UOFSC Bio Anth Honors Assessment 1

What questions does anthropology ask?

Who are we, how did we get here, and why are we the way we are?

What characterizes the relationship among environment, biology, and culture?

They interact and intertwine; each is always impacting the others.

What does cultural anthropology study?

Roles such as sex and age, how societies function, and how people organize.

What does linguistic anthropology study?

How languages affect the human condition, including tonal languages and words that do not translate directly.

What does archaeology study?

Past human cultures as shown through evidence.

What does biological anthropology study?

Humans as organisms that evolve like other organisms.

Where are humans positioned in the biological-anthropology Venn diagram?

At the center, changing in response to environment, biology, and culture.

What perspective does biological anthropology embrace?

The scientific method and an empirical perspective.

Does science have to be an experiment?

No. It must be empirical, evidence-based, testable, and self-correcting.

What does empirical mean?

Based on things we can see, feel, experience, and test; not subjective.

What can count as scientific evidence?

Controlled tests, observations, comparisons/patterns, and historical evidence.

What is historical evidence?

Using the present to construct understanding of the past.

What combination does the scientific method use?

Observations, generalizations, and tests; a combination of inductive and deductive reasoning.

What are the six steps of the scientific method?

Observe the world; question it; hypothesize from observations; collect evidence; analyze data; conclude.

What is inductive reasoning?

Bringing observations together to understand a pattern or generalization.

What is deductive reasoning?

Using a general idea or question to make a specific prediction or test.

How do inductive and deductive reasoning differ?

Inductive reasoning combines ideas to reach a conclusion; deductive reasoning starts with an idea and tests it.

What is a scientific theory?

A hypothesis that has withstood repeated testing; the best current explanation based on observations and testing.

Is a theory the same as a law?

No.

What examples of scientific theories are in the notes?

Evolution, continental drift, gravity, and relativity.

How can continental-drift theory be tested?

With hypotheses tested using fossils, rock deposition, and related evidence rather than directly observing the past event.

What is a scientific law?

An observational statement of what happens: if you do A, B will happen.

What examples of scientific laws are in the notes?

Newton's laws of motion, Boyle's law, and the laws of thermodynamics.

How do scientific laws and theories differ?

Laws are observational descriptions of what happened; theories explain why something happened.

Does certainty exist in science?

No.

When does scientific knowledge change?

When new observations, evidence, and testing make older explanations void; theories are often wrong and continually change.

Why is a law not necessarily more robust than a theory?

Theories can be science's most confident category; the difference is observation versus explanation, not solidity.

What are the three main ideas for the opening unit?

Contributions to biological anthropology/four subfields; interdisciplinary science; and the scientific method.

What did classical Greek thinkers argue about humans?

Humans are part of nature and can be investigated systematically.

How did Greek thinkers explain human existence?

As related to nature; observations and reasoning can challenge what people think they know about humans.

What did medieval European consensus say about Earth's age?

Earth was young and recently created, at least if Christianity was real.

What did the medieval worldview say God created?

The world and all plants and animals exactly as seen then, in His image.

What was the medieval hierarchical order?

All living things were ordered as God saw fit.

Why would evolution conflict with a belief in a recent fixed creation?

Evolution requires change, contrary to the belief that God created a recent, fixed world.

What did the Scientific Revolution challenge?

Popular medieval notions through new observations.

What was Copernicus's heliocentrism?

The idea that things rotate around the sun rather than around Earth.

Why was heliocentrism troubling to the Church?

It challenged the accepted worldview.

How did exploration contribute to challenges to medieval beliefs?

It revealed great diversity of plants, animals, and human societies, raising questions about fixed creation and change.

Does science start with a blank slate?

No. Scientists inherit earlier ideas and ask whether observations fit what they were told.

What should happen when evidence contrasts with belief?

We can revise the belief.

What is whitewashing in the history of evolutionary literature?

Treating Charles Darwin as the first or only scholar to hypothesize biological evolution, despite other contributors.

Was European scholarship the only foundation for biological anthropology?

No. Islamic scholars and others also conducted similar research.

Why did Earth's age matter for evolutionary theory?

A young Earth allows little time for major biological change; an ancient Earth allows enormous change.

Who was Archbishop James Ussher and what date did he calculate?

He used biblical genealogies and chronology to estimate Earth's creation at 4004 BCE.

Why was Ussher's estimate still based in evidence available to him?

It used the data he had, though it was wrong.

How do rocks and fossils tell Earth's story?

They show Earth has changed over time; erosion scars take time, landscapes result from ongoing processes, and fossils are remains of once-living organisms.

Who identified fossils as remains of once-living organisms?

Robert Hooke.

Who noted that some organisms no longer exist?

