Anthropology in the News

1. Explore current archaeological research projects and sites. Do any projects also involve linguistic, physical, and cultural anthropology? How? Why might it be important to study the linkages between the four fields of anthropology?

2. Visit an interactive genealogy of fossil skulls in an electronic newspaper published by the American Museum of Natural History. Which populations are presented as "human"? On what basis does the site draw a distinction between "human" and "prehuman" populations? Click on other areas of the site to learn more about new debates and findings regarding Homo sapiens.

3. See a photo of physical anthropologist Jane Buikstra at Machu Picchu in a University of New Mexico "scrapbook." Then visit the PaleoDNA Laboratory for the analysis of ancient DNA materials. What services are performed there? Follow links to read an article on the first ever DNA analysis of ancient remains and subsequent work on mummies. What is polymerase chain reaction and how does it help scientists to determine kinship relationships?

4. Visit the Jane Goodall Institute. What contributions has Goodall made to the fields of physical anthropology and primatology? How is the Institute's research applied to real-life situations?

5. Visit the Primate Gallery on Discovery Online and observe Orangutan behavior. How are orangs distinctive in their behavior and social life? Where does primatology fit within the discipline of anthropology?

6. Follow links at the Organutan Foundation International (OFI) home page. Meet Birute Galdikas on line and take a virtual tour of Camp Leakey in Central Borneo, Indonesia. What is the mission of Camp Leakey? Why is the fate of orangutans a concern of anthropologists?

7. Read a definition and explanation of sociobiology and an essay by its founder, Edward O. Wilson, and explore the issue of human aggression. Then take a tutorial on evolutionary psychology via links from the Center for Evolutionary Psychology at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Read "Evolutionary Psychology: A Primer" by Leda Cosmides and John Tooby, and listen to the audio clip "Has Natural Selection Shaped How Humans Reason?" According to this perspective, how could both prosocial behavior, such as gift giving and altruism, and antisocial behavior, such as aggression and homicide and warfare, have adaptive value for human evolution?

8. Read a biography of Eleanor Leacock and an essay on her critique against biological determinism and The Bell Curve, a controversial book about intelligence and race. What is biological determinism? What is cultural determinism? What might be some examples of ways that biology and culture interact to shape human behavior?

9. Visit the American Anthropological Association home page and follow links to information about research ethics in the social sciences. What provisions were contained in the 1970 standard code of ethics? What is meant by informed consent? What other ethical principles are included in the code? Today, how does the American Anthropological Association address issues of contemporary research, research standards, and issues of fieldwork safety in politically volatile regions?

10. Read a Career Monograph on Anthropology, which describes career opportunities in anthropology. Which, if any, careers might interest you most? Which anthropologists might you encounter or work with in your other chosen career? How do you think an anthropologist might help you to do a better job?

11. Get more details on interaction patterns and communication systems among the nonhuman primates in the wild. Why don't chimps have language-or do they? As a cultural anthropologist, how might you study the use of gestures, facial expressions, and signs and symbols as primate paralanguage? Also listen to the audio of African Primates at Home. How might you add the use of calls and signals to your study of primate communication?

12. Meet chimps who have been taught to communicate, such as Kanzi, Washo, and Koko, and read "ver batim" transcripts of their interactions. Also check out other links on primate communication at this rich University of New Hampshire site. Then read about Panbanisha. Can chimps generate original symbolic communications? What was Panbanisha's secret and how did she communicate it to humans?

13. Read a story on a 1999 panel discussion about language origins and the brain basis of language. How do linguists, archaeologists, neuropsychologists, geneticists, and other experts try to explain language origins by pooling their information? Then visit the Linguasphere Observatory and follow the links. What is meant by a linguasphere, and what is being observed there? What is a language, and how is it different from a dialect? How can kinship and marriage patterns be inferred from dialects and languages? How do linguistic taboos suggest rules for exogamy? Why do experts think there are fewer languages in the world today than existed during the Upper Paleolithic? Then read a 1999 news article, "Last Rites for Secret Women's Language." Why did rural women in a region of China develop their own secret written language ages ago, and why is it disappearing today? As a cultural anthropologist how might you interpret relationships between language and gender? Between language and development?

14. Read a biography of Noam Chomsky and a summary of his contributions to the study of language and communication. Chomsky also became an activist for social and political change. Read online excerpts from his 1988 book, Manufacturing Consent. According to Chomsky, what is the primary function of the mass media? Why must we be critical of this function?

15. View examples of Upper Paleolithic Venus figurines, and read interpretations of Venus figures as secular art and as sacred objects. What do the figures all have in common despite great geographic distribution? Then read LeRoy McDermot's paper in which he interprets Venus figures as women's self-representations. Are you persuaded by his arguments? Why or why not? How does this example suggest other issues in art and gender?

16. Read about the kuru epidemic among the Fore people of Papua, New Guinea. What is the culture of this epidemic from an anthropological perspective? Did the Fore eat human meat as food for calories? Why might an economic anthropologist be as interested in kuru as a medical anthropologist? How do kuru and cannibalism relate to mad cow disease and the dynamics of the transmission of diseases between animals and humans?

17. Ethologists study animal behavior to try to better understand human behavior. See how this is done at the Laboratory for the Study of Social Systems in New York. How do scientists use animal societies such as ants, crabs, and fish as models for determining basic principles of social organization?

18. Follow links at this Primate Behavior and Ecology site to learn more about social organization, leadership, and "politics" among chimpanzees and other primates. For example, read articles about Chimpanzee Cultures and Primate Social Behavior. How do social bonding, grooming, mating, cooperative hunting, food sharing, and other social behaviors relate to dominance and leadership?

19. According to the Centers for Disease Control Office of Genetics and Disease Prevention, what are the purposes of genetic testing and when is genetic testing indicated? What are some ethical and social policy issues involved in genetic testing? What Genetic Policy Resources are available for studying the relationship between genetic testing and social class and other socioeconomic factors?

20. Read this thought-provoking article by Jonathan Marks of Yale University on "Scientific and Folk Ideas about Heredity," which he wrote for the Human Genome Project. How does Marks make the point that kinship is more a cultural and symbolic identity than a biological one?