Annual Editions: Physical Anthropology

Unit 1: Evolutionary Perspectives
The Evolution Revolution, John van Wyhe, New Scientist, 2016Evolution is the most revolutionary concept in the history of science. Nothing else has more radically changed our understanding of the natural world and ourselves. The work of Charles Darwin, along with that of many who came before him as well as after, has shown irrefutably that humans are just another animal occupying a small branch on a vast tree of life. No divine spark is needed to explain our existence and traits.
The Facts of Evolution, Michael Shermer, Henry Holt and Company, LLC - Macmillan, 2006Evolutionary theory is rooted in a rich array of data from the past. While the specifics of evolution are still being studied and unraveled, the general theory is the most tested in science; spanning the past century and a half.
Evolution in Action, Jonathan Weiner, Natural History, 2005More than 250 scientists around the world are documenting evolution in action. Some of the most dramatic cases are those that result from the ecological pressures that human beings are imposing on the planet.
The Age of Disbelief, Joel Achenbach, National Geographic, 2015We live in an age in which scientific knowledge has come into conflict with people’s cherished beliefs.  Given the human tendency to cling to intuition and to distrust those who do not share our values, we all too often forsake the rational, scientific way of thinking in favor of our need to be accepted by our chosen community.
Life Chances, Bob Holmes, New Scientist, 2015The question as to whether the evolutionary process has to do with a series of chance events or is a matter of somewhat predictable outcomes within a limited number of possibilities has long been debated within the scientific community as well as among the public in general.  The answer is no better illustrated than with the fact that varieties of offspring spring up as a result of random mutations and an unpredictable recombination of genes, while natural selection winnows out the unfavorable traits and thereby provides a sense of direction to evolution because the more favored tend to survive and reproduce.
Evolution Evolves, Kevin Laland, New Scientist, 2016Orthodox ideas about how evolution works are being challenged by new discoveries in genetics, epigenetics and developmental biology. This has led some researchers to propose that the current framework, known as the modern synthesis, be broadened into an extended evolutionary synthesis.
Unit 2: Primates
No Alpha Males Allowed, Steve Kemper, Smithsonian, 2013Karen Strier’s research on the muriquis monkeys of Brazil has underscored the fact that primates are a varied group with diverse social structures and more complex behavior than ever thought before. They may even provide us with insights as to how our own ancestors came to the ground and became who we are today.
The Rarest of Them All, Sam Turvey, New Scientist, 2016The Hainan gibbon of China has been subjected to hunting and environmental degradation as a result of economic development.  Their numbers are so low that they now face an all too familiar fate.  Any kind of natural catastrophe from a disease outbreak to a typhoon could wipe them out.  Despite the odds conservation efforts which include reconnecting forest fragments could bring them back.
Love in the Time of Monkeys, Eduardo Fernandez-Duque and Benjamin Finkel, Natural History, 2014Since monogamy is the standard among humans, but rare in the rest of the animal kingdom, it is instructive to examine why it exists in a species of monkey where it is apparently related to ecological resource distribution.
The 2% Difference, Robert Sapolsky, Discover, 2006Now that scientists have decoded the chimpanzee genome, we know that we share 98% of our DNA with chimps. So how can we be so different? The answer lies in the fact that a very few mutations make for some very big differences.
Got Culture? Craig Stanford, Perseus Books Group, LLC, 2001The study of the rudimentary cultural abilities of the chimpanzee not only sharpens our understanding of our uniqueness as humans, but it also suggests an ancient ancestry of the mental abilities that we and the chimpanzees have in common.
Dim Forest, Bright Chimps, Christophe Boesch and Hedwige Boesch-Achermann, Natural History, 1991Contrary to expectations, forest-dwelling chimpanzees seem to be more committed to cooperative hunting and tool use than are savanna chimpanzees. Such findings may have implications for the understanding of the course of human evolution.
One for All, Frans de Waal, Scientific American, 2014Although caring tendencies are common in primates, they seem to have become an absolute survival necessity in our human ancestors who came to cooperate with each other on a much more extensive level, shared in a reciprocal manner and identified with others in need, pain or distress.
