Stories tagged anthropology
The formula looks right...: But it's not happening.
Courtesy FireFawkesThe journal Sexual Health has blown minds the world over with a new study’s assertion that, of all students, science students have the least sex. And male science students? They have the least sex of all, ranking neck and neck with amoeba.
Do you know who the study says has the most sex? Female art students. But I’ve never pretended to understand art kids, so we’ll leave that be and get back to our poor science nerds.
What gives? Is it the chicken or the egg? (The chicken being people who don’t often have sex, the egg being the study of science. Duh.) Does deciding to study science equate to putting on an invisible chastity belt? Is it (if we’re talking about chickens) a persistent rooster-block, if you will? Or are people for whom sex is not a huge priority, or even something to be avoided, attracted to the study of science?
The answer, according to the study, is “yes.”
The research was performed at the University of Sydney in Australia. The science department at the university has a high proportion of international students, who may have different cultural attitudes towards sex than those hedonistic, liberal arts, Australian-born students. Also, as we have discussed on Buzz, girls are often less attracted to studying math and science than boys, and boys, according to the psychotherapist quoted in the article, start having sex later than girls.
The demands of studying science, likewise, aren’t helping things. Students are kept out of environments where they would meet women, and spend most of their time “carrying on doing experiments, going to the library, and doing their assignments.”
A horde of very busy introverts—it’s the perfect storm. But don’t let this dissuade you from studying science, Buzzketeers—maybe this is just the sort of social environment you’re looking for. Or maybe you can start a brand new scientific revolution.
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Some fingers: Some fingers down, more fingers up.
Courtesy anna_tResearchers from MIT have found that a tribe in remote northwestern Brazil has no words for specific numbers.
The language of the tribe, of which there are only about 300 members, seems to be unique in that it has no numbers. Counting was thought to have been innate in human cognition. Apparently that isn’t totally the case. Specific numbers weren’t useful to this culture, so they never developed them in their language.
Instead of specific numbers, the group, called the Piraha, has a couple of relative terms, translating to something like “some” and “more.” Piraha math classes, I assume, would be awesome.
Some + some = more (obviously)
Nothing + some = some (duh)
Nothing + more = some (interesting!)
More – some = some (probably)
Some – more = your mind blown (Whoa!)
Something very anthropologically and linguistically crazy is going on here. Something about how even though we think our thoughts shape language, language actually ends up shaping our thoughts. So if you come from a culture whose language has no concept of specific numbers, how does that shape your perception of the world?
Oh, if only I had been a better student.
Smithsonian Institution scientists examine the remains of a teenager from the 19th century: Smithsonian forensic anthropologist Dr. Doug Owsley, pathologist Dr. Arthur Aufterheide, pathologist Dr. Larry Cartmell, Smithsonian volunteer Marta Camps, pathologist Mary Aufterheide. Image Courtesy Ken Rahaim, Smithsonian Institution.The body of a 15-year old boy discovered by utility workers in Washington DC two years ago has been identified by scientists at the Smithsonian.
William Taylor White died in 1852 and was buried in Columbia College cemetery, and the coffin was probably left behind by mistake when the cemetery was moved. (Moving a cemetery would be interesting/horrifying/nightmare inducing/challenging.)
The body can now be placed in a properly marked grave.
Wired Magazine has a feature on National Geographic's massive gene database project. They hope to track how humans have moved through the world by looking at mutations in our mother's DNA.
Race: Are We So Different?Race impacts a variety of U.S. institutions and policies, often in ways that are hidden or undetected by popular media. "The Search for Our Ancestors," featuring Professor Kim TallBear, is the second of five public forums that will explore an in-depth understanding of race and its impact on our society. (Live coverage by KFAI Radio.)
February 22, 2007
Located in the 3D Cinema
6:30 to 7 p.m.: Performances
7 to 9 p.m.: Speaker, respondents, Q&A
Tickets are $12 per person, and space is limited. To reserve tickets, call 651-221-9444.
Kim TallBear is Assistant Professor of American Indian Studies at Arizona State University and a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate.
