Anthropology 200Q Quiz 5

[Stout & Chamide] Stone tools, language, brain structures, learning - how are these things related? How are these related?

"language areas" in the brain contribute to non-linguistic behaviors including tool use. Inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) known to participate in object manipulation. brain structures first for tool use then co-opted for language. tool-use and speech are both "2 stream"

Flint

- siliceous tool stone - brittle but elastic with conchoidal fracture; isotropic and cryptocrystalline ***chalcedonic-type stone have the same technological qualities (i.e. chert)

3 dimensions of sexuality

1) biological 2) psychological 3) sociocultural

Olorgesailie, Kenya

1.2 mya-500kya 14 types of stone used concentration of homo erectus stone tools found, evidence of hunting baboons 5km to 50km quarry site distance

Possible dates that start the Anthropocene

15kya--agricultural revolution 1780--first industrial revolution w/ steam engine 1945: atomic bomb to end WWII

What time range best fits Wrangham's arguments/hypothesis for the human accessioning of fire into the human behavioral repertoire?

2-1.5 MYA

early homo appeared

2.4 mya (homo habilis)

Stone tool production is a critical stage in the behavioral repertoire/evolution of the homo lineage and humans. when did the Oldowant industry arise?

2.6 MYA

oldest hominid

4.4 mya

K-T Boundary

65 million years ago in tertiary and cretaceous area where dinosaurs went extinct (meteorite or asteroid induced; created an explosion equivalent to an atomic bond...all the compression waves overlapped producing tsunamis and various crators)...geologist refer to boundary due to trace amount of elements by the asteroid around the world the climate change and settle back to the geology of the earth (defines boundary)

grandmother hypothesis

A hypothesis stating that menopause in older women is an adaptive trait because it contributes to the survival of grandchildren by eliminating the possibility of childbirth and allowing older women to further their genetic interests by nurturing their grandchildren.

Which is not considered an archaeological indicator of modern human behavior?

Acheulean Hand-Axes

Week 2 physiology and behavior (Arcos and aldophs)

Arcos: the endocrine system, The maintenance of homeostasis requires continuous bidirectional flow of neural and endocrine information. Positive feedback occurs when a glandular structure is stimulated by the end product(s) to generate more hormone(s), whereas negative feedback occurs when the structure is inhibited by the end product(s) to yield less hormone(s). Four loop feedback types 1. Long— in anterior pituitary hormone systems p feedback is operative in most of the anterior pituitary hormone systems and manifest when hormone synthesis or secretion in the end-target peripheral gland is reduced or abolished 2. Short— occurs largely in the regulation of hypophyseal hormones by anterior pituitary trophic hormones. 3. Ultra loops— feedback when a hormone acts on its own cell type in a paracrine manner to inhibit further secretion of itself. 4. Feed-forward— neg or pos, unstable, not closed but contribute in large more complex feedback circuit Aldophs: the social brain, Three broad domains of knowledge 1. Nonsocial environment— the world we share w/ others... through our sense and perception which learning, selection, and innate mechanisms contribute/ 2. Knowledge of other minds Dogs seek knowledge from owner Internal, dispositional inferences of emotions, intentions, and beliefs of others—> "theory of mind" 3. Knowledge of our own minds Flexible adoption of a point of view (space, time, person ) We know what we experience, believe, and think without relying on any observational inference, with the result that we are authoritative about our own minds in a way that other people, whose knowledge of our mind necessarily relies on observational evidence Idea that knowledge is more not sensory of nature Activities we initiate with feel, think, and believing Consequence of humans social cognition is being more cooperative that competitive (as compared to chimps) Positive and negative altruism Concept of reputation, social status, helping, punishing in comparison to society Mediated by moral emotions, pity, pride, guilt linked to classes of social events...Social brain hypothesis (human brains are large due to social preparations)...It shows they can recognize and shift their perspective out of their mind→ Theory of Mind→ To display empathy their needs to be recognition of self and other

Homo sapiens

Art, built shelters, hafted tools, beads, fishing/aquatic technologies, evidence of ritual and long-distance trade are only associated with AMH. Which species is this?

Discussion Week 13 Humans: growing up as tool-users (stout and chaminade, Klein, and Wrangham)

Chaminade "Stone tools, language, and the brain in human evolution": Language discrete area in brain overlaps with non-linguistic behaviors such as tool use...manual and vocal language praxis in cognitive neuroscience Inferior frontal gyrus is where diverse range of linguistic functions and non-linguistic behaviors take place Language was an exaltation of the IFG...hierarchal/complex development Hemispheric specialization is hypothesized to predate language and tool use stone toolmaking provides support for a 'techno- logical pedagogy' hypothesis, which proposes that intentional pedagogical demonstration could have provided an adequate scaffold for the evolution of inten- tional vocal communication. Klein "Anatomy, Behavior, and Modern Human Origins": Brain size was the same for 150,000 and brain shape difference is unable to be studied... "weakly reflected in fossil skulls "Out-of-Africa 1," the widely accepted original human dispersal from Africa at or before one million years ago. In effect, Out-of-Africa 2 posits that Out-of-Africa 1 was fol- lowed by a tendency for human populations to follow different evolutionary trajectories on different continents, culminating by 100,000 years ago in the emergence of at least three continentally distinct human populations Archeological record more strongly supports out of Africa than multi regional hypothesis Wrangham "the raw and the stolen": suggest that the presumed increase of meat consumption in later hominids was a dietary ad- aptation related to cooking plant material. Specifically, the increased energy availability allowed by cooking plant materials played a permissive role in the intensi- fication of hunting—a high-risk, high-gain activ- ity—much the way periods of fruit abundance seem to allow intensification of chimpanzee hunting the modern human pattern of low sexual dimorphism occurs first with H. erectus and is then maintained. These data suggest that the modern human pattern of extended female sexual receptivity was ini- tiated at the same time as cooking.

Discussion week 10 Intelligence, continued: is it biological or acquired? (Cosmides and Brosnan)

Cosmides Cheater detection article: Anthropocentric where other animals have homologous cheater detection systems...Blank-slate theories of human intelligence propose that reasoning is carried out by general-purpose operations applied uniformly across contents. An evolutionary approach implies a radically different model of human intelligence. The task demands of different adaptive problems select for functionally specialized problem-solving strate- gies, unleashing massive increases in problem-solving power for ancestrally recurrent adaptive problems. Because exchange can evolve only if cooperators can detect cheaters, we hypothesized that the human mind would be equipped with a neurocognitive system specialized for reasoning about social exchange. Whereas humans perform poorly when asked to detect violations of most conditional rules, we predicted and found a dramatic spike in performance when the rule specifies an exchange and violations correspond to cheating. According to critics, people's uncanny accuracy at detecting violations of social exchange rules does not reflect a cheater detection mecha- nism, but extends instead to all rules regulating when actions are permitted (deontic conditionals). Here we report experimental tests that falsify these theories by demonstrating that deontic rules as a class do not elicit the search for violations. We show that the cheater detection system functions with pinpoint accuracy, searching for vio- lations of social exchange rules only when these are likely to reveal the presence of someone who intends to cheat. It does not search for violations of social exchange rules when these are accidental, when they do not benefit the violator, or when the situation would make cheating difficult...mind develops social contract algorithms (built by natural selection for reasoning about social exchange)...First, intentional violations activate cheater de- tection, but innocent mistakes do not. Second, violation detection is up-regulated when potential violators would get the benefit regu- lated by the rule, and down-regulated when they would not. Third, cheater detection is down-regulated when the situation makes cheating difficult—when violations are unlikely, the search for them is unlikely to reveal those with a disposition to cheat... Brosnan "Nonhuman specie reactions to inequity and their implications for fairness": animals do respond to inequity. Chimpanzees respond with temper tantrums if they do not get what they desire, social canids refuse to play with individuals who violate social rules, and ravens show third party intervention against norm violations. Recent experimental work with nonhuman primates has given us a more detailed understanding. Capuchin monkeys and chimpanzees both respond negatively to distributional inequity. Moreover, chimpanzees show significant variation in response depending upon the social group they inhabit, with those from a short-term group or a relatively asocial living situation showing a much greater response to inequity than those from a long-term stable group. This mirrors human vari- ation in responses to inequity, which are based upon the quality of the rela- tionship... individuals who have a sense of fairness are more likely to be successful in cooperative interactions

Discussion Week 9 Cultural Universals (de wall, cashdan, tattersall, and foley)

De Wall "Peace Lessons from an unlikely source": promates can adopt social behavior under the influence of others...i.e. violent rhesus monkeys are housed with easy going stump tail monkeys and the rhesus monkeys change their social pattern of becoming more concillitary...natural experiment shows like human societies, each animal sociaety has its own ecological and behavioral history, which determines its prevalent social stye Cashdan "What is a human universal?" assumption that human nature is in universal (evolutionary foundation)...behavioral ecologist wants to predict nature but expression is needed to understand human nature...definition of human universal: individual and sociocultural trait found in society i.e. most cultures tend to like sweet and salty foods... (behavioral ecologist support a phenotypic gambit limiting them from viewing ways humans don't increase their fitness) tattersall "A tentative framework for the acquisition of language and modern human cognition":humans process info symbolically to envision alternate realities and express the ideas they form using language "no other creater does that," happened from a brain exaptively capable of complex symbolic manipulation and language acquisition was acquired in the major developmental reorganization that gave rise to the anatomically distinctive species homo sapiens from non symbolic and non linguistic ancestors. The new capacity it conferred was later recruited through the ation of a cultural stimulus, most plausibly the spontaneous invention of language foley "Evolutionary Perspective on the Origins of Human social Institusion": Defines human social institution as a the relatively persistent strucutre where social context can happen from individuals living in groups and developing a stable relationship...Two models of how social institutions evolved 1. Nature of human mind and cultural capacity 2. Specific context in which humans find themselves...Community structure reflects the ties of kinship, the prolonged nature of social interactions b/w adult males and adult females, the units within which offspring are born and raised, and also the units in which nuclear families must be embedded...Females with high reproductive costs are contained by resource distribution and therefore spread themselves across land to optimize resources...Expanded fission fusion systems allowing segregated communities held by social relationships Greater capacity for language and symbolic thought Greater need for communities Develop of institutions related to complex inter group relationships (aggressive and co-operative) .... Regulation of social and moral order Not from innate propensities of human species ...socioecological factors rather

