Anthropology 101 Test 1 Biological
Anthropology Complete Answers
culture - Answer-learned behavior and ideas that human beings
acquire as members of society, together with the material artifacts and structures that
human beings create and use
ethnography - Answer-the scientific description of the customs of individual peoples and
cultures
fieldwork - Answer-practical work conducted by a researcher in the natural environment,
rather than in a laboratory or office.
participant observation - Answer-a technique of field research, used in anthropology and
sociology, by which an investigator (participant observer) studies the life of a group by
sharing in its activities.
informants - Answer-someone who is not only knowledgeable about his or her own
culture but who is able and willing to communicate this knowledge in an understandable
way to an anthropologist or some other outsider. Ethnographers usually try to develop a
warm and trusting relationship with their informants. This makes it more likely that they
will learn what the informant's culture is really like.
ethnocentrism - Answer-one's own way of life is natural, correct, and the only way to be
fully human
cultural relativism - Answer-understanding another culture in its own terms (Chp. 8)
§ Emic perspective (an insider's point of view) § Etic perspective (outsider's point of
view)
language - Answer-a specific set of rules for generating speech
archaeology - Answer-Past human cultures through material remains
material culture - Answer-how humans adapt and transform the world around us
biological anthropology - Answer-human variation over time and space
science - Answer-explains what things are, how they work, and how the came to be in a
way that can be tested against evidence in the world itself.
hypothesis - Answer-A proposed explanation, based on limited evidence,
as a starting point for further investigation.
,theory - Answer-A hypothesis that is continually supported over time by a growing body
of
data becomes a theory
Plato - Answer-The world is perfect and unchanging (no evolution)
§ All species are variations on an ideal (essence) (variation is
unimportant)
§ Organisms are distinct from one another (no common ancestor)
Darwin - Answer-Traveled on the HMS Beagle as a naturalist (1831-1836) § Visited the
Galapagos Islands
§ Noted differences in animals across the islands
o A new theory
§ Species vary over time and space
§ Similar living species shared a common ancestor (theory of common
ancestry)
§ Darwin "descent with modification" = natural selection
o Natural Selection
§ Variation within species is key to evolution
• Members of a species are not identical
• No perfect ideal essence (innate cow-ness) § Variational evolution:
• Occurs within populations, creating different species § Why is there variation?
• One reason: genetic mutation (next class) § Offspring inherit traits from their parents
• Some variants are better adapted to environment § More offspring (better fitness)
• "Survival of the fittest"
Mendel - Answer-Mendelian Inheritance
o Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)
o Nonblending, single-particle inheritance o Pea plants!
• How did Mendel figure this out? o Pangenesis predicts:
§ Red flower particles + white flower particles = pink flowers o Mendel observed no pink
flowers = no blending of particles
• Mendel and the pea plants
One particle from each parent
§ Why? Meiosis!
Lamarck - Answer-Transformational Evolution
§ Jean Baptiste de Money de Lamarck (1744-1829)
§ Observed that fossil species look similar to living species
§ Fossil species ≠ Living species because of environmental change § Nature
changesàtransformations of species
• Environment affects all species the same way because they all share the same
essence.
§ How?
• Law of use and disuse
• Law of inheritance and acquired characteristics
, Mendelian inheritance - Answer-Mendelian Inheritance
o Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)
o Nonblending, single-particle inheritance o Pea plants!
• How did Mendel figure this out? o Pangenesis predicts:
§ Red flower particles + white flower particles = pink flowers o Mendel observed no pink
flowers = no blending of particles
• Mendel and the pea plants
evolution - Answer-Scientific Theory
o Living species change over time
o Variation within species can lead to new species o All living organisms share common
ancestry
o Evolution = change and variation
natural selection - Answer-Variation within species is key to evolution
• Members of a species are not identical
• No perfect ideal essence (innate cow-ness)
Variational evolution:
• Occurs within populations, creating different species § Why is there variation?
• One reason: genetic mutation (next class) § Offspring inherit traits from their parents
• Some variants are better adapted to environment § More offspring (better fitness)
• "Survival of the fittest"
genetic flow - Answer-the transfer of alleles or genes from one population to another.
Migration into or out of a population may be responsible for a marked change in allele
frequencies (the proportion of members carrying a particular variant of a gene).
genetic drift - Answer-variation in the relative frequency of different genotypes in a small
population, owing to the chance disappearance of particular genes as individuals die or
do not reproduce.
phylogeny - Answer-the branch of biology that deals with phylogenesis.
the evolutionary development and diversification of a species or group of organisms, or
of a particular feature of an organism.
taxonomy - Answer-the branch of science concerned with classification, especially of
organisms; systematics.
the classification of something, especially organisms.
"the taxonomy of these fossils"
a scheme of classification.
plural noun: taxonomies
"a taxonomy of smells"
genes - Answer-Genes: "portions of the DNA molecule that code for proteins that shape
phenotypic traits."
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