SOAN 191 Midterm

Four field of Anthropology

Biological

Archaeology

Cultural

Linguistic

Catastrophism

The notion that natural disasters, such as floods, are responsible for the extinction of species, which are then replaced by new species

Uniformitarianism

The notion that an understanding of current processes can be used to reconstruct the past history of the earth, based on the assumption that the same gradual processes of erosion and uplift that change the Earth’s surface today had also been at work in the past

Charles Lyell

Created uniformitarianism

Earth is really old

Imperceptible changes over long periods of time

Charles Darwin

Applied Lyell’s work to life itself

Created the theory of evolution

Ideas of natural selection

Life itself is the result of the process of evolution

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

Changes could happen based on how individuals lives

He was wrong, that’s not how genetics happen

James Usher

From the 1600s

Earth is only 6000 years old

Earth was created in 4004 BCE

Used the Bible as a history book

Samuel Morton

Classification scheme

Four ‘species’ of man: European, Asia, Native American, African

Reported that average brain sizes reflected varied intelligence and he ranked them (European was obviously at the top)

Works has served as the basis for claims of white supremacy (loved slavery)

Harry Laughlin

Leading eugenic researcher

Helped write compulsory sterilization laws (VERY bad)

The Nazis were big fans of his work

Influenced the Immigration Act of 1924

Franz Boas

Most influential American anthropologist

If you take someone out of their cultural environment and put them in another, they look stupid even if they aren’t actually stupid

Cultural relativism

Challenged the notion that you could categorize people by race

Species

A distinct segment of an evolutionary lineage. Different biologists, working with living and fossil organisms, have devised different criteria to identify boundaries between species

Genus

The level of the Linnaean taxonomy in which different species are grouped together on the basis of their similarities to one another

Natural Selection

A two-step, mechanistic explanation of how descent with modification takes place

1. Every generation, variant individuals are generated within a species as a result of genetic mutation

2. Those variant individuals best suited to the current environment survive and produce more offspring than other variants 

Fitness

A measure of organism’s ability to compete in the struggle for existence. Those individuals whose variant traits better equip them to compete with other members of their species for limited resources are more likely to survive and reproduce than individuals who lack such traits

Genotype

The genetic information about particular biological traits encoded in an organism’s DNA

Phenotype

The observable, measurable, overt characteristic of an organism

Seriation

A relative dating method based on the assumption that artifacts that look alike must have been made at the same time

Relative dating

Dating methods that arrange material evidence in a linear sequence, each object in the sequence being identified as older or younger than another object

Numeric (absolute) dating

Dating methods based on laboratory techniques that assign age in years to material evidence

Isotopic dating

Dating methods based on scientific knowledge about the rate at which various radioactive isotopes of naturally occurring elements transform themselves into other elements by losing subatomic particles

Non-isotopic dating

Dating methods that assign age in years to material evidence but not using rates of nuclear decay 

Radiocarbon dating

Numeric (absolute) dating technique: Measures the amount of radioactive carbon (14c) left in organic materials (up to 50,000 yrs)

Dendrochronology

Numeric (absolute) dating technique: Based on the number of rings growth found in a tree trunk (up to 8,000 yrs)

Bipedalism

Walking on two feet rather than four

Last common ancestor

The last species that was shared by two species

Ardipithecus ramidus

Found in Ethiopia in 1994

Dated to 4.4 million years ago

Bipedal

Pushed back the date anthropologists think bipedalism developed

1.2 meters tall

Hands and feet suited for tree climbing and bipedality

Cranial capacity similar to that of modern chimps

Australopithecus afarensis

Found in Ethiopia in 1974

3.2 million years old

Bipedal

1.1 meters tall

Ape-like from the waist up

Paranthropus Boisei

1.7 million years old

Found in Kenya in 1969

Gracile vs robust australopithcines

Gracile: smaller, more lightly built faces

Robust: more rugged jaws, flatter faces, pronounced sagittal crest, large zygomatic arch

Both became extinct

Hominin

Homo sapiens and all of their direct ancestors

Only bipedal apes

Hominid

All primates and their ancestors

Includes great apes and everyone

Jaw shapes

Hominin: parabolic or gently rounded, narrower in the front than in the back

Australopithecus (Ape): U shaped, longer front to back than side to side. Have small teeth diastema, largest teeth

Chimpanzee: large diastema (space between the back part of the mouth after the first 4 teeth)

Stature of hominins

Bipedal

Cranial capacity of hominins

Large or big brained

Homo habilis

Lived 2.6.-1.5 million years ago

1.5 meters tall

Lived in Africa only

Cranial capacity of 550-750 cc

They were once associated with the oldest stone tools

Homo erectus

1.8 million - 400,000 years ago

Between 5 and 6 feet tall

Cranial capacity of 800-1200 cc

Controlled use of fire

Possible language capacity

Africa, Europe, Asia (first species to move out of Africa)

