Anth 205 Exam 1 Review - TAMU Lynch

Human Paleontology

How we evolve

Paleontology

Study of human and primate fossil record

Osteology

Study of the human skeleton

Porotic Hyperostosis

• Caused by iron deficiency anemia

• Front of the skull becomes rough to touch, brittle, perforated

• Indicates malnutrition

Harris Lines

• Striations on long bones that indicate arrested development during childhood years

• Probably lack of protein and nutrition

• Growth stunted

Human Variation

Works with living groups

Anthropometry

Study of live human weights and measurements

ex: Spanish conquest of Peru and ‘evil spirits.’

What is the Spanish conquest of Peru about?

• Inca descendants are ecologically adapted to higher altitudes

• European women couldn’t conceive in the Incan capital and started rumors of witchcraft until the capital was moved to the coast

• Caused by altitude sickness (hypoxia)

Archaeology

Study of human cultural remains

ex: artifacts found with human burials

• great differences in burial patterns can indicate differing levels of stratification or cultural complexity

Linguistic Archaeology

Study of human language

• Uses comparative and historical methods

• Core words: mother, father, child, home, us, them

• Changes very slowly

• Verbs remain similar

Glottochronology

Telling how much time has passed by the divergence of language

ex: Portuguese and Spanish

Cultural Anthropology

The comparative and holistic study of human culture

• is both historical and contemporary

• began as an attempt to separate that which is universal (universal cultural traits) from that which is particular about human beings (specific about certain cultures)

• began during European colonialism

Comparative Method

Two or more units of analysis are compared across two or more human groups (time, space, culture, subcultures)

ex: polygamy v. monogamy, gender relations, power, animatism

Holistic Method

Eclectic, all perspectives must be examined to explain human phenomena

ex: Beri Beri in Thailand

What was the Beri Beri in Thailand about?

Thyamin/vitamin B1 deficiency

• fermented fish oil they added on their food contained an enzyme that destroyed thyamin in the ppl’s diets

Participant Observation

Anthropologists live with the people they study and participate in their culture

• cant make valid statements about ppl unless you spend extended amounts of time with the ppl

ex: Chagnon and Yanamamo

What was Chagnon and Yanamamo about?

Measles were deadly to Yanamamo ppl, so ppl (Chagnon) attempted to have mass vaccinations to fight it

Chagnon tried to collect family names and history from the Yanamamo, but it was extremely taboo and the indigenous ppl gave him false names/insulted him

Emic Perspective

The way a particular people view their own behavior

• insider’s perspective

• largely ignored by ppl in anthropology

• impossible to get rid of all bias

Etic Perspective

Outsider’s perspective (how we view their behavior)

ex: Elephantiasis in India

What was Elephantiasis in India about?

Condition caused by microscopic mosquito larvae getting stuck in the body, causes massive swelling in legs and lower half of the body

• Natives believe it comes form divine punishment for infidelity against family, community, or partner

• Could have happened in past life/karma

• Individuals with this disease are shunned and become beggars

• Shunning actually prevents spreading of the disease

Attributes of Culture

Culture is information which allows us to interpret, experience, and generate appropriate behavior

It is learned, shared, dynamic, an interrelated system, and the primary means of adaptation

Vertical Transmission of Culture

Learned from the independent to the dependent

ex: parents to children

• most exact form and allows for direct acquisition

• most active in certain realms i.e. language acquisition, belief systems, core values of society, familial relationships

Horizontal Transmission of Culture

Learned between peers

ex: drug and alcohol abuse, music preferences, hair and clothing style, body ornamentation

• changes quickly from generation to generation

Oblique Transmission of Culture

Learned one to many

ex: the media, advertisements, Clean Revolution

• can be good or bad i.e. MLK or Hitler

What was the Clean Revolution about?

