Calling all contributors

AVRPI will be hosting the 99th edition of the Four Stone Hearth anthropology blog carnival tomorrow. Consider this a call for last-minute contributions: all branches of anthro are most welcome! Contact me if you have a post to submit or want to suggest interesting anthro posts you've seen around the web.

Hearth stones, four of them!

Greg Laden has the latest edition of the Four Stone Hearth anthro blog carnival up at his neck of the interwebs. Check it out, if you like your blogging anthropological in any way, shape, or form.

New Four Stone Hearth Up at Ad Hominin

That emptiness you feel in your soul? Time to fill it up with the latest in anthropology blogging - to do so, simply hop on over to Ad Hominin where Ciaran has artfully compiled a hearty buffet of tasty anthro tidbits from all subdisciplines and fro all over the web. The next 4SH will be at Greg Laden's Blog (March 31). Happy reading!

Four Stone Hearth 87 is live

Editon #87 ("Cabin Fever Edition"!) of the Four Stone Hearth anthropology blog carnival is up at Anthropology in Practice. Krystal did a bang-up job of it, so don't waste another instant and go check it out for the latest, freshest and neatest in anthro/archaeo blogging!

Four Stone Hearth #85: Cold Wind Edition

A cold wind's blowing into Denver, bringing with it clouds and the promise for snow in the morning... what better time to inch ever closer to the Four Stone Hearth to warm one's anthropological body and soul!

I mean, it probably won't get as cold as Stockholm during the Middle Ages (as described at Testimony of the Spade), or Sweden in the Bronze Age, no matter how sweet their hoards of metal goods, at least as described at Aardvarchaeology! And, hey, at least it's still further south than, say, Wyoming, where you can find very interesting patterns in the distribution of archaeological remains, courtesy of Matt at Neolithic Revolutions.

But still, I'm sure some bundling up will be in order and, of course, this will require appropriate clothing. So why not get yourself a good discussion of ancient pants, courtesy of Kris Hirst. Of course, pants alone won't do... you'll probably need some shoes as well and a post on prehistoric footwear (or reconstructions thereof) at Middle Savagery might be just what you need.

No matter how good your clothes, though you ultimately will need some kind of shelter. Maybe something like the Neanderthal structures at Abric Romani, as described earlier here at AVRPI? Or maybe something in a warmer clime, like the open-air Lower Paleolithic site of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, in Israel, as summarized by Tim at Anthropology.net? Of course, why live in a rockshelter or campsite when you could live in a Roman-age city, like Iruña-Veleia, where debate rages over the potential forgery of some inscriptions, as discussed in depth by Maju at Lehrensuge.

All this talk about authenticity and urban settings might prompt you to engage in some deeper reflections about the nature of the city and the human-built environment. If so, what better place to start than this reflection on balancing progress and history prompted by some of the art at Penn Station in New York, brought to you by Krystal at Anthropology in Practice? And while pondering this and other probing questions of anthropological import, consider Afarensis' thought-provoking post on the place of Melville Herskovits in the history of American anthropology and his work on the history and anthropology of African American. And speaking of introspective reflections on the development of anthropology as a discipline, definitely take the time to read Steve Chrisomalis' fantastic discussion of linguistic anthropology's place in a four-field discipline, and the state of that ideal today.

Well, that does it for today... while a cold wind's not always a bad thing (especially as channeled by BRMC!), it's nonetheless time to go warm myself up for real and say goodbye until next time at the Four Stone Hearth, which Magnus will have burning strong at Testimony of the Spade!

Looking for contributors

The upcoming Four Stone Hearth anthropology blog carnival will take place here, at A Very Remote Period Indeed on Wednesday February 27 2010. Fell free to get in touch with me if you would like to contribute any anthropology-themed posts for inclusion.

Gratuitous geladas and four stone hearths

Who likes 'em? A Primate of Modern Aspect, that's who! Do yourself a favor and check out the 85th installment of the Four Stone Hearth over at APMA's blog and show him some anthro love. There's a good amount of posts realting to non-human primates this time around, which is a nice change, too.

Oh, and keep in mind that the next FSH will be taking right here at A Very Remote Period Indeed, so please send me links to any posts you'd like to see included by January 26. Happy anthro reading!

Four Stone Hearth #76

The latest installment of the Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is burning strong over at Afarensis' neck of the web! Definitely check it out if you have an interest at all in things anthropological.

