ANTH201

• Anthropology


  the study of human kind in the past and present
• Holistically


  relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than into parts
• Disciplines of Anthropology

  • Archaeology
  • Cultural anthropolgy
  • Biological anthropolgy
  • Linguistic anthropology
• Cultural Anthropology


  how people who share a common cultural system organize and shape the physical and social world around them, and are in turn shaped by those ideas, behaviours, and physical environments
• Linguistic Anthropology


  Study of origins, evolution, and structure of language and symbols
• Archaeology


  Focus on material remains to better understand people and societies
• Biological Anthropology


  Study of human evolution and biological variation
• Applied Anthropology


  Practical applications of anthropological theories, methods and finding to solve real world problems.
• four anthropological approaches

  • Holism
  • comparison
  • dynamism
  • fieldwork
• six sub fields of biological anthropology

  • Bioarcheology
  • Paleoanthropology
  • Human biology & behavioural ecology
  • Primatology
  • Molecular anthropology
  • Applied bioanthropology (forensic & medicalanthropology)
• Bioarcheology


  Study of human skeleton and their archaeological context
• Paleoanthropology


  Study of path of our evolution based on fossils and DNA
• Human biology and behavioural ecology

  Study of modern human biological diversity
• Primatology


  Study of morphology, behaviour and evolution of humans closest relatives (primates)
• Applied Bioanthropology


  Use anthropology to assist with modern human problems such as forensic anthropology and genetic and biomedical research
• Knowledge system


  unified way of knowing something shared by a group
• Superior


  top or higher up
• Inferior


  bottom or lower down
• Anterior


  front
• Posterior


  back
• Ventral


  front or stomach
• Dorsal


  back
• Medial


  middle
• Lateral


  further out
• Proximal


  how close
• Distal 


  how far away
• Biological Evolution


  Change in the properties of groups of organisms over the course of generations
• main points of evolution

  • Diversity
  • Small Change over time add up to big differences
  • operates on groups
• essentialism


  What exist in reality is defined by its essence and actual variation is not real
• Great Chain of Being

  taxonomic description that is ordered (least to most complex), linear and non branching

  Elements < Rocks < Plants < Animals < Men < Angels < God
• book of animals

  Introduced an idea and possible mechanisms for biological evolution such as:

  • struggle for existing
  • developing new characteristics to ensure survival
  • transforming into new species
  • passing on successful characteristics
• methodology of investigation

  • Design experiments
  • Not just describing observations
  • What we learn about the world is testable
  • earliest version of the scientific method
• Heliocentrism


  Idea that the Earth and planets revolve around the sun
• Empiricism


  the idea that all learning comes from only experience and observations
• scientific method


  Idea of testing hypotheses via experimentation to get results and conclusions
• Biological “Species”

  group morphological similar organisms coming with common ancestor

  No matter the variations, if they spring from same seed then they are the same
• three precursors to the theory of evolution

  • Time
  • Biological Diversity
  • Change (Mutability)
• Geological time


  divides up the history of the earth based on fossils and layers of the earth
• Uniformitarianism


  theory that changes in the earth's crust during history have resulted from the action of natural processes
• Catastrophism


  theory that changes in the earth's crust during history have resulted mainly from sudden violent and unusual events