Anthro Final Exam
Hormones
chemical agents that cause specific effects on target cells help regulate numerous bodily functions -stress response, -water absorption in kidneys, -development of adult sexual characteristics -prep for pregnancy and lactation -sperm production -expression and function of behavior -etc
Why is race bad biology
it is merely a social construct
Middle Stone Age Tools
-Bone tools 82-174 kya -Heat-treated stone 164 kya -Decorative carving 80 kya First appear 250,000 in East Africa Sophisticated and Diverse Pointed artifacts, blades, retouched flakes, end and side scrapers, grinding stones, and bone tools.
What two types of nervous systems are there and what do they do?
-Central nervous system: brain and spinal cord. The brain controls conscious and unconscious actions of the body. The spinal cord is the main conduct for connecting the brain with the rest of the nerve cells in the body -Peripheral nervous system: millions of nerve cells distributed throughout the body responsible for sensation and movements (sensory and motor neurons, respectively)
Disgust
A psychological mechanism that evolved to motivate infectious disease avoidance universal feature of human emotion
Homo sapiens sapiens
Anatomically modern humans The species to which all modern human beings belong. Homo sapiens is one of several species grouped into the genus Homo, but it is the only one that is not extinct.
phenotypic flexibility
Organisms are designed by natural selection to optimize lifetime reproductive success and are capable of rapid adaptive shifts in behavior to environmental conditions.
gene-environment covariation
Parents share genes and environment with offspring
what is a gene tree
Represent the evolutionary history of genes.
Which system of the body is responsible for extracting nutrients from the plants and animals we eat?
The digestive system is responsible for extracting nutrients from the plants and animals we eat
Which system of the body is responsible for regulating bodily functions by secreting hormones?
The endocrine system is responsible for regulating bodily functions by secreting hormones
Blank Slate, or tabula rasa
The mind's organization has no unique structure. Organization comes from the environment through social learning At birth the (human) mind is a "blank slate" without rules for processing data, and that data is added and rules for processing are formed solely by one's sensory experiences. according to this model, the human mind is blank at birth and is defined through experiences John Locke
Which of the following is the organ, found in most but not all mammals, that links the circulatory systems of a fetus with that of its mother in the uterus during gestation, allowing nutrients in the mother's blood to be passed to the fetus?
The placenta is the organ found in most mammals that links the circulatory system of the fetus and mother in the uterus during gestation
Is there more genetic variation within human populations or between human populations?
There is more genetic variation within a population than between populations.
What environmental factor accounts for the distribution of melanin pigmentation we see globally (prior to major global migrations)?
UV exposure and location
What is UV light and what two kinds of UV light are there
Ultra violet light -UVA: folates; long wavelength (tanning, aging) -UVB: middle wavelength (skin cancer, sunburn)
Gene tree
diagrams how mutations accumulate over time
Human behavioral ecology
focuses on how ecological and social factors affect behavior a style of evolutionary thought that examines how environmental and ecological factors influence variability in human behavior
What four kinds of tissue are there in the human body
-Epithelial: covers the surface of the body; two types: stratified epithelial makes up the skin and simple epithelial makes up the blood vessel lining -Connective: Tissues responsible for the internal cohesion of the body -Muscle: Tissues associated with movements of the skeleton and contractility in many organs -Nerve: Tissues concerned with the rapid conduction of impulses in the integration of numerous functions
Berggman-Allen Rules
-body mass increase in cold climates to retain body heat (short and stout -body mass decreases in warm climates to help release body heat (long and lean)
What are the six major systems of the body?
-circulatory -respiratory -digestive -reproductive -endocrine -nervous
What are the three major misconceptions that race is based on?
-humans can be natural divided into distinct races -members of different races differ genetically enough for us to infer personality and intelligence based off race -differences in race are due to biological heritage
What key morphological features are associated with anatomically modern humans? (homo sapiens sapiens)
-large, round skull with high forehead -small face and teeth -protruding chin -less robust postcranial skeleton -long limbs
What are some of the similarities between the Herto skull and the crania of contemporary humans?
-maximum cranial width high on the skull -relatively rounded cranium with a relatively flexed cranial base -a clear canine fossa
What three types of blood cells are there and what do they do?
-platelets: help clot the blood when a tear or rupture occurs in the vessel -red blood cells (erythrocytes): assist in respiration -white blood cells (leukocytes): protect the body from invading elements
What types of evidence is there of modern human behavior in Africa?
-social organization (high densities of networking over large distances) -symbolic expression (symbolic, ritualistic behaviors) -technological advances (middle stone age tools)
What are the two kinds of hormones
-steroid hormones: derived from cholesterol; produced in testes and ovaries and adrenal glands (cortisol, progesterone and testosterone) -Amino acid-derived hormones: composed of amino acids, include insulin, epinephrine (adrenalin), and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH)
What types of bodily functions do hormones help regulate?
-stress responses -water absorption -conservation in kidneys -development of adult sexual characteristics -preparations for pregnancy -sperm production -control of calcium levels in bones
Herto Skull
160 kya More robust, but possess high forehead, small face, round brain case Some new fossils from Herto in Ethiopia, are the oldest known modern human fossils, at 160,000 yrs
How old are modern humans and where are they first found
195,000 years ago Fossils in Tanzania, Ethiopia (Africa)
When did modern human behavior first appear in the archaeological record in Africa?
50,000-40,000
Why did anatomically modern humans first leave Africa?
60,000 ya, due to climate swings
What is the scientific definition of race, or subspecies?
A population/group of populations that has a measurable, defining biological characteristics, and an Fst of at least .25 relative to other population
What does it mean to say that a question is proximate vs ultimate (Tinbergen's questions)?
