Anthropology Lecture Notes Review

Cultural Anthropology

• Large volume of information can be accumulated across time through social learning.
• The study of human societies, especially in a cross-cultural context.
• Ethnography: Collect information, observe (housing, food, cooking, cleaning, gathering), study of learned behavior.
• Example: Nighttime routine differences across cultures.

Linguistic Anthropology

• The study of language, its history, and use (linguistics).

Archaeology

• The study of the material culture of past peoples.
  • Artifacts.
  • Material culture.

Biological Anthropology

• Study of human biological evolution and biocultural variation.
• Two key concepts:
  • All humans are products of evolutionary history.
  • All humans are products of their individual life histories.

Adaptive Radiation

• The diversification of an ancestral group of organisms into new forms adapted to specific environmental niches.
• Example: Finch beak specialization for seeds.
• Basic finch evolves into specialized varieties due to environmental pressures.
• Mutations accumulate over time, leading to species specialization (e.g., dog to wolves with thicker fur and larger bodies).

Somatic Cells

• Body cells (not involved in reproduction).
• All cells except gametes.
• Obtained via mitosis.
• Diploid cells that form organs, tissues, and other parts of an organism's body.

Gametes

• Sexual reproductive cells (ova and sperm).
• Haploid number of chromosomes; unite with a gamete of the opposite type to form a new organism.

Microevolution

• Happens within a single species.
• Change in a population's allele frequencies over short time periods.

Menarche

• A girl's first menstrual period, marking the beginning of her reproductive capacity and the onset of puberty.

Melanin

• Dark pigment that gives color to the skin.
• Plays a crucial role in protecting the skin from harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

Primates and Offspring Number

• Primates tend to have a lower rate of reproduction compared to non-primates, with fewer offspring per litter and longer intervals between births.
• Greater parental investment than non-primates.

Rhinarium

• The moist, hairless skin surrounding the nostrils in many mammals.
• Characteristic of Strepsirhini (damp nose).
• Lemurs, lorises, and galagos.

Strepsirhines

• Lemurs, galagos, and lorises.
• Damp nose helps gather environmental information via particles.

Kin Selection

• Natural selection favoring altruistic behaviors that increase the fitness of the donor’s relatives.
• Benefits to the individual by helping close relatives survive, thus ensuring their shared genes have a better chance of survival.
• Group survival through helping individuals with similar genes or closer relatives reproduce.

Primate Social Organization

• Polygyny: one male, multiple females.
• Polyandry: one female, multiple males.
• Monogamy: an adult male, an adult female, and their offspring.
• Solitary: Primates forage alone with limited social interaction beyond communication.

Visual Predation Hypothesis

• Associated with hunting in trees.
• Proposes that unique primate traits (forward-facing eyes, grasping hands) evolved as adaptations for catching insects and small prey.

Angiosperm Radiation Hypothesis

• Associated with fruit-eating in the trees.
• The rapid diversification of flowering plants during the Cretaceous period significantly impacted ecosystem evolution and biodiversity.

Arboreal Hypothesis

• Adaptations to life in trees.
• Suggests that many primate characteristics (grasping hands/feet, forward-facing eyes, depth perception) evolved as adaptations for life in trees.

Anthropoid Eye

• Fully enclosed eye socket (postorbital plate, not just a bar).

Cause of Miocene Ape Extinction

• Cooler weather.
• Global cooling and increasing aridity led to the decline of forests, creating seasonal woodlands and grasslands.
• Environmental shift made it difficult for many ape species to find suitable food and shelter.

Diastema

• A space or gap between teeth, particularly between the canines and incisors on the upper jaw.

Dental Enamel in Hominins

• Thick enamel.
• Suited for tougher foods.

Hominin Characteristics

• Upright posture.
• Bipedal locomotion.
• Larger and smarter brains.
• Specialized tool use.
• Communication through language.

Hominin Key Features

• Thicker enamel, resist fracture related tooth loss while consuming tough foods.

Patchy Forest Hypothesis

• Patchy forest environment favored bipedalism in hominids as a more efficient way to traverse the landscape and locate food.
• Bipedalism evolved as forests fragmented, facilitating more efficient travel.

Provisioning Hypothesis

• Males evolved to provide resources (food) for mates and offspring, influencing social coding and reproductive success.
• Males provision females/offspring supports monogamy and bipedalism.

Biped vs Quadruped Body Plan

• Biped: foramen magnum centered, bowl-shaped pelvis, long legs.
• Quadruped: foramen magnum at back of skull, narrow pelvis, equal limb length.

Benefits of Bipedalism

• Increased energy efficiency.
• Ability to carry tools and infants.
• Improved thermoregulation.
• Enhanced vision.
• Long travel distance.

Robust Australopithecines

• Large jaws and teeth.
• Sagittal crest.
• Specialized for chewing.

Sahelanthropus tchadensis

• Earliest known possible hominin (7 mya).
• Mix of ape and human traits.

Absolute vs Relative Dating

• Relative dating: focuses on the order of events (older or younger, stratigraphy).
• Absolute dating: determines the actual age of an object or event (radiocarbon dating).
• Example: Analogy of knowing a sister is 30 years old versus knowing she is older than someone else.

Half-life

• The time it takes for half of the radioisotopes on a substance to decay, used in radiometric dating methods.

Stratigraphy

• Study of rock layers; oldest layers at bottom.

Hominin Climate

• Cooler.
• More variable.
• Influenced adaptations.

Ape Environment

• Dense tropical forest to grassland and montane forests.
• Miocene climates with forests.

Oxygen 16/ Oxygen 18 Ratio and Temperature

• Used to infer ancient temperatures and ice volume.
• More O-18 = colder.

Stone Tools and Genus Homo

• Homo habilis is often linked with Oldowan tools.

Homo Erectus

• Increase in brain and body size linked to diet changes (meat), social complexity, and tool use.
• First hominin to leave Africa (~1.8 mya).
• Likely the first to control fire, improving diet, safety, and warmth.

Taphonomy

• The study of what happens to the remains of an animal from the time of its death to the time of discovery.
• Study of how organisms decay and become fossilized.

Homo Floresiensis

• Hobbit hominin from Flores, Indonesia.
• Small brain/body but used tools.

Modern Human Cranium

• High forehead, rounded skull, small brow ridges, chin present.

Out of Africa Model

• Modern humans originated in Africa and replaced archaic humans elsewhere.

Neanderthal Locations

• Europe and Western Asia.

Allen’s Rule

• Humans will have longer limbs in hot environments and shorter limbs in cold environments.

Bergmann’s Rule

• Bulkier body in colder climate; animals in colder climates have larger bodies to conserve heat.

Agriculture Onset

• ~10,000 years old; led to sedentism and surplus.

Changes to Teeth/Jaws and Bone

• Smaller jaws and teeth due to softer diets.
• More dental crowding.

Domestication Costs and Benefits

• Benefits: food surplus, population growth.
• Costs: nutritional deficits, disease, social inequality.

Uniformitarianism

• Processes that occurred in the geologic past are still at work today.

Darwin

• Developed the theory of natural selection.
• Emphasized variation and competition.

Wolff’s Law

• Bone adapts to the loads under which it is placed.
• If stress or strain increases (e.g., through exercise), bones become stronger and denser to handle the load.
• If stress is reduced (e.g., due to inactivity), bones weaken and lose density over time.