The Origins of the Evil Eye and Horticultural Fertility Cults?
Are certain ancient artifacts from West Asia evidence of the earliest horticulture related fertility rituals, and belief in the Evil Eye?Posted on July 13, 2008 1:14 PM • 7 Comments •
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Ethnography:
Why the Hobbits of Flores Were Probably Not Broken People
There is a new paper out suggesting that the Flores hominids, known as Hobbits, were "human endemic cretins." From the abstract of this paper: ... We hypothesize that these individuals are myxoedematous endemic (ME) cretins, part of an inland population of (mostly unaffected) Homo sapiens....Posted on March 6, 2008 8:46 AM • 8 Comments •
The Potato and Human Evolution
Fallback foods are the foods that an organism eats when it can't find the good stuff. It has been suggested that adaptive changes in fallback food strategies can leave a more distinct mark on the morphology of an organism, including in the fossil record,...Posted on February 19, 2008 8:14 AM • 7 Comments •
Life history trade-offs and human pygmies
Every few years a paper comes out "explaining" short stature in one or more Pygmy groups. Most of the time the new work ads new information and new ideas but fails to be convincing. This is the case with the recent PNAS paper by Migliano...Posted on December 16, 2007 9:35 PM • 2 Comments •
Oral traditions effectively warn people about tsunamis and reduce mortality
From a UC Santa Cruz Press Release: The infamous Indian Ocean tsunami that struck on December 26, 2004, caused tragically high mortality--from 10 to 90 percent of the population at various locations. Yet in 1930 a tsunami of similar size, generated by an earthquake near...Posted on December 14, 2007 5:46 PM • 1 Comments •
The Bible as Ethnography ~ 05 ~ The Virgin Birth
I have a cousin in law who tells this story: Her youngest child found out about sex. Then he made the connection that if he existed, his parents must have had sex. So he confronted the parents with this, and mom was forced to admit,...Posted on December 3, 2007 9:00 AM • 8 Comments •
The Bible as Ethnography ~ 04 ~ Agricultural Transitions
In Genesis 4, we see specific reference to herdsmen and farmers as distinct groups, represented by Abel and Cain, respectively. God indicates a preference for the results of herding over planting, and the sibling troubles that ensue result in the world becoming a difficult place...Posted on November 30, 2007 7:56 PM • 4 Comments •
The Bible as Ethnography ~ 03 ~ Sometimes a Snake is Just a Snake. But not in this case....
Genesis 2 ends with Adam and Eve being naked yet not ashamed. In Genesis 3, the Serpent, who is wiser than average, tricks Eve into partaking of the forbidden fruit of one of god's two magic trees. This results in Adam and Eve recognizing their...Posted on November 29, 2007 7:55 PM • 2 Comments •
The Bible as Ethnography ~ 01 ~ Introduction
As a child in Catholic school, and later in public school and being sent off to "release time" religious instruction, I had the opportunity to read most of the Old and New Testaments of the standard bible. Later, in junior high school, I became interested...Posted on November 27, 2007 7:52 PM • 2 Comments •
