• Anthropologists offer insights into the Uzbek situation
“There is no way but to bring them back,” says Sergei Abashin, senior researcher at the RAN (Russian Academy of Sciences) Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology in Moscow, referring to the refugees who recently fled to Uzbekistan. He told BBC that the Kyrgyz state has been either unwilling or unable to stop the conflict and that the world powers have also shown irresponsibility. Vladimir Zorn, deputy director of the Institute, points to economics and history as being underlying causes of the recent violence.

• Afghanistan: land of hope and sorrow
Marc Edelman, professor of cultural anthropology at City University of New York, points out in a letter to the New York Times, that recently published reports of huge mineral wealth in Afghanistan are not likely to bring prosperity to the country as a whole. Rather, as in similar contexts, wealth under the ground will probably bring more conflict on the ground.

• Sebastian Junger’s anthropological zeal
A review in the New Zealand Herald of Sebastian Junger’s latest book, War, which is based on 14 months in Afghanistan, says that Junger “…explores the nature of sexual deprivation, courage, boredom and the sheer excitement of war with an almost anthropological zeal.” What in the world is “anthropological zeal”? The next line says, “His meticulous, pared down prose is deliberately unemotional.” This blogger is a bit confused. Let it be noted for the record, however: Junger earned a BA in cultural anthropology from Wesleyan University in 1984. Whether or not that degree is responsible for his reputed anthropological zeal and/or his unemotional prose, who knows.

• Suckers for babies
The lead article in the New York Times science section on paternal behavior among nonhuman primates quotes Sarah Hrdy, biological anthropologist and professor emerita in the Anthropology Department of the University of California at Davis: “Lots of primates are suckers for babies.”

• A good gringo
Fluent in the Cofan language, Randy Borman, son of American missionaries, has helped the Cofan Indians acquire substantial territory in northern Ecuador. Michael Cepek, cultural anthropologist at the University of Texas at San Antonio comments about the Cofan in the Washington Post: “In the 1980s, some people thought they’ll disappear. They were small, monolingual; they didn’t have a strong political structure…Lo and behold, 20 years later, they are not just surviving, they are thriving.”

• The not-so-Human Terrain System
The Huffington Post quotes Hugh Gusterson in a piece on the Human Terrain System:  Gusterson says that the HTS is marketed as a way to build a more secure world, in fact it does the opposite in terms of supporting a “brutal war of occupation.”

• Not just any dame
Biological anthropologist and specialist in lemurs, Alison Richard was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on Saturday during Queen Elizabeth II’s 2010 Birthday Honours. Congratulations, Dame Richard.

• Let’s go: gladiator cemetery
Category: best preserved gladiator cemetery. Current winner: York, England, with more than 80 Roman warriors in a just-discovered cemetery.  Fascinating details include a “high incidence of substantial arm asymmetry” in the skeletons and evidence of a “large carnivore bite…an injury which must have been sustained in an arena context.”  The discovery of the cemetery, according to Gillian Cruddas, chief executive of Visit York, says, “This is yet another great York story to add to the city’s exciting and colorful heritage.”

• A very old shoe
Category: oldest shoe. Current winner: a 5,500 year-old shoe found by archaeologists in a cave in Armenia. Lead researcher, Dr. Ron Pinhasi of University College Cork, Ireland, estimates that the shoe was European size 37, or US size 7. It’s up for grabs as to whether it was for him or for her.

• In recognition and memoriam
Shelton Davis, aged 67, died on May 27, in Falls Church, Virginia. He earned a PhD in anthropology from Harvard University, with a dissertation based on fieldwork among a Maya community in highland Guatemala. An activist anthropologist and indigenous rights advocate, he founded the Anthropology Resource Center, an early contribution to “public interest” anthropology. His 1978 book, Victims of the Miracle, is  a classic account of the social and environmental costs of development in the Brazilian Amazon in the 1970s. Blogger’s note: I read Victims when I was in college. It offers a vivid story. I recommend it to you.

