Geological Time Scale

Calendar od Earths history based on evidence found in rocks and soil/rocks

strata
4 eras covering 4.6 billion Years
o Precambrian
o Paleozoic
o Mesozoic
o Cenozoic
Distinguished by what organisms lived during that time interval with
emphasis based on extinction events

Cenozoic Era

65 million Years ago

Current Era
Mammals flourished
Primates developed
Human ancestors 5-7 million years ago
Modern Human species ~ 200,000 years ago

Theory of Evolution

All living things are related

Have descended with modification from organisms living in the past.

Human Ancestors: Hominins

Anthropoid ancestor, 30-35 million years ago, were still tree dwellers
20 million years ago, climate became drier; forests contracted; savanna
habitat increased
Common hominoid ancestor only about 5-7 million years ago.

What makes us human?

Bipedal Locomotion
Long gestation
Long dependency
Big Brains

Humans versus Apes

Differences fall into three functional categories that have evolves separately
from one another
o Locomotive differences
A foramen magnum that points down
A curved lumbar spine
A short, flared (versus long and thin) ilium (the upper most
section of the hip bone or pelvis)
A string, robust talus (ankle bone)

A strong, non-opposable big toe

A complex two-way arch system in the foot
Cranial differences
Larger brains (12cc vs 400cc)
Larger brains also create:
Flatter face
Smaller brow ridges
No sagittal crest
Dental differences
Smaller canines
No gaps between upper canine and premolar
Relatively small incisors and large molars
Very thick molar enamel
Parabolic rather than U-shaped dental arch

Major evolutionary Trends in Hominid Evolution

Bipedalism
Brain size
Jaw shape
o Prognathic jaws
o Flatter face with more pronounced chins
o Reduced canines and diastema
Increases reliance

Species to know

Australopithecus. Afarenus (Lucy)

o 3-4 million years
o Ape-like face
Low forehead
Bony ridge over eyes
Flat nose, no chin
o Cranial capacity 375-500 cc
o Pelvis and femus = Bipedal
o Long arms arboreal existence?
o Scavengers not hunters
o Highly sexually dimorphic
A. Africanus
H. Habilis

Typical Primate Social Characteristics

Social animals
Diurnal (Sleep at night/away during day)
Long dependency period
Learn from others
Prosimians

Includes Lemurs, Tarsiers, and bush babies

Africa, Asia, and Madagascar
Various degrees of sociability
Females dominate

Unlike Humans

Mostly quadrupedal
Some nocturnal
Stronger sense of smell
Insectivores, carnivores, herbivores
Mobile ears, whiskers, five facial expressions, snouts, toothcomb

Like other primates

Grasping hands
Stereoscopic vision
Large visual center

Monkeys
New world monkey
Broad nose with outward facing nostrils
Prehensile tail
3 premolars; 2/3 molars per quadrant
o Old world monkeys
More closely related to apes/humans
Non-prehensile tail
Narrow nose downward facing nostrils
2 premolars per quadrant
Cheek pouches for storing food
o Unlike Hominoids:
Tails (prehensile and nonprehensile)
Stronger sense of smell
o Like other primates
Rounded braincase
Opposable thumbs
Large visual center
o 2 types Greater and Lesser aprs
o Large brains
o Long arms, short torsos, no tails
o Great range of movement in wrist, elbow, and shoulder
o More bipedal movement
o Brachiators
Why Study Sex?
o Biological adaption that has become a cultural focus
Selection favors behavior that maximize reproductive success
Motivates behavior
Biological, psychological, and cultural experience
o

