Theory | Proponents | Brief note |
(Greek and Roman Thinkers) | ||
6th Century BC | Anaximander of Miletus (Greek) | Proposed that the first animals lived in water, during a wet phase of the Earth's past, and that the first land-dwelling ancestors of mankind must have been born in water, and only spent part of their life on land. He also argued that the first human of the form known today must have been the child of a different type of animal (probably a fish), because man needs prolonged nursing to live. Man evolved/originated from fish. |
Theory of spontaneous generation/ creation or Abiogenesis | Aristotle, Thales, Plato, Von Helmont, Empedocles Democritus | The theory of spontaneous generation is as old as human thought. It is well known that life arises only from pre-existing life (principles of bio-genesis) and assumes that life originated from inert, inorganic matter as a result of a series of physico-chemical conditions which must have existed at a given moment during the evolution of earth. The theory contends that life had originated repeatedly from inanimate materials or non-living things in a spontaneous manner. Aristotle thought that fireflies originated from morning dew and mice from the moist soil spontaneously. |
(Medieval & others) | ||
Creationism/ Theory of special creation/ Theory of Divine creation 17th and 18th century
| Father Suarez (1548-1671) A Spanish Monk | Proposed this theory. It was based on the Biblical book of Genesis. According to Genesis, of Old Testament of Bible, the world was created by the supernatural power (God) in six natural days. Since all species were made individually by god, the theory does not accept the idea of origin of new species from ancestral forms. The created organisms exist unchanged from the day of their creation. |
James Ussher (1581-1656) Archbishop of Northern Ireland | Fixed the date of creation at October 23, 4004 B.C. | |
Dr. Charles Lightfoot(1889-1961) | Added the exact time of creation, i.e., 9 a.m. on October 23, 4004 B.C. | |
mid 18th century | Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) Swedish Botanist | Designated each living organism two Latin names (binary nomenclature), one for Genus and the other for Species. Thus, from the days of Linnaeus, Man has been scientifically known as Homo Sapien.his immortal work “The Systema Nature” |
Late in the 18th century | Comte de Buffon (1707-1778) French scientist
| Suggested strongly that life forms are not fixed.He strongly believed that this could be the influence of the environment on living organisms. He explained this in his voluminous work, “Historic Naturelle”. He had more clear ideas on the physical features of man than Linnaeus. He explained them in his book “Varieties Humanies”. He argued that although catastrophic events do occur, they are rare and so “have no place in the ordinary course of nature.” Instead, the earth’s history is mainly explained by “operations uniformly repeated, motions which succeed one another without interruption”. Thus, much of the earth’s geological history could be explained by normal, everyday, uniform processes—the things taking place before our eyes, such as erosion and deposition of sediments in water. For such processes to account for all the changes recorded in the earth’s strata, however, the earth would have to be older than 6,000 years. Buffon also published Les Epoques de la Nature (1788) where he openly suggested that the planet was much older than the 6,000 years proclaimed by the church, and discussed concepts very similar to Charles Lyell's "uniformitarianism" which were formulated 40 years later. |
18th Century | Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) | Suggested through his work the evolutionary aspects of animals and strongly contended that the earth and life on it must have been evolving for millions of years and the history of mankind is the latest. |
Lamarckism | Jean Baptiste Lamarck(1744 – 1829) | Was the first evolutionist who confidently put forward his ideas about the process leading to biological change in the organism. |
Catastrophism/ Theory of Catachysm
17th Century/ 18th Century
| Nicholas Steno (1638-1686)
| Steno and Hooke, still believed in a biblical chronology. To Steno, the water-deposited layers of the stratigraphic sequences represented two events—the original water-covered earth on which God created land and plants and animals (Genesis 1) and the waters of Noah’s flood (Genesis 6-8). The geological record, however, shows a vast amount of change, and the Bible provides only 6,000 years of the earth’s history. So much change in such a short time, thought Steno and Hooke, required the presence of global catastrophic events such as earthquakes and volcanoes. Steno and Hooke and others who subscribed to this explanation are often referred to as catastrophists. |
Robert Hooke (1635-1703)
