#anthroposlogia

[mindblowingscience]

Archaeologists Take Wrong Turn, Find World’s Oldest Stone Tools

Archaeologists working in the Kenyan Rift Valley have discovered the oldest known stone tools in the world. Dated to around 3.3 million years ago, the implements are some 700,000 years older than stone tools from Ethiopia that previously held this distinction. They are so old, in fact, that they predate the earliest fossils representing our genus, Homo,by half a million years. As such they suggest that stone tool manufacture began not with Homo, but with a more primitive member of the human family.

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[anthrocentric]

Zora Neale Hurston’s Gifts to Anthropology- Pt 1

written by Irma McClaurin

So, was Zora a writer before she became an anthropologist? From all accounts, her literary self emerged before her ethnographer self. However, Zora’s fascination for people of all types and her attraction to what she called “…the studied curiosity” that informed anthropology are in evidence even as a child. Though not she was not trained as an anthropologist until she was in her mid-thirties, Zora had a natural inclination for wanting to understand the human condition of the American Negro and to bring to light our cultural creativity. One contribution that Zora made to anthropology was that of the “native” researcher before it became popularized in the 1970s and later. Her approach to adopting and autoethnographic approach to research was deeply influenced by her experiences at Barnard and briefly at Columbia.

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[anthrocentric]

The year 2014 in archaeology

It's been a fascinating year for ground-breaking archaeology around the globe, with cholera-stricken "vampires", armour made of bone, and the invention of trousers. Here's just a selection of what has made an impact this year.

[mindblowingscience]

Microbiome may have shaped early human populations

We humans have an exceptional age structure compared to other animals: Our children remain dependent on their parents for an unusually long period and our elderly live an extremely long time after they have stopped procreating.

Could the microscopic fellow travelers that consider the human body to be their home - collectively known as the microbiome - have played an active role in shaping and maintaining this unusual aspect of human nature?

That is the speculative proposition advanced by Martin Blaser, professor of medicine and microbiology at NYU's Langone Medical Center, and supported by mathematical models produced by Glenn Webb, professor of mathematics at Vanderbilt University. They present their argument in a paper titled, "Host demise as a beneficial function of indigenous microbiota in human hosts," published online today in mBio, the journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

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[anthrocentric]

Playing Osteology "Beer" Pong

For review sessions in my Human Osteology class, I often do Jeopardy.  I write a whole bunch of questions in three PowerPoints (oh, I do both Single and Double Jeopardy, along with a Final Jeopardy complete with doo-doo-doo think music!), and the students tend to get really involved.  I didn't feel like writing another set of questions for this week's review, and coincidentally Keith Chan* this week put up a blog post about his idea for a "Beer(less) Pong Study Session."  Would osteology "beer" pong work?  I was determined to find out.

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Interesting. There's also the option of playing True American but instead of pop culture and history references, you use anthro facts/quotes. It's the ultimate game for the truly nerdy. It gets really difficult after a couple shots/drinks though.. so maybe do it without the alcohol if you actually intend on getting any studying done. Hah. What is True American you ask? Well, 

"So, it's 50% drinking game, 50% life-size Candy Land." - Jess

"Well, it's more like 75 drinking, 20 Candy Land, and by the way the floor is molten lava." - Schmidt

"It's actually 90% drinking and then it's got a loose Candy Land-like structure to it." - Winston

[anthrocentric]

Hey there!! I was wondering if you know of any tumblrs (or blogs outside of tumblr) that deal mainly with social anthropology?? Thank you in advance :)

Cultural Anthropology:social-anthro, anthrostories, culturenautique, culturestress, everydayhybridity .... I know I'm missing some, so comment if you'd like to be included

Outside:PopAnth, SavageMinds, and Antropologi has a great list of websites.

[anthrocentric]

Hi! I've got a bit of a dilemma, and was wondering if someone could help me out! I'm struggling with is this: in my anthropology papers, when writing about or having to make note of someones ancestry, I'm at a loss as to what terminology to properly use. In my forensics class we have used "Caucasian" "Native American/Asian" and "African American" (to name a few) though in my Bioarchaeology class my professor discouraged the use of those terms listed above. In short, what would be best?

Use what your professor prefers you to use in that class. It can be difficult and painful, but ultimately, it is their class and their rules. 

Best, Kris.

[anthrocentric]

Hi, love this blog! I was wondering if you could help. I have to write a paper for my intro to physical anthropology class about anything relating to physical anthropology and I'm having troubles deciding what to write about. Do you have any suggestions for topics? Thanks!

This is probably way too late, so I apologize profusely. 

Here are some potential topics:

• Bipedality: costs and benefits?• The extended life history of humans• Agriculture and its influence in physical health• Color vision: why tri not tetra? and why sometimes di?• Continued stress and epigenetics• Aquatic ape theory and why it's incorrect• The Selfish Gene: to what degree are we selfish? what role does altruism play?• My Mom Hates Me: The parent offspring conflict (trivers)• Exploding Sperm and other sexual reproductive strategies (okay exploding sperm not really in humans and nonhuman primates, but hey it's a catchy title)

Have fun, Kris.