Anthropology Terms Test1.txt

In archaeology and paleoanthropology, dates for archaeological materials based on solar years, centuries, or other units of absolute time.

The study of humankind in all times and places.

The use of anthropological knowledge and methods to solve practical problems, often for a specific client.

The study of human cultures through the recovery and analysis of material remains and environmental data.

Any object fashioned or altered by humans.

The archaeological study of human remains emphasizing the preservation of cultural and social processes in the skeleton.

Focusing on the interaction of biology and culture.

Also known as social or sociocultural anthropology. The study of customary patterns in human behavior, thought, and feelings. It focuses on humans as culture-producing and culture-reproducing creatures.

A branch of archaeology concerned with survey and/or excavation of archaeological and historical remains threatened by construction or development and policy surrounding protection of cultural resources.

A society's shared and socially transmitted ideas, values, and perceptions, which are used to make sense of experience and generate behavior and are reflected in that behavior.

Theories about the world and reality based on the assumptions and values of one's own culture.

The starting, or reference, point for a grid system.

An extended communication on a particular subject.

An assertion of opinion or belief formally handed down by an authority as true and indisputable.

Activities and objects used to draw out individuals and encourage them to recall and share information.

Based on observations of the world rather than on intuition or faith.

The belief that the ways of one's own culture are the only proper ones.

A detailed description of a particular culture primarily based on fieldwork.

The study and analysis of different cultures from a comparative or historical point of view, utilizing ethnographic accounts and developing anthropological theories that help explain why certain important differences or similarities occur among groups.

The term anthropologists use for on-location research.

Subfield of applied physical anthropology that specializes in the identification of human skeletal remains for legal purposes.

A structured question-answer session carefully notated as it occurs and based on prepared questions.

The preserved remains of plants and animals that lived in the past.

Worldwide interconnectedness, evidenced in global movements of natural resources, trade goods, human labor, finance capital, information, and infectious diseases.

A system for recording data in three dimensions from an archaeological excavation.

A fundamental principle of anthropology, that the various parts of human culture and biology must be viewed in the broadest possible context in order to understand their interconnections and interdependence.

A vast collection of cross-indexed ethnographic, biocultural, and archaeological data catalogued by cultural characteristics and geographic location. Archived in about 300 libraries (on microfiche or online).

A tentative explanation of the relation between certain phenomena.

An unstructured, open-ended conversation in everyday life.

Formal recorded agreement to participate in the research. Federally mandated for all research in the United States and Europe.

Members of the society being studied who provide information that helps the researchers understand the meaning of what they observe. Early anthropologists referred to such individuals as informants.

The study of human languages.

The durable aspects of culture such as tools, structures, and art.

A specialization in anthropology that brings theoretical and applied approaches from cultural and biological anthropology to the study of human health and disease.

A refuse or garbage disposal area in an archaeological site.

A branch of biological anthropology that uses genetic and biochemical techniques to test hypotheses about human evolution, adaptation, and variation.

The study of the origins and predecessors of the present human species.

In ethnography, the technique of learning a people's culture through social participation and personal observation within the community being studied, as well as interviews and discussion with individual members of the group over an extended period of time.

Also known as biological anthropology. The systematic study of humans as biological organisms.

The study of living and fossil primates.

In archaeology and paleoanthropology, designating an event, object, or fossil as being older or younger than another.

Stains that show up on the surface of recently plowed fields that reveal an archaeological site.

In science, an explanation of natural phenomena, supported by a reliable body of data.

A series of beneficial adjustments to the environment.

Alternate forms of a single gene.

In biology, structures possessed by different organisms that are superficially similar due to similar function, without sharing a common developmental pathway or structure.

One half of the "X" shape of chromosomes visible once replication is complete. Sister chromatids are exact copies of each other.

In the cell nucleus, the structures visible during cellular division containing long strands of DNA combined with a protein.

Gradual changes in the frequency of an allele or trait over space.

Deoxyribonucleic acid. The genetic material consisting of a complex molecule whose base structure directs the synthesis of proteins.

The ability of one allele for a trait to mask the presence of another allele.

Changes in allele frequencies in populations. Also known as microevolution.

A particular form of genetic drift deriving from a small founding population not possessing all the alleles present in the original population.

The introduction of alleles from the gene pool of one population into that of another.

All the genetic variants possessed by members of a population.

Portions of DNA molecules that direct the synthesis of specific proteins.

Chance fluctuations of allele frequencies in the gene pool of a population.

The complete structure sequence of DNA for a species.

The alleles possessed for a particular trait.

In the system of plant and animal classification, a group of like species.

The protein that carries oxygen in the red blood cells.

Refers to a chromosome pair that bears different alleles for a single gene.

In biology, structures possessed by two different organisms that arise in similar fashion and pass through similar stages during embryonic development, though they may possess different functions.

Refers to a chromosome pair that bears identical alleles for a single gene.

The Mendelian principle that genes controlling different traits are inherited independently of one another.

The Mendelian principle that variants of genes for a particular trait retain their separate identities through the generations.

The class of vertebrate animals distinguished by bodies covered with fur, self-regulating temperature, and in females milk-producing mammary glands.

A kind of cell division that produces the sex cells, each of which has half the number of chromosomes found in other cells of the organism.

A kind of cell division that produces new cells having exactly the same number of chromosome pairs, and hence copies of genes, as the parent cell.

Chance alteration of genetic material that produces new variation.

The evolutionary process through which factors in the environment exert pressure, favoring some individuals over others to produce the next generation.

The observable or testable appearance of an organism that may or may not reflect a particular genotype due to the variable expression of dominant and recessive alleles.

Two or more genes contribute to the phenotypic expression of a single characteristic.

