education… Famous Footprints: 49 years ago today, 3.6 million years ago (give or take) 20 Jul 2018 ... then, just ~3.6 million years later... Three and a half million years separate the individual who left these footprints in the sands of Africa from the one who left…
Culture Change… Far from normal… 9 May 2018 Just a quick reminder that what you've grown to think of as normal isn't at all normal... Randal Munroe gets me so well. Cars are not at all normal. Other things…
Culture Change Thanksgiving Thoughts 2017 22 Nov 201722 Nov 2017 Once again, it is the eve of Thanksgiving in the United States, and in keeping with my annual tradition, I'd like to remind you that Friday is Black Friday Buy Nothing Day (and also…
Culture Change This Year’s Thanksgiving Thoughts 23 Nov 2016 It is the eve of Thanksgiving in the United States, and in keeping with my annual tradition, I'd like to remind you that Friday is Black Friday Buy Nothing Day (and also to let…
climate… The Scale of Change Over Time 12 Sep 2016 (or "The difference between rust and fire") Randall Munroe has given us a great way to look at climate change over a somewhat-deep-time perspective. (Remember, I'm an anthropologist, so 20,000…
money culture The Myth of Bartering and the Realities of Sharing and Gift Economies 14 Jun 201615 Jun 2016 In their ethnographic research, anthropologists do not find barter economies among people who have never used money. Much more prevalent are gift economies: a complex and time-extended form of reciprocal altruism. Often there…
primates RIP Elwyn Simons 17 Mar 2016 Elwyn L. Simons was one of the leading figures of paleoprimatology, and founder of the Duke University Primate Center. His fossil discoveries included Aegyptopithecus. He worked on primate conservation, focusing on…
Culture Change… The woman who solved economic tragedy 2 Feb 20162 Feb 2016 Elinor Ostrom's on-the-ground research showed how actual people within real, living cultures overcome Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons" (more accurately, “The Tragedy of Unmanaged, Laissez-Faire, Common-Pool Resources with Easy Access…
education… Saving What Matters: Taking Sustainability Personally 20 Sep 201520 Sep 2015 I was asked to deliver a talk to the School of Arts, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University last week. As I was preparing, I recorded a rehearsal version…
education… Celebrate Life’s B(earth) Day 25 Feb! 24 Feb 2015 A little dash of perspective, from WHY CELEBRATING LIFE’S B(EARTH)DAY IS IMPORTANT TO BIOMIMICRY BY DAYNA BAUMEISTER We need perspective. And no where is this perspective more obvious than in…
