2.

biological anthropology :
Introduction:

1. Physical Anthropology studies human as an organism in time and

space.
2. Time refers to different stages of human evolution; space refers to
variation among the human beings living in different parts of the globe.
3. Evolution, which is defined as gradual transformation of one form or
structure to another, is a natural phenomenon and is a never ending
process.
4. Humankind did not appear on this earth in the present form all of a
sudden. It is a product of gradual transformation through generations
that have passed through different stages of geological time period.
5. Physical Anthropology probes into different stages of human evolution
and unveils how mankind achieved the present form. It also studies the
ongoing microevolutionary changes in human populations
6. there is a great deal of variation among human populations or groups
living at present in different habitats of the globe.
7. There are also variations in biochemical properties which are not visible
morphologically. That’s not all; there is variation even among the
people of similar appearance and of the same habitat, in terms of
language, belief and cultural practices. Such cultural and linguistic
differences, in turn, constitute biological boundary among human
populations.
8. This is the law of nature that no two things should be exactly alike and
therefore, variation is a natural phenomenon, which is again the
threshold of evolution. Despite these variations mankind belongs to
the single species, Homo sapiens
9. Physical Anthropology deals with the study on human variation from
biological perspective with a view to understand and explain the
reasons of variations.

Scope:
Scope of Physical Anthropology, with its aim and objective of understanding
about origin and variation of human kind, can be broadly divided into the
following main streams, which are further divisible into different specialized
areas.
1) Palaeoanthropology 2. Primatology 3. Ecology and Adaptation, 4.
Auxology and Demography 5. Human Genetics.

Paleoanthropology:
 1. Paleoanthropology (Gr. paleo meaning old) means anthropology of the
past. It is the study of fossil remains of human ancestors and associated
cultural remains.
2. Physical anthropologists, together with archaeologists, and geologists,
have unearthed fossil remains in many parts of the world. With their
knowledge of osteology, palaeoanthropologists examine, measure,
and reconstruct these remains, often from mere fragments. This has
enabled physical anthropologists to propose lines of descent from our
ancient ancestors to the present form of Homo sapiens.

Primatology:

1. Primatology is the study of nonhuman primates. The Order Primate in

the Animal Kingdom is the group to which humans, apes, monkeys and
prosimians belong.
2. The anatomy of nonhuman primates, especially monkeys and apes, has
been studied to ascertain the similarities and differences between
these primates and humans.
3. Study of comparative anatomy helps to trace the evolutionary
relationships of human and nonhuman primates. The best example of
ancestral commonness of human and nonhuman primates is provided
by sole dermatoglyphics.
4. Delicately structured ridge configurations on the palms and soles, in
association with opposable thumb and big toe, are functionally meant
for effective grasping on the branches for brachiating locomotion.
5. Human’s big toe has been modified for terrestrial bipedal locomotion;
it is no longer opposable like that of nonhuman primates.
6. But unlike other terrestrial animals, humans have delicately structured
ridges on the soles, which is nothing but the evidence of common
brachiating ancestor with non human primates.
7. to learn similarities at protein and physiochemical responses are
observed . It is now established from DNA hybridization that
chimpanzee stands closest to human.

Ecology and adaptation:

1. An important aspect of Physical Anthropology is the study of human

 variation by taking measurements (anthropometry), visual observation
(somatoscopy), genetic traits and biochemical examinations for
systematic classification and scientific explanation.
2. Study on ecology (environment and its factors) and adaptation plays
major role in finding out the causes of human variation.
3. Various agents of echo niches together with cultural factors shape
physical or biological characters of human during the course of
adaptation.
4. What is unusual in the adaptation of human being is the accumulation
of information about the environment and accordingly development of
technology, ways and means, to cope with the ecological conditions.
5. The knowledge thus accumulated, and the technologies developed
thereon, have been passed from generation to generation as culture.
6. It is by virtue of his creativity, so to say, culture, human being could face
the challenges of a new environment at least temporarily.
7. Temporal adaptation through cultural means gradually led to long term
adaptation which resulted into modifications of biological
characteristics.

examples:

1. Dark skin colour due to heavy melanin pigmentation is related to

adaptation in hot environment. Heavy pigmentation protects the body
from excessive absorption of U.V. ray that may lead to calcification of
soft tissues and development of skin cancer.
2. Narrow nostril of the cold environment facilitates the compression of
air while breathing so that the air warms up before reaching the lungs.
3. People living in cold environment are fat and stocky while those living
in hot environment are generally lean and thin. Because, thickset body
has less surface area in relation to body mass and therefore, effective
in preservation of heat.
4. On the other hand, lean body structure has larger surface area in
relation to body mass which is better for quick dissipation of heat.
5. Sickle cell haemoglobin, despite its harmful effect, is found in
heterozygous condition in the populations of malarial endemic
environment as the heterozygous genotype has adaptive advantage
than the homozygotes of either normal haemoglobin or sickle allele.
Physical Anthropology, thus, explains the reasons of variation among
 human beings with a view to thwart the concept of racial prejudice.

Auxology and Demography:

1. Holistic understanding about human as an organism can never be

complete without the knowledge of biological process of growth and
development, reproduction, life span, etc.
2. One of the main pillars of Physical Anthropology is represented by
auxology and demography. Auxology (also auxanology, Gr. auxo
meaning growth) is the study on growth and changes
throughout different stages of human life.
3. It begins from the moment of fertilization and prenatal periods (ovum,
embryo, and fetus) to postnatal growth and changes through different
stages such as infant, childhood, adolescent, onset of
menarche(among the girls), and adulthood maturity up to senescence
(including menopause among the women).
4. Assessment of rates of growth, skeletal age compared with
chronological age, and the genetic, endocrinology, nutritional,
topography, epidemiology, and socio-economic factors, etc. that
affect growth are foci of research by physical anthropologists.
5. Physical anthropologists are also involved in studies of aging,
particularly with regard to skeletal changes such as osteoporosis.
6. demography studies on human populations about the size, age and sex
ratio, age at marriage, fertility performance, birth rate, death rate,
longevity, migration and economic activities, etc. which are
determinants of stability or instability of populations.

