Comments for Anthropology.net

Comment on More on Vajda’s Siberian-Na-Dene Language Link by Introducing a new guest blogger, German Dziebel, author of “The Genius of Kinship” « Anthropology.net

Sun, 11 May 2008 19:12:43 +0000

[...] new model of human origins and dispersals. As you may know, we have had many recent discussions on linguistic and genetic evidence behind the peopling of the Americas, so to read someone has a different take [...]

Comment on Hominin Database by Dil Kader

Dil Kader — Sun, 11 May 2008 09:15:21 +0000

Dear all

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Comment on According to Yoel Rak, Neandertals were ‘big mouth Bass’ variants of humans by A cladistic analysis of 17 hominid skulls « Anthropology.net

A cladistic analysis of 17 hominid skulls « Anthropology.net — Sun, 11 May 2008 08:13:11 +0000

[...] According to Yoel Rak, Neandertals were ‘big mouth Bass’ variants of humans Four Stone Hearth 40 @ [...]

Comment on A cladistic analysis of 17 hominid skulls by CapnDad

CapnDad — Sun, 11 May 2008 01:59:02 +0000

I enjoyed reading your article. While I am not an academic, I have thought for some time that some people focused too narrowly on particular aspects of the specimens. An approach that considers the totality of the specimen and its context must provide a clearer picture of its relationship to the rest of the genus.

Comment on Earliest known archaeological evidence of Americans found in Monte Verde, Chile by Native American archaeologist

Native American archaeologist — Sat, 10 May 2008 12:47:57 +0000

This was already reported in the original publications of Dillehay as a possible occupation layer below the 12,000 ybp Monte Verde layer. I guess this lower layer has finally been “confirmed.”

Comment on The sexiness of facial symmetry across cultures and species by agnostic

agnostic — Sat, 10 May 2008 08:48:26 +0000

Nature could not select for more symmetrical features because the type of symmetry discussed here — small deviations from perfect symmetry — is not heritable at all. Selection probably wants to increase the frequency of this phenotype, but there is just no genetic variance in the gas tank.

The must-read edited volume on this topic is Polak, *Developmental Instability*:

Lots of good discussion on the heritability across all species studied (lots in the case of asymmetry). The 95% confidence interval of heritability always includes 0, and the mean is typically under 1%.

Comment on The sexiness of facial symmetry across cultures and species by Victor

Victor — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:37:37 +0000

Well, I can’t imagine a face more symmetrical than my own. So maybe I need to get “out there” more, head for the nearest dating bar, waddya say?
(Actually, that would explain . . . ahhh forget it.)

Anyhow, thanks Kambiz for filling me in on the extent of these studies. I stand corrected. It’s just that there is so much research out there based exclusively on western norms that pretends to represent “humanity” as a whole. It’s good to learn that there’ve been SOME efforts, at least, to broaden the base.

Comment on The sexiness of facial symmetry across cultures and species by Kambiz Kamrani

Kambiz Kamrani — Fri, 09 May 2008 05:14:19 +0000

Hey Victor,

Thanks for your comment. I spoke with Razib, one of the main bloggers at Gene Expression, and someone more well read in this research — he’s indicated that there have been other studies done with different ethnicities with similar results, such as the Papuans in the South Pacific and Ache Indians in Brazil. I haven’t bothered to do literature search to validate, but I trust what he’s saying.

Basically, it seems pretty ubiquitous that people — regardless of their ethnicity, can pick out the hotties and they are most often ones with symmetrical faces.

Kambiz

Comment on Earliest known archaeological evidence of Americans found in Monte Verde, Chile by Kambiz Kamrani

Kambiz Kamrani — Fri, 09 May 2008 05:01:17 +0000

Haha, Razib. I fixed the typo… it shoulda been 1997.

Comment on Earliest known archaeological evidence of Americans found in Monte Verde, Chile by afarensis

afarensis — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:22:29 +0000

Razib and Behave=nonsynonymous substitutions.

Kambiz, if you have a copy of that article I would love a copy.