Introduction to Anthropology
ANTH 101 - Morrisville State College
Professor Kurt Reymers

Exam 1 Review

Following are questions about and an outline of the main concepts for the assigned chapters. You will need to know all of this information in detail for the exam. Use the questions section like "flash cards," to test your self about your ability to answer the questions and assess how well prepared you are to take the exam.

Review-Questions:

Introduction

- What is Anthropology?
- Who are its early founders?
- When did it become a well-established academic discipline?
- Who is the academic "father" of anthropology, and what central quetion did he pose which led to the four fields of study?
- What are the four fields of anthropology?
- Can you describe each of the four fields in some detail?
- How can anthropology be applied?
- What is ethnocentric bias?

Evolution and Genetics

- Who are the notable figures in the development of theories of biological evolution?
- What were the contributions Linnaeus, Lamarck, Darwin, Mendel and Watson/Crick to our understanding of evolution?
- Define "natural selection." What are the three principles of natural selection? What does "survival of the fittest" mean in this context?
- Microbiology: What is DNA? What is it made of and what is its purpose? What is the difference between genotype and phenotype?
- What is a species and how do new species emerge over time? What is "comparative anatomy"? What is "speciation"? What are the five "fingers" of evolution that help explain how speciation occurs?
- What is a clade, or line of descent, diagram?

Primatology

- What animals fit the traditional taxonomy of primates?
- What are the shared evolutionarily-developed physical traits (phenotypes) of primates?
- How is the traditional taxonomy of primates different from the cladistic taxonomy of primates?
- What is the difference between Strepsirhines and Haplorhines?
- What animals fit into the group called Anthropoids and why?
- What animals fit into the group called Hominoids and why?
- What animals fit into the group called Hominins and why?
- What are the four Epochs of the Cenozoic Era?
- What were the significant evolutionary developments of humans in the Miocene Epoch (23mya to 5mya)?

Origins of Humanity

1. The First Hominins and the Emergence of Genus Homo

- What is the significance of the brain to our evolutionary transition (natural selection) into genus Homo?
- Describe the genus Australopithecus.
- How did Homo habilis differ biologically from Australopithecus?
- How did Homo erectus differ biologically from Homo habilis?
- What is the "stone age"? When does the Lower Paleothic Age begin and why?
- What tools were being made in the pre-stone age period of H. habilis? What were its characteristics?
- What "tool industry" was indicative of the Lower Paleolithic era of H. erectus? What were its characteristics?
- What three other cultural developments were invented by H. erectus?

2. The Emergence of Homo sapiens

- In what Paleolithic era did modern man (H. sapiens) evolve?
- What "tool industry" and other cultural developments was indicative of the Upper Paleolithic era of H. sapiens? What were its characteristics?
- What other discoveries have been made of modern H. sapiens? Who is "Cro-Magnon" man? Who is "Kennewick Man"?
- How old is the most ancient art (cave drawings, beads, sculpture, etc.)? What is its significance?
- What are the competing theories of where H. sapiens came from and how we spread around the world?
- How is the presence of H. sapiens in the New World (N. and S. America) explained?

Know this chart:

Review-Outline

A, Introduction

1. What is Anthropology? - The scientific study of human beings
2. Origins of Anthropology - Khaldun, Parker, Boas - (father of academic anthropology)
3.  The Discipline of Anthropology is split into four fields:

a. Biological (Physical) Anthropology

b. Linguistics

c. Archaeology

d. Cultural Anthropology


Applied Anthropology cuts across these fields in the work world.

