Anthropology Anthropology The study of people The Biocultural approach to anthropology Culture behavior of humans Anthropology is considered to be holistic Perspective for studying humans from a biological and cultural perspective Relating to or concerned with the whole system not just the individual parts Anthropology is comparative cross cultural Comparisons in a culture or between cultures Ethnocentric The belief in the inherent superiority of one owns ethnic group Results in one being judgmental Most cultures are ethnocentric Continued Cultural Relativism context Fieldwork The view that all cultures have merit within their own historical and environmental Period of time when anthropologist are collecting data Four subfields in Anthropology in America Linguistic Anthropology study of language in cultural perspective Sociocultural Anthropology looking at behavior Archaeology looking at material culture and past cultures Physical studying biological makeup of humans and primates and evolutionary relationships Linguistic Anthropology Scientific study of languages with a cultural perspective How is language used in a culture Estimated 6000 7000 spoken languages in the world today Takes into account how the language is used in society Appropriate ways of speaking in different situations Cultural Anthropology Culture is learned behavior that is passed down from generation to generation and it is distinguished by rituals or belief systems or kinship systems from other such groups There are around 5000 different cultures Political systems Supernatural Dress Archaeology The study of the material remains of a past culture things like pottery architecture etc Large lab component in archeology as well as field work Very meticulous A lot of cross overs with the other sub fields of anthropology Excavation can destroy a site Crossovers with cultural anthropology Biological Anthropology The study of human biological variation including evolution and non human primates WT 15000 American Anthropology Franz boas Set the standard Considered father of American anthropology Came up with the 4 fields Biocultural perspective which we use now Professor at Columbia University As a professor he trained a lot of the well know anthropologists of the day so he trained 1st generation Ales Hrdieka 1869 1943 The great organizer Compiled collections Studied human variation Curator at smithstodian Started the American journal of Physical Anthropology most well known journal Started American Association of Physical Anthropologists History of Evolutionary Thought Figured out that species change evolution Adaptive radiation from one species can come multiple closely related species idea of common Gradualism when changes occur they occur gradually with no major breaks of discontinuity Natural selection recognizes the influence of the environment and the importance of biological Charles Darwin ancestor variation Middle Ages Common worldview order and stasis Stasis things didn t change Religious beliefs Church very powerful and influential Common view was that there was a supreme being at the top of the Great Chain of Being Great chain of being created a hierarchy of nature Material to spiritual more complex as you go up Fixity of Species species didn t and couldn t change Belief that the Earth was very young 6000 years old Continued 14th 18th centuries Renaissance and Enlightenment Technological advance Microscope begin to examine the variation in life forms Telescope compass advances in anatomy printing press etc Exploration diversity Darwin s Influences Carolus Linnacus Binomial nomenclature a two name naming system 1707 1778 Buffon Lamarck 1707 1788 Worked for the French king in the gardens Noticed that the environment had an effect on plants plants change they re not static First person to attempt to explain how an organism could change When an organism experiences some sort of need it alters its form to meet that need Inheritance of acquired Characteristics or Lamarckism characteristics that acquired in an individual s lifetime can be inherited in the next generation Ex the giraffe necked stretched because it was starving this trait was then passed down to the next generation Continued Cuvier Catastrophism periodically throughout the Earth s history there were events that would cause mass extinction The areas where living organisms went extinct would be taken over by more organisms Geologist Uniformitarianism geological processes rain storms erosions etc at work in the past are also at work today as a result of these processes the landscape changes This takes a long time to happen so the earth is very old Charles Lyell 1797 1875 Thomas Malthus 1766 1834 Studied populations Once a population out grows its resources there will be high mortality rate Supported population control Population size limited by resources Continued Alfred Wallace 1823 1913 Independently came up with the idea of natural selection Contemporary of Darwin Not given credit because of political social status Charles Darwin 1809 1882 Came from wealthy family Collected data on variation Suggest that all species were related to each other Origin of the Species 1859 natural selection Natural Selection Survival of the fittest Basic processes 1 Biological variation exists in all species 2 competition some individuals have advantageous traits Selective pressure any circumstance or phenomenon that favorably effects the reproductive success of an organism within a given environment 3 Reproduction 4 Accumulation 5 New Species Inheritable traits not a trait that s not in the DNA Fitness reproductive success of an organism Eventually the advantageous trait will accumulate in the population Over time a new species could develop if the frequency of accumulation is high enough Biological Species Concept when a group of individuals can only reproduce with their own species 23 different definitions of what constitutes a species Continued Heredity History Humunculus little man Blending inheritance Cells Prokaryotic Eukaryotic Nucleus Organelles Cell Types Somatic cells Gametes sex cells egg and sperm Genetic information passes on DNA 2 chains of nucleotides sugar and phosphate and base Bases adenine guanine cytosine thymine Base pair specificity bind in specific pattern Adenine with thymine guanine and cytosine Replication Development growth maintenance and repair Nuclear DNA nDNA Nucleus of every cell except RBCs 1000s of genes Template for production of