Study of Primate Sexuality

o Biological adaptions of primates (hands, vision, and grooming)
Age of exploration new
o Europeans react by considering the people lesser beings Francois
Bernier (1684) divides hum
The Term Race
o Middle Age Romance language term for a breeding line of animals
o Spanish raza
o English adopted the term applied it to the Irish, then to colonial
indigious people
Race 16th-18th century
o Used interchangeably with people, nation, etc.
o Racial differences and rankings are science
Term emphasizes innate, biological differences.
Number of Races
o Linnaeus (1735) - 4 races (Europeans, Asians, Africans, Indian
Americans
o Linnaeus (1758) 5 races (European, Asians, Africans, Indian
Americans, and a trash bin- like category for any other race
o Blemenbach (1779) 5 races (Caucasian, Malayan, Mongolian,
Ethiopian, American)
Degenerative Theory
o Whites superior because of they were civilized also making
classifications
o Therefore, first humans (Adam and Eve) were white
o Other races degenerative forms of Europeans
Continued Race Debates A waste of 200 years
o As few as 3 races and as many as 12
o Samuel Morton created racial categories based on brain size using
buck shot
o Polygenism a theory of human origins that the races have a different
origins
o Monogenism argues for a single origin of humanity (James Cowles
Prichard)
Sickle Cell Anemia
o Genetic disease thought to be African Disease
Inherited like a recessive condition must get the gene from
both mother and father
When the individual works hard and is stressed for oxygen, the
red blood cells are likely to freeze up and sickle.
Vitamin Deficiency
o Rickets affect bone growth
Allens Rule
o The relative size of protruding body parts increases in warmer climates
Archeology
o Dont give a fuck about dinosaurs

The study of the HUMAN past through material remains, involving

themes of change and time.
Modern archeology does not mean finding cool stuff for museums
o What was life like in the past?
o What does past tell us in present
o What does it mean to be human?
Material Culture
o Artifact a portable object or material used, modified, or created by
humans.
o Feature non-portable human-made object cannot be moved without
destroying must be studied in the field
o Ecofact Non-artifactual remains that have archeological relevance
Provide information on environment & subsistence.
o Site concentrated traces of human activity accumulations of
artifacts or features.
The preservation of material remains
o Inorganic vs. Organic
o Extreme, stable preservation environments good (lack of bacteria)
Frozen
Waterlogged
Very dry
Excavation
o Systematic uncovering of artifacts and features
o Types of excavation
Vertical
Excavated to expose strata
Site formation and chronology
Horizontal
Opening large areas of particular layers
Reveals spatial association between artifacts and
features
o Screening
Passing soil through mesh to retain artifacts
o Floatation
Technique for the recovery of botanical remains
Two basic types of dating techniques
o Relative dating older/younger not fixed years
Seriation
Creating a sequence of artifact types and variability over
time
Stratigraphic
Sequential dating of deposits (strat)
Super position
Three rules of relative time
Principles of Superposition
Cross-Cutting Relationships
o

Original Horizontality
Bone Chemistry
Three Age System
Stone, Bronze, Iron
Distinguishing attribute = type of material/technology
Thomsen relatively dated tools (seriation), Worsaae
validated using stratigraphy
Fluorine/Uranium Dating
Older bone incorporates more fluorine and uranium during
fossilization
o Absolute dating gives a date of date raning in actual years
Types
Calendars and Historical Chronologies
o Romans: relative to year of the emperor,
sometimes Romes founding
o Greeks: date of first Olympic games (~776 BC)
o Maya: beginning of a creation cycle 3,114 BC
Measuring growth/absorption
Dendrochronology
Study of the annual growth rings of trees
Very precise dates
Requires good wood preservation
Paleolithic and the Pleistocene
o Dates are almost identical
2.6 million years ago to 12,000 years ago
o Continents in place
o Clime = repeated glacial cycles
o More Grasslands
Oldowan Tools
o Olduvai Gorge
o Homo habilis
o Flaks and choppers
o Direct percussion
o Little standardization or retouching
o Mostly Unifacial
Acheulian Tools
o Handaxe
o Homo erectus
o Swiss Army Knife
o Symmetry and standardization
o Direct percussion
o Soft hammer
o Mostly bifacial
New technologies
o Use of Fire (Homo erectus)

