ANT101H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Dual Inheritance Theory, Paleoanthropology, Relative Dating
Document Summary
Chapter 8: understanding the past- archaeological + paleoanthropological methods. Culture= fundamental adaptive strategy with political, social, economic components related to cognitive abilities different from non-humans. Protohominins=earliest member of hominin lineage but poor fossil records . Development of cognitive abilities= efficient means of communication + learning = intelligences. Mutual interaction between biology and culture = biocultural evolution. Dating structure behaviour + ecology of hominins. Finding fossil beds with faunal remains-> hominin remains may be favoured. Material clues= artifacts-> early hominin activites made of stone , wood and bone tools, not preserved. Earliest artifact sites =gana + bourl 2. 6 mya, hadar 2. 5-2 mya. Taphonomy( study of how bones and other metals came to be buried and preserved)= understanding of depositional history. Essential lines of evidence= dated samples, paleoecological data, archaeological traces of behaviour, anatomical information from remains. Study of material remains to understand the human past. Less evidence of early hominins and difficult to interpret because of physical and cultural difference.