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George Cuvier (1769-1832) French scientist | Objected to Lamarck strongly. This is the extension of the theory of special creation. This theory assumes that life is originated by the creation and it is followed by catastrophe due to geographical disturbances. Each catastrophe destroyed the life completely whereas each creation forms life different from the previous one. His observation was based on the fossil remains of varied organisms. According to him, the earth had to face severe natural calamities at different times for which many animal species have been destroyed. But each time when the earth settled after a great Catastrophe, relatively higher forms of animals appeared to replace the situation. Cuvier did not believe in continuous evolution. To him the species never evolved by modification and re-modification; a series of Catastrophes were responsible behind changes where previous sets of living creatures get replaced by new creatures of complex structure. | |
Theory of Uniformitarianism
19th Century
| Charles Lyell (1797-1875) English lawyer and geologist | Disproved Cuvier’s Catastrophism. Lyell, in his three volume book on ‘Principles of Geology’ (1830-1833), documented the fact that the earth must be considerably old; and natural processes through time, like, erosions, earthquakes, glacial movements and volcanoes have changed the shape of the earth and its living units. He provided conclusive evidence for the theory of uniformitarianism. He explained this saying that the present would be the key for understanding the past. He argued that the natural changes were the same in the past and the present. This theory on one hand discarded the “theory of Catastrophism” and on the other hand nullified the “theory of divine Creation”. |
Through the work of Hooke, Steno, Hutton, Smith, and Lyell—and many others—the study of the earth shifted from the supernatural to the natural. Scientists sought data about earth’s history from the earth itself, not from the presuppositions of belief systems. As a result, by the early nineteenth century, our world was viewed through the interacting perspectives of constant change brought about by observable processes over vast amounts of time. Lyell put these ideas down in his three-volume Principles of Geology, first published between 1830 and 1833. Among those weighing Lyell’s ideas was a young British naturalist, Charles Darwin, who took the first volume of Lyell’s book with him as he embarked, in 1831, on a round-the- world voyage of scientific exploration. | ||
Theory of Eternity of Present Conditions
19th Century | Preyer (1880) | This is an orthodox theory. It believes that some organisms were there from the very beginning of the Universe. Those organisms still exist and will be continued in future in addition to some new forms. According to this theory, the original forms are eternal, and they have been preserved automatically.This theory assumes that life had no beginning or end. It believes that life has ever been in existence and it will continue to be so ever. It further believes that there is no question of origin of life as it has no beginning or end. The theory is also known as steady state theory. |
Theory of Cosmic Origin of life
19th Century
| Richter (1865) | Richter developed this theory and he was supported by Thomson, Helmholtz (1884), Von Tieghem (1891) and others. This theory advocated that the first life seed had been transported through the cosmic particles from other planet. According to them the meteorites that travelled through the earth’s atmosphere, contained embryos and spores in them; those gradually grew and evolved into different types of organisms. |
(organic evolution) | ||
Organic Evolution : | The theory that more recent types of plants and animals have their origins in other pre-existing forms and that the distinguishable differences between ancestors and descendents are due to modifications in successive generations. | |
Lamarckism/ Theory of Inheritance of acquired characters 18th /19th Century | Jean Baptiste Lamarck(1744 – 1829) French naturalist/biologist | He opined that the structure of a living being is dependent on its function. He used the example of Giraffe, saying that it got long-neck structure for its constant use of reaching to higher foliage. Based on this observation, he propounded two theories, namely: i) use and disuse of characters and ii) the acquired characters are inherited. He presented a complete theory of evolution in his book ‘Philosophie Zoologique’, published in 1809. |
Neo-Lamarckism | McDougall, Spencer, Cope, Packard, Kammere, Sumner, etc. | A group of evolutionary biologists further studied and modified the Lamarckism. They carried out experiments to find evidences for the inheritance of acquired characteristics. This modified version came to be known as Neo-Lamarckism. |
