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ASB 101 Exam 2

Terms in this set (188)

How does childhood growth and age of sexual maturity differ between chimps and humans?
Chimpanzees have the same gestation rate as humans (about 9 months) but they are smaller (2 kg vs. 3 kg). Children are weaned at 2.5 years of age, chimpanzees a year and a half later. Chimpanzees grow slower for the first 5 years of their life, but from age 5 to 10 chimpanzees grow faster than humans.Chimpanzee females stop growing by about age 11 and begin reproducing, humans grow longer have a huge adolescent growth spurt, and begin reproducing around age 19
What is mean expected adult lifespan (after age 15) for chimps and humans?
Chimps have another 15 years of life left, humans have an expected adult lifespan almost 3 times that long
What is reproductive value at birth?
The total expected lifetime reproductive output of an individual
What is the probability of survival to age 70 for hunter-gatherers?
10%
What is the typical difference between males and females in mortality rate? What does testoterone have to do with this difference?
Males die at higher rates than females, particularly during the adult years. Males take high risks in order to achieve greater mating success, and use energy in a way that gives them lower disease resistance (building muscles using testosterone compromises the immune system).
What is the main difference between male and female age specific fertility curves in humans?
There is a peak for females at around ages 20-30, and a peak for males several years later.
What are 4 implications of the V0 equation?
o Anything that can affect future well-being is worth less than anything that affects current survival and fertility
o Ix is a cumulative measure, so anything that affects survival early in the lifespan will have a huge impact on fitness
o Survival is not strongly favored by natural selection near end of lifespan
No future fertility = no selection pressure to survive
What is age-specific reproductive value Vx ?
The probability of surviving to each future age, times the fertility expected at each of future age
What are the two terms on the right side of the Vx equation that represent an evolutionary tradeoff for investment of energy?
investment in current fertility, and future reproductive value
Understand the 4 evolutionary implications of the age specific reproductive value?
Individuals invest in different kin according to the impact of their investment on reproductive value on those kin
People should value themselves relative to other kin according to their own reproductive value
Characteristics that indicate low reproductive value should lower one's value to kin
In long term pair bonding a female's genetic value to a partner is Vx
Know examples presented in class showing that fertility and survival represent an evolutionary tradeoff?
Farmers have artificially selected domestic animals with high fertility (cows, pigs, horses, chickens, etc),so have shorter lifespans than their wild counterpart species.
What is senescence?
The gradual decline of all organ systems, leading inevitably to death
Why do humans get old and die?
Natural selection favors a life history that invests little in survival beyond a certain age.
What is uniformitarianism?
The same natural laws and processes that operate in our present-day scientific observations have always operated in the universe in the past
Know the difference between paleontology, paleoanthropology, archeology.
Paleontology: Remains of past life forms.
Paleoanthropology Studies of Hominins and primates.
Archeology: Material cultural products, remains of human disturbance
What are artifacts, ecofacts, features, sites, and settlement systems?
Artifacts- objects produced by humans (pots, arrows)
Ecofacts- remains of human activity that are not intentionally produced (eg. pollen from collected plants, animal bones from food, etc).
Features- non-portable evidence of human activity (eg. a fire hearth, post holes from a hut, storage bins)
Sites- collections of artifacts, ecofacts, features
What are the three ways that living things and artifacts are preserved?
Fossilization
Natural dessication or preservation
Carbonization
What is the chemical process of fossilization?
Hard organic structures with a lot of inorganic material are slowly partially dissolved and replaced by inorganic minerals that do not decay.
What types of environments deter organic decay and lead to preservation of organic material?
DRY environment, COLD environment, HYPOXIC environment
Why do peat bogs preserve organic material?
Very low oxygen levels, anerobic environment.
What 3 types of observations do archeologists use to make inferences about the past?
MORPHOLOGY, DISTRIBUTION IN SPACE, DISTRIBUTION IN TIME
What does level of sexual dimorphism tell us?