Rafts
Explore new areas
Mousterian Tools
o Flaketools instead of core tools
o Retouched
o Levallois technique
o Variety of tools
Composite tools
Blades
Upper Paleolithic
o Microliths, atlatls points, and harpoons
o Use of new Techniques
Indirect percussion
Pressure flaking
Use wear analysis
o Microscopic analysis of a tools edge for characteristic wear patterns
o Experimental Archaeology
First pottery
o Japan Jomon
o Rope patterned
o 15,400 to 18,300 years old
o Yuchanyan Cave, located in Chinas Yangtze River basin
Symbolic material
o Art early traces of art found in carvings, beads, and paintings
Portable art
Cave art.
o Oldest Musical Instrument
8.5 inch flute carved from vulture bone
35000 years ago.
Summary
o Stone tools evolved through time to become more complex and
specialized
Neolithic (10,000 5,000 years ago)
o Neolithic Revolution
Domestication and Food Production
Ground stone tools
Composite tools for plant harvesting
Ceramic pottery
o Getting Food
Food Collectors
Foragers
o Hunting
o Fishing
o Gathering
Food Producers
o

Decreased mortality, enter into colder climates, protect from

predators, and defrost/tenderize food, kill parasites

Horticulturalist
Pastoralists
Agriculturalists
o Zooarcheology the study of animal bones from agricultural sites
o Archaeobotany the study of plants in an archeological setting
Macrobotanical
Microbotanical
Phytolith = rigid, microstructure in plant cells
Coprolite = fossilized excrement
Domestication
The Process
o Notice a desirable trait in a species
o Separate members of the species from nature
o Selective breeding (artificial selection)
o Exaggerate and stabilize desirable trait(s)
o Change in the biological level
Silver Fox Experiment
o Started in the USSR 1959
o Selective breeding of silver foxes
o Artificial selection for a single trait friendliness
towards humans
o 35 generations over 40 years created a
domesticated foxes of different colors that were
more tame and dog-like
Characteristics of State
o Agricultural Innovations
o Cities
o Record keeping/ writing
o Monumental architecture (public and private)
o Warfare
Important questions about the Formation of State-level Societies
o When and where did the worlds states first develop?
o What changed in culture accompanied the rise of state level societies?
o Why/how did state level societies evolve?
Worlds 1st states
o Old World (Grew out of Neolithic villages between 6000 and 4500 years
ago)
Mesopotamia (5,500 ya)
Egypt (5,100 ya)
Indus River Valley (4,800 ya)
China (3,800 ya0
o New World
Peru (Inca) (2,200 ya)
Mesoamerica (AD 100)
4 cultural changes in Transition of States
o Agricultural innovation
Irrigation systems

 Raised fields
Diversification of labor
A few people could provide sufficient food while others could
specialize in crafts, religion, or leadership roles
o Emergence of central government
Made sure that different interest groups did not infringe on one
anothers rights
Ensued safety
Levied taxes
o Social Stratification
Ways archeologists recognize stratification in ancient
civilizations:
The size of dwellings
Burial Status
o Writing was independently Invented Five Times
o Theories of State Development
Irrigation
Long Distance Trade
Circumscription
o Origins of State: The Hydraulic Theory
Most primary states depend on irrigation
Irrigation construction required centralized government
Administrators controlled that vital water resource
o Problems with the Hydraulic Theory
Large irrigation does not appear until AFTER the primary state in
Mesopotamia
Some societies had irrigation but never became a state (Pueblo
Indians on the American Southwest)
o Origins of the State: Long Distance Trade
Mesoamerica, Mesopotamia, and Kingdoms of Africa
Organizational requirements of producing items for export,
redistributing items imported, and defining trade parties would
foster formation
o Origins of States: Circumscription Theory
Populations concentrated in agricultural areas
o State Formation Depends on
Number of interacting individuals or groups
(system/environment)
What they are building on (history/particulars)
Their goals (agency/free will)
Logosyllabic Languages
o Symbols that represent
Alphabetic Language
o Symbols reflect the pronunciation of the words
o Each symbol has a specific way of being pronounced
o Can be arranged to make different words
Mesopotamian Writing (Economic)
o

