The fossil record of our ape ancestors in Africa is almost nonexistent for a period of about 8 or 9 million years.
Finding the Roots of Religion in Human Prehistory
In a world so profoundly transformed by science and technology, it seems reasonable to ask: Why do religions still exist?
Roman Oligarchs Avoided Tax Liability and Restrictions on Land Size
The oligarchic tradition of land-grabbing and tax dodging goes back centuries.
How Prehistoric Humans Discovered Fire Making
Of all the pivotal technologies discovered by humans, fire making was the one that gifted our species with power beyond all others.
Learning From History, if We Dare
By Gary M. Feinman The New Gilded Age, wars along the Russian border, a global pandemic, battles for women’s rights, even the Titanic: history does rhyme with the present. Yet as former New York Times columnist Bob Herbert once observed: “If history tells us anything, it’s that we never learn from history.” That’s something we can […]
Is Politics All in the Mind?
Political partisanship has a neurobiological basis, a new study shows. It is predicted by the way our brains process basic political words or concepts.
An Ancient Recipe for Social Success
New evidence and understandings about the structure of successful early societies across Asia, Africa, and the Western Hemisphere are sweeping away the popular assumption that early societies tended toward autocracy and despotism.
‘Public Trust’—A Key Legal Tool to Preserve Our Natural Resources
Law professor Mary Wood breaks down how people can protect their right to clean air, water, and land as well as fortify their climate change resiliency.