question about anthropology 1
Choose two persons of below and reply/give them some comments. Each comment needs 150 words.
Person 1:
Physical anthropologists assess biology’s interaction with culture. Based on this definition, physical anthropologists are best suited solving human health issues caused directly or indirectly by some aspect of their culture. One contemporary health issue that initially comes to my mind when thinking about the scope of physical anthropology is the phenomenon where big tobacco companies target their sales in lower income residential areas. This issue fits perfectly under the umbrella of physical anthropology because tobacco’s negative health consequences have been well-documented, and the fact that a specific demographic is under extraordinary pressure to use it applies it to the cultural aspect of physical anthropology.
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Order Paper NowPhysical anthropologists possess the unique skillset necessary to link the aforementioned negative health consequences to lower income residential areas. It would be within the scope of any biologist to identify the negative effects that the use of tobacco products can pose on human health, and these consequences have been well-documented. This is certainly an important piece of the puzzle, but physical anthropologists possess the unique skillset to draw connections between income level, geographic location, etc. and the increased frequency of the negative health consequences that come from the use of tobacco products.
Physical anthropologists are the best-equipped scientists to present compelling evidence that big tobacco companies target lower income individuals to use their products and that this inhibits their ability to achieve an elevated economic status. Compiling the necessary evidence would just be the start of enacting legislation to ban the targeting of specific individuals with unhealthy products such as tobacco.
Person 2:
In a Cognitive Neuroscience course I was in last semester we talked quite a few times about different parts of the human brain developing over time and how this helped our evolution as a species. From that class, I learned that the frontal lobe was the most recently developed part of the brain in charge of fine cognitive control and that the brain stem is the oldest part of the brain controlling things like blood circulation, sleep patterns, and breathing.
The question I think physical anthropologists would be suited to answer surrounding this subject is when and why did different brain regions develop? More specifically, what was going on in our early ancestor’s environment that caused these changes and how did they help us survive? For example, once our species was able to walk on two legs it was probably very difficult at first, the early development of the cerebellum is partially involved in maintaining balance and coordination and helped correct this. From this development, we most likely got better at running especially from predators.
I feel like anthropologists would be best suited to answer this question because they focus on the evolution of species over time and know exactly what changes happened when and for what reason. Even without knowledge of what a brain region does I think they would be able to figure it out just based on what they know about how the human body was changing at different points as we evolved. The changes are also gradual over time, it’s not like they would be obvious to anyone, especially when looking at a brain. To an anthropologist who has studied a wider range of the physical differences between species over a variety of periods, these differences may be more obvious because they would know what to look for and have rough idea of what these developments meant for our species rather than simply what their function is.
Person 3:
With the rapid development of the modern society, technologies, scientific knowledge, humanities all grow with human continuously study beyond the border. Physical anthropologist studied human evolution and related it to many traits and topics in other fields such as cultural development, psychology, sociology, etc. There are many different race, gender, ethics beliefs existed in the world and each of them has a profound and meaning history for anthropologists to retrospect. I once read a articles about how anthropology`s skepticism towards established knowledge changed people`s perception over social norms.
In the 1960s, many Africa American children rarely drink milk, and people believed it was because they could not afford for the price. However, anthropologists provided another theory. There were a lots of people in specific place seldom drink raw milk even tough they depended on animal husbandry for a living. They only consume dairy products after the raw milk was further processed. The reason behind this phenomenon was because they did not have lactase in their digest system and raw milk would negatively influence their health.
Anthropologists could provided different theories from various and more scientific perspective for interpreting phenomenon, and their professional knowledge would help people to realize the reality without prejudice and stereotype. I believe they could answer to more questions related to cultural and social aspects.
Person 4:
Physical anthropologists are interested in the study of human biology in the framework of evolution. The subfields of physical anthropology include: human biology, primatology, forensic, paleoanthropology, skeletal biology, paleopathology, and molecular anthropology. Based upon this definition and the wide range of subfields within physical anthropology, physical anthropologists are best suited to solve problems dealing with the evolution and variation amongst human beings and their ancestors. To solve issues concerning this matter physical anthropologists study past populations and nonhuman primates.
Physical anthropologists have the ability to answer questions concerning: who are we as a species? When and how did a species evolve? What unique characteristics do the species who survived a dramatic change possess than those who did not survive? Physical anthropologists are uniquely qualified to answer these questions, because they specialize in the study of human evolution and human biological diversity both in the past and present. They also study nonhuman primates. Today physical anthropologists could use their unique qualifications to discover what caused the neanderthals extinction.
The neanderthals are the closest extinct relative to the modern human. Recent studies have proven that the neanderthals even interbred with ancestors of the modern humans. It has long been unknown why the neanderthals went extinct. To help solve the mystery of their extinction, physical anthropologists have analyzed charcoal, bone, and shell materials from multiple archaeological sites spanning from Russia to Spain. From these sites it has been discovered that the neanderthals interacted with modern human ancestors for 3,000 to 5,000 years. Thus raising the question of whether humans killed off the neanderthals or were the neanderthals assimilated into modern human populations? There is also the large possibility that the neanderthals became extinct because of natural cause.
Person 5:
For physical anthropologists, in particular, for primatologists and human biologists, they are suited to solve the following problems:
What are the mechanisms by which primates recognize other individuals and remember them without seeing them for long periods of time?
The primates are one of the few larger groups of vertebrates that were lucky not to lose any species over the last century. How can we ensure that we do not lose any primate taxa over the next century either?
What distinguishes species that are adaptable to disturbance from those that are not?
How much variation is required to maintain a self-sustaining population of nonhuman primates?
Those questions are the further researches regarding the primates (both human and nonhuman primates). The physical anthropologists are interested in human biology in the framework of evolution. The study of human biology would affect the study of nonhuman primates. The evolution process of human biology might be helpful to understand the paths for other nonhuman primates. Also, how human’s encroachment influences the evolution of nonhuman primates is a study of evolution. Therefore, those problems are uniquely qualified for physical anthropologists.
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