Download Human biological diversity and the race concept

Window on Humanity
Conrad Phillip Kottak
Third Edition
Chapter 1
What Is Anthropology?
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.
© 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.
–
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMFsgPy1H5M
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.
Fields of Anthropology
Activity:
• Review the Anthropology undergraduate
course list from Columbia University. Can
you find ways to categorize the courses into
different fields of Anthropology?
– Physical Anthropology
– Cultural Anthropology
– Archeology
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.
Fields of Anthropology
• Subdisciplines of American anthropology
–
–
–
–
Cultural anthropology Archaeological anthropology –
Biological (or physical) anthropology –
Linguistic anthropology –
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.
Fields of 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.
Activity
• Center for Learning: Subdisciplines in
Anthropology
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Fields of 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
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ACTIVITY: CAREERS IN
ANTHROPOLOGY
• Use the following websites on the handout to help
answer the questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Identify 6 current jobs that are available to which you would be
interested in applying. Try to find jobs that are in at least 3
different disciplines.
Identify whether the jobs you listed are academic or applied
anthropology.
Which of the field of Anthropology is most interesting to you?
Why?
Look at the skills websites. Write a paragraph explaining what
you would need to do to pursue a career in that field of
Anthropology.
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Human Adaptability
• Human Adaptability
– Humans are among the most adaptable animals in the
world, able to inhabit widely variant ecological niches
– Humans share both society and culture
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Adaptability
• 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
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Four types of human adaptation
1. Technological
adaptation; Cultural
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Four types of human adaptation
2. Genetic adaptation – Biological; occurs
over generations.
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Four types of human adaptation
3. Long-term
physiological or
developmental
adaptation
- Occurs during
growth and
development of
the individual
organism
- BIOLOGICAL
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Four types of human adaptation
4. Short-term or immediate
physiological adaptation
-occurs spontaneously when the
individual organism enters a new
environment.
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Adaptation, Variation, and Change
– Social and cultural adaptation have become
increasingly important for human groups
– Spread of industrial production profoundly affected
human life
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Relation between biology and culture
• “In World history, those who have helped to
build the same culture are not necessarily of
one race, and those of the same race have
not all participated in one culture.”
Anthropologist Ruth Benedict (1940)
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• How do contemporary anthropologists
deal with issues of human biological
diversity and race?
1. Racial classification (now largely abandoned)
2. Current explanatory approach – focuses on
specific differences
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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
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Human Diversity
• 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”
*Racial classifications based on phenotype race
the problem of deciding which traits are the most important?
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Race the Power of an Illusion
• http://www.pbs.org/race/001_WhatIsRace/0
01_00-home.htm
• Complete the activity “Sorting People”.
How did you do?
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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 cooccur
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• Assumption that phenotypical traits reflect
shared, unchanging genetic material is
problematic
– Phenotype doesn’t necessarily have genetic
basis
– Phenotypes in a population may change without
any genetic change
• environmental variables can greatly affect the
growth and development of individuals
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So what does cause the difference?
How do we explain variations?
• Natural Selection
– Process by which the forms most fit to survive and
reproduce in a given environment due so at much
greater numbers than others in the same
environment.
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Example:
Explaining Skin Color
• Melanin – primary determinant of skin color; helps to screen
out ultraviolent radiation from the sun, providing protection
• Natural selection provides an explanation for the geographic
distribution of different skin colors
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Culture and Biology
• 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.
Quiz: Chapter 1
• MONDAY, January 30
• Make sure you have done the reading and
answered the questions.
• Study the questions
© 2008 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All right reserved.