Winston Churchill wrote, “the farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.” However, looking backwards is often obscured by time, form, or perspective. Nonetheless, if viewed through a reflective and measured lens, it is clear that like all life on Earth, humans are also a historical species, we carry the markers of… Continue reading Histories
Category: Anthropology
Charnel Grounds
The practice of interment and its associated rituals are features of human symbolism and practiced by most cultures. One unique burial ritual prevalent in ancient and medieval South Asia was the sky burial. These burial sites - termed charnel grounds - were typically found near large river banks or on mountain plateaus. At these sites,… Continue reading Charnel Grounds
The Present of Things Past
As stated in one of Zeno’s nine paradoxes, an arrow in flight is “somewhere” and “somewhere in transit”, implying the flow of time as a continuum. Thereafter, approximately a thousand years after Zeno, the theologian Augustine of Hippo attempted to categorize time by writing, “perhaps it would be exact to say: there are three times -… Continue reading The Present of Things Past
Culture Clash
William Faulkner wrote, “all human behavior is unpredictable, and considering man’s frailty...and the ramshackle universe he functions in, it’s all irrational.” Despite this claim, scientists from disciplines ranging from economics and mathematics to anthropology and psychology have laboriously attempted to uncover patterns within the morass. Game theory is one such approach that starts with the… Continue reading Culture Clash
Nature, red in tooth and claw
In Wealth of Nations first published in 1776, Adam Smith stated that “it is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them… Continue reading Nature, red in tooth and claw
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