Discussion week 4 animal behavior (de Wall, king, and biro)

De wall "animal emotions": DeWaal works at Emory as the Professor of Primate Behavior, he studied as a zoologist andEthologist. He fully accepts and encourages the use of typically human emotional terms inreference to primates, and he emphasizes the insights into humans made by studying primates.Early work was centered on aggressive behaviors, deception and conflict resolution. He helpedintroduce the ideas of Macchiavelli into primate studies, leading to the generation of PrimateCognition as an emphasized field....●The behavior of primates, shown to understand fairness and injustice (Capuchins andgrapes video), is very similar to that of humans. This shows an ability to implementsocial structuring and equality, proving these aren't uniquely human...controversy on the recognition of emotions in behavioral studies and furthermore the recognition of emotional behavior when studying animals due to the human superiority of believing they obtain unique processes differential from non-human species. However there are challenges to mixed emotions, and emotions in general through studies such as mice receiving electrical shocks to their brain and freezing "fear"...Emotions contribute to a driving factor in species responses to situations sick as a big cat triggering fear in a monkey to start climbing a tree. Variability of outputs and inputs demonstrates a loose ability to demonstrate the relationship between behaviors and emotions. Emotions also are impacted by environment events across multiple systems. There is no one on one relation b/w emotions and and behavior but emotions combined with an individuals experience and cognition can prepare optimal responses...Emotions are said to be controlled by cognition which was theorized to set humans apart from other animals...but emotions was discovered to require evaluation and other manipulations as examplified by a monkey being deceitful or controlling of her emotions towards a monkey that just kidnapped her child...immediate gratification is not always chosen if a better reward is predicted later also demonstrates theory of mind..guilt regulate reciprocity relationships King "animal mourning": emphasizes the intelligence of animals such as primates, octopuses, squids, pigs anddolphins. Her work then argues that humans should treat these species with more respect,accommodating their lives without anthropomorphism or exploitation. She is a reducetarianism(eating less animals and dairy and eggs, animal rights)..King brings a highly emotional tone with empathy towards the animals in her article, inthe duck story, she has a tone for caring about animals●King's article seems to be pushing a social message far more than any of the otherarticles, she is making a point about how we are treating animals●King is part of a growing movement to reject objectiveness in science and instead seekout help for the world, to help people and improve conditions...provides the definition of grief to be: [found in] comparing the behavior exhibited bysurvivors after the death of a relative, friend, or mate with the behaviors they exhibitedbefore that death. Significant alterations in patterns of social behavior,eating, sleeping,and/or expression of emotional affect are the key criteria,and they should persist for hours,days, or weeks. Biro "tool use as adaption": evaluting tool use (Fixed, learned, benefiting for reproductive success? i.e. no for bottlenose dolphin who use sponges for protection, cognitive ability is also evaluated dewall tedtalk: talks about the types of empathy, body channel and cognitive channel of empathy, and gives examples like yawn contagion and consolation

Name one id characteristic used to clarify whether a (potential) stone tool "flake" is actuality a human derived flaked stone tool?

Fissure lines, bulb of percussion, platform, cone of force

homo erectus

It was the first of our relatives to have human-like body proportions, with shorter arms and longer legs relative to its torso. It was also the first known hominin to migrate out of Africa, and possibly the first to cook food, first user of fire

Discussion Week 7 Primate social structurers and the complexity of primate sexuality (Kappeler, Seyfarth, and nunn)

Kappeler "Evolution of Primate Social Systems": introduces social organizations (solitary, group (most popular), and pair living), social structure and mating systems as distinct and diverse in species due to evolutionary processes... proposes socio-ecological model where individual behavior and strategy builds off into the entire society applies to distribution of males (dependent on female availability) and females (dependent on resources) Seyfarth "Primate Social cognition ad the origins of language": concludes that language appeared from pre-existing cognitive skills by connecting baboon's calls that are similar to the hierarchical, rule-governed structure properties similar to human's language (rank of baboon influences call system)...baboons recognize ranks... ideal to study due to ideal calls... Distinctive 'threat-grunts', for example, are given only by higher-ranking individuals to those of lower rank, whereas screams and 'fear barks' are given only by subordinate individuals as signals of submission...6 social knowledge relevant to language evolution 1. Representation, 2. Discrete values 3. Hierarchically structured 4. Rule-governed and open-ended 5. Independent of sensory modality 6. Propositional (We hypothesize, therefore, that the propositional information baboons acquire when they hear vocalizations includes an understanding of the causal relations that link an actor's threat-grunts and a recipient's screams. )...Baboons acquire propositional information by combining their knowledge of call types, callers, and the callers' places in a social network, and by assuming a causal relation between one animal's vocalizations and another's. Nunn "evolution of exaggerated sexual swellings...": exaggerated swelling serve contradictory purposes for females. 1. sexual swellings increase paternity certainty (ovulation correlates with swelling size) and male-male competition increase 2. swellings confuse paternity because ovulation does not always occur at peak swelling, sexual activity may be longer and females mate with multiple males...non seasonal breeder are more likely to have swellings proposed hypothesis: best-male, reliable quality indicator, obvious-ovulation, male services, many-male...authors hypothesis to have duality of paternity certainty and confusion: graded-signal hypothesis—exaggerated swellings signal female fertility so dominant males tend to mate-guard only at peak swelling, and this allows males to mate with subordinate males outside peak swelling — Under the graded-signal hypothesis, two factors are relevant to exaggerated swellings that enable females to overcome the female dilemma: exaggerated swellings are probabilistic signals, and females are sexually active for a longer period.

