Chapter 2

Biological Anthropology

Biological anthropology is a subfield of anthropology that focuses on the biological and evolutionary aspects of humans and our closest primate relatives. Biological anthropology was formerly known as physical anthropology... but we'll get into why it changed its name in a bit.

In studying human evolution, scientists seek to understand early primates to upright-walking humans, showcasing the adaptations and anatomical changes that occurred over millions of years. From the Australopithecus afarensis, known as "Lucy," to the Neanderthals, our fossil record demonstrates a shared ancestry and the journey of human evolution.

Biological anthropology isn't just about the past.  Biological anthropologists study primate behavior, as well as the human impacts on non-human primates. The field also delves into modern human genetic variation and adaptation. Scientists investigate how our bodies have adapted to diverse environments, how people have traveled great migration routes, and how one's culture and society influence the body.

Pre-history of Physical Anthropology

Early Observations

There are several early writers who sought to study and compare different forms of life.

• Aristotle, in the 4th Century BCE Greece, wrote Historia Animalium, which was a classification of animals based on similarities and differences.

• Herophilos, in the 4th Century BCE Egypt from modern Turkey, earliest recorded dissections of human bodies, contributing to anatomical knowledge.

• Galen, in the 3rd Century CE in Greece, contributed to knowledge about the circulation system. A lot of his ideas were later disproved, such as blood originating from the liver and there being a soul, separated into various parts, which are then associated with specific body parts. 

Emergence of Systematic Observation

As discussed in Chapter 1, the Scientific Revolution (16th to 18th centuries. Du) was a period of advancements in science, mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy. It's during this time that a foundation is laid for the establishment of anthropology as a discipline. Edward Tyson (1699) compared the anatomy of what he called a pygmie, monkey, ape, and human. This is confusing because pygmies are humans, and humans are apes. It's probably the case that his pygmy was a chimpanzee, which is confusing since chimpanzees are also apes. Bonobos are also called pygmy chimpanzees, so it’s hard to determine. In any case, Tyson is significant as a pioneer in the field of comparative anatomy. Comparative anatomy is the study of the similarities and differences in the anatomy of multiple species in order to understand their evolutionary relationships and biological structures.

Beginnings of Scientific Racism

Other so-called intellectuals continued this practice of studying and classifying, but with a modern twist... racism. Scientific racism is the misuse of scientific methods to justify discriminatory beliefs and practices based on perceived racial differences (Dennis, 1995).

In 1785, Christoph Meiners, a German philosopher,  divided humans into two groups: the “white-skinned and beautiful” and the “dark-skinned and ugly” (Baum, 2008). In 1795, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach referred to Caucasians as “God’s original creation” (Shamambo & Henry, 2022). This was based on an erroneous belief that life began in the Caucasus mountains and created a taxonomy of five human varieties.  He also classified humans according to the following groups:

• Caucasian: light-skinned people of Europe and parts of eastern Asia and northern Africa, aka WHITE

• Mongolian: for most other inhabitants of Asia, aka YELLOW

• Ethiopian: for the dark- skinned people of Africa, aka BLACK

• American: for most indigenous people in the Western Hemisphere, aka RED

• Malay: for the Polynesians and Melanesians of the Pacific and for the aborigines of Australia, aka BROWN

Samuel George Morton collected and measured human skulls to support his belief in a racial hierarchy. In his 1839 book Crania Americana, he argued that cranial capacity varied among races with Caucasians having the biggest brains, promoting the notion of inherent intellectual differences. Louis Agassiz, a Swiss-American naturalist, geologist, and zoologist, wrote several books describing a racial hierarchy and advocating against interracial marriage.

• 1857 Natural history of the United States

• 1859 Cranial and dental characteristics of the races of man

• 1874 Evidence of the human races

These authors reinforced the racist status quo of the time.  Many white people believed they were superior to black people, and their scientific worldview reflected that.  They pointed to the higher rates of disease and lower rates of educational attainment among black people as proof of racial inferiority, while neglecting poverty and the devastating legacy of being enslaved.

Physical Anthropology

Eugenics and the Rise of Anthropology as a Discipline

Here are some important dates regarding the early days of anthropology.

• 1868 George Alexander Otis, Assistant Surgeon General of the United States Army, ordered soldiers to collect skulls of indigenous people “to aid in the progress of anthropological science by obtaining measurements of a large number of skulls of aboriginal races of North America.” (McNally, 2017).

• 1871 Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland founded

• 1879 U.S. Bureau of American Ethnology hired anthropologists

• 1886 First anthropology class in USA taught: University of Vermont

• 1902 First anthropology department in USA founded: Columbia University

• 1902 American Anthropological Association founded

At the same time, eugenics was on the rise. Eugenics is the belief in improving the genetic quality of a population by controlling reproduction. The goal is to eliminate perceived undesirable traits. The eugenics movement in the United States centered on race. Among the eugenicists, whiteness was the desired trait of the population. These ideas were part of the cultural discourse at the time of anthropology's founding, and they influenced the trajectory of the discipline.

Incorporating Evolution and Genetics

While some anthropologists had been focused on eugenics, others were exploring theories of evolution and genetics.

The prevailing theory in biological anthropology is Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. According to this theory, the traits that enhance the chances for survival and reproduction in a given environment become more common in a population over time. Varying environmental factors result in populations with different traits. We'll discuss the theory in more detail in the next chapter.

Darwinian evolution laid the groundwork for the study of genetics, which is the scientific study of genes, heredity, and variation in organisms. The first well documented studies in genetics were by Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk. In 1865, he conducted groundbreaking experiments with peas, uncovering the basic principles of heredity and laying the foundation for modern genetics. His writings went more or less unnoticed.

