Radical Anthropology

London's longest running evening class, studying What it means to be human at UCL Anthropology dept. We are FREE, on Tues eves term time. Account run by Camilla Power. Radical anthropologists include Chris Knight, Ian Watts, Jerome Lewis and Morna Finnegan
#anthropology #socialanthropology #evolutionaryanthropology #archaeology

see Autumn Term events here (tba)
http://radicalanthropologygroup.org/

Vimeo collection of previous talks
https://vimeo.com/user33365184

Artist: Diego Rodriguez-Robredo

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Last Notes

2026-10-28 08:56:50 GMT

Next week's talk,
Join us LIVE OR ZOOM
Tues Nov 3, 6:30 pm London time 🌘
Anushé Hassan
Receipt of social support and women's health outcomes
Anthropologist and behavioural ecologist Anushé Hassan investigates the effects of cooperative childcare on mothers' health across cultures.
Cooperative reproduction – mothers receiving support from others to raise their children – is a defining feature of human life history, allowing investment in multiple, closely spaced offspring. Most research focuses on how this support affects children's health, survival, and women's fertility, economic wellbeing, and mental health; less is known about effects on women's own physical health. This study examines that question using data from 2030 women in Bangladesh, The Gambia, India, Malawi, and the US. We test whether the number of carers and frequency of care predict mothers' self-reported general health, blood pressure, and BMI. Results show more frequent physical childcare support predicts better self-reported health in Malawi, The Gambia, and Bangladesh, while more frequent provisioning support does so in the US.
LIVE Daryll Forde, 2nd Floor, UCL Anthropology Dept, 14 Taviton St WC1H 0BW
ZOOM ID 948 6108 7055 passcode Wawilak
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/117/517/690/803/084/743/original/8828356f2853e9c4.jpeg

2026-10-19 11:04:47 GMT

More here on the success of the Cockroach movement, a real threat to Modi:
'This time the Cockroaches are demanding the resignation of India’s chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, following reports in the Indian Express in late September that he had pushed through a purge of voter rolls. Round one of the Cockroach protests came to an end because the BJP was willing to sacrifice the education minister. Round two does not allow for such scapegoating. If Kumar goes, Modi must go too – it would be an open admission that the electoral system has been compromised.'
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/oct/19/india-protest-delhi-cockroach-narendra-modi

2026-10-16 06:43:22 GMT

Neanderthal chest wound by wooden spear, 75 KA #Shanidar A individual. Probable interpersonal #violence (or could it have been a wild goat horn?)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6jrwn3y3xe9o

2026-08-22 09:45:34 GMT

What dogs can teach us about origins of speech? Hmmn, intriguing. One of the major aspects here will be the basis of trust. But dogs don't do metaphor, do they?
https://projects.research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/en/horizon-magazine/what-dogs-can-teach-us-about-origins-speech

2026-08-17 14:01:50 GMT

54 degrees: women trying to keep children alive.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/aug/17/india-disasters-heatwaves-slum-diaries-delhi-vulnerable-temperatures

2026-08-11 11:20:12 GMT

RAG talks on Fri Aug 14, with Chris Knight
'The Revolutionary Origins of Language'
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/117/076/596/814/914/377/original/ffada3820d17b07d.jpg

2026-08-07 06:44:49 GMT

Yes, we evolved to be able to access the 'other world' together ritually and playfully enacting our shared imaginings. Humans are suckers for shared fictions (chimps shake their hard heads!)
"knowledge of our reality is not the default state of human minds, even when they are healthy or functioning well. It is, instead, a fragile achievement of complex epistemic cooperation—of a vast collaborative enterprise of creating, communicating, and evaluating information—that rests on precarious networks of trust, testimony, reputation, and a division of intellectual labour."
https://www.conspicuouscognition.com/p/the-social-roots-of-delusions?r=17uk7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&triedRedirect=true

2026-08-05 06:12:02 GMT

That's probably the Hare throwing her pubic apron at the Moon! She's been doing that for tens of thousands of years 🤣
#MoonandHare #Bushmancosmology #spotsonthefaceoftheMoon
#nevent1q…tflx

2026-07-17 11:35:23 GMT

A #bunnybuttFriday special with Jack admiring a cushion cover with fluffy tail, which my long lost niece knitted for me back in 2020.
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/116/935/095/395/008/256/original/2f5f0da27abbd35e.jpg

2026-07-14 06:57:25 GMT

Happy Dark Moon!
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/116/917/022/091/909/498/original/01dc3358519ffb6f.jpeg

2026-06-15 04:50:47 GMT

The Moon is New!
https://www.space.com/stargazing/new-moon-of-june-2026-brings-stunning-views-of-mercury-venus-and-jupiter

2026-06-05 04:18:14 GMT

Looks like a great new paper on levelling techniques reducing unequal power across species. https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/fulltext/S0169-5347(26)00111-4?

