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Guess it's summertime boredom: lack of news or maybe just lack of interest on my side. But I really hate to leave the blog idle for so many days - while on the other hand I'd hate to post just for the sake of it, without real interest. This post is sort of a compromise because I have been reading some really interesting stuff around, and in some cases discussing it actively. Most has been appearing in the blogroll but not all and it's maybe worth a review anyhow.
Like almost always, Dienekes has remained very active, posting on different anthropological issues. The most controversial was (is) surely that on the sarcastic version of New Scientist on the open letter of several geneticists against abusive racialism in this field. Take a look at the many and sometimes maybe heated comments of this post because there is where the substance really is. I already posted on that but the discussion here was very limited.
Other interesting posts at Dienekes' blog deal with the genetics of Daghestan, of Cuba, of ancient Thracians (haplogroups unknown) and of Transylvanian Saxons.
Anthropolgy.net also comments on Caribbean DNA, and ponders if our understanding of biological and cultural evolution can converge somehow.
In relation with this last issue, there is the last and quite original anthropological blog I have discovered: Music000001. It is more of an e-book than a blog, so maybe it's best to begin by the oldest post rather than by the last one, as happens with most blogs. Its author, Victor, thinks he's found musical remains, survivals, that are directly rooted in the OOA migration and ulterior expansion. Even if I am not good at music myself, I admit that I am partly persuaded by his research, though we could not agree on the mechanism underlying the process. It is a very interesting read in any case.
Tim, at Remote Central, comments on the Neolithic green beads found in Palestine and their possible symbolism.
Further back in time, the excellent blog Mundo Neanderthal deals in Spanish with the possibility that aridity and changing climate may have caused or at least helped with the extinction of Neanderthals, nevertheless he also announces that Neanderthal tools have been found in Asturias (northern Spain) and dated as late as 29,000 BP. Martín also reviews the last campaign at the famous site of Atapuerca, with many findings, among which are specially relevant the remains of two Homo antecessor.
In the realm of modern anthropology (or is it biochemistry?), Psychedelic Research shows that magic mushrooms (Psylocibe sp.) are the best trip, beating all competitors, including LSD, in the fields of sacredness, intuitive knowledge, trascendence of time and space, deeply felt positive mood and ineffability. The tiny mushrooms (or more precisely their active component, psylocibine) get at least a 7 in all categories.
4 comments:
This post is a little like the four stone hearth ones done every fortnight. I'm pretty sure Tim Jones at remotecentral is organising them at the moment. Maybe get in touch with him as I'm sure he'd appreciate your doing one. I look forward to seeing the results if you should take up the idea.
Is just that I felt the need of writing something and had no ideas of my own.
It may resemble FSH but it's something some blogs do now and then, guess when they are feeling dry too.
I'm not sufficiently into anthropology blogging as to organizeone of those, nor I am too convinced it serves any particular purpose, much less with its current bi-weekly frequency. I'm glad to help Tim (and he knows) with it but I'm not getting involved in that by the moment.
Nice set of links Maju, and the previous post about Irun was good too. Don't worry about 4SH, or even writing anything specific - it's often the case that articles get selected rather than sent in.
Terry wants me, it seems, to organize one. But we have already talked about that, right?
This is not an anthropology blog in any case (just for the record).
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