Synopses & Reviews
This Eighteenth Edition of ANNUAL EDITIONS: Physical Anthropology provides convenient, inexpensive access to current articles selected from the best of the public press. Organizational features include: an annotated listing of selected World Wide Web sites; an annotated table of contents; a topic guide; a general introduction; brief overviews for each section; and an online instructors resource guide with testing materials. USING ANNUAL EDITIONS IN THE CLASSROOM is offered as a practical guide for instructors.
Table of Contents
UNIT 1: Evolutionary Perspectives
Unit Overview
1. The Facts of Evolution, Michael Shermer, from Why Darwin Matters
Evolutionary 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, over the past century and a half.
2. Evolution in Action, Jonathan Weiner, Natural History, November 2005
More 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, which human beings are imposing on the planet.
3. How the Dog Got Its Curly Tail, David Sloan Wilson, from Evolution for Everyone, Delacorte Press, 2007
The fact that domestic animals have become tame by retaining their juvenile traits has revealed an important corollary to the concept that heritable variation is shaped by natural selection: not all traits are so purely and simply adaptive.
4. You Can Blame It on Mom, Lisa Seachrist Chiu, When a Gene Makes You Feel like a Fish, Oxford University Press, 2006
Only with hindsight have we discovered that some genes affect males more than females, some families more than others and elites more than commoners. Who could have known that a mutation for hemophilia would turn out to be history in the making?
5. 15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense, John Rennie, Scientific American, July 2002
Opponents of evolution are trying to tear down real science by setting forth a series of specious arguments. In reality, they intend to use intelligent design theory as a “wedge” in order to re-open science classrooms to the discussion of God. This article consists of a series of rebuttals to some of the most common “scientific” arguments raised against the idea of evolution.
6. Why Should Students Learn Evolution?, Brian J. Alters and Sandra M. Alters, Defending Evolution, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Inc., 2001
In explaining how organisms of today got to be the way they are, the evolutionary perspective helps us to make sense of the history of life and explains relationships among species. It is an essential framework within which scientists organize and interpret observations, and make predictions about the living world.
7. Designer Thinking, Mark S. Blumberg, from Basic Instinct, Thunders Mouth Press, 2005
When we are confronted with complexities and see no path to how those complexities came about, the appeal of the argument from design is immense. Yet, says the author, the complexity of life can be accounted for by the trial and error process of natural selection, which results in a pattern that appears to be designed.
UNIT 2: Primates
Unit Overview
8. The 2% Difference, Robert Sapolsky, Discover, April 2006
Now that scientists have decoded the chimpanzee genome, we know that we share 98% of our DNA with those of the 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.
9. The Mind of the Chimpanzee, Jane Goodall, Through a Window, Houghton Mifflin, 1990
It has long been recognized that the differences in anatomy and physiology between apes and humans is only a matter of degree. Because of the work of Jane Goodall, we have come to realize that there is continuity in the mental and emotional developments as well.
10. Got Culture?, Craig Stanford, from Significant Others, Basic Books, 2001
The 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.
11. Dim Forest, Bright Chimps, Christophe Boesch and Hedwige Boesch-Achermann, Natural History, September 1991
Contrary 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.
12. Thinking Like a Monkey, Jerry Adler, Smithsonian, January 2008
Sometimes, rather than simply observing primates, researchers try to decipher their thoughts and intentions by subjecting them to experimental trials. In this case, the issue has to do with whether rhesus monkeys have a theory of mind.
13. Why Are Some Animals So Smart?, Carel Van Schaik, Scientific American, April 2006
Observations of orangutans in the wild show that the more individuals have an opportunity to learn from one another, the more innovative and intelligent they become.
14. How Animals Do Business, Frans B. M. de Waal, Scientific American, April 2005
In contrast to classical economic theory, which views people as profit maximizers driven by pure selfishness, recent studies show that both people and animals occasionally help one another, even when there is no obvious benefit involved.
15. Are We in Anthropodenial?, Frans de Waal, Discover, July 1997
To endow animals with human emotions and mental qualities has long been a scientific taboo, but the more we learn about them, especially about our closer animal relatives, certain similarities do seem to exist.
