This via Mind Hacks – Seed Magazine have published a piece by Joe Kloc, in which he looks at the relationship between humans and life-like robots, with regard to the so-called ‘uncanny valley’ effect, described here at Wikipedia:
(Masahiro) Mori’s hypothesis states that as a robot is made more humanlike in its appearance and motion, the [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘Cultural Anthropology’
November 19, 2009
Into the Uncanny Valley – Seed Magazine
November 12, 2009
David Eagleman: Heaven, Hell and Synaesthesia
Following on from a recent post which linked to the Neuroanthropology website, I want to give brief mention to a neuroscientist by the name of David Eagleman, his research into synaesthesia and an excellent book he published earlier this year, ‘Sum – Forty Tales from the Afterlives’, a pocket-sized tome bristling with a glittering array [...]
November 11, 2009
Thinking through Claude Lévi-Strauss @ Neuroanthropology
Here’s a link to a post at Neuroanthropology which should really have been included in the recent and 79th edition of Four Stone Hearth, which was somehow overlooked by me at the time. The linked essay was constructed by Greg Downey, in which he considers amongst much else, traditional structuralism, its origins and cycle of [...]
November 6, 2009
Current Anthropology – New Edition, First 50 Years Issue
Current Anthropology, December 2009, Volume 50 number 6 is now out, which as will be apparent from the headline, marks no less than 50 years in the field, and there are a number of essays contained therein which reflect on the past, present and future of this publication. Here’s part of editor Mark Aldenderfer’s introduction [...]
November 3, 2009
Claude Lévi-Strauss Has Died
Claude Lévi-Strauss died two days ago. He was 100 years old.
I shouldn’t have to write about his impact to the field of anthropology, in summary it was profound. He authored many texts. He set forth structuralism, a mode of thought by which we can compare relationships between social systems. His contributions to studying cultures and [...]
October 30, 2009
A Cave Shut by Closed Minds? La Carihuela Neanderthals vs. the Junta
Back in August of this year, two words I frequently encountered when trying to visit sites of interest in Andalucía, southern Spain, were“Cerrado” (closed) and “No”, which as a tourist you take in your stride, leg it to the nearest hostelry and reconsider the rest of the day from the perspective of its slightly less [...]
October 29, 2009
Grandma Plays Favourites: X-Chromosome Relatedness and Sex-specific Childhood Mortality – Proceedings of the Royal Society B
As this paper is freely accessible for the next 7 days, I’m posting it here in the hope that as many readers as possible will have time to read it through. Molly Fox et al turn their thoughts to the question of why women are able to live for many years after they able to [...]
October 26, 2009
Evidence for food storage and predomestication granaries 11,000 years ago in the Jordan Valley
Science Daily report on a paper published back in June which I appear to have missed, and as it’s freely accessible at PNAS, I’m pleased to be able to link to it here. This is the abstract:
Food storage is a vital component in the economic and social package that comprises the Neolithic, contributing to plant [...]
October 25, 2009
Understanding Ancient Hominin Dispersals Using Artefactual Data: A Phylogeographic Analysis of Acheulean Handaxes – PLoS ONE
Interesting paper by Dr. Stephen Lycett, of the University of Kent, UK, from which the following extract is taken:
In recent years it has been increasingly recognized that the manufacture of artefacts such as handaxes results from the process of social transmission of knowledge between individuals and across generations [18]–[21]. It is also been increasingly recognized [...]
October 14, 2009
Cooperative Hunting and Meat Sharing 400–200 kya at Qesem Cave, Israel – PNAS
Brief details of research from Israel which has led authors Mary Stiner et al to ruminate upon the possibility that differing cut-marks from ancient kills may offer insights into how meat-sharing behaviours amongst archaic humans may have evolved through the various stages of the Palaeolithic.
Abstract:
Zooarchaeological research at Qesem Cave, Israel demonstrates that large-game hunting was [...]