Dogs and Monkeys Prefer Good People, Sam Wong, New Scientist, 2017Comparative psychologists have found that capuchin monkeys, dogs and humans make social evaluations of others that emphasize fairness and cooperative tendencies.  By discouraging bad behavior and thereby stabilizing complex social groups, such values may help explain the origins of our sense of morality.
Unit 3: Sex and Gender
Powers of Two, Blake Edgar, Scientific American, 2014Theories abound as to why humans are primarily monogamous since most mammals are not, but pair-bonding does seems to have something to do with the way in which our ancestors cooperated in food-getting and sharing and what would seem to have been the most effective way to raise large-brained offspring in need of prolonged care.
When Do Girls Rule the Womb? Jennifer Abbasi, Discover, 2013While demographers have pointed to cultural factors to explain the sex ratio imbalance which favors the birth of boys over girls in such societies as China, India and South Korea, they have not been able to explain why the same trends in sex ratio at birth exist in societies that do not value sons more than daughters and, furthermore, why in certain situations, regardless of cultural preferences, more girls may be born than boys. Perhaps an evolutionary model is in order.
Brains Are Not Male or Female, Jessica Hamzelou, New Scientist, 2015Although there are hormonal differences between men and women that have to do with sexual and reproductive functions, the superficial differences in their brains have nothing to do with intellectual skills.Unit 4: The Fossil Evidence
Scientific Dating Methods, Gemma Tarlach, Discover, 2016When it comes to determining the age of stuff scientists dig out of the ground, whether fossil or artifact, “there are good dates and bad dates and ugly dates,” says paleoanthropologist John Shea of Stony Brook University.  In any case, an understanding of the methods used to gauge the timing and sequence of prehistoric events should help put anthropological disagreements in perspective but, above all, it should put to rest any notions that all of life was created at one point in time.
Mystery Man, Jamie Shreeve, National Geographic, 2015The discovery of hominin remains in a most improbable location within a South African cave has called into question many of our previous conceptions about human evolution.  Rather than a straight line development from a small, bipedal ape-like ancestor to modern Homo sapiens, Homo naledi seems to be telling us that there may have been many, diverse lines of hominin development with all but one of them leading to us.
Who Apes Whom? Frans de Waal, The New York Times, 2015Prompted by the discovery of the hominin Homo naledi, the author cautions us against teleological conclusions—that natural selection is “seeking certain outcomes”—or that, indeed there is a particular point at which our ancestors achieved a mental breakthrough—“a miraculous spark”—that made us radically different from any other creature.
Human Origins, Gemma Tarlach, Discover, 2016After about 150 years of fossil discoveries leading to what we thought was a better understanding our own evolutionary development, we are faced with a “dirty little secret” in paleoanthropology:  What we know about human evolution is that we don’t know much of the story.
Four Legs Good, Two Legs Fortuitous: Brains, Brawn, and the Evolution of Human Bipedalism, Daniel E. Lieberman, Roberts & Company Publishers, 2011Among primates, only hominins have become large brained, bipedal hunters and gatherers. The great evolutionary question since Darwin’s day has been “Why?”  The answers seem to lie with climate change, adaptation to more open habitats and the need to transition from an almost complete reliance on fruits and vegetables to more meat-eating.
The Quiet Rise of the First Toolmaker, Catherine Brahic, New Scientist, 2015Since intentionally flaked Oldowan hand-axes did not come out of the blue, it stands to reason that there must have been predecessors.  It therefore follows that a different approach to dating early tool use is to look at the hands that made them, to assess just when our early ancestors attained the manual dexterity that made stone tools possible.
The First Cookout, Kate Wong, Scientific American, 2012Once our ancestors began cooking their food, their brains got larger, their anatomy changed, and they were enabled to hunt more effectively for meat. Without fire, we might not even exist.
Neandertal Minds, Kate Wong, Scientific American, 2015It has long been held that Neandertals lagged behind anatomically modern Homo sapiens.  So far, the functional significance of DNA differences is unclear, but recent discoveries of Neandertal cultural remains seem to have narrowed the supposed mental gap and suggest that factors other than intelligence drove the Neandertals to extinction and allowed Homo sapiens to flourish.