2026-05-06 19:57:18 GMT

Way to go: red/green progressive alliance
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/06/andy-burnham-labour-anger-appearance-greens-change-now

2026-04-25 06:19:58 GMT

David Reich talks on his aDNA work
https://bigthink.com/the-well/your-ancestors-arent-who-you-think-they-are/

2026-04-23 08:26:10 GMT

Uccello's painting of 'St George and the Dragon' tells the REAL story. A patriarchal warmonger on his rearing white charger attacks the magnificent green dragon going for a peaceful walk with their girl. Blood is shed, the maiden wears a red tunic and there is a waning sliver of moon in the sky. This is patriarchy imaged destroying female coalitionary solidarity. See how the dragon's womb-like cave has beautifully laid out herb gardens in front of it. And the girl's lead or girdle is an umbilical, menstrual connection. The gleaming curve of the matrilineal dragon's splendid teeth rhymes with the high rising moon.
A spiralling dark cloud of chaos rides in behind the so-called 'saint': Rain? Fertility? Pollution? Burning oil wells? Of course that dragon was ferocious guarding the girl from patriarchal oppression and 'world historic defeat'!
#dragon #StGeorge
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/116/453/032/322/880/066/original/5c1554fa3796a0a3.jpg

2026-04-10 16:41:50 GMT

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@nprofile…my6t gorgeous shot!

2026-04-05 06:03:30 GMT

Hoppy Bunny Day!
Jack celebrates his #14thEaster
#RadicalAnthropologyRabbits
#rabbitsofmastodon
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/116/350/570/178/309/419/original/09ca8ca38bb6134d.jpg

2026-04-02 08:27:57 GMT

Megafaunal extinctions in relation to Homo sapiens early migrations around the world.
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/116/334/136/825/727/295/original/3cc857867938d357.jpg

2026-03-21 10:30:27 GMT

Look out for Northern lights tonight!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/ckgwmr9ve10o

2026-03-01 09:22:49 GMT

This is an excellent discussion from John Hawks on the implications of the #Hsapiens or African influence on #Neanderthal X chromosomes -- 'because a pattern of dispersal of early modern people based on matrilineal kin networks makes a lot of sense' of this data.
This takes us to issues of social structures rather than alt-right horror fantasies of Neanderthal men raping 'our' women.
#Matrilineal groups are open in their recruitment of labour, enabling people with no actual close genetic kin to slot in and join. Skilled Neanderthal hunters could have done very well in matrilineal/matrilocal Homo sapiens camps
'Expansion and dispersal of matrilineal networks is possible when fertility itself is of higher value, when the linguistic and cultural ties around community can be maintained by strong political consensus even as men from differing groups are integrated into the cultural group.'
Hawks could add there 'fertility and labour'. People valued over property for their productive and reproductive power.
https://www.johnhawks.net/p/matrilineal-networks-may-be-the-key

2026-02-01 08:48:56 GMT

"perfidious lust for unbridled power"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2ygq5p2l3o

2026-01-22 19:27:23 GMT

Dr Yvonne Chireau is the major expert behind the incredible success of Sinners, the genuine article
#Hoodoo
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/sinners-hoodoo-consultant-ryan-coogler-protecting-black-spirituality-blues-music

2026-01-22 08:59:41 GMT

#Paranthropus 2.6 MA in Ethiopia
'found more than 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) farther north than any other fossil of its kind.
"Until now, not a single fossil of Paranthropus had been identified" in the Afar region of Ethiopia,'
#fossils #evolution #hominin
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/human-evolution/2-6-million-year-old-jaw-from-extinct-nutcracker-man-is-found-where-we-didnt-expect-it

2026-01-21 08:17:58 GMT

Meet Veronika, the expert tool-wielding cow!
https://www.science.org/content/article/no-bull-austrian-cow-has-learned-use-tools?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ScienceAdviser&utm_content=distillation&et_rid=34814771&et_cid=5852734

