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NEW! Evolutionary Tidbit of the Moment
In seemingly unrelated languages from every corner of the globe, the word corresponding to "mother" contains a sound like /ma/, as in "amma," "mama," or "ima." Father words tend to have the /pa/ or /ba/ sound, like "appa," "abba," "baba," or "papa." A discarded hypothesis held that the words for "mother" and "father" had remained largely unchanged from a proto-language from which all modern languages evolved.
The currently favored explanation is that these are the first sounds infants are able to make, with /m/ being slightly easier (and thus developing sooner) than /p/ or /b/, explaining why the primary caretaker (usually the mother) tends to be referred to by words which sound like "mama" in languages all the world over.
Category Archives: Anthropology
The Wrong Holy Ghost
Out this week in Ethos is a paper I wrote called “‘The Wrong Holy Ghost’” Discerning the Apostolic Gift of Discernment using a Signaling and Systems Theoretical Approach.” It’s about an incident I call “the wrong Holy Ghost” because that … Continue reading
Milking Gorillas
I will do a more thorough summary from the Human Biology Association & American Association of Physical Anthropology annual joint conferences in the near future based on my rabid tweeting from sessions, but a few posters & talks are just … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropology, Biological Anthropology, Mating and Sexuality
Tagged Gordon Gallup, gorillas, Katherine Hinde, Michael Power, milk, primates, Rebecca Burch, semen
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Manning a perpetual fire was linked to language & social network development
The December 2012 issues of Smithsonian Magazine had a fire theme, & archaeologist Thomas Wynn contributed a short piece on the influence of fire in the evolution of the human mind. He briefs the work of three researchers doing work … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropology, Archaeology
Tagged fire, fireside relaxation, Frederick Coolidge, John Gowlett, Matt Rossano, Smithsonian
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“Anthropologists finally crack the interspecies linguistic barrier…
Related PostsSimian HIV Research at UAB HBES 2012 Roundup 2: Brian Hare’s Chimp/Bonobo Cognition Plenary, Mommy Brain Fogs, & Baba Brinkman Evolution Raps Evolved to be a Super Chicken Diversity is Our Business–& Going to Museums in the Nude
Signaling Religious Commitment in Brazilian Candomble
I was critiqued in a recent NSF grant proposal review that, while I elegantly integrated signaling & cultural consensus theories in my research design, my statements that (1) signaling theory derives from evolutionary biology & (2) that no one has … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropology, Theory
Tagged Bria Dunham, Candomble, Joseph Bulbulia, Lee Cronk, Montserrat Soler, Religious ecology study, Richard Sosis, Signaling theory
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2012′s Cheap Thrills thru Evolution in Review
I sit in Highland, NY at my in-laws’ watching crappy bowl games (Rutgers v. Va Tech, can either of you find an offense?), reading a cool manuscript draft about psychoneuroimmunological disparity in monastic cemetery remains for my friend Sharon DeWitte, & … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropology, Archaeology, Biological Anthropology, Evolution and Psychology, Evolution in Higher Education, Evolutionary Medicine, Mating and Sexuality, Paleontology, Primates
Tagged academic blogging, alcoholism, ALLELE, bonobos, Brent Colyer, Canela, HBES, John Hawks, penises, smartphones, zoos
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Hominid Use of Fire is at Least 1MYO
The antiquity of the purposive hominid use of fire continues to be pushed back according to a study released earlier this year by Berna et al. in PNAS. Analyses of material at the Wonderwerk Cave, Northern Cape province, South Africa … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropology, Archaeology, Biological Anthropology
Tagged Acheulean, fire, fireside relaxation, Homo erectus
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Notes on Improving a Graduate-Level Course in the Principles of Physical Anthropology
This semester I redesigned the graduate-level physical anthropology course I teach. Last time around (which was the first time teaching a full-on grad course for me), I taught it as a seminar, based largely around my predecessor Professor Emeritus Jim Bindon‘s … Continue reading
Posted in Activities, Anthropology, Biological Anthropology, Evolution in Higher Education, Evolution in the Classroom, Primates
Tagged academic blogging, course improvements, essay writing, Human Evolution Source Book, Human Evolutionary Biology, John Hawks, Michael Muehlenbein, Primate Anthology
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Dr. Evil!?! Or the Entire Denisova Genome from One Girl’s Finger Bone
University of Wisconsin-Madison paleoanthropologist John Hawks was UA’s second ALLELE lecturer of the season. Hawks was trained at the University of Michigan in anthropology by the famous Milford Wolpoff (he of multiregionalism infamy) & completed a postdoc in evolutionary genetics … Continue reading
Posted in Anthropology, Archaeology, Biological Anthropology, Genetics
Tagged ALLELE, Denisovans, Henry Harpending, John Hawks, Milford Wolpoff, Neandertals, paleoanthropology
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GUEST POST: Evolutionary Studies at the University of Alabama
From almost my first post I promised to let the students speak for themselves when it came to singing the praises of our EvoS program at the University of Alabama. One of our first UA EvoS alumni is Emily Freeman, … Continue reading