Sexual dimorphism in body size or teeth (weapons) tells us about social organization - polygyny levels. Mammals with low levels of sexual dimorphism are often monogamous. High levels of sexual dimorphism is associated with polygyny.
What three types of points can be seen in the morphological progression of stone points in the Great Basin from the Paleolithic to the late pre-historic?
Shapes of projectile points in the great basin- get smaller especially late prehistoric (very tiny),shift from spear thrower to bow and arrow
What is taphonomy?
Study of animal remains at sites.
Understand stratigraphy and the law of superposition?
Stratigraphy- series of layers deposited by some geological process
Superposition- objects on the bottom of an undisturbed stratigraphy are older than those on top
What is the difference between absolute dating and relative/associative dating?
Relative dating and associative dating- Something above, below, or in the same stratographic horizon as the material of interest can be dated
Absolute dating- fossil material, or material associated with it is dated using known physical, chemical and biological rates.
Know 5 types of absolute dating mentioned in class.
Radiometric decay
Fission track
Thermoluminescence
Electronic spin resonance
Tree ring, tooth enamel
Radiometric dating is based on what process? What is an isotope?
Many atoms contain isotopic forms. Those forms change to other forms at well measured rates through time.
What is a half life? What is the half life of C14 and K40?
The time it takes for 50% of an isotope to be converted into another isotope.
5,700 years
330 million years
How do life forms end up with C14 in their tissues?
Living animals incorporate C14 into their tissues in the same ratio as C14 to C12 in the atmosphere.
Organic material in what time span can be dated using C14 dating?
50,000 years
What has to be done to a sample in order to measure the amount of K40 that has converted to Ar40?
The sample is heated
Material in what time span can be dated using K-Ar dating?
500,000 years to about 3 billion years.
How does fission track dating work?
Uranium 238 decays into lead releasing energetic alpha particles which burns the material and leaves tracks which accumulate. These can be counted
What kind of material can be dated with thermoluminescence?
Stone tools or pottery
What materials can be dated with Electron Spin Resonance?
Limestone coral, fossil teeth, mollusks, or egg shells
How far back can we get dates using dendrochronology?
Couple thousand years.
The two best absolute dating techniques are C14 and K40. There is a gap between the oldest material that can be dated with C14 and the youngest that can be dated with K40. What age materials fall in that gap?
50,000-500,000
What are index fossils? How can biostratigraphy be used to assign a date to some material?
Some other animals are known to have lived only in a certain time period. If fossils of unknown age are found with them, we can limit the possible age span of those fossils.
How are magnetic reversals useful in obtaining dates for fossil material?
We can see evidence of magnetic polarity reversals by examining the geologic record. When lavas or sediments solidify, they often preserve a signature of the ambient magnetic field at the time of deposition.
When do first primates first appear in the fossil record. What major feeding niche first emerged at that time?
The end of the Cretaceous period. New flowering and fruiting plants
At what time period do the first anthropoids appear in the fossil record?
Oligocene 35 million years ago
What time period do the first apes show up in the fossil record, and when do most ape species go extinct?
27 million years ago, the miocene, and most go extinct at the end of the miocene
Know the time of beginning for Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, Holocene.
Miocene: 23 mya
Pliocene: 5 mya
Pleistocene: 2 mya
Holocene: 12,000 to 11,500 years ago
Know what is a Hominoid vs Hominid/Hominin
Hominoids have no tails and a few other subtle anatomical differences from the monkeys. They ranged in size from 20 to 80 pounds, walked like modern quadrepedal monkeys, and probably ate ripe fruit. Hominins are all the species that are uniquely derived from African apes and one the phylogenetic line that leads to Homo sapiens rather than extant apes. They are all bipedal.
Which two species of ape are most closely related to humans phylogenetically?
Chimpanzees and bonobos
Name 5 striking chimpanzee behaviors first reported by Jane Goodall.