A proximate question is a "how" question and an ultimate question is a "why" question... Proximate -Mechanistic (causation): -testosterone, cortisol; frustrated by person cutting you etc. -Ontogenetic (development): -learned behaviors, cultural norms about retaliation, sexual and cognitive maturation Ultimate -Adaptive (function) -function or aggression? What are adaptive problems aggression might help to solve -Phylogeny (evolution) -evolutionary history of aggression in primates and other species
Balanced polymorphism
A situation in which selection favors a heterozygotic state for a given locus and thus maintains both the recessive and the dominant alleles in a population, even if one or both are deleterious in the homozygous state
Based on your reading of the NPR and Nature articles, why can we conclude that the fossils found in Morocco, Africa, and Misliya Cave, Israel, are surprising and potentially important?
Because they push back when homo sapiens were found and where
How does the genetic diversity of living humans today compare to the genetic diversity of chimpanzee
Chimps are way more diverse than us
What is the function of disgust or what adaptive problem does disgust help resolve?
Disgust helps humans stay clear from possible diseases, pathogens, and infection sources
Evolutionary psychology
Goal is to understand the human mind/brain from an evolutionary perspective states that human behavior is governed by reason, whereas non-human animal behavior is governed by instinct.
Who is Nikolaas Tinbergen (Come back to this ) and what are Tinbergen's four questions
He is a dutch biologist and ornithologist and He is regarded as one of the founders of modern ethology, the study of animal behavior. Proximate ("how" questions; e.g. how does it work) • What is the immediate (mechanistic) cause of a behavior? • What is the developmental (ontogenetic) cause of a behavior? Ultimate (evolutionary, or "why", questions) • What is the historical (phylogenetic) cause of a behavior? • What is the functional (adaptive) cause of a behavior?
Environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA)
If we can determine the kinds of problems our ancestors faced, then we might be able to predict the types of psychological mechanisms necessary to solve those problems.
According to human behavioral ecology, what does it mean to say that people are fitness maximizers?
It means that they have high degree of adaptability
Why do contemporary scientists that that eugenics is erroneous or incorrect?
It's too simplistic idea and taxonomy + racial categories with simple genetic system Contemporary scientists think its erroneous or wrong because its usually based on assumptions between stereotypical behavioural and cultural traits and their relationship to genetic systems
Why is lighter pigmentation favored near the poles?
Lighter pigmentation promotes UVB induced vitamin D3 production
Sociobiology
Makes three basic assumptions: 1) Understanding behavior can be done in basically the same way as understanding a simple genetic system 2) Natural selection is the main force behind the evolution of behavior 3) Genes promoting a variety of human social behaviors have been favored over time
What fossil and genetic evidence is there to support this conventional explanation of the origins of modern humans?
NRY chromosome and mtDNA (mothers DNA --> children, mitochondrial dna)
What kind of evidence is there for interbreeding with archaic humans
Neanderthals in our DNA
Do social constructs of race map on to genetic differences between populations?
No they do not
What are some of the processes that account for genetic variation within and between populations (mostly from lecture)?
Single genes, sickle-cell anemia Balanced polymorphism Selection mutation balance Natural selection Gene-environment mismatches Genetic drift
Which two bodily systems are responsible for bringing in oxygen into the body and expelling carbon dioxide?
The circulatory and respiratory systems are responsible for bringing oxygen into the body and expelling carbon dioxide
Which system of the body is responsible for distributing nutrients throughout the body?
The circulatory system is responsible for distributing nutrients throughout the body
What might explain the low genetic diversity observed in humans?
We evolved recently descend from very small populations (around 12,000 with little genetic diversity)
Domain Specificity
different neural circuits are specialized for solving specific adaptive problems mid is like a swiss - army knife; each evolved to focus attention, organize perception and memory, and call up specialized procedural knowledge that generate appropriate behavior given the context - each psychological mechanism assumed to have evolved to operate in a specific domain
What do the lengths of the branches of the gene tree represent
genetic diversity
Mismatch or disequalibrium
human evolution occured in a completely different environment then the one that we currently know
Evolved psychological mechanisms
mental adaptations, or information processing circuits in our brains, that shape behavior Exist as they do because they recurrently solved a specific problem of survival and reproduction over our evolutionary history
mtDNA
mitochondrial DNA -small, energy-processing organelles in our cells -inherited from mothers to children -maternial lineage
How much genetic variation is there across human populations -- are we genetically diverse or nearly genetically identical?
nearly genetically identical
NRY
nonrecombinating genes on Y chromosomes -inherited from fathers to sons -paternal lineage
Phenotypic flexibility
organisms are designed by natural selection to optimize lifetime reproductive success and are capable of rapid adaptive shifts in behavior to environmental conditions
what type of evolved psychological mechanism does the Wason Selection Task help illustrate
people are poor at detecting cheaters except in social exchanges, giving us insight at the structure of our brains
Alveoli
small airs sacs in the lungs where gas exchange (oxygen and carbon dioxide) occurs
Fst (explain an Fst of 0.0 and 1.0)
statistical measurement of the fraction of variation found between samples An Fst of 0.0 means no genetic variation, and 1.0 means the compared population are 100% different for that locus
Human skin is composed of what kind of tissue?
stratified epithelial tissue
Eugenics
study of genetics with the notion of improving human biology and biological potential; often associated with erroneous and/or simplistic assumptions about the relationship of behavior or cultural traits with simple genetic systems In sum, A practice concerned with "improving" the genetic quality of human populations
Dual Inheritance Theory (gene-culture coevolution)
system of inheritance, branch of theoretical population genetics; interactions between genes and culture in a population (NOT INDEPENDENT) recognize that culture can be adaptive (evolutionary psychology focus on inheritage ) or maladaptive (human behavior ecologists
Melanin
the main pigment in human skin, occurring in two forms: black and brown closer to the equator = more melanin
