Anthro Notes PDF

Chapter 1: What is Anthropology - Anthropology means the study of humans - More holistic than others - Has a scope of the planet - Culture is a collection of shared learned behaviours among individuals in a population. - What cultural or social anthropolog...

Chapter 1: What is Anthropology - Anthropology means the study of humans - More holistic than others - Has a scope of the planet - Culture is a collection of shared learned behaviours among individuals in a population. - What cultural or social anthropology studies. - Two sub-fields is Ethnography and Cross-cultural comparison - Linguistic Anthropology looks at the interaction between language and culture. - Archaeology studies the physical products of human activities, such as tools, art, buildings, etc. (Material Culture) - Different types of Archaeology: - Prehistoric Archaeology - Historic Archaeology - Bioarchaeology - Study of the old body remains. - Cultural Resource Management - Professional reserving of archaeological material. - Why do we need to do archaeology when there are written records? - Gives independent information about an event - Evolutionary Anthropology is the physical or biological Anthropology. - Modern human variability - Osteology - Study of bones - Forensic Anthropology - Applying information to legal context - Medical Anthropology - Medical science and Anthropology comes together - Molecular Anthropology - Questions in Anthropology using DNA - Human Evolution - Paleoanthropology - Studies fossil human records - Paleoprimatology - Studies difference in humans and non-human fossil - Primatology - Studies non-human primates Everything above make up what Anthropology is. Chapter 2: History of Evolutionary Thought - Evolution is a change in the genetic structure of a population from one generation to the next. (“Descent with modification” Darwin’s definition) - Basic tenets of (19th century) Biblical Creationism - Earth was created by god relatively recently - Large scale changes to the Earth's surface are the product of major catastrophes (Catastrophism) - Living things do not change through time (Fixity of species)  - Fossils can be explained away - All living things can be tied to The Great Chain of Being - Uniformitarianism is the theory that earth’s features are the result of long-term processes that continue to operate today as they did in the past. (The present is the key to the past) - James Hutton - modeled the earth as a self-regulating system - Important in developing uniformitarianism - Sir Charles Lyell - Wrote Principles of Geology (1830-1833) - Popularized Uniformitarianism - Adaptation is a fit between the organism and environment - Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet (Chevalier de Lamarck) - Inheritance of acquired characteristics - a) Lamarck’s view (Giraffes necks grew taller to reach trees) - Incorrect mostly apart from epigenetics - Thomas Malthus - Essay on the Principle of Population - Observed that if unchecked, populations can grow very quickly (exponentially) - The resources upon which those populations depend cannot grow as quickly - Populations can increase exponentially but resources don’t -> crisis - Charles Darwin - Wrote on the Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871) - He went on the Voyage of the HMS Beagle that let him see the world where his british land couldn't - Adaptive Radiation is the evolution of multiple divergent species from a single, less specialized, ancestral species. (Often occurs on islands) - “Darwin's Finches”, from the Galapagos islands - The different finch species have features of their beaks that are suited to their particular diets\ - Basic tenets of natural selection a) Variation exists b) That variation is heritable c) Some variants are better adapted to deal with their environment than other d) If left unchecked, every organism will produce more offspring than can survive e) More offspring of the better adapted variants will survive f) These offspring will have the adaptations of their parents g) Over time, this will lead to a change in the population to resemble the better adapted variants h) Over a long enough time frame this will produces large scale changed. Including speciation - Alfred Russel Wallace - On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type (1858) - Neanderthal 1 cranium - 1st gunna fossil to be recognized - Discovered in 1856 Chapter 3: Process of evolution - Adaptation is a fit between the organism and environment - Adaptive radiation is the evolution of multiple divergent species from a single less specialize ancestral species - Niche is the role of a species in it environment - Adaptive radiations happen in the context of open niches Evolution Processes - Selection - Natural selection - Artificial selection - Selection by humans for particular characteristics that are considered desirable - Sexual selection - Selection on features or behaviours associated with mating - Generally takes two forms - Male-male competition - Female choice - In humans selection is based on cultural factors (e.g., race, religion, wealth) can lead to non-random mating - (non-random mating, eg. inbreeding) - Mutation is a change in DNA… can refer to changes in DNA bases as well as changes in chromosome number or structure. - Only important to evolution if they occur in sex cells - The ultimate source of all variation - Sickle cell anemia - Result of a point mutation - A point mutation occurs in a single base in a codon - Genetic Drift is evolutionary change as a result of random processes - Fission Effect - Changes in the frequency of variants in a population as a result of subdivision (This may be the first step in speciation) - Founder effect - Differences in the frequency of variants in a population as a result of random chance in which members start a new population. - One outcome of founder effect can be an increase in the relative frequency of a rare type (e.g., rare but non-fatal disease) - Evolution bottleneck - A restriction in genetic variability with a decrease in population size resulting from random factors. - Low genetic variability in cheetahs is thought to be produced by a bottleneck. - Gene flow - Exchange of genes between populations - Has the effect of making populations more similar Timescale of Evolution - Microevolution is changes in allele frequencies within breeding populations (i.e., within species) - Can occur in an observable timeframe - Changes that result in the emergence of new species, the similarities and differences between species, and their phylogenetic relationships with other taxa Early Genetic Ideas - Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) - “Father of genetics” - Monk who worked in Czechia - Blending inheritance - Somewhat wrinkled peas - In several generations, peas would look more and more intermediate - Particulate Inheritance - Smooth and wrinkled peas - In several generations, there will be both types of peas on predictable proportions - Mendel’s “factors” are genes. - Gene is a segment of DNA that contains protein-coding information and various regulatory (e.g., promoter) and noncoding (e.g., introns) regions. - Alleles is alternate forms of a gene (e.g. Smooth vs wrinkled) - Homozygous is possessing two of the same allele (SS, ss) - Heterozygous is possessing two different alleles (Ss) - Evolution is a change in the allele frequencies in a population over time - I.e., a change in the frequency of the different forms of a gene - Dominant allele is the allele that is expressed in a heterozygote - Recessive allele is the allele that is not expressed in a heterozygote - Genotype is the genetic makeup of an individual - Phenotype is the observable or detectable physical characteristics of an organism - If the phenotype is a smooth pea, what is the genotype? - Monogenic is a characteristic coded for by only one gene (i.e., one set of alleles) - Mendelian traits - Polygenic is a characteristic coded for by more than one gene - The complex interaction of multiple genes can produce the appearance of blending - Some alleles are codominant, which can also produce the appearance of blending DNA and protein synthesis - James watson (1928-) & Francis Crick (1916-2004) - Describes the structure of DNA molecule in 1958 - Won the Nobel prize 1962 with Maurice Wilkins - Rosaline Franklin (1920-1958) - Created the x-ray diffraction of wet DNA - Structure of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) - Nitrogenous bases - A=adenine - T=thymine - G=guanine - C=cytosine - A always bonds with T - C always bonds with G - Nucleus - “Control centre” of the cell - Contains nuclear DNA, which you get from both parents (50/50 from mom and dad) - Ribosomes - Protein manufacturing centre of the cell - Mitochondrion - Energy producing part of the cell contains mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which you get only from your mother - Karyotypes - 23 pairs of chromosomes = 46 total - 22 pairs are autosomes - 1 pair are the sex chromosomes - Protein synthesis - Sequence of base pairs is copied onto a molecule of messenger RNA (mRNA) - RNA is a molecule like DNA except - One has more oxygen - Only a single helix - Bases include Uracil (U) rather than Thymine (T) - The information from the mRNA is used to produce a specific protein in the ribosome - Codon is a set of three bases in mRNA that codes for a particular amino acid - Anticodon is a corresponding set of three bases on the transfer RNA (tRNA) molecule - The genetic