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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.


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01 Jun 2005
TL;DR: The issue of race cannot be avoided in any exploration of biological anthropology and African history, sad as this may be as discussed by the authors, and the subject of race is treated at greater length.
Abstract: Physical anthropology, sometimes called biological anthropology or human biology, looks at synchronic and diachronic biological aspects of the human species. It includes palaeoanthropology, which examines aspects of Homo sapiens’ macroevolution. Its topics are as diverse as the energetics of agricultural labor in the tropics, and disease patterns in the skeletons of Late Stone Age populations. Comparison, whether explicit or implicit, is usually the goal. Whether looking at physiological adaptations of high altitude peoples or the genetics of diseases in migrant groups, researchers try to contrast study populations with others, either real or theoretical. In its earlier period, physical anthropology was primarily concerned with describing and classifying humankind, and with its evolution. This interest in classification, usually by “race,” has left its mark on the historical studies of all of the continents. Africa is no exception. All Africanist scholars are aware of the Hamitic “hypothesis,” a biocultural construct that purported to explain various aspects of African biological, linguistic and cultural reality. Scholars are also aware that the African continent's peoples have been divided into “races,” units regarded as fundamental or even foundational, and that previous discussions of African historiography have frequently used “race” as part of an explanatory model, or as a necessary part of any description of historical actors. The issue of race cannot be avoided in any exploration of biological anthropology and African history, sad as this may be. The subject of “race” will be treated at greater length, as it is very important. What can human biology offer to the “reconstruction” of African history? The question is complicated because it includes the word “history,” and serving all of “history's” many areas of study is difficult. To look at African history and biological anthropology as a unit brings to mind a variety of activities.

3 citations

Book ChapterDOI
18 Sep 2019
TL;DR: Physical anthropologists study human evolution and human variation as mentioned in this paper, which involves the discovery, dating, documentation, and interpretation of hominid fossils spanning the past 4-5 million years, plus the related topics of nonhuman primate anatomy and behaviour.
Abstract: Physical anthropologists study human evolution and human variation. Research in human evolution, or paleoanthropology, involves the discovery, dating, documentation, and interpretation of hominid fossils spanning the past 4–5 million years, plus the related topics of nonhuman primate anatomy and behaviour. Prior to the Darwinian era of the mid-nineteenth century, anthropology was not a recognised discipline so there were technically no physical anthropologists. The major figure in Arctic physical anthropology during the first half of the twentieth century was Ales Hrdlicka of the US National Museum. Research teams were formed to conduct detailed ecological, physiological, nutritional, serological, and anthropometric studies of Arctic populations across the circumpolar regions of Eurasia and the Americas. The heyday of Arctic physical anthropological research was the 1960s and 1970s when international multidisciplinary teams allied with the International Biological Program conducted research among Arctic populations in North America and northern Eurasia.

3 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
202322
202245
202111
202016
201921
201832