https://bioculturalevolution.net/publications/2019-11-24T16:29:55+00:00weekly0.6https://bioculturalevolution.net/about-the-author/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/profile-pic-2014.jpgProfile Pic 2014Aaron Jonas Stutz2018-10-03T08:56:01+00:00weekly0.6https://bioculturalevolution.net/bioanthro-links/2018-10-02T07:25:17+00:00weekly0.6https://bioculturalevolution.net/2017/04/08/the-benefits-of-crowdfunding-science/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/mughr-el-hamamah-2010-002.jpgMughr el-Hamamah 2010 0022017-04-08T15:59:55+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2017/03/17/crowdfunding-fieldwork-on-the-early-upper-paleolithic/2017-03-17T14:56:32+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2017/03/14/how-did-paleolithic-hunter-gatherers-use-and-consume-plant-resources/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/good-h-g-eats.jpggood H-G eatshttps://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/mhm-hearths2.jpgMHM Hearths2017-03-15T17:07:21+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/the-human-niche-an-overview/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/human-niche-adaptation-coevolution3.jpghuman niche-adaptation coevolutionhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/niche-construction-adaptation-dynamics1.jpgniche-construction-adaptation dynamics2017-03-15T02:42:48+00:00weekly0.6https://bioculturalevolution.net/2015/06/27/read-all-about-it-oase-i-neandertal-admixture-article-published/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/fu-et-al-2015-somtable-5.jpgfu-et-al-2015-somtable-5https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/oase-1-family-tree-low-res.jpgOase 1 family tree-low res2016-11-06T20:09:14+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/biocultural-overview/2016-08-24T18:11:03+00:00weekly0.6https://bioculturalevolution.net/culture-an-overview/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/biocultural-life-history-key2.jpgbiocultural life history keyHuman life history strategies have co-evolved very closely with culture.2016-08-24T17:56:06+00:00weekly0.6https://bioculturalevolution.net/2014/09/23/stories-without-words/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/embodied-interface-man.jpgEmbodied interface manThe interface between the body and its surroundings is hardly fixed. Rather, it is dynamic, constantly under a kind of ecological negotiation. Our experience of this somatic-extrasomatic interface is rich material for constructing iconic embodied stories about how we figure out the world ... and our place in it. These stories then influence our ability to act and judge ...https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/past-present-future.jpgPast Present FutureThe continuous, real-time nature of experience, thought, and action structures and is structured by socially produced, systemic tangles of symbols and symbolic associations. As each of us is constantly involved in constructing our past and our memories, while also contributing socially to constructing our futures, the continuous symbolic process of social judgment and action can simply make it very hard to create time, space, institutions, and relationships to support reasoned judgment.2015-09-16T02:10:29+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2015/09/14/homo-naledi-handling-a-scientific-rorschach-test/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/dinaledi-chamber.jpgDinaledi chamberThe Dinaledi chamber has just begun to be excavated. Initial surveys reveal multiple, partially buried concentrations of human bone. These are shown as pink circles. By Dirks et al. (2015: Fig. 2), published under a CC-BY 4.0 international license.https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/dh1.jpgDinaledi Hominin 1 -- HolotypeLateral view of Dinaledi Hominin 1, the holotype individual for which the new species Homo naledi has been named (Berger et al., 2015).2015-09-16T00:32:22+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2015/06/12/the-protoaurignacian-didnt-trigger-anything/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/neandertal-speciation-models.jpgNeandertal speciation modelsPlausible alternative models of anatomically modern human-Neandertal turnover in western Eurasia. Illustration by Aaron Jonas Stutz, licensed under a CC-BY 4.0 International License. The population evolution models build from Hvala & Wood (2001).https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/protoaurignacian-in-context1.jpgProtoaurignacian in Contexthttps://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/protoaurignacian-in-context.jpgProtoaurignacian in Context2015-06-28T04:35:17+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2015/06/12/measuring-the-beginning-of-the-upper-paleolithic/2015-06-28T04:31:17+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/08/16/what-do-anthropologists-have-in-common/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/anthropological-intellectual-trends.jpganthropological intellectual trendshttps://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/anthropology-in-motion.jpgANTHROPOLOGY IN MOTIONhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/nilsson-stutz-zone.jpgNilsson Stutz zoneThe "Medawar Zone"--as dubbed by ecologist Craig Loehle (1990)--refers to the scientific sweet spot between theoretical and methodological difficulty (horizontal axis) and methodological yield, in terms of increasing knowledge, clarity of description, and power of explanation or prediction (y-axis). Because knowledge and insight require comprehensible theories and effective methods, intellectual progress--however measured, whether by quantity or complexity of phenomena explained or by level of mutual academic understanding of a difficult-to-grasp phenomenon--is often confounded by a tangle of theory and method too simple to address new or more complex