2026-01-20 12:35:52 GMT

A bleak, desperate day for Rojava/AANES, the transnational project of peaceful coexistence among the numerous ethnic minorities of NE Syria. I visited in 2019 to learn about the amazing education and curricular development for mutual respect of language and culture -- really the model needed for the whole of Syria today. These women YPJ fighters were in the sacred Kobane cemetery and they or their sisters will be ready to go again in the Second Kobane Resistance
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/115/927/448/009/500/867/original/670c3b63a7a5c5bb.png

2026-01-14 08:42:20 GMT

Tues Jan 20, 6:30pm
Stephen Kapos and Hugh Brody
A Holocaust survivor and an anthropologist oppose all genocides
All welcome
LIVE in Daryll Forde Room, 2nd Floor, UCL Anthropology Dept, 14 Taviton St, WC1H 0BW
ZOOM ID 952 8554 1412 passcode Wawilak
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/115/892/543/970/319/884/original/bc5e3aa09ca0eb62.jpg

2025-12-23 11:28:24 GMT

We really ♥️ this piece from John Hawks on humans looking at the stars, especially how he picks up African #huntergatherer cosmologies on the link of the #Moon to #Menstruation 🩸
Right now I'm involved in one of the MOST important papers of my life with Hadza hunter-gatherer experts on Hadza beliefs and practice around menstruation, hunting and the moon.
The key here is no one understands Hadza #Epeme--their moon-scheduled ritual for healing and good hunting--unless they also understand menstrual beliefs and practice.
#anthropology #cosmology #blood
https://www.johnhawks.net/p/when-did-our-ancestors-start-looking-up-to-the-stars

2025-12-17 13:12:32 GMT

Radical Anthropology Group Spring programme begins on Tues Jan 13, 6:30pm at UCL Anthropology Dept.
Everyone welcome, we are LIVE and on ZOOM.
Talks in Daryll Forde Seminar Room, 2nd Floor, UCL Anthropology Dept, 14 Taviton St, WC1H 0BW (*unless indicated otherwise*)
Please note our new ZOOM ID 952 8554 1412 passcode Wawilak
Jan 13 Chris Knight An Australian Myth: the Moon and the Origins of Death
Jan 20 Stephen Kapos, Hugh Brody A Holocaust survivor and an anthropologist oppose all genocides
Jan 27 Stefanie Lotter ‘Dignity without Danger’: Chhaupadi menstrual seclusion
Feb 3 Morna Finnegan, Ingrid Lewis Corporeal morality is the antidote to war
Feb 10 Chris Knight The Rainbow Snake and the Wawilak Sisters
Feb 17 Ingrid Lewis Sing polyphony for the Lunar New Year
Feb 24 Ian Watts How women drove the evolution of symbolic culture: the last half million years
Mar 3 Cedric Boeckx How sapiens made history
Mar 10 Chris Knight, Jerome Lewis The revolutionary origins of language
Mar 17 Thea Skaanes
Mar 24 Shivani Kaul
Mar 31 Anne Monk, Jacob Seagrave Young Engels and the politics of the encounter
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/115/735/073/063/346/394/original/3ac534c1923e1432.png

2025-12-12 16:49:08 GMT

Undersea wall off #Brittany's coast evokes the local 'sunken city' stories. Neolithic 7000 years ago
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crk7lg1j146o

2025-11-27 10:14:32 GMT

More on the long timedepth of dark skin colour of #Europeans
When this started to shift slowly towards lighter skin from 14-4,000 years ago
'dietary changes may have played a key role.
As humans transitioned from small, nomadic groups to larger, agricultural communities, their diets shifted. They relied less on vitamin D-rich wild game and more on cultivated crops, which lacked the vitamin. This change, combined with the need to absorb more sunlight in northern latitudes, may have driven the evolution of lighter skin.'
https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/dna-ancient-europe-dark-skin/

2025-11-25 14:52:53 GMT

The narwhals stop calling.
'Local Inuit people were the first to notice that narwhals are particularly sensitive to ship noise.'
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/nov/25/shipping-noise-arctic-whales-narwhals-sound-quieter-vessels
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/115/610/920/027/938/195/original/9c36c9ba7ec0782e.jpg

2025-11-23 13:47:54 GMT

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@nprofile…heqq these are primate scientists making observations, they are not 'proviolence'.

