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Homo erectus

11/29/2015

Turkana Boy or Nariokotome Boy is the name that was given to the fairly recent find, 1993, of a nearly complete Homo erectus skeleton. This find was a stroke of luck by a team lead by Richard Leakey (I spoke of his father's, Louis Leakey, findings in this earlier blog: http://anthropologicalconcepts.weebly.com/blog/-the-paleoanthropological-goldmine-olduvai-gorge). But just how did they know it was a skeleton of a Homo erectus? H. erectus is seen at the first that left Africa 1.8millions years ago. Skulls of this species of Homo have been found in, of course, parts of Africa, parts of Europe, and parts of Asia; some were found on the islands of Indonesia. Since a skull is usually all the physical anthropologists have to work with when figuring out what species they have in their hands, I will discuss how the skull of Homo erectus differs from other skulls.
From the name of the species, Homo erectus, is illustrating that they walked up right. When a species is bipedal you can see it in the skull. With the bipedal evolution the inner bones of the ear have to be altered to keep balance when walking. The biggest difference has to be the spine which has to attach at a certain angle to the skull. For the Australopithecus afarensis species the foramen magnum (the opening in the base of the skull that receives the spinal cord) is further back, unlike the H. erectus and us, we have it in the center of our skull because the spine is now able to balance the head. Now, I am sure you are asking yourself “if they were bipedal how else can they be differed? Maybe they are H. sapiens skulls.” That is a good point, but the base of the skull is not usually looked at as definite evidence it belongs to a different species.
The actual shape of the skull of H. erectus is entirely different than that of a H. sapein (image below). You can see that it it has a football shape as opposed to the rounded skull of a H. sapiens. The H. erectus also has pronounced brow ridges and a lowered mandible. One difference that cannot be seen in photos is the thickness of it. “The braincase and the face and jaws of Homo erectus were very heavily built, with thick bones and extreme thickenings along some of the skull sutures (where two skull bones connect).” As for the entire skeleton that I mentioned at the beginning of my blog, aside from having a broad chest (image below), it is almost identical to that of modern humans. Not only that, but some scientists, using evidence from fossil crania, claim they may have been more like humans; such as having a growth spurt.

This rises more questions than it answers. In the study of the past that is usually the case. Solving one question just opens up another box of so many more. The question I have now: do we all have DNA of the H. erectus along with the new find that Europeans have Neanderthal DNA in them. The only thing left to do is to delve deeper into the mystery with the most powerful tool: research.
There will not be a new blog next week, but there will be a new section in which I will do my best to diagram the bones of the human body. Please feel free to comment on what you thought of the blog, or other physical anthropological subjects you would like me to cover.

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Diet and Teeth

11/15/2015

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Your teeth are remarkable. Able to break both vegetation and meat. Have you ever wondered how we obtained a tool that is capable to do so much? In the following blog I will address how we are different from some primates and how our diet throughout millions of years helped in molding our teeth.
We humans have a dental formula (a numerical device that indicates the number of each type of tooth in each side of the upper and lower jaws) of 2.1.2.3. over 2.1.2.3. What this means is when taking half the mouth we have two incisors, one canine, two premolars, and three molars on both our upper and lower jaw (image below). While we have that dental formula, new world monkeys (apes that have prehensile tails), have 2.1.3.3. over 2.1.3.3. Now notice how I said new world monkeys and not all primates. Other than new world monkeys, the rest of the primate family (old world monkeys, apes) have the same dental formula.

