The Alternative Introduction to Biological Anthropology

Second Edition

Jonathan Marks

In The Alternative Introduction to Biological Anthropology, Second Edition, author Jonathan Marks presents an innovative framework for thinking about the major issues in the field with fourteen original essays designed to correlate to the core chapters in standard textbooks. Each chapter draws on and complements--but does not reconstitute (except for the sake of clarity)--the major data and ideas presented in standard texts. Marks explores such topics as how we make sense of data about our origins, where our modern ideas come from, our inability to separate natural facts from cultural facts and values as we try to understand ourselves, and the social and political aspects of science as a culturally situated mental activity.

New to this Edition:

New and expanded discussions of the latest issues, including the Denisovans, epigenetics, Homo naledi, creationism, colonialism, and race
Updated references throughout

The Alternative Introduction to Biological Anthropology

Second Edition

Jonathan Marks

Description

In The Alternative Introduction to Biological Anthropology, Second Edition, author Jonathan Marks presents an innovative framework for thinking about the major issues in the field with fourteen original essays designed to correlate to the core chapters in standard textbooks. Each chapter draws on and complements--but does not reconstitute (except for the sake of clarity)--the major data and ideas presented in standard texts. Marks explores such topics as how we make sense of data about our origins, where our modern ideas come from, our inability to separate natural facts from cultural facts and values as we try to understand ourselves, and the social and political aspects of science as a culturally situated mental activity.

The Alternative Introduction to Biological Anthropology

Second Edition

Jonathan Marks

Preface

Chapter 1. What Is Anthropology, What Is Biological Anthropology, and Should I Be Getting Science Credit for This? (On the Philosophy of Science)
Theme
What Is Anthropology?
The Subfields of Anthropology
The Anthropology of Science
The Normative View of Science: Scientific Method
The Social Matrix of Science
Relativizing Science
The Origins of Anthropology
The Origins of Physical Anthropology
Biological Anthropology Today
References and Further Reading

Chapter 2. Where Did Our Scientific Ideas about Ourselves Come From? (On the History of Science)
Theme
The Beginnings of a New View of Nature
The Scientific Revolution
The Decline of Degeneration
The Anatomy of a "Pygmie"
Biblical Fallibility, or at Least Incompleteness
Monogenism
Cause and Effect
The Great Chain of Being
Buffon's Objection to the Nested Hierarchy
Extinction
Natural Theology
Uniformitarian Geology
Adam's World
Human Evolution
References and Further Reading

Chapter 3. Can You Tell If You Are a Darwinist? (On Theories of Evolution)
Theme
Darwin's Argument
Where People Fit In
The Sacrifice
Implications for Pattern
Implications for Species
Implications for Biological History
Implications for Relating Humans to Other Animals
Phylogeny: The Core of Darwinism
Other Darwinisms
Social Darwinism
Neo-Darwinism
The "Synthetic Theory"
Evolution at the Molecular Level
Punctuated Equilibria
Sociobiology
Universal Darwinism
Atheistic Darwinism
References and Further Reading

Chapter 4. Why Do I Look Like the Cable Guy, Daddy? (On Issues of Human Heredity)
Theme
The Theory of Particulate Inheritance: Mendel's Laws
Ten Non-Mendelian Laws
The Chromosome Theory
Linkage
Crossing-Over
Polygenic Inheritance
Environmental Influence on Phenotypes
Unit Characters
Properties of Heterozygotes
Pleiotropy
Imprinting
Extra-nuclear Inheritance
The Molecular Genomic Basis of Heredity
The Alpha-Globin Gene Cluster
Mutation
Meanings of the Gene and Genetics
References and Further Reading

Chapter 5. Are We Here? If So, Why? (On Issues of Microevolution)
Theme
Do Things Exist for a Reason?
Principal Abstraction: The Gene Pool
Gene Flow
Inbreeding
Natural Selection
Genetic Drift
Sickle Cell
Why Is the Gene Pool the Way It Is?
Adaptation or Founder Effect?
Another Point Illustrated by Sickle Cell and Phenylketonuria
Sickle Cell, Tay-Sachs, and Genetic Screening
Kinship as a Biocultural Construction
Genetic History and the Diversity Project
Who Owns the Body?
References and Further Reading

Chapter 6. Building Better Monkeys, or at Least Different Ones (On Systematics)
Theme
Speciation
Specific Mate Recognition Systems
Genetic Systems Producing Incompatibility
Species as Individuals
Levels and Rates of Evolution
Developmental Genetics
Allometric Growth
Extinction
Classification
Systematics and Phylogeny
Classical and Cladistic Taxonomy
Phylogenetics
Limitations of the Phylogenetic Method
References and Further Reading

