Being Human

New York Times

A surprisingly recent instance of human evolution has been detected among the peoples of East Africa. It is the ability to digest milk in adulthood, conferred by genetic changes that occurred as recently as 3,000 years ago, a team of geneticists has found.

The finding is a striking example of a cultural practice — the raising of dairy cattle — feeding back into the human genome. It also seems to be one of the first instances of convergent human evolution to be documented at the genetic level. Convergent evolution refers to two or more populations acquiring the same trait independently.

Opinion - Stephanie Coontz: Too close for comfort - sacbee.com

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Ever since the Census Bureau released figures last
month showing that married-couple households are now a minority, my
phone has been ringing off the hook with calls from people asking: "How
can we save marriage? How can we make Americans understand that
marriage is the most significant emotional connection they will ever
make, the one place to find social support and personal fulfillment?"

I think these are the wrong questions -- indeed, such questions would
have been almost unimaginable through most of history. It has only been
in the last century that Americans have put all their emotional eggs in
the basket of coupled love. Because of this change, many of us have
found joys in marriage our great-great-grandparents never did. But we
have also neglected our other relationships, placing too many burdens
on a fragile institution and making social life poorer in the process.

A study released this year showed just how dependent we've become on
marriage. Three sociologists at the University of Arizona and Duke
University found that from 1985 to 2004 Americans reported a marked
decline in the number of people with whom they discussed meaningful
matters. People reported fewer close relationships with co-workers,
extended family members, neighbors and friends. The only close
relationship where more people said they discussed important matters in
2004 than in 1985 was marriage.

From Talaris.org:

This research-based timeline is organized by a child's age. It serves as a general guide to the five amazing ways a child grows, from birth to 5.

• Social - Emotional - how children feel and how they learn to relate to others
• Cognitive - how children learn and think
• Language - how children learn sounds, words, and sentences
• Sensory - how children hear, see, taste, smell and feel
• Motor Skills - how children learn to skill to sit up, crawl, walk, and run

As you'll see, each milestone shows a range of ages typically
seen in children's development, but a child may not meet every
milestone and still be progressing normally. Don't be surprised if
your child's growth is different from what's included on this
timeline, or if your child develops more quickly in some areas than
in others. Above all, enjoy learning about the many fascinating ways
children develop. If you have any concerns about your child's growth
and development, please seek a health care professional.

Timeline.

You’re invited to a public lecture by this year’s Evans Chair Visitor, Peter Irons. Professor Irons has had a distinguished career as a scholar and authority on the Supreme Court, and constitutional law and litigation. He has written and edited more than a dozen books, including A People’s History of the Constitution; The Courage of their Convictions: Sixteen People Who Fought their Way to the Supreme Court; and Jim Crow’s Children: The Broken Promise of the Brown Decision, which was selected for the 50th Anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education. He has earned an unprecedented five Silver Gavel Awards, the American Bar Association’s highest honor that recognizes exemplary contributions that foster the American public’s understanding of the law and legal system. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Boston University and a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School.

This presentation will be based on Professor Irons’ forthcoming book, God on Trial: America's Growing Religious Wars, which deals with the social, political and legal conflicts over the place of religion in American society. It will be held in the Evergreen Recital Hall, located on the first floor of the Communications (COM) building on Thursday, November 9, beginning at 7:00 p.m. Doors will open at 6:30. A question-and-answer period will follow.

[via Onegoodmove]

Here is an excerpt from Julia Sweeney's "Letting Go Of God" part of the
"This American Life: In Defence of Godlessness" program on WBEZ

Program Date 06/03/05

Julia's faith began to crack after reading Biblical passages like the one
pictured here, of Abraham about to cut the throat of his beloved son,
Isaac.

Here's an interview with Julie Sweeney on Fresh Air with Terri Gross.

Lab report: James Morgan on the science that's shaping our futurePeople often say there's no such thing as true altruism. I'm willing to bet that those people are Audi drivers.Have you seen the new Audi advert yet? A man looks up to see silver light streaking across the night sky. After a montage of clips from the Apollo landings, we learn it is not a Nasa space shuttle, but the Audi A6.Then comes a subtitle which reads: "To date, Nasa has filed 6509 patents. In developing the A6, Audi filed 9621."That's quite a boast, but, hang on, isn't there an irony here? In the words of one blogger, "To paraphrase Audi, 'We're better than Nasa, because they let everybody else benefit from everything they learned during Apollo. We're making sure you can't. Please buy our car, though.'"

Too good to be true? Altruism’s better for you - The Herald

Do we have a “God gene,” or a “God module”? I'm referring to claims that a number of you may have noticed. Just last week, a cover story of Time magazine was called "The God Gene: Does our deity compel us to seek a higher power?" Believe it or not, some scientists say yes. And a number of years earlier, there were claims that the human brain is equipped with a “God module,” a subsystem of the brain shaped by evolution to cause us to have a religious belief. "Brain's God module may affect religious intensity," according to the headline of the Los Angeles Times. In this evening's talk, I want to evaluate those claims.

Link

I'm a Paul Ekman fan, and there is a great post about him at Mind Hacks (with lots of cool links). Go check it out.

Science Blog

In the study, the researchers had two groups of women take an exam-like test that included two math sections separated by a verbal/essay section.

The math questions were identical, but the essays differed. One put forth the theory that men were genetically advantaged compared to women when it came to math. Another agreed that men outperformed women in math but explained that this was due to environment, not genes. A third essay contended there were no gender differences in math ability, and the fourth essay avoided the subject but did "remind" women test-takers that they were females by discussing women artists.

Did anyone go? Any thoughts?

If you can't play with the quicktime plugin, then download the mp3 file here.

To continue the discussion from seminar, I'd like to hear about people's early experience with indoctrination through cultural memes. What memes did you encounter as a child? Do you remember how you felt at the time? How was that particular meme introduced to you? Do children undergo the same kind of introduction today?

Check out this video of Sam Harris, author of End of Faith.

• 22% are certain that Jesus will return.
• 22% are pretty sure.

"That means that 44% of Americans would look at a mushroom cloud and see a silver lining."

Lenelle Moise (bio below) will be performing her one-woman autobiofictional show, "Womb-Words, Thirsting" on Wednesday, October 18 at 8:00pm at Evergreen in the Recital Hall of the Communications Building.

About Womb-Words, Thirsting: This performance by Haitian-American pomosexual feminist Lenelle Moise combines spoken word, storytelling, song and movement to discuss identity-construction, immigration, biculturally coming of age, religion, sexuality, AIDS and reclaiming F-Words.
Sponsored by Women's Resource Center, Women of Color Coalition, Carnival, Evergreen Queer Alliance, and EPIC

Friday October 20 8:30pm in Lecture Hall 1...

Performance by Kate Bornstein: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us!
Author of Gender Outlaws: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us; My Gender Workbook; and, most recently, Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws.

Sponsored by Evergreen Queer Alliance, Student Activities Office, Provost Office, Political Economy and Social Movements, Culture and the Public Sphere, Memory of Fire, Feminisms, Pillars of Fire.

Please, if you haven't put up a picture on your profile, now is the time. It's important that we be able to know who we're communicating with, and be able to bridge between class and blog. Having a visual really helps this process.

Use this space to discuss the readings on moral development for week 4 such as Kohlberg, Piaget, and Bloom.

Use this thread to discuss the reading from Descartes' Baby for week 4. Also, the material from Non-Western Classics chapter in Diessner & Tiegs.