Anthropological Perspective on the Human Life Course [Ch. 13 Jurmain & Kilgore Questions]

1. What is meant by the analogy “Water is to fish as culture is to humans”? Do you think that humans could survive without culture?

        To begin, no, as human culture is that which differentiates people from different species of animals. I think I can speak confidently of the inseparability of humans from tangible culture at least, because it enables people a certain degree of control over elements of the environment.    

         This is most especially the case now if culture is subtracted from human living, now that there is a high dependency on the gizmo and the gadget, and this is the era of convenience where almost everything is up for grabs at the local grocer or hypermart. Or to look at the scenario simply, most of survival is dependent upon the tangible culture such as clothing to maintain body heat in cold locations. Paired with shelter, it is designed to be a mode of adaptation to weather and climate. As for tools, one simple example would be containers to store water instead of having to constantly walk to a source (others will have to stand a trek!). Humans are also obsessed with the multifunctional device, hence the popularity of Swiss Army knives.

2. What are some of the major ways in which human health and life course have changed since the origin of agriculture? Do you think that the transition to agriculture has, in general, been good or bad for human health?

        Good turned bad. Good because it was convenient, but took a bad turn when it came to involve techniques which damaged the environment. The requirement of freshwater resources led to shortage. The usage of pesticides as an apparent threat to health is constantly mentioned. Increases in livestock population are one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emitters, as well as the driving reasons behind deforestation --- which meant more land for livestock population expansion. Only time will tell what the effects of GMO foods will do to consumers of the products.

3. Consider the following statement: “In the United States, socioeconomic status is the primary determinant of nutrition and health.” Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why or why not?

         It is logical. One needs money to buy nutritious food or maintain them if growing a garden or keeping animals in an own lot. Dietary supplements and vitamins are also expensive, apparently also the case with assortments of medication and consultations with medical personnel.

4. Do you think that natural selection operates on human behaviors such as parenting and aggression? Provide evidence or examples to support your view.

          On the question of aggression (which has connections with danger and violence), natural selection had an effect on the way humans think (cognition, perception, memory) where the ability to remember a dangerous event that may have resulted in loss of life would be favorably selected if it prevented a person from being caught in a similar situation. Further, aggression is naturally specific in genders, where competition is more male-male (example mentioned in Jurmain is the chimpanzee group). Aggression oftentimes occurs in locations with limited resources, and this reaction would also hold true for humans in present time where wars and riots occur with these causes (same with territorial expansion in the case of colonization, it is all a matter of resources).

         In the case of parenting, it would follow if I subscribe to the Life History Theory and Grandmother Hypothesis. On the first, it maintains that a human’s life cycle is divided into stages where the being has enough energy to for growth, maintenance of life, and reproduction.   

          Certain energy units are allocated per phase, and each phase has a specific amount and not energy invested in one of these processes isn’t available to another. The latter is quite cute, if I may say so freely --- it maintains that nature has placed phase limits as to what age a woman is allowed to give birth and raise children. At the 50 onwards mark, women enter menopause, and the purpose of the menopause to postmenopausal stage is for them to be able to assist in the caring of their offspring’s offspring. I would like to think of this stage as more of the idea of passing on wisdom to children and not the physical act of raising a child (I mean come on! Your parents have graduated from that phase already! Have some shame and raise your own kid!)

