Anthropology

Ancestral Origin Of Humans Was Probably Southern Africa

African, American, and European researchers working in collaboration over a 10-year period have released the largest-ever study of African genetic data—more than four million genotypes—providing a library of new information on the continent which is though ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 30 2009 - 6:05pm

Homo Floresiensis- Hobbit Feet Were Primitive But Not Pathological (So They Took It Slow)

A detailed analysis of the feet of Homo floresiensis, the miniature hominins who lived on a remote island in eastern Indonesia until 18,000 years ago, may help settle a question hotly debated among paleontologists: how similar was this population to modern ...

Article - News Staff - May 6 2009 - 1:56pm

Notes toward a methodology of studying large message boards

Continuing along on my previous theme (having cleared my soul of the rant on etic viewpoints of cyberculture), many studies I've seen fail to convince the "internet native" because of a number of flaws that could easily be addressed. For br ...

Blog Post - Mel. White - May 7 2009 - 12:03am

66th Four Stone Hearth: Anthropological Party Time!

The 66th Four Stone Hearth, a fortnightly collection of anthropology blogging is being hosted over at Aardvarcheology. including a monster of a study on African population genetics. Excerpt: The scientists’ first step was to collect DNA from a diverse se ...

Blog Post - Nicholas Horton - May 8 2009 - 1:37pm

Thank God For Atheists (And Vice Versa)

The success of religion may be the fault of non-believers (or, if you look at it the other way around, thank god for the atheists!) At least that is one interpretation of a recent individual-based simulation study of social evolution conducted by James D ...

Article - Massimo Pigliucci - May 11 2009 - 9:25am

In Modern Waorani, Bad Boys Don't Get The Girl

Aggressive, vengeful behavior of individuals in some South American groups has been considered the means for men to obtain more wives and more children, but an international team of anthropologists working in Ecuador among the Waorani show that sometimes t ...

Article - News Staff - May 11 2009 - 4:56pm

Did Language Invent Humans?

Did Language Invent Humans? Writing is a human invention. We have plenty of evidence of its invention and of its improvement down the ages. It would make no sense to assume that writing somehow 'just appeared'. A magical origin of writing wou ...

Article - Patrick Lockerby - May 18 2009 - 7:00pm

Neanderthal Intelligence Redux

Neanderthals/neandertals, popularly regarded as the 'stupid' cousins of modern humans, were actually capable of capturing the most impressive animals- and that takes some sense. Dutch researcher Gerrit Dusseldorp analyzed their daily forays for ...

Article - News Staff - May 19 2009 - 11:22pm

Did We Learn Basketry From Animals?

Did animals teach us one of the oldest forms of human technology, basketry? Did that help us learn to count? These are just two of the themes due to be explored at a University of East Anglia event which takes place June 5-6) is part of Beyond the Basket, ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 5 2009 - 12:38am

Giggling Babies and Great Apes