From fire-walking to meditation, and from graduation ceremonies to wine toasting, rituals are everywhere. But what purpose do they serve? Dimitris Xygalatas combines anthropology, science, and technology to answer this question.
Lecture
Jeffrey Schloss’s lecture “Beyond the ‘or Wars’?”
Don’t miss a talk by Jeffrey Schloss (Westmont College) that is part of James Barnett Lecture Series in Humanistic Anthropology. J. Schloss will present this upcoming Monday in Austin Building.
Adam Selingman’s lecture “Living with Difference”
Please join us on February 29, 2016 at 2:15 for a talk by Adam Seligman, Professor of Religion at Boston University entitled: “Living with Difference”. Adam’s talk is the second in the James Barnett Lecture Series in Humanistic Anthropology Religion and Public Discourse.
These talks are sponsored by the Public Discourse Project, UConn Humanities Institute and the James Barnett Lecture Series. For more information on the talk, please follow this link: http://humanities.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/785/2016/02/Seligman-poster.pdf
All lectures are open to the public and will be held at The Humanities Institute (UCHI), Austin Building, Room 301. For more information please contact Richard Sosis (richard.sosis@uconn.edu
UConn Archaeological Field School in Armenia Info Session
Join us on Friday, February 12 at 4pm to learn more about the UConn Archaeological Field School in Armenia Summer study abroad program!
12/6 Museum lecture: Ancient Human Evolution
Ancient Human Evolution During the Late Middle Pleistocene in Armenia
The Late Middle Pleistocene (130,000–425,000years ago) was a period of profound biological and behavioral change among ancient humans that witnessed the evolution of our species, Homo sapiens in Africa and our close cousins the Neanderthals in Eurasia. These biological changes were accompanied by important changes in stone tool technology, most notably the gradual replacement of large cutting tools and hand axes by tools produced by an innovative flaking method. During 2008 and 2009, Dr. Adler and his team excavated over 3,000 artifacts produced by both methods. These artifacts chart the earliest transition from the Lower Palaeolithic to the Middle Palaeolithic between 325,000–335,000 years ago. These results are significant because they support the idea that changes in human technology resulted from a common technological ancestry rather than the expansion from Africa of a particular human species armed with a new innovative technology.
The Connecticut State Museum of Natural History, part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at UConn, presents “Ancient Human Evolution During the Late Middle Pleistocene in Armenia,” a lecture by Dr. Daniel Adler, UConn Department of Anthropology. The lecture will be held at the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History on the UConn Storrs Campus, Sunday, December 6, at 1 pm.
This program is free and advanced registration is not required. For more information, contact: Natural History Museum at 860.486.4460