...Lifespan and longevity are hallmark to the existence of species. Life history, which lifespan and longevity spawn from, is the basis for species to exist and a necessity for evolution to happen (Carey et al. 2001:411-412). With regards to the importance of paleodietary shift within the hominin lineage, it is imperative to understand that diet has had a lasting influence to longevity and lifespan within the genus Homo. Why do modern humans have such high life expectancies compared to their ancestors, and how has life expectancy changed within the genus Homo as its species has evolved? As time has passed, life expectancy within the genus Homo has increased due to numerous dietary advancements, such as the shift from heavy chewing to hunter-gathering...
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...and later hominids. (Finch, 2011) Africa is said to be the motherland of all human beings along with the hominids that were before them. Some believe that as hominids reached the homo erectus stage they begun to populate the rest of the world and formed into homo sapiens through parallel evolution. While on the other hand there is a belief that hominids stayed in Africa up until the homo sapiens stage and populated the rest of the world because they were advanced enough to do so. It is uncountable evidence to support that all human life comes from Africa. The large debate is; the belief that hominids evolved in the continent Africa until they reached the homo sapiens stage versus the belief that hominids left Africa in the homo erects stage and walk out of Africa through parallel evolution and formed into the homo sapiens stage. Evolution took place in Africa for hominids up until the homo sapiens and at that point they were intelligent and well equipped enough to begin to walk out of Africa and populate the rest of the world. (Finch, 2011). There is no doubt that the hominids that existed early in history still exist to this day, but just in a different form. As times changes hominids evolve along with other life forms. Paleoanthropologists have found skulls and other bones from life forms similar to that of humans, which shows a connection. Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace were the two philosophers...
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...the development of fire changed the world we now live in. What is fire? To humans in this present time it is the visible effect of the process of combustion, a special type of chemical reaction. It occurs between oxygen in the air and some sort of fuel. However to Homos eructs what was fire? Before answering that question lets for identify the history of fire. Through the centuries there has been a connection of fire with the cultural growth of humanity and it relates to the antiquity of fire and its importance in tracing the history of early progress. The controlled use of fire was an invention of the Early Stone Age. Homo erectus were does individuals that marked the difference between early ape-men, and their primate cousins. Controlled fire was first established in the African continent and it paved a new road for humankind. Many of these Homo erectus in fact might have showed early signs of grilling skills. Cooking food through fire allowed humans to cook food non-rare and obtained warmth and protection. By the creation of fire it gave Homo erectus more expansion on doing things through out the night, also providing protection from predators and insects. Who were these ape-men named Homos erectus? Homo erectus appeared to have evolved in Africa about 1.8 million years ago. They were the first to possess tools to make a use fire and more intellectual to their counter parts. Now that we gather the information of fire and the first human’s species to control fire, now we...
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...Homo Erectus Through Paper The study of our evolution is very much an open book, which seems to me is having its chapters being written out of order and has no ending. Because we are trying to trace history that there is no history of, it is like we are trying to solve a mystery and the whole world is our crime scene, and oh yeah it's dozens of feet under ground! There seems to be theory after theory and many skeptics, but I believe it to be much simpler than it all seems. The first trace of humanity all comes back to Africa and that is where it all began, as the environment evolved so did we, into different species dependent on natural selection, ultimately ending with us, well for now. If you had what it took you would prevail, if not you died out. Once the woodlands begin to die we traveled to survive. Sure some probably stayed for others emigrated out of Africa to find better food sources. It is true with any animal that you follow the food. The findings at Dmanisi seemed to shake up what we thought was true at one point. Inside of layers of basalt and ash, a team of archaeologists found thousands of stone tools animal fossils and four skulls, two of which were considered "The Old Man and the teenager" (family ties). What was interesting about the findings was, one they seemed to be a hybrid between a Homo habilis and Homo erectus, and two their age! The layers of basalt and ash surrounding the fossils was 1.75 million years old. That's half a million years...
