Group items tagged

comparative psychology,

animal intelligence

mostly concerns mammals, especially primates, cetaceans, and elephants, as well as dogs, cats, and rodents.

and fish,

began in the late 1950s

John Lilly

other animals do have minds and that humans should approach the study of their cognition accordingly.

bottlenosed dolphins

particularly monkeys

Spatial cognition

The ability to properly navigate and search through the environment is a critical task for many animals.

Research in 2007 shows that chimpanzees in the Fongoli savannah sharpen sticks to use as spears when hunting, considered the first evidence of systematic use of weapons in a species other than humans.

Language

The modeling of human language in animals is known as animal language research.

Consciousness

The sense in which animals can be said to have consciousness or a self-concept has been hotly debated; it is often referred to as the debate over animal minds.

It has been suggested that metacognition in some animals provides some evidence for cognitive self-awareness.[11] The great apes, dolphins, and rhesus monkeys have demonstrated the ability to monitor their own mental states and use an "I don't know" response to avoid answering difficult questions. These species might also be aware of the strength of their memories.

This page was last modified on 26 November 2011 at 11:42.

Archeology: The study and interpretation of ancient humans, their history and culture, through examination of the artifacts and remains they left behind

Cultural Anthropology:(also: sociocultural anthropology, social anthropology, or ethnology) studies the different cultures of humans and how those cultures are shaped or shape the world around them

Biological Anthropology

using genetics, evolution, human ancestry, primates, and the ability to adapt.

Linguistic Anthropology: examines human languages

pplied anthropology is simply the practice of applying anthropological theory and or methods from any of the fields of Anthropology to solve human problems

Culture is:

Learned

Patterned

•Shared

•Adaptive

Symbolic

At its most basic level, the difference between Culture and culture is in the way they are defined. C

lture with a capital C refers to the ability of the human species to absorb and imitate patterned and symbolic ideas that ultimately further their survival

Familial culture

Every family is different, and every family has its own culture

icro or Subculture

distinct groups within a larger group that share some sort of common trait, activity or language that ties them together and or differentiates them from the larger group

clique

Mexican-Americans

micro-culture would be the Japanese hip hop

Cultural universals

Claude Levi-Strauss

gender roles, the incest taboo, religious and healing ritual, mythology, marriage, language, art, dance, music, cooking, games, jokes, sports, birth and death

tual ceremonies

f cultural relativism deny the existence or reduce the importance of cultural universals

Language and cognition

Society

Myth, Ritual, and aesthetics

Technology

This problem of right and wrong in terms of crossing cultural lines is a big one.

intrinsic cultural distinctions that are meaningful to the members of a given society, often considered to be an 'insider’s' perspective.

reate bias o

Enculturation

This process is the way in which we obtain and transmit culture.

In the !Kung Bushman tribe they look down upon people who think highly of themselves and who are arrogant. To avoid these characteristics, each child was raised to put down and mock others when they do things such as hunting and other activities.

Cultural Transmission

Symbols and Culture

Symbols are the basis of culture. A symbol is an object, word, or action that stands for something else with no natural relationship that is culturally defined

Ethnocentrism

Cultural Relativism

Ethnography

Deconstructing Race and Racism

Race was created long ago as a tool to separate humans

Deconstructing the social concept of race has been a major interest of Cultural Anthropology at least since Franz Boas's work on race and immigration in the early 1900's.

Race is not biological but it's supposed to be a way to classify biological differences by grouping people according to different characteristics that they have

There is no biological part of race. It is strictly a concept created by humans to try to better understand differences between us

Technology

She brought a one-year-old African gray parrot she named Alex into her lab to teach him to reproduce the sounds of the English language.

They were simply machines, robots programmed to react to stimuli but lacking the ability to think or feel. Any pet owner would disagree.

many scientists believed animals were incapable of any thought.

controversial.

How, then, does a scientist prove that an animal is capable of thinking—that it is able to acquire information about the world and act on it?

Certain skills are considered key signs of higher mental abilities: good memory, a grasp of grammar and symbols, self-awareness, understanding others' motives, imitating others, and being creative.

chimpanzees use a variety of tools to probe termite mounds and even use weapons to hunt small mammals; dolphins can imitate human postures; the archerfish, which stuns insects with a sudden blast of water, can learn how to aim its squirt simply by watching an experienced fish perform the task.

Chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas have been taught to use sign language and symbols to communicate with us, often with impressive results.

