The Globe-Trotting Scholar Who Unlocked the Secrets of the Aztecs
Anthropologist Zelia Nuttall transformed the way we think of ancient Mesoamerica
By Merilee Grindle
Zelia Nuttall at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/35649
anthropology
Jane Goodall
An intellectual powerhouse and dedicated conservationist, Goodall showed generations of humans how to engage with—and take care of—the natural world.
By: The Editors
dear anthropologists:
when I stretch a word in spoken english, I stretch the last vowel sound, so "cute" becomes something like "cyuuut."
but when I *write* that word, I stretch the last *symbol*, so "cute" becomes "cuteee".
however, I make a special exception for the letter k. for instance, "steak" would become "steaaak", and not "steakkk". this is because the letters "kkk" are still associated in my memory with racist cultists.
hope this helps, thank you!
Scottish social anthropologist and folklorist James George Frazer died #OTD in 1941.
He is best known for his influential work "The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion," which explores the similarities among magical and religious beliefs across diverse cultures. Frazer proposed that human belief progressed through three stages: primitive magic, replaced by religion, and finally replaced by science.
Books by James George Frazer at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1241
Uncontacted Amazon tribe photographed in unusual sighting near logging area in Peru
NBC News reports: "More than 750 people strong, [the Mashco Piro people] are believed to be the world’s largest uncontacted tribe, having survived massacres and enslavement during the rubber boom of the 19th century."
American archaeologist and anthropologist Zelia Maria Magdalena Nuttall was born #OTD in 1857.
She discovered two forgotten manuscripts of pre-Columbian manuscripts in private collections, one of them being the Codex Zouche-Nuttall. She decoded the Aztec calendar stone and was one of the first to identify and recognise artefacts dating back to the pre-Aztec period.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelia_Nuttall
Books by Zelia Nuttal at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/35649
Edited 1y ago
The Discovery of Australopithecus Africanus by Raymond Dart That Changed History
"In 1924, Raymond Dart discovered the Taung Child in South Africa. The first fossil of Australopithecus africanus became one of the most important of the 20th century."
This week's #NewBooks at the library: Some more unusual acquisitions from 2025.
- I purchased the last copy of the definitive retrospective on the #palaeoart of Zdenek #Burian from Albatros Media. Volume 3 focuses on his artwork of prehistoric humans. All these books are written in Czech, but the artwork is just lavish, and I'm a sucker for period palaeoart.
- I found a second-hand copy of the reissue of #AlexanderVonHumboldt's Views of Nature, released by the University of Chicago Press.
- #Spookslot - 44 jaar te gast bij de geesten, a Dutch book I hunted down via a friend, which was released to commemorate the closure of one of the most beloved attractions, Het Spookslot (a haunted house), in De #Efteling, a well-known Dutch amusement park I used to go to quite often as a child. I know they have completely rebuilt it into a new ride now with nods to the classic panoramic show, but I haven't visited it yet.
#Books #Paleontology #Palaeontology #HumanEvolution #Anthropology #HistoryOfScience #ScienceHistory #HistSci #Scicomm #Bookstodon @bookstodon
We Didn’t All Evolve From One Population Of Early Humans, New Research Claims
"We've arrived at a place where we can begin to address some key questions about our shared ancestry and even emerge with new questions we haven't known to ask before."
https://allthatsinteresting.com/human-evolution-population-groups
Excavating a Language at the End of the World
How an old dictionary is revealing new perspectives on an Indigenous culture
BY KATARINA ZIMMER
Deep in the southern hemisphere, where frigid waves lap against the toe of the South American continent, the sea has no single name.
Anthropology at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/4343
Why Field Research Remains an Essential Part of Scientific Inquiry and Inclusion
Sarah Boon on the Trailblazing 19th-Century Women Who Fed Her Passion For the Natural World
Natural history - outdoor books at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/1572
We are wayfinders
Navigation and spatial awareness sustained humans for tens of thousands of years. Have we lost the trail in modern times?
By Michael Bond
Anthropology at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/4343
What Are You Reading?
I’m at the car dealership this morning for some maintenance. What are you reading? For me it is The Fall by Albert Camus. Here’s an early excerpt from the book: “Anyone who has considerably meditated on man, by profession or vocation, is led to feel nostalgia for the primates. They at least don’t have any ulterior motives.”
#WhatAreYouReading #Reading #Books #Literature #Camus #Primates #Anthropology