ANTH 1013 1st Edition Lecture 1 Outline of Last Lecture I. N/AOutline of Current Lecture I. What is biological anthropology?II. Subfields of anthropologyIII. Science as a way of knowingCurrent LectureI. What is biological anthropology?a. Anthropology is the study of humans across space and timei. Anthropos = human, ology = study ofb. Anthropology studies the interactions between evolutionary and cultural factorsc. This discipline provides a broad perspective that helps us understand the diversity of the human experience within the context of biological and behavioralcontinuity with other speciesII. Subfields of anthropologya. Four subfields:1. Cultural anthropology: the study of human societies2. Archaeology: the study of the material culture of past peoples3. Linguistic anthropology: the study of language, it’s origins and use4. Biological anthropology: the study of human biology in an evolutionary frameworkb. Biological anthropologyi. The study of human biology within an evolutionary framework1. Also known as physical anthropology2. Draws from different fields: biomechanics, genetics, skeletal biology, primatology, paleoanthropology, and forensicsc. Allied fields: through these fields, we can discover how ancient humans have livedi. Ecology: determines the conditions of living of the animalii. Geology: determines age of the animaliii. Biology: structure of the living organismiv. Archaeology: uncovers remains of organisms and their toolsv. Anatomy: determines means of movement and livingThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.III. Science as a way of knowinga. Every belief must be supported by a truthb. Science: a way of acquiring knowledgei. Seeks natural causal explanations for observable phenomenaa. Can’t speak to supernatural or unobservable processes or unique eventsii. Searches for observable regularitya. Requires that findings be repeatable and consistentiii. Relies on empirical observation by independent observersa. The more studies that come to the same conclusion the betteriv. Requires that proposed explanations be falsifiable – able to be proven falsev. Claims are always provisional and open to rejection and/or reinterpretationc. The Scientific Methodi. Begins with an observation: The tomato plants in my garden didn’t grow well this year. Why?a. This year I used a different fertilizer than I did last yearii. Hypothesis: On the basis of this observation, we might suggest that the fertilizer I used last year produces better results than the fertilizer I used this yeara. A hypothesis is a provisional explanation of a phenomenon. Hypotheses require verification or falsification through testingb. In many ways a hypothesis is a guess about how something works,i.e., a causal relationshipc. To find out whether a hypothesis is valid we have to establish what might prove it wrong. In other words it has to be falsifiableiii. Test: We need to test the hypothesis by evaluating how regular it isa. Finding that the hypothesis is falsifiable allows us to reject our hypothesisb. Alternatively, we can support our hypothesis, but this support will need to be tested over and over againc. We cannot prove our hypothesis, just support or reject itd. Hypotheses and theoriesi. Hypotheses require rigorous testing via multiple independent observersii. BUT some hypotheses are so well supported that we have very high confidence in them. These are referred to as theories or lawsa. Germ theory, law of conservation of energy, universal law of gravitation, theory of evolutione. Historical sciencei. What if we can’t directly observe events, such as those that happened in the past?a. Science does not rely on direct observation. We explain past events by using well-established