Hunting, warfare, infanticide, cannibalism, tool use
What is the main source of energy for chimpanzees? How do males and females differ in the way they obtain protein?
Ripe fruits. Females fish for termites with tools and usually don't hunt for meat
How large is a typlcal chimp community and which individuals are usually related?
20-30 adults, males are usually born in the community and females immigrate from nearby communities
Know the basic facts of chimpanzee warfare.
Males kill males from other communities but allow females. Sometimes they kill offspring of immigrant females
What is the chimpanzee mating pattern?
Females mate with most males in the community and occasionally other communities. Some female chimps do show possible pair bonding
Know the differences in chimp and bonobo behavior and morphology.
Bonobos travel in larger groups. Male bonobos associate less but females associate more. Bonobo communities are peaceful but do hunt/eat meat. Male bonobos tolerate outsiders better. Bonobos engage in frequent sexual activity with same and different sex.
What is the defining characteristic of the hominins?
All bipedal and have unique, derived traits separating them morphologically from apes
Which fossil species, found by R. Dart, was the first clear bipedal ape on the hominin line, and considered to be a true "missing link"?
Australopithecus africanus
Molecular DNA evidence suggest that humans and chimpanzees last shared a common ancestor about how long ago?
5-7 million years ago
How old is the Ardipithecus fossil that was described in Science in October of 2009?
4.4 mya
What is the hominin type that is very well described and includes Lucy as a representative? How old is Lucy?
Australopithecus Afarensis, 3.2 mya
What fossils are referred to as "the first family"?
13-17 A. afarensis individuals who may have died together in a single event.
What are 5 pieces of evidence that show A. afarensis is fully bipedal?
Shape of pelvis, knee joint, position of foramen magnum (hole in the skull where spinal column enters), feet, other body proportions.
How old are the footprints at Laetoli found by Mary Leakey?
3.6 mya
What is a difference in the finger bones of A. afarensis and modern humans and what does it indicate?
Long curved fingers suggest bipedality may have been slightly different
What is the brain size of A. afarensis?
445cc
What features of A afarensis teeth look more apelike, what features look more human-like?
The cranium looks more apelike, except teeth. From the neck down is more humanlike
What does the sexual dimorphism in body size of A afarensis indicate?
They are not monogamous
What is the biggest advantage of bipedality over knuckle walking?
More efficient in distance walking
Know five other hypotheses to explain the origins of bipedality. These all appear less likely after the Ardipithecus discovery.
Easier to feed on fruits that are at eye level, better for spotting predators in grassland, less body surface exposed to sun, better endurance running due to uncoupling of breathing and gait, and bipeds can carry items in their hands.
What are two important implications of bipedality?
Food and tools could be carried. Could make tools and evolve when no other primate could.
What evidence suggests that Australopithecines did not rely mainly on ripe fruit?
Hominin teeth are much larger and have thicker enamel
What do Australopithecine tooth eruption patterns suggest?
Chimp-like fast juvenile period rather than a slow human-like one.
How did Dart know that the Taung child was bipedal. What species name did he give it? How old is it?
It had a foramen magnum placed well forward in the center of its skull. Australopithecus = Southern ape man.
Where are most A. africanus fossils found?
Limestone caves in South Africa
What is the newest Australopithecine found in April 2010 called
Mrs. Ples
How many different known species of hominins lived in Africa between 2.5-2 million years ago?
There were 4 to 6 different species of Hominins in Africa.
What are the characteristics of robust early hominins - Paranthropus? When did they live?
All of these types have teeth and skull structures specialized for heavy chewing. They were found in Africa.
What are the three species of Paranthropus?
A. robustus (from South Africa) , A. Boisei (from Olduvai, Tanzania) and A. aethiopithecus (from Turkana, Kenya)
When do the first representatives of genus Homo appear in the fossil record?
2.4 mya
What are cranial features of early Homo?