o Tokens 8000-3500 BC
o Bulla (ENVELOPE) 3500 BC
o Cuneiform Tablets 3200 BC
Behistun Inscription (~500 BC)
Egyptian Writing (Political)
o Writing Development
Over 3,000 years, Ancient Egyptians used 3 types of writing
Hieroglyphic
Hieratic
Demotic (25th Dynasty)
o Oldest Hieratic
First Patience Case File
~1600 BC
48 cases each w/ types of injury, examination of the
patient, diagnosis and prognosis, and treatment
o Demotic
26th Dynasty
600 BC
Nubians to Greek
Replaced hieratic except for religious texts
The Rosetta Stone
o Royal Decree by Ptolemy V in 196 BC
o Written in Hieroglyphic, Demotic, and Greek
o Romans closed temples Writing lost from AD 400 until 1822
o Found by Napoleons troops in the Nile Delta in 1799
Oracle Bone
Mesoamerican Writing

Tombs and Pyramids: Archaeology of Death

Why do we bury the dead?

o Public health requirement - NO
o Respect the dead
o Closure
o Religious belief/culture
How do we burry the dead?
o Orientation
o Flexed vs extended vs upright
o Primary vs secondary
o Single vs multiple
o Good burial and monuments
Earliest Burials
o Neanderthals
Shanidar cave
Male 30-45 years old
Semi-flexed position
Grape hyacinths, bachelors button. Hollyhocks

Suggest Neanderthals first to bury their dead

Undisputed human burials (~130,000 years ago)
-Skhul Cave, Israel
- Red ochre and wild boar bones
Alternatives to Burial
o Burial at seas
o Cannibalism
o Cremation
o Ecological Funeral
Promession/Resomation
o Gibbeting
o Hanging coffins
o Excarnation
Body processing
o Excarnation removing of flesh without interment
o Commonly associated with secondary burials
Natural decay/scavenged
Butchering
Types of monuments
o Structures created to commemorate a person, group of people, deity,
or event which has become
Egypt
o Burials and monuments in state (stratified) societies = strong
differentiation
Cultural Anthropology
o Study of the cultural variation and universals among modern day
humans by collecting data
o Methods (fieldwork)
Participant observations, interviews, surveys
Methods in Cultural Anthropology
o What types of data-gathering techniques do cultural anthropologists
use?
o How do cultural anthropologist conduct fieldwork?
o What are some of the problems faced by cultural anthropologists?
Gathering Data
o Cultural anthropologists conduct research in libraries and museums
Other Techniques
o Census Taking/Surveys
o Mapping
o Document Analysis
o Collecting Genealogies
o Photography
Fieldwork
o Typically involves
Living with people you study
Learning their language
Surveying environments/material possessions

Spending long periods observing everyday behaviors and

interactions in natural settings
Basic stages of field research
o Select a research problem
o Formulate a research design
o Collect the data
o Analyze the data
o Interpret the data
Difficulties of fieldwork
o No two fieldwork situations are the same but all anthropologists
experience similar problems and issues
Common issues in Fieldwork
o Gaining acceptance in the community
o Understanding how to operate within the local structure
o Taking precautions against investigator bias
Other issues in fieldwork
o Choosing knowledgeable informants (Key informants)
o Coping with cultural shock
o Earning a new language
Types of research
o Ethnography/Within-Culture Comparison
Participant-observation
Fieldwork
o Cross-cultural comparisons
Regional comparisons
Cross-cultural surveys
o Historical research
Ethnohistory
Ethnography
o Firsthand study of a local culture
o Understand the whole of a particular culture, not just fragments
o Do not isolate variables or attempt to manipulate the outcome of
events
Napoleon Chagnon
o Lived with Yanomamo in Venezuelan rainforest from 1960s until 1990s
o Shaki Peksy Bee
o Interested in social patterns and genealogies
o Methods have been questioned
Kinship and cultural supportin Brazil
o Based on cultural and colonial history, a strong emphasis is placed on
extended kinship in brazil
o Extended kin are seen as the primary source of help in times of need
o Hypothesis: those persons with less access to kin support will be
stressed and have higher blood pressure.
Regional controlled comparison
o The Changing Samoans