4. Ethnocentric Awareness - based on the attitude that one's own culture is superior
      Cultural Relativism: the idea that cultures are unique and must be judged only in their own terms

B. Evolution and Genetics

1. Notable Figures in Evolution: Linnaeus, Lamarck, Darwin, Mendel, Watson & Crick (know dates and contributions of each)

2. Principles of Natural Selection (aka “Descent with Modification” or Darwinian Evolution)

a. Variation
b. Heritability
c. Differential Reproductive Success: survival of the fittest
d. DNA: i. Deoxyribonucleic acid, ii. Genotype, Phenotype, iii. Dominant and Recessive genes, iv. Messenger RNA (mRNA) and Ribosomes

3. Species Differentiation (The Origin of Species)

a. Species Defined: A population that consists of organisms able to interbreed and produce fertile and viable offspring. Meiosis is important to this process. Genetic change alters the form of a species.
b. Comparative Anatomy (Morphology): identifies similarities and differences between living organisms
c. Sources of Genetic Change (Speciation, new species' evolution) - the Five Fingers:
i. Pinky: small population(recombination effect);
ii. Ring Finger- non-random mating;
iii. Middle finger: mutation;
iv. Pointer finger: gene drift and flow;
v. Thumb: Adaptation

C. Primatology

1. Features of Primate Evolution
Primates share at least six evolutionary trends:

      a.           Increasing brain size, relative to body size, and increased brain complexity
      b.           Decreasing facial projection and reliance on the sense of smell
      c.           Increasing dependence on sight
      d.           Decreasing number of teeth
      e.           Increasing period of infant dependence
      f.            Greater dependence on learned behavior

2. Patterns in Primate Evolution
Primates share a unique “prehensile morphology”:
      a.           Opposable thumbs and great (“big”) toes
      b.           Nails rather than claws on at least some fingers or toes
      c.           Pads at the tips of fingers and toes with many nerve endings
      d.           Dermal ridges, or “friction skin,” on toes, fingers, soles, palms, and underside of
                    prehensile tails

3. Approaches to Primate Taxonomy
           Cladistic taxonomists divide primates into Strepsirhines and Haplorhines.
            a. Strepsirhines
            Have a rhinarium, or upper lip, directly attached to the gums
            Include lemurs and lorises
            b. Haplorhines
            Do not have a rhinarium
            Include tarsiers and anthropoids
                  i. Tarsiers or Tarsiformes
                        Small, nocturnal primates
                        Originally grouped with lemurs and lorises into prosimians, but since separated
                  ii. Anthropoids
                        Consist of monkeys, apes, and humans
                        Subdivided into New World anthropoids (all monkeys, classified as
                         “platyrhines”, or flat-nosed primates) and Old World anthropoids

4. Hominoids
      a. Apes and humans differ from monkeys in teeth, skeletal shape and size, and lack a tail.
             Humans and their immediate ancestors are called hominins.
      b. Gorillas
      c. Chimpanzees

5. Primate Evolution during the Cenozoic
      a. Paleocene Epoch (65-54 mya)
            Earliest evidence for primates
      b. Eocene Epoch (54-38 mya)
            Earliest evidence for primates
      c. Oligocene Epoch (38-23 mya)
            Earliest evidence for primates
      d. Miocene Epoch (23 to 5 mya)
            Chimpanzees, gorillas, and humans share a common ancestor in the late Miocene.
            Hominins, a bipedal hominoid, appear during the late Miocene.
            The Australopithecene genus emerged shortly after the Miocene.

D. The Origins of Man and Emergence of Modern Humans

1. Origins of Man - the first Hominins

In the evolutionary story of human development, the brain is the most important organ to examine. Growth of the brain is clearly connected to changes and development of human beings.

a. About 3-4 million years ago, prior to human development, Australopithecus afarensis (among others) roamed the plains of Africa.

b. Slowly, Australopithecus had evolved into Homo habilis, "man with ability" (handy man) - tool use and culture begin at the same time. The earliest remains, dating to about 2.4 mya, were discovered in Tanzania's Olduvai Gorge, in the ancient Ngorongoro crater. This was in the Oldowan period of tool-making (2.6mya) when man was first creating crude tools by the "percussion flaking" method (banging rocks together). Homo habilis had a small brain (600-740cc), large teeth (yet smaller molars than Australopithecenes), and was likely still partially arboreal (a tree climber). Homo habilis went extinct around 1.5mya.

