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Sunday, July 31, 2005
Week in Review 1(8)
NT Week in Review
Vol. I, Issue 8
Welcome to number eight. I've decided to start doing only news and review links because there are so many great anthropology material out there that I've found myself linking the same writers week after week. If it's on my blogroll (the list to the left) then it's good writing and opinion, so check it out. I still may quote an blog post here and there if it's of particular interest, otherwise they'll get their own post throughout the week. In the meantime, I'll concentrate more on commenting on various news stories and other links that catch my attention.
A neat story from the Guardian about an Iron age village that has been constructed based on archaeologial evidence. Visitors can come and live for a week or a weekend like a "real" Iron Age villager. Awesome... Read Village will take visitors back to the Iron Age.
The darker side of archaeology: From USAToday, Mexican archaeologists have uncovered a rare Aztec sacrifice at Templo Mayor in Mexico City (also at IOL here):
Priests propped the child — apparently already dead, since the sand around him showed no sign of movement — in a sitting position and workers packed earth around his body, which was then covered beneath a flight of stone temple steps.
On a similar note, a brief news report from the 21st Congress of the International Association for Caribbean Archaeology at which the president gave a message that Archaeology (is) more than just dead things.
Here is a review from Scientific American of The Looting of the Iraq Museum, Baghdad, a book that everyone with an interest in ancient history should buy (myself included).
An interesting story from National Geographic News, Race Affects How We Learn to Fear Others, Study Says:
"We'll more readily associate somebody of a group that's not our own with something negative, and that fear isn't changed by new information as readily as [it is] with somebody in our own social group," said Liz Phelps, a professor of psychology and neural science at New York University and a co-author of the study.
Phelps and colleagues say that the persistence of fear toward members of another race is a product of both evolutionary factors and cultural learning.
Also from NatGeo, a report that newfound insects have the ability to combine and create a third species. Furthermore, the article describes how humans may be playing a role in this process:
Among cichlids this process likely takes thousands of years. The Lonicera fly's evolution, however, has occurred only in the 250 years since its honeysuckle host plant arrived in North America.
The introduction, via humans, of non-native species makes speciation through hybridization more likely, says Schwarz, the Penn State ecologist.
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The Nomadic Thoughts Week in Review Series presents the "best of" from the anthropology, philosophy, religion, and science news feeds that make up a part of Will's blogroll. It is published every Sunday night/Monday morning.
Posted by Will at July 31, 2005 03:46 PM in