Genetics:

1. Physical Anthropology also deals with the study on inherited traits at

individual level as well as in the population.
2. The science of heredity, genetics, explains the causes of human
variation. In fact, source of variation is genetics and the environment
selects the favorable type.
3. A gene is a sentence, composed of words of twenty types of amino
acids and the latter in turn by the four alphabets of nucleotides of
DNA.
 4. The term allele refers to different forms of a gene. Dominant allele
expresses in both heterozygous (combination of dissimilar alleles) and
homozygous (similar alleles) genotypes while recessive allele is
expressed only in homozygous genotype.
5. Modification in the spellings of genetic words, by replacement of
nucleotides, is called ‘point mutation.’ Mutated gene, i.e. new allele,
may be harmful or harmless, or may be beneficial in an environment.
6. Harmful dominant alleles are usually eliminated from the population as
the individuals carrying such alleles cannot survive, while the harmless
and beneficial alleles are retained.
7. Mutations at micro level introducing harmless or beneficial or even
deleterious recessive alleles in the population gradually modify the
genetic characters of the gene pool.

USES (Applications of Physical Anthropology)

1. The message of Physical Anthropology is “we are one beneath the

skin”. Once the skin is removed everything is same.
2. Because, we are of the same origin and we belong to the same
species, Homo sapiens. Variation among human different people is not
even 1 % of the total genome.
3. Classification of human into races is arbitrary and racism is a myth, no
race is inferior to any other.

Anthropometry in Ergonomics and essential articles:

1. Ergonomics (Gr. ergon, meaning “work,” and nomos, meaning “law.”)

or human engineering, deals with designing of machines, work
methods, and environments to take into account the safety, comfort,
and productiveness of human users and operators.
2. Anthropometry is the science of measurement of the human body,
which is divisible into static measurements and dynamic measurements.
3. Static measurements are useful to determine the space to fit persons
and necessary clearance around the body.
4. working different parts of the body move and accordingly the objects
to be used are designed for which dynamic measurements are
important.
5. The body size and limb proportions vary from population to population.
 Age and sex are two other factors that should be taken into account.
6. Physical Anthropology provides necessary information on these
different aspects, which are useful in designing machines, weapons,
furniture, garments and footwear, etc.

Health and Medicine:

1. Health is the most precious wealth. Physical Anthropologists have

roles to play for healthy existence mankind.
2. Examination of clinical symptoms and anthropometry are important
methods for assessment of health and nutritional status.
3. Indices like BMI (Body Mass Index), Weight for age, Height for age, etc.
are some of the common methods used by anthropologists in the
assessment of growth and nutritional status, especially among the
children of different populations.
4. Anthropometric characters of individuals are also indicative of certain
diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular problem, tuberculosis and malarial
infection, etc.
5. Knowledge of prevalence of certain defective genes in the
populations, such as G-6-PD deficiency will be of great help to the
physicians while treating malarial patients. Because such persons
cannot be given malarial drugs, it is fatal to them.
6. Anthropological knowledge about the merits and demerits of
inbreeding, blood group compatibility of the couples, and genetic
diseases will be of immense value for the common people in making
decision about choosing life partners.
7. molecular anthropology probes into human origin and dispersion at
DNA level which entails identification of genetic codes that determine
susceptibility and resistivity to diseases

Kinanthropology:

1. Kinanthropology (Gr. kineein meaning to move) is the anthropology of

sports.
2. It is, in fact, the application of anthropological knowledge in the
selection of suitable sportspersons for different events to
achievemaximum performance.
3. individuals categorized into different somatotypes, such as
 ectomorphic, mesomorphic and endomorphic. Some are taste sensitive
to PTC (phenyl-thiocarbamide) and some are taste blind,
4. so on. People from different continents and countries are of different
body structures, such as height, weight, muscular structure and limb
proportions, etc.

Forensic Anthropology:

1. Physical anthropological knowledge about mechanism of inheritance

of various genetically determined traits and about their frequencies in
different populations is useful in the settlements of medico-legal
cases, such as disputed paternity or maternity, identification of
biological relatives, etc.
2. Forensic anthropology is that branch of physical anthropology which
deals, for forensic purposes with the identification of persons with the
help of these biological remains. Via expert knowledge of the human
skeleton, dentition, hairs, fingerprints (dermatoglyphics), saliva and
blood genetics, DNA sequencing, and archaeological methods, physical
anthropologists provide invaluable assistance in the identification of
victims and perpetrators of crimes and casualties of accidents and
wars.

Conclusion:

1. To end up, it may be recapitulated that mankind was not created all of
a sudden; we are a product of biological evolution.
2. Variation is a natural phenomenon; no things are exactly alike. Even the
children of the same parents are not similar.
3. Mankind living in different parts of the globe, in Africa, Europe, Asia,
America, Australia or any where else, may speak different languages,
and have different tradition and culture.
4. But cutting across all these variations we belong to the same species,
Homo sapiens. Our mitochondrial DNA points out that we originated
from the same mother.
5. No one is superior, so no one is inferior. Underneath the skin we are
one. This is the message of Physical Anthropology.