phenomena.2015-06-27T20:57:14+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/07/25/race-and-violence-in-america-symbols-and-experience-of-power/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/sacred-threshold-as-marked.jpgsacred threshold as markedhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/bare-life.jpgbare lifeIf we are members of a dominant group--the everyday identity of which is unmarked in relation to a dominated, marked group--we all to often allow ourselves to be moved, swept up in mythologized or ritualized narratives of violent exclusion. Here, individuals from the symbolically marked identity group are defined as subject to violent control--outside the bounds of moral society--in order to define bounds within which the dominant group's moral life is not challenged or strained, is experienced simply as unmarked. The unmarked-marked relationship between social identity groups is central--in biocultural evolution--to the emergence of sociopolitically complex communities, in which sovereign power--as philosopher Giorgio Agamben (1998) has defined it--is successfully produced by creating a lacuna, a state or space of exception within the realm of the politically constituted AND cosmologically imagined universe, where violent exclusion strips some individuals to "bare life," in order to dramatically, ritually legitimize the wielding of sovereign power. Thus, violent exclusion--whether symbolically based on race, gender, ethnicity, generational difference, religious sectarianism, socioeconomic class, or some intersection of these relational aspects of identity--can mobilize an excess of power, backed up by excessive force, in an otherwise democratic society.2015-06-27T20:48:05+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/07/16/violence-life-and-death-on-the-zimmerman-acquittal/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/cdc-jumpsuits-pic.jpgCDC jumpsuits pic2015-06-27T20:36:39+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/07/13/violence-power-and-the-irrational-logic-of-symbols/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/violence-and-the-group.jpgviolence and the groupViolence is not just about interpersonal conflict and reputation management in small groups. It is also about being part of and being affected by dramatic narratives of the very sovereign power of the group or its leadership.https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/violence-and-power.jpgviolence and powerhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/ottoman_sultan_selim_iii_1789.jpgOttoman_Sultan_selim_III_1789https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/guantanamo.jpgguantanamoStructure violence, situated within American borders and without, may be surprisingly similar in form. Both contribute to a system of power that is hardly democratic.2015-06-27T20:34:20+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/07/04/what-evolves-in-evolution/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/dna-ecosystem-connection.jpgDNA ecosystem connectionPopulations of DNA shape phenotypic "vehicles" that are better or worse fit to their environments. Occasional random mutations in DNA replication produce variations among DNA strands in the vehicles (anatomical, physiological, biochemical, behavioral) that they build or influence. Those DNA strands producing better-fit vehicles will be more likely to survive and replicate. The long-term interesting result about life on Earth is that DNA populations shape complex environments, even as those cumulatively-forming environments structure which DNA variants subsequently survive and replicate. Due to random biochemical copying errors (a.k.a. mutation), DNA maintains a constant potential to change the environment, no matter how resilient an ecological balance has emerged in the environment, through food-web and habitat modifications. Thus, constantly DNA stands in a non-nested systemic hierarchical relationship to its environment.2015-06-27T20:28:06+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/06/25/the-biocultural-evolution-of-institutions-and-power/2015-06-27T20:24:00+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/06/07/the-human-niche/2015-06-27T20:18:52+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/06/01/what-is-culture/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/culture-and-family-formation.jpgculture and family formationCulture is a complex, symbolically structured life-history adaptation. The evolved extended juvenile stage in humans facilitates developing socially learned, symbolically based competence in social action and judgment. In the lengthy adult life-history stage, the cultural capacity for social competence and agency has been favored by natural selection, because only successful alliance-formation and cooperation among a network of adults allows for the intense material and caloric investment in dependent offspring with delayed maturation. Thus, the juvenile and adult cultural adaptations have co-evolved.2015-06-27T19:44:34+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/05/16/what-is-biocultural-evolution/2015-06-27T19:41:48+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/10/07/obamacare-moral-beliefs-and-anthropology/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/2000px-laffercurve-svg_.png2000px-LafferCurve.svgAn asymmetric Laffer Curve function: Trabrandt and Uhlig (2009) present theory and data to suggest that the tax rate for maximizing revenue without causing a decline in economic growth is surprisingly high. But the risk as you approach the optimum tax rate from the left (i.e. increase tax rates) is that you overshoot onto the slippery slope toward rapidly declining growth.https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/reaganstockman-1981.jpgreagan&stockman 1981David Stockman (seated to President Reagan's left) at a budget meeting in the Oval Office in 1981. Public domain photograph