Media & Culture – Sign Symbol

A sign system is representation through communication which in turn leads to a shared meaning or understanding. We hold mental representations that classify and organise the world (whether fact or fiction), people, objects and events into meaningful categories so that we can meaningfully comprehend the world. The media use sign systems through newspapers, magazines, television, internet, and the radio etc. The conceptual map of meaning and language are the... 

Anthropology – Israel

Teams of archaeologists were excavating in Israel when they came upon a cave. Written across the wall of the cave were the following symbols, in this order of appearance: A woman, a donkey, a shovel, a fish and a Star of David. They decided that this was a unique find and the writings were at least three thousand years old. They chopped out the piece of stone and had it brought to the museum, where archeologists from all over the world came to study the ancient... 

Anthropology – Earth Population

Our Earth has changed more dramatically in the 20th Century then in any other time period previous. During this time the health of our planet has also been both harmed and improved in dramatic ways. Two examples are that in this century, we have produced more air pollution then ever before, but our nature conservation efforts are working. Based on that type of logic, it is usually very easy for a scientist to tell if a particular change in our environment during... 

Book Reports – Pastoralism

Pastoralism is an economy based on herding. Pastoralists maintain herds of animals and use their products to support themselves directly and to exchange with other civilizations. It is especially associated with such terrain as steppes, rolling hills, grasslands, and the like-areas of low rainfall where cultivation is difficult without irrigation, but where grasses are plentiful enough to support herds of animals. Pastoralism was originally founded in the old... 

Anthropology – Pygmies

Pygmy groups are scattered throughout equatorial Africa, from Cameroon in the west to Zambia in the southeast. In Zaire, there are three main groups of Pygmies: the Tswa in the west, the Twa between Lake Kivu and Lake Tanganyika, and the Mbuti (also referred to as Bambuti or BaMbuti) of the Ituri Forest. According to Schebesta, the author of the earliest reliable reports, only the Mbuti are true Pygmies, i. e., under 150 cm. in height and relatively unmixed... 

Ruth Benedict & Margaret Mead

Ruth Benedict & Margaret Mead After high school, Ruth Benedict took a year off to travel overseas. Upon returning home she was unsure of what she wanted to do with her life. Years later, she married Stanley Benedict, a Biochemistry Professor at Cornell Medical School. In the fall of 1919, Ruth went back to school and began to focus more on anthropology. She studied under the famous diffusionist Franz Boas and became his assistant. Ruth taught Margaret Mead.... 

Neanderthal-Homo Sapiens Hybrid

Implications of Neanderthal-Homo Sapiens Hybrid from the Abrigo do Lagar Velho (Portugal) In a recent excavation at Abrigo do Lagar Velho in Portugal, Duarte et al (1999) unearthed what was later to be recognized as early human skeletal remains which pointed to interbreeding between Neanderthal and Modern Humans during the mid - upper Palaeolithic transition. The morphology of the remains, belonging to a child of approximately 3-4 years old, indicates a Neanderthal...