Biological anthropology

Branch of anthropology that studies the physical development of the human species

* Primate skulls. From left to right: Human
* Chimpanzee
* Orangutan
* Macaque

Part of a series on
Anthropology

* Outline
* History

Types

* Archaeological
* Biological
* Cultural
* Linguistic
* Social

Archaeological

* Aerial
* Aviation
* Battlefield
* Biblical
* Bioarchaeological
* Environmental
* Ethnoarchaeological
* Experimental
* Feminist
* Forensic
* Maritime
* Paleoethnobotanical
* Zooarchaeological

Biological

* Anthrozoological
* Biocultural
* Evolutionary
* Forensic
* Molecular
* Neurological
* Nutritional
* Paleoanthropological
* Primatological

* Social
* Cultural

* Applied
* Art
* Cognitive
* Cyborg
* Development
* Digital
* Ecological
* Environmental
* Economic
* Political economy
* Feminist
* Food
* Historical
* Institutional
* Kinship
* Legal
* Media
* Medical
* Museums
* Musical
* Political
* Psychological
* Public
* Religion
* Symbolic
* Transpersonal
* Urban
* Visual

Linguistic

* Anthropological
* Descriptive
* Ethnological
* Ethnopoetical
* Historical
* Ideology
* Semiotic
* Sociological

Research framework

* Anthropometry
* Ethnography
* cyber
* Ethnology
* Cross-cultural comparison
* Participant observation
* Holism
* Reflexivity
* Thick description
* Cultural relativism
* Ethnocentrism
* Emic and etic

Key concepts

* Culture
* Development
* Ethnicity
* Evolution
* sociocultural
* Gender
* Kinship and descent
* Meme
* Prehistory
* Race
* Society
* Value
* Colonialism / Postcolonialism

Key theories

* Actor–network theory
* Alliance theory
* Boasian anthropology
* Cross-cultural studies
* Cultural materialism
* Culture theory
* Diffusionism
* Feminism
* Functionalism
* Historical particularism
* Interpretive
* Performance studies
* Political economy
* Practice theory
* Structuralism
* Post-structuralism
* Systems theory

Lists

* Anthropologists by nationality
* Anthropology by year
* Bibliography
* Journals
* List of indigenous peoples
* Organizations

* v
* t
* e

Biological anthropology, also known as physical anthropology, is a natural science discipline concerned with the biological and behavioral aspects of human beings, their extinct hominin ancestors, and related non-human primates, particularly from an evolutionary perspective.[1] This subfield of anthropology systematically studies human beings from a biological perspective.

## Branches

[edit]

As a subfield of anthropology, biological anthropology itself is further divided into several branches. All branches are united in their common orientation and/or application of evolutionary theory to understanding human biology and behavior.

* Bioarchaeology is the study of past human cultures through examination of human remains recovered in an archaeological context. The examined human remains usually are limited to bones but may include preserved soft tissue. Researchers in bioarchaeology combine the skill sets of human osteology, paleopathology, and archaeology, and often consider the cultural and mortuary context of the remains.
* Evolutionary biology is the study of the evolutionary processes that produced the diversity of life on Earth, starting from a single common ancestor. These processes include natural selection, common descent, and speciation.
* Evolutionary psychology is the study of psychological structures from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify which human psychological traits are evolved adaptations – that is, the functional products of natural selection or sexual selection in human evolution.
* Forensic anthropology is the application of the science of physical anthropology and human osteology in a legal setting, most often in criminal cases where the victim's remains are in the advanced stages of decomposition.
* Human behavioral ecology is the study of behavioral adaptations (foraging, reproduction, ontogeny) from the evolutionary and ecologic perspectives (see behavioral ecology). It focuses on human adaptive responses (physiological, developmental, genetic) to environmental stresses.
* Human biology is an interdisciplinary field of biology, biological anthropology, nutrition and medicine, which concerns international, population-level perspectives on health, evolution, anatomy, physiology, molecular biology, neuroscience, and genetics.
* Paleoanthropology is the study of fossil evidence for human evolution, mainly using remains from extinct hominin and other primate species to determine the morphological and behavioral changes in the human lineage, as well as the environment in which human evolution occurred.
* Paleopathology is the study of disease in antiquity. This study focuses not only on pathogenic conditions observable in bones or mummified soft tissue, but also on nutritional disorders, variation in stature or morphology of bones over time, evidence of physical trauma, or evidence of occupationally derived biomechanic stress.
* Primatology is the study of non-human primate behavior, morphology, and genetics. Primatologists use phylogenetic methods to infer which traits humans share with other primates and which are human-specific adaptations.

