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Understanding Humans: Introduction to Physical Anthropology and Archaeology, Eleventh Edition

Barry Lewis, Robert Jurmain, and Lynn Kilgore Executive Editor: Mark Kerr Acquiring Sponsoring Editor: Erin Mitchell Developmental Editor: Lin Gaylord Assistant Editor: Mallory Ortberg Media Editor: John Chell Marketing Program Manager: Janay Pryor Content Project Manager: Cheri Palmer Art Director: Caryl Gorska Manufacturing Planner: Judy Inouye Rights Acquisitions Specialist: Dean Dauphinais Design, Production Services, and Composition: Hespenheide Design Photo Researcher: Patti Zeman, Hespenheide Design Text Researcher: Ashley Liening Copy Editor: Janet Greenblatt Cover Designer: Hespenheide Design Cover Image: ? Rosino / photos/rosino

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ISBN-13: 978-1-111-83177-6 ISBN-10: 1-111-83177-7

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Anthropology

1 C H A P T E R

Introduction to Anthropology

? Dr. Robert Clouse

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After you have mastered the material in this chapter, you will be able to:

Explain and give examples of the relevance of anthropology to modern everyday life.

Describe the concept of biocultural evolution and explain why it is an essential component of understanding human evolution.

Define basic anthropological concepts and understand their relationship to the goals of anthropological research.

Describe the main similarities and differences between physical anthropology and archaeology as approaches for understanding the human past.

Explain the logic of the scientific method as it is applied in anthropological research.

Copyright 2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

2

Figure 1-1

We are complex products of both culture and biology. In many ways, the evolutionary history of modern humans left us better adapted to life as a hunter-gatherer than as a modern city dweller.

evolution A change in the genetic structure of a population from one generation to the next. The term is also frequently used to refer to the appearance of a new species. anthropology The field of inquiry that studies human culture and evolutionary aspects of human biology; includes cultural anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, and physical anthropology. scientific method An approach to research whereby a problem is identified, a hypothesis (or hypothetical explanation) is stated, and that hypothesis is tested through the collection and analysis of data. biocultural evolution The mutual, interactive evolution of human biology and culture; the concept that biology makes culture possible and that developing culture further influences the direction of biological evolution; a basic concept in understanding the unique components of human evolution. culture All aspects of human adaptation, including technology, traditions, language, religion, and social roles. Culture is a set of learned behaviors; it is transmitted from one generation to the next through learning and not by biological or genetic means. species A group of organisms that can interbreed to produce fertile offspring. Members of one species are reproductively isolated from members of all other species (i.e., they can't mate with them to produce fertile offspring).

Here you are, taking an anthropology course about human origins and evolution. Why should you learn about "stones and bones"? It's irrelevant to modern everyday life, right?

Think again. In Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Jared Diamond says that he remains optimistic about the future because of the interconnectedness of modern societies: "Past societies lacked archaeologists and television" (Diamond, 2005, p. 525). His point is that we are much better prepared to face future challenges because, unlike our ancestors, so many of us know so much about how and why past societies developed and failed. We have the opportunity to learn from these mistakes and successes and, hopefully, to build a better, more sustainable, and brighter future for everyone. On a more personal level, consider the recent rise of obesity as a serious health problem in many affluent countries. The underlying causes are complex, but the human biological past is one important factor (Bellisari, 2008). All but a tiny fraction of the existence of our species was spent as physically active hunter-gatherers whose everyday staple foods tended to be low in fat, sugar, and salt and high in fiber, going from nature to table with minimal processing. Few

? Paul Harizan / Getty Images

twenty-first-century lifestyles are like that, but our bodies are well designed for our biological past, not our very different present (Fig. 1-1). The more that we understand our biological past, the better we will understand many modern health issues.

This and many other examples demonstrate that modern humans are cultural and biological beings whose present and future reflect their past. Humans are also probably unique among animals in the capacity to ask the question why. We can learn about our deep, rich past, and by doing so we gain the opportunity to profit from the experience. These qualities are fundamental motivations for the field of anthropology and for this book as an introduction to the biocultural perspective of human evolution.

Anthropology addresses the entire scope of the human experience and brings multiple perspectives to bear on the study of what it is to be human. Such a broad focus encompasses all topics related to behavior, including social relationships (for example, kinship and marriage patterns), religion, ritual, technology, subsistence, and economic and political systems. Anthropology is also concerned with the biological and evolutionary dimensions of our species, such as genetics, anatomy, skeletal structure, adaptation to disease and other environmental factors, growth, nutrition, and, ultimately, all the evolutionary processes that resulted in the development of modern humans.

In keeping with anthropology's commitment to a broad perspective, aspects of this discipline rest firmly in both science and the humanities: Anthropologists answer many questions by applying the scientific method, but they also apply interpretive methods to achieve an understanding of such human qualities as love, individual or group identity, compassion, and ethnicity.

The Biocultural Approach

The concept of biocultural evolution underlies the anthropological perspective. Humans are the product of the

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