Anth1101additionalnotes#3

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1101

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Anthropology

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Oct 30, 2023

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1 Anth 1101 – Additional notes #3 This online course is self-directed. At home, students should study the lecture slides as posted on Blackboard under the Content link, in conjunction with the following additional notes. Read the textbook readings as listed in the course outline. Students are strongly advised to study the lecture slide topics and read the textbook readings on a weekly basis as listed in the Topic Schedule in the course outline. The following additional notes are arranged by section headings as they appear in the Powerpoint lecture slide files (posted under Content on Blackboard). I have only included additional explanation/definitions that are not included in the lecture slides or the textbook. For information not in these additional notes, refer to the textbook, the lecture slides, or you may email me with your questions. The following additional notes cover Powerpoint file number 4, posted under the Content link on Blackboard, which deals with the material for the last third of the course from the second interm exam to the end of the course. PRIMATOLOGY - as discussed earlier in the course, the earliest primate species first appear in the fossil record about 55mya. Primate’s (both past and present) primary evolutionary adaptation is an arboreal (life up in the trees in a forested environment) adaptation, so as to be able to take advantage of fruit as their primary food source. - there are 13 characteristics that are used to define the primates (several of these characteristics are related to the primary primate adaptation to an arboreal environment). See chapter 6 in the textbook for further explanation. Primate classification: - see chapter 6 in the textbook for explanation of slide #2 (Primate classification) in Powerpoint file #4. Primate characteristics - see lecture slides and chapter 6 in the textbook for detailed description of the various different types of primates. Primate ranging behaviour - primate ranging behaviour is the study of the geographic area that a social group of primates occupy, how they move around in that area, and their conscious understanding of the locations and resources within that area. - most primate species (including humans) follow a typical pattern of movements and activities during the course of a day. See chapter 7 in the textbook for more detailed explanation. - the area in which a particular primate social group occupies is described by three concepts: home range, core area, and territory (see chapter 7 in textbook for further explanation).

2 Home range – for a primate social group, the total area used for all daily and seasonal activities. The home range is not actively defended by that social group, and so there can be overlap between conspecific (definition: ‘of the same species’) group’s home ranges. Core area – the area within a social group’s home range which has the heaviest usage, including the sleeping area, favoured fruit tree locations and a water source. Core area changes by season, since fruit is seasonal and different types of fruit will be available in different locations in different seasons. Territory – for a social group, an area that is actively defended and exclusively used by that group. A territory is a conscious construct in the animal’s minds. While all primate social groups have a home range, not all primate species maintain territories. A territory may be defended for one of two potential reasons: 1. resource defence territoriality – may occur if preferred food resources (usually fruit) are clumped in space and are scarce. 2. mate defence territoriality – may occur if there is a high degree of male competition for female mates, since the males in a group will want to minimize competition by excluding non-group males. - for those primate species that maintain a territory, territoriality may be expressed in one of three ways: vocalization, scent marking, or through physical confrontation (see chapter 7 in textbook for further explanation). - primatologists have studied how primates perceive their home range by undertaking ‘foraging travel studies’, which involve observations of primate social group’s daily and seasonal movements within their home range. These observations include path length and day range: 1. path length – for a primate social group, the actual curved daily travel distance from sleeping area to furthest point reached in a day and back again. 2. day range – the straight line distance from the sleeping area to the furthest point reached in a day. - these observations provide evidence that all primate species possess a ‘cognitive map’: a conscious mental map of one’s surroundings. The presence of a cognitive map facilitates the ability to take the most efficient route from one location to another. Primate social organization - the study of the composition of primate social groups. - different species of primates have different proportions of adult males to adult females to juvenile individuals. This variation in group composition is related to variation in mating behaviour between different primate species. - the following are the different types of social organization/group composition found in the various primate species: 1. solitary – group composition – either one adult male, or one adult female, or one adult female and immature young. Adult males and females only come together for mating behaviour. 2. monogamous – group composition – one adult male plus one adult female plus immature young. Pair bonding between males and females occurs at puberty and lasts for life. Are usually territorial for resource defence reasons. There is little sexual dimorphism (size differences between males and females) in monogamous species, since males do not have to compete with other males for female mates because the pair bond between mates is permanent. 3. multi-male, multi-female – group composition – several adult males plus several adult females plus immature young. Most common type of primate social organization. Pair bonds between males

