Dear Reader,
Thank you for your interest in biological anthropology. It is a fascinating and exciting field of study, and I hope that you will enjoy learning about it as much as I enjoy teaching about it!
The purpose of this textbook is to introduce you to the variety of subfields and areas of expertise that fall under the umbrella of biological anthropology. All of these subfields are interesting and there are loads of information to be learned in each of them. So much that you could spend an entire semester learning about each topic that is covered in one chapter in this book! Therefore, this book is intended to introduce you to those subjects so that you can decide if you want to delve into the subject matter further by taking a more specific biological anthropology course.
It is my hope that you will have fun reading this book, be engaged by its contents, think critically about its topics, and be intrigued by our place in this world. I also hope that you become ambassadors for the survival of our world’s primates . . . both the nonhuman and human ones.
Take care,
Tori D. Randall, PhD
Tori Randall is a skeletal biologist and paleopathologist who studies the reconstruction of past lifeways of modern human populations. She obtained her BA in Anthropology from the University of San Diego, her MA in Anthropology from San Diego State University, and her PhD in Biological Anthropology from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. She began her anthropology career at the San Diego Museum of Man, working her way up to becoming the Curator of Physical Anthropology. After working as an adjunct at various colleges and universities in San Diego, she realized where her true passion lay . . . in teaching. She is now a professor of Anthropology at San Diego City College. In addition to teaching, Tori loves traveling with her husband, spending time with family and friends, and being a lap for her kitty, Diana.
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY
CHAPTER 2: THE DEVELOPMENT OF EVOLUTIONARY THEORY
CHAPTER 3: GENETICS AND INHERITANCE
CHAPTER 4: HUMAN VARIATION AND ADAPTATION
CHAPTER 5: NONHUMAN PRIMATES
CHAPTER 6: NONHUMAN PRIMATE BEHAVIOR
CHAPTER 7: PRIMATE EVOLUTION
CHAPTER 8: HOMININ EVOLUTION
CHAPTER 9: THE HOMO GENUS
CHAPTER 10: HUMAN OSTEOLOGY
CHAPTER 11: FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY
CHAPTER 12: PALEOPATHOLOGY
CHAPTER 13: CAREERS IN BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY