Evolution and Prehistory: The Human Challenge

Front Cover......Page 1
Title Page......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Putting the World in Perspective......Page 7
Contents......Page 18
Preface......Page 26
CHAPTER 1 The Essence of Anthropology......Page 43
The Development of Anthropology......Page 45
The Anthropological Perspective......Page 46
Biocultural Connection: The Anthropology of Organ Transplantation......Page 48
Physical Anthropology......Page 49
Cultural Anthropology......Page 50
Anthropology Applied: Forensic Anthropology: Voices for the Dead......Page 51
Archaeology......Page 53
Anthropology, Science, and the Humanities......Page 55
Anthropologists of Note: Franz Boas, Matilda Coxe Stevenson......Page 56
Original Study: Fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa: Traditional Healers on the Front Line......Page 57
Questions of Ethics......Page 59
Anthropology and Globalization......Page 60
Suggested Readings......Page 62
The Anthropology Resource Center......Page 63
CHAPTER 2 Biology and Evolution......Page 65
The Classification of Living Things......Page 67
The Discovery of Evolution......Page 70
The Transmission of Genes......Page 73
Cell Division......Page 76
Original Study: Ninety-Eight Percent Alike: What Our Similarity to Apes Tells Us about Our Understanding of Genetics......Page 79
The Stability of the Population......Page 80
Mutation......Page 81
Gene Flow......Page 82
Natural Selection......Page 83
The Case of Sickle-Cell Anemia......Page 86
Natural Selection, Time, and Nonadaptive Traits......Page 88
The Anthropology Resource Center......Page 89
CHAPTER 3 Living Primates......Page 91
Our Mammalian (Primate) Heritage......Page 93
Biocultural Connection: Ethics of Great Ape Habituation and Conservation: The Costs and Benefi ts of Ecotourism......Page 94
Establishing Relationships among the Primates through Genetics......Page 96
Primate Dentition......Page 98
Sensory Organs......Page 99
The Primate Skeleton......Page 101
The Living Primates......Page 103
Tarsiers......Page 104
Old World Monkeys......Page 105
Small and Great Apes......Page 106
Primate Social Behavior......Page 108
The Group......Page 109
Anthropologists of Note: Jane Goodall, Kinji Imanishi......Page 110
Original Study: Reconciliation and Its Cultural Modification in Primates......Page 111
Sexual Behavior......Page 112
Reproduction and Care of Young......Page 113
Play......Page 114
Home Range......Page 115
Learning......Page 116
Hunting......Page 117
Primate Conservation and the Question of Culture......Page 118
Suggested Readings......Page 119
The Anthropology Resource Center......Page 120
CHAPTER 4 Field Methods in Archaeology and Paleoanthropology......Page 121
Recovering Cultural and Biological Remains......Page 123
The Nature of Fossils......Page 124
Original Study: Whispers from the Ice......Page 125
Site Identification......Page 128
Archaeological Excavation......Page 130
Anthropology Applied: Cultural Resource Management......Page 131
State of Preservation of Archaeological and Fossil Evidence......Page 133
Sorting Out the Evidence......Page 134
Dating the Past......Page 137
Methods of Relative Dating......Page 138
Methods of Chronometric Dating......Page 140
Suggested Readings......Page 142
The Anthropology Resource Center......Page 143
CHAPTER 5 Macroevolution and the Early Primates......Page 145
Macroevolution and the Process of Speciation......Page 147
Original Study: The Unsettling Nature of Variational Change......Page 149
Constructing Evolutionary Relationships......Page 150
The Nondirectedness of Macroevolution......Page 151
Early Mammals......Page 152
The Rise of the Primates......Page 154
True Primates......Page 156
Miocene Apes......Page 157
Biocultural Connection: Nonhuman Primates and Human Disease......Page 158
Anthropologists of Note: Allan Wilson......Page 161
Miocene Apes and Human Origins......Page 162
Questions for Reflection......Page 163
The Anthropology Resource Center......Page 164
CHAPTER 6 The First Bipeds......Page 165
Original Study: Is It Time to Revise the System of Scientific Naming?......Page 169
The Anatomy of Bipedalism......Page 170
The Pliocene Fossil Evidence: Australopithecus and Other Bipeds......Page 172
Anthropologists of Note: Louis S. B. Leakey, Mary Leakey......Page 173
East Africa......Page 174
South Africa......Page 178
Robust Australopithecines......Page 179
Environment, Diet, and Australopithecine Origins......Page 181
Humans Stand on Their Own Two Feet......Page 183
Biocultural Connection: Evolution and Human Birth......Page 184
Suggested Readings......Page 187
The Anthropology Resource Center......Page 188
CHAPTER 7 Early Homo and the Origins of Culture......Page 189
Early Representatives of the Genus Homo......Page 191
Lumpers or Splitters......Page 193
Differences Between Early Homo and Australopithecus......Page 194
Lower Paleolithic Tools......Page 195
Olduvai Gorge and Oldowan Tools......Page 196
Sex, Gender, and the Behavior of Early Homo......Page 197
Biocultural Connection: Sex, Gender, and Female Paleoanthropologists......Page 198
Hunters or Scavengers?......Page 199
