C. Mulligan, Copyright 2010 All rights reserved ANG 6930 Proseminar in Anthropology IIA: Bioanthropology Day 1 ANG 6930 Prof. Connie J. Mulligan Department

C. Mulligan, Copyright 2010All rights reserved

ANG 6930Proseminar in

Anthropology IIA: Bioanthropology

Day 1

ANG 6930

Prof. Connie J. Mulligan

Department of Anthropology

C. Mulligan, Copyright 2010

All rights reserved

• Did everyone receive my email before Christmas?

• Does everyone have the textbook?

• Does everyone have the coursepack or access to the articles?

• Has everyone done the readings for today?


All rights reserved

Introductions


All rights reserved

My interdisciplinary research

• Current research– Genetic, biological, and cultural determinants of cardiovascular disease,

hypertension, and stress• Lance Gravlee, cultural anthropologist, UF

– Epigenetic alterations and stress among new mothers and infants in the Democratic Republic of Congo

• Nikki D’Errico, Lance Gravlee and Alyson Young, cultural anthropologists, UF– Emergence of anatomically modern humans from Africa and subsequent

contacts across the Red Sea• Steve Brandt and Peter Schmidt, archaeologists, UF

• Past research– Phylogenetic analysis of Semitic languages to compare to phylogenetic

analysis of DNA from Semitic populations• Chris Ehret, linguist, UCLA

– Transmission of HIV from mother to infant through breastfeeding • Maureen Goodenow, molecular geneticist, UF College of Medicine

– Genetic variants that affect risk of developing alcoholism• David Goldman (NIH) and Jeff Long (U Mich) – molecular/population geneticists


All rights reserved

Course materials• One textbook (Orange & Blue Textbooks, 309 NW

13th St)– The Human Species: An Introduction to Biological

Anthropology (2010, Eighth edition) by John Relethford • Course packet (Orange & Blue Textbooks, 309 NW

13th St)– Journal articles

• Some figures don’t copy well – go to original source through e-journals

– Especially important for color figures

– Chapters from other textbooks– Newspaper articles


All rights reserved

Course schedule

First half of the course = Bioanthropology• Day 1 – Introduction and overview of the discipline• Day 2 – Science and evolution• Day 3 – Genetics and the development of evolutionary theory• Day 4 – Primate evolution, ecology and behavior• Day 5 – Human evolution – hominoid to hominin• Day 6 – Origin of modern humans/human variation• Day 7 – Evolution of human life history/evolution of human

intelligence and complex phenotypes

Second half of the course = Archaeology


All rights reserved

Course content

• Evolutionary theory and genetics

• Primates and our place in nature

• Human evolution

• Human variation

• Culture and behavior in an evolutionary context


All rights reserved

Course format

• Quizzes (every other week, starting next week)

• Lecture

• Class discussion

• ALWAYS ask questions!!!


All rights reserved

Contact information• Prof. Connie Mulligan

– [email protected]– 273-8092

• Office hours – B119 Turlington, Friday, 10:30-12:30

• My main office – 409 Genetics Institute, 1376 Mowry Rd, 273-8092

• Course webpage - http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/cmulligan/Webpage/Proseminar.2011/Prosemhome.html

• Can also go through anthro homepage (www.anthro.ufl.edu)– syllabus, lectures, answers to quizzes, etc

• PP presentations also at www.clas.ufl.edu/users/mulligan/Pub/ANG6930


All rights reserved

Grading policyI assign 50% grade for course

• Participation – 100 pts– Punctuality is important – arrive to class on time– Come prepared with questions and comments, etc– Ask questions – not expecting geniuses– You must talk in class – no points for attendance

• No talking = 0 points for 25% grade in 1st half of class

• Weekly quiz or comments/questions – 100 pts

• Journal analysis – 100 pts

• Exam – 100 pts


All rights reserved

Grading policy• Participation – 100 pts• Weekly quiz or comments/questions – 100 pts

- 3 quizzes – 2-4 short answer/essay questions on reading material

- Every other week, starting next week

- 3 original comments/questions on reading material- Alternate weeks from quizzes- Develop good practices for reading journal articles- Don’t copy directly from articles – you must put the information in your

own words- Turn in at beginning of class

- Lowest grade will be dropped

• Journal analysis – 100 pts• Exam – 100 pts


All rights reserved

Questions/Comments• Must be handed in at beginning of class• Purpose of Questions/Comments

