1.4-million-year-old skull fragments linked to mystery human ancestor.
@Gizmodo reports: "The fragmentary facial bones belong to Homo affinis erectus, an esoteric offshoot of our family tree that inhabited Spain more than one million years ago."
Jewish ritual bath found at Ostia
Bone fragments of oldest known human face in western Europe found in #Spain
Remains are of an adult member of an extinct species who lived up to 1.4m years ago, researchers say
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/mar/12/bone-fragments-of-oldest-known-human-face-in-western-europe-found-in-spain #science #HumanEvolution #anthropology #fossils #bones #archaeology
My favorite non-fiction book is Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind by Donald C. Johanson. I reread it often, but it is wildly out of date
I’d like to find a similar, popular science-y book that will bring me up to speed on what’s happened in the paleoanthropology field recently - any recommendations?
#archeology #hominids #anthropology #humanevolution
Fossil Bone fragments of oldest known Homo erectus face in western Europe found in Spain https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/mar/12/bone-fragments-of-oldest-known-human-face-in-western-europe-found-in-spain
The family group/tribe is built on mutual support, but the modern conservative version is transactional, based on membership and loyalty. Actions that look like kindness are in reality actions to reinforce tribal loyalty. I think this is why so many people in conservative communties, who are trapped in entirely conservative information spaces, have a hard time breaking free. They see examples of community support as affirmations of their community goodness, and this narrative is drummed into them constantly. Conservative leaders have the advantage of labeling any disruptive people or ideas as 'foreign' and a threat, even if from within the community, so that they never even have to engage with new ideas on merit.
Kindness isnt a relevant trait to their tribal functioning, because the ability to be unkind and cruel to people who arent toeing the tribal line is necessary to upholding 'family law'. Kindness in others undermines their attempts to police peoples behavior (this is why its so important that men are in charge). Therefore, not only is kindness devalued, it is actively persecuted as a threat to conservative values. And that is only treatment of your in-group. If you reject kindness internally, imagine how easy it is to subject an out-group to cruel inhumanity. You can literally justify anything. What is horrifying is the degree to which everyday members of conservative communities have become willfully blind to the terrible treatment of others in order to hang on to an image of community goodness. I have witnessed far too much of this in my life.
Its worth stating that the left has its own, different kind of tribalism. They embrace kindness but there is a lot of pressure to prove the right kind of worth. It has a distinctly multicultural, anti-authoritarian tribalism, where the rules of the tribe are under constant negotiation. This makes communicating a platform challenging. Its a lot simpler for conservative platforms whose rules come from demagogues and an old book.
The flaw of designing a system without compassion is that the cruelty eventually becomes impossible to hide from the tribe, and the cruelty comes for everyone. #uspol #politics #disability #sociology #anthropology #kindness #geopol
Archaeologists uncover sacred Inca pilgrimage routes to volcanic peaks
Archaeologists are exploring the sacred landscapes where the Incas once walked during their Capacocha rituals. This ancient sacrificial ceremony involved offering children to the gods on top of high mountains and volcanoes. New studies are looking at the pathways that lead to these sacred sites...
More information: https://archaeologymag.com/2025/02/sacred-inca-pilgrimage-routes-to-volcanic-peaks/
Follow @archaeology
"Human migration stories are being rewritten. New genomic data challenges the Out of Africa model, hinting at a more complex origin tale. History, like us, evolves. 
#Science #Anthropology"
"Human migration's story rewrites itself—genomic whispers from East Eurasia challenge the Out of Africa model. History isn’t static; it’s a living, breathing enigma. #Anthropology"
"Human migration rewritten? Genomic whispers from East Eurasia challenge the Out of Africa story. History isn’t a straight line—it’s a labyrinth of forgotten paths. 
#Anthropology"
The "Yo-He-Ho" theory suggests that human language evolved from rhythmic chants used during collective labor, emphasizing the social aspect of linguistic development.
#PonderLab #LanguageWeek #Anthropology
https://polilingua.com](https://www.polilingua.com/blog/post/theories-of-languages-origin.htm
In research on this talk, drawing on #ReichelDolmatoff's classic #Tukano ethnography, 'Amazonian Cosmos', Chris came across this excellent blog from @TootTropiques back in 2012. This discusses Reichel-Dolmatoff's #Nazi history in relation to his enormous contributions to #Colombian #anthropology and #Indigenous rights. Many anthropologists have taken inspiration from his work.
https://ethnoground.blogspot.com/2012/09/putting-reich-back-in-reichel-dolmatoff.html?m=1
I really need to keep the random articles and tidbits of info that i find interesting, instead of finding myself 5 years later going "What was the name of the society of people who think baby carriages and babies sleeping in cribs in another room is child abuse, and they breastfeed until like age 5 or something???"
(ps does anyone know?)
Prehistoric bone tool 'factory' hints at early development of abstract reasoning in human ancestors
A poet-anthropologist reflects on the resistance of rural women in the #Brazilian #Cerrado whose wisdom and knowledge help cultivate life amid the devastation of large-scale plantations.
'Pequi activates a sense of time, space, and materiality. It refers to a type of fruit that sprouts at a particular time of the year. Its trees grow exclusively in cerrado lands. Yet the smell spreads and touches people through cooking, and on the wind.'
#anthropology #gender #resistance #environment
https://www.sapiens.org/culture/pequi-winds-poem-jacqueline-ferraz-de-lima/
New study reveals Neanderthals faced a population crash 110,000 years ago
A new study has uncovered a major genetic bottleneck in Neanderthals about 110,000 years ago, shedding light on their demographic history and potential causes for their extinction. The research was conducted by an international team of scholars and published in Nature Communications...
More information: https://archaeologymag.com/2025/02/neanderthals-faced-a-population-crash/
Follow @archaeology
What's new in the realm of us humans understanding ourselves better?
- Top Human Origins Discoveries of 2024 (audio-only)
Minute 14:25:
Misconceptions in human evolution (and evolution in general): Evolution doesn't happen only in adaptation to changed environments:
News - Mysterious 2,400-Year-Old Puppets Unearthed in El Salvador - Archaeology Magazine
https://archaeology.org/news/2025/03/07/mysterious-2400-year-old-puppets-unearthed-in-el-salvador/
17 min
This guy is somebody I’ve just stumbled across and seems to be all about Hilforts.
