Back again to my favourite species... This time I made some tiny research on the habitat of Neanderthals. I'm stuck in bed with flu so it's a perfect time for reading and doing some studying. So briefly, for all those interested, Neanderthals were hunter-gatherers who lived in extremely cold weather of Ice Age glaciers. Tools used by them belong to technology called Mousterian tradition ("sets of tools with great variety and finely trimmed cutting edges. Flint stone properly chipped, forms a cutting edge sharper than a steel scalpel." http://www.ecotao.com/holism/hu_neand.htm). As mentioned before in some of my blurbs Neanderthals had short arms and legs with stocky bodies as a result of adaptation to cold environment. There are some speculations that Neanderthals were burying the dead, which could be a sign of intelligence and culture. They occupied regions of Europe and Asia.

isn't this sooooo interesting?
xxx

ref:
- all info taken from: http://www.ecotao.com/holism/hu_neand.htm

Today we went to London and had a nice 4 hour session in the Natural History Museum. Oh how I loved it there! I was so excited, I loved the Green Zone with birds, ecology, fossil marine reptiles, giant sequoia, minerals and the vault, plant power and especially of course the PRIMATES and OUR PLACE IN EVOLUTION! I also loved the Blue Zone with the Human Biology section. I didn't even know that this Museum was so huge. As I said we spent over 4 hours there just walking and reading every single information as it all was extremely exciting! Both Peter and I thought that all specimens are very well laid out and easily understandable. This visit made us realise how amazing and beautiful the Earth is! "The Natural History Museum reveals how the jigsaw of life fits together. From the delicate to the deadly, and the grotesque to the gorgeous, discover the diversity of out planet's most amazing treasures." (Natural Museum History Map leaflet)

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There is no better feeling than knowing that I have a little something in common with the founder of Social Anthropology! Ah yes, Bronislaw Malinowski obviously just the nationality... And even though it doesn't sound extremely exciting to most of you it did sound unbelievably great to me when I first heard his name in one of my lectures last year. I realise it will sound a bit silly, but I did feel kind of proooud... And when I heard the lecturer pronouncing Bronislaw's name with a British accent I thought "aaaawwww"...
"Malinowski founded the field of Social Anthropology known as Functionalism, holding the belief that all components of society interlock to form a well-balanced system. He emphasized characteristics of beliefs, ceremonies, customs, institutions, religion, ritual and sexual taboos. His New York Times obituary named him an "integrator of ten thousand cultural characteristics" (Parker, p. 118)." (Voelker 2007)

xxx

http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/klmno/malinowski_bronislaw.html

Today in Human Physiology and Disease lecture we were looking at the heart pathophysiology. It was so interesting, I really enjoyed my lecture. It was given by an American-German lecturer who is a doctor and it just felt very cool to be listening to him... Today I reminded myself that our hearts are extremely important and powerful organs!

x

I don't think that there is anyone who actually didn't see the advert of the new iPhone. When I first saw it I thought: 'oh well, another item that doesn't bother me at all...'. After a few days from seeing the advert I read (to be very honest) at least twenty articles and comments on the new iPhone! I mean, come on people is it really that important? Well, both my brother and my boyfriend seem to think that yes, it is. Mainly, because it is an amazing step forward (yet another one) in technology. Now, if we think about it - it's an iPod and a mobile phone, with a massive touch screen - that's right no buttons, looking quite pleasant I have to admit. I have already met loads of people who got extremely excited about the new device. And what I have been thinking of recently is that in about five - ten years the world will see such amazing things that we always thought would be impossible. I can't even imagine what will be achievable in the future. Complex human brains and our intelligence and ability to create (with the help of computers at some point) can make things happen! The development of technology is moving forward with such an amazing speed that as mentioned before, one day our eyes will see unbelievable things. If we think about it, Homo sapiens first appeared some 195000 years ago. We have to of course keep in mind that the first people were not what we are now (taking into account all sorts of circumstances). It has taken us sooo long to develop some basic ways of dealing with life and only since some beginnings of 1990s so many changes occurred within technology and other fields. During one century people developed and created absolutely fascinating things! How amazing is this? What can we expect to see in some ten, twenty years? Are we excited to see the inventions or rather scared or concerned? Even though I admire human initiative I am a bit of a worrier... Is it not a bit scary that technology is developing so fast? A good friend of mine who lives in Japan was telling me some time ago about a receptionist who got a job at his work... she is a robot...

