Chapter 1: What is Biological Anthrology?

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- Biological anthropologists study mankind
o Anthropos means human and ology means study of
- Primates; member of the mammalian order
- Evolution; change in frequency of a gene or trait in population
o We evolved from apes
- Hominin; member of the primate family Hominidae
o Ape like primate began to walk on 2 legs and became
something different which is known as a hominin
- Adaptation; trait that increases reproduction success of organism

Anthropology and its subfields

- Anthropology is the study of humankind in a cross-cultural context
o Tries to understand different groups of people’s values
- Culture; sum of learned traditions, values, and beliefs
- Biocultural anthropology; study of interaction between biology and
culture
Anthropology is divided into 4 categories:
- Biological anthropology
- Cultural anthropology (majority)
- Linguistic anthropology
- Archaeology

The scope of biological anthropology

- Has a number of related disciplines which are:
Paleoanthropology
- Study of fossil record of ancestral humans and their primate kin
Osteology
- Study of the skeleton
- Skeletal biology is like osteology, but SB must know the patterns
and processes of human growth physiology and development
Paleopathology
- Study of diseases in ancestral human populations
Bioarchaeology
 - Study of human remains in an archaeologic context
Forensic anthropology
- Study of human remains applied to a legal context
- Take knowledge of osteology and paleopathology and apply it to
criminal investigations
Primatology
- Study of the nonhuman primates and their anatomy genetics,
behaviour, and ecology
Human biology
- Subfile of biological anthropology dealing with human growth and
development, adaptation to environmental extremes and human
genetics
o Can also be nutritional anthropologists
- Biocultural anthropologists
o study things that require both biological and cultural factors
- Biomedical anthropologists
o Study how human cultures can influence the spread of disease,
and how pollution or toxins affect human growth
- Molecular anthropology
o Genetic approach to human evolutionary science that
understands differences in genome between humans and their
close relatives

The roots of modern biological anthropology

- The fossil of ancient human was discovered in Germany in 1956
o Name was neandertal man and Darwin studied it
- Physical anthropology; study of humans as biological organisms