forensic-anthropology

The World Cup isn't just about soccer. It taps into ancient instincts for tribalism, status, leadership, and cooperation that have shaped human societies for millennia.

The long-held idea that rainforests held a minor role in our species' evolution is changing — and our ability to adapt to these tropical areas may give insight about 'what it means to be uniquely human.'

Migration and cultural exchange have always been the norm between coastal European and African nations. We should celebrate this shared history We are used to mapping the world by continents, dividing the globe into rigid geopolitical blocks. But to understand the complex reality behind each border, we are better off using a different, edible kind of cartography. For most of human existence, the …

Jacob Holland-Lulewicz, assistant professor of anthropology, and an interdisciplinary research team recently collaborated on an article published in the journal Science Advances that sought to better understand how ancient civilizations in the Americas, Europe and Asia developed more democratic- or autocratic-leaning practices.

The nation of more than 170 million people – and its diaspora – have long supported the South American giants When Shahidul Partha was growing up in Kulkandi, Bangladesh in the early 2000s, many of the villagers watched World Cup matches on his family’s property. Upwards of 80 people piled into his front yard to watch the action on a 14in black-and-white TV, run by battery and one of the only set…

Diaspora reporting has long connected struggles across borders. Our new editor asks: what can The Long Wave take from this? Don’t get The Long Wave delivered to your inbox? Sign up here A couple of months ago, I was offered my dream job, editing the newsletter that you’re reading now. I came in clear-eyed about how I would help steer it: I wanted us to continue taking up the mantle of a long and …

In 1994, a plane crash killed Rwanda’s president, Juvénal Habyarimana. Over the next 100 days, the Hutu majority killed around 800,000 Tutsi who were blamed for the president’s death. In the aftermath of this ghastly genocide, the country needed to figure out how to move forward. Concerned about renewed violence, the newly formed government created a justice and reconciliation process to ensure…

In one of the oldest cities in Lebanon, once besieged by Alexander the Great, ordinary people struggle to survive Israeli attacks.

Rolfes, J. D. (2026) Classifying Power: The Anthropocene, Scientific Authority, and the Politics of Geological Time. [Preprint]

Located on the banks of the Rogozna River in the Kursk Oblast of western Russia, Avdeevo is a premier open-air campsite belonging to the Kostenki-Avdeevo Culture , an eastern extension of the Upper Paleolithic Gravettian Industrial Complex dating to approximately 22,000 to 25,000 years ago . During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), this region was an unforgiving, wind-swept mammoth-steppe. Lacking …

Note: The user query references "Japan's Twin Neanderthal Fossils" regarding Amud Cave . This highlights a fascinating historical chapter where a pioneering Japanese scientific expedition traveled to the Upper Galilee of Israel in the 1960s to unearth the absolute giants of the Neanderthal fossil record. In July 1961, an elite Tokyo University archaeological expedition led by the legendary Japane…

Note: The user query references "Xebara Cave," a common typographic variant for Kebara Cave ($\text{\textit{Me'arat Kebbara}}$) on Mount Carmel, Israel. This site houses the definitive anatomical evidence regarding the long-debated question of Neanderthal linguistic and vocal capabilities. For over a century, linguists and evolutionary biologists asserted that even if Neanderthals possessed compl…

Nestled within the rugged Zagros Mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, Shanidar Cave is the emotional ground zero of Neanderthal behavioral research. Excavated by Ralph Solecki in the 1950s, the site recovered nine Neanderthal skeletons buried within deep layers of cave silt. It was Shanidar 4 , an adult male dating to roughly 60,000 years ago , that forever humanized the Neanderthals, challenging the de…

If Skhul Cave represents a fleeting evolutionary snapshot, Tabun Cave —located just a few hundred meters away—is a monumental, deep-time calendar of human prehistory. Excavated initially by Dorothy Garrod between 1929 and 1934, Tabun features one of the longest, most uninterrupted stratigraphic sequences in the entire world, preserving a 500,000-year record of shifting climates, changing human sp…

During the 1930s, excavations at Skhul Cave , situated on the slopes of Mount Carmel, Israel, unearthed a spectacular series of ten hominin skeletons dating to approximately 100,000 to 130,000 years ago . When physical anthropologists first analyzed these remains alongside those from neighboring caves, they were confronted with a baffling anatomical enigma. The Skhul fossils displayed a bizarre, …

In May, Doug Burgum, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, traveled to the tiny town of Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska, to announce a new policy: caribou hunters will soon be allowed to use all-terrain vehicles inside the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve. Under most circumstances this would piss me off—another misguided plan from […] The post Trump Meets an Indigenous Movement appeared first …

A new Simon Fraser University study has found men in ancient Europe likely had better access to protein-rich foods than women did.

The practice, which merges pre-Abrahamic African religion, Christianity, and indigenous Caribbean features, has been stigmatised in the region • Don’t get The Long Wave delivered to your inbox? Sign up here B abus , Fakis , Sangomas – these are a few of the names of spiritual or mystical healers and practitioners found all across the African continent. A version of the tradition they follow, obea…

_Perspectives in Sustainable Development Studies_ 1 (2):14-25. 2026Acknowledging that denudation of mangrove forest ecosystem had significant impact to the lives of artisan fisherfolks, thus this phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of the artisan fisherfolks in Barangay San Isidro, Babak District, Island Garden City of Samal. Phenomenological study was used to describe, elicit d…

This article explores the experiences of Filipino schoolteachers in Southern Thailand, focusing on their migration within the peripheries of Global South countries—a topic that remains underexplored in migration studies. Their mobility pathways diverge from those typically discussed in research on middling migration. As middling migrants, Filipino teachers enjoy better working conditions than wor…