News by Subject Social & Behavior

UConn Assistant Professor of Anthropology Dimitris Xygalatas studies rituals and how they impact our health. In new research published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Xygalatas and collaborators from Masaryk University, Czech Republic, including former UConn student Martin Lang, examine the important roles rituals play in reducing our anxiety levels.

New from Leonardo da Vinci DNA Project collaborators: 1) A study led by the J. Craig Venter Institute of microbial settlers on old paintings and sculptures, charting a potential path for preserving, restoring, and confirming the geographic origin of some of humanity's greatest treasures. 2) Two studies by David S. Thaler, University of Basel, of Leonardo's keen visual acuity -- e.g. he could see more 'frames per second' than most people -- and how that was reflected in his observations and art.

Human cognition and cultural norms have changed the composition of human portraits, according to a new analysis of European paintings from the 15th to the 20th century.

The origins of human innovation have traditionally been sought in the grasslands and coasts of Africa or the temperate environments of Europe. More extreme environments, such as the tropical rainforests of Asia, have been largely overlooked, despite their deep history of human occupation. A new study provides the earliest evidence for bow-and-arrow use, and perhaps the making of clothes, outside of Africa ~48-45,000 years ago -in the tropics of Sri Lanka.

Carved from burnt bone, a miniature bird statuette is the oldest known Chinese work of art, according to an international team involving the CNRS. It was unearthed at Lingjing, a site in Henan Province, in an archaeological context dated to between 13,800 and 13,000 years ago. This discovery pushes back the origins of animal sculpture and representations in East Asia by more than 8,500 years.

According to a new an international team of researchers from the Caribbean, Europe and North America, the Caribbean was settled by several successive population dispersals that originated on the American mainland.