Eugene I. Knez, aged 94, died in Honolulu. He worked at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History from 1959 to 1979 and launched its first permanent Asian exhibitions.  He earned his PhD in anthropology from Syracuse University in 1959.

Raymond Allchin, archaeologist and cultural historian of India, aged 86 years, died on June 4. Allchin was a leading force in promoting scholarly recognition of South Asian prehistory. He also sought to reach a wider audience by writing in an engaging way about everyday topics such as cow dung.

• Spilling our Gulf
The millions and millions of crude oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico will lead to “extreme human suffering as well as extreme property damage,” according to Gregory Button, professor of cultural anthropology at the University of Tennessee. He has done research on other oil-related disasters including the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 and the collapse of an oil storage tank during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Furthermore, he notes that the people most hurt by the Gulf-area hurricanes of 2005 are likely to suffer most from the oil spill: “They’ve already lost their homes, their livelihood, their income, and their communities.” Spill workers are at risk to their health from direct exposure. Other repercussions, similar to those following the Exxon Valdez disaster are likely: alcohol and substance abuse, divorce, suicide, and mental health problems.

• Follow the (BP) money
Three years ago, Laura Nader, cultural anthropology professor at UC Berkeley, argued that the university should not take money from BP to support research at its Energy Biosciences Institute because BP is a “criminal corporation,” as quoted in the Sacramento Bee. The funding, perhaps ironically, goes for research to find green fuels and reduce oil use. Critics say this is simply “greenwashing.” Scientists say it allows them to do important research. A post-doctoral student who works at the Institute is quoted as saying that she has to first run her findings past BP: “There have been a few things that they’ve asked me to be a little more vague about.”

• Maya were early materials scientists
Early Maya were the first polymer scientists according to MIT materials science researchers. Their study was prompted by a question from undergraduate student, Michael Tarkanian, in a freshman archaeology class: How did the Maya produce bouncy rubber balls? The research will be reported in the journal Latin American Antiquity.

• Big bird lives on in rock art
Arnhem Land, in Australia’s Northern Territory, contains the oldest known works of art in Australia. A recent discovery of a rock art depiction of what is likely a bird that went extinct 40,000 years ago is another example affirming Arnhem Land’s invaluable prehistoric art heritage.

• Ancient brain food
Archaeologists have found that early humans, around two million years ago, ate crocodiles, turtles and fish. This oldest evidence for a diet containing aquatic animals was discovered by researchers including Andy Herries of Australia’s University of New South Wales. The aquatic animals are rich in omega-3 fatty acids that are critical to human brain growth. Findings will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

• Neanderthals in the sceptred isle
A discovery in Kent (the part of England closest to the European mainland) by Dr. Francis Wenban-Smith, shows that Neanderthals were in residence around 100,000 years ago. The evidence is some flint hand tools. The Neanderthals apparently arrived from what is now France via a land bridge.

• Bonobo mojo
Vanessa Woods concludes her series of guest posts for Discover with a post about bonobo sex in which she responds to skeptics who say that reports of frequent sex among bonobos are inflated. Woods provides data to support her position, including a histogram of different bonobo sex positions. She refers to a supporting hormonal study. Blogger’s query: why is it so difficult for many people to free themselves from their chimp-based model? [Possible answer: because the chimp model validates human male violence and mercurial male sexual affect?].

• In recognition and memoriam
Professor Gilbert Kushner, founder of the first graduate program in applied anthropology in the United States, passed away this week. As a youth, in the 1950s, he was a beatnik, singing protest songs in Greenwich Village. After earning a doctorate in anthropology from the University of North Carolina, he joined the Department of Anthropology at the University of South Florida in 1970, was the department chair for many years and served as associate dean in USF’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. In the face of widespread objections to his idea of establishing of an MA degree in applied anthropology, from Margaret Mead among others, he pursued his vision. A passionate supporter of anthropology and social activism, he once wrote, “Anthropology (is) not only a scientific and humanistic discipline, but a way to contemplate humankind’s place on Earth.”