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POPSEuropeans Descended From Hunters, Not Farmers, Study Says The team investigated mitochondrial DNA"a permanent genetic marker passed from mothers to their offspring"recovered from the teeth and bones of 24 skeletons from 16 central European sites. These ancient humans all belonged to cultures that can be linked to the introduction of farming practices that began in present-day Israel, Jordan, and Syria around 12,000 years ago. The researchers identified which cultures the subjects belonged to by the decorations found on their pottery.
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POPSCULTURAL EVOLUTION We are finally starting to understand the patterns of culture change and the role of natural selection in shaping them. And since everything from weapons of mass destruction to global heating are the results of changes in human culture over time, acquiring a fundamental understanding of cultural evolution just might be the key to saving civilization from itself.
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POPSMythos Justifies Pathos So, this surreal story has turned into a media spectacle, but it strikes me as sad, since it is being used by everyone to fulfill different cultural metanarratives that all happen to intersect at a single point in space and time. The Koreans are using it to illustrate Filial Piety and the importance of loyalty to blood relations (a national mania). Americans (including Christians who adopt children to indoctrinate them) feel smugly superior because we saved him from the pitiful life led by all those non-Americans. He fulfills his narrative of finding a physical source for his being. However, the post-modern punchline is that the "Daddy" failed the DNA tests. The two aren't even related! All of these different metanarratives we created are just delusions that superficially satisfy our desire for the confirmation of our presumptions and prejudices! Mythos justifies Pathos.
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POPSBeloit College's Archiving Of Our Mindsets "Each August since 1998, as faculty prepare for the academic year, Beloit College in Wisconsin has released the Beloit College Mindset List. A creation of Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Public Affairs Director Ron Nief, it looks at the cultural touchstones that have shaped the lives of today’s first-year students." I only included 20 numbers from the 75 items of the year's mindset list. :) There is also an archive of mindset lists from previous years on the website. See if it covers your college freshman batch.
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POPSDNA test to clear up Confucius confusion Chinese claiming Confucius for an ancestor can now use a genetic test to prove a direct blood connection to the grandfather of Chinese social mores, a state newspaper said on Friday. How the scientists had obtained a sample of Confucius's DNA was not explained. :)
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