#anthropology

When the first fossils began to be found in eastern Africa, in the late 1950s, I thought, what a wonderful marriage this was, biology and anthropology. I was around 16 years old when I made this particular choice of academic pursuit. ↗

— Donald Johanson

#africa #anthropology #around #began #biology

Interviewer: Have you ever considered writing nonfiction? Mary Doria Russell: Oh, honey, I did! Let's see...There was "A Reconsideration of the Evidence for Cannibalism at the Krapina Neandertal Site." That was a big hit. And who could ever forget "Cutmarks on the Engis II Calvarium"? Then there was "Browridge Development as a Function of Bending Stress in the Supraorbital Region." I got tons of reprint requests for that one. Trust me fiction is better. ↗

— Mary Doria Russell

#humor #interviews #science #humor

The soul is a mystery. Scientists and Theologians constantly butt heads on the soul’s definitive and can’t come to grips with its purpose and actual existence. Yet, the basic framework taught in a High School physics class helps with an explanation of the latter - the existence of the soul. ↗

— H.D. Rennerfeldt

#science-vs-religion #souls #religion

At night the cries of cats making love or fighting, their caterwauling in the dark, told us that the world was pure emotion, flung back and forth among its creatures, the agony of the one-eyed Siamese no different from that of the Lisbon girls, and even the trees plunged in feeling. ↗

— Jeffrey Eugenides

#anticipation #virgin-suicides #love

Fate is What You are Born With; Free-Will is What You Do About It” - Drø the Finder – ↗

— H.D. Rennerfeldt

#inspirational #spirituality #inspirational

Anthropology is the most humanistic of the sciences and the most scientific of the humanities. ↗

— Alfred L. Kroeber

#humanistic #humanities #most #sciences #scientific

All the world is queer save thee and me, and even thou art a little queer ↗

— Robert Owen

#humor #people #philosophy #art

Understanding the physiological and neurological features of spiritual experiences should not be interpreted as an attempt to discredit their reality or explain them away. Rather, it demonstrates their physical existence as a fundamental, shared part of human nature. Spiritual experiences cannot be considered irrational, since we have seen that, given their physiological basis, experiencers' descriptions of them are perfectly rational... All human perceptions of material reality can ultimately be documented as chemical reactions in our neurobiology; all our sensations, thoughts, and memories are ultimately reducible to chemistry, yet we feel no need to deny the existence of the material world; it is not less real because our perceptions of it are biologically based... It is not rational to assume that the spiritual reality of core experiences is any less real than the more scientifically documentable material reality. ↗

— Sabina Magliocco

#anthropology-of-religion #neo-paganism #neuroscience #phenomonology #the-paranormal

Alle äußeren Feinde und Widerstände ermangelnd, eingesperrt in unterdrückende Enge und Ordnung, hat der Mensch schließlich keine andere Wahl, als sich selbst zu einem Abenteuer zu machen. ↗

— J.M. Coetzee

#freedom #freedom

If two people stare at each other for more than a few seconds, it means they are about to either make love or fight. Something similar might be said about human societies. If two nearby societies are in contact for any length of time, they will either trade or fight. The first is non-zero-sum social integration, and the second ultimately brings it. ↗

— Robert Wright

#human-condition #sociology #love