People didn’t care about their hygiene/smell until Listerine advertising promoted and popularized it in 1928

• started marketing Listerine as a mouthwash and medicalized bad breath

• marketed as essential for attractiveness and health

• infant mortality rates dropped by half bc hygiene was improved

What are the 3 ways to spread culture?

• Learned: taught by other people, not biological

• Shared: everyone participates (egalitarian) and transmits from one person to the next

• Dynamic: always changing, response to critical event

Ogburn and Cultural Lag

Certain realms of culture/beliefs system/core values change more slowly than others

What does “Culture is an Interrelated System” mean?

The idea that cultural traits are not random occurences

• they are mostly adjusted to/consistent with other cultural traits found w/in the group

What happened in Sue Fisher’s study of Hispanic vs. Non-Hispanic White Women and Reproductive Cancer So. Calif. example?

Study found that Hispanic women were more likely to get a hysterectomy than white women because:

• white women were better/more informed about health care

• Hispanic women weren’t informed of the other options

State of California would only pay for hysterectomies, so doctors may have made biased decisions based on pay or language barrier

Options for reproductive cancer:

1. Conozation- excising cancerous cells (least invasive)

2. Crysurgery- freezing surface of cervix and killing cancerous and healthy cells (less invasive)

3. Hysterectomy- total removal of the uterus (most invasive)

Adaptation

Any trait or condition that maximizes an organism’s ability to meet its basic physiological needs and to successfully reproduce

3 avenues:

1. genetic

2. development

3. cultural

Genetic Adaptation

Genotypes, harder to study because of how long people live

ex: sickle cell anemia provides immunity from malaria so it became widespread

Developmental Adaptation

Occurs during one lifetime/developmental years, affects those who are born in that environment

ex: enhanced vasoconstriction/dilation in Eskimos, hypoxia in Peru

What is the vasoconstriction in Eskimos about?

Enhanced vasoconstriction/dilation: moving blood into extremities at greater speed and quantity (how ppl adapt to very cold environments)

1940’s tests on Eskimos vs. ppl in the lower 48 revealed that the temperate drop for Eskimos was more graduated/arrested vs. a straight drop in temperature for lower 48

Cultural Adaptation

Satisfying basic needs and wants, psychological, social, emotional, as well as physical

ex: ayahuasca plant, Pintupi peoples of western Australia

• can change much quicker than biological

What is ayahuasca and the example given in class?

Plant native to the Amazon and in a hallucinogenic drink as a complex mixture developed over time

• for ritual purification/spiritual visions (manifest function)

• also got rid of intestinal parasites (latent function)

Latent Function

Unspoken reason/different way of describing they do it

Manifest Function

Why they say they take it

What is the Pintupi peoples of Western Australia example given in class?

Peoples who lived in an extremely harsh environment

• lived in small family groups bs couldn’t support more in the environment

• incredible knowledge of the environment helped them survive i.e. knowing hundred of medicial plants and animals

Seasonal adaptations: different seasons meant ways of living changed frequently i.e. gathering food, social interactions, searching and living by water

Ethnocentrism

Belief that ones own culture/way of doing things is superior or the only way to do things i.e. cultural extinctions

• cultural extinctions lead to death and loss of your own culture

Xenophobia

Fear of things foreign or “other”

ex: atrocities, Native Tasmanians

• evolutionary explanations, used to be reasons to fear other groups

What happened to the Native Tasmanians as discussed in class?

Native Tasmanians fought against English conquerors

• made caricatures in England and dehumanized (called cannibals and “Tasmanian Devils”)

• hunted for sport

• caged and put on display

Cultural Relativism

Need to evaluate cultural practices in the ways that natives view them, take native context for certain practices

ex: Eskimos and the elderly

• doesn’t make every practice valid or ok

What was the Eskimo and the elderly example as discussed in class?