2025-11-23 12:34:43 GMT

After the Ngogo #chimpanzee group killed 21 members of neighboring groups and expanded their territory by 22%, female #birth rates more than doubled and #infant survival increased sharply—showing clear fitness benefits from intergroup killing.
Beware that this will be taken to back up #warfare models for early human societies. But this is a rather different story because female chimps get no help feeding their infants, rarely help each other and are constrained to great ape brain sizes. Chimps are way more territorial than hunter-gatherers in general. It's very doubtful if warfare would help Homo mothers of extremely large-brained offspring.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2524502122?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=social&utm_term=pnas.org&utm_content=2dd2ef4b-ebb1-404f-b59b-65d8117dab10&utm_campaign=hootsuite

2025-11-19 19:07:14 GMT

'the mismatch between our evolved physiology and modern conditions is unlikely to resolve itself naturally. Instead, the researchers argue, societies need to mitigate these effects by rethinking their relationship with nature and designing healthier, more sustainable environments.'
Pretty interesting but these authors might think harder about key techniques of #huntergatherers for resolving 'acute stress', such as insistence on #egalitarianism, shared virtual worlds of #ritual and story plus, #laughter.
https://phys.org/news/2025-11-humans-evolved-nature-cities-anthropologists.html

2025-11-19 18:40:05 GMT

This is a moving story of a man offering space to a Syrian refugee in East London, who then became the main carer for his Mum. His response to a 'Labour Government' introducing 'laws that, when I was growing up in multi-ethnic East London, were the preserve of the National Front'.
https://labourhub.org.uk/2025/11/17/no-amount-of-concessions-will-be-enough-for-the-forces-of-reaction/

2025-11-18 08:41:20 GMT

SW China funerary #ochre record of the terminal #Pleistocene.
This correctly refs article by our colleague @nprofile…y8l5 on the oldest anthropogenic ochre use up to half a million years ago in S Africa.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s40494-025-02140-9

2025-11-16 12:15:07 GMT

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Here are the Bizmoune shell beads. Some show red ochre residues
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/115/559/300/143/563/679/original/32d40b19855fe64d.jpg
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/115/559/310/713/326/695/original/1ae1e11ca0215ce9.jpg

2025-11-16 12:00:41 GMT

#Bizmoune Cave, Morocco, one of the most advanced of our entire species lifespan.
'Bizmoune’s fame rests on its shell beads, first published in 2021 and dated to 142,000 to 150,000 years. New analyses now indicate the ornaments are older than earlier estimates, which raises the site’s profile as a benchmark for early symbolic behavior. The bead assemblage remains the earliest known example of personal adornment.'
#MiddleStoneAge #Africa #NorthAfrica #shells #jewellery #ochre
https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2025/11/267737/essaouiras-bizmoune-cave-yields-new-clues-to-early-humans/

2025-11-15 12:36:10 GMT

Looks like a fascinating preprint on urbanization in red foxes: 'Animals’ willingness to touch, explore, and solve novel challenges, such as exploiting unfamiliar resources, are thought to be key behavioural characteristics for urban adaptation. Little is known about the impact of spatiotemporal patterns of urbanisation, particularly historical patterns of change, on these behaviours. We tested this in the world’s most urbanised carnivore, the red fox, using novel tasks deployed across 284 sites in the United Kingdom.'
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.26.678765v1

2025-11-14 11:26:30 GMT

An unknown lineage in #Argentina found in #aDNA over 8,000 years old in one of the last areas humans reached.
https://phys.org/news/2025-11-ancient-dna-uncovers-unknown-argentina.html

2025-11-05 09:30:36 GMT

Please boost community Fediscience!
🌖Tues Nov 11🌗 6:30 pm (London UK)
Chris Stringer
New evidence from China helps to clarify the 'muddle in the middle' of human evolution
LIVE LG11 Lecture Room in Bentham House, 4-8 Endsleigh Gardens, WC1H 0EG
ZOOM ID 952 8554 1412 passcode Wawilak
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/115/496/363/859/589/718/original/20d130571617d722.webp

2025-11-05 07:55:23 GMT

I so didn't realise that Mamdani's father was a Professor of #Anthropology and his mum Mira Nair. So anthropology had a bit of a role here?
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a69136325/zohran-mamdani-nyc-mayor-campaign-aunties/

