You are here:
- Home
- Arts/Humanities
- Social Science
- Anthropology
Anthropology/Questions
| Subject | Date Asked | Expert |
| evolution? | 6/10/2011 | John Shea |
| Q: I am not sure if my question is your field of expertise but here goes! Compared to other animals, I ... A: There is certainly a trade-off with tools, they can lead to a situation in which our ancestors did ... | ||
| evolution? | 6/9/2011 | John Shea |
| Q: I am not sure if my question is your field of expertise but here goes! Compared to other animals, I ... A: I'll give this a try....If you look, sense by sense (smell, hearing, strength, etc.) there are ... | ||
| Writing an authentic anthropologist | 6/7/2011 | Ralph Salier |
| Q: I'm an aspiring novelist with the kernel of a story about a woman working on her Ph. D in ... A: First of all if she is in a PhD program then she is nearly finished if she is working on her ... | ||
| Scientific Evidences | 6/6/2011 | John Shea |
| Q: I’m a medical student at Alfaisal University and currently researching the field of human evolution ... A: El Chami 1. Adam is a mythological character from the origins stories of the ancient ... | ||
| difference | 5/26/2011 | Ralph Salier |
| Q: Pax et bonum! What is the difference between Anthropology and Ethnography? A: A very good question. Ethnography looks at a specific culture like the Yanamamo of the Amazon ... | ||
| celts and semites | 5/24/2011 | John Shea |
| Q: I have been reading about the Celts and couldn't help but notice an unusual amount of similarities ... A: Both Semitic and Celtic languages have a relatively recent common ancestor, and are grouped together ... | ||
| anthropology and christians | 5/10/2011 | John Shea |
| Q: I am very curious to know if anthropologists would study christians as a group over the centuries. I ... A: This sounds more like a history topic than an anthropology topic. The essence of anthropology is ... | ||
| "permian footprint" | 5/7/2011 | John Shea |
| Q: I heard about this many years ago, and just found it again online. Am wondering what explanations ... A: I heard about it, too, back when I was a kid. Most of these things are either dinosaur footprints ... | ||
| Birthplace of early "man" | 4/15/2011 | John Shea |
| Q: While I fully understand that the earliest examples of fossil man have been discovered in the ... A: The strongest theoretical argument for tropical African +/or Asian origins is that these are the ... | ||
| A petrified human body | 4/14/2011 | John Shea |
| Q: I found the following article posted in Ancestry.com today: "A Curious Circumstance -- A Petrified ... A: This is a hoax. It is based on a newspaper story circulated around 1916 in which finds of 7ft tall ... | ||
| Ancient Egyptians and the round knife | 3/12/2011 | Ralph Salier |
| Q: I was wondering if the ancient Egyptians employed a leatherworking tool called a round knife? The ... A: The "round knife" is far older then the Egyptians. In fact there are prehistoric examples of ... | ||
| hieroglyphic tokens | 2/17/2011 | Ralph Salier |
| Q: How/who should I contact to find out about 3 tokens (some type of metal either copper or a gold ... A: Send me some pics of the items and I may be able to provide more info on them. If not I can send ... | ||
| Vagina Economy | 1/31/2011 | Ralph Salier |
| Q: Sir/Madam: Greeting! We are Mass Communication Students from the Philippines and we would like an ... A: 1) they are well paid (in relative terms) 2) I don't know, I am unfamiliar with similar activities ... | ||
| Paranthropus | 1/29/2011 | John Shea |
| Q: When did Paranthropus die out? A: Brandon Last appearance dates for paranthropus in various parts of S and E Africa cluster around 1.5 ... | ||
| JRM | 1/29/2011 | Ralph Salier |
| Q: Greetings! We are Mass Communication students from the Philippines, and we would like to know the ... A: I will try to answer these but this is not an area of expertise for me. I apologize that I may not ... | ||
| good evening sir ralph:)) | 1/28/2011 | Ralph Salier |
| Q: greetings sir! I am smile from Phillipines. As part of fulfilling our requirements for ... A: In the view of Feng Shui practicioners the guidance the Feng Shui priest gets while he/she examines ... | ||
| influence of colonial mentality in skin whitening | 1/27/2011 | Ralph Salier |
| Q: 1. How do you define colonial mentality? 2. Skin whitening industry is booming nowadays. Is this a ... A: There is a view that people who are white are better off economically and socially. While this view ... | ||
| good evening sir:)) | 1/27/2011 | Ralph Salier |
| Q: greetings sir! I am smile from Phillipines. As part of fulfilling our requirements for ... A: 1) Feng-shui is an ancient Chinese philosophical view of how nature and man should interact and this ... | ||
| Vagina Economy | 1/26/2011 | Ralph Salier |
| Q: Sir/Madam: Greeting! We are Mass Communication Students from the Philippines and we would like an ... A: Before I can answer these questions I have two for you. These are for clarification: 1) by ... | ||
| sumerian | 1/25/2011 | John Shea |
| Q: i have a crucifix with some old writing with a strange star shaped symbol on one side, and a ... A: Andrea This is outside my usual area of expertise, so you should definitely pursue this with an ... | ||
| gender differences | 12/30/2010 | John Shea |
| Q: What do you think of gender differences, is that from nature or nurture? A: This is kind of on the periphery of my expertise, but here's my $0.02 worth: It's probably both. ... | ||
| gender differences | 12/30/2010 | Ralph Salier |
