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You Are My Cousin

There’s so many different worlds
So many different suns
And we have just one world
But we live in different ones

         — Mark Knopfler, Brothers in Arms

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I had the above T-shirt custom-made a couple of weeks ago, which reads “you are my cousin” in several languages. I can’t say for certain whether all of the translations are 100% accurate, but I tried to include a diverse range of languages, including the most commonly spoken ones (and Hmong; I just had to include Hmong). I’ve yet to wear it in public, but I am curious whether people will ask me about it. My hope is that it will get people to think a little about human diversity, similarity, difference, and how we are all related.

Of course, I’m playing fast and loose with terminology here, using ‘cousin’ in a very broad evolutionary sense. From an evolutionary perspective, genetic ties (or ‘blood’) are considered important since they indicate degree of shared genetic material. However, not every society sees family relations in the same way, which is a testament to the power of culture.

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More Outreach: A Return to KIPP, Year Five

mandibles

I brought some friends to show variation in the mandibles of some apes and hominins.

This is the fifth (and likely final) year that I’ve visited the 8th graders at the KIPP school in Lynn, Massachusetts. Each Spring I visit for about three hours to talk about anthropology, evolution, and what life in college is like. This coincides with the time in the school year they are discussing evolution in their science classes.

In my most recent visit last week, the theme of the day was how all living things are biologically related, though we focused mostly on humans and other primates. In a way, all humans are ‘cousins’, as is everything that lives. I also brought some fossil casts with me to enhance the presentation, including a new addition to our lab at UMass Boston — that of a Gigantopithecus. Of course, it was a big hit. Who can resist the concept of Gigantopithecus?  

When I started doing this, I asked around if any teachers in the area wanted me to come speak with their students. Only one teacher responded, and she kept inviting me back each year. This time she told me that she’s moving on to another position, so it will likely be my last year visiting KIPP unless something changes. I may have to find another way to share anthropology with middle schoolers.

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“We are so sorry for coming to your country”

“We are so sorry for coming to your country, but we have to. There is no way else. I’m so sorry.”

— Syrian refugee, Mohamed Hussein, arriving by boat to Greece.

There is something that strikes a nerve when a desperate refugee feels the need to apologize for simply trying to find a life safe from war. They certainly have more humanity than the people who refer to them as cockroaches or vermin. 

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Visualizing WW2 Casualties

The video below is a visually stunning account of the total casualties of the Second World War. It is really hard to comprehend such staggering numbers, but by putting them into infographics like these, they have more impact. Consider setting aside 20 minutes to watch the whole thing.

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Did the Atomic Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki Affect Child Growth?

In 1967, James Wood and colleagues published a study on the growth of Japanese adolescents whose pregnant mothers were exposed to the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki years earlier. Of course, many people were killed by the bombs, although estimates vary somewhere between one and two hundred thousand in all. By one estimate, the mortality rate of people within one kilometer of the bomb’s hypocenter in Hiroshima was 86%. This rate dropped to 27% for people who were between 1 and 2.5 km, and to 2% for those between 2.5 and 5km. Comparable numbers were reported for Nagasaki: 88%, 34%, and 11% respectively. This study was about some of the survivors.

Hiroshima blast and fire damage, U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey map. From wikicommons.

Hiroshima blast and fire damage, U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey map. From wikicommons.

In all, the Wood et al. study included 1,259 seventeen-year-olds, who had annual medical examinations since 1950. They were then compared for height, weight, and head circumference by their mother’s distance from the bombs’ hypocenters. They concluded that:

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Six Million Years of Hominin Evolution in Four Minutes

From the Natural History Museum in Vienna, Austria, this video shows some of the major hominin fossils discovered so far. It’ seems to have been recorded by a tourist, so the quality isn’t the best. However, it’s really well done, and the nice part is that it nicely illustrates these species’ geographic and temporal distributions, which can be hard to find elsewhere. 

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Refugees Are Scum

“Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.”  

— Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 14 (Source)

 

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More Reconciliation: Multiplying the Exceptions

“Is it impossible to multiply the exceptions so as to make them the rule? Must man always be brute first, and man after, if at all?” – MK Gandhi (1926)

 

I have a soft spot for stories that showcase the better parts of humanity. This isn’t to ignore all of the horrible things that people often do to one another. In fact, I think I’ve done a decent job at describing the ways that humans can alternate between being completely horrible or wonderful to each other (ex., see “Genocidal Altruists”). Overall, I think that focusing exclusively on either the good or the bad cannot accurately do justice to describing our complexity.

With that said, here are three stories of forgiveness or reconciliation that fall on the courageous and hopeful end of human behavior. As amazing as they are, perhaps consolidating them in one place will help make them seem not so unattainable for the rest of us.

Eva Mozes Kor shakes hand of Oskar Groening (source: Independent.co.uk)
Prince Charles shakes hands with Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams at the National University of Ireland on May 19, 2015 in Galway, Ireland. (Source: Adam Gerrard – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
Rais Bhuiyan in 2011. Jim Mahoney/The Dallas Morning News

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Children Aren’t Poison

 “I once heard this lady say, “I love kids.” That’s nice. It’s a little weird though. It’s like saying “I like people… for a little while.”   — Demetri Martin

 

A story is circulating about Professor Sydney Engelberg of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. When an infant started crying in class, the professor simply picked him up (with the mother’s permission, I assume) and continued to lecture. The fact that the story has generated so much attention is a bit puzzling to me. Perhaps it’s because we’ve artificially separated our worlds into adult and child compartments, and we think that kids aren’t supposed to be in certain places. Of course, the move could backfire, and the baby could react even worse once he was in the arms of someone he didn’t know.

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