Neanderthal Tools Found in England

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10206677.stm

Neanderthals and Us

It has long been known that Neanderthals lived alongside early humans and that they exhibited some of the same cultural characteristics. However the reasons for the extinction of this hominid species is still a mystery. It has been suggested that Neanderthals and early humans interbred, and that perhaps they were even absorbed into the human population. An impressive new study now suggests that many modern humans share DNA with Neanderthals.

Editorial by Dr. Henry Louis Gates on the Slave Trade

The slave trade is one of the last subjects we cover in History 14. It was part of a "triangular" system of trade whereby manufactured goods from Europe were traded with West African kingdoms for slaves who were shipped to the New World to produce raw materials for European consumption. While we as Americans are often accustomed to thinking of slavery only in terms of our own unfortunate history in the United States, in reality North America was only a small part of a much bigger picture. Only a small fraction of slaves were every brought to North America, the vast majority were brought to plantations in the Caribbean. However slavery is still an open wound in our national consciousness in ways that differ greatly from other states involved with the slave trade.

One of the big contemporary issues in US race relations is slave reparations, the idea that the descendants of slaves should receive compensation for the suffering their ancestors endured. In this article by Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, we see that this controversial issue is more complex than simply giving payouts to African Americans. For one thing the class divide between Blacks and Whites in America is arguably derived more from the generations of institutionalized racism that came after Abolition. For another, it was not just white plantation owners who were complicit in this inhuman institution. As Dr. Gates argues, many powerful African kingdoms were direct participants in the slave trade, knowing full well that the conditions they sent their captives into were very different from their indigenous institutions of slavery. This article is an interesting object lesson on the interconnectedness of world civilizations.

Inca Skeletons from the Time of the Spaniards

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/inca-skeletons/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Human Culture and Evolution

Our class places great emphasis on the human capacity to adapt the natural world to suit our needs in ways that other animals are incapable of. Out of all the animal species out there, ours' can live in a broader range of environment than any other, mainly because of technological culture. One could argue that we have modified the environment we live in faster than we have physiologically evolved. However there is also evidence that we have also evolved to adapt to our culture. This article from the NYT is about the complex relationship between human physiology and culture.

South African Symbolic Art from 60k y/a

Symbolic thought is one of the key distinctions between animal and human intelligence. The artifacts from South Africa described in this BBC article are not the oldest examples of symbolic art found by archaeologists, and the meaning of the inscriptions on these ostrich shells is debatable. However they are older than most cave paintings and suggest the very ancient origins of the human psyche.

New Theory on King Tut's Death

The revolution in genetic science over the past few decades continues to contribute to our understanding of the past. New techniques of analysis suggest that King Tut may have died from malaria. Click here for the full NYT article.