Today is, in Christian observance, Twelfth Night, the end of The 12 Days of Christmas in that song.(1) The Twelfth Night celebration ends Christmastide then tomorrow is Epiphany - the day when the Three Wise Men who saw the Star of Bethlehem during the birth of Jesus arrived after their journey.(2)In modern times, today is also Divorce Day. Couples who vowed to just 'get through the holidays'...
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A recent analysis of Neanderthal bones from the Troisième caverne of Goyet in Belgium, which has a whopping 101 skeletal remains, notes cannibalism was happening 45,000 years ago - women and children impacted most. The consumed Neanderthals were not from the local tribe and the presence of bones from numerous other animals means they were likely to have been brought into the community just for...
read moreThe next time someone tries to tell you ancient folk medicine was equivalent to modern science, remind them that people once consumed other humans as part of legal trade. Apothecaries sold powdered mummies, or at least what they claimed were powdered mummies, because of belief in medical cannibalism and that it cured everything from headaches to the plague.Take that, antibiotics, your job could...
read moreSamhain, All Hallows Evening. Hallowe'en, Halloween. The name has changed but the world’s fascination with a day of spooks and scares has never wavered. Except it has also always been about harvests and farming and food. It may seem odd to lump together food and ghosts but that is Halloween in a cultural nutshell; a confusing mash-up of cultures and beliefs. That is actually a good thing. It...
read moreA new paper argues that academic ecology is culturally corroded. 'Stay in your lane', 'do you want to die on that hill?' and other territorial and undermining behavior were reported by 44% of predominantly ecologists who responded to a survey. They say it was most common as graduate students, a third of the time by their own supervisor. Of those, 18 percent reported they had experienced it...
read moreIt is often joked that 'prostitution was the first profession' and, that it is not a profession aside, the sentiment may be true. Someone with a lot of food and the ability to prevent it being taken may have worked out a deal with someone who had no food but willingness to satisfy a different basic need. It would still mean food gathering was the first profession but that's not as funny.Lots of...
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