Chapter One-Introduction Anthropology: the study of humans in all times, situations, and places. Physical Anthropology: the scientific study of humans as biological organisms, in an evolutionary context. Branches of Physical Anthropology: Human evolution: the study of how and why our human ancestors changed over millions of years. Genetics: the mechanics of inheritance and how evolutionary change works. Paleoanthropology: the study of the fossil record of ancestral humans and their primate relatives. Anthropometry: measurement of the human body, particularly the skeleton, e. g. craniometry.
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Medical Anthropology: the study of health, illness, and healing from a cultural and/or cross-cultural perspective. Forensic Anthropology: the study of human remains applied to a legal context. Primatology: the study of the primate order, looking for signs of shared biological heritage and trying to understand our closest living relative. Anthropomorphism: the tendency to project onto non-humans human emotions, actions, and goals that cannot be demonstrated to be there. Anthropodenial: the act or attitude of denying any connection between animal and human behaviours, emotional states, etc.
Fact, Theory and Hypothesis Fact: an observation that is true as far as we can determine truth to be ( e. g. Homo Habilis and the wide range in brain sizes). Theory: an explanation ( e. g. the brain size difference is either due to sexual dimorphism (one is male, one is female) or they’re two different species of Homo). Hypothesis: sets up to prove or disprove theory (e. g. the large cranial capacity males and smaller capacity females would be found on the same site, showing that they’re together as one species). Objectivity and Subjectivity: Lumpers and Splitters
Traditional notion of science-‘objective’ (i. e. free from bias and prejudice). Humans cannot be totally objective, and therefore, scientist have emotional investments in what they have said in the past. All science is colored by subjectivity. Therefore one must declare one’s biases upfront. Lumpers accept: A significant range of variation within a species or genus. More similarities among humans. Considerable sexual dimorphism among humans. Splitters accept: Smaller differences, greater distinctions. The time period of evolution has been great enough for a lot of specification to have occurred.
Chapter 2- Tools of the Trade Relative Dating: compare the artifact or site with another. Determining whether something is ‘older than’ or ‘younger than’ something else. Stratigraphy: the study of the order and relative position of the strata (layers of the earth). (Stratum-one layer). Law of Superposition: upper strata forms after those that are lower. Law of Original horizontality: typically forms in a horizontal position. Law of Lateral Continuity: lateral continuity broken by intruding. Cross-Cutting Relationship: any rock that cuts through a given stratum was formed after the stratum was. 2.
Absolute Dating: more precise range of dates rather than one specific date. Writing (earliest method of absolute dating). Started in Mesopotamia, 5500 BP. Paleography: the study of old written material. Dendrochronology: Applies only to those trees from climates in which there is a distinct change between growing and non-growing seasons. Table 2. 2 | Radiocarbon Dating: Carbon-14: based on measuring of radioactive C14 left in organic materials. Organic: anything that was once alive (plants, animals, etc. ) and anything that was made from something that once was alive (paper made from trees, etc. ).
The pace or rate of decay of C14 is called the half-life= 5,730 +/- 40 years. Current C14 time scale extends from about 300 years to between 40,000 – 60,000 years. Accelerator mass spectometry(AMS) allows for dates as old as 70,000 to 100,000 years and produces accurate dates from much smaller samples. Stonehenge: the inner ring of blue-stones was dated to approx. 4,300 years ago +/- 100 years, well before the Celtic people came to Britain, and even earlier than the prime time of the ancient Greeks and Egyptians. Consilience: agreement among a variety of different dating proofs that all point to the same conclusions.
Example: Two paleographic tests of an ‘old Indian map’ from the British museum; one test based on cartographic knowledge, the other test based on the dialect of Huron used. Potassium Argon Analysis: based on decay of K-40 to Ar-40 in potassium-bearing minerals. e. g. igneous (volcanic) rocks. The half life of potassium is huge; 1. 248 billion years. Electron Spin Resonance: measures total amount of radioactivity (uranium-238) accumulated by a specimen such as tooth or bone since burial. Thermoluminescence: based on amount of sun’s energy trapped in material, such as sediment, stone, or cermaic.
Fission Track: based on radioactive decay of naturally occurring uranium-238. pg. 45 Table 2. 6 | Chapter 3- Evolution What is evolution? Evolution is fact. More than one theory of evolution. i. e. how it works. eg. Darwin’s theory of evolution b natural selection. The fact of evolution is explained by scientific theories i. e. testable with verifiable predictions. What is evolution not? Evolution is not ‘survival of the fittest’, but ‘survival of the best fit’ into a specific environment. Evolution is not synonymous with progress. i. e. evolution is not linear. Evolution is not Lamarckism.
Physical characteristics acquired during an individual’s lifetime are not passed onto offspring. (Jean-Baptiste Lamarck- 19th century). Evolution is not about orthogenesis, the belief that evolution is moving in a straight direction due to a driving force. Philosophical Stances and Evolution Theistic Evolution- acceptance of evolution combined with a belief in an involvement of a divine creator. Science and religion as complementary to each other, not opposed. Atheistic Evolution- acceptance of evolution combined with a belief that there is no divine creator, or no God.
More scientists likely adopt this position( e. g Richard Dawkins) with a tendency to see science as right and religion as wrong. Creation Science (Intelligent Design)- complex living systems must have been designed supernaturally( e. g. the human brain or the human eye). Concept of irreducible complexity( an attempt to be scientific) Ex. ‘X’ is a complicated system made up of interconnected parts. If you take any of the parts away, ‘X’ won’t work. Therefore, ‘X’ could not have evolved from a simpler state, as anything less than the full set of parts work not work. -Nothing intermediate can exist.
Natural Selection Species typically produce more offspring than their environment can sustain. Individuals that are better fit within that environment will survive. They will produce offspring with a good chance of inheriting the favorable traits. There is a better chance of the traits being passed on when sexual selection is at work. E. g. Peacocks-p58 Proofs of evolution Direct observation- Evolution all around us. Just about every human epidemic is evidence of evolution. It’s there but it’s not directly called evolution. Transitions and consistency in the fossil record- comparing ossils from different times to see if one evolved from another. e. g. archaeopteryx. Biogeography- looks at the wasy species are grouped across the earth, particularly on islands, and over time in an attempt to determine why species are and are not in particularly places. Comparative anatomy-comparing the bone structure of different species to view similarities and differences. Unintelligent design- viewing the poor structure of species. For example hoe human have a tail bone but no tail or hoe pythons have pelvic bones. Molecular Biology- comparing DNA. For example humans and chimps.
