definitions Flashcards
Hominin
The term used for humans and their ancestors after the split with chimpanzees and bonobos.
Holism
By using a holistic approach, anthropologists ask how different aspects interact with and influence one another.
Primatology
Primatologists study the anatomy, behavior, ecology and genetics of living and extinct nonhuman primates, including apes, monkeys, tarsiers, lemurs, and lorises, because nonhuman primates are our closest living biological relatives.
Paleoanthropology
Paleoanthropologists study human ancestors from the distant past to learn how, why, and where they evolved. They have to rely on physical evidence. This evidence includes fossilized remains (particularly fossilized bones), artifacts such as stone tools, and the contexts in which these items are found.
Bioarcheology
study human skeletal remains and the soils and other materials found in and around the remains.
Molecular Anthropology
Molecular anthropologists use molecular techniques (primarily genetics) to compare ancient and modern populations and to study living populations of humans and nonhuman primates.
Forensic Anthropology
Forensic anthropologists use many of the same techniques as bioarchaeologists to develop a biological profile for unidentified individual
Human biology
tends to explore how the human body is impacted by different physical environments, cultural influences, and nutrition. These include studies of human variation or the physiological differences among humans around the world.
Australopithecus afarensis
lived from about 3.9–2.9 million years ago in the Pliocene of East Africa.
Homology
When two or more taxa share characteristics because they inherited them from a common ancestor.
Monogenism
the idea that all people share a common single origin.
Polygenism
The idea that different peoples have different origins. Helped people to rationalize slavery because they could say that africans and europeans had no common ancestry
Descent with modifictation
Darwin’s term for what we now call “evolution”, in which animals and plants look different from their ancestors.
Natural Selection
an evolutionary process that occurs when certain phenotypes confer an advantage or disadvantage in survival and/or reproductive success. This is one of the forces of evolution.
Phenotype
A set of outwardly observable characteristics for an individual.
morphology
physical characteristics
The Pleistocene epoch
between 1.8 million years ago (mya) and 11,000 years ago (kya).
was a time of great climatic upheaval.
Altered between glacial periods and warmer periods
archaic Homo sapiens
interglacials
opposite of glacial periods in the Middle Pleistocene.
increased rainfall and a higher temperature that caused glaciers to melt.
These are marked by glacial retreat. Sea levels also increase and flooding of exposed coastlines and continental connections occurs. Plant and animal communities shift accordingly.
archaic Homo sapiens
Transitional spiecies between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens Increased brain size, decrease of canine size, reduction of the skull to become bipedal,
Neanderthals
Found in Germany.
lived between 150,000 and 35,000 years ago.
Fossils have only been found in Western Eruope, the Middle East, and western Asia.
Adapted to cold weather, long and low skull shape that is slightly wider, large noses, cheekbones are notably larger, brow ridges less arched than archaic Homo sapiens, thick bones with barrel chest size, Reduced jaw resulting in retromolar gap.
Mousterian tools
The stone tool industry of Neanderthals and their contemporaries in Africa and Western Asia. Mousterian tools are known for a diverse set of flake tools, which is different than the large bifacial tools of the Acheulean industry.
Mousterian tools were significantly smaller, thinner, and lighter than Acheulean handaxes and formed a true toolkit.
Levallois technique
Used by Archaic Homo sapiens, including Neanderthals. Involves the preparation of a core and striking edges off in a regular fashion around the core. Then a series of similarly sized pieces can be removed, which can then be turned into different tools.
The Middle Stone Age: Neanderthal Contemporaries in Africa
dates to between 300,000 and 30,000 years ago
Similar to modern Homo sapiens
Larger more intense fires that required exploration of dry wood, use of seafood in diets, manufacture of bone tools, use of adhesive and compound tools (e.g., hafted tools), shell bead production, engraving, use of pigments (such as ochre), and other more advanced tool-making technology (e.g., microlithics).
More complex than Neanderthals because: Response to climate change, increased use of language, marine resources, competition among other groups, and diverse habitats
Denisovans
found a child’s finger bone and an adult tooth from Denisova Cave
adaptations for life at high altitudes Prevented them from developing altitude sickness and hypoxia
Share DNA with modern Melanesians, Polynesians and modern Asian and Native Americans Interbreeding between Denisovans and humans