16. A Telling Difference, Stephen R. Anderson, Natural History, November 2004
Some animals such as the bonobo named Kanzi have amazing communication skills, but evidence that they are capable of abstractions and grammatical structuring like humans is lacking.
UNIT 3: Sex and Society
Unit Overview
17. What Are Friends For?, Barbara Smuts, Natural History, February 1987
An understanding of friendship bonds that exist among baboons is not only destroying our stereotypes about monkeys in the wild, but is also calling into question the traditional views concerning the relationships between the sexes in early hominid evolution.
18. Whats Love Got to Do with It?, Meredith F. Small, Discover, June 1992
The bonobos use of sex to reduce tension and to form alliances is raising some interesting questions regarding human evolution. Does this behavior help to explain the origin of our sexuality? Or should we see it as just another primate aberration that occurred after the split from the human lineage?
19. Apes of Wrath, Barbara Smuts, Discover, August 1995
Whether or not males of a particular species beat up females seems to have a great deal to do with who is forming alliances with whom. This, in turn, has powerful implications as to what can to be done about sexual coercion in the human species.
20. Mothers and Others, Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, Natural History, May 2001
In many species, including our own, mothers are assisted in rearing their offspring by others. The more we adhere to this evolutionary heritage of “cooperative breeding,” the more likely we are to raise emotionally healthy children.
UNIT 4: The Fossil Evidence
Unit Overview
21. The Salamanders Tale, Richard Dawkins, from The Ancestors Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004
To identify two different species with distinct names implies a discontinuity between them. Yet, if they were part of an evolutionary sequence, one begetting the other, the continuous reality contradicts the discontinuity implied by the names. It is no wonder, therefore that Dawkins claims that “names are a menace to evolutionary history.”
22. Hunting the First Hominid, Pat Shipman, American Scientist, January/February 2002
In the search for the first hominid to branch off from the apes, taking note of the key features that distinguish apes from people helps to an extent. However, such a list can be misleading, since not all of these features arose simultaneously, and we do not even know which came first.
23. Made in Savannahstan, Marek Kohn, New Scientist, July 1–July 7, 2006
The prevailing view in Paleoanthropology has been that our ancestors evolved human-like traits in Africa before entering Europe and Asia. Recent evidence points to another possibilitythat early hominins expanded out of Africa at an earlier stage and then returned to the ancestral continent as Homo erectus.
24. Scavenger Hunt, Pat Shipman, Natural History, April 1984
Microscopic analyses of tooth wear and cut marks on bones, combined with an increased understanding of the advantages of bipedalism, point in the direction of a “Man the Scavenger” model rather than “Man the Hunter.”
25. The Scavenging of “Peking Man,” Noel T. Boaz and Russell L. Ciochon, Natural History, March 2001
Dragon Bone Hill in China is the site of the cave that yielded the first, and the still largest, cache of fossils of Homo erectus pekinensis. In the process of applying new methods of analysis to the evidence, the authors try to determine whether these relatives of ours used fire, and whether they were cannibals, hunters or the hunted.
26. Man the Hunted, Donna Hart and Robert W. Sussman, from Man the Hunted, Westview Press 2005
The authors present a convincing case that predation was an important factor in human evolution. The only twist in their theory is that our ancestors were more often the hunted than they were the hunters.
UNIT 5: Late Hominid Evolution
Unit Overview
27. Hard Times Among the Neanderthals, Erik Trinkaus, Natural History, December 1978
In spite of the coarseness of their life-style and the apparent violence between individuals, Neanderthal skeletal remains reveal a prehistoric record of affection and respect, and they should be accorded the status of human beings.
28. Rethinking Neanderthals, Joe Alper, Smithsonian, June 2003
Contrary to the widely held view that Neanderthals were evolutionary failures, the fact is that they persisted through some of the harshest climates imaginable. Over a period of 200,000 years, they had made some rather sophisticated tools and have had a social life that involved taking care of the wounded and burying the dead.
