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Human Origins and Anthropology

Philippine_Exposition_at_World's_Fair_St._Louis_1904
Image: Advertisment created in 1904 for St. Louis World's Fair, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Maura: The Woman Whose Brain Was Stolen and Stored by the Smithsonian 

Maura was brought from the Philippines to the U.S. in 1904 to take part in one of the public displays of indigenous people at the St. Louis World’s Fair. Read More ›
(Ales_Hrdlicka)_SIA2009-4245
Photo: Aleš Hrdlička in 1930, via Wikimedia Commons.

Smithsonian’s Racist Brain Collection Exposed by Washington Post

These human specimens were collected in large part to dramatize how non-white peoples were supposedly lower on the evolutionary ladder than whites. Read More ›
curiosity
Photo credit: Jeremy Bishop via Unsplash.

Asking Questions Demonstrates Human Exceptionalism

This human trait of question-asking begins almost as soon as we learn to talk. Young children can confound their parents with their rapid-fire questions. Read More ›
hominin tibia
Photo: Hominin tibia KNM-ER 741, after Fig. 1 in Pobiner et al. 2023, fair use.

Fossil Friday: Another Prediction Vindicated

The virtual ink for my article had hardly dried when a story about a new discovery hit the news. Read More ›
Adam and Eve
Image: The Temptation and Fall of Eve (cropped), by William Blake, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

A Guide to Understanding Contemporary Models of Human Origins

Are there ways to reconcile the latest scientific evidence with traditional theological views? Read More ›
ravens
Photo: Common ravens, via Wikimedia Commons.

Our Ancestors Are Evolving, Just to Keep Up!

Negative biases about our forebears have long been part of science, education, and popular culture. Why? Read More ›
Ovid Banished from Rome
Image: Ovid Banished from Rome, by J. M. W. Turner, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Ovid in His Exile

Schermerhorn Hall at Columbia University was the scene of many strange experiments. Read More ›
Tower-of-Babel
Image: Tower of Babel, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, via Wikimedia Commons.

With Becket Cook, David Berlinski Discusses Speech as a Problem for Darwin, and More

Dog owners know that to look into your dog’s eyes is often to see that the dog has something he wishes to say but lacks the “machinery for externalization.” Read More ›
Homo rudolfensis
Photo credit: Gunnar Creutz, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Fossil Friday: Homo rudolfensis, Another Contentious Homo

Considering the checkered history of grandiose claims and controversies in paleoanthropology, some caution may be wise. Read More ›
OH_7_replica_03
Photo credit: Nachosan, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Fossil Friday: To Be or Not to Be Homo

The fossil hominin Homo habilis was described 1964 by Louis Leakey and his colleagues from the 1.9 million year old Olduvai Gorge locality in Tanzania. Read More ›

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