Study examined the effects of culture exchange and migration

on health and nutrition
Compared three communities in Samoa
Cross-Cultural comparison
o Cross cultural survey
Human relations Area Files
Codes on sociocultural characteristics of hundreds of
societies
Can test many kinds of hypotheses about cultural
practices
Summary
o Anthropologists use various methods
o Because of our subject matter, anthropologists try to be flexible and
electric in research methods.
Yanomamo Marriage
o Lineage exogamy
o Village Endogamy
o Polygyny
Sex != Marriage; Incest Taboo != Exogamy
o Exogamy prohibits marriage within certain culturally defined social
categories but this does not necessarily restrict sexual relations
amount members of the category or group
o Incest avoidance != Incest Prohibition
Reasons for Taboo
o No sexual attraction
o Forbidden unconscious impulse
o Family Problems
o Make new friends
o Fear of inbreeding
Bilateral Kinship
o Ones relatives on both mothers and fathers side are equal in
importance or unimportance
Kindred describes a persons bilateral set of relatives who may
be called upon for some purpose.
Marriage
o Socially approved sexual and economic union of two or more people
o Rights and obligations between spouses and their future children
o Fairly Universal
o Helps with problems found in all societies.
Arranged Marriage
o Families negotiate marriages for other immediate family members
o Still common in parts of Southeast Asia, Africa, and Middle East
o Usually aristocratic families
o Bethrothals marriages arranged when possible partners are still
children
Outdated custom in much of India, China, Japan, and parts of
Europe.

Marriage Ceremonies in US
o Mostly constructed of European marriage customs
Bride wears white
Throw rice
Marriages are not arranged
Groom must ask for brides hand from father
Service conducted by religious leader.
Different Marriage Customs
o Brides in China typically have 3 wedding dresses for the occasion
o In India, brides and family paint their hands and feet.
Different Marriage Customs
o Among the Zulu, groom and brides family engage in a dance off and
groom slaughters cow; bride places money inside the stomach of the
cow to symbolize that she is now part of the family
o In Borneo, bride and groom are not allowed to use the bathroom for 72
hours.
Other marriage customs
o Broom Jump
o Breaking glass
o Cake pull
o Rowdy Escort Party
o Humiliation of Groom/Bride
o Ransom of the shoes
o Young Bridesmaid
Economic Aspects of Marriage
o Bride Price/Service most Common
Grooms pays or works for brides family
Common in Africa and Pacific Islands
o Nandi Bride price: 6 cattle, 2 sheep, shells, and money
o Inuit 1 seal.
Getting Food
o Food Collectors
Foragers
Hunting
Fishing
Gathering
o Food Producers
Horticulturalists
Pastoralists
Agriculturalists
Intensive
Industrial
Food Collectors
o Foraging a food getting strategy where wild plant and animal
resources are obtained through gathering, hunting, scavenging, or
fishing
General Features of foragers

Hunting
Primarily a male activity
A wide array of techniques and equipment have been developed
to hunt and butcher prey
Spears, atlatis, bow and arrow, traps, lithic technology,
etc.
o Fishing
A wide variety of fishing techniques
Nets, lines, kites, spears, and poison
Societies that have access to marine resources have larger,
more permanent settlements, and more complex
Pacific Coast
New Guinea
o Gathering
Typically female activity, children often help
Involves collection of wild plants, eggs, insects, small (slowmoving) animals, etc.
Much more important in warmer climates than in cold weather.
Food production
o Beginning about 10,000 years ago, certain people in diverse
geographic locations made the revolutionary changeover to FOOD
PRODUCTION
Three Types of Food Production
o Horticulture
The growing of crops of all kinds of relatively simple tools and
methods
General Features
o Slightly larger communities (villages)
o Semi-nomadic lifestyle
o Part-time political officials
o Fairly infrequent food shortages
o Pastoralism
The subsistence technology principally involving the raising of
large herds of animals
Small Communities
Semi-nomadic lifestyle
Part-time political officials
Frequent food shortages
Moderate differences in individual wealth
o Agriculture
Involves techniques that enable people to cultivate fields
permanently
o

