Language

Part 1: No Symbolic Language
I found this experiment pretty difficult because I am a very talkative person and I constantly have something to say. So when my partner was showing me a picture of her new puppies I literally had to bite my tongue to keep from telling her how cute they were. I also had a hard time trying to figure out how to find ways to let her know what I was thinking in a way she would understand but she was actually was able to figure out what I was saying pretty easily. That night I had spilled a customer’s water and decided I would try to tell my co worker what happened while doing this experiment. I started by making a sad face and she asked my why and my response was to knock over an empty cup. At first she thought I was sad that my drink was empty but when I shook my head no she quickly figured out that I was trying to tell her I had spilled a drink. While I was talking to my partner I noticed that she seem pretty uncomfortable at first and she had a hard time figuring out what to talk to me about but after a few minutes she started to talk more easily. The major difference in the way she communicated with me was paying more attention to me while we had our conversation; rather than doing something while we were talking she had to watch me more closely so that she knew what I was saying.
If we were two different cultures meeting for the first time I would say that the culture with spoken language would have the advantage to communicating complex ideas because they have probably developed more ways to convey different ideas and thoughts. However I think that the culture that uses body language to speak would have developed ways to communicate most of the things that they want to say to each other. I believe that the speaking culture would look down at the non speaking culture to them it would probably seem that the non speaking culture has not advanced as much as they have. It would be like one of us meeting someone from 90 years ago; we would feel smug because we have the advantage of all the advances that have been made since then. A major group of individuals in our culture that do not communicate with spoken language are deaf people; since they cannot hear enough to learn how to properly say words or to control the sound of their voice they use they hands to speak as well as using other body language to help get across what they want to say. It is very difficult for most people to communicate with the deaf community because not very many people learn sign language unless they need to and this causes a barrier between the two groups. A few years ago at work a group of deaf people can in to eat and while most of them were willing to write down their order for me one man refused. I spent the next ten minutes trying to figure out what he was trying to order and at the time this really frustrated me because we were very busy and I felt he was being inconsiderate. As I think about the situation now I realize he probably is frustrated that so little people take the time to learn how to communicate with him.

Part 2: No Physical Embellishment
This part of the experiment was very hard and it took me a few tries but I eventually was able to go the full 15 minutes without using any physical embellishments. This was difficult for me because when I really get into a conversation I have a tendency to be very animated and I am always making faces at what people say to me. I was easily able to keep my arms from moving by keeping them in my pockets but the facial movements and vocal fluctuations were harder to control. My partners way of communicating did not seem to change but she did say that I seem very emotionless and made or conversation boring. She also told me that if she had not known about the assignment she would have thought I did not care about the things she was saying to me. I think that this part of the experiment shows how important the “signs” we use on a daily basis are. I think that the “signs” we use give our conversations more emotion and give the person we are talking to an idea of how we are feeling about what is being said. When my partner told me something offensive that someone had said to her it took so my will power not to react they way I wanted to.
There are many people that have a hard time reading body language and a major group is people that have autism. This makes it hard for them to figure out when a person is upset or being sarcastic. I think that being able to read body language give people a huge benefit because you are able to figure out what people are feeling and if you are really good at it you can tell if someone is lying to you are not. A time it would be a benefit for someone to not be able to read body language is if you were trying to lie to get away with something; if someone couldn’t read body language you be able to get away with whatever you were lying about.

Piltdown hoax

In the early 1900’s in Sussex, England bone fragments were discovered by an amateur archaeologist named Charles Dawson and that discovery would change the scientific community forever. The skull and jawbones that were discovered by Dawson was the first of many strange discoveries at Piltdown. Since little was known about human remains that were as old as these bones were thought to be this discovery was thought to be the missing link between apes and modern man. Although many scientists were excited by this discovery many questioned the validity of the discovery due to the fact that the jaw bone and skull did not seem to be an exact match. There was no way to be sure if the jaw came from the skull because the area that would normally connect the skull and jaw was broken off. The find at Piltdown affected the way scientist looked at the history of man and how man might have changed over time starting as apes and slowly evolving into modern man. Piltdown man remained a top discovery for the next 40 years until technology finally caught up with the man that decided to play this cruel joke on the scientific community. At Britain’s natural history museum an employee, Kenneth Oakley preformed a test to authenticate and find a more accurate age for the bones and it was discovered that they were not very old at all. The bones has been boiled and stained with chemicals to make them seem older and a canine tooth that was once thought to be the linchpin in the legitimacy of Piltdown man was quickly filled down and painted to give it an aged appearance. When the announcement was made that Piltdown man was a hoax the science community was shocked.
At the time of Piltdown many other countries were finding very old human remains and the science community within England wanted to find something too. They did not want to be the country with no evidence of their ancestors or to have no clues to help uncover mans past. This could easily lead someone to creating the fake bones and planting them at Piltdown. The drive to find their own remains also affected how scientist reacted to the discovery; even though many were skeptical they did not challenge the find outright nor did they stop to look at the things they found odd about this skull. They were more excited by the fact that their home country had an amazing discovery that could be added to the history of man.
As time went on many advances were being made in the scientific community and out of these advances came fluorine absorption dating. The fluorine abortion test is used to determine how long something is underground; ground water contains fluorine ions that bone fragments will absorb and from that the age of the bones can be estimated.
It is not possible for the human factor to be removed from science and no I would not want to remove it either because without the human factor scientist would not have the drive and passion to work so hard to make all the advanced they have and will make. If you take the human factor out sure you might have less incidents like Piltdown but we didn’t have the human factor in this field, or any field for that matter, we could not have advanced enough to have discovered that Piltdown was a hoax.
You can never take information at face value because you never know where the information came from or if the person giving it to you it trustworthy. People can be selfish and create a discovery like with Piltdown just so they can be well known and sometimes people can just be wrong when they think they are right. There is always a way to find out was is right and wrong whether it involves doing a lot of research or just reviewing a person’s findings and discovering a flaw in their work.

