Unit 1 Introduction to Anthropology Evolutionary Theory Principles of Inheritance and Modern Human Biological Diversity Anthropology Biocultural approach a perspective that considers the interrelationship between our biology e g what we inherit and behavior e g what we learn Holistic considering all aspects of humans e g biology spirituality or behavior Comparative cross cultural comparative among different groups of people emphasizing not judging Ethnocentrism the belief in the inherent superiority of one s own ethnic group or culture with an attitude of judgment or negative overtone e g there s no way like the American way Cultural relativism the idea that all cultures are viewed within their own historical and environmental context Fieldwork a time of data collection e g living and studying among a group of people excavating a site looking through archives or looking at boxes of artifacts in a lab Four sub elds Linguistic The scienti c study of language and how sound s made The personal perspective and how language s used Sociolinguistics incorporates a lot of behavior Think of it as social language How do we learn when it s appropriate to say and not say things That incorporates culture Cultural Learned behavior that s distinct among groups of people passed down through generations and evolutionary Wealth economics kinship marriage and family attitudes toward healthcare and disease entertainment industry or use of space Archaeological The study of material remains i e anything manufactured by humans e g pottery ceramics lithic architecture weapons or technology of a culture learning about the past Excavating cataloguing reconstructing and interpreting Classical e g ancient Egypt and Rome New World vs Old World historic vs prehistoric crossover specialities e g zooarchaeology or archaeobotany academic vs cultural resource management Biological The study of human biological evolution and biocultural variation The study of other nonhuman primates American Anthropology Franz Boas Father of American Anthropology who set the standard for how people are trained and how people practice it today called the 4 eld biocultural perspective Professor at Columbia University who trained the rst generation of anthropologists who received and perpetuated degrees in this country Al s Hrdli ka Contemporary of Boas Field anthropologist for many years then curator at the Smith Museum The great organizer who studied human variation by compiling a collection of skulls Started the American Journal of Physical Anthropology and the American Association of Physical Anthropologists History of Evolutionary Thought Charles Darwin Evolution Species change Adaptive radiation the idea that multiple similar species descend from a common ancestor Gradualism the idea that changes within populations occur gradually Natural selection the recognition of the in uence of the environment Middle Ages Order Religious beliefs world Natural world Hierarchy Young earth Political system Stasis e g born a servant die a servant Great chain of being Supreme being existed at the top of a natural order the Fixity of species the idea that the supreme being created this order and nothing has been changed ever since 14th 18th centuries Renaissance and Enlightenment Technological advances e g microscope telescope printing press laws of motion and gravity and compass Exploration diversity e g plants animals and people don t look the same naturalists Darwin s In uences Carolus Linnaeus developed binomial nomenclature classi cation system the basis of modern taxonomy Buffon the King s botanist for decades who noticed that population variation could be impacted by environmental conditions e g drought or season Lamarck One of the rst to explain how change happens When an organism experiences stress its body could respond to that need then pass that onto offspring Inheritance of acquired characteristics Lamarckism Characteristics acquired in an individual s lifetime are inherited by their offspring Falsi ed Epigenetics where the environment can impact the switching on off of genes which can be passed on Cuvier Comparative anatomy noted extinct lifeforms in fossil records Catastrophism Periodically there d be catastrophic events that d impact either a smaller local area or worldwide and would wipe out living forms that were there i e extinction Lyell uniformitarianism Geological processes e g weather events from the past are the same that are working today The earth or landscape s constantly changing The earth s very old Thomas Malthus Demographer Population size is limited by resource availability competition among individuals Alfred Wallace Contemporary of Darwin from a modest family with lots of education and experiences Independently came up with the idea of natural selection and corresponded with Darwin Charles Darwin Came from a wealthy family Changed his major multiple times e g geology theology biological sciences and medicine Joined a scienti c expedition around the globe Published Origin of the Species on natural selection Contrast Darwin to Lamarck Giraffe neck length Start with biological variation Selective pressure impacts the population such that long necks can reach their resources Population s average neck length through time and succeeding neck length is long Medium ground nches Start with biological variation in beak size and robusticity The more common variety was the small beak that correlated well with their preferred food source of small soft seeds A drought killed off the food source What was left was a large hard seed that was dif cult for them to eat Individuals with a large robust beak could manage it 84 of their population died Those individuals who survived passed on their genes Peppered moths Start with biological variation in coloring light and dark Light moth was common and roosted on trees The gray variety became less common and the darker variety became more common Several things probably contributed to this One of the main contributors was pollution from the Industrial Revolution It impacted the environment as well killed the lichen and discolored the bark Selective pressure depends on the tree and moth colors Natural Selection Survival of the ttest Antibiotic resistance Multidrug resistant tuberculosis MDR TB Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus MRSA Basic processes Biological variation Competition Populations reproduce faster than their resources If some environmental impact happens that causes