5. What evidence is there that humans are still evolving?

       If permitted personal rumination, we can theorize that this evidence would vary upon cultures. If there would be one culture which prioritizes a supermodel-type body, then during pregnancy the child may become malnourished. Keeping the practice may mean more people having that form.
      Darwin Lives! An Excerpt from Time Magazine’s Article on Humans Evolving. According to Yale University evolutionary biologist Stephen Stearns, women’s fertility is affected by the fact that natural selection of fitter traits no longer being driven by survival. Variations in reproductive success still exist among humans, and therefore some traits related to fertility continue to be shaped by natural selection. Women who have more children are more likely to pass on certain traits to their progeny. Stearn had worked with his team in the examination of the vital statistics of 2 238 postmenopausal women participating in the Framingham Heart Study, which has tracked the medical histories of some 14 000 residents of Framingham, Massacheussets since 1948.
      Investigators searched for correlations between women’s physical characteristics--- inclusive of which are the factors of height, weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels--- and the number of offspring produced. According to the findings, it was stout, slightly plump but not obese women who tended to have more children. Stearns explains that women with very low body fat do not ovulate, as did women with lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Using a sophisticated statistical analysis that controlled for any social or cultural factors that could impact childbearing, researchers determined that these characteristics were passed on genetically from mothers to daughters and granddaughters.
           If these trends were to continue with no cultural changes in the town for the next 10 generations, by 2409 the average Framingham women would be 2cm shorter, 1 kg heavier, have a healthier heart, have her first child five months earlier and enter menopause 10 months later than a woman today. That rate of evolution is slow, but quite similar to that seen in plants and other animals.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1931757,00.html accessed 03/25/2012 @ 1849
hrs.

Human Variation & Adaptation [Ch. 12 Jurmain & Kilgore Questions]

1. Imagine you’re with some friends talking about variation and how many races there are. One person says that there are three and another thinks that there are five. Would you agree with either one? Why or why not?

        A little reasoning: I would agree with the second one granted that the scenario is based on a conversation of Russel Peters’ material, and if that second person is talking about Blumenbach. If its pop culture, then yes, sure there are five races. But~ if dipping into the territory of Biological Anthropology I would immediately disagree with both of them because of what I learned in my Anthro class (an expansion to my explanation is readable in question number 2).

2. For the same group of friends in question 01 (none of whom have had a course in biological anthropology), how would you explain how scientific knowledge doesn’t support their preconceived notions about human races?
 

        The original scope of the conceptualization of race is ideological, based on the attribution of cultural characteristics to certain colors, eventually stating that people with light (or white) complexions are superior and the most civilized, the darker the more uncivilized and inferior. Usage of the term Race is also equivocal, and thus ambiguous for its references to either nationality or religious identity/affiliation. Third, the idea of race as color is inaccurate as it has no (classification) for “half-breeds”. An additional point of focus is how color has the potential to change either considering natural adaptation (an office guy from Washington getting a tan from the Philippines after a one-week stay at Boracay) or artificial (a white girl in LA spending lots of money in tanning spray sessions). These wouldn’t change a person’s race.

       Skin also won’t say everything about race. Skeletal anatomy is more accurate, particularly the cranial profile of the person.

3. In the twentieth century, how did the scientific study of human diversity change from the more traditional approach?
 

         It went from a skin and eye-colored – specific system of classification to skeletal (with particular attention on cranial profiling) after much debate on the issue of race, which was predominantly an emotionally sensitive issue considering the ideological overtones of the concept. The study of human variation also had come to include the application of evolutionary principles. Race according to DNA had also replaced the skin parameter. The genetic emphasis dispelled previously held misconceptions that races are fixed biological entities that don’t change over time and that are composed of individuals who all conform to a particular type. 

        Thanks to Blumenbach whom to my opinion, I think he began the change by stating the inaccuracy in the classification of race by color because of the matter of overlapping traits. This perhaps begun the idea of entertaining other physical details.

4. Why can we say that variations in human skin color are the result of natural selection in different environments? Why can we say that less pigmented skin is a result of conflicting selective factors?
 

       Skin color differs in certain parts of the globe. Those near the equator experience tropical climate. People living in tropical areas experience more tanning as they have more direct sun exposure, producing more melanin as a protective response to UV rays. It is a developmental mode of adaptation. The case for those with less pigmented skin is that they are faced with the dilemma of needing adequate UV exposure for the promotion of vitamin D synthesis and still needing protection from overexposure to UV radiation as they do not have enough melanin to enjoy the sun and still be protected.

5. Do you think that infectious disease has played an important role in human evolution? Do you think it plays a current role in human adaptation?
 

      Throughout the course of human evolution, infectious disease has exerted enormous selective pressures on populations and consequently has influenced the frequency of certain alleles that affect the immune response.

