Welcome to Biological Anthro!
Professor Janaki Natalie Parikh
1st name pronounced (Jon-uh-key)
last name pronounced: (Puh-reekh)
profjnp@gmail.com
Today’s Agenda
• Icebreaker & Introductions:
(Note to Petitioners)
• Go over syllabus/course outline
• Intro lecture
Icebreaker Activity
Find someone who…
– Can do hitch-hiker’s thumb
– Has blood type “AB” or “O”
– Can name 3 of the 4 types of teeth in our mouths
– Can name a specific type of monkey & specific
type of ape (descriptions don’t count, such as “gray fur”)
– Can identify the type of genetic info that males
receive only from their father
Icebreaker Answers
• Hitch-hikers?
• Blood type “AB”s? “O”s?
• 4 types of teeth?
– Incisors, canines, premolars & molars
• Specific type of monkey or ape?
• Genetic info from dad to son(s)?
• Y-chromosome DNA
Interview & present a classmate
Now, please interview a fellow classmate regarding:
• Name (ask for last name too, I will be checking off roster)
• Yr. of study & Course of Study (GWC skip)
• Swap e-mail addresses
& phone #s if comfortable)
• Are they a tongue roller (in
other words, can they do taco tongue?)
Course Syllabus/Outline
• Go over course outline
• Recommendations:
– put my email address in your address book
– Slides are online, print them & bring to class
– Books/slides are also on reserve in the library
Intro Lecture
• What is Anthropology?
– Anthropos (Gk.):man
– Logos (Gk.): word
• Thus, the synthesis would be:
Knowledge about mankind
or modernized: the science of humankind
• Broad definition that could apply to many fields, so what’s
unique about anthro?
Anthropology
• Diversity: many diff’t ways of being human
– Studying diversity: making sense of the complex & rich
systems of meaning that make up culture
• Holistic: what does that mean?
– The whole of the human condition: past, present & future
– Celebrating the beauty of diversity & human universals
– This, of course, is a tall order!
– Organized into subfields to manage such an all
encompassing focus
Anthro Subfields
• Archaeology: human cultural diversity in the
prehistoric past
(midden)
• Cultural: human cultural diversity in the present day
• Linguistic: focus on lang. as pwr., issues of class, gender, race,
sexual orientation w/ lang., not about the history & origins of
language
• Biological/Physical: human genetic variation,
Primatology, human evolution
Scientific epistemology
• Epistemology: a specific way of acquiring/producing knowledge,
a method of gaining knowledge
• Science is an epistemology. Is it the only epistemology?
• No, there are many difft ways: philosophy, religion, art, etc.
• How is science unique as an epistemology?
• Characteristics of science:
• 1. empirical: based on systematic data collection
– What do we call the system/method used?
– Scientific method
Characteristics (cont’d)
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2. (exclusive ) focus on natural laws & processes
Strong avoidance of supernatural realm
3. Addressing q’s of how vs. why?
Traditionally has lmtd itself to describing mechanisms, excludes many
important & critical q’s as a result
• 4. Assumption based: ALL bodies of knowledge make assumptions!
Science is not truly objective, neither are scientists, they are part of
their cultural context
• 5. Provisionality: knowledge is accepted conditionally (temporarily)
• Occam’s (Ockham’s) Razor: Law of Parsimony, familiar?
Science background (cont’d)
• Simplest explanation is best, the one that requires the fewest
assumptions
• Ex: Newtonian physics, bright guy…
• Many of his ideas were replaced, by whom?
• Albert Einstein
• Science does not prove anything, ideas are tested against avail.
evidence, not to be proven, but to be disproved
• If it fails to be disproved, it is accepted for the time being, what is it
called then?
Science
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A theory: an idea that has held up against rigorous testing
If the theory holds up over time (repeated testing), it becomes?
Scientific law: ex.: evolution by natural selection
Collection of similarly focused theories, theoretical framework:
scientific paradigm
• Ex. Mendelian genetics, a scientific paradigm
Creationism
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The oxymoron of scientific creationism
What is an oxymoron?
Pairing concepts that seem mutually exclusive (contradictory)
Ex: deafening silence, jumbo shrimp, or, affordable textbooks…
Creationism may be an epistemology, but it is not a scientific one
since it does not meet the characteristics/requirements of scientific
epistemology
Evolution as an idea in history
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Antiquity: ancient Greece
Plato: Eidos: an ideal type (perfect version)
Not found in our world, where is it, then?
In the heavens. On Earth we are imperfect copies
His student, Aristotle challenged the idea. Suggested
that truth is here in this wrld &should be
studied in a systematic way, sound familiar?
• Birth of scientific empiricism
Biblical views of Earth’s Age
• Middle Ages: Fixity of species: immutability of living things. Highly
static view of nature
• Fastfwd in time to 1600s-onward
• John Lightfoot: calculations of the Bible to determine when the Earth
was created: a date of approx. ~4000 B.C.
• Makes the Earth how old?
• Only ~6000 years old!
• Archbishop Ussher: 9 a.m., Oct. 3rd. 4004 B.C.!
• Ussher held a post @ Cambridge & this date happens to be the same
as start of fall term, coincidence? You decide!
Geologic Age of the Earth
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According to mod. Science, how old is Earth?
~4.5 billion yrs old. How do we know?
Geologic evidence, radiometric dating..
Theoretical framework from geology
James Hutton: research in geology led him to formulate a geologic
theory called uniformitarianism:
• This idea was 1st published by a Persian scholar named Avicenna
(1027)
• Based on uniform processes, what does it mean to be uniform?
Geologic Age of the Earth
• Uniformitarianism: All the geologic processes on Earth today
have been in existence since the beg. Of time & have shaped
the Earth to look like it does today
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Geologic Processes:
• Wind, Rain, Erosion, plate tectonics, etc.
• Given ample time, they can have a significant impact.
• Key word, TIME!
• Sir C. Lyell (Father of Geology) published Hutton’s theory
in Principles of Geology
• Prompted attempt to counter geolog. evidce being
unearthed (‘cuse the pun ;-) & reconcile evidence w/ the
Bible
• Hence, Cuvier puts forth catastrophism
• Sounds like the word?
• Catastrophe, what’s a catastrophe?
• Momentous tragic event, a disaster
• Catastrophism: major disasters caused us to lose many species,
particularly a hydraulic event, namely?
• The Great Flood (Noah’s ark)
• Prob’s: how does this account for changes in fossil forms over
time, ex.: crocodile & geese predecessors
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http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/011101/supercroc.shtml
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080926143908.htm
• Also, doesn’t account for discovery of brand new species
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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080804100258.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080728192930.htm
http://species.asu.edu/2011_species02