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...Ardipithecus ramidus was first reported in 1994. American paleoanthropologist Tim White led a team in the Middle Awash area of Ethiopia in 1992-1994. During this time the first Ardipithecus ramidus was discovered. Since then, White and his team have discovered over 100 fossil specimens of Ardipithecus ramidus. It is believed that the Ardipithecus ramidus species lived about 4.4 million years ago. The Ardipithecus ramidus has some ape-like features but it also has human features as well which include smaller diamond shaped canines and some evidence of upright walking. There is a possibility that it is a descendant from an earlier species named, Ardipithecus kadabba. The fossils collected were that of a female, which is known as “Ardi”. The partial skeleton of “Ardi” is combined of both human and other primate traits. Her pelvis was shorter than other apes which indicate she could have possible been able to walk bipedally and she had a grasping big toe for moving throughout trees. Based on the skeleton, scientists have predicted the average height of “Ardi” was 3ft 11inches and her weight was approximately 110lbs. Scientists believe that the Ardipithecus ramidus species were omnivores based on the enamel of their teeth. Australopithecus anamensis was discovered in 1994. The history of this species began in the year 1965 when a research team led by Bryan Peterson from Harvard University found what appeared to be a single arm bone of an early human at a site of Kanapoi in...
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...Anthropology – The comparative study of human sciences and cultures. Holistic/Holism – In Anthropology an approach that considers culture, history, language, and biology essential to a complete understanding of human society. Society – A group of people who depend on one another for survival or well-being as well as the relationships among such people, including their status and roles. Culture - The learned behaviors and symbols that allow people to live in groups. The primary means by which humans adapt to their environments. The way of life characteristic of a particular human society. Ethnography – A description of a society or culture. Emic(perspective) – Examining society using concepts, categories, and distinctions that are meaningful to members of that culture. Etic(perspective) – Examining society using concepts, categories, and rules derived from science; an outsider’s perspective, which produces analyses that members of the society being studied may not find meaningful. Ethnology – The attempt to find general principles or laws that govern cultural phenomena. Cultural Anthropology – The study of human thought, meaning, and behavior that is learned rather than genetically transmitted, and that is typical of groups of people. Ethnohistory – Description of the cultural past based on written records, interviews, and archaeology. Linguistic anthropology – A branch of linguistics concerned with understanding language and its relation to culture. Historical linguistics...
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...Exam 4 Study Questions: 1. Write a short statement on Homo erectus. Be sure to 1) identify at least one important distinctive feature each of the head, chest and femur of H.erectus and discuss the way in which each of these structures is different from that found in modern humans; 2) discuss what the anatomy of H.erectus tells us about this species: a) diet and b) locomotor capabilities. * Head: H.erectus had a significant increase in brain size with a skull vault of about 1000 cc. This size is bigger than all the previous members of the genus Homo and similar to that of humans. * Chest: H.erectus had narrow rib cages similar to modern humans’, which indicates that H.erectus did not have complex guts like Lucy’s and was probably meat eaters. * Femur: H.erectus had extremely long femoral necks which were ever longer than humans’ which indicated that they might be even more adapted in bipedalism. * Diet and Locomotion: The anatomy of H.erectus indicates that their diet probably contained mainly meat and they are probably no longer foliovores. Like modern humans they relied on high protein, meat concentrated diet. Their means of locomotion was a kind of bipedalism probably even more efficient than modern humans’. 2. Identify what it means to be a) altricial, b) precocial and c) secondarily altricial. Then discuss the evidence that leads researchers to believe that H. erectus was secondarily altricial. * Altricial: Born helpless, the babies need time in...
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...What is Anthropology??? • • • 20:41 Anthropology • Scientific Approach, OBJECTIVE • Study of Humankind- human groups • Seeks to produce useful GENERALIZATIONS about people and their BEHAVIORS • To arrive at an UNBIASED UNDERSTANDING OF HUMAN DIVERSITY • Only scientific discipline that attempts to embrace an understanding of all of humanity • Helps us understand ourselves an others Anthropology Perspectives • Holistic Approach (broadest view) o To view things in the broadest possible contest o To cover the whole scope of humanity o To provide a total or composite view o Human culture as a system, functional whole, all parts relate o Biocultural Perspective Studies both the PHYSICAL and SOCIAL EX: kuru disease (neurological disease)- disease caused by culture, transmitted by mortuary practices • Cultural Relativism o To view the beliefs and customs of other peoples within the context of their culture not one’s own o Practice of not judging other cultures based on the standards of one’s own culture o ENDOCENTRISM Group centeredness Tendency to see ones own culture as the center of everything The measure or standard against which all other lifeways are evaluated Tendency to consider ones own culture as superior or better than all others o Anthropologists must be unbiased, objective o Involves an effort to remain unbiased in ones observations o Acknowledges that cultures are DIFFERENT, but NOT RANKED o No right or wrong cultures...
