APY 107 - Vocab 1

What are the four branches of anthropology?

Cultural, Biological, Linguistic and Archaeology

What is cultural anthropology?

The study of modern human societies through the analysis of the origins, evolution and variation of culture

What is archaeology?

The study of historic or prehistoric human population through the analysis of material remains

What is biological anthropology?

The study of the evolution, variation and adaptation of humans and their past and present relatives; sometimes called physical anthropology

What is linguistic anthropology?

The study of the construction, use, and form of language in human populations

Hominins

Humans and human like ancestors

Genome

The complete set of genetic information for an organism or a species

What is forensic anthropology?

The branch of biological anthropology pertaining to the recovery, analysis and identification of human remains

What makes humans differ from other animals?

Bipedalism, non-honing chewing, complex material culture and tool use, hunting, speech and dependence on domesticated foods

What is bipedalism?

Walking on two feet

What is a non-honing canine?

An upper canine that, as part of a non-honing chewing mechanism, is not sharpened against the lower third premolar

What is material culture?

The part of culture that is expressed as material objects that humans use to manipulate environments

What bone allows humans to have such unique speech?

The hyoid bone

What is hunting?

The social behavior whereby a group of individuals, adult males in general, organize themselves to pursue animals for food

What is the process for the scientific method?

Observation, hypothesis, prediction, test, evaluate

What’s a biological advantage that humans have?

Larger brain size

What was Charles Darwin’s hypothesis for the origin of human bipedalism?

It was linked to the shift from life in the trees to life on the ground

What is putrefaction?

The breakdown of dead tissues that results from the activity of microorganisms, especially bacteria

What is a scientific law?

A statement of fact describing natural phenomena; a statement of irrefutable truth

What is anthropology?

The study of humankind

What is social learning?

The capacity to learn from other humans, enabling the accumulation of knowledge across many generations

What are fossils?

Physical remains of part or all of one-living organisms, mostly bones and teeth, that have become mineralized by the replacement of organic with inorganic materials

Whose observations provided the groundwork for his theory of natural selection?

Charles Darwin

What was the name of Darwin’s book?

On the Origin of Species

What are species?

A group of closely related organisms having the potential to interbreed and produce offspring

What is natural selection?

The process by which some organisms, with features that enable them to adapt to the environment, preferentially survive and reproduce, thereby increasing the frequency of those features in the population

What are adaptations?

Physical characteristics that enhance an organism’s ability to survive and reproduce

What is taxonomy?

The classification of past and living life-forms

What is demography?

The study of population, especially with regard to birth, survival and death

What is the study of systematics?

The study of biological relationships over time

What five scientific disciplines did Darwin draw on?

Geology, paleontology, taxonomy, systematics and demography

How old is Earth?

4.6 billion years old

What was James Hutton’s famous idea?

Uniformitarianism

What is uniformitarianism?

The concept that processes that occurred in the geologic past are still at work today

Robert Hooke

He was the first to identify and coin the term “cell” through studying cork wood

Who was Georges Cuvier?

He demonstrated that fossils were the remains of animals that had gone extinct and were contained in strata

What is catastrophism?

The doctrine asserting that cataclysmic events (such as volcanoes, earthquakes and floods), rather than evolutionary processes, are responsible for geologic changes throughout Earth’s history

Who developed catastrophism?

Georges Cuvier

Who was Carolus Linnaeus?

He was a botanist, zoologist and physician. He’s also the father of modern ecology

What is a genus?

A group of related species

Who came up with the genus/species naming system?

Carolus Linnaeus

What is the Latin name for human beings?

Homo sapiens

Who invented Lamarckism?

Chevalier de Lamarck

What is Lamarckism?

an organism can pass on characteristics acquired during its lifetime to offspring

Who was Gregor Mendel?

The father of modern genetics

Gene

The basic unit of inheritance; a sequence of DNA on a chromosome, coded to produce a specific protein.

Allele

One or more alternative forms of a gene

What is Mendelian inheritance?

The basic principles associated with the transmission of genetic material

Somatic Cells

Body cells that compose most tissue

Gametes

Sex cells