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The advancement of raw materials is the determining factor in deciding what stage a society is in. All the above Please send comments or suggestions about this Website to custserv.
What is Anthropology? The Study of Humankind The word anthropology itself tells the basic story--from the Greek anthropos "human" and logia "study" --it is the study of humankind, from its beginnings millions of years ago to the present day. Nothing...
As a discipline, anthropology begins with a simple yet powerful idea: any detail of our behavior can be understood better when it is seen against the backdrop of the full range of human behavior. This, the comparative method, attempts to explain similarities and differences among people holistically, in the context of humanity as a whole. Any detail of our behavior can best be understood when it is seen in the context provided by the full range of human behavior.
Anthropology seeks to uncover principles of behavior that apply to all human communities. To an anthropologist, diversity itself--seen in body shapes and sizes, customs, clothing, speech, religion, and worldview--provides a frame of reference for understanding any single aspect of life in any given community. To illustrate, imagine having our entire lives in a world of red. Our food, our clothing, our car--even the street we live on--everything around us a different shade of red. And yet ironically, in a scarlet world, isn't it true that we will have no real grasp of the color red itself, nor even the concept of color, without being able to compare red with yellow, blue, green, and all the hues of the rainbow? We [anthropologists] have been the first to insist on a number of things: that the world does not divide into the pious and the superstitious; that there are sculptures in jungles and paintings in deserts; that political order is possible without centralized power and principled justice without codified rules; that the norms of reason were not fixed in Greece, the evolution of morality not consummated in England.
Most important, we were the first to insist that we see the lives of others through lenses of our own grinding and that they look back on ours through ones of their own. Each of anthropology's four main subfields--sociocultural, biological, archaeology, and linguistic anthropology--acknowledges that Homo has a long evolutionary history that must be studied if one is to know what it means to be a human being.
Cultural Anthropology In North America the discipline's largest branch, cultural anthropology, applies the comparative method and evolutionary perspective to human culture. Culture represents the entire database of knowledge, values, and traditional ways of viewing the world, which have been transmitted from one generation ahead to the next--nongenetically, apart from DNA--through words, concepts, and symbols. Cultural anthropologists study humans through a descriptive lens called the ethnographic method, based on participant observation, in tandem with face-to-face interviews, normally conducted in the native tongue.
Ethnographers compare what they see and hear themselves with the observations and findings of studies conducted in other societies. Originally, anthropologists pieced together a complete way of life for a culture, viewed as a whole. Today, the more likely focus is on a narrower aspect of cultural life, such as economics, politics, religion or art. Cultural anthropologists seek to understand the internal logic of another society. It helps outsiders make sense of behaviors that, like face painting or scarification, may seem bizarre or senseless.
Through the comparative method an anthropologist learns to avoid "ethnocentrism," the tendency to interpret strange customs on the basis of preconceptions derived from one's own cultural background. Moreover, this same process helps us see our own society--the color "red" again--through fresh eyes. We can turn the principle around and see our everyday surroundings in a new light, with the same sense of wonder and discovery anthropologists experience when studying life in a Brazilian rain-forest tribe. Though many picture cultural anthropologists thousands of miles from home residing in thatched huts amid wicker fences, growing numbers now study U.
Linguistic Anthropology One aspect of culture holds a special fascination for most anthropologists: language--hallmark of the human species. The organization of systems of sound into language has enabled Homo sapiens to transcend the limits of individual memory. Speech is the most efficient medium of communication since DNA for transmitting information across generations. It is upon language that culture itself depends--and within language that humanity's knowledge resides. They are fully and firmly formed; they have movement. But they cannot talk. That is the proper thing they lack. So I want you to give them speech. He gave them also the wisdom and the power to reproduce and multiply.
They study prehistoric links between different societies, and explores the use and meaning of verbal concepts with which humans communicate and reason. Linguistic anthropologists seek to explain the very nature of language itself, including hidden connections among language, brain, and behavior. Language is the hallmark of our species. It is upon language that human culture itself depends.
Linguistic anthropologists, of course, are not the only ones who study historical dimensions of culture. Anthropologists recognize that, in seeking to understand today's society, they should not confine attention only to present-day groups. They also need information about what came before. But how can they trace the long-ago prehistory, reaching far back into the millennia, of societies that left no written record? Archaeology Fortunately, the human record is written not only in alphabets and books, but is preserved in other kinds of material remains--in cave paintings, pictographs, discarded stone tools, earthenware vessels, religious figurines, abandoned baskets--which is to say, in tattered shreds and patches of ancient societies.
Archaeologists interpret this often fragmentary but fascinating record to reassemble long-ago cultures and forgotten ways of life. Archaeologists, long interested in the classical societies of Greece, Rome, and Egypt, have extended their studies in two directions--backward some 3 million years to the bones and stone tools of our protohuman ancestors, and forward to the reconstruction of lifeways and communities of 19th-century America. Regarding the latter, many archaeologists work in the growing field of cultural resource management, to help federal, state, and local governments preserve our nation's architectural, historical, and cultural heritage. Biological Anthropology But human history begins in a different place further back in time. It starts at least 4 million years ago, when a population of apelike creatures from eastern Africa turned onto a unique evolutionary road. Thus, the anthropologist's comparative perspective must be expanded to include more than prehistoric human societies, for behavior has primate roots as well.
