Anthro-Exam1
1. Agricultural Revolution & Disease Epidemics
Q: What was the Agricultural Revolution and how did it relate to disease epidemics?
A: The transition from hunter-gatherer societies to settled farming. This shift allowed for population growth but also increased the spread of zoonotic diseases due to closer contact with animals.
2. Zoonoses (Zoonotic Diseases)
Q: What are zoonoses?
A: Diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans.
3. Hypothesis & Theory
Q: What is the difference between a hypothesis and a theory?
A: A hypothesis is a testable prediction or explanation, while a theory is a well-substantiated explanation based on evidence.
Q: What are the requirements for a hypothesis to be scientific?
A: A hypothesis must be testable and falsifiable.
4. Intelligent Design Creationism
Q: What is Intelligent Design Creationism?
A: The belief that life and the universe were designed by an intelligent being, rather than being explained by natural processes like evolution.
5. Biocultural Environmental Approach
Q: What is the biocultural environmental approach?
A: An approach in anthropology that examines how biological and cultural factors interact to shape human behavior.
Q: Can you give an example?
A: The development of lactose tolerance in populations practicing dairy farming.
6. Anthropocene
Q: What is the Anthropocene?
A: A proposed geological epoch that reflects the significant impact humans have had on Earth’s ecosystems and geology.
1. Important Naturalists
Q: Why is John Ray important in evolutionary theory?
A: He developed the concept of “species” as groups of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring.
Q: Why is Nicholaus Steno important?
A: He introduced the Law of Superposition, which states that in undisturbed rock layers, the oldest are at the bottom.
Q: Why is Comte de Buffon important?
A: He proposed the idea of deep time, suggesting that Earth was much older than previously believed, influencing ideas of evolution.
Q: Why is Georges Cuvier important?
A: He discovered extinction and showed that life forms in the past were different from those that exist today.
Q: Why is James Hutton important?
A: He proposed that Earth is a "decaying and self-renewing machine," suggesting that geological processes are slow but constant.
Q: Why is Charles Lyell important?
A: He advanced the idea of Uniformitarianism, which suggests that the same natural processes shaping the Earth today also shaped it in the past.
Q: Why is Jean Baptiste Lamarck important?
A: He proposed the theory of the Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics, suggesting traits acquired in life could be passed down to offspring.
Q: Why is Thomas Malthus important?
A: He argued that populations grow faster than the food supply, leading to competition for resources, which influenced Darwin’s theory of natural selection.
Q: Why is Charles Darwin important?
A: He developed the theory of Natural Selection, explaining how advantageous traits increase in frequency in a population over time.
Q: Why is Alfred Russel Wallace important?
A: He independently developed the theory of natural selection and focused on biogeography and species distribution.
2. Fitness (In Evolutionary Terms)
Q: What does fitness mean in evolutionary terms?
A: Fitness refers to an organism’s ability to survive and reproduce in its environment, passing on advantageous traits.
3. Natural Selection
Q: What is Natural Selection?
A: Natural selection is the process by which organisms with traits better suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce, passing those traits on.
4. Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics
Q: What is Lamarck’s idea of the Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics?
A: Lamarck suggested that traits acquired during an organism’s lifetime could be passed on to offspring, a theory later replaced by Darwin's natural selection.
5. Catastrophism
Q: What is Catastrophism?
A: The idea that Earth’s geological features were shaped by sudden, violent events, such as natural disasters.
6. Uniformitarianism
Q: What is Uniformitarianism?
A: The concept that the same natural processes that operate today, such as erosion or sediment deposition, have shaped the Earth throughout its history.