Category: Anthropology
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Robert Braidwood’s “Did Man Once Live by Beer Alone?”
In his 1953 essay “Did Man Once Live by Beer Alone?”, archaeologist Robert J. Braidwood raised a provocative question that hinted at deeper anthropological and historical truths about the origins of agriculture. Though framed with a certain tongue-in-cheek humor, the piece explored a serious and fascinating idea: that the cultivation of cereal grains might have…
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Cultural taboos, Marvin Harris, and The Abominable Pig
Zachary SorensenChicago, Illinois, United States Many ancient cultural traditions persist through religious practice to this day. They are particularly evident in the taboos surrounding food. In The Sacred Cow and the Abominable Pig, anthropologist Marvin Harris explores the food taboos of the ancient world, particularly focusing on the prohibition of pork in Judaism and Islam.…
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Louis Leakey: Pioneering the study of human evolution in Africa
Zachary SorensenChicago, Illinois, United States Louis Seymour Bazet Leakey was a paleoanthropologist and archaeologist renowned for his fieldwork in East Africa. His career spanned several decades, and he made important contributions to our understanding of human origins. His research dramatically shaped the way the world views the history of humanity. Born in Kenya to British…
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Psychoactive substances and mermaid sightings at sea
Martine MussiesMaastricht, Netherlands Since the earliest long-term sea voyages, from the Age of Exploration to the eighteenth century, sailors have been known to report seeing mermaids—enigmatic creatures with human-like upper bodies and fish-like tails. These accounts have long been a subject of fascination and speculation. Could these sightings have been influenced by the use of…
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Paleopharmaceuticals from fossil amber
José de la FuenteCiudad Real, Spain Amber is fossilized plant resin commonly used for jewelry, decoration, and in the study of fossil inclusions.1,2 The largest sources of amber are found in Myanmar (formerly Burma; Burmite, Cretaceous, ca. 99 million years ago [mya]) and the area around the Baltic Sea (Eocene, ca. 34–56 mya). Fossil amber…
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Franz Boas (1858–1942): Titan of Anthropology
Hailed as the “Father of American Anthropology”, Franz Boas was well ahead of his time in challenging prevailing racial theories and promoting an understanding of diverse human cultures. He influenced a generation of younger scholars who followed his way of thinking, greatly contributing to the study of culture, race, and language and laying the groundwork…
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Paul Farmer, MD (1959–2022)
Paul Edward Farmer was an American medical pioneer anthropologist, academician, and physician. He co-founded and was chief strategist of Partners in Health (PIH), an international nonprofit organization that since 1987 has provided health care services, undertaken research, and advocacy on behalf of the poor and sick. Dr. Farmer grew up in Alabama during much of…
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Margaret Mead (1901–1978), controversial anthropologist pioneer
Margaret Mead is remembered as one of the most important, though controversial, anthropologists of the twentieth century. She became famous through her classic work Coming of Age in Samoa (1928), in which she described the life and sexual practices of teenagers on two Samoan islands in the South Pacific. Her books were widely read and…
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What a newspaper advice columnist had to say about smoking…in 1691
Alan BlumKevin BaileyTuscaloosa, Alabama, United States London bookseller John Dunton (1659–1733) could be called the first newspaper advice columnist. In 1691 he and three polymath friends founded the Athenian Society, which began publishing a twice-weekly periodical to answer “all the most Nice and Curious questions Posed by the Ingenious”1 on a wide range of subjects, including politics, religion,…