6. How have human cultural practices influenced the patterns of infectious disease seen today? Provide as many examples as you can including some not discussed in the chapter.
 

        Over-usage of pesticides were the foundations for a new type of insects which are “bugspray” tolerant (imagine a group of bugs being sprayed, laughing and enjoying themselves in their “high” or “trippy” state)   

      There is recently a new strain of Tuberculosis which has become drug resistant. This came into existence after the practice of those on the poor census of the population where they don’t complete their medication either in the false belief that they are feeling better, or they simply cannot afford it. The drugs taken kill only some percentage of the TB while that remaining evolves.

       Some humans have been victims of the Mad Cow disease after consuming products made of infected/contaminated beef.    

         Keeping used tires have been a major breeding ground for a vector. The Aedes albopictus also known as the Asian Tiger Mosquito, known for Dengue, has been spread widely in recent years, particularly through the intercontinental exportation of mosquito eggs in used car tires into Africa and the Americas. 

       Lyme disease is also one good example of which was the effect of changes in the ecosystem. A bacterial disease, it was first discovered in the USA in the town of Old Lyme. It was spread by ticks which transmitted Borrelia burgdorferi. Originally, the ticks fed on deer and certain mice. But forest fragmentation had led to changes in the biodiversity, resulting in the loss of predator species such as the wolf, fox, just to name a few. This led to the ticks feeding on human blood, as some suburban homes were established in the woodland area.

Hominid Origins [Ch.08 of Jurmain & Kilgore: Questions Addressed]

1. In what ways are the remains of Sahelanthropus and Ardipithecus primitive? How do we know that these forms are hominids? How sure are we?
 

        They had a flat cranial base and relatively thin enamel caps on the molar teeth. From measurements of the humerus, body weight for one of the individuals is estimated at 42 kg; if this bone comes from a male individual, this weight estimate is very similar to that hypothesized for other early hominids. 

         We are sure, presently at least, as we have top scholars in Physical Anthropology who maintain this claim (mainly Jurmain and Kilgore…)

2. Assume that you are in the laboratory analyzing the “Lucy” A. afarensis skeleton. You also have complete skeletons from a chimpanzee and a modern human. Which parts of the Lucy skeleton are more similar to the chimpanzee? Which are more similar to the human? Which parts of the Lucy skeleton are most informative?
 

          A. afarensis was a short hominid, as indicated by Lucy. The upper limbs of Lucy are longer than in modern humans and in addition other A. afarensis fossils indicate that the wrist, hand, and foot bones show several differences from modern humans. This suggests that Lucy was more than likely a terrestrial biped that also had the capability of climbing about quite ably in the trees. Further, Lucy's teeth do appear to share more primitive features with other early hominoids and with living apes than with later hominids.         

        The most informative parts would be her teeth, cranial skull parts, pelvis, and limbs. The teeth provide information on her being an early primitive hominid species, while her cranium parts indicate a small capacity. The pelvis indicated her sex, and the limbs were proof that she walked bipedally while on the ground as well as still had the ability to climb and move about in the trees.

IF BARBIE WAS A REAL PERSON, WHAT WOULD SHE LOOK LIKE?

This was my topic for Physical Anthropology. Suitable to be called a short thinkpiece on anthropometry, it discusses how Barbie would deal with everyday living considering her measurements assuming that she is a living person who was born that way (had no plastic surgery).  

Special thanks to Abner Bondoc for having had the patience to do the computations despite his busy schedule that day.  (Dearest, the spirit of this piece came from you) 
 
Barbie, a creation of Mattel from the late 1950s still remains popular among kids of all ages (even those who appear as grown-ups on the outside, or as we popularly address as ‘collectors’). As one fragment of popular tangible culture at 53 years of age and going strong, Barbie has been serving as a physical extension of children’s imagination, ideals, and memories.

