Physical/Biological Anthropology/The Use of Tools, Past and Present

Too often Physical/Biological Anthropology is conceived as a field that bears no connection to the present. Anthropology students often make creative connections between the past and present. Students have helped me illustrate the relevance of physical/biological anthropology through their classroom work. In one case a student presented an intriguing poster board reflecting tool use in the prehistoric past and the present. Her poster included a tool demonstration as well, and the overall presentation demonstrated how original student work explores the relevance of anthropology as a discipline. Anthropology students connect to creative work by their colleagues, especially as it illustrates the fact that anthropology is not just a collection of interesting theories and perspectives on the world.

Physical/Biological Anthropology/Primate Analyses

One of the great ways to stress critical thinking in physical/biological anthropology is by focusing on the issue of categorization as it relates to taxonomy. One of the ways I have facilitated such a consideration is through a taxonomy exercise, pictured in the photo below. The idea of the activity is to classify various organisms according to their traits, and then to make the case to the rest of the class as to the validity of the classificatory system. In another case a student/s primate features book allowed our class to more closely consider the significance of the primate order from an adaptive perspective. Following the student/s presentation to the class, other students developed primate observation charts (applied to Homo sapiens) that allowed our class to understand the relationships of behavior and the primates. In a third case a group of students applied models of primate ecology to the organization of a local organic grocery store. Each of these activities allowed students to make meaningful connections to issues in the field of Physical/Biological Anthropology. In my district where my combined instructional supplies budgets for both Anthropology and Sociology are quite meager, I have to use creative and cost-effective classroom methods to teach effective anthropology. Our district is geographically isolated as well, and because there are no local primate centers it is important to use various forms of multimedia, the Internet and student work to understand the significance of primatology in the discipline.