3 and females are brief, and change from one mating episode to the next (‘promiscuous’ sexual behaviour). 4. uni-male, multi-female – group composition – one adult male (the breeding male) plus several adult females plus immature young. Other adult males are non-breeding and form all male groups. The non-breeding males are continuously challenging the breeding male so as to take his place, and so it is advantageous for males to be particularly large in order to either fend off challenges or to win a challenge and become the breeding male. Since it is advantageous for males to be larger (so as to win competitions), there is a large degree of sexual dimorphism in uni-male, multi-female groups. 5. uni-female, multi-male – group composition – one adult female plus several adult males plus immature young. This type of social organization is very rare for biological reproductive reasons, since the minimum time investment females must invest in reproduction is the period of gestation (9 months in humans), whereas for males it is the period of copulation (~5-15 minutes). 6. fission-fusion – may occur in multi-male, multi-female groups. From time to time a sub-group separates from the main group and then later rejoins the main group. In chimpanzees, male sub- groups form to hunt red colobus monkeys, whereas female sub-groups form to forage for plant foods. Primate dispersal patterns - among the different primate species, at puberty, either males or females (and in some species both males and females), will leave the social group of their birth (their ‘natal group’) and then join another social group. This facilitates the maintenance of genetic diversity within groups. For example, in macaques males leave their natal group at puberty and join another group (females stay in their natal group all of their lives); in chimpanzees females leave their natal group at puberty and join another group (males stay in their natal group all of their lives); in gorillas both males and females leave their natal group at puberty (females will then join another social group, whereas males will join an all male group [see further explanation above and in chapter 7 of textbook]. Natal emigration – leaving the group of your birth, usually occurs at puberty. Secondary emigration – any movement between groups after natal emigration. Philopatry – individuals living in the group of their birth (their natal group). Immigrants/Transferred individuals – individuals not living in the group of their birth. Dominance and rank Dominance: an individual’s power to influence another individual’s behaviour. Rank: an individual’s dominance level in relation to other individual’s dominance level within their social group. Agonistic behaviour: behaviour associated with conflict situations between individuals. Affiliative behaviour: behaviour associated with friendly interactions between individuals (see chapter 7 in textbook for further detail).

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4 Grooming: cleaning the fur of another individual. Purpose: both hygiene and social bonding (create and solidify friendships between individuals). Dyad: a pair of individuals. In observing dyads, the individual who is higher ranked will more often display aggressive signals; will more frequently approach the lower ranked individual; and will have better access to resources (ie the best fruit trees). Rank determination: within a primate’s social group, an individual’s rank is inherited from their mother at birth. For example, an individual born to a high ranking mother, will inherit that high rank. During an individual’s lifetime, they may be able to change their rank in their social group through creating alliances with other individuals in the group (either through kinship connections or through forming friendships), or through social skill (for example by being particularly good at creating friendships, or through being good at intimidating and dominating other individuals). See chapter 7 in textbook for additional detail. Primate intelligence - primates have a large brain size in proportion to overall body size. Of all the organs of the body, brains consume the largest proportion of metabolic energy produced by the diet. On average, primate brains comprise about 2% of overall body weight, but consume about 20% of metabolic energy. However, primate’s large brains facilitate an increased ability for flexible problem solving behaviour as compared to non-primate species, which increases the ability of primates to come up with new ways of doing things. For example, when provisioned with sweet potatoes on a beach, Japanese macaques began to wash them in water before eating them in order to get rid of sand adhering to the potatoes. Later they began to wash the potatoes in ocean water to add salt to improve taste. When provisioned with rice on a beach, the Japanese macaques learned how to efficiently separate the rice from the sand. Another group of Japanese macaques learned that immersing themselves in natural hot springs would help keep them warm in winter (see chapter 7 in textbook for additional explanation). Theory of mind: - one aspect of increased primate intelligence is the theory of mind: the ability to consciously understand what another individual is thinking. Evidence demonstrates that the various monkey, ape and human species have this ability. 1. enables an individual to consciously distinguish between what they know and what other individuals know. This facilitates active teaching from one individual to another individual (ie mother chimpanzee teaching her offspring to use tools to crack open nutshells for food). 2. enables an individual to consciously understand another’s state of mind (for example, are they happy, sad or angry), and therefore to display sympathy and compassion. Language: - definition: language: a type of communication that uses abstract symbols that have specific meanings. - wild chimpanzees use vocalizations called pant-hoots that studies have shown to be used in specific contexts and therefore have specific meanings. Wild chimpanzees also use gestures that have specific meanings.

5 - captive chimpanzees have been taught and can understand and use human non-verbal language, for example in the 1960s a female chimpanzee named Washoe was taught American Sign Language (see chapter 7 in textbook for further explanation). Tool use and manufacture in chimpanzees: - studies of wild chimpanzees have shown that they manufacture tools for specific purposes. For example, ant wands are manufactured and used to efficiently eat ants, hammers and anvils are used to break open very hard nutshells in order to eat the nuts inside, sponges are made from bunched up leaves in order to sop up water for drinking, and specific bitter tasting leaves are consumed whole in order to expel tapeworms. These and other examples show that chimpanzees intentionally modify objects in order to manufacture tools for specific purposes. - chimpanzees are able to coordinate the use of two tools together for a single purpose (for example, the use of both a hammer and anvil to crack open nutshells). - observations of wild chimpanzees show that occasionally a tool is manufactured but not used at the time of manufacture, and is set aside and used at a later point in time, demonstrating that chimpanzees understand the concept of the ‘future’. - in terms of human groups, one characteristic that differentiates different human cultures is the difference in the tools used by different human cultures. We also see this in wild chimpanzees: not all chimpanzee social groups use the same tools, suggesting that ‘culture’ is not human exclusive, but that chimpanzees also have culture.