Anthropology Basics Quiz

Anthropocene

• Anthropocene challenges involve nature-culture, human-non-human, biology-technology, and economy-ecology interactions.
• Nine barriers to Earth's resilience include climate change, biosphere integrity, stratospheric ozone depletion, ocean acidification, biochemical flows (nitrogen and phosphorus), freshwater consumption, land system change, chemical pollution, and atmospheric aerosol loading.
• Tipping points are critical thresholds where rising global temperatures push Earth's system towards irreversible changes.
• Climate change is evidenced by rapid increases in atmospheric CO2 levels (1950-present), the greenhouse effect, rising average temperatures, warming ocean waters, shrinking glaciers, rising sea levels, extreme weather, and ocean acidification, which is largely caused by human activity (approximately 97%).

Climate Change

• The Paris Agreement (2015) aimed to reduce CO2 emissions below 1.5°C.
• China and the USA were the largest emitters of CO2, contributing 45% globally.
•  Kiribati's visible effect of climate change is its location 4 meters above sea level, with rising ocean levels leading to negative impacts.

IPCC Report

• The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) provided a 2021 report on the physical science basis of climate change.
• The IPCC's findings were approved by 195 countries.

COP 2021 and 2022

• COP2021 aimed to find solutions for keeping global temperature increases to 1.5°C. Strategies included reducing fossil fuel use, stopping deforestation, developing electric transport, investing in renewable energy, and protecting societies and nature.
• COP2022 focused on agreeing on policies to limit global temperature increases and adapt to climate change impacts, with a stated goal of a loss and damage fund and compliance with emission reductions.

COP 2023 and 2024

• COP2023 aims for a more inclusive conference to push for mitigation solutions and advance operationalization of the loss and damage fund.
• COP2024 emphasizes "In Solidarity For a Green World," aiming for main financial solutions, increasing the Loss and Damage Fund, and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

UN Actions

• UN bodies like UNDP and REDD+ are involved in initiatives to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (https://www.undp.org/ and https://www.un-redd.org/)

Beyond Anthropocene

• Anthropocene is about disorder in human and nature relations, the need for different approaches to thinking about nature requiring human responsibility.
• Anthropology's role encompasses reminding that things are different from how we perceive them, illustrating that everything is connected.

Anthropology

• Anthropology (as a science) is about the human condition across all times and places. This holistic perspective explores biological, social, and cultural characteristics.
• Anthropology strives to understand why humans do what they do.

Sources of Anthropology

• Anthropological knowledge originates from geographically diverse discoveries, research on "others," and analyses of "self."

Place in Science

• Anthropology encompasses a broad division of sciences, including fields like sociology, cultural studies, history, psychology, and economy. It also intersects across both humanistic and social sciences.

Sub-disciplines of Anthropology

• Various disciplines of anthropology exist - Physical anthropology, Cultural anthropology (applied and academic), social and historic anthropology.

Definition of Culture

• Culture represents shared ideas, values, and ways of perceiving the world within a society, used for understanding experiences and guiding behavior.

Characteristics of Culture

• Cultures are shared, taught through symbols, integrated, and dynamic.

Division of Anthropology

• Ethnography, etnology and anthropology are interrelated. Ethnography is the study and description of a particular culture, etnology compares and analyses different cultures. Anthropology studies humanity in its broadest sense.

Anthropology Adaptations

• Anthropology research is adapting to new directions including ethnology, ethnoarcheology, medical anthropology, ecological anthropology, anthropology of food, indigenous anthropology, religious studies, urban anthropology, and visual anthropology.

Cultural Events

• A single human species exists, understanding humans is a matter of biology, origin, language, and cultural differences and similarities. People living in different groups vary by culture and language but mostly share the same biology.

Contacts Between Cultures

• Contacts between cultures manifest through trade, projects, barter, communication, education, migration, and tourism, with four key models including globalization, McDonaldization, hybridization and globalization plus localization.

Anthropogenesis

• Anthropogenesis is the study of the origins and development of humankind, tracing species evolution emphasizing the shift from biological to cultural adaptive strategies over time. Early changes (2.5 million years ago) are distinguished from late periods of adaptation.
• Human evolution across the categories Mammalian - Order primates - Hominidae - homininae - Homini - genus Homo - to Homo sapiens, is detailed with important species/groups like Australopithecus, Homo habilis, and Homo erectus.

