Anthropology

'Corpse Porn': Society's Addiction To Celebrity Death

The corpses of James Brown, Anna Nicole Smith and Saddam Hussein were voyeuristic spectacles for a public greedy for a last look at celebrity lives, according to an academic speaking at the Death, dying & disposal conference organised by the University ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 13 2007 - 9:24pm

Compensation Hypothesis And The Less-Than-Great Mate

Your mother called it 'settling.' Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young said “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.” Let's face it, not everyone can have their perfect mate so you have to make do. Yet in the animal kingdo ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 18 2007 - 4:18pm

Sex Change Surgery Makes Patients Happier, Despite Complications

The majority of patients who undergo male to female sex-change surgery are happy with the results, despite the fact that complications are common, according to a study of over 200 patients in the September issue of the urology journal BJU International. A ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 20 2007 - 11:36am

Inbreeding And Infant Mortality

Understanding whether inbreeding accounts for early mortality is a long-standing concern in demographic research. Analyzing Bedouin villages in Bekaa, Lebanon, in which the marriage rate among first cousins is more than twice the national average, a new st ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 25 2007 - 1:05pm

Mummy Studies Show Inca Fattened Up Kids Before Human Sacrifice

Hair samples from naturally preserved child mummies discovered at the world's highest archaeological site in the Andes have provided a startling insight into the lives of the children chosen for sacrifice. Researchers funded by the Wellcome Trust used ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 2 2007 - 12:18am

Tracing The History Of The Personal Computer

The Internet, personal computers, word processing and spreadsheets are so embedded in today’s society that it’s hard to remember that just 35 years ago they didn’t exist. Thomas Haigh, assistant professor of information studies at the University of Wiscons ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 7 2007 - 11:24pm

Newfoundland: 'Mumming' Builds Trust, Say Researchers

Residents of small isolated fishing villages on the northern peninsula of Newfoundland have participated in the ritual of “mumming” for centuries. According to the tradition, small groups of villagers, or mummers, disguise their identities and go to other ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 8 2007 - 5:36pm

Belief In Witchcraft, Magic Serves 'Basic Human Need'

Halloween is a time for children to dress up as witches, ghouls and goblins, but historically witchcraft was serious business, according to a Duke University professor. Though people today might view witchcraft as mere superstition, it’s evident from anthr ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 29 2018 - 2:10pm

New Hypothesis On Migration From Asia To America: Beringian Standstill

Questions about human migration from Asia to the Americas have perplexed anthropologists for decades, but as scenarios about the peopling of the New World come and go, the big questions have remained. Do the ancestors of Native Americans derive from only a ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 25 2007 - 5:33pm

Natural Enemies Increase Evolutionary Stability

A new study explores the role of natural enemies, such as predators and parasites, for mixed mating, a reproductive strategy in which hermaphroditic plants and animals reproduce through both self- and cross-fertilization. The findings highlight the possibl ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 26 2007 - 3:12pm