Darwinism/ Theory of Natural Selection & the Origin of Species 19th Century | Charles Darwin (1809-1882) English naturalist, geologist and biologist | The start of new era for understanding biological evolution through genetic mechanisms. His book ‘The Origin of Species’ was published in the year 1859. He proposed the term ‘Organic Evolution’ which signifies ‘descent with modification’, the hypothesis that all organisms on Earth are connected by bonds of genealogy and have changed through time. |
Neo-Darwinism
(Also- Modern theory of origin of species/ developed into Modern Synthetic Theory) | Weismann, Earnest Heckle, Lyell, Huxley, Wallace and Simposon. | Supported the natural selection. |
R.A Fisher, Sewall Wright, and J.B.S Haldane. | Explained natural selection by modern synthesis. Natural selection is differential reproduction, plus the complex interplay in such phenomena as heredity, genetic variation, and all other factors that affect selection and determine its results. | |
Mendelism/ Laws of inheritance 19th Century
| Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) | Mendelism is used to refer to the theoretical principles of heredity of the single-gene trait, which is derived from the principle put forward by Gregor Mendel, known as Mendel’s laws. Mendel’s laws came to be known as Laws of inheritance, which are as follows: Law of Dominance, Law of Segregation, Law of Independent Assortment. |
Mutationism 19th Century | Hugo de Vries(1840 – 1935) Dutch Botanist | The theory states that evolution is a jerky process where new varieties and species are formed by mutations (discontinuous variations) that function as raw material of evolution. |
Synthetic Theory/ Modern Synthesis 20th Century | Present understanding of the process of evolution. With more complete understanding of mechanism of inheritance, the biological sciences now generally define evolution as- The sum total of the genetically inherited change in the individuals who are the members of the gene pool of a population. | |
Neo-Mutationism 20th Century | Masatoshi Nei(1931-) | The contemporary view corresponding to Mutationism. A main feature of this theory is how single mutations can have significant effects to influence evolution. |
Tuesday, July 19, 2022
Theories of Evolution
Wednesday, June 29, 2022
What is Culture?
In the scientific sense, "culture" does not mean unusual refinement or education, but the whole of social tradition. It includes, as the great anthropologist Tylor put it "capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." Culture comprises all the capabilities and habits in contrast to those numerous traits acquired otherwise, namely by biological heredity.
In anthropological perspective, every society has a culture - it is universal. Likewise, every human being is cultured and culture is an attribute of the genus homo.
Culture is design for living. It is the basis of human life. It rests on biology but is not biological. It is human biology, such as developed brain, nimble hands, and freely moving tongue which helped humans to acquire a design for living.
The white Pigeon was not welcome, it seemed
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
Baiame Cave
The Aboriginal people of the east coast of New South Wales in Australia believe Baiame is the creator. 'Baiame cave', also known as - Creator Cave, Dhurramulan, Goign, Wabooee, Baiamai, Biami, Baimae, Biamie, Biaime, Byarmie and Byarme, is located in the Upper Hunter Valley of New South Wales. It is a very important spiritual site to the people of the Wonnarau Nation, and other Aboriginal people. Baiame is represented through art on the rear wall of the cave, as a large male figure with both arms outstretched, filled with red pigment and bordered with white pigment.
Mention of Baiame and Baiame cave can be found in many fables of the Aboriginal people.
"I am going on a long journey towards the setting sun," he told his people. "I will not stop until I come to the home of Baiame himself."
(The Adventures of Yooneeara)
Monday, May 23, 2022
Time, Distance, Direction.
All people have the sun and moon to help them think about time. But thinking about time is easier for people who lived in cold places, where winter is very different from summer, than it is for those who live in tropical places, where days and nights are all the same length. There They had to count time by the changing direction of the winds or by the seasons when it rains or when the rivers rise. The moon helps them to mark off months, and this is easier still for people who live by the seaside, where they can watch the tides come and go with the changes of the moon. From watching the sun and the moon, some people went on to watching constellations like the Dippers or stars like the Pleiades, and they could talk more accurately about the passing of time.
