1. Essentials of Physical Anthropology: Discovering Our Originsby
Clark Spencer Larsen

2. Essentials of Physical Anthropology Discovering Our Origins
Chapter 1
Clark Spencer Larsen
Essentials of Physical Anthropology
Discovering Our Origins
Chapter 1
What is Physical Anthropology?
©2009 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

3. One of the barrier islands along the Georgia coast, St
One of the barrier islands along the Georgia coast, St. Catherines was the site of Spanish colonization in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
© Dr. Alison S. Carson

4. Chapter One What Is Anthropology?
Anthropology is the study of humankind.
Viewed from perspective of all peoples and all times
Four subfields
Cultural anthropology
Studies present-day people
Culture defined as transmitted, learned behavior
Archaeology
Studies past human societies
Focuses on material remains and the processes behind them

5. Chapter One What Is Anthropology? (cont’d) Four subfields (cont’d)
Linguistic anthropology
Studies the construction and use of language by human societies
Language defined as a set of written or spoken symbols that refer to things
Physical or biological anthropology
Studies all aspects of present and past human biology
Deals with the evolution of and variation among human beings and their relatives

6. Chapter One What Is Anthropology? (cont’d) Four subfields (cont’d)
No anthropologist is an expert in all four branches of anthropology.
All anthropology acknowledges the diversity of humans in all contexts.
Within the field there is a commitment to the notion that humans are both cultural and biological beings.
Biocultural approach
Humans are a result of a combination of inherited (biological) traits and cultural (learned) traits.
Anthropology focuses on a broad, comparative (holistic) approach.

7. FIGURE 1.1 The Four Branches of Anthropology
(a) Cultural anthropologists, who study living populations, often spend time living with cultural groups to gain more intimate perspectives on those cultures. The American anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901–1978), one of the most recognizable names in cultural anthropology, studied the peoples of the Admiralty Islands, near Papua New Guinea. (b) Archaeologists study past human behaviors by investigating material remains that humans leave behind, such as buildings and other structures. In the Peruvian Andes, this archaeologist examines the remnants of a brewery used by the Wari Empire (ca. AD 750–1000). (c) Linguistic anthropologists study all aspects of language and language use. Here, Leslie Moore, a linguistic anthropologist working in a Fulbe community in northern Cameroon, records as a teacher guides a boy in memorizing Koran verses. (d) Physical anthropologists study human evolution and variation. Some physical anthropologists study skeletons from the past to investigate evolution and variation throughout human history. Those working in forensic anthropology, a specialty within physical anthropology, examine skeletons in hope of identifying the people whose bodies they came from. Such an identification may be of a single person or of thousands. For example, the forensic anthropologist pictured here was called on to help identify the estimated 30,000 victims of Argentina’s “Dirty War,” which followed the country’s 1976 coup.
1.1a: © Bettmann/Corbis; 1.1b: © AP Photo/The Field Museum; 1.1c: © Leslie Moore; 1.1d: © Horacio Villalobos/Corbis

8. Chapter One What Is Physical Anthropology?
The study of human biological evolution and human biocultural variation
Two key concepts:
Each person is a product of evolutionary history.
Includes all biological changes that have brought humans to present form
Each person is a product of an individual life history.
Combination of genetics and environment (including social and cultural factors)

9. Chapter One What Do Physical Anthropologists Do?
Physical anthropologists have different research foci.
Study of living people
Study of other primates
Study of past people and past societies
Attempts to answer questions surrounding central tenet: What does it mean to be human?
Application of anthropology to societal issues or concerns
Forensic anthropology
Study of all aspects of human biology

10. Chapter One What Do Physical Anthropologists Do? (cont’d)
Physical anthropologists have different research foci. (cont’d)
A biological science as well as a cultural science
Biology is studied within the context of culture and biology.
Interdisciplinary science
Utilizes theories and methods from a wide variety of other fields

11. FIGURE 1.2 A Sample of What Physical Anthropologists Do
(a) Forensic anthropologists investigate a mass grave in Argentina in hope of identifying some of the estimated 30,000 people who disappeared during the “Dirty War.”
© Associated Press/Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, HO

12. FIGURE 1.2 A Sample of What Physical Anthropologists Do
(b) Geneticists analyze samples of human DNA for various anthropological purposes. DNA studies are used to determine how closely related humans are to other primate species, to examine human origins, and to determine individual identities.
© Phanie/Photo Researchers, Inc.

13. FIGURE 1.2 A Sample of What Physical Anthropologists Do
(c) A human biologist records the physical activities of a lactating woman (right, weaving basket) living in a rural community in the eastern Amazon, Brazil. These data will be used to calculate the woman’s energy expenditure and understand how she copes with reproduction’s great energy demands.
© Barbara Piperata

14. FIGURE 1.2 A Sample of What Physical Anthropologists Do
(d) In a lab, a forensic anthropologist measures and assesses human bones. If the bones came from a contemporary grave, this forensic information might help identify the victim. If the bones belonged to a past population, physical anthropologists might use this data to gain insight into the population’s health and lifestyle.
© Associated Press, AP

15. FIGURE 1.2 A Sample of What Physical Anthropologists Do
(e) Laboratory investigations of human ancestors’ bones help paleoanthropologists determine where these ancestors fit in the human family tree.
© Daniel Herard/Photo Researchers, Inc.

