Anthropology Response Paper 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Anthropology Response Paper 2 - Essay Example Moreover, man moved into the stage of homohabilis where he used acheulian tools dated about 1.7 million years back. Homo Habilis moved to this stage after gradual improvement over some time. At this stage, they were making more sophisticated stone tools which were sharper and had straight at the edge, and an example is the hand axe. At this stage, the brain size of man is said to have increased and improved in intelligence. However, it is wrong to infer cultural ability from brain size because at this stage, culture was not so much developed given that man had an enlarged brain size. Eventually man advanced to another stage and was given the name Homo erectus, and throughout his geographic range, research has shown that there was progressive improvement over time. The late Homo erectus was found to have complex mental tablets, which guided him in making complex cultural artifacts. When the implements became useful, the reliance on tools increased. Eventually man moved to new subsiste nce and economic patterns, which improved the means and sources of obtaining food. According to paleoneurology, some insights concerning human evolution have been revealed. This study argues that the cranium is unique because it from the growing brain tissue and not cultural ability. This is the same case with bones that aid movement. This study is influenced by neuroscience and has no substantial knowledge on the current functionality of the brain. Essay two Race has been defined by anthropologists under six different groups namely; Ausraloid, mongoloid, Caucasoid, Polynesians, Negroid, and Native Americans. Anthropologists argue that all these members share similar physical characteristics, and they originated from a common point in the world. Biological anthropologists have described the biological variations of man and came to a conclusion that there are three major explanations of variations in human beings. These are natural selection that describes variations in hereditary tr aits, Gene flow that occur because people from a certain population mate with another from a different population, and genetic draft; which is a phenomena that occur when people move one geographical region to another. Today, anthropologists have realized that the racial human map is very different from human genes and that differentiation that exists is political. People are different because of varied environments, which their ancestors inhabited. For example, misunderstanding the concepts brings about power politics and even violence (Haviland, Prins & McBride 298). People receiving direct overhead sunlight like Africans tends to be darker than those from oblique sunlight regions. This is because melanin protects the skin from ultraviolet radiation and people with more melanin live longer than those with less melanin. The advantage with those with less melanin, like Asians and Europeans, is that they absorb more vitamin D from the sun as compared to their colleagues with more mel anin because of poor penetration of sun into their skin. This distinction is significant because we need to understand that race is not a biological definition describing the DNA structure of a person and it is fixed; hence one cannot change it. Race is not considered a valid way of describing human beings. Hence anthropologists h

Organizational Behavior Similarities Between Humans and Elephants Essay

Organizational Behavior Similarities Between Humans and Elephants - Essay Example Among their unique characteristics are having a long and flexible snout (proboscis), elongated incisor teeth (tusk) and a placenta just like humans. They have other distinguishing features which are not very obvious such as obscure features in their teeth, shoulders and ankles; they are one of the very few hoof mammals to have retained five toes (other mammals have only four or fewer toes). Discussion Elephants exhibit a remarkable high level of intelligence; this makes up for their very slow gaits which usually has an adverse effect on wild animals because slow-moving animals are at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to escaping their predators. Their big size is a big help in their fight for survival since they have very few enemies in the wild; however, there is another characteristic of elephants which is their complex level of organizational behaviors. It is this social behavior which has allowed them to outlive other species in the wild as it makes them highly organized in t erms of foraging for food, looking for water sources and in fighting off predators; elephants also learn throughout their lifetimes (Haynes 64). Elephants are highly-socialized animals. They live in groups, tend to stay with their relatives, form into familial and kin groupings similar to human clans, highly gregarious and in general associate with other members of their herd. The social behavior of the elephants is very complex because they live very long lives (ibid.) and elephants are suspected to use the same type of personal individual identification as humans when they communicate with each other. They largely maintain long-term relationships; elephant groups are female-centered. By using infrasonic (low-frequency) calls, elephants can communicate with all the other group members and identify an elephant’s individual identity (Breed & Moore 196). The elephants are also very adaptive in their behaviors, with females influencing the males (Wasser 30). Social System of Ele phants – their social system is hierarchical and matriarchal. It is usually the oldest female elephant that is the recognized leader of the group. The rest of the group members follow their matriarch in search of food and water to areas which are recalled by the matriarch’s memory bank. Studies showed that elephant groups without a matriarch are often very tentative in which direction to go because no one gives the order (Dagg 32). An elephant herd needs a large territory because it has an inefficient digestive tract, able to digest and absorb only half the food an elephant eats (O’Connell 235) and needs a big grazing area. The study of elephant behavior will have a great bearing on efforts to ensure their survival. The herd behavior of elephants exhibit striking similarities to human behavior in the social organization sphere. There is an acknowledged leader in a group and this is the oldest female elephant (matriarch) but other female members (sisters, aunts, nieces, cousins, etc.) take a collective effort in caring for their young. It is the matriarch, together with the several generations of relatives, who will gather the group into a close-knit unit that will suddenly take a charge and stampede a perceived threat (AWF 1). Elephants use a variety of ways to communicate such as by sound, smell and stamping the ground (Waal & Tyack 79). Stress Conditions – elephants are very similar to human beings in many ways. One