder work

• environmental problems

ramification - development of cities

• city: a relatively large and permanent settlement, usually w/ a population of at least several 1000 inhabitants 

• more people = bigger workforce 

• monumental architecture

• ex. Mohenjo Daro

ramification - writing 

• begins in Mesopotamia around 5,600ya

• allows for storage, flow, retention of info

• played a key role in economic life, interpersonal communication, literature and poetry

• ex. Complaint Tablet to Ea-Nasir (3,700yo)

ramification - changing/limited diets

• diets tend to rely on a small number of plant/animals species

• diets based on crops are generally less varied, less nutritious, less healthful 

• trade-off - crop yields are more reliable and larger 

ramification - public health and epidemic diseases

• sedentary, dense populations allow diseases to spread more easily and stay longer in a population

• increased need for sanitation in areas where people are packed together (not always met)

• potential for disease to jump from animals to humans when they are living together closely 

ramification - social inequality 

• public property → inequality

• evidence of both poverty and social inequality in certain contexts

• resources are not shared, but owned

• egalitarianism often gives way to more elaborate systems of stratification

  • relatively less stratification and sharing → unequal access to wealth and power 

• hereditary succession keeps power in certain lineages, smaller numbers of people control resources

• ex. large mortuary architecture in Egyptian pyramids (multiple people working to honor an individual), King Tut (ornate tomb that includes extravagant wealth, but he wasn’t a memorable king bc he was young when he died)

ramification - war and human bondage 

• property → conflict over property, resources, territory

• social stratification and inequality gives way to greater distinctions → slavery and other forms of human bondage

ramification - harder work 

• greater demands for labor to maintain systems of food production

• greater modification of land for more intensive agricultural practices

• ex. Inca terrace farming at Moray

terrance farming at the Inca site of Moray

• adapts land that is not otherwise suitable for agricultural production

• stone retaining walls forming terraces that absorb sunlight to protect crops from frost

• crucible effect - kept the center of the depressions warm, allowed for different crops to be grown than what could be grown at high altitudes 

  • ex. tomatoes, pumpkins, tobacco, etc. 

  • making their warm weather conditions at a high elevation allowed for healthier and more diverse diet 

What does terrace farming allow?

different crops can be grown than what could be grown at high altitudes → healthier and more diverse diet

ramification - environmental problems

• degradation of land

• pollution

• decrease in biodiversity 

sedentism

year-round settlement in a particular place

effects of sedentism 

• permanent dwelling and storage

• people tend plants and herd animals in the same place over and over again, making domestication easier

• permanent demarcation of land and resources leads to private property

• mass storage of items in pits/baskets (ceramics and pottery)

• ceramics for aesthetics