anthropology exam 2 review

La Chapelle aux Saints (Marcellin Boule)

(70,000-35,000 years ago) • Nearly Complete Skeleton with Whole Brain Case and Face Fully Preserved • Shallow Grave in Flexed Position (Long Bones of Animals, Flint Tools) -Overemphasized Nonmodern and Underplayed Modern Features

Dolni Vestonice (Czech Republic)

(Czech Republic) site reflects four tent-like hut settlement with a hearth in the center likely surrounded by a wall. Each probably housed a group of related families;

Cro-Magnon, France (30,000 ya) Dordogne Abrigo do lagar Velho, Portugal (Erik Trinkaus)

(Rock Shelter) 30,000 ya Becomes Model Representing All Upper Paleolithic Peoples(40,000-10,000 ya)

Hypoglossal Canal

(opening at base of the skull). Main nerve supply of the tongue passes through hypoglossal canal as large as modern humans;

Pithecanthropus (Java)

A Manlike Species of Transitional Anthropoid from Java (1894)

Acheulian Tools

A stone tool making tradition dating from 1.5 mya. Compared with the Oldowan tradition, Acheulian assemblages have more large tools created according to standardized designs or shapes. One of the most prevalent is the Acheulian tool kit is the hand axe, a teardrop-shaped bifacially flaked tool with a thinned sharp tip. Other large tools may have been cleavers and picks.

Kanzi (Bonobo) Sue Savage-Rumbaugh

• Another debated unique human trait is the ability to communicate about past and future events. Sue Savage- Rumbaugh reports bonobos leaving messages to follow a trail.

Teotihuacan

• By A.D. 100 city reaches 80,000 people, by A.D. 500 well over 100,000 people. 90% of the entire valley population. Valley politically unified under a centralized state from the beginning (grid pattern laid out). • Colossal scale of architecture very noteworthy. Two pyramids (Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon) huge.

Upper Paleolithic Art/Beads Carvings, and Cave Art:

• Lascaux Cave (France) 1940 Great Hall of the Bulls (16,000-17,000 ya) • Altamira (Spain) 1879 Discovered in 1879 (18,000 ya) • Grotte Chauvet (France) 1994 (30,000 ya? Date in Question, Perhaps Later) Four Great Halls, 300 Paintings, Different Sets of Animals

Monte Alban (Valley of Oaxaca) 500 B.C.

• Monte Alban did not have the resources that Teotihuacan had; • On top of a mountain, with no irrigation and poor soil; • Why founded? Neutral place to coordinate activities of the whole valley (500-400 B.C.)?

Sumerian Civilization (Iraq)/Empire

• Social stratification more elaborate—nobles, priests, merchants, craftworkers, metallurgists, bureaucrats, soldiers, farmers, free citizens, slaves

Nonhuman Primate Communication Systems

Vervet Monkeys Communication Patterns Marmosets, Capuchin Monkeys, Rhesus Macaques Bonobo

The Origins of Language Revisited FOXP2, Hyoid Bone, Hypoglossal Canal and Neandertals Capacity for Language

as evidence for the first use of human language and speculated there was evidence of these features among Neandertals at Kebara Cave (Israel) by 60,000 ya.

Upper Paleolithic (40,000-10,000 ya)

characterized by new developments such as more sophisticated and varied stone tools

suppression of ovulation

due to nursing may widen birth spacing compared to use of supplemental food

Shang Dynasty, China (1,500 B.C.)

in northern China (1750 B.C.) one of the earliest state societies in the Far East. Stratified and specialized with religious, economic, and administrative unification

Kinesics

is the study of communication by nonverbal or nonvocal means including posture, mannerisms, body movement, facial expressions, and signs and gestures

Wheat, Barley, Peas

rachis (rey-kis)—the seed-bearing part of the stem—which shatters easily, releasing the seeds

Neolithic Revolution (V. Gordon Childe)

shift to food production—the cultivation and domestication of plants and animals—in the Near East about 8,000 B.C. (10,000 years-ago); • V. Gordon Childe calls this shift the Neolithic revolution and it occurred independently in other areas of the New and Old World.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

specifies that the language one speaks affects how individuals in a society perceive and conceive reality. Examples from the Hopi (don't distinguish simply into past, present, future), Inuit, etc. Historically been a subject of some debate.