## History

[edit]

### Origins

[edit]

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Franz Boas

Biological anthropology looks different today from the way it did even twenty years ago. Even the name is relatively new, having been known as 'physical anthropology' for over a century, with some practitioners still applying that term.[2] Biological anthropologists look back to the work of Charles Darwin as a major foundation for what they do today. However, if one traces the intellectual genealogy back to physical anthropology's beginnings—before the discovery of much of what we now know as the hominin fossil record—then the focus shifts to human biological variation. Some editors, see below, have rooted the field even deeper than formal science.

Attempts to study and classify human beings as living organisms date back to Ancient Greece. The Greek philosopher Plato (c. 428–c. 347 BC) placed humans on the scala naturae, which included all things, from inanimate objects at the bottom to deities at the top.[3] This became the main system through which scholars thought about nature for the next roughly 2,000 years.[3] Plato's student Aristotle (c. 384–322 BC) observed in his History of Animals that human beings are the only animals to walk upright[3] and argued, in line with his teleological view of nature, that humans have buttocks and no tails in order to give them a soft place to sit when they are tired of standing.[3] He explained regional variations in human features as the result of different climates.[3] He also wrote about physiognomy, an idea derived from writings in the Hippocratic Corpus.[3] Scientific physical anthropology began in the 17th to 18th centuries with the study of racial classification (Georgius Hornius, François Bernier, Carl Linnaeus, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach).[4]

The first prominent physical anthropologist, the German physician Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752–1840) of Göttingen, amassed a large collection of human skulls (Decas craniorum, published during 1790–1828), from which he argued for the division of humankind into five major races (termed Caucasian, Mongolian, Aethiopian, Malayan and American), now recognised as outdated and obsolete.[5] In the 19th century, French physical anthropologists, led by Paul Broca (1824–1880), focused on craniometry[6] while the German tradition, led by Rudolf Virchow (1821–1902), emphasized the influence of environment and disease upon the human body.[7]

In the 1830s and 40s, physical anthropology was prominent in the debate about slavery, with the scientific, monogenist works of the British abolitionist James Cowles Prichard (1786–1848) opposing[8] those of the American polygenist Samuel George Morton (1799–1851).[9]

In the late 19th century, German-American anthropologist Franz Boas (1858–1942) strongly impacted biological anthropology by emphasizing the influence of culture and experience on the human form. His research showed that head shape was malleable to environmental and nutritional factors rather than a stable "racial" trait.[10] However, scientific racism still persisted in biological anthropology, with prominent figures such as Earnest Hooton and Aleš Hrdlička promoting theories of racial superiority[11] and a European origin of modern humans.[12]

### "New physical anthropology"

[edit]

In 1951, Sherwood Washburn, a former student of Hooton, introduced a "new physical anthropology."[13] He shifted the focus from racial typology to concentrate upon the study of human evolution, moving away from classification towards evolutionary process. Anthropology expanded to include paleoanthropology and primatology.[14] The 20th century also saw the modern synthesis in biology: the reconciling of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and Gregor Mendel's research on heredity. Advances in the understanding of the molecular structure of DNA and the development of chronological dating methods opened doors to understanding human variation, both past and present, more accurately and in much greater detail.

## Notable biological anthropologists

[edit]

* Zeresenay Alemseged
* John Lawrence Angel
* George J. Armelagos
* William M. Bass
* Caroline Bond Day
* Jane E. Buikstra
* William Montague Cobb
* Carleton S. Coon
* Robert Corruccini
* Raymond Dart
* Robin Dunbar
* Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt
* Linda Fedigan
* A. Roberto Frisancho
* Robert Foley
* Jane Goodall
* Joseph Henrich
* Earnest Hooton
* Aleš Hrdlička
* Sarah Blaffer Hrdy
* Anténor Firmin
* Dian Fossey
* Birute Galdikas
* Richard Lynch Garner
* Colin Groves
* Yohannes Haile-Selassie
* Ralph Holloway
* William W. Howells
* Donald Johanson
* Robert Jurmain
* Melvin Konner
* Louis Leakey
* Mary Leakey
* Richard Leakey
* Frank B. Livingstone
* Owen Lovejoy
* Ruth Mace
* Jonathan M. Marks
* Robert D. Martin
* Russell Mittermeier
* Desmond Morris
* Douglas W. Owsley
* David Pilbeam
* Kathy Reichs
* Alice Roberts
* Pardis Sabeti
* Robert Sapolsky
* Eugenie C. Scott
* Meredith Small
* Chris Stringer
* Phillip V. Tobias
* Douglas H. Ubelaker
* Frans de Waal
* Sherwood Washburn
* David Watts
* Tim White
* Milford H. Wolpoff
* Richard Wrangham
* Teuku Jacob
* Biraja Sankar Guha

