Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Evolutionary
Origins of
Human
Culture
Alex K. Ruuska, PhD
NMU
Lecture 13
11/13/2014t
Announcements
Tutor for AN 100: Mon, Wed 6-8 pm Gries
Hall, 1st Floor, Conference Room
Examination: Next Thursday, Sept. 29,
2011, Chapters 1-4
Lecture Notes, Ethnographic Readings
2
Announcements
Quiz and Discussion Points Posted on
Educat
This Week- Move to Quizzes online
Ethnographic Reading on Educat
Human Evolution
Link directly below Syllabus Link
11/13/2014
Review
Last Week: Looking at the centrality of
fieldwork to anthropology (21st C- Geertz)
Popular theory of 19th C: Social Evolution
2oth Century: gets replaced by
Structuralism, Functionalism and Historical
Particularism - Which we will continue to
examine in coming weeks
11/13/2014
This Week
Chapter 4, Haviland et al.
Becoming Human: The Origin and
Diversity of Our Species
11/13/2014
11/13/2014
Dominant Explanatory
Frameworks
Cultures tell many stories to themselves
using different types of information as a
means of validating their truth claims
Among scientists the theory of evolution is
critical to understanding where we have
been, who we are as modern humans, and
where we may be going
11/13/2014
Theory
Set of ideas
formulated by
reasoning from
known facts to
explain
something
Promote new
understanding
11/13/2014
Fact
Evolution
This weeks agenda: Look at principals
that determine human adaptation,
variation and change
Contemporary Humans
Cultural Adaptationmanipulate artifacts and
behaviors in relation to the
environment
Biological Adaptation- Adapt
genetically in response to
environmental forces (e.g.
sweating, cools the skin;
short extremities in arctic
11/13/2014
climates)
10
11
Cultural Adaptation
Cultural responses to
physical/environmental
needs
11/13/2014
12
Charles Darwin
11/13/2014
Contested Stories
James Ussher and John
Lighfoot Biblical Scholars
claimed approximately 37
Creation dates including
October 23, 4004 BC, at
9: 00 am
Fossil discoveries
challenged these dates if all
created at same time, why
no fossils; contemporary
plants missing in fossil
record
11/13/2014
Lightfoot
Usher
14
Catastrophism
Modified view of
creationism:
catastrophism
Said evidence of
ancient species
destroyed by floods,
fires and other
catastophies
11/13/2014
Epic of Gilgamesh,
Mesopotamia
15
16
11/13/2014
17
Charles Darwin
11/13/2014
Contested Stories
James Ussher and John
Lighfoot Biblical Scholars
claimed approximately 37
Creation dates including
October 23, 4004 BC, at
9: 00 am
Fossil discoveries
challenged these dates if all
created at same time, why
no fossils; contemporary
plants missing in fossil
record
11/13/2014
Lightfoot
Usher
19
Catastrophism
Modified view of
creationism:
catastrophism
Said evidence of
ancient species
destroyed by floods,
fires and other
catastophies
11/13/2014
Epic of Gilgamesh,
Mesopotamia
20
Uniformitarianism
concept developed in 1785, James Hutton
catastrophic processes not responsible for the
landforms that existed on the Earth's surface.
Earth developed over long periods of time
through a variety of slow geologic and
geomorphic processes.
1832 William Whewell, a scholar from
Cambridge used the term Uniformitarianism to
present an alternative to Catastrophism
11/13/2014
21
Uniformitarianism
Charles Lyell further advanced this idea
Darwins geological work on the 5 year
voyage upon the HMS Beagle, established
him as a supporter of Lyells work
22
23
Evolution
11/13/2014
24
Proto-evolutionary ideas
Erasmus Darwins book:
Zoonomania
Grandfather of Charles
Darwin
1794
Common ancestry of all
animals
11/13/2014
Jean-Baptiste
Lamarck about
transmutation of
species
influenced
radicals, but were
rejected by
mainstream
scientists.
25
26
Theory of Evolution
Who: Charles Darwin &
Alfred Wallace
27
Evolution/ Transformism
Tree of Life: the firstknown sketch by
Charles Darwin of an
evolutionary tree
describing the
relationships among
groups of organisms.
11/13/2014
28
Theory of Evolution
When a population splits into smaller
groups, these groups evolve
independently and develop into new
species over time
29
Measured as Reproductive
Success
11/13/2014
30
Natural Selection
the process by which forms of life having
traits that better enable them to adapt to
specific environmental pressures, as
predators, changes in climate, or
competition for food or mates, will tend to
survive and reproduce in greater numbers
than others of their kind, thus ensuring the
perpetuation of those favorable traits in
succeeding generations.
11/13/2014
31
32
Natural Selection
Mutations: Changes in the DNA
May be adaptive and increase survival
in given environments
Peppered Moth- can be light or dark
Great Britain- industrial pollution
increased- peppered moth stuck out;
darker peppered moths survived and
reproduced in greater numbers
11/13/2014
33
Taxonomies
The thing we apprehend
in one great leap, the
thinking that, by means of
the fable, is demonstrated
as the exotic charm of
another system of thought,
is the limitation of our own,
the stark impossibility of
thinking that
Foucault, The Order of
Things, xv
11/13/2014
34
35
Culturally Constructed
Realities
What we see is often shaped
by the societies and cultures
we are emerged in
11/13/2014
36
Discussion
Human Migrations
11/13/2014
37
Review, Lecture 13
Cultural Adaptation
Biological Adaptation
Natural Selection
38
Review , Lecture 13
18th Century Debates:
Uniformitarianism & Evolution
Creationism & Catastrophism
11/13/2014
39
11/13/2014
40
Overarching Question:
When did we begin to learn culture?
