What Is Biological Anthropology?

2020/12/21

Restoration work on Paleolithic human bones found in the Shiraho Saonetabaru Cave Ruins on Ishigaki Island

Biological anthropology is an academic field that seeks to understand humans as a part of nature and as a biological species from a biological perspective, including aspects like evolution, adaptation, structure, function, growth, and variation. One of its characteristics is the necessity for extensive knowledge spanning various fields.

For example, within biological anthropology, I specialize in morphological anthropology, which studies the shapes of bones and teeth. Recently, in morphology in general, including anthropology, it has become common to use techniques like X-ray CT and other tomographic technologies to digitize the three-dimensional shape of an object by creating a series of cross-sections. I happened to adopt these methods relatively early on, and in the process, I also came to learn about the principles of CT and algorithms for digital image processing.

Furthermore, by acquiring these techniques, I have had the opportunity to participate in research on materials from a wide range of periods and evolutionary stages, from pre-human ape fossils to early hominin fossils, Homo erectus fossils from Indonesia, and Paleolithic human bones from Japan. Research on ape and hominin fossils also requires knowledge of living apes, and in the investigation of Paleolithic human bones, associated artifacts such as stone tools cannot be ignored. Knowledge of geology, such as the strata preserving the fossils and their ages, is also necessary, and one must also understand the results of DNA research on the dispersal of modern Homo sapiens. In this way, interpreting the data obtained from the direct subjects of study—the bones and teeth—requires a considerably broad, if not deep, range of knowledge. This can be said to be both the interesting and the challenging part.

While most of the research and education in the Faculty of Letters concerns human activities, biological anthropology fundamentally targets humans themselves. They are the same in the sense that both are academic disciplines concerning humans, but whereas studying human activities inevitably involves human "will" or "intent," when viewing humans from a biological anthropology perspective, it can be said to be completely different in the sense that it seeks to understand the "will of nature" rather than the will of humans themselves.

In terms of education, I am mainly in charge of general education courses at Hiyoshi Campus. There are times when I question the significance of teaching biological anthropology to Faculty of Letters students, but some students react with a sharp insight from a different angle than science students, which has led me to believe that an understanding of humans themselves—the agents of human activities—is also important. I also participate in the education program of the Major in Archaeology and Ethnology, which includes the study of human activities from relatively ancient times. Through this, I hope to contribute to fostering individuals capable of thinking in a way that connects the things that were created with the people who created them.

*Affiliations, job titles, etc., are as of the time of the interview.