Anthropology Interview Preparation Guide
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Anthropology Interview Questions and Answers will Guide you about that Anthropology is the study of human beings, everywhere and throughout time. Anthropology has its intellectual origins in both the natural sciences, and the humanities. Its basic questions concern, What defines Homo sapiens? Learn more about the Anthropology and get preparation of Anthropology Jobs Interview by our Anthropology Interview Questions and Answers Guide.

50 Anthropology Questions and Answers:

1 :: Can you give me your take on the initial migration into North and South America?

The early appearance of civilizations in South America does not contradict the Bering Strait colonization theory. None of these civilizations is even close to the youngest estimate for the first human dispersal into the New World across the Bering Strait.

There is some evidence from DNA variation among chickens, of all things, that suggests there may have been contacts between Polynesians and the western coast of South America within the last thousand years, but the oldest plausible dates for such contacts are much younger than the oldest complex societies in the Andes.

2 :: Could you tell me which the biggest and/or most powerful human species was in the past?

Neanderthals were very strong, but there are some fossils of earlier hominins from Europe (Homo heidelbergensis, e.g. Atapuerca) and from Africa (Homo rhodesiensis, e.g., Bodo, Kabwe) that were also very big, strong people.

It is we very gracile postglacial humans, who were divergent from our Ice Age ancestors.

3 :: When did first Caucasoid man appear? Was the earliest Cro-Magnon Caucasoid? What Caucasoid characteristics did Cro-magnon have?

There is a lot of variability among female Upper Paleolithic European skulls. Some look "caucasoid" -big noses, chins. While others (e.g. Grimaldi) retain some African characters -alveolar prognathism, frontal bossing.

The simple answer is that the category "caucasoid" does not really help one sort Pleistocene-age skulls into meaningful categories. The characteristics on which the classification is based really only sort out geographically among Holocene-age skulls (i.e., those less than 12,000 years old).

4 :: Does ones cultural and social environment dictate the type of religion practiced?

As children, we learn our values and value system (religion) from our parents and adults around us. Since we are not aware of the larger society around us (or) the culture into which we were born until much later, the reverse tends to be true.

5 :: What year did the total number of people living in the world equal the total number of people who had already died?

To answer your question one would need accurate data spanning thousands of years. 99% of records come from a time after writing was invented. Even then, most of that information is from latter times.

The following is a helpful article by Carl Haub, which explains fluctuations in human population over various periods and provides you with an estimated figure:

6 :: How can we understand human beings? How can we Study them?

The field of Anthropology is the study of Human Beings. It incorporates subjects like sociology, psychology, medicine, economics, and many other subfields. In addition, since we are studying ourselves, we have many people who may act as examples.

7 :: What type of food Neanderthal people ate and how they cooked it?

From variation in the Nitrogen and Carbon isotope composition of their bones, we know the Neanderthals at a lot of meat and fat, mainly from large terrestrial mammals that were grazers (mammoth, wooly rhino, horse), but probably also mixed feeders like aurochs (wild cattle) bison, various deer (red, roe, fallow), ibex, wild boar. They may have hunted bear, too, but probably did so by raiding hibernation dens. Recent studies from sites near Gibraltar (Spain) suggest they occasionally ate fish and marine mammals (seal) too. The amount of meat in their diet probably varied through time and space (more meat in colder habitats, seasons; more plants in warmer habitats, seasons), as it does in the diets of most omnivores.

Cooking probably involved mostly roasting (holding meat over fire or placing it on heated rocks). There is no evidence for boiling (no pottery, no heated stones [used to heat water in leather containers]).

8 :: Why are there no signs of civilization prior to about 6000 years ago if modern humans have been around for about 125,000 years?

There is a numerous evidence of settlements prior to 6,000 BP, especially in the Middle East where civilizations were first presumed to have originated with the advance of agriculture. Here are just a few examples:

- Neve David (Israel) - 13 kya

- Gobekli Tepe (Turkey) - 11 Kya

- Abu Hureyra (Levant) - 11 kya

- Ain Ghazal (Jordan) - 7.5 kya

- Catalhoyuk (Turkey) - 7.5 kya

All of these were examples of early states. They were characterized as having centralized political institutions in which ruling elites exercised control over the population that may have numbered to several thousand individuals.

9 :: Did Neanderthals use fire? Some estimates have Neanderthals living in Asia 200,000 years ago. Has this been verified or debunked?

Yes, of course they used fire. They used it for heat and for cooking. They were the original Bar-B-Q experts. In addition, since they evolved, they used fire. Even Homo erectus used fire.

As for living in Asia, they did not go to Far East but they were in Europe until about 40 thousand years ago. They exited from Africa some 600 thousand years ago and they have been found as Far East in Asia as the Ural Mountains and into the mountains of India. The last ones may have died out some 75 thousand years ago.

10 :: Are humans bones all the same size, or some bigger than other?

The adult human body contains 206 bones, sizes of which vary significantly. Some are large, while some are almost microscopic. Ossicles (also called auditory ossicles) of the inner ear, are the smallest bones of the human body (length may exceed 450 mm). On the other hand, the femur (the thighbone) is the longest and most voluminous bone. The average human femur is 19 inches in length and 0.92 inches in diameter and can support up to 30 times the weight of an adult.