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| A section of a calendar history (winter count) of the Kiowa. The vertical black poles indicate winters; the pictographs above and between them illustrate outstanding events of succeeding winters and summers. |
Once people had a way of thinking about days, by calling them suns, and of thinking about nights, by calling them the time when there is no sun or the time when the stars shine, they could think about distance too. One man could ask another: "How far is it to the place where you found that strong stone out of which you made that ax?' And the other could answer: "I walked for five days toward the place where the sun rises, and I slept for five nights." In order to make this kind of answer, it was necessary already to have learned to watch the sun, to know where it rose and where it set, to think of days as the periods of time when the sun shines, and to count.
Then man could think about the little world he knew. One part was toward the rising of the sun, another toward the place where the sun set. When people did this accurately, they then had directions -east and west, north and south. Sometimes they included two more directions -the very top of the sky above (the zenith) and the very center of the earth beneath (the nadir).
Friday, May 20, 2022
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
From far away, so far the direction was difficult to guess, came the sound of a flute. It was rather strange, as it was not played on a familiar tune of our place, hence caught our attention. Somehow, it reminded me of an old story that I, in fact, most of us have read in our childhood, but could not remember the name of! Well, it didn't take too much effort in doing some internet search and finding the name - The Pied Piper of Hamelin. (German: Der Rattenfänger von Hameln)
Here's an account of some interesting facts I read about the Story.
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| Germany – Scott #1273 (1978) |
Until the middle of the eighteenth century, and probably still today, the street through which the children were led out to the town gate was called the bunge-lose (drumless, soundless, quiet) street, because no dancing or music was allowed there. Indeed, when a bridal procession on its way to church crossed this street, the musicians would have to stop playing. The mountain near Hameln where the children disappeared is called Poppenberg. Two stone monuments in the form of crosses have been erected there, one on the left side and one on the right. Some say that the children were led into a cave, and that they came out again in Transylvania.
The citizens of Hameln recorded this event in their town register, and they came to date all their proclamations according to the years and days since the loss of their children.
According to Seyfried the 22nd rather than the 26th of June was entered into the town register.
The following lines were inscribed on the town hall:
In the year 1284 after the birth of ChristFrom Hameln were led awayOne hundred thirty children, born at this placeLed away by a piper into a mountain.And on the new gate was inscribed: Centum ter denos cum magus ab urbe puellosduxerat ante annos CCLXXII condita porta fuit.[This gate was built 272 years after the magician led the 130 children from the city.]
In the year 1572 the mayor had the story portrayed in the church windows. The accompanying inscription has become largely illegible. In addition, a coin was minted in memory of the event.
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✽ The ending of the story is different in most bedtime storybooks, i.e. “The mayor graciously paid the piper for his service, and the rodent-free town of Hamelin lived happily ever after.” However, there are several theories about what really happened that day, which definitely cannot end with the three magical words "happily ever after". Although it does, like most folk tales, teach us a lesson at the end.
✽ Various shreds of evidence support the fact that the story might be based on true events, some of them are mentioned below.
- The first record is a stained glass window from 1300 of a church, which was destroyed in 1660. The window is considered to have been made in memory of a tragic historical event for the town. Eyewitness account from the time, states in Latin, "On the day of John and Paul, 130 children in Hamelin went to Calvary and were brought through all kinds of danger to the Koppen mountain and lost." Interestingly, this inscription did not mention anything about a piper.
- The Town records of Hamelin seems to start with this event. The earliest written record is from the town chronicles in an entry from the year 1384 which states: "It is 100 years since our children left."
- A monk named Heinrich, of Herford, wrote about a man of age about 30, who came to the town playing a flute and led out the children. This was found in the Lüneburg Manuscript, which was written more than a century after the window is thought to have been constructed (c. 1440-50). This manuscript gives a date when the children are lured away of June 26, 1284.
- By 1603, the town erected the façade of what is known now as the Pied Piper House. On the façade, there is an inscription that was included in later editions of the original Grimm's fairy tales*. This inscription is similar to the one put on the church window but this one does mention the existence of the piper.
