Anthropology
Halloween is a time for children to dress up as witches, ghouls and goblins, but historically witchcraft was serious business, according to a Duke University professor.
Though people today might view witchcraft as mere superstition, it’s evident from anthropological literature that, for some people, the practice has served a basic human need, said Anne-Maria Makhulu, an assistant professor of cultural anthropology who studies the ongoing practice of witchcraft in Africa.
"We live in a bewildering world where we don’t have a lot of control. And we can imagine doing things through magic that…
Residents of small isolated fishing villages on the northern peninsula of Newfoundland have participated in the ritual of “mumming” for centuries. According to the tradition, small groups of villagers, or mummers, disguise their identities and go to other houses to threaten violence, whereupon the people of the houses try to guess the intruders’ identities.
A study by researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia argues that this tradition is a manner of communicating trust and trustworthiness. The mummers who threaten violence must prove themselves trustworthy by not committing a real…
The Internet, personal computers, word processing and spreadsheets are so embedded in today’s society that it’s hard to remember that just 35 years ago they didn’t exist.
Thomas Haigh, assistant professor of information studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is among a very small number of computer experts in the world who are also historians, studying the role of technology in broader social change. These new experts are tracing how computers have changed business and society.
Researching late 20th century technology has given Haigh the opportunity to talk to many pioneers who…
Hair samples from naturally preserved child mummies discovered at the world's highest archaeological site in the Andes have provided a startling insight into the lives of the children chosen for sacrifice. Researchers funded by the Wellcome Trust used DNA and stable isotope analysis to show how children as young as six years old were 'fattened up' and taken on a pilgrimage to their death.
A team of scientists led by Dr Andrew Wilson at the University of Bradford analysed hair samples taken from the heads and from small accompanying bags of four mummies found in the Andes. These included the…
Understanding whether inbreeding accounts for early mortality is a long-standing concern in demographic research. Analyzing Bedouin villages in Bekaa, Lebanon, in which the marriage rate among first cousins is more than twice the national average, a new study finds that the greatest single determinant of infant mortality is not closely related parents – though this does present a significant risk – but short birth intervals.
The Bekka Bedouin are Sunni Muslims. Traditionally nomadic, migrating with herds of sheep and goats to pastures in the Syrian desert, they have recently become more…
The majority of patients who undergo male to female sex-change surgery are happy with the results, despite the fact that complications are common, according to a study of over 200 patients in the September issue of the urology journal BJU International.
A research team from the Departments of Urology and Psychiatry at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, UK, explored the initial experiences of 222 patients who had undergone surgery and 70 who took part in detailed follow-ups.
They found that 88 per cent of patients were happy with their surgery at their first post-operative clinic…
Your mother called it 'settling.' Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young said “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.” Let's face it, not everyone can have their perfect mate so you have to make do.
Yet in the animal kingdom, females and males apparently have ways to compensate that increase the chance their offspring will survive even if the parents are not genetic ideals.
Patricia Adair Gowaty calls it the "Compensation Hypothesis."
“It’s always better for offspring if parents can mate with preferred partners, but it’s becoming clear that when parents can’t have that…
The corpses of James Brown, Anna Nicole Smith and Saddam Hussein were voyeuristic spectacles for a public greedy for a last look at celebrity lives, according to an academic speaking at the Death, dying & disposal conference organised by the University of Bath today.
Despite a lasting taboo over the ‘everyday’ dead of war and disaster, celebrity corpses have come to feed contemporary popular culture’s obsession with the cadaver of forensic investigation.
In 2006, this included:
The dead body of Anna Nicole Smith, Playboy model and reality TV star, which required 24 hour protection…
The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach but the way to a female chimpanzees may be through being a great thief. Researchers studying wild chimps in West Africa have learned that males steal desirable fruits from local orchards as a means of attracting female mates.
Lead researcher, Dr Kimberley Hockings from the University of Stirling’s Department of Psychology said: “We believe the males may be using crop-raids as a way to advertise their prowess to other group-members, especially the opposite sex. Such daring behaviour certainly seems to be an attractive trait and possessing a…
Artificial intelligence, in the form of simple computer ‘agents’, can mimic the actions of primates and help us understand why some groups are ‘despotic’ whilst others are ‘egalitarian’ - overturning previous theories developed by primatologists.
The new study also found support for an existing theory of how dominant macaques make it to the safer positions at the middle of their troop without seeming to be pre-occupied with getting there.
Using agents programmed with two rules – stay in a group for safety and pester subordinates until they move away – scientists found that their more dominant…