About the Book

Summary of Second Edition Updates

Like the first edition, this peer-reviewed OER is available free-of-charge online for students, instructors, and the public. The second edition was funded by the ASCCC OERI and the California State University, Chico – University Foundation. It was also supported by the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and California State University Affordable Learning Solutions (AL$) program.

The first edition was made possible by grants from Minnesota State Educational Innovations Grant, the ASCCC OERI, and the Society for Anthropology in Community Colleges (SACC).

In response to instructor and student feedback, in addition to formal peer reviews, we have made substantive changes to the second edition, including

1. More concise chapters (8000-10000 words, not including call out boxes);
2. Up-to-date chapters that include current discoveries and events;
3. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism principles applied to the text and images;
4. The implementation of updated accessibility standards;
5. An instructor guide detailing how to adapt the book to fit your course;
6. A new chapter two on the history of evolutionary thought;
7. The first edition’s chapter two is now chapter 17, which focuses on biopolitics;
8. Chapter 15 now focuses on forensic anthropology and points readers to other OER for more on archaeology and bioarchaeology;
9. The ancient DNA special topic that was featured in chapter 11 is now Appendix D;
10. Updated ancillary materials.

An OER for YOU

This book is grounded in the OER movement that emerged in response to the skyrocketing costs of traditional textbooks. These costs, along with increased tuition, create serious barriers to student learning and success, especially for students with financial constraints. As anthropologists concerned with social equity, we find that OER can begin to level the playing field within academia by enabling all students, regardless of socioeconomic status, to access materials they need to succeed in their courses.

Students: This textbook has been created for you with your success in mind. The editors and authors are experienced instructors who hope to engage your curiosity and answer your questions about humankind. Our textbook is available to you for FREE! We hope that it sparks your interest in scientific inquiry and anthropological discoveries.

Instructors: We commend you for making the inspired choice to adopt this textbook, which is written, reviewed, and edited by anthropology instructors just like you. Explorations offers you the academic freedom to align it with your own pedagogy, course content, and areas of expertise. Rather than conform your course to the chapters of a conventional textbook, you are free to modify, supplement, or add to this textbook. This is why we chose to publish Explorations with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which allows anyone to remix, adapt, transform, and build upon the contents. You can use this book as it is, or alter it by reorganizing, omitting chapters or sections of chapters, assigning only some chapters, or curating chapter selections. The only requirement is that you credit the authors and source, specify the license, and indicate any changes made. In the spirit of open education, this textbook and the content within cannot be used for commercial purposes. To learn more about OER and Creative Commons licensing, as well as specific guidance on how to adapt this book, please see the Instructor’s Guide, located at the end of our book.

This textbook started as a grassroots endeavor by four full-time college instructors, brought together by their shared goals of saving students money and piquing student interest in biological anthropology. We were inspired by previous OER creators including the editors of Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology. With support from our professional communities, colleagues, students, and especially the wonderful authors that wrote the chapters, we published Explorations in 2019 and released the second edition in 2023.

This project of love is dedicated to our students, but we are happy that others have benefited as well. This is also an ongoing project. If you see errors or have suggestions please let us know by using the corresponding form on our website (https://explorations.americananthro.org/) or by sending an email to explorationstextbook@gmail.com.

Explorations: Mission and Organization

Mission Statement: To provide a high-quality​ ​introductory biological anthropology textbook that is readable, engaging, and accessible to all students. With chapters written by experienced instructors and subject area specialists, this textbook addresses the question of what it means to be human by exploring the origins, evolution, and diversification of primates, especially that of our species, ​Homo sapiens.

Anthropology is the study of humanity, in all its biological and cultural aspects, past and present. It is a four-field discipline comprising biological anthropology, cultural anthropology, archaeology, and linguistic anthropology. The focus of this book is biological anthropology, which explores who we are from biological, evolutionary, and adaptive perspectives.

We lay the foundation for this inquiry in the first four chapters by introducing the discipline of anthropology, evolutionary theory, molecular biology and genetics, and the forces of evolution. Chapters 5–8 consider the evolutionary, biological, and social aspects of our closest living relatives, nonhuman primates, with whom we share millions of years of evolution. We also learn about how fossils provide material insight into our past. Chapters 9–12 describe prior hominin species and the emergence of Homo sapiens, us! Finally, the last five chapters (Chapters 13–17) explore human biological variation and the concept of race, bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology, human biology and health, and biopolitics of heredity. We include further readings on osteology (Appendix A), primate conservation (Appendix B), human behavioral ecology (Appendix C), and ancient DNA (Appendix D). To guide your reading, each chapter begins with learning objectives and ends with review questions, along with a list of key terms.

We are honored that you have chosen to use Explorations: An Open Invitation to Biological Anthropology in your course(s) and hope that you will enjoy the second edition. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Sincerely,

Beth Shook, Lara Braff, Katie Nelson, and Kelsie Aguilera

Acknowledgements

We (the editors) are enormously grateful for the community of people who contributed to the development of the second edition of this textbook. In particular, we wish to thank all the authors who were willing to update content or produce new content. We also thank the peer and student reviewers for the time and thought they put into chapter reviews. We thank the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) SSC Primate Specialist Group for their guidance on the use of images of primates to promote appropriate primate treatment, conservation and welfare.

This edition would not have been possible without the financial support of The Academic Senate for California Community College Open Educational Resources Initiative (ASCCC OERI), and the California State University Chico – University Foundation’s Governor’s Award.