2025-10-28 11:40:38 GMT

#Neanderthals deep into #Asia. New #mtDNA from Crimea, Starosele
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/dna-neandertals-traveled-asia

2025-10-22 08:39:26 GMT

Free community fediscience, please boost!
🌒Tues Oct 28 🌓 6:30pm
'The science of mythology. "The Sleeping Beauty" and other tales'
Chris Knight
LIVE Daryll Forde Room, 2nd Floor,
UCL Anthropology Dept, 14 Taviton St, WC1H 0BW
ZOOM ID 952 8554 1412 passcode Wawilak
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/115/416/902/410/570/872/original/7b53b4bd9e76c64f.jpg

2025-10-18 12:05:34 GMT

Possible difference between #Neanderthals (plus other archaics) compared with #Homosapiens in exposure to #lead contamination with effects on brain #development. A gene mutation in our ancestry could have worked protectively:-
'a gene called neuro-oncological ventral antigen 1 (NOVA1) plays a central role in human brain development and synapse formation. Considered the master regulator of neurodevelopment, NOVA1 controls how neural progenitor cells respond to lead. Disruption of NOVA1 activity is linked to several neurological disorders'
https://today.ucsd.edu/story/did-lead-limit-brain-and-language-development-in-neanderthals-and-other-extinct-hominids

2025-10-15 18:57:24 GMT

This is a magnificent vid for DoubleDownNews with our friend and comrade Mark, organiser of the Holocaust Survivors and Descendants against Gaza Genocide. So clear, so true!
https://www.doubledown.news/watch/2025/october/14/what-israel-really-doesnt-want-you-to-know-holocaust-survivor-son

2025-10-15 12:50:02 GMT

New young mums singing together is a support system designed by our evolution in ritual female coalitions.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c93127z99yxo

2025-10-06 11:19:18 GMT

Happy Full Moon, overnight tonight, Tues early hours in London. But you should see a very full Harvest Moon rise after sunset on Tuesday
https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/c059dyvvjj7o

2025-10-02 08:03:21 GMT

A hero on every front, for #women, for #science for the #chimpanzees
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czrp24myrl7o

2025-09-01 13:55:07 GMT

Radical Anthropology Group Autumn programme begins on Tues Sept 30, 6:30pm at UCL Anthropology Dept.
Everyone welcome, we are LIVE and on ZOOM.
DFSR indicates Daryll Forde Seminar Room, 2nd Floor, UCL Anthropology Dept, 14 Taviton St, WC1H 0BW (unless indicated otherwise see Oct 7, Nov 11)
Please note our new ZOOM ID 952 8554 1412 passcode Wawilak
Sept 30 Chris Knight/Camilla Power 'How to resist alpha males' DFSR
Chris Knight and Camilla Power ask what can we learn from monkeys and apes about resistance to male dominance? Among machiavellian intelligent primates, just being bigger and stronger doesn’t always win. This is not only true with Old World Monkeys who have female kin bonds (eg vervets) but also unrelated female great apes such as bonobos and the highly sex size dimorphic gorillas. Critical features are strategies of ganging together, confusing males on fertility, and ability to say NO! What could that say about gender relations and conflict in our ancestry?
Oct 7 Volker Sommer 'In praise of lying.The social origins of intelligence' (NB this talk in Christopher Ingold Building G20 Gordon St OPP Bloomsbury Theatre)
Prof Emeritus of Evolutionary Anthropology Volker Sommer guides us through the history of tactical deception with fun anecdotes of primates telling lies! Why is this the source of social intelligence?
Oct 14 Hugh Brody 'Tracks across sand', DFSR
Author, filmmaker and anthropologist Hugh Brody introduces ‘Tracks across Sand’, his film of the ‡Khomani San of South Africa’s southern Kalahari Desert -- a story of erasure and reclamation of memory, and of struggle for their ancestral land.
Oct 21 Francesca Declich will talk on her decades of fieldwork with matrilineal Zigula-speaking people of Somalia and Tanzania. DFSR
Oct 28 Chis Knight 'The science of mythology: The Sleeping Beauty, and other tales'. DFSR
Chris uses structuralist method to analyze fairytales.
Nov 4. Chris Knight 'The Fire of the Jaguar. Problems with perspectivism' DFSR
Nov 11 Chris Stringer 'New evidence from China helps to clarify the 'muddle in the middle' of human evolution' LG11 Lecture Room in Bentham House, 4-8 Endsleigh Gardens, WC1H 0EG
Nov 18 Mark Jamieson 'Brideservice, the politics of intimacy and Miskitu women's baseball'
Nov 25 Jerome Lewis 'The Flourishing Diversity Manifesto'
Dec 2 Camilla Power & Chris Knight 'The advantages of living with Mum'
Dec 9 Morna Finnegan 'Corporeal morality is the antidote to war'
Dec 16 Chris Knight 'An Xmas fairytale: the Shoes that were danced to pieces'
Everyone welcome, LIVE and ZOOM
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/115/129/365/560/630/062/original/cd360e535075899f.png

