Anthropology posts
- March 26, 2013
- 06:14 PM
- 103 views
On Prairie Dogs
by Diapadion in Lord of the Apes
Not exactly my model species, but I talked about birds a short while ago, so why not prairie dogs? They're at least mammals with strong social organization. Anyway, I paper came to my attention, about dispersal in prairie dogs, and it was published in Science, so of course I had to read it.
Prairie dogs disperse when all close kin have disappeared
Prairie dogs pull up stakes and look for a new place to live when all
their close kin have disappeared from their home territory--a striking
pat........ Read more »
Hoogland, J. (2013) Prairie Dogs Disperse When All Close Kin Have Disappeared. Science, 339(6124), 1205-1207. DOI: 10.1126/science.1231689
- March 26, 2013
- 07:24 AM
- 99 views
Sacrifice Based On Settlement and Subsistence
by Katy Meyers in Bones Don't Lie
Sacrifice is a delicate subject. It can be voluntary or forced, but interpreting who these people were without text can be extremely difficult. When any hint of sacrifice is found at an archaeological site, it is often sensationalized. Sacrifice is actually defined as the making of a sacred act, coming from the latin sacer for … Continue reading »... Read more »
Turner, B., Klaus, H., Livengood, S., Brown, L., Saldaña, F., & Wester, C. (2013) The variable roads to sacrifice: Isotopic investigations of human remains from Chotuna-Huaca de los Sacrificios, Lambayeque, Peru. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22238
- March 25, 2013
- 11:11 AM
- 26 views
NeanderKamomil: A Soothing Solution You Can Trust
by Pia Spry-Marques in Bones and Skulls
Did Neanderthals self-medicate? What can their dental calculus tell us about their diets?... Read more »
Hardy K, Buckley S, Collins MJ, Estalrrich A, Brothwell D, Copeland L, García-Tabernero A, García-Vargas S, de la Rasilla M, Lalueza-Fox C.... (2012) Neanderthal medics? Evidence for food, cooking, and medicinal plants entrapped in dental calculus. Die Naturwissenschaften, 99(8), 617-26. PMID: 22806252
White, D. (1997) Dental calculus: recent insights into occurrence, formation, prevention, removal and oral health effects of supragingival and subgingival deposits. European Journal of Oral Sciences, 105(5), 508-522. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0722.1997.tb00238.x
- March 25, 2013
- 12:23 AM
- 127 views
Language and the stratification of restaurant labour
by Calvin N. Ho in Language on the Move
Are there language requirements for working in restaurants in Los Angeles? These two employment signs that I saw in the window of a sushi restaurant near UCLA suggests that you need English to wait tables and Spanish to work in … Continue reading →... Read more »
Waldinger, Roger. (1998) The Language of Work in an Immigrant Metropolis. Journal des anthropologues. info:/
- March 21, 2013
- 05:23 PM
- 136 views
Digitally Mapping Graveyards
by Katy Meyers in Bones Don't Lie
Over the past few weeks I have been working on mapping a cemetery in a Geographic Information System (GIS) as both part of a class and part of my own research. I received a number of question and comments on Twitter from readers asking how this was done and what exactly I was doing. What … Continue reading »... Read more »
Sayer, D., & Wienhold, M. (2012) A GIS-Investigation of Four Early Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries: Ripley's K-function Analysis of Spatial Groupings Amongst Graves. Social Science Computer Review, 31(1), 71-89. DOI: 10.1177/0894439312453276
Herrmann, Nicholas. (2002) GIS Applied to Bioarchaeology. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies, 64(1), 17-22. info:/
- March 20, 2013
- 01:00 PM
- 114 views
Suck It: The Ins and Outs of Mouth Pipetting
by Rebecca Kreston in BODY HORRORS
If you ever find yourself working in an infectious disease laboratory, whether it’s of the diagnostic or research variety, the overarching goal is not to put any microbes in your eye, an open wound or your mouth. Easy enough, right? Wear gloves, maybe goggles, work in fume hoods and don’t mouth pipette. When working with pathogenic bacteria and viruses, priority number one is Do Not Self-Inoculate.
Today our manual pipettes are rather sophisticated, plastic-y devices perfectly cal........ Read more »
HILL, N. (1999) Laboratory-acquired Infections: History, Incidence, Causes and Preventions, 4th edition. Eds. C. H. Collins and D. A. Kennedy. Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford 1999. Pp. 324. ISBN 0 7506 4023 5. Epidemiology and Infection, 123(1), 181-181. DOI: 10.1017/S0950268899002514
- March 19, 2013
- 06:35 PM
- 125 views
London’s Newest Plague Pit
by Katy Meyers in Bones Don't Lie
The Crossrail project is aimed at creating a 73 mile railway in southeast London. Concerns raised about the new fast and efficient railway was that it could destroy archaeological resources but also that the dig may reveal some ancient diseases. During the debate over passing the bill to begin construction, it was raised that various … Continue reading »... Read more »
Antoine D. (2008) The archaeology of "plague". Medical history. Supplement, 101-14. PMID: 18575084
Schuenemann VJ, Bos K, DeWitte S, Schmedes S, Jamieson J, Mittnik A, Forrest S, Coombes BK, Wood JW, Earn DJ.... (2011) Targeted enrichment of ancient pathogens yielding the pPCP1 plasmid of Yersinia pestis from victims of the Black Death. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108(38). PMID: 21876176
- March 19, 2013
- 12:30 PM
- 54 views
The Genetic Architecture of Adaptations to High Altitude in Ethiopia
by Guillaume Cossard in genome ecology evolution etc
Human populations have colonized high altitude (HA) habitats (above 2500m of altitude) multiple times and independently. HA habitats are essentially characterized by lower biodiversity and low levels of oxygen availability, also called hypoxia. Classically, organisms respond to this decreased oxygen … Continuer la lecture →... Read more »
Alkorta-Aranburu, G., Beall, C., Witonsky, D., Gebremedhin, A., Pritchard, J., & Di Rienzo, A. (2012) The Genetic Architecture of Adaptations to High Altitude in Ethiopia. PLoS Genetics, 8(12). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1003110
- March 18, 2013
- 11:08 PM
- 123 views
Exclusion on campus
by Ingrid Piller in Language on the Move
A persistent theme in research with international students in Australia is the tension between dreams of inclusion pre-departure and the experience of exclusion once in the country. In Kimie Takahashi’s ethnography with international students from Japan, for instance, participants often … Continue reading →... Read more »
Tara J Yosso; William A Smith; Miguel Ceja; Daniel G Solórzano. (2009) Critical Race Theory, Racial Microaggressions, and Campus Racial Climate for Latina/o Undergraduates . Harvard Educational Review, 79(4). info:/
- March 18, 2013
- 08:58 AM
- 101 views
Post-Apocalyptic Foodways: the Archaeological and Ethnographic Evidence
by Colleen Morgan in Middle Savagery
Popular television and movies like The Walking Dead, I Am Legend and other post-apocalyptic dramas are usually framed in the modern day or near-future, with the characters battling the odds to stay alive in radically changed living conditions. Cormac McCarthy’s … Continue reading →... Read more »
Morell-Hart, S. (2012) Foodways and Resilience under Apocalyptic Conditions. Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment, 34(2), 161-171. DOI: 10.1111/j.2153-9561.2012.01075.x
- March 17, 2013
- 11:30 PM
- 139 views
Games, culture, and the Turing test (Part II)
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
This post is a continuation of Part 1 from last week that introduced and motivated the economic Turing test. When discussing culture, the first person that springs to mind is Joseph Henrich. He is the Canada Research Chair in Culture, Cognition and Coevolution, and Professor at the Departments of Psychology and Economics at the University [...]... Read more »
Henrich, J., Boyd, R., Bowles, S., Camerer, C., Fehr, E., Gintis, H., & McElreath, R. (2001) In Search of Homo Economicus: Behavioral Experiments in 15 Small-Scale Societies. American Economic Review, 91(2), 73-78. DOI: 10.1257/aer.91.2.73
- March 17, 2013
- 12:02 PM
- 140 views
Where have all the dry forests gone?
by Jes in Biogeography Bits
The environmentally conscientious citizen is well aware of the plight of the world’s tropical rainforests and our moral obligation to protect these biodiverse shelters of the next new cancer drug. But how many know of the troubles facing the tropical dry forests? (Or could even find them on a map?1) Just over 40% of tropical and subtropical forests are ‘dry’ forests where the trees lose their... Read more »
Bodart, C., Brink, A.B., Donnay, F., Lupi, A., Mayaux, P., & Achard, F. (2013) Continental estimates of forest cover and forest cover changes in the dry ecosystems of Africa between 1990 and 2000. Journal of Biogeography. info:/
- March 15, 2013
- 09:20 PM
- 171 views
The heat(map) is on... The colours of canine welfare.
by Cobb & Hecht in Do You Believe In Dog?
Hey Julie, All those conferences sound completely AMAZING! I love that both dog urine and poo are totally appropriate topics for us to discuss in our conversations. All the other scientists are so jealous right now!I hope you've been well since getting home again. We've just been through the longest heatwave ever recorded in Melbourne over the past fortnight (9 days over 30oC / 90oF in a row) and today it's finally cooled off, hooray! I haven't posted you the TimTams I promised you on Twitt........ Read more »
Fratkin JL, Sinn DL, Patall EA, & Gosling SD. (2013) Personality Consistency in Dogs: A Meta-Analysis. PloS One, 8(1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0054907
Gosling Samuel D., Augustine Adam A, Vazire Simine, Holtzman Nicholas, & Gaddis Sam. (2011) Manifestations of Personality in Online Social Networks: Self-Reported Facebook-Related Behaviors and Observable Profile Information. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 14(9), 483-488. DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2010.0087
Seligman Martin E. P., Ernst Randal M., Gillham Jane, Reivich Karen, & Linkins Mark. (2009) Positive education: positive psychology and classroom interventions. Oxford Review of Education, 35(3), 293-311. DOI: 10.1080/03054980902934563
- March 15, 2013
- 11:35 AM
- 190 views
Why People on Cell Phones Are the Worst
by Elizabeth Preston in Inkfish
If it were urgent, maybe we could be more forgiving. But the subject of that phone call one table away at Starbucks never seems to be vital. A bathroom renovation, maybe. Or a phrase-by-phrase recounting of a text message dialogue with an ex. If you suspect overheard phone conversations are inherently more awful than people talking face to face, you're right: research shows that these conversations reach across our espresso cups, grab our attention, and don't let go.
Psychologist Veronica Ga........ Read more »
Galván, V., Vessal, R., & Golley, M. (2013) The Effects of Cell Phone Conversations on the Attention and Memory of Bystanders. PLoS ONE, 8(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0058579
- March 15, 2013
- 01:34 AM
- 105 views
Deadbeat Moms
by Diapadion in Lord of the Apes
Why some fathers get left holding the baby.
Scientists have cracked a 140 year old mystery as
to why, for some animals, it’s the father rather than the mother that
takes care of their young. Researchers from the Universities
of Bath, Sheffield and Veszprém (Hungary) found that role reversal was
caused by an imbalance in the numbers of males relative to females.
Another paper published in Nature. This is exciting stuff, as the press articles say, this has been a mystery "140 years old........ Read more »
Liker A, Freckleton RP, & Székely T. (2013) The evolution of sex roles in birds is related to adult sex ratio. Nature communications, 1587. PMID: 23481395
- March 8, 2013
- 04:10 AM
- 207 views
Migrant women’s empowerment in the city
by Ingrid Piller in Language on the Move
It is international women’s day today and the world’s women are on the move like never before: according to figures from the International Institute for Migration, women constitute 49% of the world’s 214 million transnational migrants. It is often assumed … Continue reading →... Read more »
Dreby, J., & Schmalzbauer, L. (2013) The Relational Contexts of Migration: Mexican Women in New Destination Sites. Sociological Forum, 28(1), 1-26. DOI: 10.1111/socf.12000
- March 7, 2013
- 01:30 PM
- 159 views
A Nepalese Odysseus: XDR-TB is in South Texas
by Rebecca Kreston in BODY HORRORS
The Wall Street Journal has a superb write-up of a Nepalese man infected with extremely drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) who is currently detained at the US border in South Texas.
Traveling in all of the modern ways known to man – by foot, car, boat and plane – the man ventured from his home in Nepal, traipsing through South Asia, flying to Brazil and hoofing it through Central America until reaching the southernmost tip of Texas.... Read more »
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2012) Public health interventions involving travelers with tuberculosis--U.S. ports of entry, 2007-2012. MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 61(30), 570-3. PMID: 22854625
- March 7, 2013
- 06:30 AM
- 163 views
Games, culture, and the Turing test (Part I)
by Artem Kaznatcheev in Evolutionary Games Group
Intelligence is one of the most loaded terms that I encounter. A common association is the popular psychometric definition — IQ. For many psychologists, this definition is too restrictive and the g factor is preferred for getting at the ‘core’ of intelligence tests. Even geneticists have latched on to g for looking at heritability of [...]... Read more »
Strannegård, C., Amirghasemi, M., & Ulfsbäcker, S. (2013) An anthropomorphic method for number sequence problems. Cognitive Systems Research, 27-34. DOI: 10.1016/j.cogsys.2012.05.003
- March 7, 2013
- 02:42 AM
- 15 views
A Nepalese Odysseus: XDR-TB is in South Texas
by Rebecca Kreston in BODY HORRORS
The Wall Street Journal has a superb write-up of a Nepalese man infected with extremely drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) who is currently detained at the US border in South Texas. XDR-TB is resistant to four of the major types of antibiotics that are used to treat and control TB infections and this man is the first [...]... Read more »
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2012) Public health interventions involving travelers with tuberculosis--U.S. ports of entry, 2007-2012. MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 61(30), 570-3. PMID: 22854625
- March 6, 2013
- 11:20 AM
- 181 views
Hey Hey! We’re The Monkeys!
by Miss Behavior in The Scorpion and the Frog
A tamarin rock star (photographed by Ltshears at Wikimedia)Our moods change when we hear music, but not all music affects us the same way. Slow, soft, higher-pitched, melodic songs soothe us; upbeat classical music makes us more alert and active; and fast, harsh, lower-pitched, dissonant music can rev us up and stress us out. Why would certain sounds affect us in specific emotional ways? One possibility is because of an overlap between how we perceive music and how we perceive human voic........ Read more »
Snowdon, C., & Teie, D. (2009) Affective responses in tamarins elicited by species-specific music. Biology Letters, 6(1), 30-32. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2009.0593
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