Elderly Eskimos would walk off to die alone on the ice because it was a very honorable things to do

• stopped them from being a burden to the family

Spiritism

Effort to reconcile science and religion through interviewing spirits

Mixture of the Christian moral code with reincarnation and belief in contact w/ the spirits of the dead

• founded by Alan Kardec

• imported to Brazil at the turn of the century and spread heavily

• created the Dr. Fritz case

• goal was to lose desire for material gain and experience

Religious Syncretism

Historical blending of different religious traditions

Religious and Medical Pluralism

Individuals look to different religious traditions for religious needs and different medical traditions for medical needs

Who was Dr. Fritz and what were his origins?

Spirit of a German doctor who died in 1917 and was held in the medium Maricio Malgalhaes

• Fritz claimed (through Maricio) that his work was a penance for his previous life

• Maricio performed real surgeries while “channeling the spirit”

  • done w/o antiseptics or anesthetics (believed to be administered by spirits)

  • some were invasive or didn’t use tools

What were the results of Dr. Fritz’s work?

Had a success rate of:

• 47% completely cured, 23% helped significantly, 31% had no success

• 25 people felt no pain, 7 felt little pain, 2 felt a lot of pain

• Half felt calm/relaxed/confident while others were nervous/tense/frightened

Reported 80-95% satisfaction

• very impressive bc medical doctors couldn’t treat a majority of the same illnesses before

• highly symptomatic and long term management of chronic pain cases were most successful i.e. migraines

• asymptomatic and life long conditions weren’t successful i.e. blindness, diabetes, paralyzation

Why was Dr. Fritz’s work so successful?

• Extensive patient preparation beforehand i.e. rest, no smoking/drinking, drink lots of water

• Symbolic healing system/placebo effect

Values

Emotionally charged preferences

• Can be highly divisive in nature bc of their emotional nature i.e. suffrage for Native Americans, pro life vs. pro choice, capital punishment

• Can change

Core Values

Group of highly held values

Can be highly variable cross culturally i.e. premarital chastity, dowry, bride price

Premarital Chastity

Being a virgin at the time of marriage

Dowry

Something of great value that the brides family will give to the grooms family or the couple i.e. land, goods, animals, wealth, stock

• pays for the right to have children in the father’s name

Bride Price

Grooms family must pool resources to go to the bride’s family

Pays for the right to have children in the father’s name

What is the bodily functions values Japanese commercial example as discussed in class?

Japanese played off an old American raisin commercial and turned it into a toilet bowl cleaner commercial

• “shut” (toilet cleaner) and “unchi” (poop)

• would never see this type of commercial in America

Idiosyncratic Values

Dependent upon the individual i.e. vegetarianism

Core values can be very _________

Ethnocentric

ex: Native Tasmanians were wiped out completely due to warfare and sports hunting from England

Extended Postpartum Sexual Taboos

• A couple won’t have sex for usually 2 or more years after the birth of a child

  • birth of a second child could endanger the first child bc of lack of food and other resources

• Some cultures won’t breastfeed for more than 2 years

Innovation

Basis of all culture change, the ultimate source

“Any new practice or custom, tool or element of technology, value or principle of knowledge, that becomes widely embraced by a significant number of individuals in a given society”

2 types:

• invention

• discovery

Invention

A novel rearrangement or use of preexisting knowledge or technologies

ex: american football and baseball, invention of the airplane, warfare technology

Discovery

A wholly new technology or knowledge, becoming aware of existing phenomena

ex: pasteurization, fermentation, oil, dna, antibiotics

Diffusion

The spreading of cultural traits over time and geographical space

Most of the time modified to fit the culture that is borrowing the item

ex: 100% American (novel written by anthro., innumerable items in our lives originated somewhere else like cotton and designs), americanized food, coke, fast food, hollywood, consumerism

Why are cultural traits adopted?

Relative advantage and compatibility

ex: diffusion of the horse, steak houses and sushi

Functionalism

Cultural traits generally have an adaptive function

ex: ayahuasca- intestinal parasites, Hopi and high mesas

• long history in social science

• functional arguments can be good, but must be tempered w/ common sense

What is the Hopi and high mesas example as discussed in class?

