Key concepts in Anthropology

Key Concepts for Review

• Actual Pattern: Synonym for real pattern.
• Alternative Pattern: A category of cultural patterns where various behaviors are acceptable in a situation without preference.
• Animalia: The kingdom of animals, which are organisms that cannot produce their own food.
• Anthropoidea: A suborder of primates including monkeys, apes, and humans.
• Anthropology: The study of human populations regarding differences and similarities, both biological and cultural.
• Archaeology: A branch of anthropology focused on reconstructing past daily life, customs, and explaining cultural changes.
• Ardipithecus ramidus: The earliest known hominid.
• Artifact: Material items manufactured or modified by humans.
• Atrophy: The wasting away of a body part, which Lamarck attributed to lack of use, citing the "tail" in humans as an example.
• Australopithecus: Genus of Pliocene and Pleistocene hominids.
• Australopithecus afarensis: A bipedal species of Australopithecus that lived 4 to 3 million years ago in East Africa.
• Australopithecus africanus: A species of Australopithecus existing about 3 to 2 million years ago.
• Australopithecus robustus: A robust australopithecine species from South African caves, dating from 1.8 to 1 million years ago.
• Biological Anthropology: The study of humans as biological organisms, their evolution, and contemporary variations; also known as Physical Anthropology.
• Bipedalism: Locomotion on two hind legs.
• Catarrhines: Old World primates with downward-facing, narrow noses and nostrils.
• Chimpanzee: The primate genetically closest to humans.
• Chordata: A phylum of metazoans, animals with a centrally located nervous system.
• Coccyx: The "hidden tail" in humans, consisting of the last four caudal vertebrae.
• Compulsory Pattern: A cultural pattern where only one type of behavior is allowed in a situation.
• Cultural Anthropology: The study of cultural variation and universals.
• Cultural Tradition: A component of a cultural system involving activities and behaviors continually practiced across generations.
• Cultural Patterns: Socially defined limits in which individual variation can occur.
• Culture: A complex whole including knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, capabilities, and habits acquired as a member of society.
• Dental Formula: A formula expressing dentition; for humans: 2.1.2.3/2.1.2.3 x 2 = 32 (2 incisors, 1 canine, 2 premolars, and 3 molars on each side of the upper and lower jaws).
• Endothermic: Warm-blooded, maintaining a constant body temperature.
• Environment: The natural, biological, and social setting where members of a cultural system operate.
• Ethnology: Another term for Cultural Anthropology.
• Eutheria: A subclass of placenta-bearing mammals.
• Eve Hypothesis: Rebecca Cann's hypothesis that all Homo sapiens descend from a single female from Africa about 150,000 years ago, based on mitochondrial DNA analysis.
• Evolution: A gradual process of change from simple to complex forms.
• Foramen Magnum: The hole at the skull's base for the spinal cord's passage to the brain.
• Fossil: Organic remains.
• Gene: The chemical unit of heredity.
• Gene Flow: The passing of genes from one gene pool to another through mating and reproduction.
• Gene Pool: The total sum of genes in a population.
• Genetic Drift: Random processes affecting gene frequencies in small, isolated populations.
• Hominidae: The family of hominoids including humans, great apes, and their direct ancestors.
• Homininae: The subfamily of hominids, including gorillas, chimpanzees, humans, and their direct ancestors.
• Hominina: The subtribe of humans and their direct ancestors.
• Hominini: The tribe of humans, chimpanzees, and their direct ancestors.
• Hominoidea: The superfamily of catarrhines, including apes and humans.
• Homo: The genus of modern humans and their ancestors.
• Homo erectus: The first hominid species widely distributed in the Old World; earliest finds are ~1.8 million years old, with a brain averaging 895-1040 cc.
• Homo floresiensis: A newly discovered hominid species in Flores, Indonesia, believed to be contemporary with early Homo sapiens.
• Homo habilis: Early Homo species with average cranial capacities of 630-640 cc, about 50% of modern human brain capacity; dating from ~2 million years ago.
• Homo luzonensis: A new species of Homo discovered in Callao Cave, Cagayan.
• Homo sapiens: The species to which all living humans belong, capable of interbreeding; emerged by 200,000 years ago.
• Homo sapiens neanderthalensis: A variety of early Homo sapiens found in Europe and Western Asia.
• Homo sapiens sapiens: Modern-looking humans, with undisputed examples from about 50,000 years ago.
• Ideal Pattern: The pattern of culture set as a standard.
• Incisors: Front teeth used for holding, seizing, and chewing food.
• Laetoli Footprints: Australopithecine footprints in volcanic ash found in Laetoli, Tanzania.
• Lucy: A female Australopithecus afarensis discovered in 1974 in Hadar, Ethiopia.
• Mammalia: A class of warm-blooded vertebrates with body hair; females have mammary glands.
• Metazoa: A subkingdom of multi-celled animals.
• Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA): DNA inherited solely from the mother.
• Mutation: Chemical changes in genes.
• Natural Selection: The process where better-adapted species survive and reproduce more.
• Notochord: A rod or cartilage that supports the body.
• Platyrrhines: New World monkeys with broad, flat-bridged noses and downward-facing nostrils.
• Pongidae: Hominoids including living and extinct apes.
• Preferred Pattern: A cultural pattern where one behavior is more valued.
• Primata: A mammalian order divided into prosimians and anthropoids.
• Primatology: The study of primates, especially non-human primates.
• Prosimian: Literally "pre-monkeys," a suborder of primates including lemurs, lorises, and galagos.
• Real Pattern: The pattern of culture that actually occurs.
• Restricted Pattern: A cultural pattern where certain behaviors are acceptable only to a segment of society.
• Sagittal Crest: A bone protrusion on the skull's median plane in primates like gorillas, for jaw muscle attachment.
• Sagittal Suture: Sutures on the median plane of the human skull.
• Sexual Dimorphism: Marked differences in size and appearance between males and females of a species.
• Society: A group of people in a territory who share a common language, not necessarily corresponding to nations.
• Stereoscopic Vision: Using both eyes for depth perception.
• Subculture: Shared customs of a subgroup within a society.
• Synthetic Theory of Evolution: Natural selection plus Mendelian genetics.
• Taung Child: A fossilized hominin skull found in Taung, South Africa, in 1924, identified by Raymond Dart as Australopithecus africanus.
• Tetrapoda: A superclass of vertebrates with four limbs.
• Typical Pattern: Meeting a specific situation in several ways, but one behavior is more frequent than the rest.
• Unguiculata: A cohort of mammals that have nails or claws.
• Vertebrata: A subphylum of chordates consisting of animals that have backbones.