11/13/2014
41
Taxonomy
Hominins- tribe classification that includes
all human species that have ever existed
(does not include chimps or gorillas)
Hominids-family classification that includes
fossil and living humans, chimps and
gorillas.
11/13/2014
42
11/13/2014
43
11/13/2014
44
A. Primate Tendencies
Primatologists
study non-human
primates
Apes, lemurs,
monkeys including
Chimpanzees
Jane Goodall , Primatologist
11/13/2014
45
46
Jane Goodall
Revolutionized the study of primates,
our closest relatives
Set radically new standards and a
new intellectual style for the study of
animal behavior
11/13/2014
47
Interview Questions
In those early days of your field study,
when you'd sit for weeks and months
trying to make contact with the
chimpanzees, what kept you going and
believing that what you were doing
would, in fact, lead to something
valuable and important?
11/13/2014
48
Being Interviewed
It wasn't so much that it would be valuable
and important. My goal was to habituate
the chimps and learn what they did. The
first time I saw them using tools, I actually
couldn't believe it. It was just so amazing.
So, it wasn't that I hoped to make
significant findings. It was that I had a job
to do and the job was to get the chimps to
stop being frightened of me so I could
learn how they lived.
11/13/2014
49
Jane Goodall
When Louis Leaky first
hear about Jane Goodalls
discovery that chimps
fashion and use tools, he
sent her a telegram,
Now we must redefine
tool, redefine man, or
accept chimpanzees as
human.
11/13/2014
The Woman
Who
Redefined
Man
Prior to Goodall,
definition of human,
MAN THE
TOOLMAKER
50
Orangutans
Lemur
51
Primate Tendencies
Grasping: five digited hands that are suitable for
grasping (e.g. branches)
Opposable Thumbs: thumb can touch other
fingers (imagine not using your thumb for an
entire day!!)
52
Primate Tendencies
Sight: visually oriented; primary method of
getting information
Steroscopic and color vision great
(seeing width, height, depth)
Adaptive function: finding food, easier grooming
11/13/2014
53
Primate Tendencies
Nose to Hand: tactile organs; being able to
thread a needle
Brain complexity: brain size to body ration higher
than for most animals
Parental Investment
Sociality
11/13/2014
54
55
A. Communal Learning
Washing potatoes in the salt water
Washing dirt off of sweet potatoes
(Japanese Macaques)
Changes in learned behavior tend to move
quicker from top down than bottom up
11/13/2014
56
57
B. Tools
Tool use is one indicator of higher
intelligence
Behavior that was once used to set
humans apart from other animals
58
59
60
Pan troglodytes
chimpanzee
11/13/2014
61
11/13/2014
62
Tools Defined
Any object manipulated
to perform a specific
task.
Beneficial Task
Task is made easier by
the use of the tool
11/13/2014
63
Naturefact
64
Artifact
A tool that has been
crafted: altered in some
way to make it more
suitable for the job in
hand.
E.g. chimps have been
know to chew their termite
fishing sticks so that they
fit better into the holes in
the termite mounds. A
chewed stick is now an
artifact.
11/13/2014
65
11/13/2014
66
Capuchin Monkey
11/13/2014
67
Capuchin monkeys
(e.g.. Cebus apella) are observed to use stones to crack
nuts in the wild. This behavior has been much studied in
captivity with some interesting observations:
1. Not all animals seem capable of learning to use tools
2. They don't seem to "understand" their tools (e.g..
banging the ground next to the nut)
3. Other members of the group are able to learn to use
tools by observation
4. In captivity, they will use other tools to perform
particular tasks (e.g.. honey dipping with straw)
11/13/2014
68
69
Importance of Hunting
If human hunting and meat consumption
was unique among primates, then the
evolution and effects of this behavior could
easily be understood as vitally important.
11/13/2014
70
Hunting Styles
Opportunistic
Planned
11/13/2014
71
11/13/2014
72
11/13/2014
73
74
Styles of Hunting
Cooperative Event
Success increases with
group size
In some areas,
chimpanzee success
leading to population
decline of red colobus
monkeys
11/13/2014
75
Hunting Act
Multiple males are involved in cornering
and capturing prey,
Members of the hunting party are spread
out widely on the ground and in the trees
(if hunting arboreal prey such as colobus
monkeys), and other members of the
community often observe and vocalize
excitedly throughout the pursuit (Watts &
Mitani 2002).
11/13/2014
76
Hunting
Building
AlliancesSelective
Distribution of
Meat
Deny Meat to
Enemies
11/13/2014
77
Pan troglodytes
chimpanzee
11/13/2014
78
Large Homeland
Hunting and Foraging
11/13/2014
79
Social Organization
Cooperation in the
quest for food, social
practices, etc.
Break the laws,
banished
11/13/2014
80
81
11/13/2014
82
11/13/2014
83