Four Stone Hearth: "A New Hope" Edition

Oh yes, you read that right... a new hope! Hot on the heels of last week's US presidential inauguration and in the spirit of embracing our best inner citizenship, we gather 'round the Four Stone Hearth tonight and peer intently towards an uncertain, hopeful future, waiting with bated breath at the boundless possibilities it might bring...

Speaking of the US presidential inauguration, you could do worse things than jump across the Atlantic and check out what the fine folks of the Moore Group have to say about Obama Archaeology. You read that right, but you may not read what you expect if you read the post!

And over at Aardvarchaeology, Martin offers some good thoughts about how the new administration's desire to restore science to its rightfully place can profitably be integrated in cultural heritage management policy.

Not all is good and well archaeologically in the land of Uncle Sam, however, as the UPenn Museum is apparently slashing and burning its archaeological research program! Want to hear more about this? Even better, want to try to make a difference? Then by all means, heck out what Alex at Anthrosite and Mike at Publishing Archaeology suggest you can do it about (I've signed!).

On the other hand, if you prefer being bummed out about how to best manage and understand our collective human past, make your way to Afarensis' somber assessment of what the Discovery Channel may be encouraging with some of its new programming.

But let's drop the long faces, shall we? Instead, why don't you take this as an opportunity to look back to cherished moments of our past, nice memories... like your 'first time.' Oh yeah, what an experience that was, no? The awkward fumbling as you try to figure out how to handle it and exactly what do to with it... you don't remember? Well, Metin at The Real Eolith certainly does.

Hey! Get your mind out of the gutter!! What the hell did you think I was talking about? Shameful, truly! But hey, if that kind of thinking floats your boat, you might just want to consult Greg's post at Neuroanthropology wherein he explores 'What these enigmatic women want.' And while you're there, why don't you take the time to explore that fine, fine blog some more. Don't know where to start? How about Daniel's post on 'Subjectivity and Addiction: Moving Beyond Just the Disease Model' where he discusses how how cultural models and causal thinking get in the way of understanding addiction.

Ah, but now, you've whetted you appetite and you want more blogs to keep you full of interesting anthropological tidbits? An easy way to satisfy your burning craving might be to mozy on over to Middle Savagery and see what Colleen has to suggest you check out.

After consuming that feast of technologically-mediated information, why don't you pause a second and ponder the relationship between language, media, culture and technology, with some help of my good friend Steve at Glossograhpia. Good stuff that.

What? That's too 'here and now' for you? You want more old stuff? How about some new reflections about the recent paper on the cranial morphology of Homo floresiensis, courtesy of Jordan over at On Being Unexceptional? Or Greg's post on the fantastic mystery of the Younger Dryas? What, you want older? Then how about Terry's reflections on the 'Out-of-Africa' model of modern human origins over at Remote Central? Older still? Seriously? Ok, ok, I got you covered... over at Babel's Dawn, Blair offers explores whether abstract thought predates Homo sapiens.

And that's it for this Four Stone Hearth. And after all of that is done, the embers of the hearth will burn and dim into the night, until the campfire goes out altogether... only to be lit again in two weeks' time when Colleen gets her anthro fire on and hosts the next FSH at Middle Savagery.

Call for submissions - Four Stone Hearth

In a few days' time, the blog carnival known as Four Stone Hearth will be hosted on this humble blog. I've already received some contributions, but if you write or have recently written anything having to do with the human conditions (past, present, physical, linguistic, or otherwise), feel free to send me a link so I can include it in the next installment of FSH. Between what I've already received and what I've dredged up from the anthropological underbelly of the interwebs, it should be a good one! But, you know, there's always room to make it better!

Four Stone Hearth #40 @ Remote Central

The new Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is up now, and you can get to it by clicking here! It's being hosted by Tim Jones at Remote Central, and if the anthro bug bites ya in the next two weeks, feel free to submit an entry by stopping by the FHS web page!

Four Stone Hearth, Vol. 38: The Early Bird Special Edition

It's that time again, when anthropologically-inclined bloggers congregate around the Four Stone Hearth to exchange digital perspectives about the stones they've been kicking around lately. It was a close competition between an "Early Bird Special" and a "Death of a Blogger" edition, but since I had the whole enchilada ready one day early, the EBS theme took home the cup. So, in the interest of being early birdy (and special!), let's proceed without further ado:

