Anthropology REFERENCES: Ember, C. (2007). Anthropology. Singapore: Pearson Educational South Asia. Ember, C., Ember, M., & Peregrine, P. (2009). Human evolution and culture: Highlights of anthropology. (6th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, Inc. Ervin, A. (2005). Applied anthropology: Tools and perspectives for contemporary practice. Boston: Pearson. Kottak, C. (2011). Anthropology: Appreciating cultural diversity. New York: Mc Graw-Hill. Kottak, C. (2008). Anthropology: The explanation of human diversity. Boston: Mc Graw-Hill. Launda, R. (2010). Core concepts in cultural anthropology. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education. Nanda, S. (2007). Cultural anthropology. Belmont, California: Walsworth/Thomson Learning.

1. Anthropology
Evolution
primAtology
humAn AncEstry
physicAl vAriAtion

2. EVOLUTION
• 8th C/19th C: Evolution was a viable theory
• C. Linneaus (1707-1778): classified plants & animals
in a systema naturae which placed humans in the
same order (Primates) as apes & monkeys
• J. B. Lamarck (1744-1829): species were not fixed in
form. Acquired characteristics could be
inherited.e.g. giraffes
• G. Cuvier (1769-1832): Catastrophism: changes in
the earth & fossil record. E.g. Noah’s flood
• Hutton & Lyell: Uniformitarianism - Natural forces
constantly shape and reshape the earth. Species
evolved thru natural selection

3. EVOLUTION
CHARLES DARWIN
 Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
(1859)
 The Descent of Man (1871)
• Natural Selection (variety, heritability, differential
reproductive process).
• Primate origins (similarities between apes and
humans)

4. • Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace – mechanism of
Natural Selection
 Every specie consists of various individuals, some of
which are better adapted to their environment than
others (Variation)
 Offspring inherit traits from their parents
(Heritability)
 Since better adapted individuals produce more
offspring through time than the poorer adapted,
the frequency of adaptive traits increases in
subsequent generations. (Differential Reproductive
Success)

5. Sources of Biological Variation
 Genetic Recombination – A unique offspring is produced by a shuffling
of the parents’ genes.
 Random segregation - sorting of chromosomes in mieosis (the process
by which the reproductive cells are reproduced).
 Crossing-over - the exchange of sections of chromosomes between one
chromosome and another.
 Mutation – change in the DNA sequence (chemical substance which
controls heredity). Ex. Galactosemia caused by recessive gene and usu.
result in mental retardation and blindness.
 Genetic Drift – refers to random processes that affect gene frequencies
in relatively isolated population
 Gene Flow – genes pass from one population to another through mating
and reproduction

6. QUESTIONS
Do you think the theory of natural selection
is compatible with religious beliefs?
How might the discovery of genetic cures &
the use of genetic engineering affect the
future of evolution?
Why do you think humans have remained
one species?

7. BIPEDALISM
Human beings are proficient in the mode of
locomotion known as bipedalism or walking on
two legs. Imagine that you have been hired to
write copy for an “owner’s manual” of the human
body. On a sheet of paper, provide detailed
instructions for standing from a seated position
(without using the hands) & moving forward for
about 5-10 feet using only the legs.

8. Primatology
• We can infer how and why
humans diverged from the other
primates

9. Common Features of Primates
• Two bones in the lower part of the leg and in the
forearm
• Collarbone/Clavicle
• Flexible prehensile (grasping) hands
• Stereoscopic vision
• Relatively large brain
• Only one (or two) offspring at a time
• Long maturation of the young
• High degree of dependence on social life and
learning
• Reproductive system

10. TYPES
• Prosimians: pre-monkey ; depend more on smell for
information; have mobile ears; whiskers, longer
snouts and fixed facial expressions.
• Anthropoids: have rounded braincases; reduced,
nonmobile outer ears; and relatively small, flat faces
instead of muzzles; have highly dextrous hands.
• Lesser Apes (Hylobates) : Gibbons and Siamangs
• Great Apes (Pongids) : Orangutans, Gorillas, and
Chimpanzees

11. • Sexual dimorphism – males are larger, have
longer canines, more aggressive than
females
• Capable of surviving in arid and seasonal
• Ischial callous on their bottoms

12. Hominoids vs other monkeys
• Longer brains especially the cerebral cortex
• Fairly long arms, broad trunks, no tail
• Hands are longer than other primates
• More bipedal
• Dentition is unique, molars are flat and rounded
• Gorilla and Chimpanzee have proteins and DNA
similar to humans; use tools; ability to learn sign
language
• Diverged from a common ancestor. 5-6 MYA

13. Humans
• Bipedal
• Human brain, particularly the cerebral cortex, is the
largest and most complex
• Human females may engage in sexual intercourse at any
time throughout the year
• Human offspring has a proportionately longer
dependency stage
• Human behavior is learned and culturally patterned.
(spoken, symbolic language and the use of tools to make
other tools)
• Humans have a division of labor in food-getting and food
sharing in adulthood.

