LINKS - March 9th, 2022
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.
Smithsonian to give back its collection of Benin bronzes
By Peggy McGlone, Washington Post
“As museums everywhere wrestle with what to do about artworks of questionable provenance in their possession, the Smithsonian is leading by example by agreeing to return its collection of Benin Kingdom Court Style artworks to their homeland in Nigeria. The groundbreaking move by the world’s largest cultural organization could set a new bar for how museums respond to changing attitudes about cultural heritage and the legacy of colonial violence.”
The Staten Island House Where Black History Lives
By Corey Kilgannon, New York Times
“From the outside, Ms. Meaders’s home on Staten Island is unremarkable — a narrow, three-story box in the working-class neighborhood of Mariners Harbor. But to step inside, with her as your guide, is to journey through the Black American experience, from the horrors of slavery and the dream of the civil rights movement to the glory of stars like James Brown and Cab Calloway.”
Why placebo pills work even when you know they’re a placebo
By Darwin A Guevarra & Kari A Leibowitz, Psyche
“The placebo effect occurs when someone experiences a benefit due primarily to the belief that something they are doing – taking a medication, engaging in a ritual, or getting treatment – will have a beneficial effect. Placebos are far more powerful than most people realise. They’ve been shown in research trials to help reduce anxiety, depression, pain, asthma, the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, and recovery from osteoarthritis of the knee. It’s worth noting that these benefits aren’t just seen in terms of how people feel, although that alone is important, but also in terms of measurable physiological improvements.”
The Secret to This Ancient City’s Success Was Collectivism, Study Says
By Becky Ferreira, Vice
“Archaeologists Linda Nicholas and Gary Feinman suggest that the secret of Monte Albán’s success and longevity was a collectivist governing approach and relatively low levels of social inequality, an argument that is supported by multiple lines of evidence from its ruins, according to a study published on Tuesday in Frontiers in Political Science. In this way, Monte Albán rose to power with a “bottom-up” political structure, in contrast to its more autocratic contemporaries, which makes it a useful case study, even for modern societies.”
Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance found off coast of Antarctica
By Harriet Sherwood, The Guardian
“The wreck has been found, 3,008 metres below the surface of what Shackleton described as “the worst portion of the worst sea in the world”. It was discovered on Saturday, the 100th anniversary of Shackleton’s funeral, the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust said.”