Larger brain, their skull is more rounded and the face protrudes much less.
How do H. habilis and H. rudolfensis differ?
They were very similar. Rudolfensis had a slightly larger brain, larger molars, and longer legs.
What is the brain size of H. rudolfensis?
Up to 800cc
What is the first stone tool industry called?
Oldowan tool industry. 2.5- 1.6 mya
What is the evidence that genus Homo was strongly dependent on meat for its diet?
Flaked tools show microwear consistent with cutting both meat and plant materials.
What is taphonomy?
study of the fossilization process
What are the differences the age pattern of food production between collecting vs. extracting and hunting?
Hunting and root digging can be a complicated task in which children and teenagers are not as skilled as adults. Collecting fruits does not require a long period of learning in order to become efficient.
Know the eight implications of shift to an extracted/hunted dietary niche.
1) sharing between hunters
2) Individuals specialize in complex foraging tasks
a) Women do extractive foraging
b) Men hunt
3) The two sexes share with each other (carbohydrate vs. protein-lipid)
4) Juveniles cannot feed themselves, learning rather than foraging during childhood
5) Food sharing lowers mortality, longer lifespan
6) Learning , economic payoffs late in life, favor long lifespan and a larger brain.
7) A regular supply of high quality lipids allows for greater brain growth
8) Dependence on nutrient dense foods and cooking leads to reduction in gut size.
When do we first find H. erectus in the fossil record, and when did it first leave Africa?
2 mya, 1.8 mya
Homo erectus description
Thick skull with prominent brow ridges, no chin, a projecting face, a projecting nose, a poscrainial skeleton almost identical to modern humans, and a brain of about 900-1200cc.
What is the Nariokotome boy, and why is it interesting?
This specimen is the most complete early hominin skeleton ever found. 11 year old boy who lived 1.6 mya was already 5'3"
How does sexual dimorphism in H. erectus compare with Australopithecines?
Sexual dimorphism is much lower than in Australopithecines.
When is the first evidence of the controlled use of fire?
1.6mya
Beginning with which fossil species does hominin phylogeny become clear, with no guesswork about ancestral and descendant species?
Homo erectus
What new tool industry arose about 1.5 million years ago and what is the most common tool of that industry?
Acheulean tool tradition. Acheulean hand-axe
In what region of the world are Mode II tools rarely found, with Mode I dominating until very recently?
Asia
Why might H. erectus have evolved a very thick skull?
Predators, or other humans.
What is probably indicated by increasing brain size but decreasing tooth size?
An increasing reliance on tools.
When did H. heidelbergensis emerge, and what is the brain size of that fossil type? What behavioral trait is indicated by cutmarks on heidelbergensis bones?
Around 600,000-400,000 years ago. 1100 to 1400 cc. Clear signs of cannibalism.
What is notable about the Sima de los Huesos fossils?
Brain volumes 1125-1390 cc
What type of tools were used at Boxgrove, England a half million years ago?
Achuelian tools.
When are the first apparent throwing spears made?
500,000 years ago
During 2 million years of the Pleistocene how much did Homo erectus brains increase in size? What is notable about H. heidelbergensis brain size (look at graph by Rightmire 2004).
800 to 1100cc. H. heidelbergensis showed brain size from 1100 to 1400 cc. Given that modern brains average about 1380 cc, this might mean that fully modern intelligence had evolved by 300 kya.
What is EQ and what does it tell us about the historical trajectory of hominin intelligence?
The ratio of brain to body size is called Encephalization Quotient. Brain to body weight ratio is a better predictor of intelligence.
What are the two theories for brain size expansion?
1) brain size corresponds to a complex feeding niche
2) brains are useful in social competition/cooperation and brain size correlates with group size (more individuals leads to greater social complexity).
What evidence suggests that social competition/cooperation is a major factor in the evolution of the large brain?
Hominins with modern sized brains must have interacted with a few hundred individuals which constituted their relevant social universe
What is Mode III technology and where is it found in the Middle Pleistocene around 200 kya?
LEVALLOIS technique, the Middle Paleolithic.
What part of the world did the Neanderthals live in?
In Europe, around the Mediterranean, and to the east as far as Afghanistan.
How did Neanderthal brain size compare to that of modern humans?
Brain case slightly larger than modern H. sapiens (about 1520 cc)
How did Neanderthal bodies compare to that of modern humans?
Face pushed out, nose and teeth protrude more than mod. H. sapiens. Massive limb bones, long bones somewhat bowed, prominent tendon attachments, even in fingers--all indicative of very heavy musculature.
What evidence shows that Neanderthals were cold adapted?
Barrel-shaped chests, shorter limbs, and larger brains, all of which suggest a body shape adapted for retaining heat.
What are Neanderthal tools like?
The Mousterian is characterized by smaller, more complex tools, with a larger number of different kinds of tools made from flakes, including points, burins, borers, denticulates, notched flakes, knives, as well as scrapers, shoppers, and hand axes.
What is different about Neanderthal and human settlements?
Neanderthals lived in small, isolated populations
What is significant about the Neanderthal association with Chattelperonian tools?
One very late (36 kya) Neanderthal site, St. Cesaire, shows Chattelperionian tools, a complex type associated only with modern Homo sapiens.
What are four new findings based on sequencing Neanderthal DNA?
1)Neanderthals contributed NO mitochondrial DNA to modern humans (no surviving female lineages).
2)Neanderthals lived in small, isolated populations
3)Neanderthals may have contributed dozens to hundreds of nuclear genes to humans. This is called introgression (the introduction of DNA from the genome of another species) -minimal interbreeding
4) Many Neanderthals have the gene for pale skin and red hair.
When is the last known Neanderthal site?
about 28,000 years ago
When do anatomically modern humans first show up in Africa and when do leave Africa, and when do they arrive in Europe?
233 cya. About 50,000-80,000 years ago H. sapiens left Africa and colonized S. Asia. Around 40-60 kya they arrived in Australia. Around 45,000 years ago they entered Europe.
What are the main features of climate in the late Pleistocene?
cold and warm climate conditions
Where and when are the first fossil Homo sapiens found?
Africa about 200,000 ya
What are the four major types of changes that constitute "behavioral modernity"
Ecological range, technology, social organization, symbolic expression
What are Mode 4 and Mode 5 technologies? How are microliths used?
Mode 4 (blade/bladelet) Mode 5 (microlith) Microliths are composite tools, made from multiple materials
What is the significance of the "burin"?
an important chisel tool used to make other tools
Name 5 economic changes associated with behavioral modernity and middle to late Pleistocene people.
Dogs domesticated, humans hunt medium herbivores and large megafauna and small evasive animals, sites show specialization for animals, humans start eating fish and fowl, some sites show seeds/fruit in diet
What are 4 significant shifts in settlement pattern of modern humans?
Higher density of settlements, sites occupied for longer periods, evidence of building shelters, multi residential group social structure (trade and visiting)
What are the three major forms of symbolic representation associated with behavioral modernity?
Graves are more elaborate, evidence of personal adornment, cave paintings, carved figurines
Where are the spectacular cave paintings of animals on the walls and ceilings of a late Pleistocene cave, that were shown in class?
Spain, Indonesia, SW Asia
Why is Richard Klein's idea about a "human revolution" around 50,000 years ago likely to be wrong?
The real human revolution most likely took place earlier and in Africa, not Europe
What things were discovered at Pinnacle Point cave in South Africa, and what is their date?
Shellfish at Pinnacle Point, South Africa 164 kya.,
What is the difference in typical distance of raw materials used to make tools and adornments by Neanderthals vs. behaviorally modern Homo sapiens.