## See also

[edit]

* Anthropometry – Measurement of the human individual
* Biocultural anthropology – Scientific exploration of the relationships between human biology and culture
* Ethology – Scientific objective study of non-human animal behaviour
* Evolutionary anthropology – Interdisciplinary study
* Evolutionary biology – Study of the evolution of life
* Evolutionary psychology – Branch of psychology
* Human evolution – Evolutionary process leading to anatomically modern humans
* Paleontology – Study of past life through fossils
* Primatology – Scientific study of primates
* Race (human categorization) – Grouping by physical or social qualities
* Sociobiology – Subdiscipline of biology regarding social behavior

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Jurmain, R, et al (2015), Introduction to Physical Anthropology, Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.
2. ^ Ellison, Peter T. (2018). "The evolution of physical anthropology". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 165.4: 615–625. 2018.
3. ^ a b c d e f Spencer, Frank (1997). "Aristotle (384–322 BC)". In Spencer, Frank (ed.). History of Physical Anthropology. Vol. 1\. New York City, New York and London, England: Garland Publishing. pp. 107–108\. ISBN 978-0-8153-0490-6.
4. ^ Marks, J. (1995) Human Biodiversity: Genes, Race, and History. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
5. ^ "The Blumenbach Skull Collection at the Centre of Anatomy, University Medical Centre Göttingen". University of Goettingen. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
6. ^ "Memoir of Paul Broca". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 10: 242–261. 1881. JSTOR 2841526.
7. ^ "Rudolf Carl Virchow facts, information, pictures". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
8. ^ Gail E. Husch (2000). Something Coming: Apocalyptic Expectation and Mid-nineteenth-century American painting – by Gail E. Husch – ...the same inward and mental nature is to be recognized in all the races of men. ISBN 9781584650065. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
9. ^ "Exploring U.S. History The Debate Over Slavery, Excerpts from Samuel George Morton, Crania Americana". RRCHNM. Archived from the original on December 11, 2016. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
10. ^ Moore, Jerry D. (2009). "Franz Boas: Culture in Context". Visions of Culture: an Introduction to Anthropological Theories and Theorists. Walnut Creek, California: Altamira. pp. 33–46.
11. ^ American Anthropological Association. "Eugenics and Physical Anthropology." 2007. August 7, 2007.
12. ^ Lewin, Roger (1997). Bones of contention : controversies in the search for human origins (2nd ed., with a new afterword ed.). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. p. 89\. ISBN 0-226-47651-0. OCLC 36181117.
13. ^ Washburn, S. L. (1951) "The New Physical Anthropology", Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences, Series II, 13:298–304.
14. ^ Haraway, D. (1988) "Remodelling the Human Way of Life: Sherwood Washburn and the New Physical Anthropology, 1950–1980", in Bones, Bodies, Behavior: Essays on Biological Anthropology, of the History of Anthropology, v.5, G. Stocking, ed., Madison, Wisc., University of Wisconsin Press, pp. 205–259.

## Further reading

[edit]

Main article: List of important publications in anthropology

* Michael A. Little and Kenneth A.R. Kennedy, eds. Histories of American Physical Anthropology in the Twentieth Century, (Lexington Books; 2010); 259 pages; essays on the field from the late 19th to the late 20th century; topics include Sherwood L. Washburn (1911–2000) and the "new physical anthropology"
* Brown, Ryan A and Armelagos, George, "Apportionment of Racial Diversity: A Review", Evolutionary Anthropology 10:34–40 2001
* Modern Human Variation: Models of Classification
* Redman, Samuel J. Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2016.

## External links

[edit]

Look up phylogeny in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Biological anthropology.

