ANTHRCUL 101 UMICH EXAM 1

four fields of anthropology

-sociocultural

-archaeology

-biological

-linguistic

sociocultural anthropology

-study of human society and culture

-cultural similarities and differences

-based on ethnography (long term field work in one community, participant observation)

archaeological anthropology

-reconstructs, describes, interprets human behavior, history, patterns through material remains

-excavation is a key method

-inference; human behavior reflected in material culture

biological anthropology

-examines human diversity over time and space

-human evolution through fossil record, human genetics, human growth and development, biological plasticity (how our body changes in response to environmental stresses), non-human primates evolution and behavior

linguistic anthropology

-language in social and cultural contexts across time and space (history, use, evolution)

-sociolinguistics- social and linguistics variation (gender, SES), etc.

origins of north american anthropology

-attempts to understand native north americans

-19th century

ethnography

-long term field work in one community

-participant observation

-immersion into local culture

rapport

-friendly working relationship with people

-good ethnography requires this

-time, sensitivity, self-awareness

-long term investment

-get "close"

malinowski

-functionalism

-emphasized importance in ethnographic fieldwork

oldowan tools

-world's oldest formally recognized stone tools

-flakes and cores (rocks from where flakes are struck)

-chopper is tool made from core

-simple reduction technology, but key innovation

-flakes most common tool, choppers by-products

-breaking, bashing, dismembering

-A. garhi 2.6a mya Ethiopia, think they were tool-making ancestor, pre-homo, signals dietary shift

-major cultural innovation that homo erectus expand upon

-by 1 mya all others extinct, homo erectus with tools and culture takes over

acheulean tools

-hand axes were common in this tool kit

-used from homo erectus through homo sapiens

chimps and tool use

-vary regionally

-learned through social transmission

-incipient cultures

boas

-father of four field anthropology

-historical particularism -> histories are unique and not directly comparable, diverse paths to culture phenomenon

participant observation

-direct, firsthand observation of behavior

-wide ranging; can be minute details uninteresting to those who you study

non-human primate food types

-leaves

-underground storage organs

-gums

-flowers

-fruit

-meat

Culture

-innate human capacity to create and transmit traditions beliefs, symbols that govern behavior (ex. speech communication)

culture

-variation created by geography, environment, history, economics, politics, people (ex. tattooing)

characteristics of culture

way of life, traditions, and customs

modes of culture change

-culture is learned through lessons and observation and shared/evolves

-diffusion is borrowing though cultural contact

-acculturation is exchange of cultural features after continuous firsthand contact

-independent invention is the process of human innovation

-globalization is the series of processes including diffusion and acculturation

evolution

-the process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth

foramen magnum

-placement of the foramen magnum tells how the vertebra is curved and if the organism was bipedal or not

pelvis

-walking ability visible

-wider pelvis for us

-longer narrower pelvis for chimps

other early hominin skeletal features

-teeth

-we evolved smaller teeth, ancestors had giant back teeth, sharp incisors

-dietary changes reflected in tooth evolution

-large back teeth and thick enamel allowed hominins to eat tough vegetation and sharp teeth for defense and intimidation

-lost those traits and use teeth differently now

bipedalism

-walking on two legs

-key feature separating hominids from apes at least 5 mya old

-ardipithecus is the earliest widely accepted bipedal hominid

-can see over long grass

-can carry items back to camp

-reduces exposure to solar radiation

-predates tool use and big brains

-bipedal ancestors probably still hung out in trees

diffusion

-borrowing through cultural contact (direct, forced, or indirect)

acculturation

-exchange of cultural features after continuous firsthand contact

enculturation

-how we learn culture by growing up in a particular society

special characteristics of primates

-learn through observing others (social learning)

-grasping hands and feet, larger brains, nails not claws, increased reliance on vision, reduced olfaction, generalized dentition, extended life histories (longer lives, slower development, altricial)

Homo erectus

-large brain

-re-proportioned skull

-more potential for culture than australopithecines

-hunted and gathered

-made sophisticated tools

-eventually displaced boisei

-first hominin to leave africa and went to africa, asia, and europe

A. boisei

-hyperrobust (late)

