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Window on Humanity Conrad Phillip Kottak Third Edition Chapter 1 What Is Anthropology? © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. Overview • Human adaptability • Human biological diversity and the race concept • Subfields of anthropology • Anthropology as a member of the sciences and the humanities • Applied anthropology © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 1 What Is Anthropology? • Anthropology – Study of the human species and its immediate ancestors – Holistic discipline: concerned with human biology, society, language, and culture in the past, present, and future – Unique cross-cultural perspective © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 1 What Is Anthropology? • Human Adaptability – Humans are among the most adaptable animals in the world, able to inhabit widely variant ecological niches • Humans use biological means to adapt to a given environment • Humans are unique in having cultural means of adaptation. – Humans share both society and culture • Society: organized life in groups, a feature that humans share with other animals • Cultures: traditions and customs, transmitted through learning, guide the beliefs and behaviors of people exposed to them • Culture is not biological, but ability to use it rests in features of human biology © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 1 What Is Anthropology? • Adaptation, Variation, and Change – Adaptation: process by which organisms cope with environmental forces and stresses – Human adaptation: interaction between culture and biology to satisfy individual goals – Four types of human adaptation • • • • Cultural (technological) adaptation Genetic adaptation Long-term physiological or developmental adaptation Short-term or immediate physiological adaptation © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 1 What Is Anthropology? • Adaptation, Variation, and Change – Social and cultural adaptation have become increasingly important for human groups • Diverse ways of coping with a wide range of environments. • Rate of cultural adaptation has been rapidly accelerating during the last 10,000 years – Food production developed 12,000 - 10,000 y.a. – First civilizations developed 6,000 - 5,000 y.a. – Spread of industrial production profoundly affected human life © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 1 What Is Anthropology? • Human biological diversity and the race concept – Racial classification – the attempt to assign humans to discrete categories based on common ancestry – Biological race – a geographically isolated subdivision of a species – Biological races do not exist among humans • Human populations have not been isolated enough from one another to develop into discrete groups • Biological variation between human populations involves gradual shifts (clines) in gene frequencies and other biological features, not sharp breaks © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 1 What Is Anthropology? • Human biological diversity and the race concept – Race supposedly reflects genetic ancestry, but racial classifications are usually based on phenotypical traits (e.g., skin color) – Phenotype refers to an organism’s evident traits, its “manifest biology” – Problems with phenotype-based racial classifications: • Impossible to determine which trait(s) should be considered primary • Racial classifications do not accurately represent the wide range of skin colors and other biological diversity among human populations • Particular traits (e.g., skin color, stature, skull form, facial features) do not necessarily co-occur © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 1 What Is Anthropology? • Human biological diversity and the race concept – Problems with phenotype-based racial classifications: • Assumption that phenotypical traits reflect shared, unchanging genetic material is problematic – Phenotypical similarities and differences do not necessarily have a genetic basis – Range of phenotypes in a population may change without any genetic change because environmental variables can greatly affect the growth and development of individuals © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 1 What Is Anthropology? • Explaining skin color – Melanin – primary determinant of skin color – Natural selection provides an explanation for the geographic distribution of different skin colors • Light skin is selected against in the sunny tropics – Risk of sunburn, increased susceptibility to disease, decreased ability to sweat, skin cancer • Vitamin D production stimulated by sunlight – Lighter skin helps to ensure adequate production of vitamin D in cloudy, cold environments – Darker skin helps to prevent overproduction of vitamin D in the sunny tropics © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 1 What Is Anthropology? • Cultural forces shape human biology – Biocultural: inclusion and combination of cultural and biological perspectives to address a particular problem – Culture is a key environmental force that shapes how human bodies grow and develop © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 1 What Is Anthropology? • Subdisciplines of American anthropology – Cultural anthropology • Ethnography – fieldwork-based accounts of particular communities, societies, or cultures • Ethnology – examines, analyzes, and compares the results of ethnography – Archaeological anthropology – studies human behavior and cultural patterns through material remains – Biological (or physical) anthropology – studies human biological diversity • Evolution, genetics, biological plasticity, primatology – Linguistic anthropology – studies present and past languages © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 1 What Is Anthropology? • Anthropology and other academic fields – Anthropology is both a scientific and a humanistic discipline – Besides its links to the natural sciences (e.g., geology) and social sciences (e.g., sociology), anthropology has strong ties to the humanities (e.g., comparative literature) © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved. CHAPTER 1 What Is Anthropology? • Dimensions of American anthropology: – Academic or theoretical anthropology – Applied anthropology • Applied anthropology – Application of anthropological data, perspectives, theory, and methods to identify, assess, and solve contemporary social problems – All four subdisciplines © 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.