from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.2015-06-27T19:34:22+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/09/30/blinded-by-science/2015-06-27T19:31:26+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/08/25/excursions-from-the-everyday/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/mythologization-of-narrative.jpgmythologization of narrativehttps://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/dimensions-of-the-sacred.jpgDimensions of the SacredRitual, myth, play, and associated material environments and artifacts dynamically shape paths for intentional departures from everyday routine--the mundane and profane. Interaction among ritual, myth, play, and the material environment further define the sacred as the ultimate departure from the everyday. Return to the profane will tend to be accompanied by a sense of renewal, cleansing, or perhaps social change and agency.2015-06-27T19:29:49+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2015/06/08/learning-about-the-protoaurignacian/2015-06-09T16:19:43+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2015/05/27/why-none-of-us-are-very-neandertal/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/mhm-el-wad-point.jpgMHM el-wad pointel-Wad point from the Early Upper Paleolithic site of Mughr el-Hamamah, Jordan (Stutz et al., in press). Photograph by Aaron Jonas Stutz CC-BY 2015.2015-06-09T05:24:34+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2015/05/22/are-we-in-equilibrium-with-our-niche-are-we-in-equilibrium-with-the-wider-ecosystem/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/revised-blooms-taxonomy-inquiry-and-awarenes.jpgRevised Blooms Taxonomy - Inquiry and AwarenesBloom's revised taxonomy of learning processes and knowledge content and organization. Developed from David R. Krathwohl's (2002) "A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy." http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15430421tip4104_22015-05-24T12:42:05+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2015/01/26/what-makes-a-niche-in-nature-and-where-does-it-end-up/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/modern-human-ecotope.jpgmodern human ecotopeA multi-dimensional view of the contemporary hominin (that is, human) ecotope. In contrast to the local landscape constraints emphasized by Whittaker et al. (1973), this depiction emphasizes how the human niche is remarkably complex in terms of foodweb connections and impacts. AND it spans extensive time and geographic scales.2015-05-19T15:13:01+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2014/11/18/the-environmental-forms-of-religious-life/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/a-non-ag-no-moral-gods1.jpgA-Non-Ag no moral godshttps://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/d-ag-moral-gods.jpgD Ag Moral GodsFigures A-D summarize cross-cultural variation in: the economic basis of food acquisition or production; non-belief or belief in "moralizing high gods"; the relative ecological productivity of the territories that different human societies occupy; and the frequency of societies with different levels of hierarchical political organization. For each figure, the horizontal axis charts societies according to their level of centralized hierarchical political organization; the right-hand vertical axis plots on a logarithmic scale the counts of societies falling into those political hierarchy ranked categories (shown by green and red connected circles); and the left-hand axis shows Botero et al.'s comprehensive measure of environmental abundance, with the society's latitude controlled for by ordinary least squares regression. Societies whose territory's abundance falls into the light green portion of each figure actually occupy unusually rich environments for their latitude. And by the same token, societies whose environmental abundance falls in the pink portion of the figures actually occupy unusually poor habitats for their latitude. In general, Figures A & C emphasize that non-hierarchical or "petty chiefdom" hunter-gatherer, farming or mixed farming/herding societies who lack cultural beliefs or representations of moralizing high gods are the most common kinds of human society ... and all societies--regardless of sociopolitical centralization--that lack beliefs in moralizing high gods tend to occupy richer environments.https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/c-ag-non-moral-gods.jpgC ag non moral godshttps://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/non-ag-moral-gods.jpgnon ag moral godshttps://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/a-non-ag-no-moral-gods.jpgA-Non-Ag no moral gods2014-12-31T16:45:15+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2014/10/23/a-nobel-prize-for-understanding-perverse-incentives/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/oligopoly.jpgoligopoly2014-11-18T22:09:02+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/12/25/whos-a-freak/2014-11-12T16:17:55+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2014/11/08/were-baby-boomers-the-first-demographic-wave-of-electoral-malaise/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/baby-boomers-in-the-us-electorate1.jpgBaby Boomers in the US ElectorateNote the remarkable drop in registration rate (green dotted line, with two-year moving average) that occurs when the first annual cohorts of post-World War II baby boomers joins the US voting-age population (red dashed line).2014-11-08T13:48:18+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2014/11/06/why-dont-we-see-the-impact-of-voter-registration-drives/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/voting-age-decline-in-registration.jpgvoting-age decline in registrationAs the voting-age population has increased as a percentage of the total US population, the participation of eligible voters has actually declined. It is unlikely to be coincidence