ANTH 168 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Biological Anthropology, Anthropometry, Osteology

• School: Binghamton University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTH 168
• Professor: merriwether

Document Summary

Anthropology- the study of human cultural and biological variation and evolution. Culture- learned behavior (e. g. social systems, marriage systems customs, religion, philosophy, economic systems) Biocultural approach- studying humans/primates in terms of interaction between the environment and themselves. Comparative approach- comparing humans/primate populations to determine common or unique behavioral or biological traits. Evolution- the change in living organisms over generations. Adaptation- the process of successful interaction between a population and its environment. The 4 fields of anthropology: linguistic- the study of language and its relation to culture, biological- the biological evolution of humans and human ancestors and the relationship of humans to other organisms. Biological anthropology: anthropometry- variation in body shape and size, osteology, microscopy, primatology. Phylogeny: evolutionary history or tree of life. Science facts: hypotheses- explanations of observed facts, testability- a theory must be falsifiable, theories- sets of hypotheses that have been tested repeatedly and have not been rejected, facts- verifiable truths.