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52 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Anthropology |
discipline of infinite curiosity about human beings |
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Two Broad Fields of Anthropology |
1. Biological (Physical) Anthropology
2. Cultural Anthropology |
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Biological Anthropology Definition
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studies emergence, evolution, contemporary biological variation
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Major Focuses of Biological Anthropology
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1. Emergence of humans and later evolution 2. Human variation: how and why contemporary human populations vary biologically |
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Human Palaeontology/ Paleoanthropology
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Search for and study fossils of humans, pre-humans and related animals to decipher emergence of humans and later evolution. (Biological Anthropology) |
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Primologist |
An anthropologist, psychologist or biologist who specializes in primates. |
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Human Genetics |
study of human traits that are inherited |
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Population Biology |
The study of environmental effects on, and interaction with, population characteristics |
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Epidemiology |
Study of how and why diseases affect different populations in different ways |
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Cultural Anthropology Definition |
focuses on universals and variation in culture in the past and present |
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Culture |
The customary ways of thinking and behaving of a particular population or society (ex. religion, food preferences, language) |
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Three Main Branches of Cultural Anthropology |
1. Archaeology 2. Anthropological linguistics 3. Ethnology |
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Archaeology
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The study and reconstruction of past cultures through their material remains (Cultural Anthropology) |
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Historical Anthropology |
Studies the remains of recent peoples who left written records. Uses methods of archaeologists and historians (Cultural Anthropology) |
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Anthropological Linguistics |
Study of changes and contemporary variations of languages that have been written for a long time - Historical linguistics - Descriptive or Structural linguistics - Sociolinguistics (Cultural Anthropology) |
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Historical Linguistics |
The study of how languages change over time and how they are related |
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Descriptive or Structural Linguistics |
The study of how contemporary languages differ, especially in how they construct words, phrases, etc. |
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Sociolinguistics |
The study of how a language is used in social contexts |
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Ethnology |
The study of how and why recent cultures differ and are similar |
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Different Types of Ethnologists |
1. Ethnographer - live with and observe a culture 2. Ethnohistorian - studies a culture using historical documents 3. Cross-cultural researcher - discovers general patterns about cultural traits |
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Applied/Practicing Anthropology |
concerned with making anthropological knowledge useful |
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Ethnography |
a description of a society's customary ideas and behaviours |
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Statistical Association |
The observed relationship is unlikely due to chance |
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Operational definition |
description of each step of the procedure that is followed to measure the variable |
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Random Sample |
All cases selected had an equal chance of being picked
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Statistically Significant Result |
Probably true. Probability value (p value) of/or less than 0.5 (1/20) |
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Why can't we expect a perfect result? |
1. there may be other causes we haven't investigated 2. Cultural lag 3. Measurement inaccuracy |
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Cultural Lag |
Change in one aspect of culture takes time to produce change in another aspect |
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Relevance of Anthropology |
It helps avoid misunderstandings between peoples - if we understand why they do it we have less reason to condemn them for their behaviour |
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Cultural Relativism |
When we study other cultures we do not judge them on our beliefs of what is right or wrong |
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Natural Selection |
Darwin and Wallace - Evolution - all species can reproduce faster than their food supply - there is always physical variation within a species - favourable variation = advantage --> gets passed on to next generation |
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Darwins Evidence |
- domesticated plants and animals - geographic distribution of life forms (isolation) - geological and paleontological record - comparative anatomy - vestigial organs |
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Alleles
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different variations that a characteristic can take (from parents) |
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Genotype |
combinations of alleles that offspring can get |
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Phenotype |
observable physical characteristics |
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Do Human populations differ in the frequency of alleles or the presence or absence of certain alleles? |
By the frequency of alleles |
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Cline |
gradual changes in the frequency of genotypes or phenotypes over geographical space |
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Microevolution |
Micro = short periods of time change in allele frequency from one generation to the next |
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Macroevolution |
Macro = long periods of time change in allele frequency of a population. Produces more obvious changes in a species. |
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Sources of Biological Variation |
1. Mutations 2. Sexual Reproduction 3. Random Mating |
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Acclimatization |
physiological response within individuals to environmental pressure (takes from a few days to a few months) ex. Shivering |
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Types of Selection |
1. Artificial Selection 2. Directional Selection 3. Stabilizing Selection 4. Disruptive Selection |
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Artificial Selection |
Result of human interference in the evolution of other species |
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Directional Selection |
A type of natural selection that increases the frequency of a trait |
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Normalizing Selection |
Type of natural selection that removes harmful genes that arose by mutation |
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Balancing selection |
A type of selection that occurs when a heterozygous combination of alleles is positively favoured even though a homozygous combination is disfavoured (ex. Sickle Cell Anemia) |
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Migration (Gene Flow) |
the movement of alleles from one population to another as a result of interbreeding (increase genetic diversity) - makes populations more similar to each other - makes individuals more different from each other |
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Genetic Drift |
change of allele frequencies as a consequence of random changes in population size |
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Founder Effect |
the migration of a small sub population away from the parent population |
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Bottleneck effect |
removal of a large portion of the population because of a natural disaster - completely random |
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Anagenesis |
one species gradually evolving over time (gradualism) |
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Cladogenesis |
one species branching out into two or more species |