They traded long distances for raw materials, indicating frequent and friendly relations between multiple residential units.
What is an astounding illustration of human technological dominance on the planet?
The ability to leave Earth
Know five examples of human biological dominance
Cycle 99% of Earth's nitrogen, 20,000 more humans than chimps and bonobos, humans/domestic animals make up 98% of terrestrial vertebrate biomass, equivalent biomass to all ants
What are five features that show that even hunter-gatherer populations exhibit outlier features among living organisms?
Developed social/residential groups , complex institutions, Equilibrium population would have been >70 million, universally regulate behaviors with significant fitness consequences (mate access, food production)
What are the four ways that hunter-gatherers contrast with apes.
1)Life History 2) Cooperation 3) Culture 4) Cognition.
What are the two critical features that appear to interact to produce human uniqueness?
Cumulative culture, Cooperation between non-kin
What is some experimental evidence of exceptional human cooperation.
People often engage in third party punishment & this leads to greater levels of cooperation, FMRI activity when observing unfair behavior is in the same area that is associated with disgust, People often cooperate in one shot prisoner's dilemma, they prefer the Coop x Coop outcome despite lower payoff, expect cooperation from others, make generous offers in Ultimatum, Dictator, Trust and Public Goods games.
What is cooperative breeding? What kinds of prosocial behaviors are found in cooperative breeders?
Cooperation between non kin begins with extended kin group cooperation, Cooperative breeders show "other-regarding behavior", and punish those who are not cooperative. They show more advanced communication systems.
What feature of human life history and food production in hunter-gatherers suggests that cooperative breeding is an obligate feature of human evolutionary history?
Because of long juvenile dependency, breeding pairs cannot feed all their offspring. They receive help from younger and older kin (menopause), and from unrelated individuals who adhere to cooperative social norms.
In what domains is human cognitive performance far superior to that of other apes?
Human cognition is especially designed to solve cooperative social problems
What are the five content components of human culture?
1)Transmission of techniques and technology
2)Transmission of symbolic communication system (language)
3)Transmission of social norms (conventions, rules, laws, institutions), and the values that underlie them (morality, ethics)
4)Transmission of traits that signal adherence to a specific set of norms (ethnicity)
5)Symbolic reinforcement of the social norms (ritual , religion)
What aspect of social structure facilitated the evolution of costly social learning mechanisms that allow cumulative culture?
Rare novel ideas that arise in one group can be learned by members of another group, thus favoring costly social learning.
Know the main features on the trajectory to human uniqueness.
1)Bipedality- tool manufacture, extensive home range
2)Hunting/extracting - juvenile dependency, sharing, long lifespan, breeding bonds
3)Cooperative breeding - shared intentionality, high fertility, higher juvenile survival, menopause, prosocial emotions(kin)
4)Life history shifts, juvenile dependence, post reproductive lifespan
5)Pair bonding, bilateral kinship, reciprocal exogamy, multi-band social units
6)High fidelity social learning - cumulative culture, language, social norms
7) Social Norms - prosocial behavior (strong reciprocity) between NON KIN. Regulated marriage & exogamy.Ethnicity/ Ritual (signaling adherence and symbolic reinforcement)Trade
What are three useful features of mitochondrial DNA?
Maternal inheritance, high mutation rate, many copies
What are the differences in genetic diversity within and between populations for chimps and humans? What does this indicate?
Humans are genetically much less variable than apes, mtDNA diversity within Africa is much higher than Africa vs anywhere else; indicates longer history of H. sapiens in Africa
About how long ago did the woman that contributed the mitochondrial DNA ancestor type common to all Homo sapiens live?
~150 ka in Africa
How does the serial founder effect leads to lower genetic diversity farther away from the original source population of a species.
Genetic drift will lead to loss of some genotypes as small founder populations spread
What does the graph of genetic diversity around the world tell us about the origins of modern Homo sapiens? Which region of the world shows lowest genetic diversity and why?
