Ancient genomes revealed the complex human interactions of the ancient western Tibetans
“Outside the Tibetan Plateau, the western Tibetan Plateau populations interacted with both South and Central Asian populations at least 2,000 years ago, and the South Asian-related genetic influence, despite being very limited, was from the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) migrants in Central Asia instead of the IVC populations from the Indus Valley.”
If you like economic anthropology/sociology & are interested in the work of artists, then Alison Gerber's concise & highly readable, The Work of Art: Value in Creative Careers (2017) is for you. Assessing how value is seen in (manly US) art worlds, Gerber doesn't model or use aggregated statistics, but actually asks artists & reports/reflects on what they tell her. the result is compelling & informative!
Deep in #Papua New Guinea, the speakers of #Tayap have stopped using their native tongue. In 'A Death in the Rainforest', an anthropologist recounts his journey over three decades to find out why.
Cassava: The perilous past and promising future of a toxic but nourishing crop. An anthropology professor shares what he's learned from "studying cassava gardens on the Amazon River and its myriad tributaries in Peru."
@TheConversationUS reports: "Cassava’s many assets would seem to make it the ideal crop. But there’s a problem: Cassava is highly poisonous."
#JustFinished The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow.
This was a great book! Graeber and Wengrow integrate new archeological discoveries with anthropology and turn common belief on its side. In the same way that we used to think that evolution was a progressive march to new and improved species, we also thought that human development was on an upward arc to better things, with capitalism and
Democracy at the apex. But we learned that evolution is a collection of paths through a forest, sometimes heading where we want to go and sometimes not. Mutuations are random and not always more beneficial. Thus, species don't always progress with change.
They posit the same for human history. We haven't been heading in a direct line to where we are, and we don't have to stay here.
"Archaeologists have found evidence of human habitation within lava tubes for the first time, in the deserts of northern Saudi Arabia."
@newscientist reports the "underground tunnels created by lava flows provided humans with shelter for thousands of years beneath the hot desert landscape."
First evidence for human occupation of a lava tube in Arabia: The archaeology of Umm Jirsan Cave and its surroundings, northern Saudi Arabia
"The lava tube does not appear to have served as a permanent habitation location, but rather as a site that likely lay on herding routes and that allowed access to shade and water for passing herders and their animals. Prior to this, as well as during pastoral periods, the lava tube was likely also linked with hunting activities, which probably remained a cornerstone of local economies into the Bronze Age."
Stewart M, Andrieux E, Blinkhorn J, Guagnin M, Fernandes R, et al. (2024) First evidence for human occupation of a lava tube in Arabia: The archaeology of Umm Jirsan Cave and its surroundings, northern Saudi Arabia. PLOS ONE 19(4): e0299292. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299292
AN EXPERT ON CARCERAL VIOLENCE and the system’s cruel injustices to poor and minority youth tells the story of a tragedy that happened in his own extended family—the loss of a bright, caring teen to imprisonment and then a gang-related murder. A MINUS
The Human Disease: How We Create Pandemics, From Our Bodies to Our Beliefs by Sabrina Sholts, 2024
Drawing on dozens of disciplines—from medicine, epidemiology, and microbiology to anthropology, sociology, ecology, and neuroscience—as well as a unique expertise in public education about pandemic risks, biological anthropologist Sabrina Sholts identifies the human traits and tendencies that double as pandemic liabilities.
Half thinking of starting an #AcademicVenting hashtag here, about the dire, dire state of UK (global?) higher education. Sharing nuggets of senior management decisions, neoliberal language, and overall slow collapse.
Won’t work of course because most of us can’t risk honesty, but honestly: the everyday reality of what is happening deserves recording in all its depressing and damning detail. #Universities#AcademicChatter#neoliberalism
.. discipline talks about the "wonders of anthropology". It really is a wonderful field! Adding here a🧵 on 8 reasons why the world needs #Anthropology. But really what I should have said: the world needs non-elite anthropologists and non-elite institutions teaching anthropology. It can't just be for the privileged at Oxbridge; it needs to be what we do at Goldsmiths - by and for everyone, especially those normally marginalised.