Feminists have been ‘fond’ of Barbie, primarily for her unrealistic representations. Beginning with the material, what it is made out of supposedly speaks much about what the product conveys ---- that being made out of plastic, it is something molded, giving the male gender the impression that like it, women are manipulable. Further, it is an exemplification of a most impossible beauty --- Barbie with long flowing hair, is constantly, immaculately groomed with a (radiant) smile which is constantly fixed, which almost savors of imploring. From the done-up face, one may proceed with the choice of fashion attributed to the doll. What is tremendously curious is the begged concept of gender assignment through color, where the signature shade comprises of varied pink tones. It is the vital statistics of the figure which are also impossible to achieve through natural means. In light of this, Barbie reinforces the indirect advertisement of cosmetic surgery.

It is contended here that Feminists have too much fun with their cultural-heated arguments when it comes to Barbie.

Objectives. It is time to bring in a physical anthropological voice into the discourse, and with the use of applied knowledge on anthropometry it is of interest to discuss: (1) Why Barbie appears as an icon of idealized beauty, (2) What she look like if she was a real Homo sapien, and (3) How she would fare through daily living.

Methodology. One doll was selected randomly from the student’s childhood collection and measured in centimeter units, recording values for the criteria indicated in the anthropometric sheets distributed in her Anthro 202 class. In recognition of equipment constraints, the student only used a measuring tape and excluded the criteria requiring calipers (ex. Bicondylar Elbow, Bicondylar Knee, Triceps and Subscapular Skinfold), and Munsell soil chart, leaving out values for skin pigmentation and eye color.

In the attempt of determining scale so as to make an accurate comparison to a live person, the values have been computed based on a female human with a height of 5’9”. For every 1 cm measured on the doll, it is equivalent to 5.842 cm on a human.

Findings. The main reason behind her appeal has clearly to do with exaggerations of her features. Beginning from the head, her hair is unproportionally thick. She stands at a stature of 30 cm, and has a span of 32 cm (in human size would be 175.3 cm and 186.9 cm respectively). To expand Albert Magro's conclusions in his experiment regarding (the segment on) Barbie's head [readers may also refer to 'Why Barbie is Perceived as Beautiful' in Perceptual and Motor Skills, 85, 363-374 for a study based on evaluations], she features a dome-shaped cranium with a circumference of 10 cm (58.4), a high forehead, large eyes, an oval-shaped face with a total facial height of 4.5cm (26.3), a bi-zygomatic breadth of 3 cm (17.5), straight, closely spaced dentition in a mouth breadth of 1cm (5.8), and an orthognathic chin with a bi-gonial breadth of 2.3 cm (13.4). Proceeding with the neck, at 4 cm (23.4) in circumference and 1.8 (10.5) in length, if Barbie was human she would have needed support for her head considering that her neck is twice in length in comparison to that of the typical/standard woman. And this would mean an apparent risk of her breaking her neck.

She has square shoulders with a bi-acromial breadth of 5.5 cm (32.1) which then brings attention to the short, v-shaped torso where the supposed asset is a breast circumference of 15 cm (87.6), an accentuated waist circumference of 9 cm (52.6) and hip circumference of 13 cm (75.9). The vital statistics on Barbie’s figure which are apparently lacking in realism, had led her to be criticized on occasion as having a ‘wasp’ body rather than the proper hourglass figure typically idealized. The price of such extreme beauty would be an incomplete organ system --- as Barbie’s midsection would only have enough room for about half of a liver and some centimeters of intestines. It would be highly likely that Barbie would find herself suffering from chronic diarrhea and die from malabsorption as well as malnutrition.

To proceed, the length of Barbie’s legs in proportion to her torso would make her unable to walk. Thigh circumference is at 7 (40.9) with calf circumference at 5 cm (29.2). With her Iliac height and Trochanteric height at 18 (105.2) and 16 (93.5) respectively and the size of her feet with foot length of 2.1 cm (12.3) and breadth of 0.6 (3.5), Barbie would as a result be constantly tipping over and nearly falling on her face. She would involuntarily be quadrupedal just to be mobile.

Considering Homo sapien Barbie’s proportions and stature of 175.3 cm, that would denote her lacking from 18 to 22 per cent body fat required for a woman to menstruate or to have children. She also would not be able to have intercourse considering that she is very frail ---Almost any move or position will send her straight into the Emergency Room.

 Click here to view the tabulation of data