Anthropology Current Affairs Magazine August 2020
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ANTHROPOLOGY CURRENT AFFAIRS MAGAZINE AUGUST 2020 VISHNUIAS.COM WE PROVIDE A PATH FOR YOUR SUCCESS CURRENT AFFAIRS ANTHROPOLOGY A MAGAZINE FOR CIVIL SERVICES PREPARATION (Welcome To Vishnu IAS online ) (Research and Training Institute for the best civil services preparation in India) CONTENTS PAPER -1 PHYSICAL & ARCHAEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 1. Researchers unlock secrets of the past with new international carbon dating standard 2. Archaeologists say they've identified the earliest known bone tools in the European archaeological record. 3. First exhaustive analysis of use-wear traces on basalt tools from Olduvai 4. Termite-fishing chimpanzees provide clues to the evolution of technology 5. How Neanderthals adjusted to climate change 6. DNA Bill can be misused for caste-based profiling, says panel draft report SOCIO-CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY 7. Proving” the language/culture connection PAPER - 2 INDIAN & TRIBAL ANTHROPOLOGY 1. Jharkhand: Tribal Farmers Tap Solar Irrigation To Cut Migration 2. Conserving ‘Toda Buffalo’ – Named After ‘Toda Tribe’ 3. How conserving tribal languages will preserve dying cultures 4. Odisha's Tribal Communities Are Reeling Under a Land Grab Project Masquerading as 'Afforestation' 5. India gets the first-ever Siddi lawmaker. 6. Chhattisgarh’s tribal women keep vigil on their forests 7. Agro biodiversity Initiatives Open Tribal Women’s Horizons 8. Telangana: 80 Koya tribal families evicted from their fields for plantation drive 9. Tribal sub plans fail under Modi regime; Adivasis deprived of benefits in last five years 10. Fighting Malnutrition In Odisha’s Angul, A Story That Inspires All 11. Research: Traditional Knowledge Helps Indigenous People Adapt To Climate Crisis 12. Namath Basai, a big hit among Kerala tribal children 13. Help us assert grazing rights near LAC, it counts: ex- Ladakh BJP chief 14. Panna tribals denied forest entry in the name of animal conservation 15. The ‘quota within quota’ debate 16. Covid-19 reaches the Great Andamanese, why is this worrying? 5 PHYSICAL & ARCHAEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 1. Researchers unlock secrets of the past with new international carbon dating standard Radiocarbon dating is set to become more accurate than ever after an international team of scientists improved the technique for assessing the age of historical objects. The team of researchers at the Universities of SheÞeld, Belfast, Bristol, Glasgow, Oxford, St Andrews and Historic England, plus international colleagues, used measurements from almost 15,000 samples from objects dating back as far as 60,000 years ago, as part of a seven- year project. They used the measurements to create new international radiocarbon calibration (IntCal) curves, which are fundamental across the scientific spectrum for accurately dating artefacts and making predictions about the future. Radiocarbon dating is vital to fields such as archaeology and geoscience to date everything from the oldest modern human bones to historic climate patterns. Archaeologists can use that knowledge to restore historic monuments or study the demise of the Neanderthals, while geoscientists on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), rely 6 upon the curves to find out about what the climate was like in the past to better understand and prepare for future changes. Professor Paula Reimer, from Queen's University Belfast and head of the IntCal project, said: "Radiocarbon dating has revolutionised the field of archaeology and environmental science. As we improve the calibration curve, we learn more about our history. The IntCal calibration curves are key to helping answer big questions about the environment and our place within it." The team of researchers have developed three curves dependent upon where the object to be dated is found. The new curves, to be published in Radiocarbon, are IntCal20 for the Northern Hemisphere, SHCal20 for the Southern Hemisphere, and Marine20 for the world's oceans. Dr Tim Heaton, from the University of Shefield and lead author on the Marine20 curve, said: "This is a very exciting time to be working in radiocarbon. Developments in the field have made it possible to truly advance our understanding. I look forward to seeing what new insights into our past these recalculated radiocarbon timescales provide." The previous radiocarbon calibration curves developed over the past 50 years, were heavily reliant upon 7 measurements taken from chunks of wood covering 10 to 20 years big enough to be tested for radiocarbon. Advances in radiocarbon testing mean the updated curves instead use tiny samples, such as tree-rings covering just single years, that provide previously impossible precision and detail in the new calibration curves. Additionally, improvements in understanding of the carbon cycle have meant the curves have now been extended all the way to the limit of the radiocarbon technique 55,000 years ago. Radiocarbon dating is the most frequently used approach for dating the last 55,000 years and underpins archaeological and environmental science. It was Þrst developed in 1949. It depends upon two isotopes of carbon called stable 12C and radioactive 14C. While a plant or animal is alive it takes in new carbon, so has the same ratio of these isotopes as the atmosphere at the time. But once an organism dies it stops taking in new carbon, the stable 12C remains but the 14C decays at a known rate. By measuring the ratio of 14C to 12C left in an object the date of its death can be estimated. If the level of atmospheric 14C were constant, this would be easy. However, it has fluctuated significantly throughout history. In order to date organisms precisely scientists need a reliable historical record of its 8 variation to accurately transform 14C measurements into calendar ages. The new IntCal curves provide this link. The curves are created based on collecting a huge number of archives which store past radiocarbon but can also be dated using another method. Such archives include tree-rings from up to 14,000 years ago, stalagmites found in caves, corals from the sea and cores drilled from lake and ocean sediments. In total, the new curves were based upon almost 15,000 measurements of radiocarbon taken from objects as old as 60,000 years. Alex Bayliss, Head of Scientific Dating at Historic England, said: "Accurate and high-precision radiocarbon dating underpins the public's enjoyment of the historic environment and enables better preservation and protection. "The new curves have internationally important implications for archaeological methodology, and for practices in conservation and understanding of wooden built heritage." Darrell Kaufman of the IPCC said: "The IntCal series of curves are critical for providing a perspective on past climate which is essential for our understanding of the climate system, and a baseline for modelling future changes." 9 2. Archaeologists say they've identified the earliest known bone tools in the European archaeological record. The implements come from the renowned Boxgrove site in West Sussex, which was excavated in the 1980s and 90s. The bone tools came from a horse that humans butchered at the site for its meat. Flakes of stone in piles around the animal suggest at least eight individuals were making large flint knives for the job. Researchers also found evidence that other people were present nearby - perhaps younger or older members of a community - shedding light on the social structure of our ancient relatives. There's nothing quite like Boxgrove elsewhere in Britain: during excavations, archaeologists uncovered hundreds of stone tools, along with animal bones, that dated to 500,000 years ago. 10 They were made by the species Homo heidelbergensis, a possible ancestor for modern humans and Neanderthals. Researchers found a shin bone belonging to one of them - it's the oldest human bone known from Britain. The horse butchery site being excavated in 1990 11 Project lead, Dr Matthew Pope, from UCL's Institute of Archaeology, said: "This was an exceptionally rare opportunity to examine a site pretty much as it had been left behind by an extinct population, after they had gathered to totally process the carcass of a dead horse on the edge of a coastal marshland. "Incredibly, we've been able to get as close as we can to witnessing the minute-by-minute movement and behaviours of a single apparently tight-knit group of early humans: a community of people, young and old, working together in a co-operative and highly social way." The researchers were able to reconstruct the precise type of stone tool that had been made from the chippings left at the site. However, the humans must have taken the tools with them - as they had not been recovered. At the inter-tidal marshland, which was on what would have been Britain's southern coastline, there was a nearby cliff that was starting to degrade, producing good rocks for knapping - the process of creating stone tools. Silt from the sea had also built up here, forming an area of grassland. "Grassland means herbivores and herbivores mean food," explained Dr Pope. 12 "The Football", this is a group of more than 100 re-fitted flint shards left over from making a single tool. The hand axe itself was not recovered. But the shape of the tool was revealed by casting the void left within the reconstructed waste material Dr Pope added that it was still unclear how the horse ended up in this landscape. 13 "Horses are highly sociable animals and it's reasonable to assume it was part of a herd, either attracted to the foreshore for fresh water, or for seaweed or salt licks. For whatever reason, this horse - isolated from the herd - ends up dying there," Dr Pope told BBC News. "Possibly it was hunted - though we have no proof of that - and it's sat right next to an intertidal creek. The tide was quite low so it's possible for the humans to get around it.