ANT100 midterm

4 Bases of DNA

Adenine (A), Guanine (G), Cytosine (C), Thymine (T)

Discontinuous variation

Genetic characters not always displayed in physical appearance (Mendel pea experiment)

Continuous variation

Variation along continuum rather than discrete units or categories

Natural selection

Not random a process of selection of fitness (selection for heritable traits) between differing entities

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

First theory of inherited characteristics and forces driving adaptation

Carolus Linnaeus

1st system for classifying living things based on physical appearance/resemblances

Alfred Russell Wallace

co-discovered natural selection and published with Darwin

Vicariant speciation

geographically separated species which diverge and can no longer interbreed

Peri Patric speciation

small colony from original diverges to become new species

Allopatric speciation

Species formation after georgraphic isolation of populations (physical barrier causes reduced gene flow between populations)

Homoplastic character

trait shared between differing taxa not because of inheritance but from common ancestor

Absolute differences

refer to unique features that distinguish one species from another.

Relative differences

typically refer to slight variations in a trait between taxa

Cenozoic

66 MYA, end of the “Age of the Dinosaurs” and the beginning of the “Age of the Mammals.”

Palaeocene

1 Plesiadapiformes (similar to something like a Squirrel/Small dog)

Eocene

2 mammals are the first to be definitively identified as members of the Primate Order - represent, at this time, the most likely common ancestor for all extant primates

Oligocene

3 New primate taxa evolved in Asia, Africa, and South America (May have “rafted” over from Africa) - (monkeys/ Haplorhini suborder)

Miocene

4 Climate events led to dispersion of primates into Eurasia then the flooding of the Mediterranean trapped those that returned to Africa again, leading to diverging lines of great apes, gorillas, and chimps – one of those lines eventually evolved into ancestors of humans

Pliocene

5

Pleistocene

6

Holocene

7 current

Early Hominins

o Sahelanthropus tchadensis

o Orrorin tugenensis

o Ardipithecus ramidus and Ardipithecus kadabba

Australopiths - The First “Real” Hominins after the split from chimps

o Australopithecus

o Kenyanthropus platyops

Genus Homo

• Homo habilis

o Homo erectus / ergaster

o Homo heidelbergensis

o Homo neanderthalensis

o Homo floresiensis

o Homo sapiens

Bergmann’s Rule

humans with smaller body size tend to exist in lower latitudes/warmer regions and bigger in higher/colder

Allen’s Rule

human populations living in colder regions should have shorter limbs - body’s response to cold is to undergo narrowing of the blood vessels

Koobi Fora (Kenya)

Fire - basin-like features with fire-reddened soil date and concentrations of burnt bone dated to 1.6 MYA

Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa

Fire - wood ash and burnt bone at back of cave dated 1 mya

Pottery

Dolni Vestonice (Czech Republic). 2300 clay figurines found and kilns. 25 KYA

Low Paleo

Oldowan, 2.5 MYA to 1.7 MYA, associated with H. Habilis, Tanzania

Achulean, 1.6 MYA to 1.7 MYA, associated with H. erectus, France

Mid Paleo

Mousterian Tradition, 300 to 160 KYA, associated with Neanderthals

Upper Paleo

Blades, Microblades, Cores

Clovis Points - N&S A, 12,800 to 13,250 years ago

Flintknapping

striking raw material with hammerstone (percussion) or antlers (pressure flaking) shedding flakes to end with core as final product

Platform

(on flake) – part where hammerstone struck

Bulb of Percussion

(on flake) – bulbus area tells how the force of the hammerstone blow moved through the material itself – force of that blow is shaping how that flake comes off, ripples show how the force moved through the material

Flake Scar

patterned depression left on a stone (core) after a piece (flake) has been struck off

Cave Art

Neanderthal, people projected Western ideals and aesthetics onto Paleolithic “art,” which, in turn, were deployed to define “primitive art” made by non-Western “savage” peoples

Domesticated grasses have

larger seeds and a touch rachis

Wild grasses have

smaller seeds and a shattering rachis

Maize Origin

Mexico, moving north into the Southwest U.S. (around 4,000 years ago) into the Great Plains, and finally into Eastern North America (ENA) where it transformed local agriculture around 2,000 years ago

Mesopotamia

- UR – one of first cities in world

- “land between rivers” develop on lowlands and between rivers of Tigris and Euphrates

- 7000 KYA

- City states around 6000 KYA – Uruk

- Cuneiform - Uruk around 5200 KYA, Stylus on wet clay

Olmec

Mother culture of Mesoamerica, emerges from pre-existing farming villages, 3800 years ago centres emerge at top of settlement hierarchy in what is today lowland Mexico, first cities in Mesoamerica

Maya

ex. Tikal, Chichén Itzá: Sacred precinct with temples, admin buildings, palaces. Area outside sacred precinct less organized. Many farmers living here.; Maya “collapse”: terminal Maya. Archaeological research suggests transformation of Mayan society over 300 year period

Teotihuacan

(highland Mexico): AD 1 and AD 200 becomes huge city with up to 80,000 inhabitants, one of the 10 largest cities in the world, power base in religion, warfare, and control of trade (obsidian workshops, weapons): well organized neighbourhoods outside of sacred precinct, influence over large area, including warrior elites founding Mayan cities

Harappan (Indus Valley)

- City state develop along Indus river - fertile silts

- Elites control, Long distance trade - Called Meluha, Religion

- Unique bc no monuments to elite power, no palaces or tombs, small cemeteries, unlikely/no evidence to have a hereditary monarchy

Natufians

refers to wide range of peoples, first among hunter-gatherers to transition to permanent or semi-permanent settlements

Abu Hureyra, Jordan

Natufian components date to 13.5 KYA

Catalhoyuk

9100-7700 KYA, public spaces on rooftops, entrances via roof

Mesopotamia

7000 KYA, temple centres (kinship given to people by gods, Right to rule over others), city states

Dolní Věstonice

Upper Paleolithic Site - Czech Republic, ~25 KYA, mammoth-bone dwellings, hearths inside dwellings, famous for early fired clay figurines

Kharaneh IV, Jordan

Upper Paleolithic Site - dwellings dating to 18,600-19,830 cal BP, hunter-gatherers building structures, also a Chert Quarry, aggregation site – people coming for many reasons, reused many times over time – people come back after time, rebuilt/maintain them, etc. over long periods of time

Erlitou (China)

- Erlitou – city-states in lowlands 4400-3900 years ago, rice domestication 9 KYA

- Decline of Erlitou around 3500 KYA, Anyang becomes capital of Shang dynasty

Poverty Point

Louisiana, USA, 3500-3100 KYA, no indication of people living there, centre of pilgrimage and trade – lots of raw materials brought in from across NA

Cahokia

-              Illinois at confluence of Mississippi and Missouri rivers, 1050 AD

-              Shared cosmology and material culture

-              People start leaving Cahokia late 13th early 14th C. AD – no clear evidence

Caral

Farmers living in large settlements with monumental architecture, one of the oldest cities in the Americas

Cusco

ancient capital of the Inca Empire, and a major gateway to Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley

Moche

pre-Inca civilization (c. 100-800 CE), large-scale irrigation canals and aqueducts, ceramics figures and metalwork, massive adobe pyramids (Huacas) for religious purposes

Partage

colonial-era system where excavated artifacts were divided between the host country (keeping key finds) and the foreign excavating institution, allowing Western museums to build collections while seemingly respecting local heritage