Cultural Relativism

the belief that a society's customs and ideas should be described objectively and understood in the context of that society's problems and opportunities -franz boas

Domestication in Mesoamerica Maize (Corn), Beans, and Squash!

Bottle gourds grown and used for carrying water and not eaten. Other domesticates include tomatoes, cotton, a variety of beans and squashes, and maize; • Maize dating to 5000 BC found in Tehuacan, Mexico (from wild teosinte—tee-uh-SIN-tee—a wild grass that still grows wildly in Mexico). Beans and squash domesticated from wild forms; • People in Mesoamerica, Mexico, and Central America planted maize, beans, and squash in the same fields.

Neandertal Features

Brain Size Huge (1400-2000 cc), Midface (Swell) Prognathism, Retromolar Gap, Robust, Powerful Skeleton, Cranium is Large, Low, and Bulging at the Sides, Forehead More Vertical (Cold Adapted)

Enculturation

the gradual acquisition of the characteristics and norms of a culture or group by a person, another culture, etc.

Characteristics of Civilizations (States)

By 3500 B.C. characteristics of civilization have emerged—first inscriptions or writing, cities, full- time-craft specialists, monumental architecture, differences in wealth and status, and centralized government (state); • States arise in Near East (3500 B.C.), northwestern India and in Peru (2500 B.C.), northern China (1750 B.C.), Mexico, tropical Africa somewhat later.

Homo rudolfensis

Early species belonging to our genus, Homo. Similar enough to Homo habilis that some paleoanthropologists make no distinction between the two. More thickly enameled molars, flatter face, larger brain, more modern limb proportions.

Shanidar, Iraq (60,000-40,000)

Evidence for Neandertal Compassion and Humanity Skeletons of nine individuals deliberately buried; • One particularly interesting individual (30-45, 5'7", 1600cc, crushing blow to head, massive blow to right side of body, arm gone, damage to right leg); • Evidence of Neandertal compassion and humanity?; • Individuals care for others

Ethnocentrism

The attitude that other societies' customs and idea can be judged in the context of one's own culture

Oldowan Tradition (Beginning 2.5 mya)

At Olduvai Gorge, remains of Oldowan tools and broken bones and teeth from animal species found in association

critical fat hypothesis

Birth spacing may also have to do with ratio of body fat to body weight. Need minimal amount of body fat to resume ovulation

Upper Paleolithic Tools:

Blades, Burins, Bone and Antler Tools, Microliths (Spears, Adzes, Sickles) Indirect Percussion (Wood or Antler Hammer) - Upper Paleolithic characterized by a preponderance of blades; also burins, bone and antler tools, and microliths and new techniques of tool making such as indirect percussion and pressure flaking

Paleo-Indians (U.S., Mexico, Canada) Clovis Complex/Folsom Tradition

Early New World hunters were called Paleo- Indians and found in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada Associated tools are known as the Clovis complex including projectile points, stone scrapers, knives, and bone tools.

Ethnocentric

Refers to judgment of other cultures solely in terms of one's own culture

Terra Amata, France

Camp excavated at the Terra Amata site (300,000 ya) near Nice, France on the Eastern Mediterranean; • Well-known site that shows evidence of seasonal occupation, postholes for 30 x 15 shelters; • Central hearths located in each; • Gathered seafood (oysters and mussels), fished, and hunted.

Definitions of Culture

Culture not considered synonymous with being "cultured." Linton states that culture refers to the total way of life any society, not simply to those parts of this way which society regards as higher or more desirable

Edward Tylor (1871) Classic Definition

Culture. . . is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society (p. 1).

Homo habilis

Dating from about 2.3 mya, an early species belonging to our genus, Homo, with cranial capacities averaging about 630-640 cc, about 50% the brain capacity of moderns and reduced molars and premolars, relatively long arms and powerful hands;

Java (Eugene Dubois) 1887 Pithecanthropus

Dutch Anatomist (Amsterdam) Enlists in the Dutch East Indies Army as a Surgeon 1887 Dubois left for Sumatra to Look for Missing Link Like Alfred Russell Wallace, Believed Hominid Ancestors Found in Asia Heard of a Fossil Skull in Java, Asked for a Transfer

Term Used for Transitional Specimens

Homo heidelbergensis to refer to these transitional specimens

Ideal Cultural Traits

In the course of observing and interviewing, anthropologists also try and distinguish actual behavior from the ideas about how people in particular situations ought to feel and behave; • Speak of these as ideal cultural traits. May be a discrepancy between what people say they do and what they actually do. Ideal cultural ideas and how they are put into practice.

what happened to the neandertals revisited

Interbreeding between Neandertals and moderns occurred; 2. Genocide. Neandertals killed off by moderns; 3. Extinction. Could not compete with modern humans. Displaced by them. Best archaeological support? Trinkaus suggests Neandertals less efficient hunters and gatherers. Some interbreeding could have taken place.