Two or more genes contribute to the phenotypic expression of a single characteristic.

In biology, a group of similar individuals that can and do interbreed.

The group of mammals that includes lemurs, lorises, tarsiers, monkeys, apes, and humans.

An allele for a trait whose expression is masked by the presence of a dominant allele.

An inherited form of anemia caused by a mutation in the hemoglobin protein that causes the red blood cells to assume a sickle shape.

The smallest working unit in the system of classification. Among living organisms, species are populations or groups of populations capable of interbreeding and producing fertile viable offspring.

The science of classification.

A subdivision within the primate order that includes New World Monkeys, Old World monkeys, and apes (including humans).

Living in the trees.

Vision with increased depth perception from two eyes set next to each other allowing their visual fields to overlap.

Using the arms to move from branch to branch, with the body hanging suspended beneath the arms.

A unit of primate social organization composed of fifty or more individuals who inhabit a large geographical area together.

Active during the day and at rest at night.

An observed ranking system in primate societies ordering individuals from high (alpha) to low standing corresponding to predictable behavioral interactions including domination.

The ritual cleaning of another animal's coat to remove parasites and other matter.

A subdivision within the primate order based on shared genetic characteristics; includes tarsiers, New World monkeys, Old World monkeys, and apes (including humans).

Active at night and at rest during the day.

Able to bring the thumb or big toe in contact with the tips of the other digits on the same hand or foot in order to grasp objects.

Moment when an egg released from the ovaries into the womb is receptive for fertilization.

Having the ability to grasp.

A subdivision within the primate order that includes lemurs, lorises, and tarsiers.

Complete three-dimensional vision (or depth perception) from binocular vision and nerve connections that run from each eye to both sides of the brain allowing nerve cells to integrate the images derived from each eye.

A subdivision within the primate order based on shared genetic characteristics; includes lemurs and lorises.

An object used to facilitate some task or activity.

The genus including several species of early bipeds from southern and eastern Africa living between about 1.1 and 4.3 million years ago, one of whom was directly ancestral to humans.

"Upright man." A species within the genus Homo first appearing just after 2 million years ago in Africa and ultimately spreading throughout the Old World.

"Handy man." The first fossil members of the genus Homo appearing 2.5 million years ago, with larger brains and smaller faces than australopithecines.

A sustained directional shift in a population's average characteristics.

A special form of locomotion on two feet found in humans and their ancestors.

Speciation through a branching mechanism whereby an ancestral population gives rise to two or more descendant populations.

According to the theory of plate tectonics, the movement of continents embedded in underlying plates on the earth's surface in relation to one another over the history of life on earth.

Members of the genus Australopithecus possessing a more lightly built chewing apparatus; likely had a diet that included more meat than that of the robust australopithecines.

Old Stone Age beginning with the earliest Oldowan tools spanning from about 200,000 or 250,000 to 2.6 million years ago.

Evolution above the species level.

The tool industry of the Neandertals and their contemporaries of Europe, Southwest Asia, and northern Africa from 40,000 to 125,000 years ago.

The hypothesis that modern humans originated through a process of simultaneous local transition from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens throughout the inhabited world.

A distinct group within the genus Homo inhabiting Europe and Southwest Asia from approximately 30,000 to 125,000 years ago.

The first stone tool industry, beginning between 2.5 and 2.6 million years ago.

A model of macroevolutionary change that suggests evolution occurs via long periods of stability or stasis punctuated by periods of rapid change.

The hypothesis that all modern people are derived from one single population of archaic H. sapiens from Africa who migrated out of Africa after 100,000 years ago, replacing all other archaic forms due to their superior cultural capabilities. Also called the Eve or out of Africa hypothesis.

Several species within the genus Australopithecus, who lived from 1.1 to 2.5 million years ago in eastern and southern Africa; known for the rugged nature of their chewing apparatus (large back teeth, large chewing muscles, and a bony ridge on their skull tops for the insertion of these large muscles).

The process of forming new species.

The last part (10,000 to 40,000 years ago) of the Old Stone Age, featuring tool industries characterized by long slim blades and an explosion of creative symbolic forms.

Intensive crop cultivation, employing plows, fertilizers, and/or irrigation.

Term used to refer to Mesolithic cultures in the Americas.

The spread of certain ideas, customs, or practices from one culture to another.

An evolutionary process whereby humans modify, either intentionally or unintentionally, the genetic makeup of a population of plants or animals, sometimes to the extent that members of the population are unable to survive and/or reproduce without human assistance.

Cultivation of crops carried out with simple hand tools such as digging sticks or hoes.

Any new idea, method, or device that gains widespread acceptance in society.

The region encompassing southern Mexico and northern Central America.

The Middle Stone Age of Europe, Asia, and Africa beginning about 12,000 years ago.

A small blade of flint or similar stone, several of which were hafted together in wooden handles to make tools; widespread in the Mesolithic.

A Mesolithic culture living in the lands that are now Israel, Lebanon, and western Syria, between about 10,200 and 12,500 years ago.

The New Stone Age; prehistoric period beginning about 10,000 years ago in which peoples possessed stone-based technologies and depended on domesticated crops and/or animals.

The profound culture change beginning about 10,000 years ago associated with the early domestication of plants and animals and settlement in permanent villages; sometimes referred to as the Neolithic transition.

Breeding and managing migratory herds of domesticated grazing animals, such as goats, sheep, cattle, llamas, or camels.

A conventional term used to refer to the period of time before the appearance of written records. Does not deny the existence of history, merely of written history.

The creation, invention, or chance discovery of a completely new idea, method, or device.

A new and deliberate application or modification of an existing idea, method, or device.

The cultivation of domesticated root crops, such as yams and taro.