2025-08-20 16:38:19 GMT

Yes #science says, go #vegan, for your health, for the planet plus it's delicious 😋
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-08-based-diets-multimorbidity-multinational.html?utm_source=bsky.app&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=v2

2025-08-19 15:15:09 GMT

#Genetic analysis of diverse South East Asian samples tracing genetic affinities of the #OrangAsli from Peninsular Malaysia and other SEA populations.
There are possible ancient genetic links between the Andamanese, Papuan and the Philippines and Peninsular Negrito, with different genetic structures between the island SEA (iSEA) and mainland (mSEA) populations.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ahg.70005?casa_token=kvafL3Joo70AAAAA%3Ao6kFD2Gy22qH9rnbu6tuWXUmhxzkuMpGBDgcZkNDIUKkCGqPenzQSewXVLbti25NLyJ12n9KkUOiXA

2025-08-18 07:25:39 GMT

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@nprofile…5wev I don't think anyone has any serious theory about it, looking at that. But this is the oldest documented example.

2025-08-18 06:55:53 GMT

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Paper here
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-13561-8

2025-08-18 06:55:32 GMT

Tom Bjorklund illustration for the article by Tommaso Mori et al. on #cranial #modification in #Palaeolithic Italy.
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/115/048/446/439/258/342/original/4fe60ca0ea5d690a.jpg

2025-08-09 08:30:29 GMT

Female Grey #Phalarope in summer plumage at Loch of Spiggie, Shetland in early June.
Female phalaropes famed for their reverse #sexualselection, with larger, highly decorated #females fighting over #males, setting up numerous nests and leaving males to incubate and care for chicks! They're off for a spot of #polyandry!
Photos: Hugh Harrop, Shetland Wildlife
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/114/997/863/915/482/772/original/296d7fd9b5fc2d92.jpg
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/114/997/879/855/728/623/original/9abd809792b92992.jpg

2025-08-07 10:32:40 GMT

A pretty heartbreaking piece about the maltreatment of #elephants in captivity breeding programmes and the sheer injustice of keeping them in zoos -- even now (gobsmacking 😲) bringing them from the wild!
https://www.nonhumanrights.org/blog/the-captive-breeding-myth-why-zoo-based-conservation-fails-elephants/

2025-07-29 12:57:05 GMT

Some 11,000 years ago, Early #Mesolithic people brought wild boar from up to 70 km away to #feast in the #Zagros mountains
https://scitechdaily.com/11000-year-old-dinner-party-why-neolithic-people-hauled-wild-boars-across-mountains/

2025-07-18 06:34:29 GMT

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@nprofile…5wev
Yes it's remarkable. Those costs were constraints borne by mothers, that's the pinch point. We need to understand why.

2025-07-17 12:00:02 GMT

This is a super-interesting paper on the high-costs of late increase of brain size in our ancestry.
The onset of symbolic culture and the strategies females needed to mitigate those costs are very likely linked.
#encephalization #femaleenergetics #cognition #symbolicculture
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278262625000764

2025-07-14 05:31:50 GMT

200,000 years of recurrent #Neanderthal and #Homosapiens interaction.
#Palaeogenomics #anthropology
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/07/250713032519.htm

2025-07-13 08:26:59 GMT

#Chimpanzee stick and grass wear!
#fashion #greatapes #orifices
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/chimpanzee-grass-butt-1.7583207

2025-07-09 05:30:45 GMT

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@nprofile…9drz phew! We're you in the carrier the whole time? Paw you, run wild!

2025-07-09 05:26:34 GMT

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@nprofile…jlsx sooo peacefully sleeping, dreaming of snac...which indeed materialized!