code can be used to translate a mRNA strand into the sequence of amino acids it encodes - Transfers DNA sequence out of the nucleus (builds a protein) R r R RR Rr r Rr rr What factors shape modern human variation - Non-random mating (endogamy) - Mating within some group (e.g, cultural, religious etc.) - Will tend to make more members of a group more similar to one another - May explain association of some diseases with some populations (e.g., tay Sachs) - Effects of local adaptation - Cold place more big - Hot place more slim - Allen's rule: in cold climates extremities tend to be shorter than in warmer climates - Why have lighter skin? - Synthesis of vitamin D - Needs penetration of sunlight - Absorptions of calcium - Low amounts causes rickets in children - Why have darker skin? - Protection against UV rays - Avoids skin cancer - Avoid folate breakdown - Sperm damage - Spina bifida in babies - Geography (isolated by distance) - People are most genetically similar to those who live near them - Gene flow (the exchange of genetic material between populations by interbreeding) Is there a scientifically valid “race” concept - How is human variability patterned - The race model represents one idea about how human variability is patterned, i.e., that the variation exists in distinct groupings or clumps that we can identify and name - As with any model, it makes certain assumptions and predictions, which can be tested - Common assumptions of the race model - In the context of human dispersal, groups of humans arrived in particular locations, and then stayed in those places, only breeding locally, and evolving based on local conditions - Through local adaptation and isolation from other groups they became more similar to one another, and accumulated differences from other groups, producing clusters - Therefore, the race model predicts that members of any particular cluster should have more in common with one another than with the members of another cluster - They should vary in ways that are concordant - How can we test this prediction? - Use genetics to look at patterns of variability  - If race model is correct, there should be high between group, variability and low within group variability - This was first studied by Lewontin in 1972 - He found that its low between group variability and high within group variability - Worldwide distribution of alleles for A and B blood groups - Non-concordant - Which clusters you are going to recognize are going to depend on which variation you choose - Since most variations are non-concordant different types of variation are going to produce different clusters - This explains why there has never been any scientific agreement on a single classification scheme that can account for all humans...in spite of hundreds of years of trying… - Attempts to classify humans… ALL WRONG - Linnaeus 1758 (varieties) - Homo sapiens - Blumenbach 1779,1780 (races) - Caucasian, mongolian, Ethiopian, American, Malayan - Coon 1985 (races) - Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Australoids, Congoids, Capoids - Rushton 2000 (races) - Cau - There is no scientific basis for the concept of race - There is no way of classifying humans that works to include all humans - There is no validity to making the assumption that because two individuals share a trait( such as skin colour) that they will be more likely to share other traits - Therefore, there is also no scientific basis for racism - Race is a social construct not a scientific one - Does racism have biological effects? - Hypertention = high blood pressure - “Existing structural racism within the Canadian health care system has created inequities in accessing COVID-19–related health care services among Black Canadians. There is a need to collect race-based data with a focus on resolving inequities and improving the health and well-being of Black people in Canada” - Does the concept of race have any value to scientific inquiry? (Final exam question) - Question you will consider in the second set of tutorials Go ape Film Lecture 4 Part 1: Features of Primates - Grasping extremities - Opposable thumb, big toe - Nails instead of claws - Relatively large brain (on average) - Improvements of visible features at the expense of the nose - Stereoscopic vision - - Postorbital bar - - Eats a lot of fruit (also insects, leaves) - Mostly arboreal, living in tropical forest - Mostly equatorial - Extended life history traits - Long gestation - Long period of infant dependency - K selected relative to other mammals - Few offspring - High investment in offspring - Long lives - R selected - Large litter size - Low investment in offspring - Short lives Part 2: overview of living non-human primates - - ^have to remember - Strepsirrhine - Rhinarium - Wet note of the strepsirrhine also have the comma shaped nostrils - Tooth Comb is a strepsirrhine trait - Used for grooming - Made up of the teeth (incisors and canine) - Lemurs, madagascar, big lemurs are extinct - (Coquerel’s Sifaka) Vertical clinging and leaping - Ring tailed lemurs, more terrestrial than other lemurs, mostly diurnal - Mouse lemur, smallest living primate, nocturnal - Aye-aye (lemure) largest living nocturnal primate - Korus (&pottos), very slow moving arborealists. Nocturnal, africa and asia - slow lorises are venomous, don’t tickle slow lorises, they do not like it and they are trying to poison you - Galago (lesser bush baby), vertical clinger and leaped, nocturnal, africa - Tarsies - very specialized vertical clinger and leaped - exclusively faunivorous - southeast asia - really long ankles - can’t move eyes - move head 180° - each eye larger than brain - Anthropoide  - Platyrrhines (pan american monkeys) - flat noses, broad, round nostrils that open to the sides - mode of locomotion is called brachiation - has a prehensile tail - howler monkey has a hyoid bone to allow low pitched call outs - owl monkey only nocturnal anthropoid - Catarrhines - narrow, slit like nostrils that open downwards - Haplorhine - Dry bose, simple-nosed primates with rounded/oval nostrils - Cercopithecoidea - afro eurasian monkey - (mandrill) full colour vision like all catarrhines, high levels of sexual dimorphism - colobus monkeys specialized for eating leaves - baboon more terrestrial than most other primates - proboscis monkey a juvenile male - macaque most widely distributed non-human primate, only non human primate in europe - Homeidea - Lesser ape (apes are not monkeys on exam) - Gibbon form monogamous pairings, locomote by brachiation, south east asia - Great ape, southeast asia, in the ground move dust walking, more solitary than other apes - gorilla knuckle walking, equatorial africa, largest non human primate - chimpanzee, pan troglodytes, equatorial africa, knuckle walk - bonobo, pan paniscus, equatorial africa Part 3: non human primate models for human behaviour - baboon - early studies on baboons focussed on rigid male dominance hierarchy and violent confrontations between males - more recent work has emphasized importance of friendship in baboon society - female choice may be as important as malala competitions (older males will suck up to the females according to barbara smuts) - - chimpanzee - child watching her mother open a nut with a rock, a “cultural” behavior? - washoe the first non human primate to learn sign language - highly territorial male dominate groups - common aggressive interactions - bonobo - kanzi the bonobo makes stone tools - less aggressive - female centered egalitarian groups muse sex as a means of reconciliation - Humans model in both bonobo chimps - Cerc  - homologous are similarities between organisms based on descent from a common ancestor - analogies are similarities between organisms based strictly on common function, with no assumed common evolutionary descent - African ape and human relationships - humans equally closely unrelated to chimpanzees and bonobos features they share were likely present in our ancestors Lecture 5: ARCHAEOLOGICAL & PALEOANTHROPOLOGICAL METHODS Part 1: Dating Methods - Relative dating - Provides a relative ordering of materials or sites - Stratigraphy - Study of sequential layering of deposits - Law of Superposition - In a stratigraphic sequence, the lower layers were deposited before the upper layers - Stratigraphic column - Showing the relative positions of layers at a locality - Physical correlation - Linking of geological layers (strata) based on their physical characteristics - Iridium anomaly at approc. 65 million years ago - The law of faneuil succession - Strata that contain fossils of the same animals are of the same age - Make use of index fossils - Fossils remains of known age - Should be broadly distributed with species of short duration - Used in biostratigraphy (fanual dating) - Cultural dating - The relative dating method that arranges numan-made artifacts in a time frame from oldest to youngest based on material, production technique, style, and other features - Absolute dating - (=chronometric dating) provides an actual chronological age, usually with an error range, for an object or a part of a site - Wilard F. libby - Father of the radiocarbon revolution (renfrew 1973) - Winner of the nobel prize in 1960 - Isotope - Atoms that have the same number of protons (same element) but different number of neutrons (different weights) - Half life - The time period in which one-half the amount of a radioactive isotope is chemically converted to a daughter product.  - Radiometric dating techniques - Carbon 14 - Can date anything organic that is -1000 years old to -50000 years old (abso. max 70000) - Potassium argon - Can date volcanic material that is -100000 years old to 4.6 billion years old - Variant on this technique, argon-argon dating is more accurate can be used on smaller samples and has been successfully used in more recent contexts - Archaeologist never do it on the first date Part 2: the stuff of evolutionary anthropology and archaeology - Artifacts - Objects or materials made or modified for use by hominins - Features - products of human activity that cannot be removed from the archaeological record as a single discrete entity. - Ecofacts - Natural materials that give environmental information about a site - Not modified by humans - Information that osteologists can get from a skeleton - Age - Sex - Health status - Appearance - Some aspects of behaviour Part 3: excavation techniques and principles - Archaeological site - Location of past human activity - Site survey - The process of discovering the location of archaeological sites - Also a way of collecting information for landscape archaeology - Context - The spatial and temporal associations of artifacts and features in ana archaeological site - Excavation is destruction - What it destroys is context, not the items excavated - Excavation strategies - Goal is to retain as much information about context as possible - Need to preserve information on its location in both vertical and horizontal dimensions - Also need to preserve some record of the geology of the site before excavation - In situ - The original place that an article was found Lecture 6 Part 1: Human Features - Some uniquely human features - Extremely large brain - Anatomical features associated with bipedalism (walking on two limbs) - Very small canines - Relatively flat faces (orthognathic) - Ability to modify raw materials into recognizable tool types - Chin - Ability to both learn and invent language Part 2: Historical Context - Two possible scenarios for human evolution - Brain first: the big brain is the most distinctive human feature, and must therefore have been evolving for the longest time - Bipedalism first: humans began walking on their hindlimbs first, which freed the hands for tool use, leading to brain expansion. - Charles dawson - Discoverer of Piltdown I in 1908 - Piltdown Man - Cranium clearly human - Jaw suggests of ape affinities - Small canine discovered 1913 AFTER reconstruction was made - HOAX - Fluorine dating tells you if bones have been in the ground the same length of time (relative dating technique) - Implement made of fossilized elephant bone found at piltdown in 1914 - Dawson hoaxed it, Part 3: Ardipithecus ramidus and bipedalism - Hominini is the group that includes all those species more closely related to HOMO sapiens than to any living great ape - Members of Hominini are called hominins (species named in class are on tests) - 3 clusters of early hominins - Pre-australopiths (7-4.4 mya) - e.g., Ardipithecus ramidus (-4.4 mya) - Ardi found in Aramis - Chimp-sized brain (-300-350 cc) - Anteriorly positioned foramen magnum (as reconstructed) - The big hole through which the spinal cord and brain connect - More anterior in the human - Short broad pelvis with laterally oriented iliac blades (as reconstructed) like humans - Opposable big toe (unlike humans) - More climbing - The canine of A. ramidus were intermediate in size between a human and a chimp  - Earlier, more primitive australopiths (4.2-2.1 mya) - E.g, australopithecus afarensis (3.9-2.9 mya) - Later, more derived australopiths (2.7-1.0 mya) - E.g., Paranthropus (robust australopiths) - In humans the iliac blades of pelvis face towards the sides, whereas in great apes the face towards the back - This allows the lesser gluteal muscles to act as abductors of the hip, rather than extensors, which act to stabilize the body over the support leg Part 4: Other early hominins - Australopithecus afarensis - lucy, the most famous skeleton of the hominin - 3.18 million years old - short , laterally oriented iliac blade - knee angled under the body - Human knee is angled inward, towards the middle of our bodies, which aids in stabilization - Taphonomy is the study of all of the events from an organism’s death to its discovery as a fossil. - The damage to lucy’s skeleton may have a taphonomic origin rather than a clinical origin - Footprints at Laetoli (Tanzania) - Likely made by Australopithecus afarensis - 3.66 million years old - Chimp-sized brain (average 420 cc) - Had a canine smaller than A. ramidus but larger than a human - Dental arcade a rounded rectangle (intermediate) - Robust australopiths - Louis and Mary Leaky in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania - Mary found Paranthropus boisei fossils (2.4-1.4 mya) OH 5 “zinj.” - Was likely an offshoot that did not lead to modern humans - - Mid term stuff ^ Part 5: The oldest stone tools - Oldest stone tools - 3.3million year old tools from Lomekwi West Turkana, Kenya - Lomekwian tool culture made using hammer and anvil technique - Some kind of australopith made them we dk - Core tools from olduvai gorge - Generally referred to as choppers - Also called pebble tolls, because they began with rounded pebbles - Start appearing at 2.6 mya - Flake tools from olduvai gorge - Making these may have been the goal, rather than making the core tools  - OH 7 (holotype) - Hand bones provide evidence of a “precision grip” - Homo habilis KNM-ER 1813 - From east of lake turkana, kenya - Larger brain (avg. 650 cc) - More vertical forehead - Big toe in line with other toes -> bipedal! - Smaller molars, less prognathic face - Jomo rudolfensis KNM-ER 1470 - From Koobi Fora, east of lake turkana, kenya - Cranial capacity (775 cc) - Early homo - Likely a tool maker but not the first Lecture 7: Homo Erectus, Homo naledi and Homo floresiensis - Homo erectus - -1.8 mya - -110000 years old - Travels from africa all the way to europe and Far eastern asia - Much more modern in many ways (e.g., brain size, body mass, technical innovations) - Eugene Dubois (1858-1940) discoverer if the first Homo erectus fossils - Average cranial capacity 900cc - Thick cranial bone - Contrasts with shorter, stockier H. erectus form china - Similar pattern of adaptation to climate seen in modern humans - Indonesia - Formerly the dutch east indies - Found fossils in trinil, java - Davidson Black (1884-1934) - Canadian involved in the discovery of Homo Erectus fossils at Zhoukoudian - “Peking Man” -reconstruction, Zhoukoudian cave, China ~780,000-400,000 ya - Lost during the second sino-japanese war (1937-1945) - Kamoya Kimeu - Homo erectus or Homo ergaster - KMJ-WT 15000 (Nariokotome boy) - From the west of lake turkana, kenya - 1.6 mya - Possible cause of death: dental abscess -. Septic shock - 5’3 - Dmanisi - Site in the republic of georgia - Himinis securely dated to -1.77 mya - D-2282 - Cranial capacity -650cc - D3444 skull from Dmanisi Cranial capacity 650cc - Postcranial remains from Dmanisi - Much shorter and stockier than Nariolotome boy (4’10-5’5 tall) Part 2: How human was homo erectus - The acheulian handaxe (biface) - Appears in africa starting -1.75 mya - Scraping - Break open bones - Digging - Sexual selection - Hunting? - O’brien 1984 projectile weapon thrown discus style? - East of movius: chopper-chopping tool industry - An eastern population of H. erectus independently invented handaxes - Possible reason for the movius love - Flake and core tools from zhoukoudian - Eastern homo erectus left africa before the invention of the acheuilian handaxe - Non stone tools like bamboo took place of the handaxe - Raw materials suitable for making hand axes were not available - Eastern homo erectus was bit dim - Fire - Extends the activity period - Opportunity to cook - Predator avoidance - Did homo erectus control fire? Controversial - Wonderwerk cave south africa - Excavated tools -1 mya - Burned bone fragments - Stems and grasses, no pieces of charcoal - Broca’s area - Language area of the brain - Only on the left side - Expanded into a cap in humans, which leaves a depression on the inside of the skull - Depression found in the nariokotome boy, but also in some chimps - Expansion of Broca’s area is probably necessary for speech, but not sufficient - Thoracic (chest) vertebra of homo erectus - Neural foramen - Smaller than in a modern human - May not have had adequate breath control for speech - What happened to homo erectus Part 3: Homo naledi - Dated to 350000-236000 ya - From south africa - Small braincase: 465-560cc - Physically small - Adult male 5ft - Supraorbital torus, sagittal keel, no chin like homo erectus - Very human like foot  - Long, curved phalanges good for climbing trees, but also features for using tools - How human-like was homo naledi? - Rock art, burial - Deliberate body disposal Part 4: Homo floresiensis - Sunda to sahul covered by deep water trench - In the middle is flores - Stone tools from Flores date back to at least 95000 years ago - When found in 1968 it wasn’t clear who made them...Homo erectus? Homo sapiens? Or some other species? - Homo floresiensis - Island of Flores - 100000-60000 ya - LB1 skeleton - 1m tall - Cranial capacity 417cc - Island rule - Big animals get small - Small animals get big - Dividing line approx. rabbit sized - Probably a product of a combination of - Limited resources - Fewer predators - Intraspecific competition - H. Floresiensis have small brains because of tiny body mass