Four Stone Hearth Volume 70

Welcome to the Four Stone Hearth Volume 70. We have a large issue today because I was worried about the number of submissions, so I went out on the internet and found some interesting posts. So let’s get started.

Cultural Anthropology

Alun has an interesting post on Speculations on the sex of the Moon. It starts with someone complaining about the Japanese crashing an orbiter into the moon because “…scientists will be penetrating a female moon without first asking her permission…” and ends up surveying a wide variety of myths concerning the sex of the moon.

Next up Adam Fish discusses A Media Anthropologist in a Commune. The post is, among other things, an interesting discussion of “virtual” and “real” communities.

Liz Oloft, a guest contributor at Somatosphere, has an interesting post called Prozac in the Closet. A lot of anthropologists are outsiders to the culture they study, Liz examines the role of those anthropologists who are insiders. How can they use the inside knowledge to illuminate the culture they study to outsiders? There is more to the post than that, but you will have to read it.

Neuroanthopology contributes a post on Community-Based Work and the Importance of Being Integrative – The Ganey Award and Video.

Neuroanthropology also contributes Public Anthropology and Encultured Brain Conference – Official Announcement and Submission Process.

Archaeology

Brian has an interesting post on Preserving History on Kiska Island a rather unique Aleutian Island.

Kris Hurst talks about Twitter and Archaeology – who knew it was possible to talk about archaeology while limiting oneself to characters. She also provides some useful resources.

David Gill discusses Antiquities, ancient coins and changing attitudes in North America – a timely post considering the events in Utah.

Brad Lepper talks about Front Yard Archaeology – normally dogs find bones but Brad’s dog found something different and equally interesting.

Metin Eren has an interesting post about the history of archaeology in A Photo of Miles Burkitt, Cambridge Archaeology Museum.

Magnus Reuterdahl provides with a post about a weekend out in Riseberga cloister and cloister church ruin and includes some wonderful pictures.

The Agricultural Biodiversity Blog needs your help. You can find out more in Pawnee Corn and More on the rescuing of Pawnee corn.

Dan Shoup has an abnormally interesting post on Archaeology, Science Fiction, and Pop Culture – highly recommended!

DigiPast has the funniest post I have seen on archaeology in a while. Marine archaeologists have enough problems trying to remember which way is up, they don’t need this kind of aggravation (Note to marine archaeologists: I kids ’cause I loves).

Physical Anthropology

Blair Bolles has a post on Motivation and Speech. The post looks at what we can learn about speech by looking at crows and rooks.

Terry Toohill has made his book Human Evolution On Trial available.

Hawks brings his usual insight into a discussion of Primate genomics: the Duffy (FY) gene, malaria, and baboons.

Anna’s Bones has a fascinating way of explaining that the The Link is Always Missing – highly recommended!

Raymond Ho brings us Rare Footage of The Elusive Red-Capped Mangabeys

Over at A Primate of Modern Aspect we have two posts. First, Knuckle-walking anteaters! which looks at a paper that compares the morphology of all the knuckle-walking species. Second, The big hole in your head looks at the foramen magnum.

Over at Gene Expression, Razib looks at The evolution of human intelligence. The post looks at a paper by Bailey and Geary that attributes brain size increases to increased social competition.

Tim Jones, over at Anthropology.Net looks at Neanderthals Dried Fresh Meat, Wore Tailored Clothing – Energy Study – based on a recent paper in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

AnneH looks at New Study Reveals Complex Origins of the Malagasy. The post looks at how morphology, language, and DNA are helping to unravel the complex origins of the Malagasy people of Madagascar.

Eric Johnson discusses Liberation Ecology, but you will have to read the post to find out what that means and how it relates to anthropology.

Digipast contributes another post, this time looking at Vatican Celebrates St. Paul By Vaporizing Him. Recently bones thought to be those of St. Paul were discovered, Digipast’s post tells what happened next. Suffice to say, it gives a new meaning to liberation theology.

Judith Weingarten asks Were Prehistoric European Cave Artists Female? and makes some good points in here answer.

Razib also looked at the new “Red Ape” paper in The Red Ape Returns & Willi Hennig Superstar!

I offer my take on the same paper in Schwartz, Molecules, and Morphology: There Can Be Only One.

Hawks, in the second funniest post in the carnival, asks Are orangutans our closest living relatives? .

Lynch offers his take in Orangs in the family tree – Grehan shows up to defend the article.

Finally, last but not least, my favorite post in this edition. Matt Celeskey has a fantastic post on Viktor Deak in today’s NY Times – be sure and follow the links in his post!

So, there you have it. Volume 71 will be hosted at Neuroanthropology on July 15th, so get to writing!