authors to remember

Klein 1995: australopiths, paranthropuc, early Homo Stout and Chaminade 2012: wrangham 1999:

Discussion week 12 Humans: the technological ape...foundations of our tool use (McPherron, Ambrose, and Hlubik)

Mcpherron: In this article the authors present their findings on early stone-tool use for meat consumption from the Dikka Research Project that takes place in areas bordering Gona, Hadar, and Middle Awash Ethiopia. The researchers identified four fossils with impacted surfaces that were identified via microscopic and scanning techniques as stone-tool cut marks for "flesh removal and percussion marks for marrow access" (McPherron et al. 857). The member in which the bones are derived and other geographical analysis suggests usage of stone tools 3.39 Myr ago. Such findings reveals the earliest evidence of "meat and marrow consumption in the hominin lineage," as well as demonstrates an earlier archeological record of stone tool use which was formerly 2.6 myra from Gona, Ethiopia (McPherron et al. 858). Although there is no evidence of the hominin in that area at the time ( A. afarensis) being producers of stone tools it is possible to argue an "early phase" of low intensity of stone tool production happening in the evolution of hominins Ambrose "paleolithic technology and human evolution":Human biological and cultural evolution are closely linked to technological innovations. Direct evidence for tool manufacture and use was absent before 2.5 million years ago (MYA), so reconstructions of australopithecine technology are based mainly on the behavior and anatomy of chimpanzees. Stone tool technology, robust australopithecines, and the genus Homo appeared almost simultaneously 2.5 Ma. Once this adaptive threshold was crossed, technological evolution was accompanied by increased brain size, population size, and geographical range. Aspects of behavior, economy, mental capacities, neurological functions, the origin of grammatical language, and social and symbolic systems have been inferred from the archaeological record of Paleolithic technology. Hlubik "Hominin fire use": Hominin fire use in the early Pleistocene has been debated since the early 1970s when consolidated reddened sediment patches were explored in Africa. Since then, researchers have argued for evidence of early Pleistocene fire use at a handful of archaeological sites with evidence of combustion. Some argue that morphological evidence of early Homo erectus fossils indicates a dietary shift to higher quality food sources, which could be achieved by cooking. Others contend that fire use does not become a regular behavior until later, in the middle Pleistocene, when archaeological sites begin to show regular evidence for fire use. The article discusses the hypothesis that the use of fire, particularly for cooking foods, had a major influence on the biological evolution of the genus Homo and discusses spatial relationships showing burned material associated with non - burned material.

Oldowan Industrial Complex

Names after olduvai gorge in Tanzania, the most widely accepted. "Earliest" stone tool industry is termed—- when: 2.6-1.7 MYA "Toth types" FP: flaked piece (core) DP: detached piece (scraper) PP: pounded piece (hammerstone) Cores, Hammer Stones, Flakes

two dominant models for modern human origins?

Out of Africa and Multiregonal Hypothesis ***alternate arguments homo erectus left tropical equatorial area and moved to subtropical to more temperament and then thrived with derived used of hand ax...thrived through ice ages 2nd homo sapiens: (argued by Richard Kiln), anatomically modern humans were not behaviorally modern, they underwent a brain transformation 50k that allowed for behavior modernity to arise braided stream: genetics integration

Week 1 Discussion Review of Evolutionary Principles (pinker and buss)

Pinker: nature vs nuture introduces multiple arguements that overrall reveal the duality/dynamic interplay nature vs nuture has on life development (tabula rasa introduced...bad kid=poor parenting/nuture...little of both on standardize testing...peer groups) Buss: reviews the work of Gould who expands on adaption and natural selection being the central concdepts of evolutionary psychology to include expatations and spandals where he suggedsts that phenomena such as art, language, commerce, and war are incidental spandrels of the large human brain Criticism: adaptation is not perfect and is a slow process which does not always keep up with the presence of time i.e., humans live in a modern world but with stone age brains with ancient adaptive problems (i.e. fear of snakes) which is not necessarily relevant in urban settings. Local optima: adaptation need to be superior to predecessor...selection works only with the available materials...local optima prevent the evolution of better adaptive solutions that might exist in. potential design space. Lack of genetic variation some things just aren't possible Costs of adaptations (usage of energy or metabolic costs which hinger survival costs) + Coordination is needed

Chaine Operatoire

Reconstructing the reduction, use an deposition sequence of a stone tool production assemblage greatly assists in archaeological inquiry -core reduction sequence -series of manufacturing steps -from raw material selection through flaking, shaping, retouching, use and discard - the ENTIRE process of creation, use and discard of a tool

stone tool cut marks

Shape: V Depth: deep Internal surface: striated

Discussion Week 14 Humans: the technological Ape...Extinction or Panspermia? (Smith and Zeder, Steffen, and Haff)

Smith and Zeder "Anthropocene": A number of different starting dates for the Anthropocene epoch have been proposed, reflecting different disciplinary perspectives and criteria regarding when human societies first began to play a significant role in shaping the earth's ecosystems. In this article these various proposed dates for the onset of the Anthropocene are briefly discussed, along with the data sets and standards on which they are based. An alternative approach to identifying the onset of the Anthropocene is then outlined. Rather than focusing on different markers of human environmental impact in identifying when the Anthropocene begins, this alternative approach employs Niche Construction Theory (NCT) to consider the temporal, environmental and cultural contexts for the initial development of the human behavior sets that enabled human societies to modify species and ecosystems more to their liking. The initial domestication of plants and animals, and the development of agricultural economies and landscapes are identified as marking the beginning of the Anthropocene epoch. Since this transition to food production occurred immediately following the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary, the Anthropocene can be considered as being coeval with the Holocene, resolving the contentious ''golden spike'' debate over whether existing standards can be satisfied for recognition of a new geological epoch. Steffen "The Anthropocene: Are Humans Now overwhelming the great forces of nature": Natural geological epoch is the interglacial state called the holocene Geo-engineering invloves purposeful manipulation by humans of global-scale earth system processes w/ the intention of counteracting anthropogenically driven environmental change such as greenhouse warming The great acceleration into the 6th extinction of earth...concludes it began in the 18000 with the onset of industrilization, the central feature of which was the expansion in fossil fuels. Use atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration as marker to track anthropocene. after 1950 the great acceleration occured with rising CO2 levels happening in just 30 years. Haff "Technology as a geographical phenomenon: implications for human well-being": The technosphere, the interlinked set of communication, transportation, bureaucratic and other systems that act to metabolize fossil fuels and other energy resources, is considered to be an emerging global paradigm, with similarities to the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere. The technosphere is of global extent, exhibits large-scale appropriation of mass and energy resources, shows a tendency to co-opt for its own use information produced by the environment, and is autonomous. Unlike the older paradigms, the technosphere has not yet evolved the ability to recycle its own waste stream. Unless or until it does so, its status as a para- digm remains provisional. Humans are 'parts' of the technosphere - subcomponents essential for system function. Viewed from the inside by its human parts, the technosphere is perceived as a derived and controlled construct. Viewed from outside as a geological phenomenon, the tech- nosphere appears as a quasi-autonomous system whose dynamics constrains the behaviour of its human parts. A geological perspective on technology suggests why strategies to limit environmental damage that consider only the needs of people are likely to fail without parallel consideration of the requirements of technology, especially its need for an abundant supply of energy.

Discussion week 11 "the great game," or Sex: theory vs. Practice (Smuts and Hawkes)

Smuts "Male Aggression against Women": got kidnapped background, Male aggression against females in primates, including humans, often functions to control female sexuality to the male's reproductive advan- tage. A comparative, evolutionary perspective is used to generate several hypotheses to help to explain cross-cultural variation in the frequency of male aggression against women. Variables considered include protection of women by kin, male--male alliances and male strategies for guarding mates and obtaining adulterous matings, and male resource control. The relationships between male aggression against women and gender ideol- ogies, male domination of women, and female sexuality are also consid- ered. Ways to counteract include female kin/coalitions, and long term male friendships...males show aggression in primate troops to have control over femals and pass their genes Hawkes "Grandmothering, menopause, and the evolution of human life histories": Long postmenopausal lifespans distinguish humans from all other primates. This pattern may have evolved with mother-child food sharing, a practice that allowed aging females to enhance their daughters' fertility, thereby increasing selection against senescence. Combined with Charnov's dimensionless assembly rules for mammalian life histories, this hypothesis also accounts for our late maturity, small size at weaning, and high fertility. It has implications for past human habitat choice and social orga- nization and for ideas about the importance of extended learning and paternal provisioning in human evolution...human differ from primates by having lower mortality rates once adulthood is reached in humans than other primates - Humans take longer to reach sexual maturity age - Only humans provide a substantial portion of their weaned children's diets - Humans are usually patrilocal... "stopping early hypothesis": The idea of an early pause to help the young o More advantageous for humans to stop their fertility stage and keep living ▪ Avoids risky pregnancies where the mother could die o Able to stay alive to raise the child o Older parents are not in "prime reproductive form"

lomekwi tools

Stone tools dated to 3.3 mya.

the "great acceleration

The Anthropocene has undergone a dramatic shift since then mid 20th century, as human enterprise underwent a remarkable explosion that has concomitantly greatly increased co2 emission, caused the loss of biodiversity and overconsumption of natural resources, among many other challenges. This remarkable explosion of human impacts on earth systems has been termed the

the "cooking" hypothesis

The idea that particular human evolutionary expressions/adaptions are correlated with the control of fire was coined (wrangham 1999) as

the movius line

The separation between areas of the Old World in which Acheulean technology occurs and those in which it does not; named by archaeologist Hallam Movius.

Acheulian hand axe

Tool technology part of the Acheulian tradition, used from the Lower to Middle Paleolithic, main tool of H. erectus, "swiss army knife" frisbee-o-death

Australopithecus

What genius might be better associated wit the actual earliest evidence of the use of stone tools (I.e. butchery marks)?—-

Discussion week 8 Human Origins (Wood, lovejoy, tattersall, and frayer)

Wood "Human Evolution: Overview": first hominin ardipithecus is 4.5 mya in ethiopia...mention the various hominins to exists but don't anymore (lack of evidence to explain)... introduced out of africa (preservation bias, neanderthals still able to interbreed,) and multiregonal (not likely cause speciation occurs) hypothesis Lovejoy "the origin of man": five characteristics separate humans from other hominoids: large neocortex, bipedality, reduced anterior dentition w/ molar dominance, material culture, and unique sexual and reproductive behavior. The unique sexual and reproductive behavior of man might be the consequence of human evolution not brain expansion and material culture...asserts that Bipedalism evolved well before the large human brain and the development of stone tools, and it became adapted so the hands were free to carry food (especially by males back to mothers)- leading to a nuclear family adaptation for success..emphasizes fundamental behavioral base where bipedality as a locomotor behavior directly enhanced reproductive behavior not for upright feeding which accounts for the origin of the home base, nuclear family, sexual dimorphism, long standing...Communicating with your hands (easier if you're bipedal)d. Reproductive strategies (mother-infant relationship), emphasizes how for some other mammals, the mother must care for the infant while foraging for themselves and the infante. Nuclear familyf. Highly prosocial behavior (brain's need to form highly social behavior, wanting/needing communication)g. Lovejoy emphasizing material culture and tool use, or socialization and social pressures (not exclusive between the two) Tattersall " Human origins: out of africa": homosapiens first appeared in Africa, but at different times. Essentially modern bony conformation was established in that continent by the 200-150 Ka range (a dating in good agree- ment with dates for the origin of H. sapiens derived from modern molecular diversity). The event concerned was apparently short- term because it is essentially unanticipated in the fossil record. In contrast, the first convincing stirrings of symbolic behavior are not currently detectable until (possibly well) after 100 Ka. The radical reorganization of gene expression that underwrote the distinctive physical appearance of H. sapiens was probably also responsible for the neural substrate that permits symbolic cognition. This exap- tively acquired potential lay unexploited until it was ''discovered'' via a cultural stimulus, plausibly the invention of language. Mod- ern humans appear to have definitively exited Africa to populate the rest of the globe only after both their physical and cognitive peculiarities had been acquired within that continent. Frayer "sexual dimorphism": ideologies such as religion and cultures causes biases and or difficulties in approaching this line of work...concludes little dimorphism in body size is shown in the two living chimpanzee species (the differences between them is not important in this regard). The differential resource exploitation is common for chimpanzees and hominds and suggests that dimorphism reduction in both lineages is a consequence of the resource exploitation patter, the economic adaption reduces the competition between the sexes...suspect human evolution of sex dimorphism is a consequence of a convergence in the requirements of male and female roles.

equifinality

a basic principle of developmental psychopathology that holds that one symptom can have many causes

If a researcher argues that the beginning of the Anthropocene should be around AD1945, what event are they most likely to refer to in bolstering that point of view?

atomic testing

what are the defining characteristics of being human

big brains, language, bipedal, tool use, not really any but more so flexibility, adaptability, resilience, create solutions for problems, innovation, perseverance defines us as humans

best base criteria for rise of hominins

bipedalism

what is the largest sex organ

brain

bulb of force

bulbar location on the ventral surface of a flake that was formed as a result of the Hertzian cone turning toward the outside of the objective piece

Cro-Magon

closely resembles the MSA and LSA assemblages 150kya-40kya: beads, bones, antler, shell, art, pigments, harpoons, bow/arrow, pendants, pressure flaking

Stone tools

common stones; flint, basalt, quartz, obsidian, ochre, and sandstone artifacts: flaked tools, points, axes, adzes, choppers, grinders, sharpeners, weights, bowls, beads, art, pipes, petroglyphs, pigments, +, flakes, cores, choppers, pounded pieces, manuports when: earliest is 3,3 MYA in lomekwi, Kenya ("Bashee" hand to rock style "knapping"); would be Australopithecus species specifically A. afarensis

first user of fire

control of fire by a member of Homo erectus range from 1.7 to 2.0 million years ago (Mya). Evidence for the "microscopic traces of wood ash" as controlled use of fire by Homo erectus

Wrangham's hypothesis

cooking was responsible for the evolution of the unusual human social system in which pair bonds are embedded in multimale, multifemale communities

Week 6 Non-Human Primate tool use (Cutts, Koops)

cutts "tool-use and technology non-human primates": investigates composite, compound, and tool kits when exploring tool use and technology in primates (claims only wild chimpanzees maintain widespread tool culture w/flexibility)... technology is a subset of various or different medias combined into different things. Compound things to create an abstract object or thought (i.e. leaf sponging to extract honey) Koops "Nest-Building among chimpanzees": Chimpanzees preferred to nest above 1000 m and nested mainly in primary forest. They preferred relatively large trees with a low first branch, dense canopy, and small leaves and showed preference for particular tree species, which was stable across years, whereas plant choice for ground-nesting was largely based on plant availability. We found no support for the antipredation hypothesis, nor did mosquito densities explain arboreal nest-building The thermoregulation hypothesis was supported, as both nesting patterns and nest-height variation across seasons reflected a humidity-avoidance strategy Chimpanzees nested higher in trees and at higher altitudes in the wet season. In sum, chimpanzees were selective in their choice of nest sites, locations, and materials, and tree-nesting patterns at Seringbara were best explained by a thermoregulation strategy of humidity avoidance.

DP

detached piece

anatomy of a stone tool

dorsal: pointed back outing (like dorsal fin of dolphin) bulb of force: where you strike (or cone of force) ventral: opposite side of dorsal fissures: stress cracks (vertical down rock) distal: sharp point on a rock platform: point of impact, flat top of rock compression waves: horizontal ripples on rock...tapered

ESA

early stone age or lower Paleolithic date: between about 2.7 million years ago to 200,000 years the western core biface (hand axe/cleaver) tradition and the eastern chopper/chopping tool tradition

females reach their sexual peak at age 30 and males at age 18

false

most college students use condoms for intercourse

false

pregnancy cannot occur without male orgasm

false

FP

flaked piece

first species to rely exclusively on bipedalism?

homo erectus

earliest species in our genus

homo habilis

synergistic effect

homo technologies that appears to be critical for "human phenomenon" HARNESSING OF FIRE IN "THE SYNTHESIS"

technological Intelligence vis-a-vis ecological intelligence

i.e. movius line access to different resources --early material culture (cognitive development) --not intentional stone-tool use adaption rather available resource in an environment such as stumbling on a sharp broken rock proved beneficial for fitness to be learned and adapted over time --acquire stone tool use reproductive benefits: slightly more successful generation over time

wrangham: anatomical lines of evidence for their argument

increased body size, reduction in molar size and enamel thickness, increase in brain volume

LSA

late stone age or upper Paleolithic 40K years ago tools: bone tubes, beads, antler points, domesticated dog first available evidence of organic material angled long thin and pointed tools however might be wrong date cause 75K years ago bone harpoons and ostrich sheell beads used *henshilwood)

wrangham: behavioral lines of evidence for their argument

less competition between males for females

Symptoms and effects of the anthropocene

loss of biodiversity 6th major extinction loss algal biomass: largest producers of oxygen

what did cooking do for humans (wrangham)

made food more available and disgestible

MSA

middle stone age time: roughly 280,000 years ago and ended around 50-25,000 years ago relied on prepared-core (levalllois-style), side-scrapers, deticulates, backed pieces + tools, bone points more numerous than Acheulian due to preservational bias Behavioral innovations: barbed point, fishing, and beads 800KYA, images orgi

bipedal brain paradox

narrower pelvis from bipedality posed difficulty for birth big brain offspring and therefore evolutionary development of altricial young took place

australopiths

oldest known human deposits, ape brains with human teeth and bodies

Holocene

period were climate cycles stays consistently high follows the beginning of agriculture

braided stream

phenotypes change for different environments but when individuals come together in a group they "share" traits; genetic integration

sexuality rewards

pleasure, substantiation, humanizing, joy, affection, comfort, love, pregnancy

sexuality risks

potential disease, injury, and even death

PP

pounded piece

Anatomical considerations of how knapping effect

precision grasping pollex is important for production

Behavioral Modernity

relying on symbolic thought, elaborating cultural creativity, and as a result becoming fully human in behavior as well as in anatomy

how to tell if a flake is made by a human

scraping wear ventral surface is single face microflaking

carnivore tooth marks

shape: U

homo habilis

smaller cheek teeth, larger brain

paranthropus

species characterized by massive molars and muscles for chewing, dating from 2.5 to 1.4 million years ago. species of australopiths

Discussion Week 5 animal tool use and primate anatomy (St. Amant and Horton, Betel-Confit, lonsdorf, and diogo)