When Neanderthals Replaced Us, Theodora Sutcliffe, Discover, 2016It was once thought that our direct, African ancestors moved into the Middle East co-existed with Neanderthals for a while and then expanded into Europe, only to replace our brethren entirely.  New evidence, including more precise dating methods and a better understanding of the impact of climate change, tells a different story.  It was our ancestors that had to retreat back to Africa while the Neanderthals successfully reclaimed the Middle East.  So, which species, at least for a time, was superior?
The Most Invasive Species of All, Curtis W. Marean, Scientific American, 2015Whereas previous theories purporting to explain the world-wide expansion of anatomically modern Homo sapiens have to do with the circumstances within particular regions, such as advances in technology, the development of a more sophisticated brain and climate change, the author emphasizes the importance of a new social behavior that evolved in our species: a genetically encoded penchant for cooperation with unrelated individuals.
From Wolf to Dog, Virginia Morell, Scientific American, 2015Scientists are probing the enduring mystery of how a large, dangerous carnivore evolved into our best friend.  While their value to humans seems to have changed over time, ranging from utilitarian to ritualistic, one thing is certain: they could not become fully accepted into hunter-gatherer camps without understanding the absolute concept of “No!”
Unit 5: Late Hominid Evolution
Human Hybrids, Michael F. Hammer, Scientific American, 2013The recovery of DNA from fossil hominins such as the Neanderthals is enabling us to make genetic comparisons with modern populations. From such analyses, we are increasingly able to reconstruct the migrations of ancient peoples, figure out who mated with whom along the way and, perhaps, the implications of such interbreeding for modern human health.
Dawn of a Continent, Colin Barras, New Scientist, 2015Various lines of evidence, archaeological, genetic and linguistic, point to three waves of migration into Europe by Homo sapiens populations.  With each invasion associated with specific changes in technology and lifestyle, we see the remnants of these biological and cultural characteristics in European populations today.
The Awakening, Jo Marchant, Smithsonian, 2016The discovery of cave art on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia has led to several challenges to standard thinking about such paintings around the world, not the least of which have to do with the timing, the motivations of the artists and the implications for the origins of human cognitive awareness.
Hidden Symbols, Alison George, New Scientist, 2016Detailed studies of the prehistoric cave markings left by modern humans in Europe are beginning to yield what seem to be deliberate sequences of symbols with observable trends.  There are even indications of cultural variation over great distances and long periods of time.  Since many of the symbols do not require artistic talent, they may represent the first code accessible to everyone.   For the first time, says the author, they no longer had to be in the same place at the same time to communicate with each other and information could survive its owners.
The Story in the Stones, David Robson, New Scientist Magazine, 2014Several lines of evidence, including stone tool construction, neuroscience, psychology and archaeology, are being combined to estimate the origins of the distinctly human mental abilities that set us off from our primate relatives and ancestors and enabled our species to survive some very challenging times.
The Birth of Childhood, Ann Gibbons, Science Magazine, 2008Unlike our closest relatives, the apes, humans depend on their parents for a long period after weaning. New investigative technology has allowed researchers to determine when and why our long childhood evolved.
The Evolution of Grandparents, Rachel Caspari, Scientific American, 2011A marked increase in survivorship of adults in the Upper Paleolithic had far-reaching effects on the nature of society. The appearance of a grandparental generation meant more resources available to the group, significant population increases, and a greater efficiency in the transmission and accumulation of cultural knowledge for future generations. These changes may very well have accounted for our ancestors being the only hominid species left standing.
A Bigger, Better Brain, Maddalena Bearzi and Craig Stanford, American Scientist, 2010The diverse food-getting strategies employed by dolphin and ape societies are an excellent gauge of their social complexity as well as an example of how brain complexity, social complexity, and ecological complexity are all linked.