– Ensure you read required assignments– Ensure you have comments if I call on you– Grading material – have you done the reading, understood it, thought about it?– I won’t answer your questions when I grade them – ask them in class

• Expect something more than “What is X?”– Look it up in a dictionary

• A question is fine, but tell me why you’re asking it, what you’ve already thought about it, what questions it leads to, etc

• Comments should be based on what you’ve read and taken a step further• Try to submit a question/comment on each reading assignment

– Identify reading material– More is always better

• Typically get very good questions, but students don’t ask them in class


All rights reserved

Grading policy• Participation – 100 pts• Weekly quiz or comments/questions – 100

pts• Journal analysis – 100 pts

– Details on webpage - http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/cmulligan/Webpage/Proseminar.2011/Journal%20analysis.htm

– Important deadlines• Jan 21 – topic and abstract (<200 words) due• Feb 18 (last day of class) – final paper due (~10 pages,

double-spaced)

• Exam – 100 pts


All rights reserved

Journal analysis• Select a topic and systematically track research on this topic in

biological anthropology and (at least) one other subfield of anthropology (through peer-reviewed journals).

• You will examine how a topic of interest to you has been covered in the last 15 years in five leading, peer-reviewed bioanthropology journals– Must include American Journal of Physical Anthropology, American

Anthropologist, and Current Anthropology– Choose two additional journals that are appropriate for the topical focus of

your review, e.g. American Journal of Human Biology, Journal of Human Evolution, American Journal of Human Genetics, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, International Journal of Primatology. The two additional journals do not have to be bioanthropology journals.

– Most of these journals are available online, although some do not go back as far as 15 years through the online access and you will have to go to the library to see the hard copies

– A good way to search for articles that are relevant to your topic is through PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?DB=pubmed)


All rights reserved

Journal analysis, cont• Once you choose your topic, you will write a paper (~10

pages, double-spaced) that discusses how your topic was addressed in the five journals over that past 15 years– An important point will be to examine how bioanthropology and

another subfield of anthropology cover your topic, e.g. what are the important questions being addressed/hypotheses being tested, what are the interpretations and conclusions, are there major differences in interpretations/conclusions?

– Your topic (the relevant question(s) and which other subfield you will be examining) and an abstract (<200 words) of your search strategy (which journals are you using and why) is due at the beginning of class on Jan 21.

• In your abstract, be sure to specify your two additional journals, and why you chose them, as well as the other subfield of anthropology that you will be studying. I encourage you to discuss your topic with me in advance, in person or by email.

– The final paper is due at our last class, Feb 18 (plus original abstract).


All rights reserved

Journal analysis, cont

• The purpose of this exercise is to:– Introduce you to the major journals– Improve your ability to conduct literature reviews– Enhance your skills in identifying a research problem– Identify patterns across subfields, as well as the

potential strengths and weaknesses of a four-field anthropology.


All rights reserved

Grading policy

• Participation – 100 pts• Weekly quiz or comments/questions – 100

pts• Journal analysis – 100 pts• Exam – 100 pts

– Take-home exam– You can use any resource and can discuss exam

with classmates, but answers must be your own– Short answer similar to quizzes and one essay

question– Due last day of class


All rights reserved

Plagiarism

• What is plagiarism?– To steal or pass off the ideas of another as one’s own

• Check out these webpages– http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/msl/07b/studentplagiarism.html– http://www.dso.ufl.edu/sccr/procedures/honorviolations.php

• UF’s ppt on citing refs correctly - http://mediasite.video.ufl.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=adaa44500eaf460a84f238e6b9a558f9


All rights reserved

Excerpts from Babbie’s webpage http://www.csubak.edu/ssric/Modules/Other/plagiarism.htm

• You are writing a book review of Theodore M. Porter's book, Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life and find a review by Lisa Staffen in which she makes the following statement. Which of the following statements are examples of plagiarism and which are not?

• Original statement – “It has become fashionable to reject the notion of absolute objectivity on the grounds that objectivity is simply unattainable or, even if attainable, is undesirable”

• 1) I feel it has become fashionable to reject the notion of absolute objectivity on the grounds that objectivity is simply unattainable.

• 2) I feel it has become stylish to reject the idea of absolute objectivity on the grounds that objectivity cannot be achieved.

