Introduction to Anthropology

Department of Forensic Odontology, Faculty of Dentistry

Airlangga University
Introduction
• Anthropology is a global discipline where humanities, social, and
natural sciences are forced to confront one another.
• Derived from two Greek words, ‘Anthropos’ mean Man & ’logos’
means Study/Science
• According to Webster the science of human beings; the study of
human beings and their ancestors through time and space and in
relation to physical character, environmental, culture, and social
relations
Introduction
• Anthropology seeks to understand and explain why people do the
things they do and say the things they say.
• It seeks to find the generalities about human life while also explaining
the differences.
Different Fields of Anthropology
• Cultural Anthropology – Examines cultural diversity of the present
and recent past
• Linguistic Anthropology – Considers how speech varies with social
factors, over time and space
• Archaeology – Reconstructs behavior by studying material remains
• Biological Anthropology – Study of human fossils, genetics, and
bodily growth and nonhuman primates
Cultural Anthropology
• Studies the origins of man’s cultures their evolution and
development, and the structure and functioning of human cultures in
every place and time.
• All the cultures interest the cultural anthropologist, for all contribute
some evidence of reactions in cultural forms to the ever present
problems posed by the physical environment.
Archeology
• Archeology, the “study of the old”
• Archeology is the study of the ancient and recent human pas through
material remains. It is a subfield of cultural anthropology.
• Archeology or prehistory deals primarily with ancient cultures and
with past phases of modern civilizations
Linguistic Anthropology
• Linguistic Anthropology is devoted to the study of communication,
mainly among humans.
Linguistic Anthropology has three subfields:
1.historical linguistics, the study of language change over time and how
languages are related.
2.Descriptive linguistics, or structural linguistics, the study of how
contemporary languages differ in terms of their formal structure
3.Sociolinguistics, the study of the relationships between human
interactions by using languages
Ethnology
• Comes from Greek word ethnos= nation; is the branch that compares
and analyzes the characteristics of different people and relationship
between them
• Ethnology in its theoretical aspects is devoted very largely to the
problem of explaining the similarities ad differences to be found in
human cultures.
Biological Anthropology
• Physical / biological anthropology is the study of the past and
present evolution of the human species and is especially
concerned with understanding the causes of present human
diversity
• It deals with the exploring of the human origins and human
variation.
Biological Anthropology
• Biological anthropology looks at the physical or biological differences
(DNA, Genes, Phenotype) characteristics in humans.
• There are three ways in which biological anthropology study human
variation and human evolution: human genetics (traits that are
inherited), population biology (environmental impact on humans),
and epidemiologist (the study of diseases).
Dental Anthropology
• The discipline of dental anthropology can be defined as the study of
teeth and jaws of living or prehistoric people and their ancestors for
insights concerning human behavior, health, and nutritional status.
Genetic relationship also considered in vision of correlation between
populations
• Teeth exhibit variables with a strong hereditary component that are
useful in assessing population relationships and evolutionary
dynamics.
Dental Anthropology
• Teeth can also exhibit incidental or intentional modifications, which
reflect patterns of cultural behavior
• As the process of tooth formation is highly canalized (i.e. buffered
from environmental perturbations), developmental defects provide a
general measure of environmental stress on a population.
Why study teeth?
Perservability

Teeth preserve exceptionally well in the archeological record (due in

part to the chemical properties of enamel) and are frequently best
representation of skeletal sample
Why study teeth?
Observability

1.Most variables of interest to human osteologists can be observed

only in prehistoric and protohistoric skeletal remains
2.Teeth can be directly observed and studied both in skeletal and living
populations
3.Observable in both extict and extant human groups, thus provides a
valuable research tool for the analysis of short-term and long-term
temporal trends.
Why study teeth?
Variability

1.Teeth are critical in dietary and food processing behavior, their

development is controlled by a relatively strict set of genetic-
developmental programs.
2.Dentition interfaces directly with environment, teeth are also
modified postnatally by physical factors associated with mastication
and disease factors related to the interplay of dietary elements and a
complex oral microbiota
Why study teeth?
Teeth as indicator of age

1.An accurate determination of estimating age and gender is

fundamental to acquiring information from both archeological and
forensic contexts in skeletal remains
2.Characteristics changes in dentition makes it useful in aging individual
skeletons. A predictable sequence of developmental events, including
crown and root formation, calcification, and eruption.
Why study teeth?
Inferring History from Teeth

1.The derivation of historical relationships from dental data requires

variables with a significant genetic component
2.As most historical analyses focus on tooth size and morphology, this
discussion is limited to metric and morphologic variables
Why study teeth?
Crown and Root Morphology

1.Teeth exhibit two types of morphological variations. First, there is

variation in the form of recurring structures (e.g. labial curvature of
the upper central incisors)
2.Most morphological crown and root traits that have been
operationally defined take the form of presence/absence of variables
3.Within a population, some individuals exhibit a particular structure
while others do not
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Introduction to Anthropology
Department of Forensic Odontology, Faculty of Dentistry
Airlangga University