Word: anthropologists
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...idea that much of this is fantasy is pretty persuasive too. There are no Incan records--the Incas had no written language--but the Spaniards, who conquered so much of South America, kept plenty. Fifteen years ago, John Howland Rowe, an anthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley, was studying the archives left by the Spaniards at Cuzco and came across a 16th century lawsuit filed by descendants of Pachacuti seeking the return of royal family lands, including a retreat called Picchu. Over the years, other researchers have dug deeper into the mystery, none deeper than Burger, a onetime student...
Finally, there's the question of what makes people and dogs such inseparable friends. Using a number of behavioral experiments--most of them involving finding food hidden in scent-camouflaged boxes--a team headed by anthropologist Brian Hare of Harvard compared the ability of wolves, adult dogs and puppies to pick up subtle cues in human behavior. Both puppies and dogs showed a talent for finding the food using nonverbal signals from the researchers--even something as subtle as gazing toward the hiding place. That doesn't surprise Nicholas Dodman, director of the Animal Behavior Clinic at Tufts University School...
...might say it’s impossible for an anthropologist to get too much hands-on experience in the field. Ramyar Rossoukh, teaching fellow for Anthropology 120, “Anthropology, Cultural Studies, and Film,” almost did. While shooting the film Coming of Age on location in Tehran, Iran, he nearly drowned...
Pinker’s book is a fascinating work of intellectual history. But it is more important as a demonstration of the immense power of cognitive science to counter armchair philosophy in debates over human behavior. Was Hobbes right in thinking mankind was fundamentally bad? Any anthropologist can tell you that human violence is universal. Is it a sign of poor taste to prefer Mozart to Schoenberg? Behavioral psychology teaches that dissonance makes babies...
...friend stood and translated while LaTeef scribbled furiously into the notebook she always carried around. “A griot is more than just a performer. She’s the keeper of old words, the library of a village,” says LaTeef. As an anthropologist, LaTeef was fascinated. Griots have particular importance in a society such as the Zarma’s, which has a literacy rate of only 10 percent. LaTeef was fascinated by the beauty of the oral tradition and the sheer sound of the woman’s voice. “She could...