What Are Big Brains For? Or, How Culture Stole Our Guts, Joseph Heinrich, from The Secret of Our Success, Princeton University Press, 2015The key to the success of the human species lies not in our raw innate intelligence or in any specialized mental abilities, but rather in the fact that we are a cultural species, relying on accumulated wisdom--a know-how that arose incrementally over millions of years of mental, psychological and biological evolution.
Unit 6: Human Diversity
Skin Deep, Nina G. Jablonski and George Chaplin, Scientific American, 2002Although recent migrations and cultural adaptation tend to complicate the picture, human skin color has evolved to be dark enough to prevent sunlight from destroying the nutrient folate, but light enough to foster the production of vitamin D.
How Real Is Race? Using Anthropology to Make Sense of Human Diversity, Carol Mukhopadhyay and Rosemary C. Henze, Phi Delta Kappan, 2003The authors claim that race is not a scientifically valid biological category. Instead, looking at it as a historically specific way of thinking about categorizing and treating human beings, race can be seen as a cultural invention.
Still Evolving (After All These Years), John Hawks, Scientific American, 2014Many people argue that our technological advancement -- our ability to defy and control nature -- has made humans exempt from natural selection and that human evolution has effectively ceased.  However, human populations are continuing to evolve today. Unlike the distant past, where we must infer the action of selection from its long-term effects on genes, today scientists can watch human evolution in action, often by studying trends in health and reproduction.
Unit 7: Living with the Past
The Perfect Plague, Jared Diamond and Nathan Wolfe, Discover, 2008Globalization, changing climate, and the threat of drug resistance have conspired to set the stage for that perfect microbial storm; a situation in which an emerging pathogen—another HIV or smallpox perhaps—might burst on the scene and kill millions of people before we can respond.
The Inuit Paradox, Patricia Gadsby, Discover, 2004The traditional diet of the Far North, with its high-protein, high-fat content, and shows that there are no essential foods—only essential nutrients.
The Food Addiction, Paul J. Kenny, Scientific American, 2013During millions of years of evolution, the major concern of humans was not suppressing appetite, but gets getting enough food to persist in lean times. Perhaps, says the author, our feeding circuits are better at motivating food intake when we are hungry than they are in suppressing food intake when we are full—and therein lies the problem: the brain regards the overeating of high-calorie food as tremendously beneficial.
The Evolution of Diet, Ann Gibbons, National Geographic, 2014The transition from the Paleolithic
way of life, in which our ancestors hunted for meat and gathered vegetables, to one with agriculture and processed foods, has had a lasting impact on human health.  Questions arise, however, as to the degree to which humans have adapted to the changing circumstances or are simply going to suffer the consequences of abandoning the “paleo-diet.”
The Exercise Paradox, Herman Pontzer, Scientific American, 2017Although conventional wisdom has long held that physically active people burn more calories than less active people do, studies of hunter-gatherers show that this is simply not the case.  Conclusions: obesity is “a disease of gluttony,” and “you can’t outrun a bad diet.”
How PTSD Became a Problem Far Beyond the Battlefield, Sebastian Junger, Vanity Fair, 2015Although only 10 percent of American forces see combat, the U.S. military now has the highest rate of post-traumatic stress disorder in its history.  Taking an evolutionary perspective helps to understand the resulting trauma not only in terms of the combat experience, but also—and especially—in light of the problems involved in adjusting to society at home.
Morality Tale, Nicolas Baumard, New Scientist, 2016Moralizing religions such as Christianity arise in times of great stress, when resources are scarce and mortality is high and people tend to be impulsive and aggressive. The privileged elites will use religion to exhort the disadvantaged to be good.  In good times, the opposite happens as the need to morally condemn “bad” behavior declines.
The Permanent, Unmistakable Mark Human Beings Have Left on Planet Earth, Jan Zalasiewicz, Scientific American, 2016Some scientists claim that the earth has entered a new geologic period, one dominated by the imprint of human activity.  To make their case for the Anthropocene Epoch, they must show that human impacts will leave a clear mark, fossilized strata that could be easily recognized tens or hundreds of millions of years from now by some geologist in the future.  To a geologist, geologic strata equal geologic time.