Flashcards
Anthropology Terms Quiz #2
Cards in this deck (66)
- 1AnagenesisThe slow and gradual transformation of a single species over time
- 2MacroevolutionA sub field of evolutionary studies that focuses on long-term evolutionary changes, especially the origins of a new species and their diversification across space and million of years of geological time
- 3PolymorphousDescribes alleles that come in a range of different forms
- 4MutationThe creation of a new allele for a gene when the portion of the DNA molecule to which it corresponds is suddenly altered
- 5CladogenesisThe birth of a variety of descendant species from a single ancestral species
- 6AcclimatizationA change in the way the body functions in response to physical stress
- 7Gene FlowThe exchange of genes that occurs when a given population experiences a sudden expansion due to in-migration of outsiders from another population of the species
- 8SpeciesA reproductive community of populations (reproductively isolated from others ) that occupies a specific niche in nature
- 9Natural SelectionA two-step, mechanistic explanation of how descent with modifications take place; 1-every generation, variant individuals are generated within a species due to genetic mutation. 2- those variant individuals best suited to the current environment survive and produce more offspring than other variants
- 10MicroevolutionA sub field of evolutionary studies that devotes attention to short-term evolutionary changes that occur within a given species over relatively few generations of ecological time
- 11Genetic DriftRandom changes in gene frequencies from one generation to the next due to a sudden reduction in population size as a result of a disaster, disease, or the out-migration of a small subgroup from a larger population
- 12Gene PoolAll the genes in the bodies of all the members of a given species (or population of a species)
- 13Isotopic DatingDating methods based on scientific knowledge about the rate at which various radioactive isotopes of naturally occuring elements transform themselves into other elements by losing subatomic particles
- 14Law of superpositionA principle of geological interpretation stating that layers lower down in a sequence of strata must be older than the layers above them and, therefore, that objects embedded in lower layers must be older than objects embedded in upper layers
- 15AssemblageArtifacts and structures from a particular time and place in an archaeological site
- 16StratumLayer; in geological terms, a layer of rock and soil
- 17Biostratigraphic DatingA relative dating method that relies on patterns of fossil distribution in different rock layers
- 18Relative DatingDating methods that arrange material evidence in a linear sequence, each object in the sequence being identified as older or younger that another object
- 19SeriationA relative dating method based on the assumption that artifacts that look alike must have been made at the same time
- 20AnalogyConvergent, or parallel, evolution, as when two species with very different evolutionary histories develop similar physical features as a result to a similar environment
- 21HomologyGenetic inheritance due to common ancestry
- 22DiurnalDescribes animal that are active during the day
- 23Homininhumans and their immediate ancestors
- 24Sexual DimorphismThe observable phenotypic differences between males and females of the same species
- 25CraniumBones of the head excluding the jaw
- 26PrehensileThe ability to grasp, with fingers, toes, or tail
- 27Stereoscopic VisionA form of vision in which the visual field of each eye of a two-eyed (binocular) animal overlaps with the other, producing depth perseption
- 28AnthropomorphismThe attribution of human characteristics to nonhuman animals
- 29TaxonomyA biological classification of various kinds of organisms
- 30NocturnalDescribes animals that are active during the night
- 31MandibleThe lower jaw
- 32Acheulian TraditionA Lower Paleolithic stone-tool tradition associated with Homo Erectus and characterized by stone bifaces, or "hand axes"
- 33TaphonomyThe study of the various processes that objects undergo in the course of becoming part of the fossil and archaeological records
- 34Cranial CapacityThe size of the brain case
- 35Middle Stone Age (MSA)The name given to the period of Mousterian stone-tool tradition in Africa, 200, 000-40, 000 years ago
- 36Homo ErectusThe species of large-brained, robust hominins that lived between 1.8 and 0.4 mya
- 37NeandertalsAn archaic species of Homo that lived in Europe and Western Asia 130,000- 35,000 years ago
- 38Mousterian TraditionA Middle Paleolithic stone-tool tradition associated with Neanderthals in Europe and Southwestern Asia and with anatomically modern human beings in Africa