We came from Africa where there are the highest levels of genetic diversity. Native Americans in southern South America
What does the Y chromosomal analyses tell us about human origins?
They show the same results as mtDNA, except paternal instead of maternal
When did Neanderthals split from the line leading to Homo sapiens, according to DNA evidence?
500 cya
What was the last species of genus Homo to go extinct? What were their unique features?
H. floriensis
When was the last glacial maximum?
20,000 years ago
When did people first arrive on the continent of Australia?
40,000 ya
What was the only major region on earth (continent) where agriculture was never discovered?
Australia
Why did humans arrive in Australia missing some of the behavioral and technological features that were used to define behavioral modernity in Europe and Africa?
They had to cross 100km of open ocean, had no bows/arrows only spears
When did humans first arrive in the new world? Where were the classic spear points found that were used to hunt mammoths and giant bison?
More than 20 ka. New Mexico
Know some of the features that are associated with the Monte Verde site in Chile. How old is that site?
15,000 ya, preserved in peat bog so contains chewed up food, skin tents, stone tools. Hunted mastodons and camels
In Danger Cave, Utah, dry conditions led to preservation of all organic material. How old is that cave, what did the people eat? What was their main hunting weapon?
11,000 ya, rabbits, ducks, seeds, and some antelope, sheep and deer. Spear throwers
What is the biological definition of a race?
subset of a species partially genetically isolated over time and with unique allelic frequencies considered biologically significant.
What term is now used by biological anthropologists in order to avoid the politically charged nature of the term "race".
Associated ancestral clusters (AAC)
What fraction of African Americans in the US are more than 50% European genetically?
10%
What is a "cline" of alleleic frequencies for a gene?
a gradient of a phenotypic or genetic character within a single species.
Understand that unique clusters of gene frequencies can be used to separate populations in to categories even when single genes show clinally distributed frequencies.
Understand that unique clusters of gene frequencies can be used to separate populations in to categories even when single genes show clinally distributed frequencies.
About how many polymorphic genetic loci are needed to separate people with 100% accuracy into major geographical regions of ancestry? How many total polymorphic sites are there in modern humans?
~1000. Around 17 million
Which AAC is highly unique within Europe?
Basques of Spain
How many AAC are required in order to account for most of the worlds genetic variation? How many these AAC are located within Africa?
14, 6
Most of the AAC clustering is accomplished through examining loci that differ due to genetic drift (non functional gene sites). What is known about differences between AAC in functional genes?
"race"is a significant factor in the probability specific health conditions even when other variables are statistically controlled.
Why is AAC stereotyping unlikely to be important in fields like medicine where population level biological differences might be crucial?
future medical interventions will be aimed directly at individuals having particular alleles
What are the major climate changes from Plieocene, to Pleistocene, to Holocene that help explain the origins of agriculture in the Holocene?
Climate during the Pleistocene had shown extreme variation, and swings from glacial to interglacial conditions several times. The Holocene is the most recent interglacial with very stable climate.
What kinds of habitats supported large sedentary hunter-gatherer populations near the end of the Pleistocene?
Seacoast, riverbank, lakeshore
Why does the high seasonality of grasslands lead to an environment with more food for humans?
High seasonality favors plants with energy storage reproductive strategies
Know three areas of woodland-grassland where cereal grains were abundant (leading to agriculture) and one tropical area where non cereal crops were domesticated early in history.
Fertile Crescent, hilly regions of Mesoamerica, Southeast Asia/China. New Guinea
Where and when did the Natufian culture exist?
Israel and Jordan, about 13 kya and 10 kya.
What two kinds of tools suggest the importance of cereal grains in the diet of the Natufians?
Blades with SICKLE SHEEN from harvesting. They also had picks that later evolved into axes for cutting trees.
What evidence of long distance trade was mentioned for the Natufians living at Ain Mahalla, Jordan?
