1. Investigating the Nature of Humankind
Chapter 1

2. What is Anthropology
The holistic study of human societies and cultures and their development.
A powerful means of explaining variation in human adaptations
Four fields:
Cultural Anthropology
Archaeology
Linguistic anthropology
Physical (or Biological) Anthropology

3. Physical Anthropology
The subfield of anthropology that studies humanity biologically
Anthropologists who specialize in this subfield study topics such as genetics, growth and development, evolution, primatology, the fossil record, and modern human variation
Some specialties:
Paleoanthropology
Studies of human variation
Paleopathology
Molecular anthropology

4. Anthropology as a Science
Science - A body of knowledge gained through observation and experimentation
Scientific Method - Science is a process of explaining natural phenomena by means of observation, developing explanations, or hypotheses
The steps of a scientific investigation include empirical observation, identifying variables, proposing a hypothesis, testing hypotheses, and developing generalizations
Some questions cannot be subjected to scientific inquiry and therefore are not in the domain of empirical research

5. Anthropology and Perspective
Early views of Humanity
Anthropocentricity - the belief that earth and humanity, are the center of the universe
Believed that humans and animals were the product of spontaneous generation
The world was thought to be no more than 6000 years old
Humanity and Anthropology
A broad perspective that helps us understand the diversity of the human experience
By learning about cultures other than our own, we can avoid an ethnocentric view of other cultures.
By recognizing that we have similarities with other animals, we may recognize that they have a place in nature just as we do

6. Challenging Tradition
Nicolaus Copernicus ( )
Polish astronomer
Heliocentrism (vs Geocentrism)
Challenged the idea that the earth was at the center of the universe
Galileo Galilei ( )
Italian astronomer
Supported the idea that the universe was a place of motion
John Ray ( )
English naturalist
Species
Recognized that plants and animals could be differentiated by their ability to mate with one another and produce offspring

7. Precursors to the Theory of Evolution
Carolus Linnaeus ( )
Swedish naturalist ands botanist who developed a method of classifying plants and animals
In 1735, standardized Ray’s use of genus and species terminology to establish a system of binomial nomenclature.
Later added class and order
Four-level system became the basis for modern taxonomy
Georges Cuvier (1769 – 1832)
French naturalist and zoologist
Catastrophism - Explained the fossil record as the result of a succession of catastrophes (extinctions) followed by new creation events The earth’s geological landscape is the result of violent cataclysmic events
Added phyla to Linnaean taxonomy

8. Malthus and Lyell Thomas Malthus (1766 – 1834)
English cleric and economist
Argued for limits of human population growth, not overly concerned with how species change
The limits for populations to increase is controlled by availability of resources
Inspiration for Charles Darwin
Charles Lyell (1797 – 1875)
Lawyer, geologist, and mentor to Darwin
Supports Uniformitarianism - natural laws and processes (wind, water, volcanoes, decomposition, earthquakes, etc.) that operate in the universe now, have always operated and will always operate as such
Determines that the Earth was much older than 6,000 years

9. Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913)
English naturalist
5-year voyage (1831 to 1836) of
the HMS Beagle
Saw the importance of biological
variation within a species
Recognized that sexual reproduction
increased variation
The idea that in each generation more
offspring are born than survive to adulthood, coupled with the
notions of competition, led to the theory of evolution
Alfred Russel Wallace ( )
Presented joint paper, coauthored with Darwin, on evolution and natural selection to the Linnaean Society of London

10. Natural Selection
Based on work by Malthus, Darwin noted that populations grow more rapidly than resources do
Individuals vary from one another, and those individuals with traits that are better adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce
If these individuals pass the favorable trait down to their offspring, the trait will spread throughout the population over time
Opposite of Artificial Selection
All domestic dogs share a common ancestor, the wolf
The extreme variation exhibited by dog breeds today has been achieved in a relatively short time through artificial selection

11. Evolutionary Change Through Natural Selection
A trait must be inherited if natural selection is to act on it
Natural selection will not occur without population variation in inherited characteristics
Fitness, or reproductive success, is a relative measure that changes with the environment
Natural selection can only act on traits that affect reproductive success

12. Evolution and Religion
There are people who believe that evolution should be discarded in favor of a creationist interpretation
However, religion and science concern different aspects of the human experience
Not inherently mutually exclusive categories
Belief in God does not exclude the possibility of biological evolution
Acknowledgement of evolutionary processes doesn‘t preclude the existence of God
Evolutionary theories are not rejected by all religions or by most forms of Christianity

13. Christian Challenges
Conservative Christians (Creationists) seeking a revival of “traditional values” and banning any theory that does not support the biblical version of the creation of humankind
Adherents to a movement in American Protestantism that began in the early twentieth century
The teachings of the Bible are infallible and are to be taken literally.
Argue that creation science and intelligent design (ID) is as much a scientific endeavor as is evolution and suggest scientific evidence to support creationist views
It is not science
Creationists argue their view is absolute and fallible, which is counter to science which seeks testable hypotheses

14. The Synthetic Theory
The basic concepts of Darwin’s theory of evolution remain the cornerstone of modern evolutionary theory, but have been further built upon
The addition of genetic knowledge to Darwin’s ideas has greatly increased our understanding
With the discovery of the structure of DNA came the understanding of the entire genetic makeup of an individual or species
Human and chimpanzee genomes sequenced in 2003 and 2005, respectively
DNA sequence that can be directly compared between the two genomes are 98% identical
As this understanding is based on a synthesis of information from diverse fields, it is sometimes called the synthetic theory of evolution