ISS 220 Final Exam Study Guide What is anthropology Anthropology is the study of all humankind o All contexts o All times o Broad Holistic approach Cultural anthropology Cultures and societies recent pasts Pg 6 Archaeology past societies and their cultures Linguistic anthropology Language Physical anthropology human evolution and variation both past and current What is physical anthropology Physical anthropology is the study of human biological evolution 1 Each person is a product of evolutionary history Genetics on a macro scale 2 Each person is a product of individual genetic makeup environment Biological and social science borrows theory and methods from other sciences geology paleontology chemistry etc Contributes to real life problems Physical anthropologists study all aspects of human biology specifically evolution What makes us human and different from other animals Six big events of human evolution that distinguish us from animals 1 Bipedalism 6 million years ago 2 Nonhoning chewing 5 5 million years ago 3 Material culture tools 2 5 million years ago 4 Speech 2 5 Million years ago 5 Hunting cooperative 1 million years ago 6 Domestication of plants 11 thousand years ago B N M S H D Before now mummies should have decomposed How do physical anthropologists know what they know Scientific method Self correcting approach to knowledge acquisition 1 Observation of natural world 2 Identify a problem 3 Formulate a hypothesis 4 Test the hypothesis using data 5 Provisionally accept or reject hypothesis 6 Replicate the hypothesis Empirical process Hypothesis tentative statement that potentially explains specific phenomenon observed in the natural world Testable Falsifiable Modifiable Problem Origin bipedalism we don t see change we see difference In 1800 s Darwin introduced savanna hypothesis that stated that bipedalism rose from the transition between tree living and savanna living primates This theory was eventually rejected Laws Theories that are proven true gravity Theory a set of hypotheses validated through rigorous tests widely accepted explanations Constructing a Scientific Theory of Evolution Early Evolutionary Thinkers 1 How did the theory of evolution come to be Carolus Linnaeus 1758 Comte de Buffon 1750s Jean Lamarck late 1700s Charles Darwin 1800s Aristotle proposed that humans and other forms of life were eternal and unchanging o Early Christians adopted that the world was created in a perfect form and has remained unchanged and that the earth is relatively young 6000 y o Explorers and scientists began to question these views as early as the 15 th century Breakthroughs in multiple scientific disciplines 1700 1800s Geology o James Hutton 1726 1797 discovered Uniformitarianism geologic processes that were at work in the past are still at work today the Earth is older o Charles Lyell 1797 1875 measured the time it takes for a river to erode a surface furthering Hutton s discovery His calculation was way off but it was more accurate than a 6000 y o Earth Paleontologyo Robert Hooke 1635 1703 invented microscopes he looked at living and fossilized trees and their tissue structure he concluded that fossils represent past life forms This was the first evidence that fossils were remains of living things from the past o Georges Cuvier 1769 1832 extended Hooke s comparative work with fossils not just living things He concluded that fossils found in geologic strata layers provide the history to past life forms Cuvier believed in Catastrophism fossils in one soil layer died in catastrophe and new life forms were created Taxonomy and Systematicso Carolus Linnaeus 1707 1778 published a system of classification Systema Natura of life forms based on similarities and differences among them breakthrough Use two layered classification Binomial Nomenclature two name system Genus Homo species Sapiens The problem was that Linnaeus assumed Fixity of species no evolution no changing of life forms BUT had the idea of classifying species according to the degree of relationship Demography o Thomas Malthus 1766 1834 developed the concept of characteristics of survival He said if unchecked the human population would increase indefinitely Human population sizes are limited by food supplies and those who can successfully compete for food survive Biologyo Comte de Buffon 1707 1788 he developed the idea that species might change in appearance over time He did not use scientific method but had scientific spirit according to Darwin His goal was not to describe this change but explain it These breakthroughs eventually resulted in Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution by natural selection The big problem no one knew how a species could change in morphology across many generations o Jean Baptiste Lamarck 1744 1829 attempted to explain how this can happen changing environmental conditions lead to the inheritance of acquired characteristics This explanation was incorrect but he contributed two important ideas BUT how does the environment produce these characteristics 2 What was Darwin s contribution to the theory of evolution He found the mechanism for descent with modification o This mechanism is differential reproduction of individual organisms o He is the first person to realize that the population level has to be understood separately from individual level observe a group as a population as a whole not just individual life forms Charles Darwin was born into a wealthy family father was a medical doctor He didn t do well in school and he didn t like medicine After he graduated from college he was asked to take part in The Beagle Voyage o Observed physical differences between and among members of species Finches o He realized that the variations in physical traits may be adaptations to a given environment o Adaptations are physical structure function or behavior that allows an organism or species to survive and reproduce in a given environment After the beagle Darwin published articles and books about his travels but did not publish his ideas on evolution that he was developing until his results were almost duplicated Alfred Russel Wallace came to the same conclusion about evolution he spoke to Darwin and the men presented the theory together in 1858 Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859 Natural selection is the process by which some organisms with features that enable them to adapt to the environment preferentially survive and reproduce thereby increasing the frequency of those features in