- In the sixteenth century, the Zimmer Chronicle, written by Count Froben Christoph von Zimmer of Swabia, expands the story with the inclusion of rats.
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| 1592 painting of the Pied Piper copied from the glass window of Marktkirche in Hamelin |
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| Based on the surviving descriptions, a modern reconstruction of the window destroyed in 1660 has been created by historian Hans Dobbertin. |
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| A town on the river Weser in Lower Saxony, Germany |
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| The Pied Piper story is regularly retold in Hameln/ Photo: Alamy |
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| Credit: Gonzalo Azumendi/ Photo: Getty Images |
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| River Wesser of Hamelin/ Photo: Needpix |
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| Christmas market in Hamelin Photo: CC BY-SA 3.0 |
"The Pied Piper Was Real: 130 Children Disappeared And Never Came Back". Medium, 2022,
Diamond, Andrea. "The Legend Of The Pied Piper". Blog.Bookstellyouwhy.Com, 2022,
"THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN - Globus Blog". Globus Blog, 2022,
Saturday, May 14, 2022
Note on Archaeological Anthropology
Archaeological anthropology can be simply defined as the study of human past based on material objects, recovered by systematic explorations and excavations, which are classified, analyzed, described, and interpreted, based on various scientific methods and theories.
As a subbranch of anthropology, it not only helps in understanding diversity around the World but also to see how people since prehistoric times related to the material World. As it tries to reconstruct the past human societies and their cultural processes, it provides the much-needed temporal dimension to the Anthropologist's study of contemporary simple societies. The major goals of this specialization is timeless and spaceless; the construction of cultural chronologies, the reconstruction of extinct lifeways, and the search for bio-cultural processes are some of the main objectives.
Before the 1960s, Archaeology remained for a long time a discipline concerned with the description and classification of ancient objects and features.
After the 1960s, Lewis Binford’s New Archaeology movement emphasized the larger anthropological goals of Archaeology.
Systems of measuring time are dependent on human thoughts and are relative in nature. Relative time is a system of temporal division to establish the sequence of events in history. The temporal division is required to realize the immense length of time.
The whole of human history has been divided into different ages for analytical purposes; on the basis of activities, ideas of change, concepts of progress, and variability in objects.
Material remains are considered proofs of these actions which mark time.
The entire range of material remains constituting the archaeological record belongs to 3 broad temporal divisions, namely, Prehistory, Protohistory, and Historical period.
References:
Friday, May 13, 2022
Brief Summary: Pleistocene Epoch
The geologic time scale serves as the "calendar" for Earth's history. It subdivides all time into named units of abstract time called—in descending order of duration—eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages. Stratigraphy, or the correlation and classification of rock strata, is used to enumerate and classify those geologic time units.
As mentioned, the geological time scale is divided into eras, and the last era, in which we live in is called Cenozoic. The Cenozoic era is divided into two periods, the Tertiary and Quaternary. Quaternary period covers a time span of two million years and is further divided into two epochs, Pleistocene and Holocene, Holocene being the recent time.
The Quaternary period and the first epoch of the period, Pleistocene, began about 2.58 million years ago. The Pleistocene too is divided into 3 parts, lower, middle, and upper Pleistocene.
The beginning of the Pleistocene was fixed by IUGS (International Union for Geological Science) in the year 2009, at the base of Matuyama, Palaeomagnetic event.
This epoch lasted from about 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago, covering the World’s recent period of repeated glaciations. It is a very strange period in geological history of Earth, as it coincides with the history of man and also the time of dramatic climatic changes occurring on Earth.
Climatic Episodes of Pleistocene Period:
The work of Agssiz in 1840, followed by Penck and Bruckner in 1909. led to the classic Alpine chronology that includes 4 major glaciations, separated by 3 interglaciations, these stages form the framework for the Pleistocene and Palaeolithic studies. The glaciers were named after four little streams in the Alps, Günz, Mindel, Riss and Würm. Each glacial advance tied up huge volumes of water in continental ice sheets, resulting in temporary sea level drop of 100m or more. During the interglacial periods, such as the present time, the ice sheets melt, drowning the coastlines.