c. Homo erectus (1.5mya-300kya) ("upright man"), first disovered in Java, Indonesia (1856), was more "human-like," with a larger brain than habilis, and a prominent brow ridge. Third molars (wisdom teeth) were smaller, probably linked to a change in diet that was related to cooked food. The cranial (skull) features included an occipital torus and sagittal keel. Erectus lived during the Lower Paleolithic period (1.5mya-300kya), when Acheulian tools like the hand-axe were invented, and advances such as controlling fire and hunting large game were made.

d. Archaic Homo sapiens (700kya-200kya)
      “Missing Links”  between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens              
        Physical features: Brain size increased, skull encasing became more rounded, the skeleton and teeth are generally less thick and dense. Still large brow ridges present, but steeper forehead

Related species:
  Homo heidelbergensis (Archaic Homo)
  Homo neandertalensis (Neanderthals)
  Homo floresiensis(The “Hobbit”)
  Homo sapiens (US!) 

e. Neanderthals (400kya-30kya) were directly related to and lived amongst Homo sapeins in those regions of the world. Named after first location found -- the first Neanderthals in 1856, in the Neander Valley (‘tal’ in German), near Dusseldorf, Germany. Neanderthals had a large, muscular body, large face/nasal region and receding forehead, and a cranial capacity of approximately 1500 cc.

What happened to the Neanderthals?   They lived at the same time as Homo sapiens.
i. Interbreeding theory (recombination): Neanderthals and Homo sapiens interbred? 4% Euro DNA matches
ii. Genocide theory (social conflict): Homo sapiens killed off Neanderthals in competition for resources(?)
iii. Extinction theory (natural selection): environmental changes (and poor genes/cultural stagnation) killed off Neanderthals(?)

The answer probably includes elements of all these theories.

2. Emergence of Modern Humans
Designation: Homo sapiens

a. Oldest evidence of modern humans:

i. Evidence collected recently: ~300kya: Morocco; 195kya: Omo Kibish, Ethiopia; 90-100kya: Klasies River, S.A.; Border Cave, S.A.; Omo, Ethiopia; Skuhl and Qazfeh, Israel;
First discovered evidence of modern Homo sapiens: Cro-Magnon Man (found in 1868, France) - lived 35kya
ii. Distinctive Anatomy: high, vertical "bulging" forehead; thin, light bones; small face and jaw; chin; slight brow ridge or none at all.

b. The Upper Paleolithic Cultures

i. Aurignacian Tool Industry of H. Sapiens (50kya - 10kya)
- Burins (refined chisel process)
- Pressure Flaking (Blade flake)
- Spearthrowers (Atlatl)

ii. Upper Paleolithic art
- Beads and Carvings
- Cave paintings: Lascaux, Altamira
- Fertility figurines: Venus of Willendorf
- Musical Instruments (bone pipes)

c. Where does H.Sapiens emerge?

i. Replacement, or Single-Origin Theory (“Out of Africa” theory)
- Common ancestor came from Africa about 200kya (“Mitochondrial Eve hypothesis”)
- Lack of physical evidence from 200kya makes it impossible to verify

ii. Multiregional Theory (“Regional continuity”): Suggests continuity between evolution in distinct world regions (Asia, Africa, Europe)

d. The New World: Human Migration to N. & S. America

i. The Last Ice Age (110kya-13kya)
- Glaciers covered much of Europe and North America (for example, 97% of Canada was covered by glaciers)
- Plants and animals were adapted to extreme conditions (megafauna/flora)
- The ice age allowed migration to North and South America

ii. 11.5 kya - Native Americans originally came from Asia and migrated over the Beringia land bridge.
- Were PaleoIndians, or Clovis People first? (discovered in Clovis, NM)
…. or ….
- Did earlier migrations occur? c.f. Monte Verde 33kya
- Many colonization events occurred and inhabitants of the new world varied in their cultures. (See “teeth” evidence, text p. 175).

iii. Remains of early new world hunters have been found in Canada, the United States and Mexico.
- Clovis points are found in association with mammoth kills
- Clovis sites range from 11.2kya to 10.9kya
- Mammoth disappeared 10kya.
- Did early migrants to N. America kill off 35 genera of Pleistocene mammals?