14. Human features related to
Bipedalism
• Tool making
• Enlargement of the brain
• Prolonged period of infant dependency
• Sexual division of labor
• Food sharing

15. HUMAN ANCESTRY
Australopithecines
Homo Habilis
Homo Erectus
Homo Sapiens
Homo Sapiens Sapiens

16. AUSTRALOPITHECINES
• the 1st man-apes of Africa; 4.5 million yrs.ago
• adapted to light woodland or savannah living
• with herbivorous dentition; food-crushing molar teeth.
• almost fully bipedal but probably retained an acrobatic nimbleness in
tree climbing
• many were small and very strong for their size.
• brain size: 300-500 cm
• Raymond Dart’s “Taung baby” (A. Africanus) possibly the missing link. 1st
fossil hominid discovery South Africa in 1924. Relatively large brain size.
Teeth were of human type. Foramen magnum – opening at the buck of
the skull thru which the spinal cord emerges, was below the brain case
• Fossil “Lucy” (A.Afarensis). by Tim White and Don Johanson in 1974 in
Ethiopia; seen to be a hominid, since the knee and pelvis were
characteristically human.

17. HOMO HABILIS
• The making of human kind
• Olduvai tools : HH crosses the threshold from man-apes to humans..tool-
making
• Expansion of brain size that allows the development of characteristically
human intellectual, linguistic and social attributes and finer manipulative
skills. The process of becoming human in a biological and social sense is
called homonisation.
• Habilis means “handy” or “dextrous”; label by Louis Leakey in 1964 to the
hominid remains associated with the earliest tools at Olduvai.
• Brain size: 500-850 cm
• Lighter jaw; decrease in incisor size
• Fossils in Eastern Africa

18. HOMO ERECTUS
• Tools, Hunting , Fire
• Hairless, erect posture, smaller face, teeth & jaw due to cultural
innovations: discovery of fire & Acheulian tool)
• Tool makers and users; e.g. Acheulian hand axe ( East Africa and Israel;
1.6 Ma;
• Turkana boy – oldest and most complete skeleton of a single early
human; West Turkana, Kenya; 1984; skeletally fully modern, bigger
than HH
• Larger brain size – early Java man 600-800 cm; late H. erectus volumes
were as much as 1250 cm.
• Represents a steady change in becoming mentally, socially and
culturally more human. (Evidence of hunting and gathering; travelling
& carrying would put a pressure on bipedalism

19. HOMO SAPIENS
• Multi-regional hypothesis: H.sapiens had risen all over
the world with perhaps gene flow linking one group to
another and conserving the genetic integrity of a specie.
Fitted with the racial ideas of five ancient races (Bushmen,
Negroids, Caucasians, Mongoloids, and Australoids).
• H. Sapiens Neandertahalensis: Neander River in Germany.
They were upright and un-apelike; stocky and muscular;
enlarged pelvis
• Mousterian tool kit (refinement of an earlier Levalloisian
method)

20. HOMO SAPIENS SAPIENS
• Type specimen is Cro-Magnon man, dated at 30Ka, from
France; taller and finer-boned than Neanderthals; the last
European cavemen had impressive cave art at places in
France and Spain; ritual burial sites reveal the devt. of
jewelry, colored beads, and ivory bracelets.
• Cultural take-off (Art, Language, Hunting, etc.)
• As culture picked up and passed on ideas, the human
species’ power over its envt. increased beyond the normal
energy and physical limits of a hominid, setting the scene
for the dawn of agriculture and the earliest civilization.

21. What happened to the Neanderthals?
• Neanderthals and modern humans co-
existed in Europe and Middle east for 20k or
60k yrs.
• Possible causes:
• Interbreeding
• Genocide
• Extinction

22. Theories about the Origins of Modern Humans
• Single Origin Theory: modern humans emerged in
Africa and spread to other parts of the world
• Multiregional Theory: modern humans emerged
into various parts of the world, becoming the
varieties of humans today
• Fitted with racial ideas of five ancient races
(Bushmen, Negroids, Caucasians, Mongoloids and
Australoids)
• Intermediate: There may have been some
population replacement local continuous evolution
and interbreeding

23. Physical Variation
• Looks at how and why population
physically resembles or vary from each
other
• 1400’s concept of race developed and
became fixed in the 1700’s
• Common classification: white, black, yellow
race

24. • Concept of race has greatly influenced humanity and even
the thoughts of 10th century’s most vicious criminal
• Hitler’s Aryan race
• Apartheid in S. Africa thrived due to the belief that blacks
belonged to an inferior race
• European expansion was based on the “white man’s
burden” percept. The early phrase of colonialism thus
coincided with the rise of racism
• Many beliefs about race, however are mythical in nature:
Negroid (dark, tightly curled black hair), Australian
Aborigines (dark wavy and sometimes blond hair)
• Race is more of a social cultural construct than a
biological fact, superior or inferior culture to skin color
but not hair color

25. Processes in Human Variation
• Adaptation: genetic change that gives it carriers a better chance
of survival and reproduction than those without the genetic
chance to live in the same environment
• Acclimatization: involves physiological adjustments in individuals
to environmental conditions
• Tanning – an acclimatization among white skinned people
when exposed to high levels of solar radiation is related to
adaptation
• Influence of the cultural environment: culture can alter the
environment
• Inca, Andean society practice head binding to create physical
variation
• Hebrew, Abraham and all males had to be circumcised as a
sign of covenant between them