Hot on the heels of the claim of a 16 000 year old human presence at the Gault site (Williams et al 2018) last August, Waters et al (2018) are claiming stone tools dated at 15 500 years at the nearby Friedkin site. Both of these are part of the pre-Clovis Buttermilk Creek complex. As…
In a world of fast moving twitter feeds and ephemeral blogs, it is sometimes helpful to pause, look back, and take stock. Open Access week is a perfect time to do that. Like Toby A. Green, I wonder what is holding up efforts at a transition to more open scholarship. Sometimes, it feels like there…
Even the New York times has noticed that geneticists and anthropologists are having trouble dealing with the current genetically driven revival of classical race theory and the return of its evil offspring, scientific racism. Amy Harmon rightly takes scholars to task for failing to address “the recurring appropriation of the field’s research in the name…
I’ve written before about importance of seeking public engagement with pseudo-archaeology as an opportunity rather than a threat, and of building on people’s interest in the amazing claims of pseudo-archaeologists to foster critical thinking and public education. But how does that work in practice? Here are a few concrete examples from my years of practice.…
Last week, I described my recent adventures trying to figure out why my mother, of all people, was getting frequent emails from Academia.edu, asking her to upgrade to premium. I found that she did indeed have an Academia.edu profile, but that of course, she has never created one. She was even said to have been…
