Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? To ask these questions is to be human.
Anthropology
Skull of Australopithecus africanus • Photo by Emőke Dénes (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Modern reconstruction of a Neanderthal • ©2021 Neanderthal Museum—Holger Neumann
The circle widens, much too late
Neanderthal. For most people, the word evokes a hulking, hairy, thick-necked brute, a “missing link” sort of creature who occupied a place on the developmental scale somewhere between the gorilla and modern man.
Replica of the Laetoli footprints • Photo by Momotarou2012 (CC BY-SA 3.0)
The moment we became different
For more than two decades, Donald Johanson has searched the Great Rift Valley of East Africa for bones of our early ancestors.
Portrait of Samuel Johnson (1775) by Joshua Reynolds, which has become an internet meme centuries later
May the best meme win
We’ve all received those chain letters that describe wonderful things that have happened to people who kept the chain going.
A remaining section of the Bering Land Bridge • Bering Land Bridge National Preserve (CC BY 2.0)
Coming to America — the first time
Raven was walking on the beach. He was lonely. He had the sun, the moon, the land and the sea, but he desired the company of other creatures.
Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash
Language diversity is languishing
In prehistoric times there were 10,000 languages spoken in the world. No kidding. Ten thousand. Maybe more.
Reproduction of handprints in Chauvet Cave, Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, France • Photo by Claude Valette (CC BY-SA 4.0)
In the beginning, there were fingers and toes
Itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout, down came the rain and washed the spider out…
Reconstruction of Australopithecus afarensis • Image by Protocultura from Pixabay
Great plot, but casting may be tough
Hey, Tony baby, the concept is a knockout. A Hollywood movie about the earliest human.
The fossilized remains of "Nari" • Photo by Akrasia25 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
What our ancestors’ fossils don’t tell us
I’ve been living with the kid for three weeks. He stands in the corner of my office, dead still, staring blankly. I call him Nari.
Particle accelerator at CERN • Photo by x70tjw (CC BY-SA 2.0)
The physicists’ naughty bits
The golden age of anthropology is past. The time is gone when a Gregory Bateson or Margaret Mead could go off to New Guinea or Samoa and find societies relatively untouched by Western civilization. An anthropologist today is hard pressed to find a culture anywhere on earth that retains its original traditions and values. One is as likely to find Coca-Cola and satellite television in the wilds of New Guinea as in New Jersey.