Anthropology

Anti-Vaccination Websites: Select "Science" And A Lot Of Anecdotes

An analysis of nearly 500 anti-vaccination websites found that over two-thirds used what they represented as scientific evidence to support the idea that vaccines are dangerous and nearly one-third contained anecdotes that reinforced the perception.  ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 4 2015 - 10:55am

Wussification? Emotionally Supportive Relationships Linked To Lower Testosterone

Want to hyphenate your last name to include your wife's? Is "Three Men and a Baby" your favorite movie? If you are a man, these and other distinguishing characteristics probably mean you have lower testosterone. ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 10 2015 - 9:12pm

Human Have Been Using Beeswax For 8,000 Years

It may seem like bees are suddenly all the rage in environmental fundraising campaigns today but they have been important to human culture- for almost as long as modern farming, humans have been interested in bees and the products they produce.  ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 15 2015 - 12:37pm

Ice Age Isolation Led To 'Fourth Strand' Of European Ancestry

Human remains dating back to the Late Upper Palaeolithic period over 13,000 years ago has revealed a previously unknown "fourth strand" of ancient European ancestry.  This new lineage stems from populations of hunter-gatherers that split from we ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 16 2015 - 8:50am

Syria Conflict Has Changed The Rules About Attacking Hospitals

In civilized war, as oxymoronic as it sounds, hospitals have a cultural bubble around them, neutral territory and off limits.  But in Syria, that bubble has burst dozens of times, according to a new report from the group Physicians for Human Rights. The h ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 18 2015 - 7:14pm

Like Human Civilization? Thank Our Evil Side

The speed and character of human dispersals changed significantly around 100,000 years ago, and our dark side deserves a thanksgiving for that; a new paper suggests that betrayals of trust were the missing link in understanding the rapid spread of our spe ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 25 2015 - 8:33am

Millet: The Missing Link In Prehistoric Humans' Transition From Hunter-gatherer To Farmer

New research shows a cereal familiar today as birdseed was carried across Eurasia by ancient shepherds and herders laying the foundation, in combination with the new crops they encountered, of 'multi-crop' agriculture and the rise of settled soc ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 6 2018 - 4:29pm

Small Talk Could Serve An Evolutionary Need To Bond With Others

We think of small talk as a way to pass the time or kill an awkward silence but a group of evolutionary psychologists are suggesting that these idle conversations could be a social-bonding tool passed down through evolution- well, in their press release t ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 21 2015 - 9:36am

Then And Now: Religion And Politics Mean Social Tension And Conflict

Though we like to think we are more enlightened, advanced or progressive than in the past, it really isn't so. We aren't all that different from 2,000 years ago- kids were kids, parents worried the new generation would doom society, and people f ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 21 2015 - 2:57pm

Crows On Film: Fashioning Tools Or Anthropomorphism?

Scholars say video recordings show that tropical corvids fashion complex tools in the wild. The team attached tiny video 'spy-cameras'  to the crows to observe their natural foraging behavior and say there were two instances of hooked stick tool ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 23 2015 - 9:02am