Throughout history, explorers and scientists alike have made claims towards anthropological finds that could potentially alter the way in which one views human history. As observers, it is our imperative to analyze such claims and determine if they are legitimate. A prime example would be the Piltdown hoax from great Britain which lead the public to believe that the Piltdown fossil was the “missing link” of human evolution, this elaborate plot was written in history books for decades until being debunked and shown merely as a hoax. Through situations such as this, one must now be more objective to new finds in the field of anthropology and validate there own understanding with research and further inquiry. Through this journal, the analysis of “Ancient Aliens: Noah’s Ark Found?
Spencer Ferguson SOC 100/02 25th September 2011 Reflection on Lucy the Chimp: Progress in Research or Inhumane? When listening to this story, I was so intrigued, almost entranced in what this account had to tell society. It is truly mind-boggling to think that a closely related species, but a different species nonetheless is taught to eat like a human, act like a human, and truly think it is actually a human. It makes you wonder what else we could do with research, but you also wonder, is that natural? That is the battle I’m going through now over this story.
The plot forces the audience to question whether humans can control the technology they create and if our desire to continually make advancements in technology might be to humanity’s detriment. The novel, ‘Black Hole’, written by Geraldine Stowe, is set on a star colony called ‘Estra’ in the year 2305 where technology has become so advanced that nearly anything is possible. The social comment reminds the audience that even though we live in world full of advanced technology, our negative traits remain the same. This is presented through Dante and what he is forced to go through abuse just because he is different from his society Examples of futuristic and advanced technology are interspersed throughout, ‘I, Robot’, placing the film easily in the science fiction genre. Detective Del Spooner is employed to investigate the apparent suicide of Dr Alfred Lanning who “practically invented robotics.” During Spooner’s quest to uncover the truth, he stumbles upon Lanning’s “unique” creation, Sonny.
b) During tool use, chimpanzees would automatically become more lateralized, especially if the stance was supported (Braccini 2010). Therefore tool use may have pushed our nearest ancestors upright. a) What Braccini does not state is why chimpanzees and other great apes never evolved towards bipedalism since they all use tools (to an extent). b) Carsten (2010) discussed that the earliest of ancestors would have needed hands and arms for many reasons (self defense, food gathering, infant carrying), but was most likely “neither a trigger nor a promoter of walking upright”. Theory Two: Arboreal Bipedalism Instead of bipedalism stemming from an adaptation from knuckle-walking or other well-known theories, ancient ancestors
Are Humans Inherently Violent? Human history and evolution has been shaped by war, aggression, rage, and violence. Biological anthropologists are still seeking out information to this day trying to decide on whether humans are inherently violent. Some biological anthropologists, such as Richard Wrangham and Dale Peterson, believe that humans and chimpanzees are very closely related species. So this correlates with humans having a very aggressive violent past dealing with defending territories, sexual selection, and natural selection.
For a long time, the idea that language might shape thought was considered at best untestable and more often simply wrong. Research in my labs at Stanford University and at MIT has helped reopen this question. We have collected data around the world: from China, Greece, Chile, Indonesia, Russia, and Aboriginal Australia. What we have learned is that people who speak different languages do indeed think differently and that even flukes of grammar can profoundly affect how we see the world. Language is a uniquely human gift, central to our experience of being human.
But these creatures could be real. They could be the way they are because of mutations and/or evolution. Or did some species thought to have gone extinct actually survive. Cryptozoology is the study of, and searching for, legendary animals, called cryptids (Halls, Spears, and Young 4). It has also been defined as the study of the reports of unknown animals (Arnosky 5) Another source says that cryptozoology is the study of unusual animals that are not yet accepted in the scientific world (Walker 2).
Many movies are based on myths and historical events. The things that look very boring and uninteresting might seem full of colour when explained visually. When we see something in a movie, things get painted in our minds. For example not much people knew what dinosaurs were like until Jurassic Park sketched them for us. Nowadays even a kid can explain that dinosaurs were the biggest creatures on the planet; they became extinct long ago and much more.
This fact often gets overlooked in media reports hyping scientific breakthroughs on gene function, and, unfortunately, this can be very misleading to the public” explained Joseph McInerney (2011). Genetics influence your physiological characteristics as well as your temper, fear, and certain preferences, even your intelligence. So whether we like it or not, our parents are slightly responsible for our behavior. How does the body communicate internally? The brain is a powerful organ if you understand its full potential.
According to McCown, as cited by Miller (1993) the study of human evolution is still male-biased as evidenced, among other things, by the use of male skeletal remains as the standard measure and the great preponderance of male primate skulls kept in museums (p. 13). Miller (1993) has shown in the field of physical anthropology that there have been several problems with accuracy of determining the roles of sex and gender. Miller (1993) states that “two serious problems with skeletal remains daunt those who study gender in prehistory, the difficulty in accurately determining the sex of many of the remains and the small number of