The terms pluvial and interpluvial are also used, corresponding to the terms glacial and interglacial. A pluvial refers to a warmer period, relatively wet climate, with increased rainfall, and interpluvial is a period with relatively dry conditions because of decreased rainfall. There are traces of lakes in regions which are now dry, which are evidence of the major climatic changes in the tropical region.
It is yet to be determined whether pluvial processes in low latitudes and glaciers in high latitudes occurred simultaneously.
The end of Pleistocene corresponds with the end of the last glacial period, and also with the end of the Paleolithic age in Archaeology.
References:
Wednesday, May 11, 2022
Alliance Theory by French Structuralist Lévi-Strauss
In the study of kinship, the alliance theory is also known as the general theory of exchange. This theory states that in kinship systems, inheritance and the continuation of the vertical line (descent) are of less significance than the horizontal connections (alliances) and relationships of exchange and reciprocity between members of two different groups that is introduced through marriages. This theory attempts to illuminate how inter-individual relationships are woven together to form society as a whole.
The main exponent and originator of this theory is French structuralist Claude Lévi-Strauss and therefore it is also known as the structural way of studying kinship ties. He introduced it for the first time in his monumental work entitled “Les Structures élémentaires de la parenté” (1949) i.e. Elementary structures of Kinship. Rodney Needham and Louis Dumont also contributed to the analytical assessment.
Lévi-Strauss studied and observed the connections formed between consanguinity and affinity in his investigation of Non-European societies. Consanguinity and Affinity are both opposite and complementary to each other, hence rules of preferential marriage and marriage prohibitions are an incorporated part of this theory. In Strauss's view, it is marriage ties that create interdependence between families and lineages.
Alliance theory is based on incest taboo; the prohibition of which is observed universally, a fundamental aspect of human social life. That is, a man is not allowed to make a woman of his immediate kin his wife. According to Strauss, this prohibition is beyond any sociological explanation and clearly shows that the difference between consanguinity and affinity is the basis of kinship system.
He stated that incest taboo is seen as a negative prescription and the only cause for man to move out of his own kinship group, thus leading to positive marriage rules. Hence the main notion of his theory comes to - a reciprocal exchange which creates affinity.
References:
Friday, May 06, 2022
What is Paleoanthropology?
Paleoanthropology is the multidisciplinary branch of science that contribute to understanding the evolution and history of human beings, Homo sapiens, their extinct relatives and closest living relatives, the other primates. It’s approach helps helps to reconstruct our evolutionary history from recovery and analysis of any relevant fossil evidence. It is a sub-discipline of anthropology, specifically physical anthropology.
Fossils supply the only direct evidence of our ancestors appearance and activities. It is fossils that have told us that human evolution has not been constant. Bursts of change have followed periods of relative stability. And The fact that human evolution has not been constant, bursts of change have followed periods of relative stability, has been found out through the study of fossils. Also fossils only have indicated the general sequence of our bodily evolution.
As paleoanthropologists interpret the fossil record, try to identify the forces that have effected the evolution of humans. In doing so, they look for both biological (interaction with physical environment) and cultural factors (interaction with social environment), both of which have influenced the changes in human body.
To adequately understand human bio-cultural evolution, Paleoanthropologists need a broad base of information. Evidence of hominid activity between 8 and 2.5 million years ago usually only consists of bone remains available for study. Because of this very incomplete picture of the time period from the fossil record, various aspects of physical anthropology (osteometry, functional anatomy, evolutionary framework) are essential to explain evolution during these first millions of years. Evolution during this time is considered as the result of natural forces only.
