Be An Anthropologist
Jodeci O.D. Mitchell
AMU
Amelia Clark
ANTH 100

Evolution is the idea that biological species have changed over time. Evolution do not differentiate between humans or animals. Evolution was proposed by Charles Darwin and he believed that all species changed or evolved in some form from the same ancestor through natural selection.
Since we know that evolution refers to a change over time, lets discuss evolution in the terms of physical anthropology. In the terms of physical anthropology, evolution means changes over a period or periods of times within living organisms. This basically means that the traits that occur within living organisms are passed through generations. There may be very little change that occur from generation to generation, but over time each organism gather these changes. Paleoanthropology is a branch of paleontology that falls under physical anthropology. Within Paleoanthropology, paleoanthropologist study fossil remains and also extinct animals. Paleoanthropologist use the data that they find from the fossil remains to further study the evolution of the human species.
The outside source I have decided to use related to my answer for question 2 is a journal named Fossil by Pat Shipman. In this journal, Dr. Shipman discusses fossils of early life and evolution. The journal gives facts and information pertaining to the time-lines, the types and the formations of fossils. This connects with physical anthropology, because like I mentioned earlier physical anthropology have to do with changes over periods of time within living organisms. Fossils remains and extinct animal remains where once apart of living organisms, so this is how it relates to physical anthropology.

For my second subfield of anthropology that I choose is Archaeology. Archeology is a subfield of anthropology that studies the relationships between artifacts and cultures that manufactured and used them and then expand their findings to reconstruct past cultural systems. (Park, 2008.) Archaeologist studies evolution by identifying the relationships that ancient artifacts may have had with early life. Archaeologist may examine/investigate the remains of early human's posture to see how it has changed over the years. Not only can they examine the remains of early humans, but also the remains of primates. I think it would even be great to compare the two and come up with an idea of what they feel may have happened to the postures. My outside source for the above answer comes from a book by Douglas Palmer titled Origins: Human Evolution Revealed. In Palmer's book he describes, in great length, the origin of the humans species. The book tells us about the journey of early humans and primates. Moreover, the book compares the early human to the humans of today.
Paleoanthropology and Archaeology are pretty much the same, because they both study fossils, extinct primates, and the remains of early human. The two sub-fields work together when it comes to investigating sites of found fossils. Because of the teamwork and the information shared among the two, we as humans now have a better understanding of what we are today and where we evolved from.
In conclusion, I can say that I have truly learned that science plays a huge role in evolution. I understand that because of the work of the scientist, we are able to trace back some of our traits and the way we evolved as humans.

Works Cited

Park, M. A. (2008). Introducing Anthropology: An Integrated Approach. Sixth Edition. McGraw-Hill. New York, NY

Department of Anthropology. (n.d.). NMNH Anthropology: Physical Anthropology. Retrieved September 18, 2014, from http://anthropology.si.edu/cm/phys_intro.htm

Shipman, Pat. (2012). Fossils. The new scientist. Vol. 215, Issue 2876, p 8-16.

Palmer, D. (2010). Origins: Human Evolution Revealed. New York: Octopus Books.