what is biological anthropology

8/3/2019 What is Biological Anthropology

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BIOLOGICAL

ANTHROPOLOGY


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Social/CulturalAnthropology

Archaeology

Linguistic

Anthropology BIOLOGICAL/PHYSICAL

ANTHROPOLOGY

Anthropology


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What questions do we ask?

Do we have a gene for culture?

Why are people in Africa so diverse?

Why are pygmies small?

Who were the first creatures to make tools?

Do chimpanzees have language?

How long have we been human?

Are humans still evolving?

Can genetics help us save threatened primates?

Is there more to evolution than natural selection?

Do we choose our mates on the basis of smell?

Does malnutrition stunt your growth?

Have we always suffered from the same diseases?

Why are men (usually) bigger than women?


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Human behavioural

ecology

Forensics

Genetics

Who are we?

How did we get here?

What happens now?

HOW DOES IT ALL CONNECT?


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What do we do?

Chase monkeys in the jungle

Excavate!

Genetic analyses

Population studies

Work with doctors

Work with governments & NGOs Examine fossils & skeletons

Kanabatagan Jungle, Malaysia Borneo

Songo Mnara Excavation,

Tanzania


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What do we

study?

Peoples bodies, brains, & behaviour

How we grow

Disease vs health

Variation between individuals and

populations

Past, present, & future

Pygmies from Democratic

Republic of he Congo


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Primates

Molecular Genetic Variation and Disease Interactions

Primate Paternity and Relatedness

Reproduction and behaviour

Cultural variation between groups

Foraging strategies

Territory and land use


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Disease, Growth

& Population Structure

Hygiene

Globalisation

Migration

How disease interactswith nutrition, growth, &

reproduction

How to control & prevent

infectious diseases Malnutrition & cognitive

impairments

Man infected with multiple types of

worms

Children in a Hill Tribet ourist village in Burma


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Land mass, www.worldmapper.org


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Malaria deaths www.worldmapper.org


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National income, www.worldmapper.org


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It didnt happen like this!

Human Evolution


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What it looks like all depends on whereyoure standing

Wasnt inevitable, wasnt

about becoming better orbecoming human and wasnt

linear

Family tree looks more likea bush

Lots of dead ends and extra

branches


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NewAustralopithecus sediba fossil

Facial reconstruction of hominin species by Sven Traenker


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What did extinct hominins look like?Facial reconstruction of Homo heidelbergensis


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I think therefore I am.

Why are our

brains so large?Language, culture, superstition,

art: do these make us human?

Chimpanzee vs Homo sapien

Fossil endocasts of Australopithecines

brains


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Want to know

why we dance, sing, and imagine?Find and study the oldest art in the world

Lasceaux


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Want to know

who painted it?Measure the marks their fingers left

Childrens finger marks found in Rouffignac cave, studied by Jess Cooney


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Transmission of disease in Great Apes

VaccinApe Projectand Prevention!

Outbreak of Ebola virus in Gorilla

populations


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To find out why chimps build nests?try sleeping in chimpanzee nests

Fiona Stewart


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If MHC determines

what different people smell like,

and correlates with whowe prefer to mate with

does smell influence who we find sexy?Feast of Stenches! T-shirt test at a festival!


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what is biological anthropology

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