st. amant and horton "revisiting the definition of animal tool use": an updated explanatory definition of tool use (from 25 year ago) under two subcategories of behaviors: 1. Behaviors aimed at altering a target object by mechanical means and behaviors that mediate the flow of information between the too user and the environment or organisms in the environment. This updated definition is informally evaluated by a set of scenarios that highlights the differences from beck's definition as well as others...def" Tool use is the exertion of control over a freely manipulable external object (the tool) with the goal of (1) altering the phys- ical properties of another object, substance, surface or medium (the target, which may be the tool user or another organism) via a dynamic mechanical interaction, or (2) mediating the flow of information between the" ...the other aspect of this: the chimp uses rock as an anvil. The chimp fixed the problem byadapting his tools to his needs (called not just tool-use, but specifically, "metatool"). The tool isthe anvil but the intent was to crack open nuts, and when it didn't work, the chimp stabilized itwith a shiv, which wasn't the particular tool but was part of the overall tool(tool-to-make-a-tool-to-make-a-tool). This speaks to one consistent aspect of all the definitions,which involves intent (goal-oriented). However, how can you know the animals' intent? This is aCatch-22. The researchers are contradictory and do not acknowledge the failing side of theirimmature science--should bring it up to a more mature science level if we are using tool-use as adefining characteristic of humanity.Metatool: then you know what the intent of the animal was--the chimp realized that it wasn'tworking and modified the original plan. This also offers insight into the level of cognition andintelligence in the neuronal-inner workings of that animal without more advanced imagingsystems hooked up to it (use complex-broken down tool-use to analyze intent). Betel confit "antimal tool use: current defintiions and an updated comprehensive catalog": identifies the definition of tool use as elusive and behavior classification as subjective. Presents a catalog of documented animal tool use.primary goal was to present a concise, user-friendly, updated resource for researchers interested in animal tool use that would illustrate trends in animal tool use within and across taxonomic classifications...excludes social tools Lonsdorf "an experimental, comparative investigation of tool use in chimpanzees and gorillas": The physicality of gorillas mediates against their need for tool-use--they're big and don'thave as much of a need. Likewise, within the hierarchy of chimps, the alpha male is less likely touse tools because of its status. Lower ranking female chimps are most likely to innovate tool-use diogo: "comparative anatomy of primates": short summary of comparative anatomy of humans and other primates based off collaborative work of osteology (bones and cartilages), myology (muscles and tendons), and external and internal organs

Discussion Week 3 Behavioral Ecology and animal behavior basics (Stier, slater, and Sapolosky)

stier "primiate behavioral ecology": development of primatology which evolved from ethnogrpahy, primatology added shared ancestal traits and how demographic size can effect the behaviors of animals. Fertility can fluctuate, matrilinity and patrilinity...anthropocentrism with Anthropologists focusing on certain species because they wanted to compare humans...the prominence of social Darwinism and the antagonistic nature to finding genetic basis on primates' behavior arose. Previously, it was behavioral primatologists simply seeking genetic basis to any behavior. When females started breaking the glass barrier in academia, we suddenly discovered that male and female primate behavior correlate with one another and that female primates hold more responsibilities than before. The males are dependent on the cooperation with females. Females aren't passive, they aren't there only to bear children. Their behavior is based on interactions with each other and with males too. Males act differently in front of females, and vice versa. Females have agency: o Agency means to do something independently and act on your own free will Primary goal for females is getting access to resources. For males, it is getting access to females. Female primatologists figured that out, while male primatologists were only following the strongest males in their studies. Slater "Asking questions about behavior": Social behavior plays an important role in nature. Upon observing the different behavior of guppies in Trinidad, we see that fish in high-risk sites spend more time in schools and are tightly grouped with a more cautious behavior than low-risk fish. This social behavior was confirmed to have a genetic basis because this schooling behavior persisted for several generations.- If we did not learn and see social behavior, we would not know it from evolutionary perspective- Social behavior can expect what traits will be selected for and what is valuable. That will influence evolution, but you might not understand why because it may be evolutionarily advantageous to one but not another. Sapolsky "a pacific culture among wild baboons," documents the emergence of a unique culture in a troop of olive baboons related to the overall structure and social atmosphere of the troop. In a social hierarchy, the lower-ranking members become stressed out, have higher anxiety rates, become intolerant to glucose, gain hypertension, etc. Social hierarchy may be to preserve social groups, but it does affect each member of society in a not exactly positive way...Alpha males are associated with strength, but in the research, all of them died off. The alpha males were fit but did not have the best genes later because the environment changes what is best fit for it. The dominant males weren't so good with kids and females changed the rules... There is an entire culture change in this group of baboons and Sapolsky has a PhD in neuroendocrinology.- They looked at hormones, specifically cortisol in feces... since a tuberculosis outbreak happened in 1986 (killing all aggressive monkeys), the remaining non-aggressive monkeys studied in 1993-1996 no longer were stressed but accustomed to local level traditions...however 1993-1998 observed monkeys found that the monkey hierarchy was reinstated with the same behaviors as the monkey population studied pre-tuberculosis... how did the culture transmit despite gap years of no aggressive monkeys being present and a new micro-culture taking place?? A number of investigators have emphasized how a tolerant and gregarious social setting facilitates social transmission (e.g., van Schaik et al. 1999), exactly the conditions in F93-96.

best base criteria for rise of "homo"

stone tool use

Anthropocene

the modern geological era during which humans have dramatically affected the environment "great age of humans"

knapping

to shape (as flints) by breaking off pieces

Language can be argued to bed an exaltation of adaptive brain functions previously serving what behavior?

tool production

college students have one of the highest rates of STIs of all groups in the US

true

wrangham: archaeological lines of evidence for their argument

underground storage organs , many species identified required cooking to become palatable

The Great Acceleration

upward logarithmic curve for population, GDP, primary energy use, carbon dioxide, surface termperature, and ocean acidification