Anthropology

• Anthropology: The study of the human species and its immediate ancestors across time and space
• The study of human biological variation (diversity) in time and space; includes: human evolution, human genetics, human growth & development, human biological plasticity (the body's ability to change as it copes with stresses, such as heat, cold, and altitude) and Primatology (biology, evolution, behavior, and social lige of monkeys and apes)
• Adaptation refers to the processes by which organisms cope with environmental forces and stresses.
• General anthropology or "four-field" anthropology, includes four main subdisciplines or subfields. They are sociocultural anthropology, anthropological archaeology, biological anthropology, and linguistic anthropology.
• Holism refers to the study of the whole of the human condition: past, present, and future; biology, society, language, and culture.
• To study and interpret cultural diversity, cultural anthropologists engage in two kinds of activity: ethnography (based on fieldwork) and ethnology (based on cross-cultural comparison).
• Ethnography provides an account of a particular group, community, society, or culture.
• Cultural anthropology, the study of human society and culture, is the subfield that descries, analyzes, interprets, and explains social and cultural similarities and differences.
• Culture is traditions and customs transmitted through learning.
• Paleontology is the study of ancient life through fossil record.
• Paleoanthropologists study human evolution through skeletal material (bones, skulls, teeth) and related material remains, such as biological traces (example: pollens, animal bones). They continue to compile the fossil record for human evolution.
• Anthropological archaeology reconstructs human behavior, social patterns, and cultural patterns, and cultural features through the analysis of material remains (and other sources, including written records, if available).
• Systematic survey provides a regional perspective by gathering information on settlement patterns over a large area.
• During an excavation, scientists dig through the layers of deposits that make up a site.
• Paleoanthropology is the study of early hominids and hominins through fossil remains
• Bone biology (measurement and examination of human skeletal remains), paleopathology (study of disease and injury in skeletons), paleoanthropology (study of early hominids and hominins through fossil remains) are all types of physical anthropology
• Relative Dating establishes a time frame in relation to other strata or materials rather than absolute dates in numbers.
• Stratigraphy is the study of earth sediments deposited in demarcated layers (strata).
• Taphonomy is the study of processes that affect the remains of dead animals
• NAGPRA is The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, it gives ownership of Native American remains to Native Americans.
• Evolution is the transformation of species, descent with modification.
• Uniformitarianism is the belief that natural forces at work today also explain past event.
• Natural selection is the process by which the life forms that are best suited to survive and reproduce in a particular environment do so in greater numbers than other members of the same population.
• Genotype is an organism's hereditary makeup.
• Phenotype is the expressed biological characteristics of an organism.
• Gene poll is all the genetic material in a breeding population.
• Gene flow is the exchange of genetic material through interbreeding.
• Speciation is the formation of new species.
• The punctured equilibrium model of evolution points to the fact that long periods of stasis (stability), during which species change little, may be interrupted (punctured) by evolutionary leaps.
• Catastrophism proposed that fires and floods, including the biblical deluge involving Noah's ark.
• According to creationism all life originated during the six days of Creation described in the Bible.
• Principle of superstition means that in an undisturbed sequence of strata, the oldest layer is on the bottom
• Adaptive radiation is a rapid increase in the number of related species following a change in their environment.
• The mechanisms of genetic evolution are natural selection, gene flow, and genetic drift
• Natural selection is the process by which the forms most fit to survive and reproduce in a given environment do so in grater numbers than others in the same population.
• Gene flow is the exchange and flow of genetic material between populations of the same species.
• Genetic Drift is the change in allele frequency that results from chance not natural selection
• Microevolution (descent with modification) is the small-scale changes in allele frequencies over just a few generations.
• Macroevolution (speciation) is the large-scale changes in allele frequencies in a population over a longer time period
• Reproductive isolation is the inability of a species to breed successfully with related segues due to geographic, behavioral, physiological, or genetic barriers or differences.