• 3) Many people today have rejected the idea that there is such a thing as absolute objectivity since they do not believe that it can be achieved.


All rights reserved

Excerpts from Babbie’s webpage

• The following statements are examples of proper citation of Staffen’s statement:

• 1) Lisa Staffen (1996:154) begins her review of Porter's book by suggesting "It has become fashionable to reject the notion of absolute objectivity on the grounds that objectivity is simply unattainable or, even if attainable, is undesirable."

• 2) In her review of Porter's book, Lisa Staffen (1996:154) says the idea of absolute objectivity is now commonly rejected as "simply unattainable or, even if attainable, [as] undesirable.“

• 3) According to Lisa Staffen (1996:154), it has become fashionable to reject the idea of absolute objectivity altogether.


All rights reserved

Plagiarism

• Bottom line – you can use other people’s ideas and words, but you have to properly acknowledge and cite your materials.

• The purpose is that your reader will know what material you are borrowing and how to look up the original source.

• Keep these guidelines in mind when writing your journal analysis


All rights reserved

What do you get from a PubMed search?

• Search for particular topic or author and you get a list of relevant peer-reviewed journal articles– Most main journals are included in PubMed

• View abstracts of all articles• Subset of articles have pdf’s

– Freely available– University e-subscriptions

• Often you will have to consult other sources to make sense of the journal articles– Specialized dictionary– General online searches– PubMed searches for cited articles

• If possible, read class articles or textbook while online


All rights reserved

PubMed search

• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi


All rights reserved

Parts of an article – some of this information is very field-specific and

may not be true outside Bioanthropology

• What is an abstract?

• What information goes into an Intro?

• What information goes into Results?

• What information goes into Disc?


All rights reserved

Parts of an article

• What is an abstract?– A summary of points presented in skeletal form– Opportunity for authors to specify what they think

are the most important points





All rights reserved

Parts of an article


• What information goes into an Intro?– Background info– Foreshadows Discussion– All Intro material should be followed up later in article




All rights reserved

Parts of an article



• What information goes into Results?– Just Results– No interpretation, no discussion



All rights reserved

Parts of an article

• What is an abstract?• What information goes into an Intro?• What information goes into Results?• What information goes into Disc?

– Interpretation and significance of results– Opportunity for authors to focus on what they think is

most important about their results– Should pick up on info in Intro– Can be very dependent on what topics are currently

‘hot’ so Discussion can become outdated even if Results are still relevant


All rights reserved

How to read a journal article• Note year of publication

– Anything more than 5 yrs old is fairly old in my field

• Note authors– Have you read anything else by this lab?– Author et al. Year is the best way to refer to a paper

• Refer to articles this way in Questions/Comments, Journal Analysis, exam, etc

• General strategy for an article outside of your field– Read Abstract, then Intro and then Disc– M&M is usually too complicated unless you want a specific

piece of info– Results is generally pretty cut and dried– Re-read abstract after you read paper

• See what authors presented as the take-home message


All rights reserved

How to remember and understand a journal article

• Take notes while reading• Re-read article until you really understand it• Make summary notes when you are finished reading

– What was purpose of study?– What questions were being asked?– What were final answers?– What was unique about the study?– What is the next step?

• Write notes on paper itself or on notecards or electronically


All rights reserved

Absentee policy

• Attendance is critical• Quizzes/comments or quizzes can not be made up• Journal analysis and exam will be completed on

time, no exceptions• More info in syllabus• And arrive to class promptly on time


All rights reserved

This week• Introduction, overview of course, bioethics• Reading

– The Human Species, Chpt 1 (pp 1-12)– Course packet

– Fuentes A. 2010. The new biological anthropology: Bringing Washburn’s new physical anthropology into 2010 and beyond – The 2008 AAPA luncheon lecture. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 53:2-12.

– Calcagno JM. 2003. Keeping biological anthropology in anthropology, and anthropology in biology. American Anthropologist 105:6-15.

– Boas F. 1899. Anthropology. Science 9:93-96.– Spencer F. 1981. The rise of academic physical anthropology in the United

States (1880-1980): A historical overview. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 56:353-364.

– Balaresque P et al. 2007. Challenges in human genetic diversity: Demographic history and adaptation. Human Molecular Genetics 16:R134-R139.