• At Archaeolog, invited poster Cornelius Holtorf tackles the thorny issue of whether archaeologists really want to be associated with characters such as Indiana Jones and Lara Croft in "Hero! Real archaeology and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"(and why doesn't anyone ever mention Sydney Fox in these debates!?). In related news, an April 1 post at by Thadd at Archaeoporn breaks the news that the new Indiana Jones movie will accurately depict the practice of archaeology... serious reading, that!
• Shifting the focus from what archaeologists do to what the people they study did, Archaezoo reviews a recent paper about Upper Paleolithic horse hunters at Le Solutré that suggests that horse remains accumulated at that site as the result of hunters ambushing large numbers of migrating equids. Alex Steenhuyse of Anthrosite Blog also talks about Paleolithic hunting, in this case focusing on research on shifts in reindeer body part representation at Grotte XVI across the Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition.
• In other 'humans killing critters' news, there has been a lot of blogging about the news that it appears that it was both climate and humans that jointly did the mammoths in. Various takes on the study are provided by Andrew Guerin at Artificial Habitat, Kambiz Kamrani at Anthropology.net, and Greg Laden at Greg Laden's Blog.
  
• For something completely different, check out what Jeff Medkeff the Blue Collar Scientist has to say about non-peer-reviewed claims that the Sumerians observed and accurately documented an asteroid impact event at Köfels, Austria. In other odd book news, you should most certainly have a look at what John Hawks has to say about a recent book by Lynch and Granger in which they talk at length about the "amazing" Boskops!
  
• Over at Remote Central, you can find some of Terry Toohill's thoughts on "Human Evolution on Trial - Evolution." Still at Remote Central, Tim Jones also presents a summary of new information about the ongoing excavations at Stonehenge.
  
• In other excavation news, Martin Rundkvist of Aardvarchaeology (and originator of the Four Stone Hearth carnival!) reports on the "big honking hoard" found in a humble Iron Age burial.
• At Shared Symbolic Storage, Michael Pleyer reviews some of the papers presented at the Evolang 08 conference, and talks about the importance of spatial cognition and genetic transmission in contemporary research on linguistic evolution.
  
• Paul Wren of Wanna Be An Anthropologist illustrates a contemporary case of people creating a material record of their discard behaviors as he looks for cultural universals. The one he proposes is that all humans litter.
• At Archaeoporn, Thadd Nelson explores claims that people make to link archaeology and the supernatural, based on recent work reviewing Neolithic well digging.
• Mike Smith of Publishing Archaeology provides some comments about a new open access general anthropology journal, in which authors pay to publish, as well as on sloppy editing in some edited volumes.
• Over at Testimony of the Spade, Magnus Reuterdahl offers some thoughts on the "an ear for an ear" judgment that has been served against a Finnish tourist for damaging one of the Easter Island statues.
• Martin Cagliani (Mundo Neandertal) and Kris Hirst (Archaeology Blog) shoot the... errr, well, discuss the discovery of 'human remains' (literally) on the coast of Washington State that predate the Clovis culture found later in North America.
• At The Ideophone, Mark Dingemanse discusses "Migration Stories" and presents some thoughts about current perceptions of recent transcribed oral accounts of the Cushite past of the Mawu people of present-day Ghana.
• And to conclude this installment of Four Stone Hearth, Daniel Lende of Neuroanthropology offers two related and thought-provoking posts on Human Biology and Models for Obesity and on Culture and Inequality in the Obesity Debate.

Thanks again to everybody who sent links! The next Four Stone Hearth will be held in 15 days' time at Hominin Dental Anthropology! Be sure to send Jason some links!

Call for contributions - Four Stone Hearth #38

Back from the meetings in Vancouver, so back to teaching, back to writing, and back to posting. If you haven't already, you should most definitely check out the 37th installment of the Four Stone Hearth (Pulp SciFi Edition!) at Hot Cup of Joe. If this kinda stuff gets your gollies going, you should also most definitely consider submitting one of your own posts to me (julienrs at hotmail dot com), so they can be included in the 38th installment which will be hosted by yours truly here at A Very Remote Period Indeed. I've already gotten a few submissions, but in blogging as in experiencing new foods, more is always better!

"What's the other thing that scares you"?

"Carnies." (bonus points to anyone who id's the reference here).

Anyhoo, the latest Four Stone Hearth anthropology blog carnival extravaganza is up at Greg Laden's Blog. Make sure you visit and comment abundantly on the latest in anthropological blogging!

Four Stone Hearth.... belatedly!

Well, I'm a bit late to the party, but you most definitely should check out the 29th Four Stone Hearth hosted by Tim at Remote Central.

Four Stone Hearth #28

Run - don't walk - over to Hot Cup of Joe to partake in the bountiful goodness of the latest installment of the Four Stone Hearth, including a link to a post by yours truly.