2025-07-08 17:48:55 GMT

Fallen asleep on the job of stuffing his little face!
#RadicalAnthropologyRabbits
#RabbitsofMastodon
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/114/818/858/003/886/439/original/86ac6f971fa9401d.jpg

2025-07-08 13:29:19 GMT

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Paper here
From ritual spaces to monumental expressions: rethinking East Polynesian ritual practices | Antiquity | Cambridge Core https://share.google/dK9gWY7RKLWkk8pDW

2025-07-08 13:28:38 GMT

News that #RapaNui was not as isolated as had been believed. The new analysis 'calls into question the conventional west-to-east trajectory of religious architecture in the Pacific. Instead, it suggests a model of multidirectional innovation and influence, with ritual ideas often flowing just as forcefully from east to west.'
#ritual #archaeology #Polynesia #sacredspace
https://www.anthropology.net/p/rethinking-ritual-the-shifting-landscapes

2025-07-08 07:40:24 GMT

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The evolution of male–female dominance relations in primate societies | PNAS https://share.google/UDNql9roPjCyboFhR

2025-07-08 07:38:14 GMT

Among primate species, there is no 'norm' of #male #dominance because #females have dynamic counter strategies.
This is something we need to think about for #human evolution too
#primatology #evolution #sexualconflict
https://www.mpg.de/24986976/0630-evan-beyond-the-alpha-male-150495-x

2025-07-07 16:47:46 GMT

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@nprofile…n7w7 that's terrible!

2025-07-07 16:46:33 GMT

#Alaska Native mothers die at rates 2-4x higher than white women during pregnancy. #Indigenous birth workers are reclaiming sacred traditions through the “Three Sisters Model” to save lives and restore cultural birth ceremonies. A powerful story of healing and hope.
#IndigenousBirth #MaternalHealth
https://nativenewsonline.net/coming-home-to-birth-how-alaska-s-indigenous-birthworkers-are-reclaiming-ceremonial-care

2025-07-07 12:51:15 GMT

Early #OscarWilde on Russian #revolutionaries
In #Brockley September
The young Oscar Wilde’s Russian revolutionary drama reveals a playwright divided | Theatre | The Guardian https://share.google/Nkp6EqXfIUpMhAS85

2025-07-07 11:42:45 GMT

More #archaeoastronomy, a #Cree sky narrative
https://www.yourwestcentral.com/articles/book-the-star-poems-a-cree-sky-narrative

2025-07-07 11:19:18 GMT

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@nprofile…qunn oh great to hear that! I don't pick everybody up so I didn't realise. Quite understood if you're doing it for German language book group.
You might be interested to know there is a pretty fine German translation of Chris Knight's 'Blood Relations' which has been done by Frank Clark, an autodidact worker and Marxist. It looks really nice, and we are waiting for a preface for this by leading German evolutionary anthropologist Herr Prof Volker Sommer. We're close colleagues of his, and he could find a publisher for it.

2025-07-07 10:17:20 GMT

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@nprofile…qunn we have run our class for 46 years here in London to give people, anyone that chance. We are ZOOM too nowadays

2025-07-07 08:18:16 GMT

Discovery of an ancient city in #Peru's northern Barranca province.
'The 3,500-year-old city, named Peñico, is believed to have served as a key trading hub connecting early Pacific coast communities with those living in the Andes mountains and Amazon basin.
...
'In buildings at the site, researchers discovered ceremonial objects, clay sculptures of human and animal figures and necklaces made from beads and seashells.
Peñico is situated close to where Caral, recognised as the oldest known civilisation in the Americas, was established 5,000 years ago at around 3,000 BC in the Supe valley of Peru.'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c07dmx38kyeo

2025-07-07 08:09:00 GMT

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Mystery paper here https://www.nature.com/articles/nature22065

2025-07-07 07:56:07 GMT

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@nprofile…qunn sounds very interesting and worthwhile

2025-07-07 07:34:37 GMT

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@nprofile…vmqv
Sign that the Greens and Independents, likely to be in the new party, should pal up.

2025-07-07 06:52:05 GMT

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@nprofile…g52l @nprofile…kyj5
That's a very principled stance!