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Chimpanzees become sexually mature between the ages of 10 and 13

both have an insatiable appetite for play, are extremely curious, learn through observation and imitation,

The anatomy of the chimpanzee brain and central nervous system is startlingly similar to our own.

Chimpanzees and humans belong to the animal order “primates”

belong to the superfamily hominoid

Chimpanzees and humans belong to the animal order “primates”.

Large brains

opposable thumbs

flexible joints

belong to the superfamily hominoid

chimpanzees and humans share the most similar genetic makeup, sharing 98.6% of our genes.

Females show their first very small sexual swellings at age eight or nine, but are not sexually attractive to the older males until they reach age 10 or 11.

almost every young chimp gets lost from their mother at some point during their exploration.

chimps have a long childhood

Bonds

likely to persist throughout life.

This learning is the means by which certain actions are passed from one generation to the next—the beginnings of culture.

capable of intellectual performances

capable of reasoned thought

memory

symbolic representation

feel and express emotions

chimpanzees can be taught human languages

skills on computers

wide range of complex emotions

possess an almost human-like enjoyment of physical contact, laughter, and community.

chimpanzees can learn from humans

Language is believed to have played a major role:

still a hard core of people who are very resistant

doing invasive experiments on animals

made a difference with the way the world views chimpanzees

Has it made a difference in the way scientists view them

It's much better to cling to the old ideas that animals are just little machines and they have stimulus and response

It's a communication

sophisticated brains

haven't during evolution developed a sophisticated spoken language

not capable of planning the distant future

can't

discuss an idea

communication is very immediate

Mike learned to use empty kerosene cans because he was very low ranking

He accidentally hit an empty 4-gallon kerosene can and noticed that other chimps ran away

Within 4 months, he'd risen to the top

never saw him fight

Only Mike capitalized on that and developed the technique and won.

we are omnivorous.

same arrangement of internal organs and bones

many of the same diseases

share several important blood types

Unlike apes, our arms are relatively short and weak compared to our legs

modern human brain is 3 times larger in volume

toes became shorter and the big toe moved up into line with the others.

The pelvis

Nature very likely selected for longer legs

downside of the evolutio

we are quite similar to the African apes anatomically and genetically, especially to the chimpanzees and bonobos

minor anatomical differences between humans and apes

46 chromosomes

longer legs require less up-and-down movement while running and, therefore, reduce the amount of energy needed to move rapidly

allow humans to travel farther with the same calorie expenditure

A partial evolutionary solution to this birth difficulty for humans was fetuses being born at a less mature stage, when their bodies are smaller.  The trade off is that human newborn babies are more vulnerable.

Evolving a larger brain comes at a steep energy cost.  The human brain uses about 25% of the energy derived from the nutrients that we consume and 20% of the oxygen.

mental levels equivalent to a 3-4 year old human child

Female chimpanzees, gorillas, and other non-human primates usually remain capable of conception and giving birth even when they are very old

highly developed market economy

devoted to economic pursuits

activity is the human body

human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease

one or more shrines devoted to this purpose

more powerful individuals in the society have several shrines in their houses and, in fact, the opulence of a house is often referred to in terms of the number of such ritual centers it possesses

ituals

re private

box or chest which is built into the wall

harms and magical potions without which no native believes he could live

ecured from a variety of specialized practitioners

medicine men

ubstantial gifts

write them down in an ancient and secret language

charm-box

mall fon

bows his head before the charm-box, mingles different sorts of holy water in the font, and proceeds with a brief rite of ablutio

holy-mouth-men.

pathological horror of and fascination with the mout

supernatural influence on all social relationships

oral and moral

For example, there is a ritual ablution of the mouth for children which is supposed to improve their moral fiber.

mouth-rite

small bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powders, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures.[7]

holy-mouth-man once or twice a year

f sadism is involved

This part of the rite includes scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument.

As part of this ceremony, women bake their heads in small ovens for about an hour

latipso

"that is where you go to die

Psychological shock results from the fact that body secrecy is suddenly lost upon entry into the latipso

aversion to the natural body and its functions.

fat people thin

thin people fat.

used to make women's breasts larger

inhuman hypermammary development are so idolized that they make a handsome living by simply going from village to village and permitting the natives to stare at them for a fee

Natural reproductive functions are similarly distorted. Intercourse is taboo as a topic and scheduled as an act. Efforts are made to avoid pregnancy by the use of magical materials or by limiting intercourse to certain phases of the moon.

magic-ridden people