Chapter one of your book briefly discusses the four subd discciplines of anthropology. In the following slides, we will go over what many in the field of anthropology, including myself, refer to as the five subd disciplines of anthropology. If you look at the course schedule for the semester, you'll notice that each of our weeks is devoted to one of these five subd disciplines. biological anthropology, archaeology, cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and applied anthropology. I've mentioned biological anthropology in passing several times so far. It is also known as physical anthropology, so please don't get confused. Simply put, biological anthropology is the study of human biology in an evolutionary framework. and are like, "Okay, what does that mean?" According to many anthropologists, it is the branch of anthropology that studies human biological diversity in time and space. And you're like, "Yeah, that's not any clearer." That's okay. Let's think about it this way. Earlier, I stated that humans share over 98% of their DNA with bonobos and chimpanzees. If we have so much in common with these apes genetically, then why are we so different? And my question for you is, are we really so different? And if so, how? If we share that much DNA in common with these apes, what can that tell us about the origin of homo sapiens, your and mine species? If we share that much DNA in common with these apes, how minute is the genetic difference between you and your nextdoor neighbor or from someone on the other side of the world? Does being in different habitats with varying ecosystems and climates modify our biology and health? This is the realm of biological anthropology. With regard to the study of humans, primates, and our hominin ancestors, we will often take what is referred to as a bioultural approach. Think of a triangle. At each angle or corner of the triangle, write a B, a C, and an E, respectively. Representing biology, culture, and the environment. Now, in the center of your triangle, write an I representing the individual. How does one's genetics, culture, and the physical environment shape the individual and ultimately shape the population? We'll explore this concept throughout the semester. Biological anthropology is broken up into several sub fields. things like human population biology, primatology, and paleoanthropology. Primatology is the study of nonhuman primates. As a sub field of biological anthropology, primatologists are interested in understanding our primate heritage and studying extant or living non-human primates and extinct primates. On a basic level, many of the questions that drive primatological research focus on general themes. How are humans and non-human primates related? How do we know how are humans and nonhuman primates different? How are they similar? In pimeatlogy, a great deal of research investigates nonhuman primate behavior, looking at various aspects of social organization, communication, infant care, diet, and mating to name a few. During the unit on biological anthropology, we'll explore the sub field of primatology more thoroughly. Now, I have a question for you. Can you name the primates in the pictures? Can you name the famous primatologist? In the top picture, that is a juvenile orangutang. The bottom picture is of Jane Goodall with two chimpanzees. Another sub field of biological anthropology that we'll spend some time on this semester is paleoanthropology. Paleoanthropologists examine and study the fossil record to better understand how humans and other primates evolved. Paleoanthropologists are primarily interested in recovering fossils and artifacts and understanding how and why physical attributes of said fossils and artifacts have changed over time, placing fossils and artifacts in the appropriate chronological as well as evolutionary sequence. Uh, and the image that you're seeing here is of Oralopythecus Aopicus. It's one of my favorite early fossils. And you can see, yeah, that to some degree it does look similar to what we might think an early hominin looks like, but there are some notable notable differences. Uh, and we'll get into why why we're different. Another sub field of biological anthropology is human population biology. Remember the bioultural approach? essentially the perspective that human biology is shaped not only by genetics but also by the environment and culture. This is the realm of human population biology. Now I want you to take a look at the two women featured in these images. These are separate images. The woman on the left is from East Africa and the woman on the right is from an Inuit group in the Arctic. Aside from clothing, what differences do you notice? If you said body plan and appendages, you're right. If you'll notice, the woman on the left has a lean body build uh that is long uh with long appendages, whereas the woman on the right is short in stature and limb length, but larger in torso and trunk region. These body shapes are adaptations to the heat and cold stress and are observed in a variety of mammals. Think about it. In a consistently hot environment, dissipating heat is crucial for survival. Whereas in a cold environment, retaining body heat is crucial for survival. Bergman's rules suggest larger body types are adapted to cold environments as they create more mass or volume and thus retain heat where smaller bodies have more surface area and consequently dissipate heat. Allen's rule follows a similar