that as voter participation has declined, economic inequality has increased and stagnating economic opportunity has become the norm for lower-income adults has https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/voter-demographic-trends1.jpgvoter demographic trendsAs the United States total population ages, the percentage of voting-age citizens will grow at the expense of the percentage of minors. In this context, historical trends suggest that voter registration and turnout--as percentages of the voting-age population--are likely to remain flat. The electorate is not getting more inclusive.2014-11-07T12:17:52+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2014/10/30/neandertals-early-modern-humans-and-us/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/amh-neandertal-skulls.jpgamh-neandertal skullsLeft: the skull of the early anatomically modern human from Skhul Cave (individual V), located on Mt. Carmel, Israel, dating to ca. 100,000 BP (cast by Bone Clones). Right: cast of a composite reconstruction of a male European Neandertal skull. Photograph by Aaron Jonas Stutz CC-BY 2014. https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ust-ishim-in-biogeographic-context.jpgUst-Ishim in Biogeographic ContextThe Ust'-Ishim femur--and associated, reconstructed genome--in Eurasian and African biogeographic context. Ancient DNA research is revealing a greater complexity of population turnover dynamics than previously thought for the evolution of the genus Homo.https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ust-ishim-posterior-photo.jpgust-ishim posterior photoDNA from this ca. 45,000-year-old thigh bone is so well preserved that it has allowed researchers to reconstruct the entire genome of this ancient individual. Details of the genome confirm what the anatomy of this bone suggest. This is the oldest known anatomically modern human (AMH) to be positively associated with the critical AMH population expansion that unfolded ca. 50,000-40,000 years ago and led to the virtual extinction of Neandertals in Western Eurasia.https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ust-ishin-femur.jpgust ishin femurUst’-Ishim2014-11-01T21:28:06+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2014/10/06/a-nobel-prize-for-understanding-proprioception/https://bioculturalevolution.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/nobel-prize-in-medicine-2014.jpgnobel prize in medicine 20142014-10-08T01:28:14+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/googlee788faed349b41b5-html/2014-10-06T23:27:14+00:00weekly0.6https://bioculturalevolution.net/2014/03/14/fast-and-slow-near-and-far-in-between/2014-10-05T03:57:27+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2014/03/24/weve-seen-our-carrying-capacity-and-it-is-us/2014-10-05T03:51:32+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2014/07/17/actions-as-embodied-narratives/2014-10-05T01:58:46+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2014/03/10/culture-and-the-democratic-form-of-government/2014-03-10T18:32:49+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2014/01/13/anthropology-and-philosophy-iv/2014-01-13T21:27:31+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/12/12/anthropology-and-philosophy-iii/2013-12-12T17:34:40+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/12/12/getting-back-into-the-swing-of-things/2013-12-12T17:34:11+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/10/28/anthropology-and-philosophy-ii/2013-10-28T21:15:20+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/10/23/anthropology-and-philosophy-i/2013-10-23T20:56:58+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/10/13/everyone-wants-to-go-to-heaven/2013-10-13T21:12:14+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/10/11/the-debt-ceiling-debate-morality-and-the-economy/2013-10-12T03:38:12+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/10/09/the-human-economy-and-the-government-shutdown/2013-10-09T20:42:41+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/10/03/the-federal-government-shutdown-and-the-enlightenment/2013-10-03T04:40:32+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/09/13/what-is-college-for/2013-09-13T17:13:11+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/09/05/miley-cyrus-failed-ritual-clown/2013-09-05T04:58:33+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/08/30/then-and-now-on-obama-and-the-rhetoric-of-race/2013-08-31T03:27:49+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/08/23/what-does-ritual-have-to-do-with-myth-or-play-for-that-matter/2013-08-23T11:59:29+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/08/19/oh-the-drama/2013-08-20T03:59:39+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/08/07/culture-unites-not-just-divides-us/2013-08-08T00:27:02+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/08/03/disciplining-discourse-of-overwhelming-political-reaction/2013-08-03T21:17:27+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/07/26/marked-as-bare-life-or-cut-dead/2013-07-27T00:51:19+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/07/08/image-narrative-symbol-and-the-enigma-of-arrival/2013-07-08T06:23:38+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/07/04/do-plants-think/2013-07-04T20:47:55+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/06/25/a-thought-about-edward-snowden/2013-06-25T19:02:24+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/06/21/what-is-anthropology-good-for/2013-06-21T20:52:13+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/06/12/non-nested-hierarchy-and-the-human-niche/2013-06-12T15:18:13+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/06/08/more-on-the-origins-of-biocultural/2013-06-08T20:08:31+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.net/2013/06/08/welcome-and-a-brief-guide-to-the-overview-posts/2013-06-08T04:10:17+00:00monthlyhttps://bioculturalevolution.netdaily1.02019-11-24T16:29:55+00:00