Anthro101- E1

5 primate qualities

dexterity (grasping hands), visual acuity, big brain/body ratio, long infant dependency, social animals

Where do primates live?

africa, asia, and americas near the equator

where do apes live?

africa and southeast asia

Strepsirrhines

lemurs and lorises: arboreal and nocturnal, small brain/body ratio

Haplorrhines

Not lemurs and lorises, more brain vision and includes apes

Old world monkeys

Diurnal in asia and africa, larger with patches to sit on

New world monkeys

Americas, smaller arboreal with prehensile tails

Homologous

similar because of shared ancestry

Analogous

similar independent of ancestry

Chimpanzee

closest relatives: resolves conflict with violence, territoriality, males hold power

Bonobos

closest relatives: resolves conflict with sex, females hold power

Brachiation

arboreal locomotion by swinging from branches (compared to knuckle-walking and bipedal walking)

Anthropology

Anthropos- humankind

Logos- study

1. Archeological

studying human behavior through materials

2. Biological

looking at ancestors, primatology

3. Linguistic

how people communicate with each other/group identity

4. Sociocultural

working with communities on many topics

Juane Quick-To-See Smith

defamiliarizing can help you rethink things and refamiliarize

Three features culture gives us

1. language

2. abstract thought and representation

3. technological innovation

Sarah Blaffer Hrdy’s Airplane Example

despite not having a shared background, we try to understand and empathize. What if we tried to imagine a plane of non-human primates?

“Ultra-Social” Humans

eagerness to collaborate even with strangers, we can have elaborate goals and coordinated teamwork

Zhang Qian

was a diplomat from China gathering information necessary to trade routes, described people’s jobs and customs

Herodotus

talks about Persian history and customs

Ibn Battuta

gives details on history, geography, etc

Ethnography

writing about people based on prolonged fieldwork

Early anthropology in Europe

focused on finding immutable laws (like gravity) with people

Colonialism

framework for early anthropology, studies were on early colonized people using information from missionaries, extraction

Ethnocentrism

accepting your idea as correct and everyone else’s is wrong

Cultural Relativism

one should withhold judgement about practices

Enculturation

the process of learning social rules and cultural logic (explicit vs implicit)

1. Culture is learned

we transmit it over time through enculturation

2. Culture uses symbols

we have the ability to represent concepts using symbols

3. Culture is dynamic

law-like but not immutable

4. Culture is integrated with daily experiences

cultural context sets expectations for everything

5. Culture shapes everyone’s lives

no one exists without culture

6. Culture is shared

there is no culture of 1

7. Culture gives people a way to do the right thing

also provides the opportunity for ethnocentrism

Culture:

the rules and behaviors in a group we take for granted

Señora de Cao

“the dead don’t bury themselves” think about the symbols and how her gender tells us about power

Universalities vs Generalities vs Particularities

very few cultural universals, mostly particulars to each society and some generalities that are cross-cultural (e.g. birthdays)

Culture shock

anxiety from losing all your familiar cues

Fieldwork methods

1. participant observation- participating but not instigating and building rapport

2. semi-structured interview- conversation of pre-planned topics

How to build rapport:

looking to engage, don’t just extract data from people

Thick description- assigns meaning and context

1. relevent description

2. emic

3. etic

Emic perspective

cultural context, focusing on local meanings and explanations

Etic perspective

scholarly explanation attempting more objectivity, focusing on anthropologist’s explanations

Ethics

do no harm to interlocutors, take responsibility for your work and share findings, minimize risk and maximize benefit, INFORMED CONSENT

Species definition

a group that can interbreed and produce fertile progeny

Population definition

a cluster within one species who share a geographical area and mate

Great chain of being

all forms exist in a ranked hierarchy which is unchanged, individuals only differ slightly from a fixed form

Adaption definition

the development of a trait that plays a role in reproducing and surviving

Modern synthesis

view of evolution that accepts the four processes of evolution: mutation, natural selection, gene flow, genetic drift

Balanced polymorphism

when a mutated/detrimental allele may persist without being eliminated by natural selection

Gene flow

movement of genetic material within and between populations

Genetic Drift

a change in genetics due to random factors (e.g. effecting which organisms can mate)

Biocultural

interaction between biological and cultural processes (e.g. process of sleep)

Ethnicity

group identity based on notions of similar and shared history, culture, and kinship

race

social construction that divides people into groups based on arbitrary characteristics