2025-07-06 20:06:44 GMT

#Neanderthals on the Portuguese #coast and track ways in #dune landscapes, ca. 80,000 years ago
#archaeology #diet #littoral #ecosystems
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-06089-4

2025-07-06 19:38:20 GMT

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And here
https://www.science.org/content/article/stone-age-farmers-households-passed-mother-daughter

2025-07-06 19:36:52 GMT

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More on daughter-inherited households at Çatalhöyük here.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady6939

2025-07-06 12:22:12 GMT

Fantastic photos. We've been at several of these, and the April 12 1997 March for Social Justice with the Dockers, we were organisers.
#uprisings
‘Women were grabbed and dragged away like sacks’ – a history of British protest in pictures | Protest | The Guardian https://share.google/FwNvRW4ThbjGX7xjM

2025-07-06 12:06:13 GMT

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@nprofile…qunn my attempt to correct it
https://c.im/@RadicalAnthro/112852293873892395

2025-07-06 12:04:18 GMT

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@nprofile…qunn yes WEIRD is catchy, and seems appropriate but when you drill down it's actually racist? I don't know anything else at this stage. If you come across anything, let me know.

2025-07-06 08:55:56 GMT

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@nprofile…93gf I think we all see both? I can flip between them.

2025-07-06 08:51:14 GMT

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Discuss in more detail
https://c.im/@RadicalAnthro/112851223161176064

2025-07-06 08:49:33 GMT

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I like this bit: 'the acronym “weird” – for western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic – a summary that is increasingly questionable'
It sure is. The idea non-weirdos aren't educated or not more democratic in fact (I've worked w autonomous hunter-gatherers) is actually WEIRD about WEIRD.

2025-07-05 14:37:58 GMT

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/05/optical-illusions-see-world-perception

2025-07-05 14:22:38 GMT

The Mashco Piro, the world’s largest uncontacted Indigenous group, face growing threats from logging, drug trafficking and the climate crisis in the Brazil-Peru borderlands.
#Indigenous #Amazon
‘We don’t want contact because you are bad’: loggers close in on uncontacted people in Peruvian Amazon | Indigenous peoples | The Guardian https://share.google/jYmpAuyTJSK0aCNqM

2025-07-05 12:34:07 GMT

A catch-up with #Indigenous archaeologist #PauletteSteeves on the probability entry to the 'New World' was earlier than previously thought.
The dating on White Sands now backs this up. But Steeves is going for a lot earlier (so possible Denisovans?)
#Americas #migration
https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/map-depicts-how-humans-could-have-arrived-in-the-western-hemisphere-earlier-than-we-thought/

2025-07-05 11:27:04 GMT

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@nprofile…j6xl there are some old Italian ones, 170 Kya

2025-07-05 11:24:22 GMT

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Nice discussion of the oldest wooden artifacts by John Hawks
https://www.johnhawks.net/p/four-stone-age-sites-with-ancient-wooden-artifacts

2025-07-04 17:35:35 GMT

God, I need #bunnybuttfriday
https://s3.c.im/media_attachments/files/114/796/162/037/226/881/original/bbf28e0e8bf34757.jpeg

2025-07-04 17:25:05 GMT

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@nprofile…j6xl it's pretty special to find the plant foraging gear. Not many digging sticks of that age

2025-07-04 13:01:11 GMT

We badly need #BunnyButtFriday!
https://c.im/@RadicalAnthro/109325060617506107

2025-07-04 10:51:18 GMT

Wooden tools -- an assemblage of 35 wooden implements from the site of Gantangqing in southwestern China, which was found associated with stone tools, antler billets (soft hammers), and cut-marked bones and is dated from ~361,000 to ~250,000 years at a 95% confidence interval. The wooden implements include digging sticks and small, complete, hand-held pointed tools.
Not as old as Kalambo Falls (Zambia) carpentry, but older than Schoningen spears...
#archaeology #MiddlePleistocene #woodworking #Asia
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adr8540

2025-07-04 10:43:09 GMT

Wooden tools 300 Kya from the site of Gantangqing in southwestern China -- not as old as Zambia, Kalambo Falls platforms, but spear tips now older than Schoningen.
#archaeology #MiddlePleistocene #technology #woodworking
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adr8540

2025-07-04 10:39:45 GMT

This is a very good piece on pedagogy with real life fossils/casts which belong to South Africa.
Leadership on human evolution should be based in Africa and #AfricanPride, East, West, North, South! This is a serious way forward.
#evolution #fossils #teaching #Homosapiens #OutofAfrica
https://theconversation.com/fun-with-fossils-south-african-kids-learn-a-whole-lot-more-about-human-evolution-from-museum-workshops-259319