Georges Cuvier.

What is uniformitarianism?

The principle that present processes also operated in the past.

Who is associated with uniformitarianism?

James Hutton; Charles Lyell made Hutton's idea influential.

What consequence follows from uniformitarianism?

Earth's features may result from processes operating over very long periods, supporting an older Earth.

According to Lyell, what shapes Earth's surface?

Erosion, deposition, uplift, and other ongoing geological processes.

What was Lyell's key geological idea?

Major changes are possible through small changes occurring for a long time.

What did Lyell write?

Principles of Geology.

What did Carl Linnaeus introduce?

A system to name and classify organisms, binomial nomenclature, and a seven-category system still used today.

What is binomial nomenclature?

A genus plus species naming system.

Did Linnaeus believe species changed?

No; he grouped organisms by characteristics but did not believe species change.

What was Linnaeus's stated motivation for classifying organisms?

Trying to figure out what God was thinking.

How did Linnaeus contribute to scientific racism?

He classified humans as different species based on physical and behavioral traits, creating space for scientific racism.

Who questioned absolute species fixity?

Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon.

What did Buffon propose about biological forms?

They may not be permanent and may change in response to the environment.

What was Lamarck's contribution to evolutionary thought?

He developed a more concrete theory that species change over time.

What was Lamarck's inheritance of acquired characteristics (IAC)?

The flawed idea that changes acquired during an organism's lifetime are passed to offspring.

Why is Lamarck's IAC flawed?

Changes in a lifetime are not shown by offspring; veterans with amputations still have children with limbs.

What earlier assumptions had been challenged by the time Darwin was set up?

That Earth is young and unchanging, species are fixed, and scientific inquiry cannot test these questions.

By the 19th century, what was still missing for evolutionary theory?

An explanation of HOW evolution occurred.

How many human races are there according to the video notes?

One.

What does Darwin's natural selection explain?

Our origins and how all species emerged.

What is social Darwinism?

A misuse of evolution to label human groups as savage/civilized or less evolved and justify social grades.

How was social Darwinism used regarding societies called stuck in the past?

It was used to explain and rank them, despite biology and culture being interconnected.

What was the white man's burden?

A justification for colonization through claimed moral uplift and fixing supposedly backward societies.

How did racial ideas relate to Plessy v. Ferguson?

Some people were treated as less human, and inequality was accepted as a biological outcome.

What is eugenics?

An effort to eliminate supposedly defective genes through sterilization and marriage laws.

How did Nazi followers use eugenic ideas?

They cited them to prevent people deemed unfit from reproducing.

What distinction was later pursued against eugenic claims?

The distinction between genetic traits and criminality or other traits used to label people unfit.

What did Franz Boas argue?

Culture is a product of environment, not biology, and there is no scientific basis for ranking people.

What is cultural relativity?

Cultures are different, but not better or worse.

Does genetic heritage determine behavior?

No.

What causes most differences people perceive among humans according to the notes?

Culture rather than biology, though variation exists.

In what way is race real?

In socioeconomic and health outcomes.

Who was Francis Galton?

The father of eugenics, who proposed improving the gene pool by preventing people from having children.

What did Galton misuse from natural selection?

The idea of survival of the fittest applied to humans, before heredity was understood.

What was Galton obsessed with?

Genius, and translating Darwin's work to social scenarios.

Why did Galton propose twin studies?

To test nature versus nurture in inherited human traits.

What methods did Galton develop to study inheritance?

Anthropometry, fingerprint collection, and a statistical science of life.

What did Galton believe happened to genius?

It was diminished over time.

What public action did Galton want on eugenics?

Government intervention.

When did nations begin passing eugenic laws according to the notes?

Around 1912, including in the United States.

Whom did eugenic laws affect?

People who were incarcerated, disabled, and others.

What trait did many people wrongly believe was inheritable?

Feeblemindedness.

How were IQ and aptitude tests connected to eugenics?

They were often introduced to assess supposed inheritability and skewed to favor desired groups.

What movement did birth control originate from?

The eugenics movement.

When was forced sterilization finally banned in whole?

2014.

What are two prevalent parts of biological anthropology?

Human evolution and biosocial variation.

Why do biological anthropologists study primates?

To help understand human evolution.

What does human paleontology show?

Tool-using humans walking on two legs have been around for several million years.

What subjects do biological anthropologists study besides fossils?

Nutrition, child growth, health, genetics, and adaptation.

What work do biological anthropologists do?

Teach and research and work for state and federal agencies.

Why are the four anthropology subfields needed?

Complementary approaches and techniques are needed to understand humans, culture, and diversity.

What evidence does biological anthropology often combine?

Primate research with human fossils, genetics, neuroscience, and geography.