| Q: What do you think of gender differences, is that from nature or nurture? A: Gender differences do exist. While women can be very strong, men tend to be stronger with greater ... | ||
| Polygamy | 12/7/2010 | Ralph Salier |
| Q: I'm doing a project on polygamy and I was wondering if you knew of any good sources of information I ... A: There is a lot on the internet as well as several books written on the subject. You can also look ... | ||
| evolution | 12/4/2010 | John Shea |
| Q: I recently watched a documentary about the journeys of the first known homo sapiens to leave Africa ... A: There are some researchers who propose humans (Homo sapiens) evolved locally in many parts of the ... | ||
| Exploring the idea of becoming a business anthropologist | 11/16/2010 | Ralph Salier |
| Q: I am about to graduate with a history degree (minor in anthro) and I am coming to realize that I ... A: They have a good program. Also read the books by Edward T Hall, he is the theoretical progenitor of ... | ||
| Dominant Traits | 11/2/2010 | Gorkey Gourab |
| Q: What are the dominant traits/features of African-Americans and Cuacasian-Americans ? A: It's always a hard task to understand Race and Ethnic Relations; and Understanding Race and ... | ||
| Anthropology Comparison | 10/23/2010 | Gorkey Gourab |
| Q: i am required to write an assignment discussing,the meaning of kinship and marriage in different ... A: Following are the lists you may find helpful: Suggested sites: ... | ||
| Human Evolution Video? | 10/19/2010 | John Shea |
| Q: Can you recommend an exciting, accurate video suitable for middle school viewing? A: Either Alan Alda's "Human Spark" or the PBS series, "Becoming Human" are both up-to-date and pretty ... | ||
| Fire invention. | 10/13/2010 | John Shea |
| Q: I was talking with a friend about what could have lead our primitive prehistoric ancestors to ... A: That children play (and played in prehistoric times) there is no doubt. That such play led to ... | ||
| anthropology | 9/29/2010 | Gorkey Gourab |
| Q: Why would an anthropologist be interested in the issue of poverty and the debates surrounding it? ... A: Welcome to AllExperts and thank you for asking the question. Let us proceed in a Q&A form: Q: Why ... | ||
| Applied anthropology vs Social psychology | 9/20/2010 | Ralph Salier |
| Q: 1- Would the work of an applied social-cultural anthropologist be easily replaced by a social ... A: I would recommend Anthropology as this will give you a broader outlook then the more narrowly ... | ||
| Applied anthropology vs Social psychology | 9/17/2010 | Ralph Salier |
| Q: 1- Would the work of an applied social-cultural anthropologist be easily replaced by a social ... A: Social Psychology is under the umbrella of Applied Cultural Anthro. It is a sub-set of Psychology. ... | ||
| Human reason / Evolution | 9/7/2010 | John Shea |
| Q: John: First of all I'd like to thank you for offering your time to answer quetions. One of the ... A: Álvaro You're welcome. 1. Apes can reason, or at least solve problems requiring reasoning about ... | ||
| Human uniqueness | 9/5/2010 | John Shea |
| Q: What exactly is/are the things that make humans unique? Is it the use of tools? Not sure about this ... A: Richard This is a huge question in anthropology and I do not have time to compose a cogent answer of ... | ||
| Human evolution | 8/18/2010 | John Shea |
| Q: If we evolved from apes, why didn't all apes evolve? A: Apes did evolve. We and they share a last common ancestor. We are more divergent from that ... | ||
| Africa's Prehistoric Man | 8/7/2010 | John Shea |
| Q: Neanderthal man was in Europe. What is the name of Africa's prehistoric man at the same time as ... A: Homo sapiens (us). Earliest Neandertals = around 200,000 years ago, basically same age as oldest ... | ||
| One main race? | 7/26/2010 | John Shea |
| Q: After the Toba volcanic eruption, wouldn’t the remaining 10,000 people in one geographic area mean ... A: The simple answer for a recent origin of some "racial" features is a combination of natural ... | ||
| One main race? | 7/26/2010 | John Shea |
| Q: After the Toba volcanic eruption, wouldn’t the remaining 10,000 people in one geographic area mean ... A: That is exactly what this Toba "bottleneck" theory implies (humans repopulate from one isolated ... | ||
| M.A. in Business Anthropology | 7/21/2010 | Ralph Salier |
| Q: Sailer, I am at at a crossroads. I wanted to get an MBA in Brand Management, because I am ... A: An MBA will always serve you better then an MA Business Anth. Few employers understand the value of ... | ||
| anthropology | 6/19/2010 | John Shea |
| Q: Aboriginal australians, are they related to any existing human group in asia or south africa? A: Genetic and fossil evidence suggests Aboriginal Australians are descended from African Homo sapiens ... | ||
John Shea
Top Expert on this page
Expertise
Questions about Old World prehistoric archaeology (especially Stone Age) of Europe, Africa, and Western Asia, prehistoric human and hominid behavior, primitive technology, origin of modern humans, extinction of the Neandertals.
Experience
>20 years as a professional anthropologist based at a research university.
Publications
Journal of Field Archaeology, Journal of Archaeological Science, Lithic Technology, Evolutionary Anthropology, Current Anthropology, Mitekufat HaEven (Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society), Paléorient, Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, American Anthropologist, Geoarchaeology.
Education/Credentials
Ph.D (Anthropology) Harvard University, 1991.
BA (Archaeology) Boston University, 1982.
©2012 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.