Anthropology

The Language Of Neanderthals

Our prehistoric close cousins, the Neandertals, were more similar than science used to think in a variety of ways. And according to a new paper, they had something resembling modern speech and language, which can be traced back to the last common ancestor ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 10 2013 - 5:49pm

The Specter Of Maoism Is Little Studied

Despite the horrors of the Maoist regime, the Communist Party dictatorship in the People's Republic of China continues to exist and retain control, even though tens of millions of people suffered from persecution or were executed for political reasons ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 17 2013 - 2:08pm

Pretty People Less Likely To Be Bullied At Work

Do looks matter in the work place? There are a lot more unattractive people running departments and entire companies than there are pretty ones- but a new paper by academics says just the opposite. Pretty people have an easier time on the job. The paper b ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 17 2013 - 4:03pm

Baby Mamas And Cohabitation Are In, Marriage Is Out

Women are waiting longer before getting married- if they get married at all, according to a new analysis. The U.S. marriage rate is now at 31.1- which in statistical terms means roughly a rate of 31 marriages per 1,000 married women, not 31 percent. That ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 3 2013 - 2:34pm

Christians- The Little Discussed 'Green' Demographic

When most people think 'green' in America, they think of liberal Democrats. It's a carefully crafted image. Conservatives who deny global warming conserve energy just as much as liberals who accept it but that gets little attention. Sociolo ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Aug 1 2013 - 8:07am

History Of Hemp Retting Preserved In Sedimentary Cannabinol Tracks

Hemp (Cannabis sp.) has been a fundamental plant for the development of human societies. Its fibers have long been used for textiles and rope making, which requires prior stem retting. This process is essential for extracting fibers from the stem of the p ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 28 2013 - 11:51am

Thrifty Phenotype Hypothesis: Curing Poverty Leads To Obesity And Diabetes

There is a "thrifty phenotype" hypothesis which suggests that economic conditions present during fetal development that then improve dramatically during a person's childhood lead to poorer health in adulthood.  In other words, if people are ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 5 2013 - 2:20pm

How Human Psychology 'Evolved' Due To Urbanization And Education

How would you measure the 'evolution'- that is to say, changes- in human culture and psychology over the last 200 years?  Psychologist Patricia Greenfield of the University of California, Los Angeles used the Google Ngram Viewer to examine the f ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 7 2013 - 2:33pm

1885 And All That

In the 19 th century, following the Enlightenment, the process of secularization seemed to be on a slow but unstoppable roll.  One consequence of this was the development of a view of history, whereby religion in general, Christianity in particular, and a ...

Article - Robert H Olley - Aug 8 2013 - 11:16pm

Neanderthal Leather Smoother Discovery Forces A Rethink About Their Tool Use

Excavations of tools at two neighboring Paleolithic sites in southwest France have made the blurred lines between modern humans and Neanderthals more blurry.  Two research teams from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germa ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 12 2013 - 5:57pm