Introduction to Physical Anthropology

Slide 1: Introduction to Anthropology and Physical Anthropology Anthropology 101 Online

Slide 2: What is Anthropology?  Derived from the Greek Anthropos (“man” or “human”) and  Logos (“logic of” or “science of”)  What distinguishes anthropology from other disciplines involving humankind (medicine, sociology, psychology)  The definition sums up the difference: the comparative and holistic study of humankind

Slide 3: Anthropology is Comparative  It involves comparison:  between today’s cultures in the “ethnographic present,” whereby cultures are described as if they still existed—like these !Kung Bushmen in the 1950s (the job of ethnographers or cultural anthropologists)  Between cultures that existed through time unrecorded by history—the job of archaeologists  Between related species of the hominid family and hominin subfamily—Like “Lucy” according to this artist’s conception (the job of paleoanthropologists)  It asks the question: “Can what we learn from other cultures or related species be used to understand our own?”

Slide 4: Anthropology is Holistic  It involves “The Big Picture”  It integrates all aspects of a culture  How do hunting, social organization, art, and religion all fit together?  It also involves subfields of anthropology  How does human biology relate to culture?  Can we understand ourselves from behavior of other primates?  What can we learn from fossil humans? Or fossil relatives of humans?  That involves quite a lot of juggling between subfields and specialized disciplines.

Slide 5: Fields of Anthropology  Cultural Anthropology, comprising:  Linguistics, the study of spoken language  Sociocultural Anthropology, the study of cultures and their social organization  Archaeology, the study of past cultures by excavating and analyzing their remains  Physical Anthropology, which comprises  Paleoanthropology, the study of past human lifeforms  Primatology, the comparative study of nonhuman primate anatomy and behavior  Population Analysis, the study of human variation (“races”)  Forensics, the analysis of evidence related to criminal activity.

Slide 6: Linguistics  Comparative study of spoken language  Foundation of all culture  Reason: We learn all things by language  Language is based on symbols  Symbols: Use of one thing or event  To understand another thing and event  That are intrinsically unrelated  Meaning is conveyed by symbols in language

Slide 7: Sociocultural Anthropology  Comparative study of contemporary cultures  Comparison involves human individual and group behavior  Societies that govern human relations in an village (above) or other geographical space  Products of human behavior: tools, artifacts, housing  Several subfields: kinship and family, subsistence, economic, political et al; this group is an extended family.

Slide 8: Archaeology  Comparative study of cultural remains of human societies as excavated (left) and analyzed  Also involves human and prehuman physical remains where they are related to the artifacts and structures they left behind.  Comparison involves past cultures similar to each other  It also involves comparisons of past cultures that are similar to present ones

Slide 9: Physical Anthropology  Comparative study of humankind’s physical attributes  Comparison of Homo (sapiens) sapiens  Among today’s breeding populations (“races”)  With apes and monkeys (primatology)  With fossil hominids (paleoanthropology)

Slide 10: Culture: Focus of All Anthropology  What is Culture?  Tylor: “that complex whole which includes  Knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, custom  And any other capabilities and habits  Acquired by man (both genders)  As a member of society  Generally accepted definition  Learned human behavior  Shared by a group  As members of society

Slide 11: Culture is Learned  All we do, say, or believe is learned  Bee behavior, such as this scout bee using a dance to tell the others where the pollen is located, is genetically transmitted  Our behavior is not genetically transmitted  Dogs, like this one carrying the remote, learn by conditioning (repeated training with rewards)  We learn partly by imitation but mostly through language  Enculturation: transmission of culture from generation to generation

Slide 12: Culture is Based on Symbolism  Culture is learned through language  Symbols: Use of one thing or event to refer to another thing and event that are intrinsically unrelated  Exercise: speech sounds c, a, and t  Or in IPA [k], [æ], and [t] to make [kæt]  If we switch them around, we have new meaning: “act” [ækt] or “tack” [tæk]  We have an open system of communication

Slide 13: Sign or Signal  A sign or signal is used  To refer to another thing or event  That is intrinsically related to the first  Example: goose mating call has one sound pattern while a warning call has another  The two patterns cannot be combined to produce a third meaning  So their communication system is closed

Slide 14: Culture is Shared  A group with common language and custom shares a culture  Groups may be as small as 50 (!Kung band)  They may comprise nation of millions (e.g. Japan)  There may be subcultures in a culture (e.g. Hutterites in Saskatchewan) who use technology but retain traditional clothing and religious beliefs  Culture versus subculture is ambiguous

Slide 15: Culture is Patterned/Integrated  One aspect of culture reflects other aspects  They all fit into a pattern as a whole  Examples of integration:  Extreme example: Teotihuacan’s Pyramid of the Sun probably wasn’t built by this !Kung band—construction required the coordinated efforts of hundreds  But the !Kung have their own pattern: meat sharing elicited by arduous hunts, crude hunting gear, and game scarcity

Slide 16: Conclusion: All Four Fields are Linked by the Culture Concept  Sociocultural Anthropology: All aspects of human are learned, symbolic, shared, and integrated from language to technology to kinship (in most societies)  Linguistics involves the study of language, the medium of culture  Archaeology constructs the cultures of the past  Biological/Physical Anthropology asks how we humans have the capacity for culture in the first place.