16. FIGURE 1.2 A Sample of What Physical Anthropologists Do
(f) Primatologists, such as the British researcher Jane Goodall (b. 1934), study our closest living relatives, nonhuman primates. The behavior and lifestyle of chimpanzees, for example, help physical anthropologists understand our evolutionary past.
Getty Images.

17. FIGURE 1.3 The Six Big Events of Human Evolution: Bipedalism, Nonhoning Chewing, Dependence on Material Culture, Speech, Hunting, and Domestication of Plants and Animals
The upright, bipedal (two-footed) gait was the first hallmark feature of our hominid ancestors.

18. FIGURE 1.3 The Six Big Events of Human Evolution: Bipedalism, Nonhoning Chewing, Dependence on Material Culture, Speech, Hunting, and Domestication of Plants and Animals
Humans’ nonhoning chewing complex (left) lacks large, projecting canines in the upper jaw and a diastema, or gap, between the lower canine and the first premolar. The chewing complex of apes such as gorillas (right) has large, projecting upper canines and a diastema in the lower jaw to accommodate them.

19. FIGURE 1.3 The Six Big Events of Human Evolution: Bipedalism, Nonhoning Chewing, Dependence on Material Culture, Speech, Hunting, and Domestication of Plants and Animals
Although other animals use noises and calls to communicate basic ideas, only humans can speak and, through speech, express complex thoughts and ideas. The shape of the hyoid bone is unique to hominids and reflects their ability to speak.

20. FIGURE 1.3 The Six Big Events of Human Evolution: Bipedalism, Nonhoning Chewing, Dependence on Material Culture, Speech, Hunting, and Domestication of Plants and Animals
Humans’ production and use of stone tools is one example of complex material culture. The tools of our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees, do not approach the complexity and diversity of modern and ancestral humans’ tools.

21. FIGURE 1.3 The Six Big Events of Human Evolution: Bipedalism, Nonhoning Chewing, Dependence on Material Culture, Speech, Hunting, and Domestication of Plants and Animals
Humans’ relatively large brains require lots of energy to develop and function. Animal protein is an ideal source of that energy, and humans obtain it by eating animals they hunt. To increase their chances of success in hunting, humans often employ tools and cooperative strategies.

22. FIGURE 1.3 The Six Big Events of Human Evolution: Bipedalism, Nonhoning Chewing, Dependence on Material Culture, Speech, Hunting, and Domestication of Plants and Animals
Humans domesticate a wide variety of plants and animals, controlling their life cycles, using them as food.

23. Chapter One
What Is So Different about Humans from Other Animals?: The Six Steps to Humanness
Humans differ from other animals in several important ways.
Bipedalism
Defined as walking on two feet
Nonhoning chewing
Loss of a large canine as the other apes have
Complex material culture and tool use
Humans depend completely on culture for day-to-day living and species survival.
Other apes exhibit some forms of cultural behavior.
Hunting
Group pursuit of animals for food

24. Chapter One
What Is So Different about Humans from Other Animals?: The Six Steps to Humanness (cont’d)
Humans differ from other animals in several important ways. (cont’d)
Speech
The only animal that communicates by talking
Dependence on domesticated foods
Development of ability to raise domesticated plants and animals

25. FIGURE 1.4 First Tools
The earliest stone tools date to around 2.6 mya and are associated with early human ancestors in East Africa. The example shown here is from the Gona River area in the Afar region of Ethiopia.
© Associated Press

26. FIGURE 1.5 Tool-Making
Once thought to be a uniquely human phenomenon, simple tool-making has been observed in chimpanzees, the closest biological relatives of humans. As seen here, chimpanzees have modified twigs to scoop termites from nests. Other chimpanzees have used two rocks as a hammer and anvil to crack open nuts. More recently, gorillas were seen using a stick to test the depth of a pool of water they wanted to cross. Tool use such as this may have characterized the material culture of the earliest human ancestors.
© Bruce Coleman Collection

27. Chapter One How We Know What We Know: The Scientific Method
Systematic observation of the world
Observations form the basis for the rest of the process.
Identifying problems, developing questions, and gathering evidence (data)
Data are used to test hypotheses.
Hypotheses explain, predict, and can be refuted.
This process is called the scientific method.
A way of acquiring knowledge
Results in an ever-expanding knowledge base
Empirical, or based on observation

28. TABLE 1.1 The Scientific Method: How We Know What We Know

29. Chapter One How We Know What We Know: The Scientific Method (cont’d)
Theory is developed through the process of the scientific method.
Theories are explanations of the way things work.
Theories can be modified by new evidence.
If a theory proves absolutely true, it becomes scientific law.
Examples: gravity, thermodynamics, and motion

30. FIGURE 1.6 Darwin
George Richmond painted this portrait of Charles Darwin in 1840.
© AKG/ Photo Researchers, Inc.

31. FIGURE 1.7 Bipedalism
These 1887 photographs by Eadweard Muybridge capture humans’ habitual upright stance. Other animals, including primates such as chimpanzees, occasionally walk on two legs, but humans alone make bipedalism their main form of locomotion. As Darwin observed, this stance frees the hands to hold objects. What are some other advantages of bipedalism?
© Corbis

32. Google Earth AnthroTours
Our Origins
StudySpace
Quizzes
Ebook Links
Outlines
FlashCards
Google Earth AnthroTours

33. Norton Instructor Resources Independent and Employee Owned
This concludes the Norton Instructor Resources Slide Set for Chapter 1
Essentials of Physical Anthropology
Discovering Our Origins by
Clark Spencer Larsen