Biological anthropology

About: Biological anthropology is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1126 publications have been published within this topic receiving 12757 citations. The topic is also known as: biological anthropology & somatology.

But Professor, Why Teach Race Identification if Races Don't Exist?

Abstract: Although the typological race concept is obsolete in present-day systematic biology and anthropology, the idea that human populations and individuals are classifiable into separate races (Blacks, Whites, Native Americans, etc.) persists in government census data and mass media sources as well as in the forensic sciences. Determination of ancestry is a critical component of the forensic anthropologist's methodology in identification of human remains. In training students in laboratory techniques of personal identification, the paradox of the scientific rejection of the race concept and its survival in medical-legal contexts needs to be addressed explicitly. Forensic anthropologists and their colleagues in other branches of biological anthropology are best able to determine the ancestral background of an individual when they are familiar with the geographical distributions and frequencies of phenotypic traits in modern populations. Their methodology does not necessitate a racial classification based upon nonconcordant characters in order to provide evidence for positive identification of individuals.

Body Size, Skeletal Biomechanics, Mobility and Habitual Activity from the Late Palaeolithic to the Mid-Dynastic Nile Valley

Abstract: 1 Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, Department of Biological Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 1QH, UK 2 Centre for Functional Anatomy and Evolution, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA 3 Department of Behavioural Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fort Smith 4 Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA 5 Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA

A companion to biological anthropology

Abstract: This book is a very useful, complete compendium of contemporary anthropology recognised as “holistic approach to understanding the human condition, both from cultural and from biological perspectives”. A Companion to Biological Anthropology edited by Clark Spencer Larsen and published in 2010 by Wiley-Blackwell is organized along the line that studying the present populations can inform our understanding of the past ones. The book consists of thirty one chapters which have been grouped in five parts presenting key aspects of biological anthropology from evolution, genetics, phylogeny and behaviour in humans and primates in general to the variation in health and lifestyle, forensic applications, population history and ancient DNA study, dietary reconstruction as well as biology and function of the skeleton and dentition both in past and living humans. The first chapter is devoted to the history of biological (physical) anthropology in the United States – anthropology as an exploration of human origins and human variation. The second and the third chapter concerns human evolution, systematics, taxonomy and phylogenetics. The fourth chapter contains basic information essen-

Animals and Anthropology

Abstract: Anthropology encompasses four distinct subdisciplines: biological anthropology, social anthropology (known as “cultural anthropology” in North America), archaeology, and linguistics. Beyond these basic four Želds, one could further divide anthropology into a nearly endless array of specializations (primatology, legal anthropology, medical anthropology, and historical archaeology, to name just a few). Of course, all Želds have their divisions, but anthropology’s sub-Želds are unusual for their varying and complex ties to the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. They differ radically in their preoccupations, basic assumptions, research methods, and connections to other disciplines. This diversity and scope make assessing anthropology’s relationship to Animal Studies especially challenging. Consideration of anthropology’s diversity and scope is important, however, for understanding what anthropology brings to Animal Studies and the promise Animal Studies holds for a revitalized anthropology.