The native Hopi started building their villages on high mesas in order to protect themselves from the new, warlike tribes that were moving into the area

• they were farmers and not fighters

Adaptationist Trap

Tendency to see everything as adaptive and over-use of functionalism, “just so stories”

Some traits are simply neutral

ex: Ozborn and skeletal remains, Aztec cannibalism

What is the Ozborn and skeletal remains adaptionist trap example that was discussed in class?

Hypocalcemia was found in skeletons, so anthropologist Ozborn guessed that, since shells are high in calcium and were used in pottery, that shells/pottery were eaten to fight hypocalcemia

• people don’t eat shells or pottery and wouldn’t receive nutrients from it, so it wouldn’t have had any effect on their diet

• probably used shells out of convenience

What is the Aztec cannibalism example of adaptionist trap that was discussed in class?

Marvin Harris thought Aztecs were cannibals bc there was a lack of protein in their diets

Was refuted by experts in Mesoamerican prehistory because:

• there was no evidence of protein deficiency

• people had plenty of protein and nutrients in their diets

• cannibalism was very rare

• chinampas were used

Aztec Chinampas

“Floating gardens”

Artificially built land on the shores of the lake

• grew intensive agriculture like corns, beans, squash, peppers

• provided enough food for a lot of people

Maladaptive Behaviors

“Any behavior which brings harm, retards, or reduces an organism’s ability to meet its physiological needs and/or successfully reproduce”

ex: subincision among Australian Aboriginals, Tapirape of Central Brazil and post partum sexual taboos

What is subincision amongst the Australian Aboriginal groups?

Extreme form of male castration where the urethra was sliced up and cauterized

• only found in harsh environments and cut down the population (70% of men were incapable of reproduction)

• wasn’t necessary (there are other means of controlling population)

Conformity

To detect and prefer the central tendency

• natural selection has embedded in us the need to conform

• very powerful

• EEA (the environment of evolutionary adaptation)

• immediate rewards outweighed long term consequences for people

• those who could reach a consensus were more likely to reproduce

ex: corsets in the 19th century, Chinese foot binding, Trypanasome Parasite, Aztec tooth carving

What was the corsets example as discussed in class?

High status women wanted a tiny waist, so they wore extreme corsets

• could misplace organs, compress spine, misshape rib bones, change shape of pelvis, and constrict organs and birth canal over time

• caused spike of miscarriages and internal hemorrhaging amongst high class pregnant women

• increased chance of getting a good mate

What was the Chinese foot binding example as discussed in class?

Toddlers has their feet tightly bound w/ cloth and bent the toes under the foot to create tiny feet

• started by an emperor who liked tiny feet, so all men wanted it

• crippled women

• increased chance of getting a good mate

What is the Trypanasome parastie and Chagas disease example as discussed in class?

A type of beetle that men consumed because they believed it would increase virility, but it was actually a host for the Trypanasome parasite

• caused deadly Chagas disease

What is the Aztec tooth carving example as discussed in class?

High status Aztec war heroes would carve their upper incisors into points, drill a hole into the center, and inlay a precious stone

• knew it was dangerous

• made teeth fragile and made it easy to get bacterial infections

• sign of high status

Hunter-Gatherers/Band

• No domesticed plants or animals

• Kung most studied of all time

•  2-3 extended families, 15-20 people

• Don’t recognize power outside of group

• Egalitarian

• Women led foraging

• Very little warfare

• Over importance of hunting is a myth

Animism

Belief that everything in the environment is animated or alive

They possess a spiritual essence or soul

• animals, plants, everything in environment

• humans must give thanks or honor anything they take from the environment or else the spirits will be angry and the materials won’t be available to you in the future

Animitism

Belief in a single abstract force that can be tapped into by humans by use of ritual or to gain power over circumstance

