What is

Biological/Physical
Anthropology?
 What is Anthropology?
 Scientific study of the origin, behavior,
physical variation, and cultural
development of human beings

 Deals with the whole of humanity, past and

present

 Generally divided into 5 broad categories

that describe the subjects that are treated

 These categories or subfields are: Physical,

Cultural, Linguistic, Archaeology, and
Applied
 What is Anthropology?
 Holistic = To understand what it means to
be human, we need to study the inter-
relationships among all the parts of
anthropology: culture, biology, prehistoric
past, linguistics, and solving problems!

 Ex. = capacity for learning language is

genetically programmed into our DNA (our
biology); however, our environment
determines which language/s we end up
learning (our culture)
Five Subfields of Anthropology:
1) PHYSICAL
 study of human biology, particularly
the origins, diversity, and adaptations
of modern people and our ancestors

 To place humans in a comparative

perspective, physical anthropologists
also study the origins and biology of
the non-human Primates, the group of
mammals that includes humans and
our closest nonhuman relatives.
 1) PHYSICAL (cont.)

 Physical Anthropology diverges

from other disciplines of biology
by its focus on the development
of humans in the natural world,
or “in context.”
Five Subfields of Anthropology:
2) CULTURAL
 study of human culture = patterns of
learned behavior and thought that are
shared and passed down among
members of a society. Culture is not
the result of biological inheritance

 Culture includes: language,

knowledge, beliefs, morals, laws,
customs, kinship systems, values, art,
folklore, food, etc.
 2) CULTURAL (cont.)
 interconnections between “culture”
and “power,” focus of the Ph.D.
Program at UC Santa Cruz

 1) how humans are positioned within

and negotiate systems of inequality

2) how and why dominant cultures or

ways of thinking (“hegemony”) work
in the world. For ex., what happens
when we question a dominant way of
thinking, such as the idea that the
“nuclear family” is best
 2) CULTURAL (cont.)
3) critically examine the privileged
position of the anthropologist in
gathering data and representing
other people

Anthropologist Jane
Goodall and her
chimp friend
 Five Subfields of Anthropology:
3) ARCHAEOLOGY
 focuses on the material record:
artifacts, fossils, or other evidence of
human activities

 techniques of excavation &

documentation are also used to
recover evidence from a crime scene

 terms “bioarchaeologist” & and

“zooarchaeologist” identify specialists
who deal with human or other animal
bones from archaeological site
Five Subfields of Anthropology:
4) LINGUISTICS
 studies human communication
systems

 Topics range from language to the

dynamics of human interaction

 closely tied into studies of cognitive

psychology and the origins of
language as a uniquely human
adaptation
 Five Subfields of Anthropology:
5) APPLIED
 Application of
anthropological
data, perspectives,
theory, and methods
to identify, assess,
and solve
contemporary social
problems
 Ex. = Anthropologist
Paul Farmer’s work:
 5) APPLIED (ex.)
 The Partners in Health Vision:
Whatever It Takes
 PIH is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
corporation with a presence in
Latin America, the Caribbean,
Russia, and the United States. We
coordinate innovative programs
to combat AIDS and women's
health problems in rural Haiti and
urban Massachusetts,
groundbreaking tuberculosis Haitian child living
with HIV
treatment projects in the prisons
of Siberia and the shantytowns of
Lima, and health policy initiatives
on a global scale.
http://www.pih.org/index.html
 What is Science?
 Way of understanding the world, a
method of inquiry

 Physical anthropologists use scientific

methods in their studies. Science is not
a body of knowledge

 Creative activity whereby we try to

understand the natural processes that
shape our universe
 What is Science? (cont.)
 “guessing” that is verified by
observation or experience

 each guess is discarded when faced

with contrary evidence or a simpler
explanation

 The practice of thinking critically

 The Scientific Method
 Hierarchy of steps from events to
hypotheses that might be organized
in the following 8 steps:

1. Experience = A person experiences

the real world of events, processes,
and objects.

2. Naming = Events, processes, or

objects are named so they can be
described and studied.
3. Data = Observation or experience forms
a body of data

4. Interpretation = The meaning of the

data is interpreted

5. Relationships = Relationships are

perceived.

6. Hypothesis = Guessing about the nature

of these relationships
7. Testing Hypotheses = On new sets
of observations

8. Theory = Useful explanations

about how the world works, or
how things work in the world
 Hypothesis Testing
 Once a hypothesis or theory is
formulated, it is tested by further
experiment

 Majority of scientific work spent in

levels 1 – 5

 Work at level 7 or 8 receives highest

acclaim because it promotes
understanding, offering organizing
principles which can give us insights
 Science as a “Discipline”
 Not all scientists work at all levels of
scientific method

 Some specialize in creating new

theory and some generate data sets

 Both are important, but in

anthropology, documenting new
observations may be dangerous to life,
health and bank account!
 Science as a “Discipline”
 In terms of income & recognition,
most scientific disciplines pay
much “fame and fortune” for
“creative theory” than for
generating new data bases

 In reality, scientific progress

requires achievement at both
ends of the spectrum: data AND
theory!
 Puzzle:
Which does not belong
and why?
a) earth
b) flat
c) hook
d) sharp

 Explain your hypothesis for what

doesn’t belong: