Intro to Evolutionary Anthropology
Reading
- Anthropology - the global and holistic study of human culture and biology
- Holistic - considering all aspects of the research subject
- Morphology(形态学) - the study of the form and structure of organism
- Ecology - the study of interrelationships of organisms and their environemnt
Studies of anthropology
Evolutionary Anthology - a discipline within bio-ant, and application of evolutionary theories to study morphology(形态学), ecology(生态), and behaviour of human and non-human primates (primatology), extinct human and non-human primates (paleoanthropology), human diversity and variation, and the various evolutionary factors that influence human health (medical anthropology)
- Primatology - study of non-human primate species
- Paleoanthropology(古生物学) - study of biological evolution of humans and non-human primates
- Multidisciplinary study of biological evolution of primates
- Changes in human cultural activities
- Human variation - anthropologist study human variation to determine spatial and temporal variations in human features
- Medical Anthropology - the study of how social, environment, and biological factors influence health and illness
- Biological Anthropology - the study of human and non-human primates in their biological and demographic dimensions
- Forensic Anthropology - focuses on the skeletal remains of humans. Seek to determine the age, sex, stature, ancestry, and any trauma or disease of the deceased.
Conducting Research
| inference | a process of reasoning in which a conclusion is derived from one or more facts |
|---|---|
| Falsifiable | study design that enables the researcher to make observations that disprove a hypothesis |
- Research methods: descriptive (collect data about the study subject), casual (investigate cause and effect relationships), and applied (determines the means by which a specific recognized need can be met)
Development of Evolutionary Concepts
| Paleontology | the study of fossilized life forms |
|---|---|
| classify | scientific methods of placing organisms in system based on order by classes & categories |
| Taxonomy | theory and practice of describing, naming, and classifying extant and extinct organisms |
| Binomial nomenclature | the scientific methods for assigning names to species and genera |
| Genus | (pl. genera) a taxonomic group of species exhibiting similar characteristics |
| Biogeography | the scientific study of the geographic distributions of organism |
| Comparative anatomy | the study of anatomical features of animals of different species (Similarities and differences between anatomies of different species) |
| Fixity of spices | a theory that derives form Biblical creation, in which each living thing has always existed and will always exist by God;s acts of creation |
| Catastrophism | the idea that catastrophic events altered geological features and caused that extinction of plants and animals |
| Uniformitarianism | a theory that natural processes, such as erosion, operating in the past are the same as those that operate in the present |
| Stratigraphy | the study of rock layers (strata) and the relationships among them |
| Glaciology | the study of glaciers and other natural phenomena involving ice |
- Carolus Linnaeus - first comprehensive classification system for living thing
- Each living thing named separate species (Binomial Nomenclature)
- First letter of genus if capitalized, species destinations always lower case (Homo sapiens)
- Jean-Bapitiste Lamarck - developed Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics
- Acquired traits - developed through use of disuse, passed on
- First to formulate method for origination of new species through use or disuse of certain characters of organism
Charles Darwin and Theory of Natural Selection
Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace co-formulated the theory of natural selection. However, Darwin was unable to determine correctly how organismal traits passed from one generation to the next.
- Botany - the scientific study of plants
- He reasoned that nature selects for or against individuals in the natural world - favourable variations or traits of individuals of a species should enable some to better compete in nature
- If variety proves advantage to certain individuals, then they may produce more offspring
- By selection - he meant that the environment chooses certain physical aspects of an organism, so that some individuals are more likely to survive than others. [theory of natural selection]
- The Tree of life - all extant and extent species share a common ancestry. The process of species for nation as a slow, gradual accumulation of slight variations in traits of individuals
- Societies change, they do no experience biological evolution
- Three Postulates of Darwinian Evolution
- Struggle for existence - ability of population to expand is infinite, but environment finite
- Variation in fitness - Organisms vary, some individuals prossess traits enabling them to survive & reproduce more successfully than others in same environment
- Inheritance of variation - advantageous traits inherited by offspring become more common in succeeding generations. Traits that confer advantages in survial and reproduction retained in population; disadvantageous traits disappear
- Social Darwinisms - the misguided application of the concepts of natural selection and biological evolution to the historical development of human societies, placing special emphasis on the idea of “survival of the fittest”
- Creationism - the largely Christian belief that all life was created by a supernatural deity (typically God), the existence of which is presupposed
- Intelligent design - the largely Christian belief that living things occur because of intelligent cause, not as a result of undirected process, such as evolution and natural selection
- Theology - the study of religion from a religious perspective
- Agnostic - a person holding the belief that God is unknown and unknowable
- Conclusion: No fixity of species and notion on short, catastrophic geological history for earth must be incorrect (hated slavery)
Gregor Mentel - father of genetics
Gregor Mendel’s studies of trait inheritance in pea plants revealed the mechanisms of heredity. Although contemporary scientists ignored Mendel’s work, modern scientists credit Mendel as a founder of the science of genetics.
- Genes — basic, functional units of heredity
- Phenotypes - observable traits of an organism vs. Genotype - non-observable traits
- Allele - one of several forms of the same gene
- Homozygous - an individual has 2 of the same allele at a gene
- Heterozygous - an individual has 2 different alleles at a gene
- Dominant allele - expressed alley in the phenotype
- Recessive allele - expressed only in the homozygous condition (both recessive)