Paleoanthropologists need to be well-versed in other scientific disciplines and methods, including ecology, geology, biology, anatomy, genetics, and primatology. Through several million years of evolution, humans eventually became a unique species. This process is similar to the evolution of other animals that are adapted to specific environments or "ecological niches". Animals adapted to niches usually play a specialized part in their ecosystem and rely on a specialized diet. Humans are different in many ways from other animals. Since 2.5 million years ago, several breakthroughs have occurred in human evolution, including dietary habits, technological aptitude, and economic revolutions. Humans also showed signs of early migration to new ecological niches and developed new subsistence activities based on new stone tool technologies and the use of fire. Because of this, the concept of an ecological niche does not always apply to humans any more.
Paleoanthropology is useful in many ways.
People are interested to learn about past lives, cultures, and habits; which is evident from the fact that thousands of people visit museums throughout the World. Exhibiting fossil is an application of Paleoanthropology too.
Paleoanthropology has some economic applications also. It can be used to locate gold and other ore deposits because the knowledge of fossils help in finding sequence of rocks in Earth’s crust. Limestone and fine grained sandstone with well preserved fossils find use in beautiful interior wall surfaces. Uranium also has been discovered in fossil wood and bones of dinosaurs and other mammals.
Paleoanthropologists use their knowledge to find out about the climatic conditions in the geological past. They can reconstruct the paleoecology, paleoenvironment and community structure.
Having its roots in anthropology and archaeology, paleoanthropology attempts to reconstruct modern humans on evolutionary lines, by working on biological indicators, such as petrified skeletal remains, bone fragments, footprints and cultural information as stone tools, artifacts, settlement localities, etc. With such a broad scope, paleoanthropology serves as a valuable tool in illustrating our past.
References:
Thursday, May 05, 2022
Brief note on Archaeology and its relevance in Anthropology
Archaeology seeks to reconstruct human past through material remains. As such, it supplies the much needed temporal dimension to the anthropologist’s endeavor to study cultures of present day simple societies. Any kind of archaeological work is inter-disciplinary in nature as the remains of the past are product of cultural and natural activity. Due to the nature of Archaeology, archaeological methods tend to differ greatly from the methods used in other branches of Anthropology. It tends to focus more on quantitative, lab work, and scientific analysis. An archaeological operation, in brief involves, identifying a potential area, systematically collecting the data, organizing the data, situating it in a specific cultural period by using dating methods, conserving and preserving them, and also interpreting them.
References:
Introduction to Anthropometry
Anthropometry is the systematic collection and correlation of measurements of size and proportions of human body, living or dead. It is a typical and traditional tool not only for Physical Anthropology, but also human biology and auxology. The word is derived from Greek words, anthropos which mean man, and metron which means measure. One of the aim of Biological/Physical Anthropologists is to understand human variation. In pursuit of this idea, they use certain research methods, of which Anthropometry is a significant one.
The origin of these measurements can be traced back long ago, the artists of ancient Egypt and Greece formulated some standard criteria for human body. But it was Friedrich Blumenbach (1753-1840) who laid the foundations of craniology in the field of scientific anthropometry. He differentiated mankind into different races on the basis of skull-form.
In biological anthropology and human paleontology, it is a technique of choice for qualifying variability and relationship of fossils and extant populations. Mathematical approaches are used in describing the size and proportions of various fossil hominids. It is the most universally applicable, inexpensive, non-invasive method available to assess the nutritional history throughout one’s life. It is essential in the field of forensics, specially forensic anthropology which is concerned with the relationship between medicine and law. Anthropometry also finds its use Architecture and also in Design of clothing, equipment, interiors, furniture, etc.
In view of the fact that no two individuals are ever alike in all measurable characters, except perhaps mono-zygotic twins and that the later tend to undergo change in varying degrees. Hence, persons living under different conditions and members of different ethnic groups and the offspring of unions between them frequently present interesting differences in body form and proportions. It is therefore necessary to have some means of giving quantitative expression to the variations exhibited by such traits. Anthropometry constitutes a means towards this end, the Anthropologists are concerned with functional relationships among traits and between traits and the environment.
In brief, Anthropology plays an essential role in all areas of human endeavor concerned with the relative and absolute quantification of the human body.
References:
Wednesday, May 04, 2022
Homo Sapiens in Primate Classification
NWM- New World Monkeys (also, new world primates)