29. The Gift of Gab, Matt Cartmill, Discover, November 1998
While the origin of human language is rooted in the aspects of psychology and biology that we share with our close animal relatives, our kind of communication seems to be associated with making tools and throwing weapons.
30. Mysterious Migrations, Bruce Bower, Science News, March 24, 2007
The fact that our recent ancestors came out of Africa has not been disputed for about the past 75 years. The manner in which they displaced other forms of humanity and the roads they took, however, still engender considerable debate.
31. The Littlest Human, Kate Wong, Scientific American, February 2005
An astonishing find in Indonesia suggests that a diminutive hominid, perhaps down-sized from Homo erectus, co-existed with our kind in the not so distant past.
UNIT 6: Human Diversity
Unit Overview
32. Skin Deep, Nina G. Jablonski and George Chaplin, Scientific American, October 2002
Although 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.
33. Born Gay?, Michael Abrams, Discover, June 2007
The search for the causes of homosexuality may have therapeutic implications or even political ones, but most researchers are concentrating on the scientific issues: How might sexuality-related genes build brains? How are people attracted to each other? How and why might have homosexuality evolved?
34. How Real is Race?, Carol Mukhopadhyay and Rosemary C. Henze, Phi Delta Kappan, Volume 84, Issue 9, 2003
The 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.
35. Does Race Exist?, George W. Gill, Nova Online, October 12, 2000
Although the author understands why many physical anthropologists are able to ignore or deny the concept of race, George W. Gill claims that his experience in the area of forensic physical anthropology compels him to stand “clearly more on the side of the reality of race than on the ‘race denial side.”
36. The Tall and the Short of It, Barry Bogin, Discover, February 1998
Rather than being able to adapt to a single environment, we canthanks to our genetically endowed plasticity, change our bodies to cope with a wide variety of environments. In this light, research suggests that we can use the average height of any group of people as a barometer of the health of that particular society.
UNIT 7: Living with the Past
Unit Overview
37. The Viral Superhighway, George J. Armelagos, The Sciences, January/February 1998
The modern world is becoming a viral superhighway. Environmental disruptions and international travel have brought on a new era of human illness, one marked by new diabolical diseases.
38. The Inuit Paradox, Patricia Gadsby, Discover, October 2004
The traditional diet of the Far North, with its high-protein, high-fat content, shows that there are no essential foodsonly essential nutrients.
39. Dr. Darwin, Lori Oliwenstein, Discover, October 1995
The application of Darwins theory of evolution to the understanding of human diseases will not only help us better treat the symptoms of diseases, but also helps us understand how microbes and humans have evolved in relation to one another.
40. Curse and Blessing of the Ghetto, Jared Diamond, Discover, March 1991
Tay-Sachs disease is a choosy killer, one that targeted Eastern European Jews above all others for centuries. By decoding its lethal logic, we can learn a great deal about how genetic diseases evolveand how they can be conquered.
41. Ironing It Out, Sharon Moalem, Survival of the Sickest, HarperCollins, 2007
Hemochromatosis is a hereditary disease that disrupts the human bodys ability to metabolize iron. To understand why such a deadly disease would be bred into our genetic code, we need to take a closer look at European history, the bubonic plague and medical practices that were discredited.
42. Sick of Poverty, Robert Sapolsky, Scientific American, December 2005
For most organisms, the body is in homeostatic balance and the stressors that challenge that balance are immediate and temporary. For humans, however, the striking characteristic of psychological and social stress is its chronicity. The result is prolonged hypertension and the ailments that go with it.
43. Guerrillas in Their Midst, Paul Raffaele, Smithsonian, October 2007
Though surrounded by civil war and poaching, mountain gorillas have actually increased in number since the days of Dian Fossey. Yet, theat number is so small that even a sustained and determined effort to protect them is no guarantee of their survival.
44. Who Will Survive?, Julia Whitty, Mother Jones, May/June 2007
In the last one hundred years, the causes of wildlife extinction have amplified exponentially. With the current rate estimated to be ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 times greater than normal, there are about 2.7 to 270 species erased from existence every day.