Dental formulas are a precursor to what an animal will or has likely eaten. They are built for improving the way of eating for each diet. For carnivors, they have huge (or at least when compared to the teeth of other diets) and very sharp canines, with premolars and molars with high, pointed cusps, making meat eating easier. With herbivores they have broad flat surfaced premolars which are suited for chewing through plant materials. As for omnivores, which includes humans, “most primates have premolars and molars with low, rounded cusps,a molar morphology that enables them to process most types of food.”
     Primates have always seen a resourceful, and when we were evolving we had to be more so. Animals that have one food source did not, and still do not get a long very well. Whether it is caused by drought, or more recently, humans. In our evolutionary story we lived through all types of temperates ( including ice ages), in which we had to adapt or die. When living in a temperate climate we had all kinds of fruits to choose from, but as it got colder we had no choice but to take up hunting and thus eating meat (I think that because we lived though several ice ages and began eating meat is a main reason we have fire.). Even though all primates have the ability to eat both vegetation and meat, only a few of us eat meat. For example, even though they look like they would, gorillas are vegetarian and depending on their location, they also eat termites and ants. On the other side, our closest ape relative, the chimpanzee, has a diet like ours, eating birds and smaller apes (sometimes baby chimpanzee's and even human babies).
     It is interesting to think how our teeth would have looked like if we were exclusively eating meat from the start. The eating of raw meat might be why chimpanzee's have sharper teeth than humans. Something I found interesting while looking up on this subject is that we are currently in an ice age that began 2.6 million years ago. Who knows, in another million years (that is if we do not go extinct), we may get those carnivorus teeth.
  Please feel free to comment on what you thought of the blog, or other physical anthropological subjects you would like me to cover.

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Human Disposal

11/8/2015

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In a previous blog (http://anthropologicalconcepts.weebly.com/blog/death-of-humans), I discussed what happened to the body when it dies, but what is done with the body once they are dead? We are all familiar with the burial method, and the cremation method as well. But those are not the only ways a dead body can be dealt with. In the following blog I will address several unfrequented methods. Well, the first method is sort of well known, but not everyone is able to go through it even if they are dead.
     The method I am talking about is donation. For those of us who have drivers licenses there is an option to be an organ donor. Some people do not choose to become an organ donor in fear that the doctor will misdiagnose them as dead. Now the actual problem with donating organs is how long they are fresh. For several organs (kidneys, heart, lungs, liver, pancreas and intestines), they must be transplanted within hours of the persons death. These organs have a lost list of recipients, so finding a match is not difficult, but let us say a person who is an organ donor dies without anyone knowing of their death, byt the time they are found, those organs will be of no use to anyone. That said, they can donate their tissue. The tissue of the body can give the living back sight, can be used to cover burn wounds, and even repair hearts. But donating the body for organs is not the only way to donate the body. Medical schools are always looking for cadavers, and I am sure if you are specific in your will, you can donate your skeleton to another school once they are done with the fleshy parts of you. In a previous blog (http://anthropologicalconcepts.weebly.com/blog/the-body-farm), I spoke of the Body Farm, they accept human donations; also in the blog right before this one about human leather, you be made into a lasting book binding. The possibilities for donations are extensive and exciting.
Now onto methods that are off the beaten track. First up we have cannibalism. I have, again, covered this in a previous blog (http://anthropologicalconcepts.weebly.com/blog/-care-to-join-me-dinner), but this type of cannibalism is called necro-cannibalism. “There are two kinds of cannibalistic social behavior: endocannibalism (the act of consuming humans from the same community) and exocannibalism (eating humans from other communities).” Even though it seems as though all types of cannibalism has gone with the ages, there are still instances where it becomes necessary to consume the dead. But in the past, they had very different reasons. One widely accepted belief for eating the dead in primitive times was that the one eating them would receive the dead's abilities and so on. Other reasons would be to honour them, to insult them, or even as simple as they liked the taste of human.
     The next method is something that happens either by accident or on purpose. The method is exposure. By accident I mean those who get lost in the wilderness or in an area not frequented by others, and their body is left to decompose or become eaten by the wildlife. That said, the method that is on purpose also has to do with being eaten by animals. Those who live in the mountains of Tibet perform a ritual by the name of jahtor, or sky burial. The way it works, first they must carry it to a designated location and is laid out naked. Once there the rogyapas, or body breakers, go to work. They dismember it, rip the flesh from the bones, and sometimes they mix it with a special mixture. After the ritual is done they offer it to the vultures who protect the site. Now, unlike our idea of a sad and somber funeral, they carry out this ritual with laughs, jokes, and all they would do when they would do manual labour.
     The last method I will address is illegal in the United States; and that method is to taxidermy a human. Even though it is technically illegal, if it states it in the will of the deceased that they wish to be taxidermy, or, in Florida, if the immediate family wishes it (this requires lots of legal peoples), it is okay. Unlike the cost to taxidermy, let us say a black bear which is in the range of $2400 – 4500, the cost to taxidermy a human can go up to $500,000. The most famous taxidermy human is Jeremy Bentham, who died in 1832. He had it in his will that he be “dissected as part of a public anatomy lecture.” After this was done, they took his head, preserved it, and skeleton, put him in his clothes, and stuffed them with hay. He is currently in the University College London.
     As you can see, we humans have thought of many ways to dispose of the dead. Whether a part of them is living on in someone else, or are eaten, something has to be done. If not, the estimated 56 million people who die every day will make certain places undesirable to visit or live in. I find it interesting how, in early human existence, the first method of disposing of the dead was supposedly burial, but, unlike the religious reasons that we use for burials nowadays, it was most likely to hide the smell of death in fear of predators finding the living community.
     Please feel free to comment on what you thought of the blog, or other physical anthropological subjects you would like me to cover.

