Biological anthropology, also known as physical anthropology, is a natural science discipline concerned with the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their extinct Hominini ancestors, and related non-human , particularly from an evolutionary perspective.[Jurmain, R, et al (2015), Introduction to Physical Anthropology, Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.] This subfield of anthropology systematically studies Homo sapiens from a biological perspective.
Branches
As a subfield of anthropology, biological anthropology itself is further divided into several branches. All branches are united in their common orientation and/or application of evolutionary theory to understanding human biology and behavior.
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Bioarchaeology is the study of past human cultures through examination of human remains recovered in an archaeology context. The examined human remains usually are limited to bones but may include preserved soft tissue. Researchers in bioarchaeology combine the skill sets of human osteology, paleopathology, and archaeology, and often consider the cultural and mortuary context of the remains.
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Evolutionary biology is the study of the evolution that produced the Biodiversity on Earth, starting from a single common ancestor. These processes include natural selection, common descent, and speciation.
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Evolutionary psychology is the study of psychological structures from a modern perspective. It seeks to identify which human psychological traits are evolved – that is, the functional products of natural selection or sexual selection in human evolution.
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Forensic anthropology is the application of the science of physical anthropology and human osteology in a legal setting, most often in criminal cases where the victim's remains are in the advanced stages of decomposition.
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Human behavioral ecology is the study of behavioral adaptations (foraging, reproduction, ontogeny) from the evolutionary and ecologic perspectives (see behavioral ecology). It focuses on human Adaptation responses (physiological, developmental, genetic) to environmental stresses.
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Human biology is an interdisciplinary field of biology, biological anthropology, nutrition and medicine, which concerns international, population-level perspectives on health, evolution, anatomy, physiology, molecular biology, neuroscience, and genetics.
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Paleoanthropology is the study of fossil evidence for human evolution, mainly using remains from extinct hominin and other primate species to determine the morphological and behavioral changes in the human lineage, as well as the environment in which human evolution occurred.
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Paleopathology is the study of disease in antiquity. This study focuses not only on pathogenic conditions observable in bones or mummified soft tissue, but also on nutritional disorders, variation in stature or morphology of bones over time, evidence of physical trauma, or evidence of occupationally derived biomechanic stress.
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Primatology is the study of non-human primate behavior, morphology, and genetics. Primatologists use Phylogenetics methods to infer which traits humans share with other primates and which are human-specific adaptations.
History
Origins
Biological anthropology looks different today from the way it did even twenty years ago. Even the name is relatively new, having been known as 'physical anthropology' for over a century, with some practitioners still applying that term.
[Ellison, Peter T. (2018). "The evolution of physical anthropology". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 165.4: 615–625. 2018.] Biological anthropologists look back to the work of
Charles Darwin as a major foundation for what they do today. However, if one traces the intellectual genealogy back to physical anthropology's beginnings—before the discovery of much of what we now know as the hominin fossil record—then the focus shifts to human biological variation. Some editors, see below, have rooted the field even deeper than formal science.
Attempts to study and classify human beings as living organisms date back to Ancient Greece. The Greek philosopher Plato ( 428– 347 BC) placed humans on the scala naturae, which included all things, from inanimate objects at the bottom to deities at the top.[Marks, J. (1995) Human Biodiversity: Genes, Race, and History. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.]
The first prominent physical anthropologist, the German physician Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752–1840) of Göttingen, amassed a large collection of human skulls ( Decas craniorum, published during 1790–1828), from which he argued for the division of humankind into five major races (termed Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Negroid, Malayan race and American), now recognised as outdated and obsolete.["Memoir of Paul Broca". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 10: 242–261. 1881. JSTOR 2841526.] while the German tradition, led by Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902), emphasized the influence of environment and disease upon the human body.
In the 1830s and 40s, physical anthropology was prominent in the debate about slavery, with the scientific, Monogenism works of the British abolitionist James Cowles Prichard (1786–1848) opposing
In the late 19th century, German-American anthropologist Franz Boas (1858–1942) strongly impacted biological anthropology by emphasizing the influence of culture and experience on the human form. His research showed that head shape was malleable to environmental and nutritional factors rather than a stable "racial" trait.[Moore, Jerry D. (2009). "Franz Boas: Culture in Context". Visions of Culture: an Introduction to Anthropological Theories and Theorists. Walnut Creek, California: Altamira. pp. 33–46.] However, scientific racism still persisted in biological anthropology, with prominent figures such as Earnest Hooton and Aleš Hrdlička promoting theories of racial superiority[American Anthropological Association. "Eugenics and Physical Anthropology." 2007. August 7, 2007.] and a European origin of modern humans.
"New physical anthropology"
In 1951, Sherwood Washburn, a former student of Hooton, introduced a "new physical anthropology."
[Washburn, S. L. (1951) "The New Physical Anthropology", Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences, Series II, 13:298–304.] He shifted the focus from racial typology to concentrate upon the study of human evolution, moving away from classification towards evolutionary process. Anthropology expanded to include paleoanthropology and
primatology.
[Donna Haraway (1988) "Remodelling the Human Way of Life: Sherwood Washburn and the New Physical Anthropology, 1950–1980", in Bones, Bodies, Behavior: Essays on Biological Anthropology, of the History of Anthropology, v.5, G. Stocking, ed., Madison, Wisc., University of Wisconsin Press, pp. 205–259.] The 20th century also saw the modern synthesis in biology: the reconciling of
Charles Darwin's theory of
evolution and
Gregor Mendel's research on heredity. Advances in the understanding of the molecular structure of DNA and the development of chronological dating methods opened doors to understanding human variation, both past and present, more accurately and in much greater detail.
Notable biological anthropologists
See also
Further reading
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Michael A. Little and Kenneth A.R. Kennedy, eds. Histories of American Physical Anthropology in the Twentieth Century, (Lexington Books; 2010); 259 pages; essays on the field from the late 19th to the late 20th century; topics include Sherwood L. Washburn (1911–2000) and the "new physical anthropology"
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Brown, Ryan A and Armelagos, George, "Apportionment of Racial Diversity: A Review", Evolutionary Anthropology 10:34–40 2001
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Modern Human Variation: Models of Classification
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Redman, Samuel J. Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2016.
External links
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> The Program in Human Biology at Stanford