During the 1900s, there were some revolutionary shifts in our understanding of life.

• 1900: Mendel's work was rediscovered and popularized by three scientists independently: Carl Correns, Erich von Tschermak, and Hugo de Vries. Their recognition of Mendel's laws of inheritance brought attention to the field of genetics.

• 1902: Walter Sutton and Theodor Boveri proposed the chromosome theory of inheritance, which suggested that genes are located on chromosomes and are responsible for transmitting hereditary information.

• 1910: Thomas Hunt Morgan and his colleagues conducted extensive experiments on fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) and provided strong evidence for chromosomal heredity. They also discovered sex-linked inheritance.

• In 1944, Avery et al. discovered that DNA was responsible for transmitting genetic information.

• In 1951, Sherwood Washburn’s book The new physical anthropology advocated for integrating evolutionary biology into physical anthropology.

• In 1972, Lowentin studied genetic variability and the nature of adaptation. He emphasized the role of genetic variation and interactions with the environment in shaping evolution, challenging the idea of strict genetic determinism. This study demonstrated that there is more genetic diversity within racial groups than between them, challenging the concept of distinct racial boundaries (Novembre, 2022).

• In 1987, Cann et al. used mitochondrial DNA to suggest that modern humans originated in Africa and migrated to other parts of the world, challenging previous notions of human evolution and migration.

As more and more evidence was gathered, it became clear that the anthropologists studying race were simply wrong. We will discuss human variation in a later chapter.

Biological Anthropology

Addressing Historical Biases

In the middle-to-late 20th century, a significant shift took place in the field of anthropology. With the culmination of scientific research and advancements in understanding human genetic variation, physical anthropologists began to recognize that race was not a biologically valid category.  Given the racist history associated with some physical anthropologists and the recognition that many people in the field, including geneticists, primatologists, and paleopathologists, focused on aspects beyond physical traits, the term "physical anthropology" no longer adequately encompassed the breadth of their research. As a result, the field underwent a transformation, leading to its renaming as "biological anthropology." Textbook authors and professional organizations began using the word biological instead of physical. The American Association of Physical Anthropologists renamed itself the American Association of Biological Anthropologists. Many publications still use the outdated language, but they are declining.

• In 1984, the American Anthropological Association (AAA) renamed its Physical Anthropology section to Biological Anthropology.

• In 2011, the National Science Foundation changed the name of its Physical Anthropology program to Biological Anthropology.

• In 2014, the American Academy of Forensic Sciences renamed its Physical Anthropology section to simply Anthropology.

• In 2018, the Academic Phylogeny of Physical Anthropology changed its name to the Academic Phylogeny of Biological Anthropology.

• In 2020, the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, founded in 1928, changed its name to the American Association of Biological Anthropologists.

• In 2022, the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, first published in 1918, was changed to the American Journal of Biological Anthropology.

• In 2024, Moraine Valley Community college renamed the course ANT-201 from Introductory Physical Anthropology to Biological Anthropology.

Refer to the line graph below that compares the usages of the terms "Physical Anthropology" (in red) and "Biological Anthropology" (in blue).

This shift in terminology reflects a broader commitment to a more comprehensive understanding of human biology, evolution, and diversity, devoid of the racial biases and discriminatory practices that characterized its early years. Today, biological anthropology focuses on the biological aspects of humanity, studying human variation, genetics, adaptation, and the interplay between biology and culture. By shedding the racist baggage of its past, the field has emerged as a rigorous scientific discipline that seeks to unravel the complexity of human biology in a manner that is inclusive, respectful, and devoid of racial bias.

Holistic Human Biology

Unlike in the past, when physical anthropologists were focused on studying the physical differences between people, biological anthropologists use a holistic approach today. This means they try to consider everything related to human biology. the whole system that impacts human biology with all of its related parts. Just as biological anthropology is a subfield of anthropology, biological anthropology can be further broken into more specialties... just like the taxonomy discussed below. Each specialty within biological anthropology comes with its own methodological challenges and opportunities.

Ethical Considerations

While changing the name from physical anthropology to biological anthropology is one thing, there is still more work to be done to address anthropology's ethical lapses.

One issue to consider is the repatriation of human remains. Anthropologists have many human remains of indigenous people in North America. For various reasons, these remains are not returned, despite requests from indigenous people. In 1985, Philadelphia police bombed a neighborhood leaving six adults and five children dead, including innocent bystanders. Their skulls were collected and given to anthropology departments to be used for teaching demonstrations about forensic anthropology. Requests for the repatriation of these returns remained unanswered until the 2020s.

Consent is when people give permission to be part of a research study. Researchers must respect participants' rights, privacy, and dignity. Unfortunately, there are many instances when people were coerced or unknowingly participated in research projects.

Anthropologists have violated the research consent of their subjects. Researchers discovered a genetic connection to diabetes in a tribe near the Havasupai people. They wanted to test if an increase in diabetes among Havasupai was also genetic. The researchers found no link to Diabetes. However, they published papers about other issues, including inbreeding, alcoholism, and the origin and migration of the tribe from Asia. The participants had not given researchers permission to study those aspects of their lives (Sterling, 2011).

Another lesson can be learned from the story of Henrietta Lacks. Her cells (HeLa cells) were the first human cells to be successfully cultured and propagated, becoming an invaluable resource for medical research. Her cells were collected without her knowledge or consent. HeLa cells became widely used, leading to commercialization and profiting from her cells without compensation to her family (Skloot, 2011).

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