Anthro 10
Key Concepts for Review
Actual pattern – synonymous with real pattern.
Alternative pattern – one of the categories of the patterns of culture occurring when culture allows
various types of behavior in meeting a particular situation and there is no difference in terms of value or
frequency of the manifested behavior.
Animalia – the kingdom where all animals belong. Animals are organisms that could not produce their
own food.
Anthropoidea – suborder of primates that includes monkeys, apes, and humans.
Anthropology – the study of differences and similarities, both biological and cultural, in human
populations.
Archaeology – the branch of Anthropology that seeks to reconstruct the daily life and customs of
peoples who lived in the past and to trace and explain cultural changes.
Ardipithecus ramidus – the earliest known hominid.
Artifact – material items that humans have manufactured or modified.
Atrophy – the wasting away of any part of the body. Lamarck believes that when certain body parts are
not habitually used, these parts are eventually atrophied as, according to him, the “tail” in humans.
Australopithecus – genus of Pliocene and Pleistocene hominids.
Australopithecus afarensis – a species of Australopithecus that lived 4 to 3 million years ago in East
Africa and was definitely bipedal.
Australopithecus africanus – a species of Australopithecus that lived between about 3 to 2 million years
ago.
Australopithecus robustus – a robust australopithecine species found in South African caves dating from
1.8 to 1 million years ago.
Biological Anthropology – the study of humans as biological organisms, dealing with the emergence and
evolution of humans and with contemporary biological variations among human populations; also
known as Physical Anthropology.
Bipedalism – locomotion in which an animal walks on its two hind legs.
Candelabra Theory – theory that states that all Homo sapiens evolved simultaneously from Homo
erectus spread out in different parts of the world.
Catarrhines – Old World primates; the group of anthropoids with narrow noses and nostrils that face
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downward.
Chimpanzee – a primate that is the closest to humans genetically.
Chordata – a phylum of metazoans consisting of animals with a centrally located nervous system.
Coccyx – man's hidden tail, consisting of the four last caudal vertebrae at the bottom of the spinal
column.
Compulsory pattern – one of the five categories of the patterns of culture. In this pattern, culture allows
only one type of behavior in a given situation.
Cultural Anthropology – the study of cultural variation and universals.
Cultural tradition – one of the five component parts of a cultural system. These are human activities and
behavior that are continually practiced by a given group across several generations.
Cultural patterns – socially defined limits within which individual variation takes place.
Culture - that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, and any other
capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.
Dental formula – a formula for expressing man's dentition, usually written as 2.1.2.3/2.1.2.3 x 2 = 32,
indicating that a normal mouth has 32 teeth, consisting of two incisors, one canine, two premolars, and
three molars on each side of the upper and lower jaws.
Endothermic – warm-blooded; with a constant body temperature.
Environment – the natural, biological, and social setting within which the members of a cultural system
carry on their activities.
Ethnology – another term for Cultural Anthropology.
Eutheria – subclass of placenta-bearing mammals.
Eve hypothesis – the hypothesis developed by Rebecca Cann that all Homo sapiens could trace their
ancestry from a single female from Africa approximately 150,000 years ago through an analysis of our
mitochondrial DNA, which we inherit only from our maternal line.
Evolution – gradual process of change from a simple form to a more complex form.
Foramen magnum – hole in the base of the skull through which the spinal cord passes en route to the
brain.
Fossil – organic remains.
Founder Effect – a variation of genetic drift.
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Gene – the chemical unit of heredity.
Gene flow – the passing on of genes from one gene pool to another gene pool through mating and
reproduction.
Gene pool – the total sum of genes of a particular population.
Genetic drift – various random processes that affect gene frequencies in small, relatively isolated
populations.
Hominidae – the family of hominoids consisting of humans and great apes and their direct ancestors.
Homininae - the subfamily of hominids consisting of gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans and their direct
ancestors.
Hominina - the subtribe of humans and their direct ancestors.
Hominini - the tribe of humans and chimpanzees and their direct ancestors.
Hominoidea – the superfamily of catarrhines that includes both apes and humans.
Homo – genus to which modern humans and their ancestors belong.
Homo erectus – the first hominid species to be widely distributed in the Old World. The earliest finds are
possibly 1.8 million years old. The brain, averaging 895-1040 cc, was larger than that found in any of the
australopithecines or H. habilis but smaller than the average brain of modern humans.