-had sagittal crest, bony ridge at top of scull, from pull of massive chewing muscles

-specialized eater of gritty and coarse vegetation

-2 mya east Africa evidence

A. afarensis

-3.8 - 3.0 mya

-Lucy and Laetoli

-human like

-bipedal

-slightly bigger than chimps

-split into two groups homo and other australopithecines

-evolved in east africa

-has non specialized dentition

-still evidence of diastema

-left footprints to show they walked bipedal

Toumai

-sahelanthropus tchadensis

-6-7 mya

-oldest hominid ancestor

-bipedal because position of foramen magnum was more anteriorly placed

Ardipithecus

-earliest widely accepted bipedal hominid

-ardi

-4.4 mya

-female, small, gracile

-pelvis shows transition from arboreal climbing to bipedal

-lived in trees and on ground

-omnivore

-less sexual dimorphic than ape ancestors

H. habilis

-1.9 to 1.44 mya

-probably evolved from common ancestor from common ancestor but occupied different ecological niches

H. floresiensis

-most sophisticated erectus known

-many destroyed by volcano

-interesting that archaic humans survived so late

-called hobbits

independent invention

-process of human innovation

symbols

-signs that have no necessary/natural connection to things they represent, non verbal or verbal, we agree on their meaning, ex. road signs

early hominin culture

-bipedalism

-brains, skulls, childhood dependency

-tools

-teeth

Tyler

-early 19th century theory

-posited that human society evolved through various discrete stages

-believed north american indigenous groups represented "primitive" stages in unilinear cultural evolution

garbage/how is relates to archaeology

-one of humanity's most prodigious physical legacies

-most archaeology focuses on common garbage (refuse, trash, rubbish)

-garbage dumps are concentrated remains of human behavior

-found in excavated house pits

Morgan

-early 19th century theory of evolutionism

-posited that human society evolved through various discrete stages

-categories flawed, racist perceptions and language, unilinear thinking

-not all complex societies had writing or even food production, multi-linear evolution

-many incorrectly think this was, assume that Western culture is most advanced

-believed north american indigenous groups represented "primitive" stages in unilinear cultural evolution

19th century evolutionists

-EB Tyler and Lewis Morgan

-posited that human society evolved through various discrete stages

-categories flawed, racist perceptions and language, unilinear thinking

-not all complex societies had writing or even food production, multi-linear evolution

-many incorrectly think this was, assume that Western culture is most advanced

agency

-refers to actions that individuals take both alone and in groups forming and transforming culture

problems with 19th century evolutionary thinking

-categories flawed, racist perceptions and language, unilinear thinking

-not all complex societies had writing or even food production, multi-linear evolution

-many incorrectly think this was, assume that Western culture is most advanced

participant observation

-direct, firsthand observation of behavior

-wide ranging; can be minute details uninteresting to those who you study

emic

-local perceptions/viewpoints

etic

-perspective of the outsider anthropologists

culture shock

-feeling of alienation from exposure to new culture and field site

-ex. border ethnography

-eventually most of this is overcome

race and problems with category

-race is a discredited concept in biology

-there is no way to categorize race through biology

genotype

-alleles

-ex. Rr

phenotype

-looks out the outside

-ex. brown eyes

ancestry informative markers

-about 5% of the genetic variation not shared between populations is informative about ancestry

-these alleles can be called Ancestry Informative Markers (AIMs)

lupe moreno

-latina conditioned by environment to be opposed to immigration

humans and relationships to other great apes

-five apes are gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos

relationship between race and biology

-no relationship between race and biology

disease vs illness

-illness is cultural perception and explanation of bad health

-disease is scientific perspective (etic)

basic characteristics of hunter-gatherer groups

-know plant/animal reproduction intimately

-basically egalitarianism

-more diverse diet and less work then farmers

factors leading to early domestication

-environmental factors, geography and cultural development

-associated with sedentism

-independently invented at different areas around the world

feasting in ancient societies and connection to domestication

-rise of agriculture for different reasons

various field methods in book/lecture

sagittal crest

-bony ridge at top of the skull from pull of massive chewing muscles

functionalism

-role of cultural practices in social systems (functions)

Radcliffe-Brown

-focused on the -role of cultural practices in social systems (functions)

