Anthropology

The American century was the result of a can-do attitude born in the 19th century. As prosperity began to increase, collectives, such as unions, became the norm, and they were endorsed by many educated elites - but they were still promoting individualism in doing so. That individualism rose as we shifted from blue-collar union jobs to the white-collar kind. Though American conservatives claim to care about small business and American liberals claim to care about unions, the white-collar service jobs that have replaced both have caused the individualism Americans are known for today -…

15 years ago, the name "Aidan" was barely a blip on the radar of Americans with new babies, ranking a lowly 324th on the Social Security Administration's list of popular baby names. Then a popular character with that name was on the television show "Sex and the City" and though fathers dreaded that their child was going to have the same name as some other child of a mother who watched the show, it happened all across America anyway. Since then, that name has been in the top 20. Yet not all fads are so obvious in how they arise. No one could have predicted the gluten-free or blood type diets…

Bowhunting has made a big comeback in the 21st century. Suddenly women love it - and their inclination to shoot something up close and personal without getting their hands messy is reason enough not to provoke American women. But it won't be for food, and perhaps it stopped being for food thousands of years ago.  We may think of bowhunting in neolithic times as being functional - to find food - but it may have instead been social cohesion, according to archaeologists who have analyzed the Neolithic bows found in the site of La Draga (Girona, Spain).  Most in-the-know Americans…

Modern humans date back only about 200,000 years. How did that turn into the population of the planet and the extinction of Neanderthals? We have to leave the world of science to speculate on that but physical evidence does provide some guideposts. Fossil records show that some anatomically modern human groups reached the Levantine corridor - the modern Middle East - as early as 100,000 years ago but genetic testing indicates that human populations inhabiting the globe today descended from a single group that migrated from Africa only 70,000 years ago. 30,000 years is a gigantic gap and there…

Diabetes has been described as an epidemic of modern times so why does it affect aboriginal people more? Over the past several decades diabetes has become a prevalent health concern among Canada's First Nations communities, but it wasn't always so. One group thinks the way to reduce diabetes among original native peoples is 'reconnecting' them to their cultural roots. A paper in the International Journal for Equity in Health examined the link between culture and diabetes in Alberta First Nations communities.  As part of the work, the research team first interviewed 10 First Nations…

Social scientists believe that pre-Homo human ancestral species, such as Australopithecus africanus, used human-like hand postures much earlier than was previously thought. The authors say they have the first archaeological evidence for stone tool use among fossil australopiths 3-2 million years ago. The distinctly human ability for forceful precision (e.g. when turning a key) and power "squeeze" gripping (e.g. when using a hammer) is linked to two key evolutionary transitions in hand use: a reduction in arboreal climbing and the manufacture and use of stone tools. However, it is unclear when…

Most dogs and most humans get along well now and anthropological explanations are that selective selection is the reason; wolves that were not a threat were not killed and over time the agreeable ones got shelter and food. That cooperation has led to thousands of years of being man's best friend. Friederike Range and Zsófia Virányi from the Unit of Comparative Cognition at the Messerli Research Institute at University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna have an alternate idea, the "Canine Cooperation Hypothesis". They believe that since wolves already are tolerant, attentive and cooperative,…

Some cultural pundits contend that income inequality is linked to parenting inequality but new findings dispute that.  You don't have to be wealthy to be involved in your child's life, despite modern thinking, according to a new paper which finds that poorer parents are just as involved in education, leisure and sports activities with their children as wealthier ones. The researchers used the Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK survey, carried out between March and December 2012. Among the questions it asked were: How many days in the past seven days have you, or your partner read…

Conformity is a bad thing, in media portrayals like Apple advertisements - yet then they have a lot of people who look a lot alike all standing in line to buy the latest iPhone. In reality, despite the claims of creative people who insist that only one brand is for creative people, they are conforming. It is human nature to conform. Former Vice-President Dan Quayle was once criticized for not knowing how to spell 'potato' while guest judging a spelling event. It was spelled wrong on the answer card and he knew it was wrong but he conformed and politicians and the public do the same thing…

Odds are they won't be so happy after Yuletide. Shutterstock By Frederik Pedersen, University of Aberdeen January is a strain for most people. It’s dark and the festive lights don’t disguise this anymore. You’re back at work and the next holiday may be some way off. You’ve just had to spend a large amount of time with your family. This has consequences. Lawyers have a worse than normal return to work after the Christmas break: they go back to stacks of divorce papers. So many couples seek the help of professionals to have their marriage dissolved after the strains of the Christmas season that…