* American Association of Biological Anthropologists [1]
* British Association of Biological Anthropologists and Osteoarchaeologists
* Human Biology Association
* Canadian Association for Physical Anthropology
* Homo erectus and Homo neanderthalensis reconstructions – Electronic articles published by the Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural History.
* Istituto Italiano di Antropologia Archived 2008-10-16 at the Wayback Machine
* Journal of Anthropological Sciences – free full text review articles available
* Mapping Transdisciplinarity in Anthropology pdf
* Fundamental Theory of Human Sciences ppt
* American Journal of Human Biology
* Human Biology, The International Journal of Population Genetics and Anthropology Archived 2011-02-04 at the Wayback Machine
* Economics and Human Biology
* Laboratory for Human Biology Research at Northwestern University Archived 2015-08-28 at the Wayback Machine
* The Program in Human Biology at Stanford
* Academic Genealogical Tree of Physical Anthropologists

* v
* t
* e

Branches of biology

* Abiogenesis
* Aerobiology
* Agronomy
* Agrostology
* Anatomy
* Astrobiology
* Bacteriology
* Biochemistry
* Biogeography
* Biogeology
* Bioinformatics
* Biological engineering
* Biomechanics
* Biophysics
* Biosemiotics
* Biostatistics
* Biotechnology
* Botany
* Cell biology
* Cellular microbiology
* Chemical biology
* Chronobiology
* Cognitive biology
* Computational biology
* Conservation biology
* Cryobiology
* Cytogenetics
* Dendrology
* Developmental biology
* Ecological genetics
* Ecology
* Embryology
* Epidemiology
* Epigenetics
* Evolutionary biology
* Freshwater biology
* Generative biology
* Genetics
* Genomics
* Geobiology
* Gerontology
* Herpetology
* Histology
* Human biology
* Ichthyology
* Immunology
* Lipidology
* Mammalogy
* Marine biology
* Mathematical biology
* Microbiology
* Molecular biology
* Mycology
* Neontology
* Neuroscience
* Nutrition
* Ornithology
* Osteology
* Paleontology
* Parasitology
* Pathology
* Pharmacology
* Photobiology
* Phycology
* Phylogenetics
* Physiology
* Pomology
* Primatology
* Proteomics
* Protistology
* Quantum biology
* Relational biology
* Reproductive biology
* Sociobiology
* Structural biology
* Synthetic biology
* Systematics
* Systems biology
* Taxonomy
* Teratology
* Toxicology
* Virology
* Virophysics
* Welfare biology
* Xenobiology
* Zoology

See also|

* History of biology
* Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
* Timeline of biology and organic chemistry

* v
* t
* e

Evolutionary psychology

* History
* Evolutionary thought
* Theoretical foundations
* Adaptationism
* Cognitive revolution
* Cognitivism
* Gene selection theory
* Modern synthesis
* Criticism

Evolutionary
processes|

* Adaptations
* Altruism
* Cheating
* Hamiltonian spite
* Reciprocal
* Baldwin effect
* By-products
* Evolutionarily stable strategy
* Exaptation
* Fitness
* Inclusive
* Kin selection
* Inbreeding avoidance
* Kin recognition
* Parental investment
* Parent–offspring conflict
* Mismatch
* Natural selection
* Sexual selection
* Costly signaling
* Male/female intrasexual competition
* Mate choice
* Sexual dimorphism
* Social selection
* Species-typical behavior

Areas|

| Cognition /
Emotion|

* Affect
* Display
* Display rules
* Facial expression
* Behavioral modernity
* Cognitive module/modularity of mind
* Adaptive unconscious/Unconscious cognition
* Automatic and controlled processes
* Cognitive specialization
* Computational theory of mind
* Domain generality
* Domain specificity/learning
* Dual process theory
* Cognitive tradeoff hypothesis
* Evolution of the brain
* Evolution of nervous systems
* Fight-or-flight response
* Arachnophobia
* Basophobia
* Ophidiophobia
* Folk biology/taxonomy
* Folk psychology/theory of mind
* Intelligence
* Flynn effect
* Wason selection task
* Motor control/skill
* Multitasking
* Numerical cognition
* Number sense
* Approximate number system
* Parallel individuation system
* Sleep
* Visual perception
* Color vision
* Eye
* Naïve physics

|

Culture|

* Aesthetics
* Literary criticism
* Musicology
* Anthropology
* Biological
* Crime
* Language
* Origin
* Psychology
* Speech
* Morality
* Moral foundations
* Religion
* Origin
* Universals

Development|

* Attachment
* Bonding
* Affectional/maternal/paternal bond
* Caregiver deprivation
* Childhood attachment
* Cinderella effect
* Cognitive development
* Education
* Language acquisition
* Personality development
* Socialization

