February 7, 2023 Anthropology 153 – Lecture outline

February 7, 2023 Anthropology 153 – Lecture outline February 7, 2023 Anthropology 153 – Lecture outline

1) Concerning the test, a) put the word “discuss” in front of each question ; b) ask yourself as you answer the questions, “ why is the professor asking this question ? ‘

2) Write out three questions you have about the last class and reading . (15 minutes)

3) Answering questions from last class from LaCresta Burrell

LB: Can you explain the phylogenetic tree of life ?

Chapter 6 of text , especially pages 114 through 119; particularly “phylogeny” is defined on page 118. The discussion there is in terms of taxonomy :

Phylogeny is TAXONOMY + EVOLUTION .

Mammal, primate, hominin (from the test) australopethicine , are taxonomic/phylogenetic / Tree of Life classifications.

Genus Homo, Homo habilis, Homo Erectus, Homo Neanderthal, Homo sapiens are taxonomic/phylogenetic classifications in Chapter 14.

The logic of the Tree of Life: Increasing numbers of species included in the classifications as we go down on the Tree:

All of the Genus Homo species are Hominins, but not all Hominin species are Genus Homo species. There are more Hominin species than Genus Homo species. Genus Australopithecine species and Genus Homo species are included in the classification Hominin. Only Genus Homo species are included in the Genus Homo. The Hominin classification is further down on the Tree than the Genus Homo classification.

All hominins are primates, but not all primates are hominins. There are more primate species than hominin species, and the primate classification is further down on the Tree of Life than the hominin classification.

All primates are mammals, but not all mammals are primates. There are more mammal species than primate species ; and the mammal classification is lower on the Tree of Life than the primate classification.

4) LB wrote : “Australopethicus africanus – fossil of a South African ape : a HOMININ (Professor: On the test, _Discuss_ ( no short answers) what is a HOMININ ?

LaCresta Burrell: Australopethicus is a missing link, chimplike brain , but walked BIPEDALLY.

Professor: a Hominin is ,in part, a naturally, habitually, bi-pedal primate. What do I mean by a naturally ? habitually ? bi-pedal ? What is a primate ?

5) “Links in a chain” metaphor is meant to portray an evolutionary line from species that was the common ancestor of chimps and early hominins; from early hominins to late hominins or Genus Homo species. The links are better portrayed graphically as follows:

6) Read summary of first section of chapter 13 – page 307 First paragraph: importance of African location of missing link fossils as Darwin predicted

The world of the last 500 years has been under the ideology of race based on skin color; more specifically an ideology of white skin supremacy and dark skin color inferiority ( I will discuss skin color variation more fully in the Chapter 17 on physical variation in the human species). For now, I am making the point that the Missing Link fossils and Early Human fossils being found exclusively in Africa basically contradicts the false ideology that light skinned humans are inherently superior to dark skinned humans. Therefore, it was important that Darwin, Raymond Dart , Robert Broom and the other anthropologists who discovered all the early fossils were White men. If it had been Black people discovering the fossils, they would not have been believed in major parts of white society. Evidence that parts of European society considered that the Missing Link species should have been found in Europe is the Piltdown FRAUD on page 250 of the text.

7) 30 minutes work on tests.