Anthropology

The early days of Ashkenazi Jews – that is, Jews with more recent ancestry in central and Eastern Europe – are a hot debate topic. It is believed that their ancestors migrated into Europe from Judea in the first century A.D., after the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans, and that led to some intermarriage with Europeans later on.   Others have argued that they have a mainly European ancestry, and arose by conversion to Judaism of indigenous Europeans, especially in Italy. While still others have even argued that they were largely assimilated in the North Caucasus during the…

Transgendered androphilic males may have been accepted in ancient hunter-gatherer cultures because they were an extra set of hands to support their families, according to a new article in Human Nature. "Androphilia" refers to a predominant sexual attraction towards adult males, and takes on one of two possible gender roles depending on the cultural context: sex-gender congruent male androphilia (the typical male gender role) or transgendered androphilia, a gender role markedly similar to that of females in a given culture. Typically one of these variations is dominant within a society. For…

If history always felt a little made up and you wished there were more sharply-defined quantitative predictions that could be tested empirically, you are in luck. A new mathematical method has done just that. An trans-disciplinary team tackled a way to mathematically determine how human societies evolve from small groups to the huge, anonymous and complex societies of today. Their cultural evolutionary model predicts where and when the largest-scale complex societies arose in human history. They determined that intense warfare is the evolutionary driver of large complex societies. Simulated…

Hyperlink films, which use cinematic devices such as flashbacks, scenes out of chronological order, split screens and voiceovers to create an interacting network of storylines and characters across space and time, mirror contemporary globalized communities, it is said. However, films in this genre like "Memento", "Love Actually" and "Crash" are not as new and innovative as believed - they still conform to conventional cinematic and social patterns, say scholars after an examination of twelve hyperlink films, ten female interest conventional films and examples from the real world and…

A bone fragment from a French archaeological site has turned out to be a part of an early specialized bone tool used by a Neanderthal before the first modern humans appeared in Europe.  The bone tools were found in deposits containing typical Neandertal stone tools and the bones of hunted animals including reindeer, red deer and bison. Three of the four pieces were from the site of Abri Peyrony, France. The animal bones from that site had been exported to UC Davis for analysis. Used to smooth tough animal hides, the tools were made about 50,000 years ago by Neanderthals -- not just the…

Trailer park residents are one of the few demographics it's still okay to stereotype but, as is usually the case, low-income trailer park residents form distinct groups with different visions of morality, according to a new paper. In other words, they are no more easy to quantify than anyone else. Low income has distinct connotations, for example, though a trailer park in Florida might have low income people, they will be seniors so not what many regard as the uneducated poor living in a trailer park. The authors conducted an ethnographic study within a trailer park community in the…

Though some Europeans were still hunter-gatherers in 4,600 BC, there was interaction between the hunter-gatherer and farming communities and a 'sharing' of animals and knowledge  which led to acquisition of domesticated pigs from nearby farmers, according to new evidence.  The movements of pre-historic humans and the transition of technologies and knowledge was always blurry and the evidence shows the interaction between the two groups eventually led to the hunter-gatherers incorporating farming and breeding of livestock into their culture. The spread of plants and…

Anthropomorphism is overlooked as a powerful tool for promoting low-profile species that are either endangered or require urgent attention, say the authors of a new paper. As has been noted in the past, it also helps to use cute animals. At present, anthropomorphism in conservation is limited to social, intelligent animals, such as chimpanzees, polar bears and dolphins but the authors say we shouldn't imply that other species are not worthy of conservation because they are not like humans in the 'right' ways. Basically, conservationists need to learn framing the way other fields have. By…

Our early ancestors developed a taste for spicy food at the time they were beginning to transition to agriculture. The researchers discovered traces of garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), along with animal and fish residues, on the charred remains of pottery dating back nearly 7,000 years. The silicate remains were discovered through microfossil analysis of carboniszed food deposits from pots found at sites in Denmark and Germany. The pottery dated from the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition from hunter-gathering to agriculture. Previously scientists have analyzed starches which survive well in…

Zoos have used water moats to confine chimpanzees, gorillas or orangutans. When apes ventured into deep water, they often drowned, which indicated that apes could not learn to swim and so prefer to stay on dry land. But it turns out that they can. Two researchers have video-based observation of swimming and diving apes. Instead of the usual dog-paddle stroke used by most terrestrial mammals, these animals use a kind of breaststroke. This swimming strokes peculiar to humans (and apes) might be the result of an earlier adaptation to an arboreal life. enato Bender, who is working on a PhD in…