All rights reserved

Next week

• Science and Evolution• Reading

– The Human Species, Chpt 1(pp 12-29) and Chpt 4– Course packet

• Park MA. 2005. Biological Anthropology, An Introductory Reader, Chpt 9 (pp 40-44), Natural Selection (1858), Charles R. Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace

• Mayr E. 1997. “What is science?” in This is biology: The science of the living world, pp 24-44. Cambridge: Harvard University Press

• Scott EC. 1997. Antievolution and creationism in the United States. Annual Review of Anthropology 26:263-289

• Talbot M. 2005. Darwin in the Dock. The New Yorker, pp 66-77• Berkman MB et al. 2008. Evolution and Creationism in America’s

Classroom: A National Portrait. PLoS Biology, 6:0920-0924


All rights reserved

Public lecture, Tuesday, Jan 11, 7:30, Rion Ballroom, Reitz Union

• Public lecture: Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: Stress, Disease, and Coping, Dr. Robert Sapolsky, Tuesday, January 11, 2011, 7:30 p.m., Rion Ballroom, Reitz Union.

• • Dr. Robert Sapolsky of Stanford University will deliver a talk entitled “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: Stress,

Disease, and Coping” at 7:30 p.m. in the Rion Ballroom in the J. Wayne Reitz Union on the UF campus. For more than 25 years, Sapolsky has divided his time between field work with a troop of baboons in Kenya and technical neurological research in the laboratory. As a result, he can move effortlessly from a discussion of pecking orders in primate societies to an explanation of how neurotransmitters work during stress---and get laughs doing it.

• • All first-year students in the Honors Program received a copy of Dr. Sapolsky’s book, A Primate’s Memoir, during

Preview. This book is an account of his early years as a field biologist and details the culture and political shock he experienced. Funny, touching, and often sad and infuriating, A Primate’s Memoir gives readers insight into the personality of a gifted scientist. Sapolsky’s lecture is based on his book, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, and explains the findings of his research on the baboons he lived with in Africa.

• • Dr. Sapolsky is a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University, and a

research associate with the Institute of Primate Research at the National Museum of Kenya. In 2008, National Geographic & PBS aired an hour-long special on stress featuring Dr. Sapolsky and his research on the subject. In addition to A Primate’s Memoir, which won the 2001 Bay Area Book Reviewers Award in nonfiction, Robert Sapolsky has written three other books, The Trouble with Testosterone, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, and Monkeyluv and Other Essays on our Lives as Animals. His articles have appeared in publications such as Discover and The New Yorker. Dr. Sapolsky was awarded Rockefeller University’s Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science for 2008.


All rights reserved

What is biological anthropology to you?


All rights reserved

Current hot topics on humans

• Top 10 mysteries about humans– http://www.livescience.com/history/091026-

top10-origins-mysteries.html

• Top 10 things that make humans special– http://www.livescience.com/culture/091030-

origins-top10-special.html


All rights reserved

Anthropology

• Important to remember that a strength of anthropology is its holistic approach– What’s the difference between cultural anthropology and

sociology?– What’s the difference between biological anthropology and

biology?

• Holistic view is not limited to the 4 anthropology subfields, but any relevant field– Many Anthro departments are splitting along subfield lines


All rights reserved

• Why do you think more anthropological research is not truly interdisciplinary?– How could you make your research relevant

to someone outside your subfield?


All rights reserved

• In Fuentes’s article, he discusses Washburn’s call for a move from ‘measurement and classification’ to focus on ‘processes and mechanisms’– What does this mean?


All rights reserved

Modified from Balaresque et al. 2007

Expansion out of Africa

Peopling of the Americas

Domestication of the donkey

Origin and expansion of Semitic speakers

Genetic and cultural components to ethnicity and health

• Demography– Migration/colonization

• Out of Africa• Peopling of New World

– Population origins• Semitic speakers

– Admixture• Puerto Ricans

• Adaptation– Natural selection

• Skin color– Agriculture/domestication– Disease

• Origin/intro to naïve pop’s• Genetic/cultural risk factors

Balaresque et al. 2007


All rights reserved

Bioethics


All rights reserved

Review of research involving human subjects

• Federal regulations require that all research involving human subjects be approved by an IRB prior to the research

• Institutional review board = IRB• Virtually all universities and research institutes will have their own

IRBs– Composed of professors/scientists who volunteer their time

• Must be research – anything commercial is not subject to same regulations, e.g. if someone pays to have genetic typing performed or forensic case work or contract archaeology

• Also excludes general medical practice, i.e. distinction between accepted and experimental therapy


All rights reserved

What is a human subject?

