Latest Thinking

Dental calculus, a calcified form of tooth plaque, can give detailed information about the diets, diseases and lifestyles of past humans. Christina Warinner discusses how she gains new knowledge about the way human beings used to live, what they ate, and how their microbiome has evolved. more

In popular culture as in traditional archaeology, the tropical forest has been assumed to represent an environment inhospitable to humans. In this video, Patrick Roberts challenges this view. more

One of the most disputed issues in historical-comparative linguistics is the origin of the Japanese language and the question of whether it is related to the Transeurasian languages. Martine Robbeets has already shown in past research that it is possible to find a small core of evidence that relates Japanese as a daughter language of Transeurasian. more

The notion of a powerful god is often said to play a significant role in supporting the transition from small relatively equal hunter and gatherer societies to big hierarchical societies. Russel Gray gets to the bottom of it. more

The ability to cooperate with each other has given humans one of the key advantages in the colonization of this planet. What about other species? Do they have cooperative abilities as well? Russel Gray and his fellow researchers have investigated this particular question observing keas, a New Zealand bird known for its playfulness and inquisitiveness. more

Human development is determined by biology and culture. Biologically seen, the history of evolution has brought us certain cognitive biases, whereas our cultural legacy is built through interactions with other people. Olivier Morin pursues research at the intersection of these two legacies and his particular area of interest is cultural transmission. more

Traditional theory holds that Homo sapiens’ first moved Out of Africa into Eurasia along coastal routes some 60,000 years ago. In this video, Michael Petraglia explodes this theory demonstrating that modern humans emerged from Africa much earlier and, at least some of the time, via inland routes. more

To find out how languages are related and form a family, linguists compare them by sifting through dictionaries, grammars or word lists. Recently, scholars have proposed automatic methods to compare languages more efficiently. Johann-Mattis List wants to know how well these automatic methods for language comparison really perform. more