my favorite topics in anthropology
anthropology is a field that prides itself on being holistic and interdisciplinary, but i feel like it'd be more accurate to describe anthropology as a dozen subfields in a trench coat trying to get one ticket to a mature movie. nevertheless, this list is made up of topics i really like related to the developments of humanity: culturally, linguistically, biologically, and historically.
this list will be updated whenever i feel like it :)
- the Bouba/Kiki effect which stretches across different languages and cultures, including people with no writing system, children who don't know really know language yet, and (to a lesser degree) people born blind. i really like the suggestion that this happens because of the mouth shapes involved in saying each word. "bouba" forces your mouth to form an O, and saying "kiki" forces you to stretch your mouth wide.
- the idea of a world language, that is, there being a common ancestral language that includes every single human language that has ever existed. it's pretty unrealistic and disregards the fact that not all humans on earth started from the same place (and surprisingly enough, the out-of-africa hypothesis is being challenged in recent years due to evidence like the Petralona skull )
- cannibalism!! Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History by Bill Schutt is one of my favorite books and the history of cannibalism, either as a means of survival or as some kind of memorial to the deceased, is really interesting and nuanced