AN 1344 Final Exam Study Guide Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards for AN 1344 Final Exam Study Guide.

Early Homo

First evidence of human characteristics associated with Homo.

Closest ancestor to Homo?

A afarensis, A garhi, A sediba, K platyops

Early Homo erectus traits

Stone tools, language, signifying first evidence of human characteristics associated with home bases.

Middle-late Homo erectus

First evidence of human characteristics associated with being first to leave Africa.

Brain growth in Homo

Relationship to diet, meat eating (evidence for), fire use, cooking.

Phylogenetic and taxonomic issues

Issues concerning where the line is drawn between species.

Climate & climate change during the Middle to Late Pleistocene

Its effects on hominin evolution, specifically Archaic Homo.

Archaic Homo

Early & late forms; characteristics; and as compared to H. erectus & H. sapiens sapiens.

H. heidelbergensis (archaic H. sapiens)

Relative time frame, overall basic traits (behavior, morphology, etc.) & their significance, taxonomy, evolutionary relationships to H. erectus, H. sapiens neanderthalensis, H. sapiens sapiens and Levallois tools.

Homo (sapiens) neanderthalensis

Relative time frame, overall basic traits (behavior, morphology, etc.) & their significance, evolutionary relationships to previous & later Homo and Mousterian tools.

Fate of Neanderthals?

Replacement vs. interbreeding: understand them both. Model supported best by genetic and fossil evidence.

Denisovan

Relative time frame, what was found, DNA.

H. floresiensis

Relative time frame, overall basic traits (behavior, morphology, etc.) & their significance, evolutionary relationships; Interpretations of size? (i.e. Insular dwarfism)

Models for Origin and Dispersal of Modern Humans

Multi-regional model (with Intermixing) and Replacement (Recent African Origin/ Replacement).

Recent Out-of-Africa model

Evidence for this; definition of, meaning of/ implications of the explanatory model & the evolutionary trends that it describes and their basic time frame and location.

Homo sapiens sapiens (Anatomically modern humans (AMH))

Relative time frame, overall basic traits (behavior, morphology, etc.) & their significance, evolutionary relationships; Earliest fossil evidence for H. sapiens sapiens (Jebel Irhoud, Omo) and what these finds mean.

Migration Events of H. sapiens sapiens

General patterns of major migration events for H. sapiens sapiens, evidence in support of (Skhul, Mitochondrial Eve), what they mean for understanding modern human ancestry.

Mitochondrial Eve

How estimated; implications of/ meaning; and common misconceptions about.

Behavioral modernity

Key characteristics (ex. Symbolic art), time frame in Africa & Europe.

Competing hypotheses

Upper Paleolithic Revolution/ Creative Explosion vs. Continuity Hypothesis and support for them. Which is correct and what does that mean for understanding human behavior & brain evolution?

Climate's role

Role of climate in evolution of behavioral modernity; variability selection.

Human Variation

What level of variation do biological anthropologists focus on? Polymorphic; Anthropological Approaches to Human Variation: racial classification vs. explanatory approaches (what they are, when they were/ are used, why each of them came to exist).

History of thinking about race

Pre-Renaissance, Renaissance/European Exploration & Expansion; 18th century: Linnaeus, anthropometry, Blumenbach, environmentalism; 20th century: eugenics, Boas’s Immigrant Study, 1940s – 1950s: holocaust, colonialism.

Race Definitions

Definition of race, social race, ethnicity; racism; race vs. ancestry.

Phenotypic racial traits

Phenotypic racial traits, and what they, particularly skin color, are compatible with (Ex. colonialism, race-based systems of enslavement).

Human Adaptation and Adaptability

Phenotypic plasticity; genetic pleiotropy and its effects on human phenotypic variation; plasticity as a functional adaptation; meaning of this for understanding relationships between human phenotypic variation, environmental difference, and genetic differences between human populations.

How does race affect humans?

Stress, embodiment of lived experiences of systemic racism, other forms of discrimination and prejudice, resulting in health disparities (ex. life expectancy, disease, coronavirus illness and death)

Patterns of human variation

Patterns & what they mean for understanding human variation (ex. non-existence of types); clinal variation; continuous traits.

Evolution of skin color

Purposes of skin; melanin; skin pigmentation as evolutionary balancing act: Archaeogenetic evidence: cheddar man’s ancestry, descendants & phenotype; Advantages & disadvantages of skin color in different latitudes (Vitamin D synthesis, rickets, sunburn); Link between global distribution of skin color/ pigmentation & UVR; Evolution of skin color: general time frame for key events and cause of these evolutionary events and trends.

Technology, Culture & Evolution

What is the relationship between technology, culture (extrasomatic adaptations) and evolution in humans?

Are humans still evolving?

Based on the current definition of evolution, and provide evidence from class for a “no” answer OR a “yes” answer.

Forensic Anthropology

What is forensic anthropology and what can forensic anthropologists do and not do?