Homo floresiensis – a newly discovered hominid species in the Flores islands of Indonesia that is
believed to be contemporary of early Homo sapiens.
Homo habilis – early species belonging to our genus, Homo, with cranial capacities averaging 630-640 cc,
about fifty percent of the brain capacity of modern humans. Dating from about 2 million years ago.
Homo luzonensis – a new species of Homo discovered in Callao Cave, Cagayan.
Homo sapiens – all living people belong to one biological species, Homo sapiens, which means that all
human populations on earth can successfully interbreed. The first H. sapiens may have emerged by
200,000 years ago.
Homo sapiens neandertalensis – a variety of early Homo sapiens that spread only in Europe and
Western Asia.
Homo sapiens sapiens – modern-looking humans, undisputed examples of which appeared about 50,000
years ago.
Hylobates –the family of hominoids that includes gibbons and siamangs, often referred to as the Lesser
Apes.
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Hypoxia – a condition of oxygen deficiency that often occurs at high altitudes. The percentage of oxygen
in the air is the same as at lower altitudes, but because the barometric pressure is lower, less oxygen is
taken in with each breath. Often, breathing becomes more rapid, the heart beats faster, and activity is
more difficult.
Ideal pattern – the patter of culture that members of a particular culture set as their standard.
Incisors – the front teeth; used for holding or seizing food and preparing it for chewing by other teeth.
Lactase deficiency – lactose intolerance.
Lactose – the sugar in milk.
Laetoli footprints – Australopithecine footprints embedded on volcanic ash found in Laetoli, Tanzania.
Lucy – name of a female Australopithecus afarensis discovered in 1974 in Hadar, Ethiopia by an
archaeological team led by Donald Johanson.
Mammalia – class of vertebrates consisting of warm-blooded animals. Mammals have body hair and the
females among them have mammary glands that are used to feed the young.
Metazoa – subkingdom of multi-celled animals.
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) – the only DNA that individual hominins inherit solely from their respective
mothers.
Mutation - chemical changes in the genes.
Natural selection - process whereby those species that are better adapted to their environment survive
longer and produce more offspring than the better adapted.
Noah’s Ark Theory – theory that states that all Homo sapiens came from Africa.
Notochord – rod or cartilage which serves to stiffen and support the body.
Platyrrhines – New world monkeys; the group of anthropoids that have broad flat-bridged noses, with
nostrils facing downward.
Pongidae – hominoids whose members include both the living and extinct apes.
Prosimian – literally "pre-monkeys", one of the two suborders of primates; includes lemurs, lorises, and
galagos.
Preferred pattern – one of the five categories of the patterns of culture. This happens when one
particular type of behavior is more valued than other responses in a particular setting.
Primata – a mammalian order that is divided into two suborders: prosimians and anthropoids.
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Primatology – the study of the primates, usually the non-human primates.
Prosimian – literally "pre-monkeys", one of the two suborders of primates; includes lemurs, lorises, and
galagos.
Real pattern – the pattern of culture that actually takes place.
Restricted pattern – one of the five categories of the patterns of culture. In this pattern, certain types of
behavior are only acceptable to a particular segment of society.
Sagittal crest – a bone protrusion found on the median antero-posterior plane of the skull of primates,
especially gorillas, from which muscle connecting to the jaws are attached.
Sagittal suture – sutures found on the median antero-posterior plane of the skull of humans.
Sexual dimorphism – a marked difference in size and appearance between males and females of a
species.
Sewall Wright Effect – another term for genetic drift.
Society – a group of people who occupy a particular territory and speak a common language not
generally understood by neighboring peoples. By this definition, societies do not necessarily correspond
to nations.
Stereoscopic vision – the use of both eyes to view the same visual field with depth perception.
Subculture – the shared customs of a subgroup within a society.
Synthetic theory of evolution – natural selection plus Mendelian genetics.
Taung child – a fossilized skull of a young hominin discovered in 1924 in Taung, South Africa and
identified by Raymond Dart as a new species, i.e. Australopithecus africanus.
Tetrapoda – superclass of vertebrates that have four limbs.
Typical pattern – one of the five categories of the patterns of culture. There are many ways of meeting a
specific situation but one type of behavior is more frequent than the rest.
Unguiculata – cohort of mammals that have nails or claws.
Vertebrata – subphylum of chordates consisting of animals that have backbones.
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