Question Set 11

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University of Calgary *

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350

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Anthropology

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Jan 9, 2024

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Uploaded by ChiefFlower6322

1. I once had a primatology professor who told us that humans did not differ from other primates; that is, there is nothing unique about humans. She was not, of course, referring to morphological traits which are, in fact, diagnostic of our species. Rather, she was referring to behavioural traits. Was my professor correct? Are humans behaviourally unique relative to other primates? Note, you must clearly define what you mean by “unique” in your answer. (With all due respect to your expertise 1 on the subject, a sound answer will reflect an exploration of at least two sources of literature.) I believe humans and primates have some similarities in how we may behave, but it’s important to not interpret something a primate does and put human emotions on them. With humans when we smile, that is seen as a friendly gesture showing all our pretty teeth, but with some primates, for example, gorillas, showing your teeth is a sign of a threat or backway from me. Some people would put human emotion into that thinking that it is a friendly gesture. Just because primates are our closest relatives in the animal kingdom, doesn’t mean we act the same way. A behaviour that’s different from primates is how children behave. Children when playing with other children will play with kids that aren’t closely related to them and will share toys (if they are nice enough) with each other to engage in play, whereas in chimpanzees it found that young chimps will play with more closely related family and only share more closely with their families (Hogenboom, M. 2022). Humans, even though some people might disagree, are very kind and will share with each other resources to help one another. We will even hold a door open to someone we don’t know and will probably never see again. Another complex behaviour for humans is how we communicate with one another. We have many different languages that are all very complex in their own ways that help us talk to one another and learn about each other, this can help build bonds between people. People have wondered if primates could have the same capability, they do use vocalization and scent marking to communicate with one another but it’s not as complex as how humans communicate with each other to convey different emotions (O’Neil, D. 2012).

2. Describe what you think a day in the like of Lucy was like. What did she do? How did she interact with others of her species? Looking at Lucy’s fossils, one of the things that we can’t learn from her remains is how she behaved in her daily life and how she would behave with others in her group or species. We can only come up with ideas that could be answers to Lucy’s life. One thing that anthropology does is it uses humanities to help scientists come up with answers to behavioural questions we might have. Some ways that we can use to help us come up with ideas is to watch how humans interact with each other, how hunter-gatherers act, and how our cousins the primates interact with each other. We can’t come up with a 100% truthful answer but we can make a hypothesis as to what Lucy’s life was like. One thing I can say that Lucy definitely did during her day-to-day life, was being able to walk around on two feet. Looking at her fossil we can find clues and hints that show she was bipedal. Looking at her femur it’s not straight like chimpanzees, but her knees were close to each other and went out to the side, similar to humans. What she could have done during her day, she could have been collecting food to eat/share, socialize with other Australopithecus Afarensis maybe similar to how chimpanzees socialize by grooming each other or she was looking/helping to look after younger Australopithecus Afarensis. All of what I said is humanitarian because I don’t know if that is true, but one thing is that we give them humanity to help us connect with our ancient families. We can only wonder what Lucy was like and how she behaved with other Australopithecus Afarensis. 3. What are the costs associated with bipedalism? (Sadly, there are many!) One of the well-known issues with being bipedal is having lower back pain, that’s because of our back holding us up and having a weird S shape spin to help us be straight instead of having our head far forward or having our torso far forward, some say its an engineering nightmare. Another issue with being bipedal it has now made it very difficult for women to give birth, because of the opening in our pelvic girdle. That is why human babies are born much earlier than other animals because if they are too big it could kill the mother and the baby. That’s also why humans have slow development compared to chimpanzees. Knee problems are also caused by being bipedal because of how much weight it has to carry to keep humans upright. Being bipedal humans have developed flatter feet and lost their

impossible big toe, meaning humans are no longer as good climbers as we once were, it’s more clumsy. With human bodies also being vertical, veins have to work twice as hard to pump blood from the feet back to the heart and the heart to the head. These blood vessels are working against gravity. 4. Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve likely heard of the paleo-diet. Actually, if you’ve been living in a cave, you’re likely already an adherent of this movement. Loren Cordain one of the founders and most outspoken proponents of the paleo diet, states that it is “the world’s healthiest diet, is based upon the fundamental concept that the optimal diet is the one to which we are genetically adapted.” So, is Cordain correct? Should we be eating like our Paleocene ancestors? My paper and the Ted xOU video will get you started. Find at least two additional sources and tell us what you think. It seems I have been living in a cave. This is the first time I have heard of the paleo diet and I find it an interesting idea. Paleo diets suggest that we should eat the same type of food that our ancestors ate 2.6 million years ago before dairy products were introduced and before the agriculture of grains, beans, and other agricultural foods (Gibbons, A. N.D. Pg, 14). The paleo diet suggests eating lean meat (bone marrow and organs), fruit, and plants (Gibbons, A. N.D. Pg, 15-16). One of the misconceptions that people believe about what our ancestors were eating was just meat and little to no fruit or plants (Gibbons, A. N.D.). Some people believe that just eating meat is important, but if you have a desk job that might not be a good idea, our ancestors were running around hunting and were much more active than some people today, so they were able to burn off all that fat (Gibbons, A. N.D. Pg, 27). But when we look at hunting, not every day do hunters get food to bring back home. The animals won’t just sit there and wait to be killed (Gibbons, A. N.D.). The only group that has been able to survive solely on meat is the Inuit of Canada, because barely any plants can grow there and the winter is too harsh to grow crops (Gibbons, A. N.D. Pg, 15) and the Yakut also lived on a heavily based meat diet (Gibbons, A. N.D. Pg, 23). If meat was hard to come by the gathers would be able to provide back to help bring more calories in to keep them nutrients (Gibbons, A. N.D.). But there wasn’t just one paleo diet, humans were scattered all across the world and would have been eating different types of animals, plants, and fruits that are beneficial to those people, so there isn’t just one diet but many (Gibbons, A. N.D.).

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