News from

Anthropology

Reset All Filters
178 Results
Lynn Meskell appointed Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor
Lynn Meskell standing in front of a glass display case at the Penn Museum.

Lynn Meskell is the Richard D. Green Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor in the Department of Anthropology in the School of Arts & Sciences, a professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning and the graduate program in Historic Preservation in the Stuart Weitzman School of Design, and a curator in the Middle East and Asia sections at the Penn Museum.

(Image: Eric Sucar)

Lynn Meskell appointed Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor

The world-renowned archaeologist has joint appointments in the Department of Anthropology, the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation and the Department of City and Regional Planning, and the Penn Museum as a curator in both the Asian and Near East sections.
Uncovered burial ground reveals history of 36 enslaved Africans in 18th-century Charleston
Two people looking at documents, with one person explaining them to the other. More people stand in the background.

At a community engagement event in 2019, Theodore Schurr of the Department of Anthropology explains DNA test results to Regina Scott, one of the participants involved in the research project. (Pre-pandemic image: Lauren Petracca/Post & Courier)

Uncovered burial ground reveals history of 36 enslaved Africans in 18th-century Charleston

According to the research, many of these individuals originated in sub-Saharan Africa, in line with historical accounts of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. This work, the largest DNA study of its kind to date, was co-led by anthropologist Theodore Schurr and conducted with support from and at the request of the local community.

Michele W. Berger

Pizza, a nascent dairy industry, and infant health in the Peruvian highlands
Smiling person standing arms held down, together and in front, outside of a brick building. Morgan Hoke is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology and an Axilrod Faculty Fellow in the Population Studies Center in the School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. She has worked at a field site in rural Nuñoa, Peru, since 2012.

Pizza, a nascent dairy industry, and infant health in the Peruvian highlands

Research from anthropologist Morgan Hoke shows that in homes that produce their own foods, children exhibit better growth rates and mothers report more autonomy and economic control.

Michele W. Berger

‘Living with the Sea’
Three woman stand behind museum objects

Ashleigh David and Erin Spicola frame Kia DaSilva as she talks about the mattang (navigational chart) in front of them. Students were able to access the objects to inform the exhibition planning process. (Pre-pandemic photo.)

‘Living with the Sea’

A student-led exhibition at the Penn Museum features objects from the rarely seen Oceanian collection.

Kristina García

Southeast Asian megadrought dating back 5,000 years discovered in Laos cave
A group of archaeologists and excavators standing and sitting at the entrance of a cave.

Penn archaeologist Joyce White (center) has been working in Laos since 2001 with teams like the one shown here. Discovering evidence of a 1,000-year drought in a Laos cave was unexpected, she says, but does answer some questions about the Middle Holocene, a period she’d previously described as the “missing millennia.” (Pre-pandemic image: Courtesy of Joyce White)

  • Q&A

    • Southeast Asian megadrought dating back 5,000 years discovered in Laos cave

    In a Q&A, Penn archaeologist Joyce White discusses the partnership with paleoclimatologists that led to the finding, plus possible implications of such a dramatic climate change for societies at that time.

    Michele W. Berger

    Cave discovery holds clues to earliest Homo sapiens in Europe
    People squatting in a cave with face masks on, digging through dirt and clay.

    Excavations in Initial Upper Paleolithic Layer I at Bacho Kiro Cave in Bulgaria. Four Homo sapiens bones were recovered from this layer, along with a rich stone tool assemblage, animal bones, bone tools, and pendants. (Pre-pandemic image: Tsenka Tsanova, MPI EVA Leipzig, License: CC-BY-SA 2.0)

    Cave discovery holds clues to earliest Homo sapiens in Europe

    Ancient DNA from 46,000-year-old bone fragments and a tooth reveals this group likely overlapped with Neanderthals for thousands of years.

    Michele W. Berger

    Exploring the links between jobs and health, reframed by COVID-19
    Grocery worker stocks produce on shelves while wearing mask and gloves

    COVID-19 reshaped Andi Johnson’s course on social determinants of health, inspiring a new focus on how the pandemic shaped employment and how people's jobs influenced their ability to stay safe.

    Exploring the links between jobs and health, reframed by COVID-19

    More than half of America’s farm workers are immigrants, and most have been considered essential workers during the coronavirus pandemic. While this designation has ensured the continuity of their livelihoods, it has also increased their risk of becoming sick. 

    Katherine Unger Baillie

    Scholarship through the lens of an iconic media brand
    pik professor john jackson speaking

    Scholarship through the lens of an iconic media brand

    A new Annenberg course centered around HBO offered undergrads hands-on exposure to media production and a chance to hone their analytical skills using primary source materials.

    Michele W. Berger

    Life, death, and the Amazonian litter layer
    A building on stilts in the middle of a forest with banana trees

    Asmall farm in the Andean-Amazonian foothills. Image: Kristina Lyons.

    Life, death, and the Amazonian litter layer

    Kristina Lyons’ new book explores the Colombian world of litter layers, seeds, and soils; Amazonian farmers, narcos, and the War on Drugs

    Kristina García