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Grown-ups and their effect on kids

Beth Kelley

This is an article about an anthropologist that contends American parents don’t need to spend as much one on one time as they do, and if anything it’s pretty weird: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/07/14/leave_those_kids_alone/?p1=MEWell_Pos4

My reaction to his hypothesis, and he actually acknowledges this with his Inuit exception, is that Americans are really isolated and we don’t have a lot of friends or other kids for our kids to play with, so they’re not going to get the same interaction that a kid growing up on the Serengeti might get with others. As a personal opinion, I do feel the whole “Baby Einstein” syndrome thing has gotten WAAAY out of hand.

The second one is about an anthropologist in Finland who is looking at genealogy and birth, death, and marriage records and is finding some really interesting stuff. For example: the girl in a set of mixed-gender twins will have less kids overall. http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleid=C0D3CD91-E7F2-99DF-3D5399013D3691D5&chanId=sa011

What’s nice is she acknowledges the combination of biology vs. culture, like with the farmland moms versus the “wilderness” moms. I would really like to see this kind of study done in other regions too.

psychology

rules and regulations

Beth Kelley

A psych study found that women actually have dominant roles in marriage relationships when it comes to anything involving the family unit or couple, including vacations: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19713567/
This of course flies in the face of a bunch of other studies, but as the article points out most other studies looked at how much money each couple made and used that as a main variable, whereas in this study they asked each couple who makes the decisions on what subjects and used that as their main criteria. I’d like to see this study repeated several times, but at the same time anecdotally it makes sense, or to quote a very amusing movie: “Yes, the man is the head of the house, but the woman is the neck. And the neck can turn the head anyway it wants.” (Bonus points to whoever recognizes that quote).

An interesting commentary on how race is perceived in Brazil and how goverment regulations there might actually be reverting the national mentality back to the way it was in the 1880s: http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2124080,00.html

language

We all talk good

Beth Kelley1 Comment

Okay, this took me forever to get to posting, but I still thought it was interesting. A collective study done showed that men and women actually use approximately the same amount of words:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/06/TALKING.TMP&tsp=1

Uncategorized

News about cities’ inhabitants

Beth Kelley

½ of humanity in will be living cities by next year: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19458575/

The famous female pharoah Hatshepsut’s mummy has been identified as officially her. It was found around the same time as King Tut, but nobody bothered to mess with her until now: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/06/27/egypt.mummy.ap/index.html

This is an article about how in the past five years Rome’s tourists have gotten more drunk and rowdy: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/26/world/europe/26rome.html?ref=world
I stayed in the neighborhood they highlight in the article, and as a young American tourist who lives in a college town and didn’t stay out past 12:30 a.m., I didn’t think it was that bad. As a resident I could see how having an apartment that looks over the campo de fiori would be annoying if you’re trying to get some sleep on a Saturday night, but my reaction was somewhat similar to the author’s: it’s technically a commercial area, so if you’re a resident there then yes, there’ll be some noise in the most popular squares. There is almost no noise on the side-streets or smaller squares. But the prude in me agrees that tourists shouldn’t be allowed to get away with rude, obnoxious behavior in someone else’s backyard.

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Women for war, Men for babies

Beth Kelley

They have now agreed to allow Nepalese women to join the Gurkha army, a reportedly fierce group of warrior-types: http://uk.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUKDEL14414220070626

I never understood the whole “well, they want to fight, but we won’t let them” thing. No women, no homosexuals, no flat-footed people. To sound completely callous, if someone wants to get themselves killed, let them in, train the crap out of them, give them a gun and let them have at it.

Basically a scientific rant about how men get physiologically ready to have kids too along with their partners: http://www.slate.com/id/2168389/fr/flyout

It’s funny because I knew about men having hormonal cycles just like women (just not as dramatically), and it’s been proven before that women at least are affected hormonally by smell and being in proximity to other women, so it makes sense that men would be affected the same way, especially when a woman is putting off the amount of hormones that one tends to do during pregnancy, but the author makes a good point that no one really seems to give it much credit. Anecdotally, though, I’ve seen the effects they mention in men I know who become dads.

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Altruistic chimps

Beth Kelley

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19416899/

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First born sons statistically smarter, with PC spin

Beth Kelley

A Norwegian study came out recently that found a trend that men who are first in birth-order, either by being born first or having older siblings die young, tend to be a few IQ points smarter than men born second or third. The study’s writers also mention a few similar studies done on women that find matching results. This is an interesting study to me on that fact alone.
What really interests me, though, is how this is being covered in the media. Some news outlets are so PC, they can’t even report it w/o feeling conflicted about reporting it because it shows biased towards something.

Time is fairly unapologetic about oldest boys being smarter.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1635910,00.html

The SF Chronicle spends two-thirds of the article trying to be PC about it and pointing out, anecdotally, about how it’s not always true, and reports it as “first-born kids,” which is technically less accurate.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/21/BAG3VQJCTU8.DTL

This is so amusing to me as a journalist and as an anthropologist the way media grabs onto things even slightly sensational make a big deal out of them, and then at the same time try to hedge their bets. Although with the SF Chronicle I think it’s more that they know their audience is so liberal that if they didn’t write it like that they’d get tons of hate mail.

Uncategorized

Khmer Rouge officers trial finally set to begin

Beth Kelley

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21901981-2703,00.html

About bloody time!

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culture halted and culture preserved

Beth Kelley

Comet over Canada killed Clovis? (ooh, alliteration): http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18789488/
Rafe has already debunked it.

I don’t know why I thought the Smithsonian would be immune to political pressure, especially when you’re just down the street from the White House…: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18789206/

Six states in India ban sex-ed because it might be offensive to Indian culture. According to the article, India has the highest amount per capita of HIV. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18723555/

THIS is what I would love to do as a living: help people preserve traditional culture like this woman is doing in her village http://www.slate.com/id/2161053/fr/flyout
Pull quote: “Traditions were always meant to serve the present,” she says. “We may not be fully nomadic, as we were in the past, but we still travel to visit family, or pay respects, or attend initiation ceremonies. Hunting is still hunting, even if our men use rifles and Land Cruisers. Our culture doesn’t teach us to hide from new things, and in many ways modern life is easier and less violent than our old ways. But that doesn’t mean the altyerre is any less important or sacred to us.”
The native Australians and Maori seem to be the most successful at preserving and maintaining, just on what little I’ve read. It’d be fun to figure out what they’re doing right and if it could be applied to U.S. (even if it’s just nicer politicians).

Uncategorized

Handling various tools

Beth Kelley

The Museum of Visual Materials opens in South Dakota: http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070524/ENT01/705240319/1005/ENT
Why this idea rocks: you can touch and play with stuff, and the building itself energy efficient (solar cells, uses roof runoff for irrigation, etc.)

An article discussing how “Women’s work” helped shape human social evolution (including farming, fishing): http://www.paramuspost.com/article.php/20070517211038765

Babies learn language WAY earlier than we first suspected: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18849824/