• A human subject is a living individual about whom a researcher obtains:– Data through intervention or interaction w/ the

individual– Identifiable private information

• IRB regulations do not cover:– Dead persons – no protection for the sample of

someone who has died– Samples that are already collected and that have no

identifying information (i.e. are anonymous)


All rights reserved

Goal of IRB review

• To safeguard the rights and welfare of human subjects participating in biomedical and behavioral research

• Guided by the Belmont Report– The Belmont Report

Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research The National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral ResearchApril 18, 1979

– Written in response to past abuses of human subjects in biomedical research

• WWII– Abuses of concentration camp victims

• Tuskogee Syphilis Project– Gov’t sponsored study (1932-1972) that denied effective treatment for syphilis

to 399 African-American men in order to document the natural history of the disease


All rights reserved

Three basic principlesBelmont Report

• Respect for persons– Subjects must be given the opportunity to choose what will or

will not happen to them• Principle of informed consent and the consent process (information,

comprehension and voluntariness)

• Beneficence– “do no harm”– “maximize possible benefits and minimize possible harms”– Extends to both investigator and society

• Justice– Requires that there be fair procedures and outcomes in the

selection or subjects, both individually and socially (no one asked to unfairly bear burdens)


All rights reserved

Projects in which the study populations are intimately involved with the project

• Iceland – National human genome project– deCode Genetics, an Icelandic start-up genomics

company, spearheaded a project to map the genome of the Icelandic people as part of a larger medical database

• African Ancestry project– Provides DNA testing to determine indigenous African

paternal and maternal lineages among African Americans


All rights reserved

deCode Genetics• Iceland is ideal location for a genetic disease association study

– Historically small population (~50,000 19th century & ~275,000 today)– Relatively homogeneous and comparatively isolated

• Disease candidate genes may be easier to identify

– Detailed genealogical records for generations– Detailed medical records dating back to 1915

• In 1998 Icelandic parliament passed a bill authorizing the construction of a national medical database

• Lots of controversy, some detractors, but general Icelandic public seems to be in favor of project– Informed consent as far as medical records goes was based on the principle

of presumed, rather than informed, consent, i.e. people had to specifically request that their medical records not be used

• Many papers have identified genes involved in schizophrenia, heart attacks, asthma, pain, vascular disease, diabetes, etc


All rights reserved

African Ancestry project

• Motivated by African-Americans’ desire for more information about their ancestry– There is only limited historical info

available for African-Americans prior to their enslavement

– From 1619-1850, millions of indigenous west and central Africans were enslaved

– Primarily from Senegal south through the Cape of Good Hope and north along eastern Africa to Cape Delgado


All rights reserved

African Ancestry project, cont

• Spurred by African Burial Ground project• In 1991, human remains were uncovered from an 18th

century burial ground of enslaved African in lower Manhattan

• African American community became a major contributor (both financial and intellectual) to a research project with these aims:– What are the origins of the population?– What was the physical quality of life in 18th century NYC?– What can the site reveal about the biological and cultural

transition from African to African American identities?


All rights reserved

My experiences

• Panama– Explaining my research to indigenous groups in Panama

• Genetics is my way of understanding history

– Collecting trip in Panama w/ Panamanian colleague– Different decision-making process– How to inform an indigenous person about my research?

• Yemen and Mongolia– Different experience – completely positive and enthusiastic


All rights reserved

Bottom line

• Best research involves research subjects from the beginning and throughout project

• Best research honors the beliefs and goals of the research subjects– Don’t expect them to buy into “greater good” argument

because that is a standard of our culture, not all cultures

• Best research assumes that research subjects can be educated about the research as long as you put yourself in their position


All rights reserved

Discussion questions

• Scientists and the general public– Do scientists/the general public have a “right” to

learn about the human past?– Do scientists/the general public have a

“responsibility” to learn about the human past?

• Individuals– Do individuals have a “responsibility” to participate

in research for the common good?– Do individuals have a “right” to participate in

research for the common good?


All rights reserved

Video

• Gene Hunters

Documents

C. Mulligan, Copyright 2010 All rights reserved ANG 6930 Proseminar in Anthropology IIA: Bioanthropology Day 1 ANG 6930 Prof. Connie J. Mulligan Department