Small communities
Nomadic lifestyle
Division of labor based on age and gender
Complex foragers

Plow technology
Irrigation
Fertilizer
Crop Rotation
Monocrop Fields
Large Population
Cities
Frequent Food Shortages
Considerable differences in wealth
Full time political and administrative officials
Sex and Gender
o Biology differentiates the sexes
o Society differentiates male and female roles
o Gender roles ascribed to men and women vary greatly from culture to
culture
Sex
o Male
o Female
Gender
o Masculine
o Feminine
Sexual Dimorphism
o Females
Wider Pelvis
Greater % of body weight
o Males:
Taller and heavier
Greater % of muscle
Greater grip strength
Larger heart and lungs
Gender Roles
o Societies expectations of the behavior of the sexes in society
o Gender roles are not only different cross-culturally, but also change
over time within a society.
Gender Roles in all culture
o In virtually all cultures:
Women are expected to focus on child-raising
Men tend to have more power.

Anthropology of Religion

Why Study Religion?

o Universal human trait
o It is (apparently) unique to our species
o Highly variable
Religion

Is any set of attitude, beliefs, and practices pertaining to supernatural

power, whether that power be forces, gods, spirits, ghosts, or demons.
Supernatural beings
o Gods
Spirits believed to have created the world or exert control over it
o Demons
Negative, evil beings
o Tricksters
Annoying, practical jokes
Loki
o Ghosts
Soul becomes trapped
Religion
o Belief in the supernatural
Beings, powers, or forces not subject to the laws of nature
Must be accepted on the basis of faith
o Reflects worldview of a group
Reinforces social norms
Where we have come from; where are we going?
Provides a moral code
Ten commandments
o Social needs
o Provides Cosmology
A set of principles/beliefs about
Nature of life and death
How the universe was created
Origin of society
Relationship of individuals and groups to one another
Relationship of humans to nature
Creation Myths
o Thoughts, words, dreams, or secretions of divine beings (Bible, Quran,
Ancient Egypt)
o Earth Diver (US Native Americans)
o Series of worlds or changes into terrestrial world (Aztec)
o World Parent (Ancient Mesoamerica)
The Universality of Religion
o The need to understand
Animism
Animatism
o Reversion to Childhood Feelings
Anxiety and Uncertainty
The need for Community
Variation in Religious Beliefs
o Types of Supernatural Forces and beings
o The Character of Supernatural Beings
o Structure of Hierarchy of Supernatural Beings
o Intervention of the Gods in Human affairs
o

Life After Death

Types of Supernatural forces and beings
Supernatural forces
Supernatural beings
Gods
Spirits
Ghosts
Ancestors
o Structure or Hierarchy of Supernatural Beings
Monotheistic Religions
Polytheistic Religions
o Ways to interact with the Supernatural
Prayer, taking drugs, simulations, feasts, and sacrifices
o Blood letting
Indigenous Beliefs and Practices
o Many indigenous groups have distinct religious systems of beliefs and
practices in the same way that they have their own languages and
cultures.
Globalization
o The ongoing spread of goods, people, information, and capital around
the world
o Maritime Europe = 16th century
o Industrialization
o Factors that influence globalization
Transportation
Telecommunications
Characteristics of Art in Nonindulstrial Contexts
o Serves useful, practical purposes
In everyday life
In ritual
o Uses culturally significant symbols, motifs
o Emphasis on repetition
o Identity of artist usually not important
o Emphasis on process
Characteristics of Art in Industrial Contexts
o Are separated from everyday life
o Symbols and motifs independent of context
o Emphasis on innovation
o Identity of artist is important
o Product is paramount commoditization
What happens why local artisans produce for the global market?
o Preservation or revitalization of native crafts
o BUT the product changes
o AND social organization changes
Folk Art Movements
o Political aspects
Promoted to support national identity
o
o

Psychological aspects
Nostalgia for a simpler lifestyle
Appeal of the local, particular