As US protesters deface monuments of once revered leaders, they are drawing from an ancient tradition used by both marginalized people and those in power.
Who gets a seat at the table?
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The Zapotec people of southern Mexico have always relied on each other to solve problems when the government can’t, or won’t, help. That’s proving to be a pretty effective pandemic response.
A muezzin calling Muslims to prayer stands on the minaret of the Gazi Husrev-beg mosque in Sarajevo.
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Listening more deeply to what makes sounds meaningful for people within their respective contexts matters in an era of rising expressions of racism in the pandemic.
Public assistance programs are intended to help people up – but that’s not always how recipients experience the aid.
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Thinking of SARS-CoV-2 as an invisible enemy with an evil personality and humanlike motivations is a natural offshoot of the way people evolved to anthropomorphize so as not to overlook threats.
Footprints, preserved in solidified ash, hint at human behavior from as long as 19,000 years ago.
Cynthia Liutkus-Pierce
The footprints of over 20 different prehistoric people, pressed into volcanic ash thousands of years ago in Tanzania, show possible evidence for sexual division of labor in this ancient community.
Scientists had assumed that elephants could not become inebriated because of their size.
(James Higham)
Elephants don’t have the enzyme that allows humans to metabolize alcohol. This means that anecdotes about elephants getting drunk from rotten fruit may very well be true.
The power of putting others first.
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Haji-Daoud Nabi was a lifelong friend, who helped inspire my research in Afghanistan on how violent events shape people’s sense of community. I never thought my work would one day apply at home in NZ.
Men’s level of involvement in parenting is often tied to social norms about monogamy.
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Considered one of the healthiest ways to eat, the Mediterranean diet has evolved over hundreds of years, but ignoring other diets is a form of cultural superiority.
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Olive oil, grapes and fish. There’s a lot to love about the Mediterranean diet but focusing on it might be a way to exclude other healthy and global diets.
Researchers May Nango, Djaykuk Djandjomerr and S. Anna Florin collecting plants in Kakadu National Park. Reproduced with permission of Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation.
Elspeth Hayes
Charred plant remains from one of the oldest archaeological sites reveal that the first Australians ate a varied - and sometimes labour-intensive - diet.
Imitation is the sincerest form of being human?
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A quirk of psychology that affects the way people learn from others may have helped unlock the complicated technologies and rituals that human culture hinges on.
20 years ago, who could predict how much more researchers would know today about the human past – let alone what they could learn from a thimble of dirt, a scrape of dental plaque, or satellites in space.
Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo
20 years ago, who could predict how much more researchers would know today about the human past – let alone what they could learn from a thimble of dirt, a scrape of dental plaque, or satellites in space.
The emotion of lassitude might help your body fight off infection by making certain adjustments.
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Fighting off infection comes with predictable psychological and behavioral features. Now researchers suggest an emotion coordinates this response to help you get better. They call it ‘lassitude.’