Zhoukoudian, China 1920s Sinanthropus

J. Gunnar Andersson (1921) (Swedish Geologist) Chicken Bone Hill, Dragon Bone Hill (Quarries) Quartz among Limestone (Not Naturally Associated) Hominin Tooth Uncovered Otto Zdansky (1926)

Hyoid Bone

Kebara Cave, Israel (60,000 ya) also critical (does not articulate with any other bones, believed important for speech). Neandertals similar to moderns.

FOXP2 Gene

Neandertals also found to have the FOXP2 gene, suggesting that they may have had language abilities similar to modern humans. • Anatomically designed for modern language

West Turkana, Kenya/Nariokotome Boy 1.6 mya (Richard Leakey) Why Significant?

Nearly Complete Skeleton (1.6 mya) (no left humerus, radius, hands, feet) Preserved in Ancient Swamp Boy is 12 years-old, 5'3" Over 6 Feet Tall When Adult

Core Vocabulary/focal

Non-specialist vocabulary—core vocabulary—of languages appears to be about the same size cross-culturally

Sinathropus (China)

Pei Wenshong (1929) Chinese Geologist Found Skullcap of Juvenile, 1000cc Brain

Physical Characteristics of Homo erectus

Platychephalic, Postorbital Constriction, Sagittal Keel, Supraorbital and Nuchal Torus, Shovel- Shaped Incisors, Taurondonism, 900cc+ Brain, Postcranial Anatomy (Size), Prognathic Face Footprints at Ileret (Lake Turkana) -small teeth -shovel-shaped incisors -Molars had an enlarged pulp cavity, called taurodontism -Jaw also lighter and thinner and face less prognathic -Brain was also larger averaging 895-1,040 cc -had a prominent, projecting nose

Factors Contributing to Population Growth Birth-Spacing and the !Kung Example Suppression of Ovulation, Critical Fat Hypothesis

Some anthropologists suggest that population growth increased dramatically with sedentarism (reduction in birth spacing); • Evidence from comparison of recent nomadic and sedentary !Kung (Ju/'hoansi populations) and reduction of birth spacing discussed; • Birth spacing among many groups influenced by a postpartum sex taboo and abortion or infanticide to widen birth spacing.

Mesopotamia (Iran and Iraq) 3500 BC

Some archaeologists think that states first evolved around 3500 BC in greater Mesopotamia (southern Iraq and southwestern Iran); • Characteristics of states include hierarchical and centralized decision-making, cities with specialization of labor, full-time religious and craft specialists, public buildings, and often an official art style

Leisure Debate (!Kung San)

Text compares North American work load and lack of leisure time to that of the traditional !Kung of the Kalahari Desert of the 1950s

Mousterian (France)

The Mousterian named after the tool assemblage found in a rock shelter at Le Moustier in the Dordogne region of southwestern France; • Compared to the Acheulian, a Mousterian assemblages had a smaller proportion of large core tools such as hand axes and cleavers, and a bigger proportion of small flake tools such as scrapers.

"Formative Era"

The formative period in the area around Teotihuacan (1000 to 300 B.C.) originally characterized by small, scattered farming villages (Teotihuacan Valley); • Around 500 B.C., shift to settlements on the valley floor, probably due to use of irrigation; • Elite centers and ranked burials include ornaments, headdresses, and carved bowls, and a good deal of food suggests inequality (Chiefdoms).

Herto, Ethiopia (160,000-154,000 ya)

Tim White + Berhane Asfaw (2003) • Three Crania (2 Adult, 1 Child) • Clearly Homo sapiens and "Near Modern" Human • Cranial Capacity at 1450cc • Skulls Show Evidence of Cutting and Handling Detached From Bodies After Death • Supports Complete Replacement (Single-Origin) Right Time, Right Place