Anthropology
List of important vocabulary used in Anthropology
Terms
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- Biology/Physical anthropology
- The study of humans as biological organisms, dealing with the emergence and evolution on humans and with contemporary biological variations among human populations.
- Archaeology
- The branch of Anthropology that seeks to reconstruct the daily life and customs of peoples who lived in the past and to trace and explain cultural changes.
- Ethnology
- The study of how and why recent cultures differ and are similar.
- Gene
- chemical unit of heredity.
- Homozygous
- Possessing two identical genes or alleles in corresponding locations on a pair of chromosomes.
- Ethnography
- A description of a society's customary behaviors, and ideas.
- Fossils
- The hardened remains or impressions of plants and animals that lived in the past.
- Phenotype
- The observable physical appearance of an organism, which may or may not reflect its genotype or total genetic constitution.
- Allele
- One member of a pair of genes.
- Culture
- The set of learned behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, values, and ideals that are characteristic of a particular society or other social group.
- Cultural anthropology
- The study of cultural variation and universals in the past and present.
- Holistic
- Refers to an approach that studies many aspects of a multifaceted system.
- Primatologists
- People who study primates.
- Natural selection
- The outcome of processes that affect the frequencies of traits in a particular environment. Traits that enhance survival and reproductive success increase in frequency over time.
- Genotype
- The total complement of inherited traits or genes of an organism.
- Heterozygous
- Possessing differing genes or alleles in corresponding locations on the chromosome.
- Chromosomes
- Paired rod-shaped structures within a cell nucleus containing the genes that transmit traits from one generation to the next.
- Mutation
- A change in the DNA sequence, producing an altered gene.
- Paleoanthropology
- The study of the emergence of humans and their later physical evolution.
- Recessive
- An allele phenotypically suppressed in heterozygous form and expressed only in the homozygous form.
- Dominant
- The allele of a gene pair that is always phenotypically expressed in heterozygous form.
- DNA
- A long, two-stranded molecule in the genes that directs the makeup of an organism according to the instructions in its genetic code.
- Anthropology
- A discipline that studies humans, focusing on the study of differences and similarities, both biological and cultural, in human populations.