Some shells came from as far away as the Atlantic Ocean, the Nile river, and Turkey.
What is intensification?
Putting more time and energy into a subsistence practice per unit of land area, in return for higher productivity per unit of land
What feature of the environment/economy allows for the emergence of stratification in the early Holocene hunter-gatherers?
NON-UTILITARIAN materials, like sea shells and semiprecious stone, from long distance trade, which served as STATUS REINFORCEMENT or STATUS INDICATIVE
How do we know that social ranking emerged at this time?
With increased "packing" of an area and with increased sedentism, any increase in population will result in competition over resources
Know about when the Paleolithic period is defined as ending, and when the Neolithic begins. The Mesolithic is just anything transitional.
10,000 BC, 8,000 BC
What are the steps of plant use intensification that define farming rather than collecting?
Individuals do more processing of low ranked resources when higher ranked resources become scarce. They get better returns from incipient agriculture than they would by foraging
What are three types of plants besides cereals that are domesticated early on?
Legumes, nut and acorn trees, fruit trees
What are two changes that take place in plants after they are domesticated?
grain kernels become more likely to stay on the head, Head's of grain become larger
What fraction of all the plants in the world account for 80% of the world's food energy production?
Only a dozen account for 80% of worlds production
What are three traits that are common to the animals that are first domesticated by humans?
natural sociability, domesticates don't compete for food with humans, often provide more than just meat-- hides, wool, and dairy products
What are 4 physical changes that frequently take place to animals when they are domesticated?
1) initially domesticated animals are somewhat smaller than wild ones
2) coat color changes and becomes more homogeneous
3) changes in skull--becomes more paedomorphic (child-like) with more rounded "cuter" features; brain size decreases; tooth size decreases
4) post-cranial skeleton changes because stress patterns on skeleton change due to various factors involved in domestication
Why was agriculture probably impossible in the Pleistocene?
It Was too cold and climate was too variable
Know the details of the two theories of domestication we presented in class
Lewis Binford's Marginal Zone Hypothesis. All optimal zones of foraging were full and that emigrants from those zones moved into marginal areas. There they tried to create their old familiar ecosystem by helping along the grains that grew well naturally in the optimal zones.
Temporal marginality hypothesis. People in zones of high cereal production experienced quick deterioration of climate (we know this happened about 11,000 to 10.300 ya) so they figured out how to encourage the production of cereals to increase their local productivity.
What is the Younger-Dryas stadial.
A return to glacial conditions that temporarily reversed the gradual climatic warming after the Last Glacial Maximum
When is the earliest clear evidence of domestication of plants in the middle east?
10-9 kya
What are the traits of the Catal Huyuk settlement in Turkey 8.5 kya?
They lived in a pueblo style village with 200 rooms that were entered through the roof. The village covered some 32 acres. Houses had plastered and painted walls and many rooms had niches for clay figurines and shrines. By the time the settlement vanished at 7 kya it had woven textile clothing (from flax) sophisticated pottery, and copper tools.
Know 6 locations mentioned in class where agriculture arose independently, and know approximately when (within 2 kya).
Africa northern Sub-saharan area (8kya), Pakistan/India (8-6 kya), New Guinea (10 kya), Thailand (14 kya), China and Thailand (8.8 kya), Americas (9kya)
What does genetic data suggest about the spread of agriculture in Europe?
much of the spread was due to conquest/invasion by middle eastern farming populations
When was Stonhenge built and what is its apparent function?
4-6 kya. We don't know its function
Know about the Iceman's clothes, tools, foods consumed and how he died. When did he live?
5300 years old. Crude sewn fur clothing, leather boots stuffed with grass for insulation, a crude wooden framed backpack, his teeth are extremely worn down (lots of sand in the diet), and he carried a bow and a quiver with 14 flint tipped arrows, a flint knife, and a copper hafted axe. He was killed by an arrow in the chest cavity and lived on the Austrian Italian border
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