Class Notes Before Midterm #1 Flashcards
Define Anthropology
The study of human culture and evolutionary aspects of human biology; holistic.
Define Cultural Anthropology
The study of the customs, ideas, and behaviours of contemporary cultures. Sometimes the present is studied to understand the past.
Define Culture
The strategy by which humans adapt to the natural environment; the customary ways of thinking and behaving of a particular population/society.
Define Primatology
The study of primates, especially learned behaviour.
Define Ethnology
The comparative study of cultures in contemporary cultures.
Define Ethnographic Research
Collecting information about a specific culture through field work.
Define Linguistics
Study of human speech and language.
Define Historical Linguistics
Study of how languages evolve and how they may be related.
Define Structural Linguistics
Study of human speech and language.
Define Physical Anthropology
The study of human biology within the framework of evolution.
Define Paleoanthropology
The study of the emergence of humans.
Define Molecular Anthropology
Using DNA evidence to answer anthropological questions.
Define Osteology
The study of bone; especially teeth.
Paleopathology
The study of ancient disease.
Define Archaeology
The study of human past through their material remains.
What are some subsets of Archaeology?
- Historical Archaeology (written documents/records)
- Classical Archaeology (areas around the Mediterranean/Rome/Greece)
- Pre-Contact Archaeology (before the written word)
- Underwater Archaeology
What are the research goals of Archaeology?
- Establish chronology
- Reconstruct and describe ancient life ways
- Attempt to explain current change
What is the Biocultural Model?
Biological influences as well as cultural influences have impacted out evolutionary history. Nature vs. Nurture.
Who was Charles Darwin?
1800s; Origin of Species 1859
Proposed Theory of Evolution by means of Natural Selection. Ideas included: All life on earth has common ancestry and the mechanisms of evolutionary change is natural selection, which depends on Variation, Heritability, and Differential Reproductive Success. Alfred Wallace also proposed this.
View of the World Before Darwin
World was young, species divinely created, species were immutable.
Who was Georges Curvier?
Late 1700s-early 1800s; French.
Proposed theory of catastrophism; massive catastrophes caused the earth to change.
Who was James Hutton?
1700s; Scottish.
Dealt with Geological Strata and the concept of uniformitarianism; changes of the earth happened over a long time; naturally.
Who was John Frere?
Late 1700s; English
Used uniformitarianism and stratigraohic analysis to argue that the tools found beneath the bones of extinct animals were quite old.
Who was CJ Thomsen?
Early 1800s; Danish
3 age system; Stone > Bronze > Iron
