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fandomhigh2006-03-20 06:00 pm
the-ascended.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh2006-03-20 06:00 pm
Entry tags:
Anthropology, 6th Period
Daniel's office is, well, let's face it, a mess. He's pouring over some document or something at his desk, whilst waiting for his two students to turn up.
"T.S. Eliot wrote "Culture may even be described simply as that which makes life worth living." Daniel began. "Why do you think he said that? Human culture is the discussion topic of the day. Shall we try and define it first?"
"Your midterm essays are also due today, so just..." Daniel frowned slightly as he looked down at his desk. "Hand them to me, I think, would be best!"
"T.S. Eliot wrote "Culture may even be described simply as that which makes life worth living." Daniel began. "Why do you think he said that? Human culture is the discussion topic of the day. Shall we try and define it first?"
"Your midterm essays are also due today, so just..." Daniel frowned slightly as he looked down at his desk. "Hand them to me, I think, would be best!"
Class time
Re: Class time
Re: Class time
Essays/After class time
Re: Essays/After class time
In the course of human evolution, there have been many selective pressures that have driven adaptation and fixation of alleles for certain characteristics in the human population as a whole as well as subpopulations.
From the earliest point, the ability to walk upright differentiates humans from all other groups of living primates today, a function of unique hip and knee joints. This trait has been attibuted also to the famous Lucy, a representative of Australopithecus afarensis, a protohuman species which lived some 3 million years ago and is believed to be the common ancestor of all hominids today (Evolution (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/humans/riddle/move.html) 2001 (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/humans/riddle/when.html)). Although Lucy's long arm bones indicate that she probably spent some time in trees and was a good climber, the ability to walk fully upright - a conclusion supported by the Laetoli footprints - indicates adaptation to greater overland mobility and stability, most likely as a response to selective pressure from predation or foraging for food. This has continued to evolve into the obligate bipedalism seen in Homo sapiens today (Hominid 2004 (http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/species.html#moderns)).
Homo habilis is an ancestral group dated to have lived around 1.5 - 2 million years ago, and is the first primate from the genus Homo. It was named "handy man," because it of the tools that were found with the fossil remains and in addition, the cranial capacity indicates a sufficiently large and complex brain to have permitted this species to speak, two traits never seen in earlier fossils (Fossils 1998 (http://www.onelife.com/evolve/manev.html#C)). Although other primates and other non-primate vertebrates are known to use items in their environment as tools, the stone axe and the ability to create and use fire marked H. habilis as distinctly more advanced and complex than these other species (Fossils 1998 (http://www.onelife.com/evolve/manev.html#D)). These traits show that not only were protohumans becoming more advanced in their ability to manipulate their environment, but they had also developed a means of articulating their ideas, techniques, and methods to one another.
After the dominance of H. sapiens over all other hominids around 300,000 years ago, differences within the species established divisions of subpopulations now referred to as "races." Skin color, controlled by melanin produced by cells called melanocytes has been indicated to play a significant role in protection from UV radiation, a factor which varies based on latitude and which can cause deterioration of nutrients within cells, cancer, and cell death. Production of melanin in response to UV radiation protects sweat glands from UV damage as well, contributing to successful thermoregulation (Jablonski and Chaplin 1999 (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/www.bgsu.edu/departments/chem/faculty/leontis/chem447/PDF_files/Jablonski_skin_color_2000.pdf)).
Re: Essays/After class time
The mun is braindead and can't get her stupid copy and paste function to work and everytime she hits alt + tab the computer shuts off. So sorry I didn't write it out!