Featured
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Article
| Open Access
Extensive pedigrees reveal the social organization of a Neolithic community
The burial community at Gurgy ‘les Noisats’ (France) was genetically connected by two main pedigrees, spanning seven generations, that were patrilocal and patrilineal, with evidence for female exogamy and exchange with genetically close neighbouring groups.
- Maïté Rivollat
- , Adam Benjamin Rohrlach
- & Wolfgang Haak
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Article
| Open Access
Surgical amputation of a limb 31,000 years ago in Borneo
Around 31,000 years ago, a young individual from Borneo had part of their left lower leg surgically amputated, probably as a child, and lived for another 6–9 years after amputation.
- Tim Ryan Maloney
- , India Ella Dilkes-Hall
- & Maxime Aubert
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Article |
A high-resolution picture of kinship practices in an Early Neolithic tomb
Archaeological and ancient DNA analyses of 35 individuals entombed at Hazleton North long cairn approximately 5,700 years ago are used to reconstruct kinship practices in Early Neolithic Britain.
- Chris Fowler
- , Iñigo Olalde
- & David Reich
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Letter |
Ancient hepatitis B viruses from the Bronze Age to the Medieval period
Phylogenies reconstructed using 12 hepatitis B virus genomes, which were recovered from ancient human genome data, reveal a complex history of hepatitis B evolution that is not evident when using only modern samples.
- Barbara Mühlemann
- , Terry C. Jones
- & Eske Willerslev
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Perspective |
Dynamics of body time, social time and life history at adolescence
The recognition of adolescence as a distinctive period for biological embedding of culture, and mass education, are features of the globalization of cultures that are driven by transformations in labour, livelihood and lifestyle.
- Carol M. Worthman
- & Kathy Trang
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Letter |
Moralistic gods, supernatural punishment and the expansion of human sociality
Using economic games, the authors examine the role of religion in the persistence of human cooperation; individuals who claim that their gods are moralizing, punitive and knowledgeable about human affairs are more likely to play fairly towards geographically distant co-religionists.
- Benjamin Grant Purzycki
- , Coren Apicella
- & Joseph Henrich
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Research Highlights |
Small families in rich societies
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Letter |
Evidence for dietary change but not landscape use in South African early hominins
Analyses of strontium elemental and isotopic ratios in fossil teeth show that Australopithecus africanus—the presumed ancestor of early Homo and Paranthropus robustus—had a much more varied diet than Homo and Paranthropus; this sheds light on the diet and home ranges of fossil hominins.
- Vincent Balter
- , José Braga
- & J. Francis Thackeray
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Research Highlights |
Cultural wellspring
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Research Highlights |
Ancient Mayan wall calendar
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News |
War of words over tribal tongue
Debate highlights pitfalls in studying minority languages.
- Eugenie Samuel Reich
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News |
Development project touts health victory
But critics question data and cost estimates from the Millennium Villages Project.
- Natasha Gilbert
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Letter |
Social networks and cooperation in hunter-gatherers
The social networks of Hadza hunter-gatherers are structurally similar to modern social networks and show signs of clustering in cooperative behaviour, which suggests that these networks may have contributed to the emergence of cooperation in early humans.
- Coren L. Apicella
- , Frank W. Marlowe
- & Nicholas A. Christakis
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Letter |
Stepwise evolution of stable sociality in primates
- Susanne Shultz
- , Christopher Opie
- & Quentin D. Atkinson
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News |
Societies evolve in steps
Political complexity increases gradually — but can decline rapidly.
- Kerri Smith
Artificial intelligence and illusions of understanding in scientific research
Step by step around the globe