Introduction to Physical Anthropology

1
Introduction to Physical Anthropology

• Ninth Edition
• Robert Jurmain
• Harry Nelson
• Lynn Kilgore
• Wenda Trevathan

2
Chapter 1, Introduction

• What is Anthropology?
• Cultural Anthropology
• Archaeology
• Linguistic Anthropology
• Physical Anthropology
• Physical Anthropology and Scientific Method
• The Anthropological Perspective

3
What is Anthropology?

• The study of humankind.
• The study of all aspects of the human species
  including our biology (from an evolutionary
  perspective).

4
Subfields of Anthropology

• Cultural Anthropology
• Archaeology
• Physical Anthropology

5
Cultural Anthropology

• Study of all aspects of human behavior.
• Subfields
• Urban - deals with issues of inner cities.
• Medical - explores relationship between culture
  and health.
• Economic - concerned with the distribution of
  goods and resources.

6
Archaeology

• Study of early cultures and lifeways to answer
  questions of human behavior.
• Artifacts and material culture left behind by
  civilizations provide information about the
  nature of the society.

7
Linguistic Anthropology

• Study of the origin of language and human speech.
• Acquisition and use of language is a unique human
  characteristic.
• Relationship between culture and language
• How do members of a society perceive phenomena?
• How does the use of language shape perceptions?

8
Physical Anthropology

• Study of human biology within framework of
  evolution.
• Two principal areas of interest
• How modern species came to exist
• Physical variation

9
Subfields of Physical Anthropology

• Paleoanthropology - study of human evolution.
• Anthropometry - measurement of human body parts.
• Primatology - study of nonhuman primates.
• Osteology - study of skeletons.

10
Scientific Method

• State the research problem.
• Develop a hypothesis.
• Test the hypothesis through data collection and
  analysis of the data.
• If the hypothesis is verified it becomes a theory.