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POPSToes bones reveal a footwear fetish They compared the way the toe bones grew between bare footed, and shod people. Shoes produce a different walking style, where the foot is pushed off the big toe of people wearing shoes, rather than the middle toes of bare footed people. They also tested modern examples by comparing the toe bones of habitually barefooted Native American Pueblo Indians, with the shoe wearing Inuit, and found differences that supported their conclusion.
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POPSAncient Maya sacrificed boys not virgin girls "It was thought that the gods preferred small things and especially the rain god had four helpers that were represented as tiny people," said de Anda. "So the children were offered as a way to directly communicate with Chaac," he said Archeologists previously believed young female virgins were sacrificed because the remains, which span from around 850 AD until the Spanish colonization, were often found adorned with jade jewelry. It is difficult to determine the sex of skeletons before they are fully matured, said de Anda, but he believes cultural evidence from Mayan mythology would suggest the young victims were actually male
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POPSWhy Are Pygmies Short? Because of their short life expectancies, the researchers speculate that pygmies have had to shift their reproductive years forward. The average life expectancy at birth for different pygmy populations ranges from just 16 years to 24 years. Very few pygmy women reach the end of their reproductive period, as only a small percentage survive past age 40.
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POPSThe Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race An oldie but a goodie, not on clipmarks elsewhere (so far as my searches have shown). Written by Jared Diamond two decades back. Before being critical, read the entire article please. If you think the anthropology is somehow flawed, I suggest Anthropik's Thirty Theses ( http://anthropik.com/thirty ), which cover a lot of ground.
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POPSArchaeology and Beijing Olympic Construction "The fact that the eunuchs were wealthier and had finer belongings reflected in part their standing in the imperial court. 'It was also because they didn’t have any children,' Mr. Song said." Tell me about it
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POPSOlmec influenced ancient city discovered The ruins, which consist of the bases of six ceremonial temples and two small sculptures of jaguar-like men, were discovered when a neighboring brewery began building a parking lot.
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POPSThe Oil We Eat Tremendous thought piece on the inefficiency of our food production systems and the resulting ecological and societal costs. Author: Richard Manning
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