Delineating Des

For weeks I spent some of my free time skimming Max Planck Society. There's this necessity to familiarize oneself with institute regulations. It doesn't take a PhD candidate to recognize elements of hard-core atheism in the research culture of the society's Evolutionary Anthropology wing. That got me reviewing creationism beliefs embedded in my christian upbringing. Overlapping it is the pressure to adhere to fiercely quantitative, evidence-based scientific theories. Yet things are less complicated when you have another option - faith. I don't pretend to be good at it, but I'm thankful that despite deficiences a choice to sense and appreciate what faith is capable of doing in our lives, exists. Here's a clip from a 1976 footage of a Heritage song, God Said It and I Believe It . I loved it then when I was learning to play hop scotch. Now it's my kind of wedge against otherwise unsuitable tilting. Faith is the essence of things unseen The substance of things h...

Conrad Kottak's international edition of Anthropology: the exploration of human diversity is my bible this week. Here's part of the glossary. The 13th item on the list is mentioned on the author's account of his study on the economy and social life of the Betsileo people in Madagascar. 1. adapids early (Eocene) primate family ancestral to lemurs and lorises 2. advocacy view the belief that precisely because anthropologists are experts on human problems and social change, and because they study, understand, and respect cultural views, they should make policy affecting people 3. affinals relatives by marriage, whether of lineals (e.g., son's wife) or collaterals (e.g., sister's husband) 4. agnates members of the same patrilineal descent group 5. ahimsa Hindu doctrine that prohibits harming life, and thus cattle slaughter 6. allele a biochemical difference involving a particular gene 7. Allen's rule Rule stating that the relative p...