Comparative Primate: Sociality and Mating Patterns

Lemurs
Lemurs are mainly found in Madagascar an island off the southeastern coast of Africa. Madagascar has two majorly different climate zones that lemurs have adapted to; rainforest in the east and dry area in the west. Female lemurs dominate over males in social interaction with lemurs. They live in family groups of related females and their offspring males are often kicked out of the group but they form their own groups. The mating season of the lemurs starts in mid April and last until mid May. Fighting is very common during the mating season even though females mate with many different males. Female lemur show interest by presenting their backsides, lifting their tails, and then looking over her shoulder at the male she is interested in. The male lemur will then inspect the female’s genitals to determine receptiveness of the females. The environments that the lemurs live in will definitely affect sociality and mating patterns because the extreme weather can change the way the groups get around and if the groups are scattered it is harder to find mates during mating season.




Spider Monkeys
Spider monkeys are typically found in the tropical forest of Central and South Africa anywhere from Mexico to Brazil. They live in the upper layers of the rainforest and forage in the canopy. Spider monkeys are very social animals that live in groups containing up to 30 individuals. The group breaks up into smaller groups during the day to forage for food. Females often leave the groups they grew up in at puberty causing the bonds between males to be stronger but the strongest bonds are between a mother and her young. When it is time to mate the female will choose a male from her group and they will then go through a process called anogenital sniffing, in which they smell each other to check for readiness. The environment of the spider monkeys has a major effect on their social and mating habits because with all the deforestation happening the spider monkeys have to move and it is harder for them to stay together.




Baboons
Baboons mainly reside in Africa as well as Arabia and they are ground dwelling living in the open savannah, woodlands and hills. Most baboons live in hierarchical troops and sizes can range from 5 to 250 but are mainly around 40-50 individual. The structure within each group changes depending on the species. Baboons will often fight amongst different families and ranks. Males are very protective of their females and will bite them if they go walk to far away. Males fight males from other groups for one of the females of that group. The mating behavior changes depending on the social structure of the troop of baboons. Often males will mate with any female they want and fights are very common. Males can also try to win the female over by grooming her or getting her food. Even with all that females initiate the mating by showing her swollen butt to the male. The environment of the baboon can have an effect on the baboons because they are out in the open they have a high chance of predators coming after them.






Gibbon
Gibbon live in tropical as well as subtropical rainforest from northeast India to Indonesia also north and southern China. Gibbons are very social animals but they are territorial and will defend their boundaries. They use vocal tactics to keep animals away but they song also attracts mates. If they like the song they will do a mating dance followed by a long mating ritual in which they mate many times. They areas they live are expanding and they gives them a high chance of running out of open space to live.





Chimpanzee
Chimpanzees mainly live in central and west Africa. They live in large groups made up of many males and females and within these communities are made of social hierarchy. There is an alpha male that is chosen by a female. The female leaves their parental group when they are ready to mate and anogenital swelling will help her find a new group. They will mate with multiple males and sometimes will even leave the new group to mate with more males before returning.

Homology and Analogy

1. homologous trait

Both humans and bats have similar arm structures although they do look slightly different they both bend in similar ways and have five digits. The use of the arms are very different; humans use their arms to hold or move things while bats "arms" are part of their wings and help them fly. The common ancestor may have been a species that cold fly as well as use their arms for other things such as picking up food.





2. Analogous Trait

Sharks and dolphins both have similarly shaped bodies that help them swim quickly. Sharks use their agility to feed on pray while dolphins use their speed to avoid predators. Sharks and dolphins both had to learn to adapt to similar environments causing their body shape to be similar in form. The shapes of the bodies could have started with a long lost common ancestor but I believe that it is something that changed over time rather then just being passed down.