Chapter 9

Answer : The framework of adaptation and natural selection has been central to the discipline of biological (physical) anthropology since its inception. Adaptation and acclimation are two terms commonly used to describe the adjustment done by either a plant or animal when it goes beyond its normal habitat. It also applies to changes that may occur inside its own environment which can render it unsuitable for survival if they fail to adjust. While they may often refer ....

Answer : For millions of years, humans and their ancestors suffered from diseases -- both the kind caused by infectious pathogens (e.g., bacteria, viruses, parasites) and the kind caused by our own bodies as they age and degenerate. Over this long period, humans constantly created new ways of living and eating, and actual physical or genetic changes evolved to minimize the effects of these diseases. From the point of view of a bacteria or virus, however, any ....

Answer : In the prehistory of the Indian subcontinent, an “Iron Age” is recognized as succeeding the Late Harappan culture.

The main Iron Age archaeological cultures of present-day northern India are the Painted Grey Ware culture (1200 to 600 BCE) and the Northern Black Polished Ware (700 to 200 BCE). This corresponds to the transition of the Janapadas or tribal kingdoms of the Vedic period to the sixteen Mahajanapadas or kingdoms of the proto-historic period, culminating in the ....

Answer : Generally, the chromosomes remain unchanged but under certain natural or artificial adverse circumstances certain structural changes may occur in the chromosomes which alter the positions of gene or loss of some genes or changes in chromosomal number.

Any alteration in the number of chromosomes or changes in gross structure of chromosome that disrupts this genetic balance generally produces developmental abnormalities with profound phenotypic effects in the form of physical effects and sometimes accompanied by mental imbalances. ....

Answer : Anthropologist John Hawks estimates that positive selection just in the past 5,000 years alone — around the period of the Stone Age — has occurred at a rate roughly 100 times higher than any other period of human evolution. Many of the new genetic adjustments are occurring around changes in the human diet brought on by the advent of agriculture, and resistance to epidemic diseases that became major killers after the growth of human ....

Answer : The concept of race as a rough division of anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) has a long and complicated history.

The word race itself is modern and was used in the sense of “nation, ethnic group” during the 16th to 19th centuries and acquired its modern meaning in the field of physical anthropology only from the mid-19th century. The politicization of the field under the concept of racism in the 20th century led to a decline ....

Answer : Culture is the vital interest of Anthropology, with important role not just in socio-cultural anthropology but also in other major sub-divisions of anthropology.

In words of E.B. Tylor, culture can be defined as “a complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, moral, law, custom and any other capabilities acquired by man as a member of the society”.

Culture had been defined by Tylor as knowledge, beliefs, and customs, but a society is more than just shared ....

Answer : Human movements in extremely hostile environments such as scorching heat of deserts, humid coastal areas and frigid high altitude lead to detrimental physiological effects, yet it is unavoidable due to military, sports, pilgrimages and tourism activities. Of these harsh climatic adversities, high altitude is one of the most extreme environments posing challenges to human survival and performance. Extremely low ambient temperatures, high velocity winds, low humidity, high intensity solar radiation and reduced atmospheric pressure are ....

Answer : Hooton (1926) defined race as a great division of mankind, the members of which, though individually varying, are characterised as a group with a certain combination of morphological and metrical features, primarily non-adaptive, which have been derived from their common decent.

Montagu (1942) defined race or an ethnic group as representing number of populations under species Homo sapiens, which individually maintain their differences, physical and cultural, by means of isolating mechanisms such ....

Answer : Hardy-Weinberg law, given by Godfrey Hardy (UK) and Wilhelm Weinberg (Germany) independently, is a mathematical rule to explain the conditions when a population will be in genetic equilibrium and when it will be going through evolution.

The Hardy–Weinberg principle, also known as the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium, model, theorem, or law, states that allele and genotype frequencies in a population will remain constant from generation to generation in the absence of other evolutionary influences. Hardy-Weinberg law proposes the ....

Answer : At first sight, man appears to be an unfavourable object for genetic study. Plant and animal geneticists use breeding methods to raise successive generations under similar environmental conditions. In man, however, the genetic diversity of individuals is great and uncontrolled, and biological and social environment vary greatly. In man, as we cannot do experimental crossing, so the studies on inheritance pattern are based on a series of generations. Genetics deal with the study of genes ....

Answer : Selective breeding of plants and animals are used by farmers for thousand years, but it was only in 1866 with Gregor Mendel’s (Father of Modern Genetics) work on pea plants the basic mechanism of inheritance and unit of inheritance (gene/trait) was identified and extended to humans. Since then modern-day knowledge of genetic inheritance has grown immensely, helping humanity in the identification of inheritance of traits and diseases. Each character or trait of inheritance is determined ....

Answer : With limited communities using scientific marriage rules and our increased awareness of the genetic disorders and inheritance patterns, the significance of genetic screening and counselling is much more than ever. It is known for long that certain genetic disorders are present in parents and passed on by parents to the kids, even if no such disorder explicitly expresses itself in any parent. Genetic screening and genetic counselling are developed to identify and forewarn to be ....

Answer : Rh blood group system is the system for classifying blood groups according to the presence or absence of the Rh antigen, often called the Rh factor, on the cell membranes of the red blood cells (erythrocytes). The designation Rh is derived from the use of the blood of rhesus monkeys in the basic test for determining the presence of the Rh antigen in human blood. The Rh blood group system was discovered in 1940 by ....

Answer : Man’s behaviour is determined by the two factors environment and heredity. Heredity is a biological process that involves transmitting certain behavioural traits from parents to their children through a fertilized egg.

The heredity traits are present in an individual since birth. On the other hand, as the name indicates, environmental traits are influenced by the environment. Some of them pass off over a period of time while some others remain. New environmental traits can also develop ....

Answer : Epidemiology is often defined as the study, distribution and determinants of disease and injuries in human population. Epidemiological anthropology elucidates etiological factors involved in a disease incidence; and emphasis on population variation in incidence and occurrence. Human growth occurs along a genetically destined trajectory, but is influenced by environmental factors consequently affecting its longevity and health status. Consequently diseases exhibit the whole spectrum of causation, ranging from hereditary factors which play predominant role, to the ....

Answer : Bio-cultural anthropology can be defined in numerous ways. It is the scientific exploration of the relationships between human biology and culture. Instead of looking for the underlying biological roots of human behaviour, bio-cultural anthropology attempts to understand how culture affects our biological capacities and limitations.

Any trait or condition that allows an organism to meet its basic physiological needs is called as bio-cultural adaptations. Homo sapiens is probably the most adaptable species of modern day living ....

Answer : Medical anthropology is a multi-disciplinary approach to the medical sciences and humanities. Immunology is of the basic medical sciences dealing with Anthropology as a science which involves in recognition of self and non-self. Immunogenetics is the branch of immunology concerning the relationship between the immunity system and the genetics, and it identifies the interrelations of heredity, disease and the immune system especially the ways in which the genetic information is required to produce different antibodies ....

Answer : Chromosomal abnormalities occur when there is a defect in a chromosome, or in the arrangement of the genetic material on the chromosome. Very often, chromosome abnormalities give rise to specific physical symptoms, however, the severity of these can vary from individual to individual.

Abnormalities can be in the form of additional material which may be attached to a chromosome, or where part or a whole chromosome is missing, or even in defective formation of a chromosome. ....

Answer : It was observed by Langdon Down in 19th century and represented as 47, XX, 21T for a female individual suffering from Down syndrome. It is also known as Mongoloid idiocy or mongolism because of certain facial characteristics resembling to the oriental features.

One of the most familiar human aneuploidy is trisomy 21. Originally studied by Langdon Down in 1866, it had been termed mongoloid idiocy or mongolism because of suggested resemblance to that ....

Answer : Acclimatisation is the process in which an individual organism adjusts to a change in its environment (such as a change in altitude, temperature, humidity, photoperiod, or pH), allowing it to maintain performance across a range of environmental conditions. Acclimatization occurs in a short period of time (hours to weeks), and within the organism’s lifetime (compared to adaptation, which is a development that takes place over many generations).

Examples of Acclimatisation

In Animals

Animals acclimatize in many ways. Sheep ....

Answer : Genes are the basic units of inheritance and are governed by the specific sequence of the genetic markers within the DNA of the individual concerned. All alleles of the genes form the gene pool.

The occurrence together in the same locality of two or more discontinuous forms of a same species in such proportions that the rarest of them cannot be maintained by recurrent mutations.

A gene is said to be polymorphic if more than one allele ....

Answer : According to Hardy Weinberg Principle, the four main factors that influence the gene frequency in a population are: mutation and genetic drift (non-systematic factors), migration and selection (systematic factors). The genetic drift is effective, more specifically, in populations whose size is small or limited e.g., an isolate or an island population or a small endogamous population.

