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Articles on Anthropology

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Forensic anthropologists can be called in when human remains are discovered. Ashley Cooper/The Image Bank via Getty Images

Forensic anthropologists work to identify human skeletal remains and uncover the stories of the unknown dead

Forensic anthropologists are specialized scientists who analyze the skeletal remains of the recently deceased to help authorities figure out who the person was and what happened to them.
In small-group, subsistence living, it makes sense for everyone to do lots of jobs. gorodenkoff/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Forget ‘Man the Hunter’ – physiological and archaeological evidence rewrites assumptions about a gendered division of labor in prehistoric times

Female bodies have an advantage in endurance ability that means Paleolithic women likely hunted game, not just gathered plants. The story is written in living and ancient human bodies.
A general view of Wadi Gharandal riverine wetland, along the Jordan Rift Valley, showing palm trees concentrated at the centre of the wadi near the active spring. Mahmoud Abbas

New path for early human migrations through a once-lush Arabia contradicts a single ‘out of Africa’ origin

The findings reveal a close association between climatic conditions and early human migrations out of Africa.
‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ comes out in theatres on June 30. The fifth in a series over 42 years, many of its originating ideas are taken from 19th-century racist archaeology. Will this iteration be different? (Walt Disney Pictures)

Listen — Indiana Jones’s last ride: A legacy to celebrate or bury?

The final Indiana Jones movie is coming out June 30. The fifth in a series over 42 years, many of its ideas are taken from 19th-century orientalist and racist archaeology.
Conditions in rural England around the turn of the 20th century offer a case study for cultural evolution researchers. Heritage Images/Hulton Archive via Getty Images

English dialects make themselves heard in genes

People with a common history – often due to significant geographic or social barriers – often share genetics and language. New research finds that even a dialect can act as a barrier within a group.
Close examination of digital and 3D-printed models suggested the fossil needs to be reclassified. Brian A. Keeling

Enigmatic human fossil jawbone may be evidence of an early Homo sapiens presence in Europe – and adds mystery about who those humans were

Scientists had figured a fossil found in Spain more than a century ago was from a Neandertal. But a new analysis suggests it could be from a lost lineage of our species, Homo sapiens.
An ape that lived 21 million years ago was used to a habitat that was both grassy and wooded. Corbin Rainbolt

Wooded grasslands flourished in Africa 21 million years ago – new research forces a rethink of ape evolution

Contrary to the idea that apes evolved their upright posture to reach for fruit in the forest canopy, the earliest known ape with this stature, Morotopithecus, lived in more open grassy environments.
Human evolution is typically depicted with a progressive whitening of the skin, despite a lack of evidence to support it. Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov/Wikimedia Commons

Racist and sexist depictions of human evolution still permeate science, education and popular culture today

From Aristotle to Darwin, inaccurate and biased narratives in science not only reproduce these biases in future generations but also perpetuate the discrimination they are used to justify.

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