Origins of Humans

• Two main theories explain the origins of humans: the Multiregional Theory and the "Out of Africa" Theory.

Homo Sapiens

• Homo Sapiens are the archetypal, modern, biological human beings, originating approximately 300,000 years ago, exhibiting cultural explosion behaviors around 40,000 years ago, and displaying biological continuity with prior archaic species.

Anthropogenesis - Clarification

• Homo Sapiens emerged around 300,000 years ago, with cultural expansion and the disappearance of other archaic human species about 40,000 years ago.
• Present-day Homo sapiens share contemporary biology from 40,000 years ago, tracing their origins outside Africa.

Anthropogenesis of Europe

• Settlements in Europe began about 1 million years ago, with theories regarding migrations from Africa and Asia, and subsequent development into Indo-European groups and other groups.
• Psychical diversity (race) is considered in terms of its social construct of human species and race, with historical analyses including early ideas like "Caucasian," "Ethiopian," "Mongoid," and "Malayan".

Neolisation in Europe, Asia, and Americas

• Neolithic developments have a wide geographic spread in Europe, Asia, and Americas, and demonstrate the transition from the hunter-gatherer to sedentary agriculture, and agriculture as widespread adaptation, as seen in different regions from Jarmo and Jerycho (Europe and Asia) to settlements in agricultural areas in the Americas.

Cultural Development and Environment

• Cultural adaptations evolved as complex developments allowing for human survival, including use of tools and technologies for societal needs. Environmental factors shaped cultural groups' evolution.

Characteristics of Food-foraging Societies

• Key characteristics of food-foraging societies are small group sizes, simple technologies and economy, social ties and a lack of writing or stability.

Food Producing Communities

• Food producing communities in Neolithic societies, displayed changes in social organization and life structures towards greater sedentism (as contrasted with mobility in hunter-gatherers) and a variety of agricultural practices, depending on climate and geographic factors.

Development of Cultivation in Relation to Climate

• Different regions show cultivation development (Southwest Asia, Southeast Asia, and Americas) based on the climate as a factor, with corresponding crops and techniques, like wheat vs rice cultivation.

Pastoralism

• Pastoralism is an adaptation to specific environments, chiefly in southwest Asia, featuring animal husbandry and grazing, with estimations of 21 million pastoralists in the world, along with transhumance.

Development of Settlements and Civilisations

• The development of early cities and later civilizations, from advancements and social orders in regions such as Mesopotamia (Uruk, Sumerians), and more widely to early civilizations.

Marriage

• Marriage is a culturally sanctioned union defining rights and responsibilities among individuals and families, detailing rights regarding work, property, raising children, and status.

Globalisation

• Globalisation demonstrates a range of ideas, influence, and changes including intensification of social and cultural relations beyond traditional borders. Key elements include technology, de-stabilization of centers and peripheries in systems, and the growth of economic connections around the world from the start of the 20th century.

Global Corporations

• Global corporations (such as the Dutch East India Company, VOC), represent major economic and political powers with international character, and a structural model built around administration. Global corporations wield enormous influence over the lives of individuals and societies due to their economic power.

Ideas Induced on Culture

• Globalisation induces changes in culture centered on ideas around supply and demand chains, the creation of needs, and examples like engagement rings and food marketing, and corporations' impact on cultural practices and needs.

Corporate Greed

• The pursuit of profit can affect cultures and societies. Corporations, in this context, exploit the appropriation of ideas, resources, and land for profit, as seen in the example of Coca-Cola and its water use

Global Cities

• Global cities as significant hubs for corporations and economic activity are characterized by aspects like international labor markets and ethnic economies.

Antiglobalism

• The concept of antiglobalism critiques aspects of globalization, including monopolies, exploitation of workers, environmental issues, wealth disparity, and minimal impact on communities. Activists from the Global South may identify double standards in globalisation.

Alterglobalism

• Alterglobalism envisions changes to globalization that include improvements on human rights, arms control, and environmental protection, including broader democratic participation in global processes with a focus on social justice, and a hoped-for 'New Globalization.'

Test your understanding of key concepts in anthropology with this quiz. Questions cover aspects of culture, hunter-gatherer societies, and anthropological methods. Ideal for students looking to solidify their foundational knowledge in the subject.