Anthropology
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Anthropology
A Fair Share of the Pie
A cross-cultural project suggests that people everywhere divvy up food and make other economic deals based on social concepts of fairness, not individual self-interest.
By Bruce Bower -
Anthropology
The Way We Were
Dig into news, educational material, and even an online documentary about the contentious science of human evolution. This impressive Web site is operated jointly by the Institute of Human Origins and Arizona State University. Go to: http://www.becominghuman.org/
By Science News -
Anthropology
Stone Age signs of complexity
Ancient engravings found in South Africa support the theory that humans began to think and behave in symbolic ways a surprisingly long time ago.
By Bruce Bower -
Anthropology
The gene that came to stay
A gene thought by some scientists to foster a bold, novelty-seeking personality, as well as attention-deficit hyperactivity (ADHD), apparently spread substantially in human populations over roughly the past 40,000 years.
By Bruce Bower -
Anthropology
Evolving in Their Graves
Understanding what early, rudimentary burials meant to modern humans' antecedents—assuming early humans did, in fact, bury their dead—could help anthropologsts untangle a lasting mystery of human evolution.
By Ben Harder -
Anthropology
Human evolution put brakes on tooth growth
A new analysis of fossil teeth indicates that the slower pace of dental development observed in people today dates back only about 100,000 years.
By Bruce Bower -
Anthropology
Humans in eastern Asia show ancient roots
Human ancestors lived in northeastern Asia about 1.36 million years ago, making it the oldest confirmed occupation site in eastern Asia.
By Bruce Bower -
Anthropology
Isotopes reveal sources of ancient timbers
Isotopic analysis of architectural timbers from ancient dwellings in the U.S. Southwest has shown from which distant forests the massive logs came.
By Sid Perkins -
Anthropology
Neandertals show ancient signs of caring
A partial jaw unearthed in France indicates that Neandertals extensively cared for sick and infirm comrades beginning nearly 200,000 years ago.
By Bruce Bower -
Anthropology
Earliest Ancestor Emerges in Africa
Scientists have found 5.2- to 5.8-million-year-old fossils in Ethiopia that represent the earliest known members of the human evolutionary family.
By Bruce Bower -
Anthropology
Human fossils tell a fish tale
Fossil clues indicate that Stone Age humans ate a considerable amount of seafood, giving them a broader and more resilient diet than that of Neandertals.
By Bruce Bower -
Anthropology
Early agriculture flowered in Mexico
Mexico may have served as a center of early plant domestication in the Americas, according to researchers who have excavated a site near Mexico's Gulf Coast.
By Bruce Bower