Anthropology

Diver Susan Bird works at the bottom of Hoyo Negro, a large dome-shaped underwater cave on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. She carefully brushes the human skull found at the site while her team members take detailed photographs.

DNA From 12,000-Year-Old Skeleton Helps Answer the Question: Who Were the First Americans?

In 2007, cave divers discovered remains that form the oldest, most complete and genetically intact human skeleton in the New World

Part of the centuries old depiction from the Japanese art scroll He-Gassen

Anthropologists Are Afraid to Ask About Farting

Why are farts so universally reviled?

Researchers used the game Pardus to look at human organization.

Humans Playing Online Games Organize Themselves into Fractals

Players may be acting in a future, space-based world, but they still organize themselves into the fractals that humans have always fallen into

The Baliem Valley was a “magnificent vastness” in Rockefeller’s eyes, and its people were “emotionallly expressive.” But Asmat proved to be “more remote country than what I have ever seen.”

What Really Happened to Michael Rockefeller

A journey to the heart of New Guinea’s Asmat tribal homeland sheds new light on the mystery of the heir’s disappearance there in 1961

Everybody in Almost Every Language Says “Huh”? HUH?!

What makes this utterance the “universal word”?

The Line Between Weirdness And Normalacy Depends Entirely on Your Point of View

In 1956, an anthropologist described Americans as a people with a "pervasive aversion to the natural body"

A Book's Vocabulary Is Different If It Was Written During Hard Economic Times

Books published just after recessions have higher levels of literary misery, a new study finds

What Does Sociology Teach Us About Gift Giving?

Not only do gifts make or break relationships, they also tell scientists about society as a whole. No pressure.

Cats have graced Asian households for millennia, as depicted in this 12th century print by Mao Yi.

Domestic Cats Enjoyed Village Life in China 5,300 Years Ago

Eight cat bones discovered in an archeological site in China provide a crucial link between domestic cats' evolution from wildcats to pets

Charles "Pete" Conrad stands with the United States flag on the lunar surface on November 19, 1969.

The Moon Belongs to No One, but What About Its Artifacts?

Experts call on spacefaring nations to protect lunar landing sites, not to mention Neil Armstrong’s footprints

One of the ancient human fossils found in Spain's La Sima de los Huesos.

Scientists Just Sequenced the DNA From A 400,000-Year-Old Early Human

The fossil, found in Spain, is mysteriously related to an ancient group of homonins called the Denisovans, previously found only in Siberia

Where Do Humans Really Rank on the Food Chain?

We're not at the top, but towards the middle, at a level similar to pigs and anchovies

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Why Don’t Lions Attack Tourists on Safari and More Questions From Our Readers

A Moon-less Earth, yoga history, climate change and human speech

While Chagnon defends conclusions drawn from decades of fieldwork in the Amazon, some fellow scholars charge that he has engaged in sensationalistic self-promotion.

Why Was This Man an Outcast Among Anthropologists?

Napoleon Chagnon’s new memoir reignites the firestorm over his study of the Yanomamö

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Why Time is a Social Construct

Psychologists and anthropologists debate how different cultures answer the question, “What time is it?”

Another medicinal tattoo of the Kayan

Can Tattoos Be Medicinal?

In his travels around the world, anthropologist Lars Krutak has seen many tribal tattoos, including some applied to relieve specific ailments

IQ scores have significantly risen from one generation to the next.

Are You Smarter Than Your Grandfather? Probably Not.

Senility isn’t the answer; IQ scores are increasing with each generation. In a new book, political scientist James Flynn explains why

Dr. Oliver Sacks dives deep into the brain to find the greatest adventures.

Why Oliver Sacks is One of the Great Modern Adventurers

The neurologist’s latest investigations of the mind explore the mystery of hallucinations – including his own

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The Carbon Dioxide in a Crowded Room Can Make You Dumber

In his new book, Moral Origins, evolutionary anthropologist Christopher Boehm speculates that human morality emerged along with big game hunting.

How Humans Became Moral Beings

In a new book, anthropologist Christopher Boehm traces the steps our species went through to attain a conscience

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