Anthropologist News and Research

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World Bank selects U.S. nominee Jim Kim as president

"The World Bank on Monday chose Korean-born American health expert Jim Yong Kim as its new president, maintaining Washington's grip on the job and leaving developing countries frustrated with the selection process," Reuters reports (Wroughton, 4/16).

18 Apr 2012

Significant skull variation between groups in close proximity

In order to accurately identify skulls as male or female, forensic anthropologists need to have a good understanding of how the characteristics of male and female skulls differ between populations. A new study from North Carolina State University shows that these differences can be significant, even between populations that are geographically close to one another.

16 Apr 2012

Anthropologists discover lower testosterone levels in Tsimane men

As part of an isolated indigenous group in central Bolivia, Tsimane men spend much of their time hunting, foraging, fishing, and clearing land by hand to grow crops. Their ability to maintain the physical activity required to survive each day might imply they have higher than average male testosterone levels.

29 Mar 2012

World Bank presidential nominee Kim begins 7-country 'listening tour' to promote candidacy

The White House nominee for president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, on Tuesday begins a seven-country "listening tour" in order "to promote his candidacy with stops in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the Treasury Department announced Monday," Bloomberg Businessweek reports.

28 Mar 2012

Placentophagia may offer benefits to human mothers

A paper by neuroscientists at the University at Buffalo and Buffalo State College suggests that ingestion of components of afterbirth or placenta -- placentophagia -- may offer benefits to human mothers and perhaps to non-mothers and males.

28 Mar 2012

White House nominates global health expert Jim Yong Kim to head World Bank

"The White House on Friday named Jim Yong Kim, the president of Dartmouth College and a global health expert, as its nominee to lead the World Bank" beginning "on June 30, when its current president, Robert B. Zoellick, will step down at the end of his five-year term," the New York Times reports.

27 Mar 2012

NIH OBSSR creates Web-based interactive anthology

A Web-based interactive anthology will provide psychologists, economists, anthropologists, sociologists and other scientists with the latest research methods and tools to address emerging challenges in public health, such as the obesity epidemic and the rise of chronic diseases such as heart disease.

26 Mar 2012

Study describes horrific experiences of poor organ trafficking victims

A Michigan State University anthropologist who spent more than a year infiltrating the black market for human kidneys has published the first in-depth study describing the often horrific experiences of poor people who were victims of organ trafficking.

13 Mar 2012

NTU's Complexity Programme aims to establish Singapore as Asian hub

Asia will receive a boost in the field of complexity science through a dedicated programme by Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

28 Feb 2012

MSU students analyze bones for clues into Nubians' diets, health histories and lifestyles

In a narrow, modest laboratory in Michigan State University's Giltner Hall, students pore over African skeletons from the Middle Ages in an effort to make the bones speak. Little is known about these Nubians, meaning the information collected by graduate and undergraduate students in MSU's Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Program will help shed light on this unexplored culture.

24 Feb 2012

Study explores global rise of monogamous marriage as a dominant cultural institution

In cultures that permit men to take multiple wives, the intra-sexual competition that occurs causes greater levels of crime, violence, poverty and gender inequality than in societies that institutionalize and practice monogamous marriage.

23 Jan 2012

Decision-making over 'sacred values' prompts a distinct cognitive process

An Emory University neuro-imaging study shows that personal values that people refuse to disavow, even when offered cash to do so, are processed differently in the brain than those values that are willingly sold.

23 Jan 2012

First genome-wide study of high-altitude adaptations in Ethiopians

Over many generations, people living in the high-altitude regions of the Andes or on the Tibetan Plateau have adapted to life in low-oxygen conditions. Living with such a distinct and powerful selective pressure has made these populations a textbook example of evolution in action, but exactly how their genes convey a survival advantage remains an open question. Now, a University of Pennsylvania team has made new inroads to answering this question with the first genome-wide study of high-altitude adaptations within the third major population to possess them: the Amhara people of the Ethiopian Highlands.

21 Jan 2012

Columbus’s crew may have brought back syphilis: Study

New research shows that syphilis – a sexually transmitted disease was carried to Europe aboard Christopher Columbus' ships as they sailed home from the New World. The disease was not spread through sexual contact at the time, but adapted to survive once it got to Europe, Emory University researchers say.

1 Jan 2012

Faulty lipid metabolism may cause MS, says forensic anthropologist

An article to be published in the December 2011 issue of The Quarterly Review of Biology argues that multiple sclerosis, long viewed as primarily an autoimmune disease, is not actually a disease of the immune system.

23 Dec 2011

More evidence emerges to support that progenitor of syphilis came from the New World

Skeletons don't lie. But sometimes they may mislead, as in the case of bones that reputedly showed evidence of syphilis in Europe and other parts of the Old World before Christopher Columbus made his historic voyage in 1492.

21 Dec 2011

NC researchers proposes health-based approach to identify groups at high risk of genocide

Researchers from North Carolina State University are proposing a health-based approach to identifying groups at high risk of genocide, in a first-of-its-kind attempt to target international efforts to stop these mass killings before they start.

20 Sep 2011

Eleven UvA researchers named as recipients of ERC Starting Grants

Eleven researchers from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) have been named as recipients of Starting Independent Researcher Grants from the European Research Council.

31 Aug 2011

Black Death bacteria may be extinct - Study

The bacteria that caused the Black Death or plague, which wiped out millions in mid-14th century Europe, may be extinct, according to a new study. The Black Death claimed the lives of one-third of Europeans in just five years from 1348 to 1353. Until recently, it was not certain whether the bacterium Yersinia pestis - known to cause the plague today - was responsible for that most deadly outbreak of disease ever. Now, the University of Tübingen's Institute of Scientific Archaeology and McMaster University in Canada have been able to confirm that Yersinia pestis was behind the great plague.

30 Aug 2011

New research shows unique nature of human brain aging

Brains shrink in humans, potentially causing a number of health problems and mental illnesses as people age, but do they shrink to the same extent in the closest living relatives to humans--the chimpanzees? New research says no, making the extreme amount of brain shrinkage resulting from normal aging in humans unique.

28 Jul 2011