Anthropology

Ancient Death Rituals- Decapitation And Rebirth

mages of disembodied heads are widespread in the art of Nasca, a culture based on the southern coast of Peru from AD 1 to AD 750. But despite this evidence and large numbers of trophy heads in the region’s archaeological record, only eight headless bodies ...

Article - News Staff - May 29 2007 - 9:57am

Evidence From Ancient European Graves Raises Questions About Ritual Human Sacrifice

A fascinating new paper from the June issue of Current Anthropology explores ancient multiple graves and raises the possibility that hunter gatherers in what is now Europe may have practiced ritual human sacrifice. This practice – well-known in large, stra ...

Article - News Staff - May 29 2007 - 10:58am

Help Your Child Form Relationships By Buying Them A Robot

A project which is using robots to help children with developmental or cognitive impairments to interact more effectively has just started at the University of Hertfordshire. Professor Kerstin Dautenhahn, Dr. Ben Robins and Dr. Ester Ferrari at the Univers ...

Article - News Staff - May 29 2007 - 10:06pm

Anthropologists Examine Why People Don't Care About The Home Run Chase Of Barry Bonds

It seems almost certain that San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds will pass Hank Aaron as baseball’s all-time home-run king sometime this summer, but his pursuit has generated little public interest. There may be several reasons for this, ranging from ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 30 2010 - 8:53pm

How Different Consumer Types Shop

What you buy says a lot about you, according to a new study from the June issue of the Journal of Consumer Research. Consider this goal: to spend more time with your family. If you seek out products that expand the amount of quality time you have to share ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 4 2007 - 10:20am

Did Chickens Reach America Before Columbus?

It might be time to change some history books. Prehistoric Polynesians, not European voyagers, may have brought chickens to the Americas, according to new research from The University of Auckland’s Department of Anthropology. Fancy artwork courtesy of Univ ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 5 2007 - 8:47am

Research Says Chimpanzees Can Have Local Culture Just Like People

It seems chimps can have a common culture yet also their own local traditions. Does this mean chimpanzees in Asia would learn to use chopsticks? Yes, says a study released today, if they saw other groups doing it. The study confirms captive chimpanzees hav ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 7 2007 - 10:59pm

Mystery Solved: Ancient Italians Came From Turkey

The long-running controversy about the origins of the Etruscan people appears to be very close to being settled once and for all. Professor Alberto Piazza, from the University of Turin, Italy, will say that there is overwhelming evidence that the Etruscans ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 17 2007 - 6:28pm

Discovering How Extinct Animals Moved

Looking at fossils of long-dead creatures, it's easy to understand how anthropologists determine the way an animal looked. But how do they determine how one moved? Alan Walker,Professor of Anthropology and Biology at Penn State University, and a team ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 18 2007 - 7:17pm

Why Females Cheat

Women cheat on men for their own needs but superb starling females stray from their mates for the sake of their chicks, according to recent Cornell research. This reasoning includes being able to know if mates are too 'genetically similar' for br ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 20 2007 - 10:29am