So posits CNN. Ignoring the sexist wording, my answer is culture. Culture, shared and learned behavior, allowed humans to adapt rapidly to their environment in a way far more efficient and responsive than natural selection. The accumulation of these shared behaviors across generations leads to the other common answers as… Read more“What is man’s greatest achievement?”
Tag: anthropology
The Answer is “Both”
“First, arguing over the extent to which nature or nurture is responsible for cross-cultural regularities, such as the apparent long-standing dominance of males as perpetrators and victims of violent acts, is a sterile exercise. The question makes no more sense than arguing about whether the length or the width of… Read more“The Answer is “Both””
Always Thinkin’
I was doing my usual studying thing, reading Life History of the Ache, when I had a crazy idea. Ok, the behavior of an organism is affected by its genes and environment. This interaction, through our evolutionary past, has been acted upon by natural selection: gene-environment interactions that result in… Read more“Always Thinkin’”
Miscellany
It’s hard to imagine that in less than twenty four hours I’ll once again be jetting off to San Diego to visit the family. Here are updates on recent goings on before the San Diego/Comic-Con stuff fills the blog. Over the weekend I did Rock Band’s endless setlist on hard…. Read more“Miscellany”
Diving into the New with Dr. Wadley
MU lost one of its best faculty members last weekend. Dr. Reed Wadley had been fighting cancer for the past few years all the while doing what he could for the department. Dr. Wadley and I arrived at MU in the same semester. As I ran around trying to make… Read more“Diving into the New with Dr. Wadley”
68,000 BC
CNN had a headline that caught my attention: “Humans nearly wiped out 70,000 years ago, study says.” Now that’s news! The gist of the Associated Press article it uses can be summed up by two quotes: Paleontologist Meave Leakey, a Genographic adviser, asked, “Who would have thought that as recently… Read more“68,000 BC”
Learn Anthropology; Save the World
The latest issue of Shadowpact (#18, page 4) has a weird endorsement of physical anthropology: If physical anthropology teaches me how to fight werewolves, then sign me up! Oh wait, I’m already signed up.
The World’s Greatest Drug Czar
Coca, though it is a forbidden to even bring a tea bag’s worth to the United States*, is actually a folk cure-all that has no narcotic effects without extensive processing. In rural communities, coca is one of the elements that sponsor social cohesion as well as spirituality. An ethnography, The… Read more“The World’s Greatest Drug Czar”
Uncle Owen, Space Anthropologist
My brother sent me this awesome book: The Making of Star Wars. It focuses solely on A New Hope, from Lucas’s first concepts to post-release and the making of the universe surrounding the movie for all of the promotional tie-ins. I found one thing the most interesting to read: first… Read more“Uncle Owen, Space Anthropologist”
The High Price of Number Crunching
I do a lot of work in statistics. In fact, almost all of my work involves statistics. I don’t collect data in the field. I don’t do things in a lab. I sit in front of my computer working with data sets and spreadsheets. Lately I’ve been doing a lot… Read more“The High Price of Number Crunching”