A few years old but a very neat piece from evolutionary #anthropologist Karen #Kramer. How do children learn best? Packed into same-age classrooms listening to an adult?
'...work among with the Pumé of Venezuela and the Maya living in the Yucatan Peninsula—resoundingly suggests that they learn from one another.'
...
'IN THE CHILD-populous world of hunter-gatherers, little separates the spheres of adults and children. The places they work, play, relax, and sleep are not segregated. Privacy, alone time, and adult-only spaces are concepts unknown to the Pumé, for example. They live in open-walled structures that children freely run in and out of without requesting entry. Pumé children also aren’t restricted from what might be considered adult spaces and activities, such as menstrual huts (special structures where women in many traditional societies go for the few days a month when they menstruate), watching births, being around the dying, or participating in all-night social dances, called tohé, where the band joins together to sing, conduct healings, and tell stories.'
Fun piece by #JohnHawks on the mystery of the #evolution of the 'German' #cockroach.
Can't really be German can it? Can it?
'The German cockroach deserves to be widely known as an example of rapid evolution of a new species. Not only does it inhabit environments where few insects survive, its environments didn't even exist before a few thousand years ago. No populations of this species have yet been identified outside human structures. Its closest living relatives, including the presumed ancestral species B. asahinai, have very different behaviors and habitats. There's no question that Blattella germanica is new.'
This is something to look forward to: a new book from the brilliant Tyson #Yunkaporta. His first one, #SandTalk, was a great read, don't miss it! Among the enduring visions was 'cooking up wombat' in the derelict ruins of the Canberra Parliament building in some not-too-distant future as we discover which civilization is the more resilient.
Also a very funny critique of Stonehenge, and the Weird West, right on the button!
This research is really sweet -- showing the size and complexity of ancient #African#huntergatherer networks, before farming.
Hunter-gatherer groups in the Congo maintained social networks across vast distances thousands of years before agriculture arrived. The cultural diversity is shown in musical instruments, specialist vocabulary and genetic analyses.
@RadicalAnthro "Sweet" is a nice word for a study. 😉
On the one hand, I am always baffled by such studies: why does it take science so long to recognise that prehistoric hunter-gatherers could communicate and exchange information over distances?
On the other hand, I wonder how to get out of the random principle (I haven't read the study myself yet), because what we find archaeologically is only a random minimal section.
Then I look at my Mesopotamian garden tools in the shed. 😁
@NatureMC yes, there has been stupid prejudice regarding 'small' nomadic bands -- because they do not tend to leave a lot of trace in the archaeological record. Most of their stuff -- and they don't carry a lot of stuff -- is biodegradable.
People confuse impressive durable material culture or architecture with complexity. But that's a mismatch with the needs of highly egalitarian societies to create widespread social networks, often via 'intangible' ritual means.
Study of expressions for the 'taboo topic' of #menstruation in Dutch, German, and Mandarin Chinese. Analyzing each expression according to the X-phemistic mechanisms and, if applicable, the metaphorical source domains or metonymic vehicles at its origin.
More discussion on that preprint (yes just a preprint and getting Nature commentary!) about when exactly did the #Neanderthal gene flow into modern humans happen. Acc to Iasi et al, from 47 Ka for about 6000 years. Interesting here is the 'introgression deserts' with immediate selection against Nean genes for certain areas.
'Periodical #cicadas are unique insects that have a 13-year or a 17-year life cycle, most of which they spend underground. They come to the surface in groups that scientists call broods.
Each brood with its descendants is named in a Roman number. This year, Brood XIX and Brood XIII are emerging together. The last time these particular broods emerged in the same year was two centuries ago in 1803.
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This is what they sound like'