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Human Leather

11/1/2015

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Leather. When we hear that word we immediately think of cow skin. But do we not all have skin? Leather can me made from all animals; cows, pigs, and so on. What of humans? In the following blog I will discuss the history of human leather, the uses for it, and a surprise at the end; still on the subject of human leather.
Since the thirteenth century, leather from the skin of humans as been made in Europe. It was thought to have begun in the 1700's due to a book entitled “ French Encyclopedie,” in which included a recipe for tanning human skin. Then it was a normal thing to be done. Some looked forward to be turned into leather. For example, John Ziska (1360–1424), chief of the Hussites, ordered that his “skin be tanned and made into a drum. 'The noise which my skin will make,' said he, 'will frighten away all our enemies and put them to flight.'” But leather made from humans was not a practice exclusive for Europe. The Ekoi people in Nigeria and Cameroon use “masks made from human skin during funeral ceremonies.” Even in the Americas it was made. I am sure you have seen or heard of the shrunken heads made by tribes in South America. The shrunken heads were basically leather, as they were boiled in tannins (the substance used to tan skin). Now you must be thinking “Those barbaric natives and Europeans!” But in the USA, we also fashioned human skin into leather. That said, the ones we used were dead slaves. In the times of slavery they would make the leather they made from the slaves into shoes. If you would like to read more on this here is a link to a first person account of human leather in 1888: http://www.ferris.edu/news/jimcrow/question/apr13/index.htm.
As I said, they used the slaves tanned skin for shoes, but the use of human leather is not limited to shoes. All the things we have now that are made from leather human skin has been used for. From belts, to wallets, to drums, to every kind of shoe; even a French politician named Saint-Just, executed a woman who turned down his advances and made her skin into a waistcoat, in which he wore til his death (most all those two were executed in France were turned into leather). With all those wearing humans, the use of leather was mostly used for books. It has been used to bind and cover books. And it is all kinds of books, even the bible. The book pictured below is bound in the skin of William Burke (an Irish serial killer who was hung in 1829).

With all of this happening over one hundred years ago, the practice of making leather out of humans must be practiced no more, true? Nope. It so happens that human leather is very desired and it is one of the skins that makes the best leather “It is free from defects and has the smallest grain size which makes it the smoothest, softest leather on Earth”. And just like an earlier blog about the Body Farm (http://anthropologicalconcepts.weebly.com/blog/the-body-farm), it is usually made from donations, so it is not illegal. In short, it is a business. There is actually a business in the UK in which they pride themselves with making human leather products with “the highest quality human skin.” That said their products are very expensive. A human leather wallet can go from 14,000 USD onwards. If you want to see their website in person here is a link: http://www.humanleather.co.uk/.
All the while I was searching for information about this topic I came across the PETA website in which one comment about human leather caught my attention, “when you buy leather, there’s no way of knowing what – or whom – you’re buying.” But with that, I, personally, think it better and more humane to have leather made from humans, because most of it is donated and they are not killed for it unlike most of the leather we encounter. There has even been oil extracted from the human body sold. Here is a question for you, dear reader, would you wear or buy a product made of human leather or just from human?
Please feel free to comment on what you thought of the blog, or other physical anthropological subjects you would like me to cover.

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Homo erectus

Diet and Teeth

Human Disposal

Human Leather

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