Anthropology 101 Introduction Lecture 1 Anthropology is the scientific study of the origins the behavior and the physical social cultural development of humans It is the study of humankind past and present in all its aspects especially human culture or human development 2 Anthropology is a very broad scope social science discipline In fact its broad scope is a defining characteristic of anthropology Anthropology s broad scope is evident in the sorts of questions that interest anthropologists For example questions might be what makes humans different from other animals Is there such a thing as human nature and if so what is it like How and why do human groups differ both biologically and culturally Why have human cultures changed so much in the last 10 000 years How are people who live in industrialized urbanized nations different from traditional or indigenous people We want to know why many Canadians and Australians like beef which devout Hindus and Buddhists refuse to eat 3 In short anthropologists of one kind or another are liable to investigate almost everything about human beings our evolution our genes our emotions our behaviors how people organize their living our language our religion our behaviors and so forth A good way to emphasize anthropology s broad scope is to say anthropologists are interested in all human beings whether living or dead Asian or African or European and that anthropologists are interested in many different aspects of humans including their technologies family lives political systems religions and languages No place or time is too remote to escape the notice of anthropologists No dimension of humankind from skin color to dress customs falls outside the anthropologist s interest 4 Because anthropology is such a broad discipline no single anthropologist can master the entire field Therefore modern anthropologists specialize in one of the five subfields archaeology biological or physical anthropology anthropological linguistics and applied anthropology 5 The word anthropology often calls to mind Indiana Jones character an archaeologists digging in the earth Archaeology is the investigation of human past by excavating and analyzing human remains The goal of Archaeology is the reconstruction of human life ways in the past Because it researches the many ways human life has changed over the centuries and millennia archaeology has much in common with history It differs however in its methods and to some extant its goals Modern archaeology is subdivided into two fields prehistoric and historic archaeology 6 Prehistoric Archaeology is the study of ancient pre literate cultures those that never kept written records of their activities customs and beliefs Although prehistoric peoples lacked writing some information about their way of life can be recovered from tools pottery ornaments bones plant pollen charcoal and other materials they left behind in or around the ground Through careful excavation and laboratory analysis of such material remains prehistoric archaeologist reconstruct the way people lived in ancient times and trace how human cultures have changed over centuries and even over millennia 7 Contrary to the impression given by much North American media the main goal of digging a particular site is not to recover valuable treasures and other artifacts The goal is to understand how people of a particular place lived long ago 8 To learn about people of the past who lived in literate societies historians use written records such as diaries letters land records newspapers and tax collection documents The growing field of Historic Archaeology supplements such written materials by excavations of houses stores plantations factories and other historic structures For example the cover story of the April 16th 2001 issue of Time magazine was What Jesus Saw Jerusalem Then and Now Historic archaeologists worked with other scholars to reconstruct life in ancient Jerusalem providing hard data on living conditions and other topics lacking in written records 9 Many archaeologists today are employed not in universities but in museums public agencies and for profit corporations State highway agencies employ archaeologists to conduct surveys of proposed new routes in order to locate and excavate archaeological sites that will be destroyed 10 Another source of employment for archaeologists are the U S Forest Service and National Park Service who hire archaeologists to find sites on public land so that the appropriate parties can make decisions about the preservation of cultural remains 11 Those who work in the growing field of cultural resource management locate sites of prehistoric or historic significance 12 Finally Since the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 private corporations and government bodies that wish to do any form of construction must file a report on how the construction will affect historical remains and on the steps taken to preserve them Because of this law the business of contract archaeology has boomed in the united states 13 Biological also called Physical anthropology is concerned with the anatomy and behavior of monkeys and apes the physical variation between different human populations and the biological evolution of the human species The specialization of primatology studies the evolution anatomy adaptation and social behavior of primates the taxonomic order to which humans belong We humans or Homo sapiens sapiens share 98 of our genes with chimpanzees 14 Another type of biological anthropologist studies how and why human populations vary physically due to hereditary genetic factors This subfield is human variation All humanity belongs to a single species Homo sapiens sapiens One of the most important findings of biological anthropology is that physical genetic similarities among the world s peoples far outweigh the differences Indeed many anthropologists today believe that the term RACE has little biological meaning no matter how much importance people attach to visible physical differences in their cultural ideas and beliefs 15 Another important goal of biological anthropology is to understand how and why the human species evolved from prehuman apelike ancestors The specialization that investigates human biological evolution is known as paleonanthropology Paleonanthropologists have reconstructed the history of how humans evolved anatomically 16 Through analyzing fossils comparing DNA sequences and other methods the