Original Study: Humans as Prey......Page 200
Homo erectus......Page 202
Homo erectus Fossils......Page 203
Physical Characteristics of Homo erectus......Page 204
Relationship among Homo erectus, Homo habilis, and Other Proposed Fossil Groups......Page 205
Homo erectus from Eurasia......Page 206
Homo erectus from China......Page 207
The Culture of Homo erectus......Page 208
The Acheulean Tool Tradition......Page 209
Use of Fire......Page 210
Hunting......Page 212
Other Evidence of Complex Thought......Page 213
The Question of Language......Page 214
Tools, Food, and Brain Expansion......Page 215
Suggested Readings......Page 216
The Anthropology Resource Center......Page 217
CHAPTER 8 Pre-Modern Humans and the Elaboration of Culture......Page 219
The Appearance of Modern-Sized Brains......Page 221
Levalloisian Technique......Page 222
The Neandertals......Page 223
Javanese, African, and Chinese Archaic Homo sapiens......Page 226
The Mousterian Tradition......Page 227
Anthropology Applied: Stone Tools for Modern Surgeons......Page 228
Biocultural Connection: Paleolithic Prescriptions for the Diseases of Civilization......Page 229
The Symbolic Life of Neandertals......Page 230
Speech and Language in the Middle Paleolithic......Page 231
Culture, Skulls, and Modern Human Origins......Page 232
The Recent African Origins or “Eve” Hypothesis......Page 233
Reconciling the Evidence......Page 234
Anthropologists of Note: Berhane Asfaw, Xinzhi Wu......Page 235
Questions for Reflection......Page 239
The Anthropology Resource Center......Page 240
CHAPTER 9 The Global Expansion of Homo sapiens and Their Technology......Page 241
Upper Paleolithic Peoples: The First Modern Humans......Page 243
Upper Paleolithic Technology......Page 245
Upper Paleolithic Art......Page 248
Biocultural Connection: Altered States, Art, and Archaeology......Page 250
Anthropologists of Note: Margaret Conkey......Page 251
Original Study: Paleolithic Paint Job......Page 252
The Spread of Upper Paleolithic Peoples......Page 254
The Americas......Page 256
Major Paleolithic Trends......Page 258
The Anthropology Resource Center......Page 259
CHAPTER 10 The Neolithic Transition: The Domestication of Plants and Animals......Page 261
The Mesolithic Roots of Farming and Pastoralism......Page 263
Domestication: What Is It?......Page 264
Evidence of Early Plant Domestication......Page 265
Beginnings of Domestication......Page 266
The Fertile Crescent......Page 267
Other Centers of Domestication......Page 270
Food Production and Population Size......Page 273
The Spread of Food Production......Page 274
Biocultural Connection: Breastfeeding, Fertility, and Beliefs......Page 275
Neolithic Material Culture......Page 276
Social Structure......Page 277
The Neolithic and Human Biology......Page 278
Original Study: History of Mortality and Physiological Stress......Page 279
The Neolithic and the Idea of Progress......Page 281
The Anthropology Resource Center......Page 282
CHAPTER 11 The Emergence of Cities and States......Page 283
Defining Civilization......Page 285
Tikal: A Case Study......Page 288
Surveying and Excavating the Site......Page 289
Evidence from the Excavation......Page 290
Original Study: Action Archaeology and the Community at El Pilar......Page 291
Agricultural Innovation......Page 292
Central Government......Page 293
Social Stratification......Page 297
The Making of States......Page 298
Ecological Approaches......Page 299
Civilization and Its Discontents......Page 300
Biocultural Connection: Social Stratification and Diseases of Civilization: Tuberculosis......Page 301
Suggested Readings......Page 302
The Anthropology Resource Center......Page 303
CHAPTER 12 Modern Human Diversity: Race and Racism......Page 305
The History of Human Classification......Page 307
Race as a Biological Concept......Page 309
The Concept of Human Races......Page 310
Race and Intelligence......Page 312
Original Study: A Feckless Quest for the Basketball Gene......Page 313
Studying Human Biological Diversity......Page 315
Culture and Biological Diversity......Page 318
Skin Color: A Case Study in Adaptation......Page 319
Biocultural Connection: Beans, Enzymes, and Adaptation to Malaria......Page 320
Race and Human Evolution Revisited......Page 322
Suggested Readings......Page 323
The Anthropology Resource Center......Page 324
CHAPTER 13 Human Adaptation to a Changing World......Page 325
Human Adaptation to Natural Environmental Stressors......Page 328
Anthropologists of Note: Peter Ellison......Page 329
Adaptation to High Altitude......Page 330
The Development of Medical Anthropology in a Globalizing World......Page 331
Science, Illness, and Disease......Page 332
Evolutionary Medicine......Page 336
Evolution and Infectious Disease......Page 337
The Political Ecology of Disease......Page 338
Mad Cow, Kuru, and Other Prion Diseases......Page 340
Population Size, Poverty, and Health......Page 341
The Future of Homo sapiens......Page 345
Questions for Reflection......Page 346
The Anthropology Resource Center......Page 347
Glossary......Page 348
Bibliography......Page 353
Index......Page 371
Map Index......Page 384