Month: January 2017
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Who were the Neanderthals?
After several weeks of eager anticipation, yesterday was finally the day. Yesterday I received my results for 23andMe, the DNA analysis programme that gives you the lowdown on your ancestry and any genetic health risk factors you may carry. And while my results were pretty much as I suspected, I found out something pretty cool. […]
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Cultural Anthropology – An Overview
When anthropologists study different societies and their cultures, we look at many different things. We study: Religion and mythology Art Food Interpersonal dynamics Dance Music Family structures Marriage Literature Economic structures Clothing and fashion Body modification Warfare And much much more And the way we study most of these things is through participant observation. This […]
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Question re: Sticks and Stones
A good friend of mine, Nicole, has asked a great question about the post Sticks and Stones: Basics of Skeletal Trauma. She says: “Love this! Also if this is the superior view would you say that the trauma occurred along any suture lines? Also out of curiosity, which bone of the skull is pictured?” Thanks for […]
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Sticks and Stones: Basics of Skeletal Trauma
What you’re looking at above is the superior aspect of a human cranium, i.e. the top of someone’s head. If your first thought was ‘holy hell, what happened to that poor guy?’ well done. You have the makings of a human osteologist. The answer is what forensic anthropologists and bioarchaeologists call sharp force trauma, or when a […]
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A Bone to Pick: Basics of Palaeopathology
Palaeopathology is the study of ancient diseases, trauma, disability etc. by examining human remains. Like forensic anthropologists, palaeopathologists also work with a degree of uncertainty. When most of our data comes from the examination of human bones, there are specific limitations we must contend with. Bone can only react in one of two ways when […]
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NAGPRA and the Repatriation of Human Remains
Studying human remains can raise some pretty serious ethical questions. The large skeletal collections housed in the United States, like the Terry and Todd collections, are composed largely of dubiously collected remains from all over the world. And while these collections are treated with the utmost respect by researchers, it still does not lessen the damage […]
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Biological Anthropology – An Overview
Biological anthropology is one of the four major subfields of anthropology. Very generally, biological anthropology examines the biological development of human beings–meaning that we study everything from human evolution, our evolutionary cousins (other primates), comparative anatomy, osteology (the study of bones), and ecology. Here are just some of the many subfields of biological anthropology: Palaeoanthropology […]
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The Evolution Debate
Another subfield of biological anthropology that I’ve worked in is palaeoanthropology. Which, very simply, is the study of human evolution. And one of the most frustrating things I’ve experienced as an anthropologist is not evolution denial, but the very clear inability of people who do believe in evolution to give good answers to the questions put to […]
Anthropology and Me 