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...Evolution is defined as “any process of progressive change”; and the theory is complex life forms from our time have descended from earlier ones that existed long ago (Hunt, p.29). The theory of evolution was first made popular by Charles Darwin an English Biologist, he spent a good amount of his time trying to find evidence to support his many ideas. It is believed that the human species has its origins in Africa. Scientists share the belief that a human like creature originated from the apes and over time, through many changes the final result was a group of hominids, they do however disagree on when and why the different characteristics begun begun to show themselves. It had been discovered that humans and the other primates do have some differences, for one humans have a larger brain, we walk on two legs, go through a longer periods childhood and juvenile life stages, we have the ability to speak and to form culture (Parker, p.3). Evolution occurs through a series of processes, including sexual reproduction and mutation, where some more desirable traits may be passed on to the next generation either by chance or natural selection. Natural selection played a major role in the understanding of evolution, it meant that individuals that have traits more favorable to adapting to its environment are more likely to survive and pass on those traits to their offspring. This led to the notion of “survival of the fittest”. The trait selected to move on showed up in the next generation...
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...Paleoanthropology can be defined as the study of the chronology, remains, physical structure and habitats of early hominids. The fields of anthropology and paleoanthropology have been dominated by one family name since the 1930's, the Leaky family. Three generations of the Leakey family have been piecing together the story of our origins for over six decades. The patriarch of the family is Louis S.B. Leakey who was a paleontologist, an archaeologist and an anthropologist. He was born in Kenya in 1903 where he lived with his parents among Kenya's largest tribe. He attended college at the University of Cambridge and in 1924 during a break from his studies due to an injury; he went on an archeological expedition to Africa and was hooked. He led four fossil hunting expeditions there. He returned to Cambridge and completed his degree in both Archaeology and Anthropology in 1926. During a fellowship at St. John's College he published his first book, The Stone Age Cultures of Kenya Colony, which was about his extensive fieldwork in Africa during his expeditions. With the notoriety that he was receiving, Louis obtained a grant and went to Olduvai Gorge in 1931. He was determined to prove his theory that Africa was where our ancestors originated. He spent his first twenty years there without any significant findings, but did find many fossils and Stone Age tools. Louis married Mary Nicol in 1937 and she shared a mutual desire with him to find the origins of man. ...
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...No coherent empirical methods • 1950-1966- Emergence of Phylogenetic Systematics • Phylogeny by discovery of the order of evolutionary innovation Ribotyping • Fingerprinting or sequencing RNA • Many diseases have unknown causes • However, diseased tissues can be ribotyped. (Wiley Death Fish) • This process involves extracting DNA from diseased tissues and then sequencing the DNA that codes for rRNA. • If a disease agent such as a bacteria is present, then we will get ribosomal DNA sequences from the host (you) and the bacteria (the infection agent). Ribotyping: Phylogeny matching • Once we have the rDNA sequences, we can plug them into a sequence matrix of all life and see where our unknowns appear on the tree of life. Our Food Chain • Some products are easy to identify, but others are not. • A slab of fish fillet from a sea bass looks like a slab of sih fillet from a farmed Asian catfish. • But the sea bass costs $10/pound while the Asian catfish costs $4/pound. • Yet, a simple phylogenetic analysis can sort out the sea bass from the catfish, giving regulatory agencies a new weapon to protect consumers from fraud. Directed Synthetic Evolution • Enzymes for industry. Example, using evolutionary principles to increased enzyme activity of cellulose so that yields of ethanol from corn stalks can be industrially viable....
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...Chapter 1. introduction to physical anthropology Adaptation – An anatomical, physiological or behavioral response of organisms or populations to the environment. Anthropology – The study of human culture and evolutionary aspects of human biology that includes: cultural, archeology and physical or biological anthropology. Applied anthropology – the practical application of anthropological and archeological theories and techniques. Artifacts – Objects or materials made or modified for use by modern humans and their ancestors. Biocultural evolution – The mutual interactive evolution of human biology and culture. The concept that biology makes culture further influences the direction of biological evolution. Bipedally – on two feet walking habitually on 2 legs. Culture – behavioral aspects of adaptation including technology, traditions, language religion, marriage. Data – Facts from which conclusions can be drawn scientific information. Empirical – relying on experiment or observation. Ethnographies – Detailed descriptive studies of human societies – ugsaatnii zui Ethnocentrism – Viewing other cultures from the inherently biased perspective of one’s own culture – undestnii deerengui uzel Evolution – A change in the genetic structure of a population. The term is also frequently used to refer to the appearance of a new species. Forensic anthropology – An applied anthropological approach that deals with legal matters. Forensic anthropologists work with coroners, police...