• Hardy Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE) law states that under the absence of intervening factors, especially in a large population, given random ....

Answer : Turner and Klinefelter syndromes are the type of chromosomal aberrations caused due to numerical aberrations in the chromosomes from the healthy one of 46, XX (female) or 46, XY (male).

Klinefelter Syndrome

Genetic Changes: Klinefelter syndrome results from the presence of one extra copy of the X chromosome in each cell (47,XXY).

Frequency: Klinefelter syndrome affects 1 in 500 to 1,000 new-born males. Most variants of Klinefelter syndrome are much rarer, occurring in 1 in 50,000 or fewer ....

Answer : Genetic Counselling, as defined by Harper (1984), is “the process by which patients or relatives at risk of a disorder (that may be hereditary) are advised of the consequences of the disorder, the probability of developing and or transmitting it, and the ways in which this may be prevented or ameliorated”. Genetic counselling is the advice given to prospective parents or person affected by a genetic disease about the probability of having ....

Answer : Approximately 10 million people live permanently at heights 3600m-4000m.

Life at high altitudes imposes a complex ecological stress of low barometric pressure (which acts by lowering the oxygen and carbon-dioxide pressure in the inspired air), cold, low moisture (humidity) content of the air, wind, intense solar radiation and reduced nutritional base. In addition, the rough terrain imposes higher muscular activity. Of these, hypoxia exerts greater degree of stress on physiological functions and is not easily modified ....

Answer : Environmental or Ecological Anthropology embraces within its realm, the study of the complex relations between people and their environments (Salzman and Attwood, 1996).

The environment refers not only to biophysical context, but also to human interaction with, and interpretation of that context which is culturally perceived; the environment, therefore, is not just a set of things to which people adapt, but also a set of ongoing relations of mutual adaptation between culture and ....

Answer : Epidemiology is often defined as the study, distribution and determinants of disease and injuries in human population. Epidemiological anthropology elucidates etiological factors involved in a disease incidence; and emphasis on population variation in incidence and occurrence.

• Epidemiological anthropology is a sub-division of anthropology concerned with the study of the distribution of various diseases and determinants of diseases in various societies.
• Epidemic diseases are highly contagious and usually follow a seasonal wave diagram with high increase in certain ....

Answer : Anthropology in its study of societies focuses on the study of relationships between the cultural and social structures, people’s belief on disease, cure and prevention. The integrated and critical perspective, holism and quantitative analysis help to build a strongrole for anthropology in understanding the health and disease. Culture plays important part in social stratification which defines the access to material and immaterial things including the food, health services. Culture also guides the attitude of society ....

Answer : Reduction in the observed fitness from that produced by the optimum genotype is known as Genetic Load. It is the difference between the fitness of an average genotype in a population and the fitness of some reference genotype, which may be either the best present in a population, or may be the theoretically optimal genotype. The average individual taken from a population with a low genetic load will generally, when grown in the same conditions, ....

Answer : The twin method consists of a formal comparison between the resemblance between identical (Monozygotic, MZ) twins and the resemblance between fraternal (Dizygotic, DZ) twins for some traits of interest. It was developed between 1900 and 1940, as more accurate tools for diagnosis of zygosity and for statistically analysing the resemblance between relatives were built.

Twin method of studying human genetics is based on the comparisons between the Monozygotic (MZ) and Dizygotic (DZ) twins, for the purpose ....

Answer : Biological Anthropology deals with the comparative biogenetics of man. Among the various fields of research, human evolution and the study of genetic variation in modern man hold an eminent place. An important branch of Biological Anthropology is therefore Population Genetics, which deals with exact genetic descriptions of human population and the reasons for genetic differences among them.

A genetic marker is a gene or DNA sequence with a known location on a chromosome that can be ....

Answer : Humans have biological plasticity, or an ability to adapt biologically to our environment. An adaptation is any variation that can increase one’s biological fitness in a specific environment; precisely, it is the successful interaction of a population with its environment. Man is homoeothermic, i.e., it has an internal temperature regulating system to automatically maintain a stable body temperature of around 98.4° F (normal to have 1°F above or below). While man has developed many cultural ....

Answer : The word epidemiological is made up of epi which means upon, demos which means people and logos which means study. Thus epidemiological transition is defined as the study of epidemics upon a group of people including the diseases and deaths with their determinants and consequences.

Epidemiology is often defined as the study, distribution and determinants of disease and injuries in human population. Epidemiological anthropology elucidates etiological factors involved in a disease incidence; and emphasises on population ....