Studying Change Physical Anthropology & Archeology Life Sciences Essay

Studying Change
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Physical Anthropology & Archeology
1) Define evolution (a reference to course materials)
It is the process by which living things have gradually developed to their current complex forms from earlier primitive forms. It is also the progression of other facets of human life such as culture showing the increase in the complexity of human civilization.
2) a) Define physical anthropology.
According to CITATION Rob131 \l 1033 (Jurmain, Kilgore, Trevathan, & Ciochon, 2013), physical anthropology which is also known as biological anthropology details the scientific study of the ‘biological and behavioral aspects of human beings. Their related non-human primates and their extinct hominin ancestors.’
B) Some of the ways physical anthropologists investigate the evolution
- By studying human genetics through DNA
- By studying the physical characteristics of human anatomy and physiology and comparing it to other primates
3. A research project in which Physical Anthropologists are studying evolution
- The human body size variation and evolution project
One of the ongoing anthropological projects seeks to find out the why modern human beings and earlier hominins have considerable human body size variations between sexes, populations and over time. There is strong evidence that this phenomenon is influenced by genetic factors. The Anthropological Genomics Laboratory initiated this project which studies the evolutionary history of human body size variation.
With a specific focus to the human pygmy phenotype, the project is seeking to establish if there are any identifiable differences in genetics among pygmy populations across the world. The projects seek to find out ‘the effects of childhood health and nutrition on adult stature (accounting for genetic effects with ancient DNA data) across the Neolithic agricultural transition, and on the convergent evolution of the small body size ‘pygmy’ phenotype among worldwide rainforest hunter-gatherers’ CITATION Ant18 \l 1033 (Anthropological Genomics Labaratory , 2018). This project encompasses multiple types of research done by different groups to be harmonized, evaluated and analyzed for the project.
4) The second subfield of anthropology:
A) Archeology:
According to CITATION Mer \l 1033 (Merriam Webster Online Dictionaries, 2018), archeology is the ‘scientific study of material remains (such as tools, pottery, jewellery, stone walls, and monuments) of past human life and activities. It also refers to the study of the remains of the culture of a people.’
This branch of anthropology is ‘interested in anything that didn’t die insofar as it tells a tale about something that did CITATION Koc84 \l 1033 (Kockelman, 176-184.).’ it is therefore what ‘stands out’ of ‘what was’ and no longer ‘stands.’ These remnants of the culture of civilizations shed more light on the ancient world and the way of life and cultural practices of these civilizations. Archeology details analyzing the remains and piecing together the story of the ancient world especially the human life and activities.
5) Some of the general ways...