Improve human chances in the environment

Tribes

• Most are multi settlement but can be single settlement

• Usually more than one kin group or clan

• Primarily egalitarian

• Most commonly use horticulture or pastorialism

• Most believe animism and animitism

• Has the highest death rates in soldiers in endemic warfare (many soldiers come from tribes and die)

  • led to villages losing all of their young men in war

Causes for Modern Warfare

Religious beliefs, territory disputes, politics, competition of resources, and idealistic differences

Causes for Tribal Warfare

Revenge and status (very personal), creates cycles of violence, for young men to gain status

Proximate Causes

Immediate, obvious reasons to make war

Ultimate Cause

Evolution explanation to make war

Something about humans makes us more likely to make war i.e. xenophobia

Egalitarian

All people are equal and achievements are always earned

Nobody is born w/ status

What are the subsistence types?

• Hunting and Gathering

• Pastoralism

• Transhumance

• Horticulture

• Agriculture

What are the sociopolitical types?

• Band/Hunter Gatherers

• Tribe

• Chiefdom

• State

Pastoralism

Primary food source is livestock (sheep, goats, cattle) and milk

• Usually nomadic

ex: West Africa milk and blood, Old Testament peoples, Bassai

Transhumance

Pastoralists that only migrate seasonally

ex: Swiss Alps will always horticulture and sometimes agriculture

Horticulture

Small “back-yard garden” farming w/ very simple hand held tools

• Usually slash and burn and move on

• No mechanization (animals, irrigation, etc.)

• No surplus production

ex: Huron

Agriculture

Mechanized farming w/ food surplus and storage

• Massive expansion of the land’s carrying capacity

• Breeds dependency but allows for larger surplus

• Always one crop that’s most important and if anything happened to it, their existence may be in jeopardy

Chiefdom

• Greater population, density, and social stratification

• Usually agricultural

• Composed of more than one tribe w/ many clans and centralized power

• Form around plentiful food sources to support large population

  • had to have surplus

• Has limited caste system: some had status like a king or royal family that’s considered divine

• Each caste was buried in mounds for their caste w/ corresponding items

• No permanent standing armies

• No symbolic monetary system like coins

ex: Mississippian Culture - Cahokia

What is the Cahokia example as discussed in class?

Largest of Mississippian settlements with 35,000 people

• Employed agriculture in rich farmland and the main staple was corn

• No symbolic monetary system

• Had flutes, bird feathers, and other items from extensive trading

• Some had status like a king or royal family that was considered divine

• Had a limited caste system: noble caste, priestly caste, warrior caste

• Settlements would disappear after a while through climatic events and depletion of soil

State

• Highly stratified (some people were higher in status than others)

• Always has agriculture

• Much greater population and population density

• Based on market economy with symbolic monetary system i.e. coins, precious metals

  • Monetary systems make trade easier and more expansive

• May have greater or lesser emphasis on achieved status

• Had a full time professional army to protect surplus and population

• High diversity of craft specification

• Had a diverse caste system

• Had a writing/record keeping system (first writing was for tax records)

ex: Aztec or Mexica

Tenochtitlan

The place of prickly pear cactus

Aztec State or Mexica

• Densest population world had ever seen

• Cortez

• Tenochtitlan

• Chinampas

• Sewer system

Had 4 social classes: nobles, professionals, commoners, slaves

Pochteca

Aztec commoners and slaves could become nobles

• had to be heroes/military war heroes of some kind

• king would grant this to someone who achieved something great

• closely tied to royal family and was hereditary

  • gave ability to marry into other royal families

• could have power to declare war, were military spies, ambassadors

Macehual

Aztecs commoners who owned their own land

• had to give tribute/pay substantial amount of what they produce to their governnor or the crown (taxes)

Mayaeque

Aztec commoners who owned no land

• worked for a wage sometimes on royal lands

Tzompantli

Heads that were displayed on skull racks and placed in a prominent place in the city i.e. square, main gates

• was a warning that the people followed the gods and to not rebel