Category Archives: Primates
#2016Highlights Month-by-Month: Part 2
Contrary to the sense of things at the end with the triumph of he-who-shall-not-be-named and the demise of so many beloved friends and celebrities, 2016 was actually a banner friggin’ year for some of us personally, as I began addressing … Continue reading
“Anthropologists finally crack the interspecies linguistic barrier…
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
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
Remembering Brent Colyer: Serotonin, Alcoholism, & Evolution
I am beginning the writing of this on Saturday, December 8, around 11:30PM. A week ago & a few hours earlier, I was agitating over six lead changes as I watched Bama ultimately beat Georgia in the SEC college football … Continue reading
Graded-Signal Sexual Swellings as Self-Deception?
The graded signal hypothesis suggests that sexual swellings in primates represent the probability of ovulation. Based on this model, in male philopatric species, dominant males find it most cost-effective to guard females at the height of ovulation based on the … Continue reading
The Campfire as a Social Nexus
Wrangham (2009) & McClenon (2006) describe the campfire in evolutionary history as something like a social nexus. Wrangham says it’s where hominids came to & learned to tolerate each other. McClenon says it’s where hominids developed their relaxation skills, by … Continue reading
Simian HIV Research at UAB
Take note medical anthropology students interested in primatology! From National Geographic, October 2010: That tube and others like it, representing one fecal sample every month from as many chimps as possible, were destined for the laboratory of Beatrice Hahn at … Continue reading
HBES 2012 Roundup 2: Brian Hare’s Chimp/Bonobo Cognition Plenary, Mommy Brain Fogs, & Baba Brinkman Evolution Raps
Friday’s HBES meetings started with a plenary by anthropologist Brian Hare from Duke. Let me just say that I like the starting days with plenaries. No presenters have to “pay dues” with crappy earlier spots that everyone sleeps through. People … Continue reading
Penis Diversity is our Business
Actually, penis diversity is not our business. In fact, one of the student evaluations for the Anthropology of Sex course I taught this past semester said I talked too much about animal diversity & not enough about humans. I’m not sure … Continue reading