LINKS - June 14th, 2023
Welcome to LINKS — my attempt to provide Rhapsody readers with five interesting stories that tell us something about what it means to be human. LINKS is published every Wednesday. Have a link you want to share? Drop it in the comments.
A New Therapy for Multiple Personality Disorder Helps a Woman with 12 Selves
By Rebecca J. Lester, Scientific American
“But this understanding of the self is far from universal. Anthropologists have long documented very different ideas about the self in cultures around the world; indeed, the possibility of more than one entity residing in a body at a time is a widespread human belief. In parts of central Africa, for example, people assert that a child receives a number of different souls at birth: one from the mother's clan, one from the father's clan, and others from elsewhere. The Jívaro people of Ecuador posit the existence of three souls, each imbued with unique potential. The Dahomey, also called the Fon, in West Africa traditionally believed that women had three souls and men had four. The Fang, who live in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, believe in seven souls, each governing different aspects of the person. A number of North American Indigenous communities believe some individuals are “two-spirited,” having one spirit that is female and one that is male. Some interpretations of Jewish religious texts contend that up to four souls can be reincarnated in one body. Cultures all over the world also recognize spirit possession, in which an individual serves as host to a supernatural entity.”
A ‘Soda Ocean’ on a Moon of Saturn Has All the Ingredients for Life
By Katrina Miller, The New York Times
“With the discovery of phosphorus on the ocean world, scientists say they have now found all of the elements there that are essential to life as we know it. Phosphorus is a key ingredient in human bones and teeth, and scientists say it is the rarest bio-essential ingredient in the cosmos. Planetary researchers had previously detected the other five key elements on Enceladus: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur (the last of which has been tentatively detected).”
New insights into the origin of food sharing among humans
By University of Minnesota, Phys.org
“According to Wilson, ‘We were struck by the impact of the mating system on our results. If mating is promiscuous, males share food with females, which sometimes happens in chimpanzees. But if pair-bonds exist, females share food with unrelated males—something that happens in human societies every day, but hardly ever happens in other primate species. Moreover, in scenarios with pair-bonds, females obtained more energy than in scenarios with promiscuous mating. This increased energy would enable mothers to reproduce more quickly and ensure the survival of their offspring. If early human ancestors had pair-bonds rather than promiscuous mating, this may have promoted the evolution of extractive foraging techniques as well as food sharing, which made it possible to expand from forests into more open habitats.’”
Debates about Neandertal cave art miss the point of their visual culture
“The evidence shows that visual culture was an important component of the social systems of many Neandertals. Archaeologists have found abundant physical evidence that they collected and worked mineral pigments. Sometimes they ground mineral pigments into powders which they mixed with liquid. Sometimes they marked on objects, including soft objects like hides or their own skin. Archaeologists have found many engraved bones at sites from Portugal to Crimea, and engraved markings including those on the floor of Gorham's Cave, in Gibraltar.”
These 12,000-Year-Old Instruments Were Intentionally Screechy
By Sam Walters, Discover Magazine
“According to the researchers, the seven instruments were crafted from the assorted wing bones of the small waterfowl that roamed the site, including the humeri, the radii and the ulnae of the Eurasian teal and the Eurasian coot. Each of the hollow bones had been perforated anywhere from one to four times for the formation of finger-holes, and each showed signs of wear and tear consistent with their use as a flute.”