To fully understand humankind we must learn more about its place in the natural habitat of living things. Biological or physical anthropology looks at Homo sapiens as a genus and species, tracing their biological origins, evolutionary development, and genetic diversity. Biological anthropologists study the biocultural prehistory of Homo to understand human nature and, ultimately, the evolution of the brain and nervous system itself. These, then, are the four main branches that make anthropology whole: cultural, linguistic, archaeology, and biological anthropology. Anthropology asks a most difficult and most important question: What does it mean to be human?
While the question may never be fully answered, the study of anthropology--what the noted anthropologist Loren Eiseley has called the "immense journey"--has attracted some of the world's greatest thinkers, whose discoveries forever changed our understanding of ourselves. Know then thyself. Each of the four fields of American anthropology has its own skills, theories, and databases of special knowledge. Most anthropologists, therefore, pursue careers in only one of the four subdisciplines. Anthropologists may specialize in two or more geographic areas of the world, such as Oceania, Latin America, and Africa, for reasons of comparison. More than U. Because the subject matter of anthropology is so broad, an undergraduate major or concentration can be part of a broad liberal arts background for men and women interested in medicine, government, business, and law.
More information on college and university anthropology can be found in the American Anthropological Association's AAA Guide, published yearly. Training A doctorate is recommended for full professional status as an anthropologist, although work in museums, physical anthropology labs, and field archaeology is often possible with a master's degree. There are more nonacademic career opportunities available to Ph. Increasingly, Ph. Academic Work Setting Academic settings include departments of anthropology, nonanthropology departments e. Nonacademic Work Setting In recent years, many anthropologists have chosen to utilize their specialized training in a variety of nonacademic careers. Cultural and linguistic anthropologists work in federal, state and local government, international agencies, healthcare centers, nonprofit associations, research institutes and marketing firms as research directors, science analysts and program officers.
Biological anthropologists work in biomedical research, human engineering, private genetics laboratories, and pharmaceutical firms. Archaeologists work off campus in environmental projects, human-impact assessment, and resource management. At present there is no discernible limit for Ph. The global economy's focus on internationalism, information and research and anthropology's world of interests mesh. Today, half of new doctorates find professional jobs off campus. Additional information on careers in anthropology is available from AAA. Its purposes are to encourage research, promote the public understanding of anthropology, and foster the use of anthropological information in addressing human problems. Anyone with a professional or scholarly interest in anthropology is invited to join. For further details, please contact AAA. Authored by David Givens.
Sahelanthropus tchadensis or Ardipithecus ramidus That is, which showed up first? Who is Sahelanthropus tchadensis? If there was a selection for really long tails, then that would be directional selection. Natural Selection! One of our four forces of evolution. Others include - mutation, gene flow, and genetic drift. Hint: Don't overthink it! Yep, sometimes the answer really is that simple. The other type are somatic cells, which are produced through mitosis, are diploid, and serve multiple functions in the body. They do all the things! Except sexual reproduction, that's our gametes. Homo habilis or Australopithecus afarensis That is, which showed up first?
Who is Australopithecus afarensis? Date: 3. You may know A. Scientists must support their claims with evidence! Knowing what the evidence is for these interpretations of behavior is important to assess the validity of the claims. I mean, they could be making handbags with all that prepared hide. But given the temperatures at the time, making garments isn't a logical stretch. And the primate that has round nostrils that point outward with a 2. Science is great. And I hope after this course you have a better understanding of what it is and how important it is for building knowledge about the world around us. But, it can't answer all questions and it's also key to know its limitations.
Australopithecus afarensis or Ardipithecus ramidus That is, which showed up first? Who is Ardipithecus ramidus Date: 4. With her opposable big toe, but possible bipedal pelvis shame it's so crushed to smithereens! Still just a potential hominin, though very likely to be re-dubbed in the future. I packed a lot of information in this question. Remember, H. Before H. With H. Also, while H. And let's not forget about Neanderthals -- they made tools that we call Mousterian technology which uses the Levallois prepared-core technique. He was trying to establish scientific categories. His system was used to create the first government-level declared "races" of people. But of course we know now that race is not a biological reality for our species.
We have clinal distribution of skin color and other traits. But there is more variation within any group than there is between groups. Mendel's other principle of inheritance -- the principle of independent assortment -- says traits are passed down independently of one another and explains why yellow seed are not always smooth and blonde hair does not always pair with blue eyes. Homo sapiens neanderthalensis or Homo heidelbergensis That is, which showed up first? Who is Homo heidelbergensis? Date: kya Is it archaic Homo sapiens or Homo heidelbergensis? The debate continues. This mid-Pleistocene Homo is a mix of more modern-like and archaic traits -- no chins though! Chins are uniquely AMH baby! Remember, adapids are lemur-like and omomyids are tarsier-like. Then we get our monkey-like fossils in the Oligocene -- propliopiths likely Old World ancestor and parapiths likely New World ancestor rafting away to the New World.
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