Anthropology
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History
Franz Boas takes a new look at race
Maverick anthropologist changed our view of humanity.
Franz Uri Boas has been described as “the father of the field” of anthropology (The Atlantic), the professor who “pio...
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Clues to cultivation in the Torres Strait
Study sheds new light on old horticultural practices.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had a history of skilfully resourcing food and managing the land long be...
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Ancient artisans made a projectile point
Independent invention across continents revealed.
Neolithic toolmakers in southern Arabia created intricate stone weapons designed both to be useful and to showcase th...
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More pieces to the Polynesian puzzle
Studies support influence of Native Americans.
Native Americans had a genetic and cultural influence on Polynesia more than five centuries before the arrival of Eur...
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How African ancestors moved and mingled
DNA reveals population dynamics of foragers, herders and farmers.
Revelations about Africa’s past just got more colourful as ancient DNA analysis shows historical population interacti...
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Western Asia connected before rise of cities
Genomic analysis reveals early human movement.
High levels of human movement in parts of Western Asia – which includes the modern-day Middle East – led to a more ge...
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Society structure impacts innovation
Study finds fewer interactions, not more, fuel cultural evolution.
Over time, evolution has endowed humans with bigger, better brains, but a study of Agta hunter-gatherers in the Phili...
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Sign languages grew from five lineages
Scientists merge linguistics with evolutionary biology.
Delving into centuries-old manuscripts depicting dozens of sign language alphabets, scientists have identified five p...
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Traditional record of a modern problem
Japanese fish rubbings tell about threatened species.
Welcome to the world of alternative biodiversity records. Since the last Edo period, around the middle of the 19th c...
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Gene study reveals Bronze Age slavery
A much more complex society than previously thought.
High status families in late Neolithic and Bronze Age Germany kept slaves, genetic analysis reveals. The finding, r...
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Genome study reveals South Asia’s prehistory
Migrations spread farming and languages across Eurasia.
A massive study of ancient and modern genomes stretching from Europe to Central and South Asia and spanning the last ...
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A long history of changing the planet
Unique archaeological study takes a new look at land use.
Long before people started documenting their own existence, their way of life was already taking a toll on the planet...