Oldowan tools

Dates back to 2.6 million years ago

Associated with Homo habilis

Acheulean tools

Associated with Homo erectus

Hand axes

Lower Paleolithic

Mousterian tools

Middle Paleolithic

Associated with Neanderthals in Europe and southwestern Asia

Associated with anatomically modern humans in Africa

Homo sapiens

200,000 years to present day

Cranial capacity of 1350 cc

Permanently occupied 6 continents

Neandertals

130,000 to 40,000 years ago

Short stature

Robust bones

Continuous brow ridge

Cranial capacity of 1500 cc

Mousterian tools

Fully (anatomically) modern humans

…

Lumpers vs Splitters

Lumpers: less likely to see different species

Splitters: see many species in our lineage

Replacement model

The hypothesis that only one subpopulation of Homo erectus, probably located in Africa, underwent a rapid spurt of evolution to produce Homo sapiens 200,000 to 100,000 years ago. After that time, H. sapiens would itself have multiplied and moved out of Africa, gradually populating the globe and eventually replacing any remaining population of H. erectus or their descendants

Regional continuity model

The hypothesis that evolution from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens occurred gradually throughout the entire traditional range of H. erectus 

Paleolithic

The Old Stone Age 

2.5-3 million years ago

Associated with the evolution of humans

Dates of populating Europe/Asia

70-100 thousand years ago

Dates of populating Australia

50-60 thousands years ago

Dates of populating the Americas

25 thousand years ago

Domestication

Human interference with the reproduction of another species, with the result that specific plants and animals become more useful to people and dependent on them

Agriculture

The systematic modification of the environment of plants and animals to increase their productivity and usefulness

Sedentism

The process of increasingly permanent human habitation in one place

Animal domestication

The capture and taming by human beings of animals of a species with particular behavioral characteristics, their removal from their natural living area and breeding community and their maintenance under controlled breeding conditions for mutual benefits

Neolithic

New Stone Age

Began with the domestication of plants 10,300 years ago

Farming villages

Natufian social organization and subsistence

Hunting and gathering with an intensification on plants and animals 

Social organization became more complex with agriculture and settlement

Increased sedentism

Early, proto-agricultural practices

Domestication elsewhere in the world

…

Social stratification

A form of social organization in which people have unequal access to wealth, power, and prestige

Egalitarian social relations

Social relations in which no great differences in wealth, power, or prestige divide members from one another

Class

Ranked groups within a hierarchically stratified society whose membership is defined primarily in terms of wealth, occupation, or other economic criteria

Complex societies

Societies with large populations, an extensive division of labor, and occupational specialization 

Mutation

The creation of a new allele for a gene when the portion of the DNA molecule to which it corresponds is suddenly altered

Gene flow

The exchange of genes that occurs when a given population experiences a sudden expansion because of in-migration of outsiders from another population of the species

Genetic drift

Random changes in gene frequencies from one generation to the next because of a sudden reduction in population size as a result of disaster, disease, or the out-migration of a small subgroup from a larger population

Phenotype plasticity

Physiological flexibility that allows organisms to respond to environmental stresses, such as temperature changes

Clines

A pattern of gradually shifting frequency of a phenotypic trait from population to population across geographic space

Skin color (what accounts for its variation)

Melanin: blocks UV Radiation

UV Radiation: offers Vitamin D

The body's balance between the need for vitamin D and protection from the sun

Culture

Shared, socially learned knowledge and patterns of behavior

Can’t just be one person

Stuff that’s developed within the group opposed to genetically programs

Norms

Values

Symbols

Classifications

Worldviews

Holism

A characteristic of the anthropological perspective that describes, at the highest and most inclusive level, how anthropology tries to integrate all that is known about human beings and their activities

Comparativism

Requires anthropologists to consider similarities and differences in as wide a range of human societies as possible before generalizing about human nature, society, or the past

Analyzing and understanding phenomena by comparing them with others

Cultural relativism

Understanding another culture in its own terms sympathetically enough so that the culture appears to be a coherent and meaningful design for living

Ethnocentrism

The opinion that one’s own way of life is natural or correct and, indeed, the only true way of being fully human

Johann Blumenbach

There are 5 ‘races’

Caucasians were created in God’s image, the ‘original race’

Other races had ‘degenerated’ over time

Used as a justification for colonialism

Old World Resources

Rice

Wheat

Barley

Lentils

Peas

Carrots

Sheep

Horses

Cattle

Goats

Chickens

Pigs

Camels

Dogs

New World Resources

Corn

Tomatoes

Beans

Potatoes

Squash

Avacadoes

Chocolate

Llamas

Alpacas

Turkey

Ducks

Dogs

Advantages of hunting/gathering

Work less

More diverse diet

Less disease

Better health/longevity

Greater resilience with food scarcity 

Disadvantages of hunting/gathering

Small group size

Lower fertility

Slower technological innovation

Advantages of agriculture

Increased fertility

Supports larger populations

Food surplus

Diversification of labor

Faster technological innovation

Disadvantages of agriculture

More disease

Labor intensive

Less varied diet

Reduction in stature

Greater strain on landscape

Greater vulnerability to disruptions (droughts, floods, etc)