Evolutionary Theory and History of Biological Anthropology (Video Notes)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts from the Evolutionary Theory and History of Biological Anthropology lecture notes.

Evolutionary theory

Change in allele frequency within a population over time.

Uniformitarianism

Past geological processes are the same as present-day processes (James Hutton); gradual changes shape the Earth.

Stratigraphy

Order and relative position of rock layers (strata) and their relation to geological time.

Catastrophism

Geological changes occur due to catastrophic events, leading to extinctions (Georges Cuvier).

Descent with Modification

Darwin’s idea that species share a common ancestor and change over time through modification.

Homology

Existence of shared ancestry between structures or genes in different taxa.

Homoplasy

Trait that appears similar due to convergent evolution or independent gains/losses, not shared ancestry.

Binomial Nomenclature

Two-term naming system for species (Genus species) developed by Linnaeus.

Taxonomy

Classification of organisms into a system reflecting relatedness.

Blumenbach’s five races

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach’s categorization of human variation into five races based on skulls, foundational to craniometry.

Crania Americana

Samuel Morton’s 1839 work detailing skull measurements and cranial capacity; method for craniometry.

Boas (cultural relativism)

Franz Boas; challenged scientific racism; argued for cultural relativism; Father of American Anthropology.

Hooton

Earnest Hooton; emphasized racial classification; studied criminals and influenced the field; Harvard affiliation.

Hrdlička

Aleš Hrdlička; founded American Journal of Physical Anthropology and AA Physical Anthropology; studied skeletal remains and admixture.

Sherwood Washburn

‘New Physical Anthropology’; shifted focus to evolution and adaptation within an ecological context.

Lamarck (inheritance of acquired characteristics)

Evolutionary idea that traits acquired by use/disuse are inherited; includes concepts of orthogenesis and two-laws framework.

Natural selection

Process by which advantageous variations increase in frequency due to differential survival and reproduction.

Darwin

Charles Darwin; proposed natural selection as the mechanism of evolution and argued for common descent.

Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace; independently conceived natural selection; co-credited with Darwin as a contributor to the theory.

Malthus

Thomas Malthus; argued populations grow geometrically while resources increase arithmetically, creating competition.

Beagle voyage

Darwin’s 1831–1836 voyage that provided observations supporting evolution and natural selection.

Darwin’s finches (Galápagos)

Diverse beak forms among Galápagos finches illustrating adaptation and natural selection.

Buffon

Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon; suggested life changed with environment but lacked a mechanism for how.

Descent with modification (summary card)

See above: common descent and change over time through modification.