This paper discusses two types of knowledge that are generated by cultural anthropology, narrative knowledge and scientific knowledge. The argument of this article is that narrative knowledge an older form of knowledge that dates to the time when the brain was evolving its capacity for cultural communication, and that scientific knowledge is more recent and depends on writing and other more ela...

Evolutionary developmental theories in biology see the processes and organization of organisms as crucial for understanding the dynamic behavior of organic evolution. Darwinian forces are seen as necessary but not sufficient for explaining observed evolutionary patterns. We here propose that the same arguments apply with even greater force to culture vis-à-vis cultural evolution. In order not t...

T HIS iS .A very interesting book. It is divided into two main sections one on the tubercle bacillus and one on laborator-y methods. The section on the tubercle bacillus gives a most interesting and comprehensive survey of the great amount of wvork that has been done on the characteristics of the organism-its mo)rphology, the cultural characteristics of its various types, its pathogenicity for ...

Evolutionary thinking can be applied to both cultural microevolution and macroevolution. However, much of the current literature focuses on cultural microevolution. In this article, we argue that the growing availability of large cross-cultural datasets facilitates the use of computational methods derived from evolutionary biology to answer broad-scale questions about the major transitions in h...

A key feature of the Regional Training Centres (RTCs) is the scope and nature of their engagement with decision-makers. While the RTCs may believe that they have an excellent association with decision-makers, is that belief shared? The authors of this paper draw on the results of a survey of decision-makers undertaken by the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF) as part of the pr...

BACKGROUND Few studies have addressed the challenges associated with international students as they adapt to studying medicine in a new host country. Higher level institutions have increasing numbers of international students commencing programmes. This paper explores the experiences of a cohort of students in the early years of medical school in Ireland, where a considerable cohort are from an...

Archaeological and ethnohistorical evidence suggests a link between a population's size and structure, and the diversity or sophistication of its toolkits or technologies. Addressing these patterns, several evolutionary models predict that both the size and social interconnectedness of populations can contribute to the complexity of its cultural repertoire. Some models also predict that a sudde...

The aim of this speculative paper, rooted in a variety of concepts derived from social anthropology, theology, and the history of religion, is to develop the broad notion of spirituality in terms of what might be called cultural wisdom. This I do alongside a discussion of the human proclivity for meaning-making understood as a process expressed in numerous religious traditions as 'salvation'. T...

Every individual has behaviours, beliefs, and values which are different from the behaviours, beliefs, and values of other individuals. However, if individuals interact with each other there will be a tendency for their behaviours, beliefs, and values to become more similar because of imitation, teaching, and social learning. A group of individuals interacting with each other will tend to have ...

Significant new information shows that the Campanian Ignimbrite (CI) eruption from the Phlegrean Fields, southern Italy, was much larger than hitherto supposed and in fact one of the largest late Quaternary explosive events. The eruption can be dated to 40,000 calendar years ago, within the interval of the so-called Middle to Upper Paleolithic 'transition'. Its position can be precisely correla...