-functionalism

synchronic vs diachronic

-emphasized synchronic over diachronic

-synchronic at specific point of time usually present

-diachronic is development and evolution

native american boarding schools

site formation processes

-events that created and affected an archaeological site before during and after its occupation

taphonomy

-study of processes that impacts biological materials (bones)

-how an organism decays and become fossilized

-death to discovery

C and N transforms

-c transforms are cultural behaviors that impact deposition (ex. penn state statue)

-n transforms are natural events that impact deposition (ex. volcano)

hegemony

-stratified social order where subordinates comply with domination by internalizing its values & accepting its "naturalness"

public transcripts

-open public interactions between dominators and oppressed

-outer shell of power relations

private transcripts

-critique of power that goes on offstage, where power holders can't see

big men

-leaders who work hard, give gifts, redistribute stuff, help organize

paleoanthropology

-fossil remains of early hominids (us and great apes) and hominins (our lineage)

-fossils include bones, traces, impressions of ancient life

-laetoli

-lots of people involved (geologists, archaeologists, paleoecologists)

paleopathology

-study of disease and injury on skeletons from archaeological sites

holism

-study of whole human condition (past, present, future, biology, society, language, culture)

-western and non western

-comparative (ancient and modern societies)

law of superposition

-layers are deposited in a time sequence, oldest deposited first, youngest deposited last

-steno's law that describes relative ages based on position

-oldest on bottom, youngest on top

class

-category denotes economic position and rank in social hierarchy

class consciousness

-recognition of collective interests and personal identification with one's economic group

-key to marxist thinking

natural selection

-process by which forms most fit to survive and reproduce in a given environment do so in greater numbers than others in same population

forces of evolution

-environment, natural stimuli, ability to reproduce

recessive/dominant traits

duffy null allele and natural selection

absolute versus relative dating

-relative establishes time frame based on association with state and other materials

-absolute provides calendric/absolute date

cultural relativism

-opposite behavior in one culture should not be judged by standards of others

means of production

-Hereditary inequality, often based on unequal access to means of production

-Means of production =labor and technology of production

factors leading to development of chiefdoms (Pablo Escobar and Ewoks)

12/1/1949-12/2/1993

• Colombian Drug Lord

• 1989 Forbes Magazine listed him 7th richest man in the world

• Considered most ambitious & powerful drug lord in history.

• Directly responsible for the deaths of over 4,000 people.

• Hated by Americans

• Loved by poor Colombians

• Height of power collected 20-35% taxes from other cocaine dealers

Four Prime movers:

• RiskManagement

• Technology

• Warfare

• Trade

embedded economic exchanges (Pineapple Express video)

-exchanges are inherently linked to social/cultural systems

-EX: drug buying

characteristics of states

-regional control, productive farming, taxation, social stratification, public monumental architecture, and writing

characteristics of Band societies

-hunter gatherers

-foragers

-there is never true equality

egalitarianism

-typical of foraging societies (bands)

-contrasts in prestige are minor; based on age and gender

-differences are not formalized

-there is never true equality

-ex. older people are more respected than younger people

theories of early state formation

-having control over water allows you to do bigger things

-war, technology

-control of surplus and redistribution

pros and cons of agriculture

-For secondary- products (alcohol, spices, textiles) or for feasts and "ritual"

-Once "truly" adopted, effects are great and unforeseen

-Less healthy

-Morework

teotihuacan

example of a state, things were going really well but some environmental factor came in and it collapsed

political economy

-relationships of economic inequalities

-drug dealing as metaphor for political economy and chiefdoms

-differential access to goods to maintain social inequalities

ascribed vs achieved status

-An achieved status is one that is acquired on the basis of merit; it is a position that is earned or chosen and reflects a person's skills, abilities, and efforts. ... Examples of ascribed status include sex and race

archaeological evidence of states and chiefdoms

Shirley Cards

-kodak photo labs used this to calibrate skin tones, shadows and light during the printing process

-white models

-african american pictures looked weird

clovis

-hunters and gatherers of early North America were known for this tool technology

-fluted points are common in this tool kit, which contained lightweight and effective tools, used by early North American visitors