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...Anthropology- 1. sociocultural - examine social patterns and practices across cultures, with a special interest in how people live in particular places and how they organize, govern, and create meaning 2. , biological/physical - seek to understand how humans adapt to diverse environments, how biological and cultural processes work together to shape growth, development and behavior, and what causes disease and early death 3. archaeology - study past peoples and cultures, from the deepest prehistory to the recent past, through the analysis of material remains, ranging from artifacts and evidence of past environments to architecture and landscapes 4. linguistics- is the comparative study of ways in which language reflects and influences social life Unit 1 – Book Anthropology – the study of humankind in all times and places Colonialism – when one nation dominates another through occupation, admin (military) and control of resource’s. Cultural imperialism – refers to the promotion of one nation’s values, beliefs, and behavior above those of all others. Most famous empiricist – Franz Boas (1858-1942) he rejected racism and saw everyone as equal Radcliffe Brown – focused on how culture worked as a whole to maintain itself Malinowski – paid attention to his key informants’ point of view (groundbreaking methodology) Influences on Canadian Anthro – museums, academic department, applied research Diamond Jenness – page 7 epic winter story, survived on island (Karluk) Davidson Black...
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...4.5 billion B.C. Planet Earth formed. 3 billion B.C. First signs of primeval life (bacteria and blue-green algae) appear in oceans. 600 million B.C. Earliest date to which fossils can be traced. 4.4 million B.C. Earliest known hominid fossils (Ardipithecus ramidus) found in Aramis, Ethiopia, 1994. 4.2 million B.C. Australopithecus anamensis found in Lake Turkana, Kenya, 1995. 3.2 million B.C. Australopithecus afarenis (nicknamed “Lucy”) found in Ethiopia, 1974. 2.5 million B.C. Homo habilis (“Skillful Man”). First brain expansion; is believed to have used stone tools. 1.8 million B.C. Homo erectus (“Upright Man”). Brain size twice that of Australopithecine species. 1.7 million B.C. Homo erectus leaves Africa. 100,000 B.C. First modern Homo sapiens in South Africa. 70,000 B.C. Neanderthal man (use of fire and advanced tools). 35,000 B.C. Neanderthal man replaced by later groups of Homo sapiens (i.e., Cro-Magnon man, etc.). 18,000 B.C. Cro-Magnons replaced by later cultures. 15,000 B.C. Migrations across Bering Straits into the Americas. 10,000 B.C. Semi-permanent agricultural settlements in Old World. 10,000–4,000 B.C. Development of settlements into cities and development of skills such as the wheel, pottery, and improved methods of cultivation in Mesopotamia and elsewhere. 5500–3000 B.C. Predynastic Egyptian cultures develop (5500–3100 B.C.); begin using agriculture (c. 5000 B.C.). Earliest known civilization arises in Sumer (4500–4000 B.C.)...
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...Anthropology – derived from the Greek word anthrope which means man; and logy which means science. -- it is a science that deals with the origins, physical and cultural development, social characteristics, social customs and beliefs of mankind. -- regarded as the “the science of man and his works.” BRANCHES OF ANTHROPOLOGY 1. Physical Anthropology – deals with the origin and evolutionary process of man. 2. Cultural Anthropology – deals with the study of man’s behavior and how he carries out and adapts to the various activities of everyday life. * Archaeology – this deals with the study and analysis of ancient culture pertaining to prehistoric people, their dwelling, artifacts, inscriptions and movements. * Ethnology – analyzes culture, especially in regard to their historical development and the similarities and dissimilarities between them. * Linguistics – is concerned with man’s literate or non-literate and takes up interrelation between language of a certain people and various aspects of culture. EVOLUTION Charles Darwin – proposed the mechanism of natural selection to account for the evolution of species. Basic Principles of the Natural Selection 1. Every species is composed of a variety of individuals, some which are better adapted to their environment than the others. 2. Offspring inherits traits from their parents at least to some degree. 3. Since better adapted individuals generally produce more offspring over the...
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