Anthropology Science

What are we? Where did we come from? Where are we going? Who’s in charge? WHY?

How did you come to be here, now? This books takes you from the Big Bang to the evolution of modern humans and the history of human cultures, showing that science is an adventure of discovery and a source of limitless wonder, giving us richer and more rewarding appreciation of the phenomenal privilege of merely being alive and able to begin to understand it all.

Gracias a una nueva manera de estudiar nuestra historia, con el empleo de experimentos psicológicos, trabajo de campo y big data, Whitehouse identifica tres sesgos que marcan el comportamiento humano: el conformismo, la religiosidad y el tribalismo. Herencia revela cómo la naturaleza humana ha definido nuestra historia y descubre una sorprendente manera de resolver nuestros problemas más acuciantes. El resultado es una poderosa reevaluación de la trayectoria de la humanidad, que revoluciona tanto la idea de quiénes somos como la de quiénes podemos llegar a ser.

In the past the elders had encyclopaedic memories. They could name all the animals and plants across the landscape and the stars in the sky, too. Yet most of us struggle to memorise more than a short poem. Using traditional Aboriginal Australian songlines as the key, Lynne Kelly has identified the powerful memory technique used by indigenous people around the world.

Human beings have been battling one another since time immemorial. But why war and terrorism? Why are men almost always the killers, and why are war and sex so inextricably linked? Why do we kill members of our own species intentionally, when few other animals do so?

私たちはどこにいるのか。そして、どう生きるべきか――。

Bazată pe o serie de prelegeri înregistrate, cartea de față abordează trei probleme fascinante: banii, în contrast cu adevărata bogăție, spiritualitatea unui materialism mai profund și modul în care tehnologia și concepțiile filozofice ne ghidează spre o legătură tot mai intensă cu universul pe care îl locuim. Vei explora numeroase alte teme pline de clarviziune, dar și de umor, mai relevante ca oricând.

Frustrated by her students' performance, her relationships with them, and her own daughter's problems in school, Susan D. Blum, a professor of anthropology, set out to understand why her students found their educational experiences at a top-tier institution so profoundly difficult and unsatisfying. Through her research and in conversations with her students, she discovered a troubling mismatch between the goals of the university and the needs of students.

How did humans, a species of self-centered apes, come to care about others? Since Darwin, scientists have tried to answer this question using evolutionary theory. In The Kindness of Strangers, psychologist Michael E. McCullough shows why they have failed and offers a new explanation instead. From the moment nomadic humans first settled down until the aftermath of the Second World War, our species has confronted repeated crises that we could only survive by changing our behavior.

Coinage - it is one of the most successful and consistent technologies ever invented. Nothing else we still use in everyday life has a history quite like it. Look around at all the things that would bewilder a Greek, Roman, or Renaissance ancestor; then, dig into your purse or pocket for that one artifact that they would immediately recognize. Historian Frank L. Holt takes us on a journey through the history of numismatics, the study of coins - one of the oldest and most important contributions to the arts and humanities.

Ein großes Hörbuch von gewaltiger intellektueller Bandbreite, neugierig, visionär, und ein Plädoyer für die Macht des direkten Handelns. David Graeber, der bedeutendste Anthropologe unserer Zeit, und David Wengrow, einer der führenden Archäologen, entfalten in ihrer großen Menschheitsgeschichte, wie sich die Anfänge unserer Zivilisation mit der Zukunft der Menschheit neu denken und verbinden lässt. Sie revidieren unser bisheriges Menschenbild und erzählen Menschheitsgeschichte, wie sie noch nie erzählt wurde.

Molly Chamberlain is part of an expeditionary team to the arctic tundra. They've arrived from Houston to resume digging on a site they'd established the prior season held much promise. After a discovery of something extraordinary, these scientists, out of the permafrost, extract their incredible find. However, Molly becomes drawn to it in a way which transcends natural scientific curiosity. Something Called Permafrost is another brilliant short story from award winning author Robert E. Kearns in which he explores what happens when personal obsession meets with modern science. Now with an ...

Finding from my own personal experience how troublesome it is to hunt through piles of dusty old volumes, I have decided to make a small selection of these papers which I consider are not only rare and very interesting, but which also give an insight into the varied activities and achievements of Burton’s crowded life. It will, I think, be realized that such a volume as this will not be superfluous, for, apart from saving people an enormous amount of trouble, it will give them further insight into the life-work of one of the greatest men of the Victorian era.

The human mind needs monsters. In every culture and in every epoch in human history, from ancient Egypt to modern Hollywood, imaginary beings have haunted dreams and fantasies, provoking in young and old shivers of delight, thrills of terror, and endless fascination. In Monsters: Evil Beings, Mythical Beasts, and All Manner of Imaginary Terrors, anthropologist David D. Gilmore explores what human traits monsters represent and why they are so ubiquitous in people's imaginations and share so many features across different cultures.

Through a masterful combination of social commentary, investigative journalism, and autobiographical work, in The People of the Abyss, Jack London chronicles the living conditions and hardships endured by the impoverished residents in the East End of London, England, during the late 19th century.

This book explores the hidden world of pharmaceutical testing on healthy volunteers. Drawing on two years of fieldwork in clinics across the country and 268 interviews with participants and staff, it illustrates how decisions to take part in such studies are often influenced by poverty and lack of employment opportunities. It shows that healthy participants are typically recruited from African American and Latino/a communities, and that they are often serial participants, who obtain a significant portion of their income from these trials.

Drawing on the latest research in archaeozoology, archaeology, and molecular biology, Animals as Domesticates traces the history of the domestication of animals around the world. From the llamas of South America and the turkeys of North America, to the cattle of India and the Australian dingo, this fascinating book explores the history of the complex relationships between humans and their domestic animals.

For over a century we saw Neanderthals as inferior to Homo Sapiens. After new discoveries, the pendulum swung the other way and they are generally seen as our relatives: not quite human, but similar enough, and still not equal. Now, thanks to an ongoing revolution in palaeoanthropology in which he has played a key part, Ludovic Slimak shows us that they are something altogether different - and they should be understood on their own terms rather than by comparing them to ourselves. As he reveals in this stunning book, the Neanderthals had their own history, their own rituals, their own customs.

More Damned Lies and Statistics encourages all of us to think in a more sophisticated and skeptical manner about how statistics are used to promote causes, create fear, and advance particular points of view. Best identifies different sorts of numbers that shape how we think about public issues: missing numbers are relevant but overlooked; confusing numbers bewilder when they should inform; scary numbers play to our fears about the present and the future.

An entertaining and enlightening exploration of why waste matters, this cultural history explores an often ignored subject matter and makes a compelling argument for a deeper understanding of human and animal waste. Approaching the subject from a variety of perspectives - evolutionary, ecological, and cultural - this examination shows how integral excrement is to biodiversity, agriculture, public health, food production and distribution, and global ecosystems.