logic. Longer limbs equate to more surface area where short limbs equate to more volume. Food for thought. How might childhood nutrition or childhood illness influence one's growth and development? Something that we may get to later on in the semester. In that same vein, I'd like you to start thinking of the human body or any bones for that matter as modifiable and as artifacts that can shed light on human behavior and culture. Now that is not to say that human bones and animal bones are not fossils. They are. But there are a lot of things we can learn from them that as when we start talking about archaeology, why I want you to start thinking about them as artifacts as well will become a little bit more clear. So we've got some pictures here and I want you to be able to to kind of figure out what's going on. We're going to start on the top left. You are looking at a cast of a human fetal skull at about 40 and a half weeks. So, pretty much uh a fullterm baby. And maybe some of you were like, "Yeah, I know that because you can see the fontel. That's that soft spot there on the top. Notice no teeth, very large eye orbits. Moving to the right here, you're looking at a human skull that has undergone what we call head wrapping. Uh tight cloths binding the head during childhood leading to the flattening of the forehead and or what you might refer to as the frontal bone and an elongation of the skull primarily in the exop exopal region. And so that's that back region of the skull. This practice was common among many cultures across the globe including the Mayas and the Incas where it was deemed aesthetically pleasing and an indication of social status. Uh there are still populations that do this. I can think of a couple within West Africa. On the bottom left hand corner you are looking at the underside of the human skull. So this big hole here, that's normal. Uh you got to have that because that's how our brain connects to our spinal column and allows us to survive. What I want you to be noticing is just below that uh and you're looking at the back of the skull and it's slanted here. And if you were to actually really feel that and and feel the back of your own skull, you'll notice that it's nicely rounded. If you were a pediatrician and you had a patient present with this flattening uh that we see here in the image, uh you would most likely be on the phone calling child protection services as today an infant with this flattening of the skull uh is most likely experiencing uh child neglect. Remember, baby's heads are soft and they don't just have that one soft spot at the top. There's a soft spot here in the back. And when infants are consistently and for long periods of time left lying on their backs, the back of the skull becomes flat. Now, among some historical as well as archaeological populations, this deformation is not uncommon and it's not necessarily attributed to neglect, but rather cradle boarding. It's all the rage today to wear your baby. We often refer to it as attachment parenting, but it's not a new trend. I want you to think about your backpack. Now, imagine placing boards in the back of your backpack that will rest against your back. Now, place the baby on the boards. Secure the straps to keep the baby immobile and upright. And you slip your arms through the straps of your backpack, and you're ready to travel long distances with your baby. and your hands free. On the bottom right corner, you might have been thinking that's a gunshot to the skull. It's close, but not quite. What you're looking at is a technique called trepation. Essentially, a surgical technique used by many cultures throughout time uh and still use today to relieve pressure on the brain due to trauma or seizures. or in some cases some cultures thought it would release demons that were inhabiting the individual. Keep in mind most of these surgeries were done without the use of anesthetics or antiseptics. If you look closely at the image, you'll notice that the hole used to be much larger. Uh and so you can see it just right there. You've got all that stimpling. And so what we notice here and what that means is that this hole that you see currently it used to be much larger. This person survived the trepation and their bone started to regrow. And that's amazing when you consider no antibiotics and no painkillers and they're surviving these early surgeries. That's pretty awesome. Now, you might be asking yourself, "What am I looking at?" Well, this is your cautionary reminder for why you should always use protection when engaging in sexual relations with other people. The damage essentially this pitting that you see on the top of the skulls, don't worry about the missing teeth or the absorbed bone here. That's something else going on as well. But all this pitting that you see at the frontal bone and on the top of the skull that is due to prolonged and untreated syphilis. Now you might be thinking but Dr. Tras syphilis is a disease of the 18th and 19th century and anyway it's curable with antibiotics. Well yes and no. Yes, many people do think of syphilis outbreaks of the 18th and 19th century, but syphilis is still a circulating STD. In fact, syphilis is on the rise in many countries, including the United States. If caught early and treated with the appropriate antibiotics, syphilis can be cured. But many researchers are concerned about antibiotic resistance as several strains have popped up in the late 90s and early 2000s.