Anthropology

It's no surprise that natural selection does not always take an evolutionary time scale.  When thousands of knights died during the Crusades at Acre, natural selection was being channeled. Yes,…

We often think of the migration of Asians into America as a event that occurred when the Bering Sea was lower: They basically went over the land bridge that existed, from one part to another. Genetic…

If climate change sends us all back to the Stone Age, we wouldn't be the first culture. Or at least to the Bronze Age. It used to be that changes in climate were simply history, now they are an…

Anthropologists have developed mathematical models that they say describe development patterns in both modern urban areas and ancient cities settled thousands of years ago.  Scott Ortman, an…

Everyone claims to care about diversity, individualism and tolerance. Very few people (R.I.P. Pete Seeger) really do. Instead, they want their beliefs affirmed and they want to demonize the…

Western humans are rare in that we drink milk after weaning.  Milk is the staple food for infants and contains the sugar lactose but most mammals lose the ability to digest lactose, and thus…

It was once commonly known than ancient Carthaginians sacrificed their children. The evidence was right there, in historical documents and graves. The city-state of ancient Carthage was a Phoenician…

Children who grow up in dangerous neighborhoods exhibit more aggressive behavior, according to a new paper in Societies. Lots of U.S. studies have suggested a link between dangerous neighborhoods and…

When tragedies happen, politicians aim to yell on the floors of Congress about how tragedies must be stopped.  And gun tragedies should be entirely preventable, claim gun ban proponents. Just…

You may think you eat too much but humans (and other primates) actually burn 50% fewer calories each day than other mammals, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of…