Slide 17: The Science of Culture: The Role of Physical Anthropology’  The most basic science in anthropology rests in physical anthropology  We first look at what determines the biological capacity for culture  Then we examine the basics of scientific method.

Slide 18: What Does Physical Anthropology Have to Do With Culture?  Biologically, we have a capacity for culture through language, tool making and use, and bipedalism  We acquired those abilities over millions of year—therefore fossil hominins may give us a clue as to how and when.  There is no indication that any one “race” has a greater capacity for culture than any other “race.”

Slide 19: Physical Anthropology: Biological Capacity for Culture  How can we speak a language?  We have a brain structure for speech production and reception (both pictures)  Certain parts of the brain control our oral tract: tongue, vocal cords, lungs.  How about our tool making and use?  Upper part of the motor cortex in brain (lower left) controls our ability to make and use tools  Prehensile fingers, hands, and arms also enable tool making and use  Even ability to stand on our two feet and walk frees our hands for such purposes

Slide 20: Humankind: Present and Past  Today, Homo sapiens only occupies the planet  Millennia ago, there were many species:  Homo neanderthalensis, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo erectus, and Homo habilis  Millions of years ago, there was Australopithecus with several species  Other hominoids evolved with us:  Great apes of today (e.g. chimps, gorillas) arose from such fossil apes as Dryopithecus)

Slide 21: Contemporary Human Populations  Breeding populations or  “Races” or polytypic groups with regional distinctions capable of interbreeding  Serology: Blood Types & Their Distribution  Genetic-Linked Diseases: (Tay-Sachs, Sickle- Cell Anemia)  Epidemiology: AIDS (acquired from chimps’ SIV)  Forensics: Crime scene reconstruction

Slide 22: Past Human/Fossil Hominid Populations  Genetics and Natural Selection: studies in biological human evolution  Paleoanthropology: comparative study of fossil primates, including hominids  Primatology: comparative study of monkeys and apes, their morphology and their behavior  Biodiversity: how polytypic populations came to be  Human ecology: interaction between human/prehuman populations and their environments

Slide 23: Physical Anthropology as Science  Science is a body of knowledge gained through observation and experimentation  Latin Derivation: Scientia or knowledge  Scientific Method is a mode of inquiry that requires the (a) generation, (b) testing, and (c) acceptance or rejection of hypotheses or explanations of a phenomenon.

Slide 24: Fundamentals of Scientific Inquiry  Hypothesis: An educated guess to explain the existence of a thing, lifeform, or event.  Theory: A hypothesis confirmed by repeated observation of a thing, lifeform, or event  Theories are always probabilistic  A new theory that better explains facts can replace an existing theory.  Theories are never “proven” once and for all  Generating and testing hypotheses involve Induction and Deduction  Use the following diagram and explanations to understand how the process works

Slide 25: A Diagram of Scientific Method

Slide 26: Induction  Induction involves making observation of things and events in the field.  One then searches for certain attributes of things and events observed to find  Patterns: Do things or events fit together in some way  Is there a connection between one thing or event and another  Associations: do thing and events appear together under some condition.  If we find these attributes, we arrive at a hypothesis, which entails an explanation of the pattern, connection, or association

Slide 27: Deduction  Deduction works the other way  We assume or have found a pattern, connection, or association between things and/or events.  Now, how well does the general explanation predict the specific thing or event in a new situation or area of inquiry.  Repetition: Does the phenomenon occur again and again?  Universality: Is the phenomenon found everywhere, under all circumstances?  Can exceptions be explained?  Does new information confirm or contradict the hypothesis generated by the theory?

Slide 28: Belief Systems  Some matters are outside the scope of science  Meaning of life is a philosophical or theological question  Behavioral norms in society often defy scientific questions.  What are we here for? Science can’t help us here.  Belief Systems: Ideas that are taken on faith cannot be scientifically tested

Slide 29: Scientific Method: Sometimes Research Involves Political Fudging

Slide 30: Conclusion I  Anthropology emphasizes  Holism: How does everything fit into a pattern?  Comparison: In what way are biological organism the same? How are they different?  The same can be said about groups, whether human or nonhuman (baboons, chimps, many others)

Slide 31: Conclusion II  Biological/Physical Anthropology is  Based on scientific inquiry: controlled tests and observations  Relies on established scientific theory, of which evolutionary models are one.  Involves study of contemporary populations: varieties of human groups and their characteristics  Are applied to practical uses (medicine, genetic disorders, forensics)