Respondents
Atum Azzihir: Executive Director, Powderhorn Phillips Cultural Wellness Center
Cris Stainbrook: President, Indian Land Tenure Foundation
Stonehenge: Photo courtesy NASAArcheologists have announced the discovery of what they think may be the primitive homes of the mysterious builders of Stonehenge on the West Salisbury plains within walking distance of the famous monolith circle.
So far, eight huts have been unearthed, already making the excavation the largest concentration of prehistoric huts discovered in Britain. But Mike Parker Pearson, of Sheffield University thinks it’s just the beginning, and that maybe hundreds of hearth sites may exist in the region. Radar analysis of the landscape suggests the settlement is huge.
"The whole valley appears full of houses," Parker Pearson said. “Our dates for the building of Stonehenge are identical to the dates for this very large settlement.”
Carbon dating of the settlement dates it to the middle Neolithic Age about 4500 years ago, the same time the huge sarsens and bluestones of Stonehenge were being put in place.
Each of the huts uncovered so far measure about 5m (16ft) square, and was made of timber surrounding a central hearth. The archeologists found rubbish dating back to 2600 years B.C. covering the clay floors of the houses.
"It is the richest - by that I mean the filthiest - site of this period known in Britain," Professor Parker Pearson said. "We've never seen such quantities of pottery and animal bone and flint."
Parker Pearson believes the region was used for funereal purposes, as well as for some kind of ceremonial midwinter gathering site for prehistoric revelers.
The ancient village is located about 1.75 miles northeast of the famous stone circle, near Durrington Walls a large 500 meter (nearly a 1/3 mile) in diameter circular earthwork. Another henge of a sort is also nearby, but this one was made of wooden poles stuck in the ground in a circular formation. Known as Woodhenge, Parker Pearson believes it is linked in ritual to its more famous stone cousin. Both henges are aligned with astronomical events, but the events are complementary. Stonehenge is lined up with the sunrise of the midwinter solstice, while the timber circle at Durrington lined up with the sunset of the midwinter solstice.
Pig teeth found at the village site seem to support Parker Pearson’s theory of a midwinter festival.
"One of the things we can tell from the pig teeth we've looked at is that most of them have been slaughtered at nine months. And we think they are farrowing in Spring," he said.
"It's likely there's a midwinter cull and that ties in with our midwinter solstice alignments at Durrington and Stonehenge."
Durrington’s purpose, he speculates, was for celebration of life, while Stonehenge served as a memorial and cemetery. After feasting, Parker Pearson believes the dead were deposited in the River Avon and sent downstream to Stonehenge, where a select few were cremated and buried.
More Info and Links
Stonehenge Guide
Stonehenge Settlement Found (National Geographic)
Vast settlement of huts linked to Stonehenge (Guardian)
More on Stonehenge
Stonehenge didn’t stand alone (National Geographic)
Stela in Copan: Flickr photo courtesy jazzpIn the early 19th century, American writer John Lloyd Stephens and English illustrator Frederick Catherwood brought to light the long forgotten Maya civilization that had once populated much of Mexico and Central America.
In Copan, Honduras, the first city they visited, the two explorers uncovered a wide plaza dotted with many strange stone statues, called stelae, dating back to the Classic Maya period (AD 250-900). These large and highly detailed monoliths portraying Mayan rulers in full ceremonial headdress and ornamental robes must have caused Stephens and Catherwood to pause in wonderment. What could be their purpose? It’s a question that has puzzled archeologists ever since.
But now a new explanation has been developed. According to Takeshi Inomata of the University of Arizona, the extensive plazas were crucial to Maya city planning and state theater may have played a large role in Maya political organization.
Modern Maya dancer: Photo courtesy Mark RyanDecked out in showy headdresses and elaborate costumes, the Maya kings danced in front of huge audiences, made up of most if not all of the kingdom’s population. The spectacles served a number of purposes.
"Large-scale theatrical events gave physical reality to a community and helped to ground unstable community identities in tangible forms through the use of symbolic acts and objects," Inomata wrote recently in the journal Current Anthropology.
"The centrality of rulers in communal events suggests that the identities of a Maya community revolved around the images of supreme political leaders. ... Large gatherings also gave the elite an opportunity to impose their ideologies and cultural values on the rest of society through performances."
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