Chapter 7. Is That an Ape in Your Genes, or Are You Just Glad to See Me? (On the Place of Humans in the Natural Order)
Theme
Primate Classification
Problems of Uniformitarianism
Genetic and Anatomical Data
The Mammals
Our Place in Primate Systematics
The Living Apes
The Trichotomy
Cladism, Reductionism, and the Rise of the Hominins
What Does It Mean to Be 98% Genetically Chimpanzee?
References and Further Reading

Chapter 8. Apes Run Around Naked, Live in Trees, and Fling Their Poo. Do You? (On the Relevance of Apes to Understanding Humans)
Theme
What Primates Can and Can't Tell Us
Primate Fieldwork
Primates in Groups
Social Behavior and Ecology
Food
Sexual Activity and Parenthood
Models for Human Evolution
Baboons in the Sixties, Chimps in the Nineties
Looking Elsewhere for Clues about Human Evolution
The Ape Mind
Culture
Conservation
References and Further Reading

Chapter 9. Being and Becoming (On the Relevance of Humans to Understanding Humans)
Theme
Human Nature
The Most Fundamental Human Adaptation: Bipedalism
Why Be Bipedal?
The Second Fundamental Human Adaptation: The Teeth
Why Reduce the Canines?
The Third Fundamental Human Adaptation: The Brain
Why Be Big Brained?
Social and Life-History Novelties
Physiological and Sexual Novelties
What Does It Take to Make a Scenario of Human Evolution Valuable?
Cultural Evolution
References and Further Reading

Chapter 10. If History Is Humanities, and Evolution Is Science, What Is Paleoanthropology? (On the Assumptions of a Diachronic Science)
Theme
Scientific Inferences Across Time
Skeletal Biology
Sexual Dimorphism
Ontogeny
Geographic Variation
Paleopathology
Sources of Morphological Variation
Lumping and Splitting
Fossilization
Other Considerations
Rights and Responsibilities in Paleoanthropology
Kinds of Evidence
Superposition and Association
Dating
Doing the Best We Can with Lost Data
Making Sense of Human Ancestry
Classifying the Living Apes and Fossil Ancestors
References and Further Reading

Chapter 11. The Dental and the Mental (On Making Sense of the Early Diversification of the Human Lineage)
Theme
The Shadow of Piltdown Man
A Hominid Origin
Discovery of the Australopithecines
Australopithecus: Basal Bipeds
Paranthropus-The Dental Adaptation
Early Homo: The Mental Adaptation
The Beginning of Cultural Evolution
References and Further Reading

Chapter 12. What to Do When Confronted by a Neandertal (On Continuity and Discontinuity)
Theme
The Human Lineage
The Mental and Social Life of Homo erectus
Homo sapiens, the Wise Species
Neandertal Life
Anatomically Modern People
The Emergence of Art
The Political Nature of Ancestry
Testing Paleontological Models Genetically
References and Further Reading

Chapter 13. Just How Different Is Different? (On Race)
Theme
Race
Patterns of Contemporary Human Variation
Why Do We See Races?
Race as a Biocultural Category
Asking Scientific Questions about Human Diversity
Race Is to Ethnicity as Sex Is to Gender, But Not Quite
What Is Innate?
Patterns of Human Genetic and Behavioral Variation
References and Further Reading

Chapter 14. Nature/Culture, or How Science Manages to Give Little Answers to Big Questions (On the Non-reductive Core of Anthropology)
Theme
Adaptability and the Human Condition
Folk Theories of Heredity
The State of the Species
The Anthropology of Science
Bioethics
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA): Who Owns the Bones?
Origin Myths, Scientific and Otherwise
Biocultural Studies, or Cyborg Anthropology
References and Further Reading

Index

The Alternative Introduction to Biological Anthropology

Second Edition

Jonathan Marks

Author Information

Jonathan Marks is Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is the author of several books, including Is Science Racist? (2017) and Why I Am Not a Scientist: Anthropology and Modern Knowledge (2009).

The Alternative Introduction to Biological Anthropology

Second Edition

Jonathan Marks

Reviews and Awards

"This is the best introductory book out there. Marks is a very effective and clear writer with an engaging and personal style. He does a wonderful job of placing biological anthropology appropriately within its theoretical and disciplinary context."--Adam Van Arsdale, Wellesley College

"The Alternative Introduction to Biological Anthropology is in a class of its own. It is a very approachable text injected with humor to grab students' attention."--Amelia Hubbard, Wright State University

"I like the critical approach that this book takes. Marks gives great examples that serve to illustrate his points clearly. I also like the direct, dynamic, and intelligent writing style."--Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg, Ohio State University

"The Alternative Introduction to Biological Anthropology is infused with perspective and personality. It is unique, effective, and successful. The book's pedagogical approach is why I use it. It reminds us that science is a human endeavor and therefore subject to human imperfections."--Thad Bartlett, University of Texas at San Antonio

"The most remarkable aspect of this book is how much material is covered in so little space. I am most impressed with Marks's talent for compressing so many important ideas in succinct, meaningful summaries. There is not a wasted word in this book."--Virginia Betz, Phoenix College