Human factors /
Mental health|

* Cognitive ergonomics
* Computer-mediated communication
* Engineering psychology
* Human–computer interaction
* Media naturalness theory
* Neuroergonomics
* Depression
* Digital media use and mental health
* Hypophobia
* Imprinted brain hypothesis
* Mind-blindness
* Psychological effects of Internet use
* Rank theory of depression
* Schizophrenia
* Screen time
* Smartphones and pedestrian safety
* Social aspects of television
* Societal effects of cars
* Distracted driving
* Lead–crime hypothesis
* Mobile phones and driving safety
* Texting while driving

Sex|

* Activity
* Adult attachment
* Age disparity
* Arousal
* Concealed ovulation
* Coolidge effect
* Desire
* Fantasy
* Hormonal motivation
* Incest taboo
* Westermarck effect
* Jealousy
* Mate guarding
* Mating preferences
* Mating strategies
* Orientation
* Ovulatory shift hypothesis
* Pair bond
* Physical/Sexual attraction
* Sexuality/male/female
* Sexy son hypothesis

Sex differences|

* Aggression
* Autism
* Cognition
* Crime
* Division of labour
* Emotional intelligence
* Empathising–systemising theory
* Gender role
* Intelligence
* Memory
* Mental health
* Narcissism
* Neuroscience
* Schizophrenia
* Substance abuse
* Suicide
* Variability hypothesis

Related subjects|

| Academic disciplines|

* Behavioral/evolutionary economics
* Behavioral epigenetics/genetics
* Affective/behavioral/cognitive/evolutionary neuroscience
* Biocultural anthropology
* Biolinguistics
* Biological psychiatry
* Cognitive psychology
* Cognitive science
* Cross-cultural psychology
* Ethology
* Evolutionary biology
* Evolutionary medicine
* Functional psychology
* Neuropsychology
* Philosophy of mind
* Population genetics
* Primatology
* Sociobiology

|

Research topics|

* Cultural evolution
* Evolutionary epistemology
* Great ape language
* Human–animal communication
* Missing heritability problem
* Number sense in animals
* Primate cognition
* Unit of selection
* Coevolution
* Cultural group selection
* Dual inheritance theory
* Fisher's principle
* Group selection
* Hologenome theory
* Lamarckism/acquired characteristics
* Population
* Punctuated equilibrium
* Recent human evolution
* Species
* Species complex
* Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance
* Trivers–Willard hypothesis

Theoretical positions|

* Cultural selection theory
* Determinism/indeterminism
* Biological determinism
* Connectionism
* Cultural determinism
* Environmental determinism
* Nature versus nurture
* Psychological nativism
* Social constructionism
* Social determinism
* Standard social science model
* Functionalism
* Memetics
* Multilineal evolution
* Neo-Darwinism
* Neoevolutionism
* Sociocultural evolution
* Unilineal evolution

* Evolutionary psychologists
*  Evolutionary psychology
*  Psychology portal
*  Evolutionary biology portal

* v
* t
* e

Social sciences

* Outline
* History
* Index

Primary|

* Anthropology
* archaeology
* cultural
* social
* physical
* Economics
* microeconomics
* macroeconomics
* econometrics
* mathematical
* Geography
* physical
* human
* technical
* integrated
* History
* cultural
* auxiliary sciences
* economic
* human
* military
* political
* social
* Law
* jurisprudence
* legal history
* legal systems
* public law
* private law
* Linguistics
* semiotics
* Political science
* international relations
* comparative
* philosophy
* public policy
* public administration
* Psychology
* abnormal
* cognitive
* developmental
* personality
* social
* Sociology
* criminology
* demography
* internet
* rural
* urban

Interdisciplinary|

* Administration
* business
* public
* Anthrozoology
* Area studies
* Business studies
* Cognitive science
* Communication studies
* Community studies
* Criminology
* Critical animal studies
* Cultural studies
* Development studies
* Education
* Environmental
* social science
* studies
* Food studies
* Gender studies
* Global studies
* Historical sociology
* History of technology
* Human ecology
* Information science
* International studies
* Linguistics
* Management
* Media studies
* Philosophies
* science
* economics
* history
* psychology
* social science
* Planning
* land use
* regional
* urban
* Political ecology
* Political economy
* Political sociology
* Public health
* Regional science
* Science and technology studies
* Science studies
* historical
* Quantum social science
* Social work
* Vegan studies

List|

* List of social science journals

Other categorizations|

* Behavioral sciences
* Geisteswissenschaft
* Human science
* Humanities

* Category
* Commons
* Society portal
* Wikiversity

Authority control databases

International|

* FAST

National|

* United States
* France
* BnF data
* Czech Republic
* 2
* Spain
* Israel

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template
*[c.]: circa