- 39Oldowan TraditionA stone-tool tradition named after the Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania), where the first specimens of the oldest human tools (2-2.5 mya) were found
- 40archiac Homo sapiensHominins dating from 500,000 to 200,000 years ago that possessed morphological features found in both Homo erectus and Homo sapiens
- 41Replacement ModelThe hypothesis that only one sub-population of Homo erectus, probably located in Africa, underwent a rapid spurt of evolution to produce Homo sapiens 200,000-100,000 years ago. After that time, H.spaiens would itself have multiplied and moved out of Africa gradually populating the globe and eventually replacing populations of H. erectus or their descendents
- 42Upper Paleolithic Late Stone Age (LSA)The name given to the period of highly elaborate stone-tool traditions in Europe in which blades were important, 40,000-10,300 years ago
- 43OmnivorousEating a wide range of plant and animal foods
- 44BipedalismWalking on two feet rather than four
- 45BladesStone tools that are at least twice as long as they are wide
- 46Homo habilisThe species of large-brained, gracile hominins 2 million years old and younger
- 47Composite toolsTools such as bows and arrows in which several different materials are combined (eg., stone, wood, bone, ivory, antler)to produce the final working implement
- 48AssumptionsBasic, unquestioned understanding about the way the world works
- 49EvidenceWhat is seen when a particular part of the world is examined with great care. Scientists use two different kinds of evidence - Material and Inferred
- 50HypothesesStatements that assert a particular connection between fact and interpertation
- 51MythsStories that recount how various aspects of the world came to be the way they are. The power of myths comes from their ability to make life meaningful for those that accept them. The truth of myths seems to be self evident because the effectively integrate personal experiences with a wider assumption about the way society or the world in general must operate.
- 52ObjectivityThe separation of observation and reporting from the researcher's wishes
- 53ScienceThe inventions of explanations about what things are, how they work and how they came to be. That can be tested against evidence in the world itself.
- 54Scientific TheoryA coherently organized series of testable hypotheses used to explain a body of material evidence.
- 55TestabilityThe ability of scientific hypotheses to be matched against nature to see whether they are confirmed or refuted
- 56AnthropologyThe study of human nature, human society and human past
- 57ComparisonA characteristic of Anthropological perspective that requires Anthropologists to consider similarities and differences in as wide a range of human societies as possible before generalizing about human nature, human society, or the human past.
- 58Applied AnthropologyThe subfield of anthropology in which anthropologists use information gathered from the other anthropological specialties to solve practical cross-cultural problems.
- 59ArchaeologyA cultural anthropology of the human past involving the analysis of material remains left behind by earlier societies
- 60Bio-Cultural Organismsorganisms whose defining features are codetermined by biological and cultural factors ( in this case, human beings)
- 61Biological AnthropologyThe specialty of Anthropology that looks at human beings as biological organisms and tries to discover what characteristics makes them different from other organisms and what characteristics they share
- 62Cultural AnthropologyThe specialty of Anthropology that shows how variation in the beliefs and behaviors of members of different human groups is shaped by the sets of learned behaviors and ideas that human beings acquire as members of society- that is by culture.
- 63CultureSets of learned behavior and ideas that human beings acquire as members of society. Human beings use culture to adapt to and transform the world in which they live.
- 64EthnographyAn anthropologists' written or filmed description of a particular culture
- 65EthnologyThe comparative study of two or more cultures
- 66EvolutionA characteristic of the Anthropological perspective that requires Anthropologists to place their observations about human nature, human society, or the human past in a temporal framework that takes into consideration change over time.
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- Flashcards on Anthropology Terms Quiz #2, created by Tracie Irvin on 22/09/2013.
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- Tracie Irvin
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