x

references:
- http://www.cnq.ca/Storage.asp?StorageID=88814&SiteLanguageID=1

From all sorts of different sources we have found out that the Neanderthals were characterized by the following: "[they]were shorter and more muscular than the other humans living at the same time, had bigger noses and projecting brow ridges, and no chins" (Meredtith 2007). We also know that they had specifically coloured hair - ginger. Meredith F. Small in her article on how the Neanderthals may be scary, talks about them as "ghosts" who remind us present human beings that as it turns out we are not so special. The Neanderthals who looked extremely similar to us died out 35,000 years ago and the reasons are still not clear, there are many assumptions made by anthropologists and scientists why the mysterious creatures disappeared. The author in her article says: "Neanderthals scare us because they are ghosts from the past, a few with wizardly Weasley hair and a sprinkle of freckles, and they are now turned in our direction whispering, "You're not so unique. Watch out." (Meredith 2007)

pretty amazing, ha?

:D

human child's skull on the left and Neanderthal child's skull on the right
_____________________________________________________________
references:
Meredith F. Small (2007) "The Scariest Thing about Neanderthals
", LiveScience's Human Nature Columnist, available electronically at: http://www.livescience.com/history/071102-hn-red-hair.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1465000/images/_1468482_child2300.jpg

On Friday, I took my mum to Gatwick airport. Because I don't drive and Peter sold our car a long time age, we had to go on the national Express coach. Unfortunately also there is no direct service from Canterbury to Gatwick, so we had to change in London Victoria station. On my way to/from London I was really amazed by what I saw. The funniest thing is it's not like it was my first time travelling in London, I've been there like a million times , but never actually paid that much attention to what is around me when in London. Britain has become extremely multicultural, which is obviously easily observable, however living in Kent doesn't always let me experience the beauty and mystery of multiculturalism. On Firday then, something got me and I was glued to the window on the coach observing the incredible variety of different people. An amazing ‘mosaic’ of different languages and colours of the skin is observed, a ‘picture’ of mixed cultures, a multicultural society. I don't know why but I really find this amazing. I also know that a lot of people are not entirely happy with the big amount of immigrants, but I think that this multicultural business might be a positive approach for Britain. Anyway, London is definetely a place to visit if you want to see the world...
:p

"London is the multicultural centre of Europe. It has 7 million inhabitants who between them speak 300 different languages. "

http://www.multicultural.co.uk/multiculturalondon.htm

tada!

I just got back from the cats captivity centre in Ashford. We went there today with the DI305 group - Biodiversity. It actually took us quite a long time to get there, I always thougt that Ashford was not that far away... Anyway, before we were going, our lecturer told us to bring some proper thick shoes as he had heard it was very muddy there. And I was being all nice and wanted to follow instructions... so went shopping the other day and got some cool wellies!!! Maybe they are not very cool, because they are blue with colourful spots, but oh well... the most important is for my feet not to get wet. As it turned out today, there was not much mud! We actually got a pretty dry day. I thought to myslef at some point that I had spent money on the wellies but not used them, as I am not planning to wear them anymore but on our way back it started raining really badly! SO in the end I did make some use of them!
It was a really nice outing, we had a nice time. The guide was telling us all about the centre, what they do there, how much money they get and spend on what, some general biodiversity conservation issues etc. It was a really nice day out. The only thing that annoyed most of us was the weather! It was freezing cold!!!

Every now and then I smile at myself and think: wow, I am actually studying biological anthropology! I know this may sound pretty weird to you all but to me it really is a big deal. I am very happy that I got to study this as anthropology is a fantastic field that covers so many academic subjects! And the funniest thing is whenever people ask me what I study and when I tell them what it is thay usually say: 'aahhh, nice!'. Simon says it just sounds very cool and it's even better when I say that I study biological anthropology at Canterbury... haha it's like English literature at Cambridge... lol

xxx

Today I officially realised that it's already been a year of my studies and that I've started the next one, it is all ging by so quick... x