Anthropology posts
- June 19, 2015
- 03:01 AM
- 491 views
A hike in the Prealps and Mesolithic on the Jaunpass, Bernese Oberland
by M. Cornelissen in hazelnut relations
Mai, June, early summer. For those loving the mountains, latest by now it starts to itch again. Summer has slowly arrived in the lowlands, but at higher altitudes there is still snow in places. The Prealps, or Voralpen in German, … Continue reading →... Read more »
Crotti, P. . (2001) Campements mésolithique d'altitude sur le Jaunpass (Simmental, canton de Berne, Suisse). Annuaire de la Société Suisse de Préhistoire et d'Archéologie, 119-124. info:/http://dx.doi.org/10.5169/seals-117667
- June 18, 2015
- 01:02 PM
- 997 views
How ‘science popularizers’ influence public opinion on religion
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Two prominent scientists with drastically different views on the relationship of science and religion – Richard Dawkins and Francis Collins – have an equally different influence on these views among people who are unfamiliar with their work, according to new research from Rice University and West Virginia University.... Read more »
Scheitle, C., & Ecklund, E. (2015) The influence of science popularizers on the public's view of religion and science: An experimental assessment. Public Understanding of Science. DOI: 10.1177/0963662515588432
- June 18, 2015
- 12:59 PM
- 835 views
Not-so-guilty pleasure: Viewing cat videos boosts energy and positive emotions
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
If you get a warm, fuzzy feeling after watching cute cat videos online, the effect may be more profound than you think. The Internet phenomenon of watching cat videos, from Lil Bub to Grumpy Cat, does more than simply entertain; it boosts viewers’ energy and positive emotions and decreases negative feelings, according to a new study by an Indiana University Media School researcher.... Read more »
Myrick, J. (2015) Emotion regulation, procrastination, and watching cat videos online: Who watches Internet cats, why, and to what effect?. Computers in Human Behavior, 168-176. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2015.06.001
- June 9, 2015
- 09:39 AM
- 703 views
What Happens When 28,000 Volunteers Are Set Loose in the Virtual Serengeti
by Elizabeth Preston in Inkfish
What's a scientist to do with 1.2 million photos, most of grass but some containing valuable data about endangered animals? Turn the whole thing over to the public, if you're the creators of Snapshot Serengeti. This project caught the attention of tens of thousands of volunteers. Now their work has produced a massive dataset that's already helping scientists in a range of fields.
Most online citizen science involves a degree of tedium—counting craters, tracing kelp mats. But Snapshot ... Read more »
Swanson, A., Kosmala, M., Lintott, C., Simpson, R., Smith, A., & Packer, C. (2015) Snapshot Serengeti, high-frequency annotated camera trap images of 40 mammalian species in an African savanna. Scientific Data, 150026. DOI: 10.1038/sdata.2015.26
- June 9, 2015
- 07:37 AM
- 678 views
Importance of Field Work: Sifting to Recover Bones
by Katy Meyers Emery in Bones Don't Lie
Continuing with our theme of focusing on excavation and field work in mortuary archaeology, let’s look at another important step of the process: sifting. While the excavation is progressing, the […]... Read more »
Mays, S., Vincent, S., & Campbell, G. (2012) The value of sieving of grave soil in the recovery of human remains: an experimental study of poorly preserved archaeological inhumations. Journal of Archaeological Science, 39(10), 3248-3254. DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2012.05.006
- June 8, 2015
- 09:51 PM
- 737 views
The health effects of homophobia
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Homophobia, since people are (finally) stigmatizing racism, it’s just another excuse to be able to treat people who are slightly different like they are garbage. To that end, I have bad news for gay and bisexual men living in European countries with strong attitudes and policies against homosexuality are far less likely to use HIV-prevention services, test for HIV, and discuss their sexuality with health providers, according to research led by Yale School of Public Health (YSPH).... Read more »
Pachankis, J., Hatzenbuehler, M., Hickson, F., Weatherburn, P., Berg, R., Marcus, U., & Schmidt, A. (2015) Hidden from health: structural stigma, sexual orientation concealment, and HIV across 38 countries in the European MSM Internet Survey . AIDS, 29(10), 1239-1246. DOI: 10.1097/QAD.0000000000000724
- June 8, 2015
- 06:00 AM
- 856 views
11,500-Year-Old Bison Butchering Site Discovered in Oklahoma
by Blake de Pastino in Western Digs
A stretch of floodplain in northwestern Oklahoma, already known for its profusion of prehistoric hunting sites, has turned up new find: a scatter of butchered bison bones dating back nearly 11,500 years — extending the evidence of bison hunting in the area by centuries, archaeologists say.
... Read more »
Carlson, K., Bement, L., Culleton, B., & Kennett, D. (2015) The Jake Bluff East Paleoindian Bison Butchering Feature, Northwest Oklahoma. PaleoAmerica, 1(2), 201-203. DOI: 10.1179/2055556315Z.00000000021
- June 7, 2015
- 12:10 PM
- 555 views
Babies who can resettle are more likely to ‘sleep through the night’
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Good news, for parents who see their babies “resettle” when they wake up. According to a video study, young infants who can “resettle” themselves after waking up are more likely to sleep for prolonged periods at night. Okay, maybe that’s bad news for parents who don’t have a baby who “resettles,” but it’s still good information.... Read more »
St James-Roberts, I., Roberts, M., Hovish, K., & Owen, C. (2015) Video Evidence That London Infants Can Resettle Themselves Back to Sleep After Waking in the Night, as well as Sleep for Long Periods, by 3 Months of Age. Journal of Developmental , 36(5), 324-329. DOI: 10.1097/DBP.0000000000000166
- June 5, 2015
- 04:21 PM
- 817 views
Lomekwi 3 and the Invention of Technology
by Andrew White in AndyWhiteAnthropology
Last week I wrote a post about the 3.3-million-year-old pre-Oldowan stone tool assemblage reported from the Lomekwi 3 (LOM3) site in Kenya by Harmand et al. (2015). As I was writing that, I remembered a 2004 paper by Sophie A. de Beaune titled "The Invention of Technology" (Current Anthropology 45(2):139-162) that I had read in grad school. That paper takes a long-term view of the evolution of technology focusing on the development and proliferation of different kinds of percussion.&........ Read more »
de Beaune, S. (2004) The Invention of Technology: Prehistory and Cognition. Current Anthropology, 45(2), 139-162. DOI: 10.1086/381045
Harmand S, Lewis JE, Feibel CS, Lepre CJ, Prat S, Lenoble A, Boës X, Quinn RL, Brenet M, Arroyo A.... (2015) 3.3-million-year-old stone tools from Lomekwi 3, West Turkana, Kenya. Nature, 521(7552), 310-5. PMID: 25993961
- June 5, 2015
- 04:09 PM
- 785 views
Why good people do bad things
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Honest behavior is much like sticking to a diet. When facing an ethical dilemma, being aware of the temptation before it happens and thinking about the long-term consequences of misbehaving could help more people do the right thing, according to a new study. This is the first study to test how the two separate factors of identifying an ethical conflict and preemptively exercising self-control interact in shaping ethical decision-making.... Read more »
Sheldon, O., & Fishbach, A. (2015) Anticipating and Resisting the Temptation to Behave Unethically. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. DOI: 10.1177/0146167215586196
- June 5, 2015
- 06:59 AM
- 643 views
Importance of Field Work: Careful Excavation and Archaeothanatology
by Katy Meyers Emery in Bones Don't Lie
During the month of June, I will be the teaching assistant for the Michigan State University Campus Archaeology Field School. This is a unique field school because it gives students […]... Read more »
Littleton, J., Floyd, B., Frohlich, B., Dickson, M., Amgalantögs, T., Karstens, S., & Pearlstein, K. (2012) Taphonomic analysis of Bronze Age burials in Mongolian khirigsuurs. Journal of Archaeological Science, 39(11), 3361-3370. DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2012.06.004
- June 4, 2015
- 02:15 PM
- 667 views
Eating the placenta: trendy but no proven health benefits and unknown risks
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Celebrities such as Kourtney Kardashian blogged and raved about the benefits of their personal placenta ‘vitamins’ and spiked women’s interest in the practice of consuming their placentas after childbirth.
But a new Northwestern Medicine review of 10 current published research studies on placentophagy did not turn up any human or animal data to support the common claims that eating the placenta — either raw, cooked or encapsulated — offers protection against po........ Read more »
Young, S., & Benyshek, D. (2010) In Search of Human Placentophagy: A Cross-Cultural Survey of Human Placenta Consumption, Disposal Practices, and Cultural Beliefs. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 49(6), 467-484. DOI: 10.1080/03670244.2010.524106
Selander, J., Cantor, A., Young, S., & Benyshek, D. (2013) Human Maternal Placentophagy: A Survey of Self-Reported Motivations and Experiences Associated with Placenta Consumption. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 52(2), 93-115. DOI: 10.1080/03670244.2012.719356
- June 3, 2015
- 03:49 PM
- 676 views
What musical taste tells us about social class
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Love the opera? Hungry for hip hop? It turns out that your musical likes and dislikes may say more about you than you think, according to UBC research. Even in 2015, social class continues to inform our cultural attitudes and the way we listen to music, according to the study. “Breadth of taste is not linked […]... Read more »
Veenstra, G. (2015) Class Position and Musical Tastes: A Sing-Off between the Cultural Omnivorism and Bourdieusian Homology Frameworks. Canadian Review of Sociology/Revue canadienne de sociologie, 52(2), 134-159. DOI: 10.1111/cars.12068
- May 31, 2015
- 02:19 PM
- 742 views
How racial stereotypes impact the way we communicate
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Racial stereotypes and expectations can impact the way we communicate and understand others, according to new research. The new study highlights how non-verbal “social cues” – such as photographs of Chinese Canadians – can affect how we comprehend speech.... Read more »
Babel, M., & Russell, J. (2015) Expectations and speech intelligibility. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 137(5), 2823-2833. DOI: 10.1121/1.4919317
- May 31, 2015
- 12:03 PM
- 779 views
Shots Fired in the Battle Over the Cinmar Biface . . . But Does it Actually Matter to the Solutrean Hypothesis?
by Andrew White in AndyWhiteAnthropology
The Cinmar biface featured on the cover of Stanford and Bradley's (2013) book. Image source: http://smithsonianscience.si.edu/2012/01/new-book-across-atlantic-ice-the-origin-of-americas-clovis-culture/This week, Darrin Lowery responded to questions raised about the circumstances of the discovery of the Cinmar biface, a bi-pointed stone tool that resembles, at least superficially, artifacts made and used by the Solutrean peoples of Upper Paleolithic Europe. The point was reportedly dredged ........ Read more »
Eren, M., Boulanger, M., & O'Brien, M. (2015) The Cinmar discovery and the proposed pre-Late Glacial Maximum occupation of North America. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.03.001
- May 30, 2015
- 02:05 PM
- 653 views
Health factors influence ex-prisoners’ chances of returning to jail
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Ex-prisoners with a history of risky drug use, mental illness or poverty are more likely to end up back behind bars. Those who are obese, are chronically ill or have attempted suicide are more likely to remain in the community. These are some of the findings from an exploratory study into health-related factors that could be used to predict whether a person released from prison will end up in custody again.... Read more »
Thomas, E., Spittal, M., Taxman, F., & Kinner, S. (2015) Health-related factors predict return to custody in a large cohort of ex-prisoners: new approaches to predicting re-incarceration. Health , 3(1). DOI: 10.1186/s40352-015-0022-6
- May 29, 2015
- 04:30 PM
- 565 views
Restricting firearms access for people who misuse alcohol may prevent violence
by Dr. Jekyll in Lunatic Laboratories
Restricting access to firearms for people who misuse alcohol could prevent firearm violence, but policies that more clearly define alcohol misuse should be developed to facilitate enforcement, according to a review of existing research and public policies by the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program.... Read more »
Wintemute, G. (2015) Alcohol misuse, firearm violence perpetration, and public policy in the United States. Preventive Medicine. DOI: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2015.04.015
- May 29, 2015
- 02:12 PM
- 880 views
What's a "Species"?
by Andrew White in AndyWhiteAnthropology
The naming of a new species of hominid -- Australopithecus deyiremeda -- made a lot of news this week. The purpose of this post is not to worry over the details of the fossils that were used to construct this new taxon, but to ask for some clarification about what is actually meant by the term "species" as paleoanthropologists use it. I'm going to tell you what I think it means, then I'm going to complain about it a little bit, then I'm going to ask you to tell me what you thin........ Read more »
Haile-Selassie Y, Gibert L, Melillo SM, Ryan TM, Alene M, Deino A, Levin NE, Scott G, & Saylor BZ. (2015) New species from Ethiopia further expands Middle Pliocene hominin diversity. Nature, 521(7553), 483-8. PMID: 26017448
- May 27, 2015
- 01:25 PM
- 1,156 views
Human Evolution and the Stone Tool "Problem"
by Andrew White in AndyWhiteAnthropology
The recent announcement of the discovery in stone tools in Kenya dating to 3.3 million years ago (MYA) has been greeted with a lot of fanfare. I first heard the story at some point earlier in the academic year, and I know there was a lot of buzz about it at the SAAs and Paleoanthropology meetings in San Francisco in April. The publication of a formal paper in Nature last week (“3.3-Million-Year-Old Stone [...] ... Read more »
Harmand S, Lewis JE, Feibel CS, Lepre CJ, Prat S, Lenoble A, Boës X, Quinn RL, Brenet M, Arroyo A.... (2015) 3.3-million-year-old stone tools from Lomekwi 3, West Turkana, Kenya. Nature, 521(7552), 310-5. PMID: 25993961
- May 27, 2015
- 10:37 AM
- 841 views
Evidence of Violence from a Late Black Death Cemetery
by Katy Meyers Emery in Bones Don't Lie
When we study history, we tend to focus on the big events. This is especially true for medieval England where history is defined by wars, plagues, famines, and major changes […]... Read more »
Krakowka, K. (2015) Violence-related Trauma from the Cistercian Abbey of St Mary Graces and a Late Black Death Cemetery. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology. DOI: 10.1002/oa.2462
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