We investigate and compare the evolution of two aspects of culture, languages and weaving technologies, amongst the Kra-Dai (Tai-Kadai) peoples of southwest China and southeast Asia, using Bayesian Markov-Chain Monte Carlo methods to uncover phylogenies. The results show that languages and looms evolved in related but different ways, and bring some new insights into the diaspora of the Kra-Dai speakers across southeast Asia. We found that the languages and looms used by Hlai speakers of Hainan are outgroups in both linguistic and loom phylogenies, and that the looms used by speakers of closely related languages tend to belong to similar types. However, we also found discrepancies at a deep level between linguistic subgroups and loom types, in particular among widely dispersed South-Western Tai speakers, and we discuss possible reasons for this.

Lexical borrowing may provide valuable clues about the sociohistorical context of language contact. Here we explore patterns of vocabulary transfer between languages from three families (Kx’a, Tuu, Khoe-Kwadi) comprising the linguistic unit commonly referred to as Southern African Khoisan. In our dataset, 20% of 1,706 roots are shared between at least two families. By applying a carefully chosen set of linguistic and extralinguistic criteria, we were able to trace the origin of 71% of shared roots, with the remaining 29% constituting good candidates for ancient contact or shared common ancestry of the forager families Kx’a and Tuu. More than half of the shared roots for which an origin could be determined trace back to Khoe-Kwadi and were borrowed into languages of other families within two major confluence zones with different sociohistorical profiles: i) the Central Kalahari characterized by egalitarian interaction between languages of all three families, and ii) the southern and southwestern Kalahari Basin fringes showing unilateral transfer from Khoe-Kwadi-speaking herders into resident forager groups. The findings of this study complement genetic and archaeological research on southern Africa and testify to the value of linguistics in the multidisciplinary inference of contact and migration scenarios.

Cultural evolution of traditional music around the world has been the subject of recent quantitative investigations. Researchers have explored cultural diffusion of music as well as patterns of geographic variation that may result. By comparison, less has been studied about the process of music diversification; in particular, under what circumstances music diversifies is yet to be understood. In this study, we examine possible factors that may facilitate music diversification, using data from folk songs in the Ryukyu Archipelago, southwestern islands of Japan. For a quantitative analysis, we first transform the melody of each folk song, following an automated scheme, into a sequence of alphabets, which is then used to quantify the melodic dissimilarity between each pair of songs. Our particular interest is in the dissimilarity between putative sister songs, or songs that are inferred to have derived from a common origin, and factors that have positive or negative effects on it. Our results suggest that sister songs tend to diversify more when they are sung in different islands, probably as a result of one being transmitted from one island to another, and when they have come to be sung in different social contexts.

While virtually all academics who study human ‘race’ agree that it is a social construct, members of the general public still commonly regard ‘race’ as a biological property (i.e., they think that ‘races’ are genetically distinct). Even though empirical data from genetics and other fields do not support biological conceptions of race, this erroneous viewpoint is widely held, suggesting that there are impediments to effective communication of the relevant science. Here, we suggest five such impediments: (1) belief in genetic determinism, together with an over-reliance on an essentialist view of human groups, (2) overly simplistic interpretation of biological inheritance, (3) belief in the naturalistic fallacy and the associated naturalization of non-biological variation among racialized groups, (4) failure of the academic and educational communities to take responsibility for teaching the science of ‘race’ and racism, and (5) apologism towards racist founders of academic fields, including the evolutionary sciences. We address how and why each of these factors supports the spread of racism and suggest strategies for containing this spread.

In mammals, pregnancy and lactation are marked by calcium stress and bone resorption, leading to reduced bone mineral density. In humans, these periods may partly explain the higher prevalence of osteoporosis in older women compared with men, but lactation patterns in modern humans may reflect cultural influences rather than natural conditions. The extent to which these findings apply to wild-living mammals remains unknown. We measured urinary C-terminal crosslinking telopeptide of Type I collagen (CTX-I) levels, a bone resorption marker, during pregnancy in wild and zoo-housed bonobos (Pan paniscus) and during lactation in wild bonobos. Studying wild-living primates such as bonobos can provide insights into ancestral reproductive adaptations. We found an increase in CTX-I levels towards the end of pregnancy in zoo-housed and primiparous wild females. Contrary to expectations, CTX-I levels during early lactation are lower than in other reproductive phases. This pattern diverges from the assumption that lactation increases bone resorption. Our findings suggest that wild bonobos may use physiological or behavioral strategies to modulate bone metabolism during lactation. These adaptations, shaped in natural environments, provide insight into evolutionary pressures on skeletal health and may inform strategies to mitigate bone loss in humans.

Human genetic structure of Iberian populations has been thoroughly explored in the last decades. The internal diversity of the Iberian Peninsula becomes visible by the different phylogeographic origins of particular mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome lineages, which show a high degree of population specificity. In the present study, we combined information on matrilineal and patrilineal variation patterns in two autochthonous populations from Andalusia region (southern Spain). A special focus is made to a male sample set where both uniparental data is available. Gene diversities estimates yielded not statistical significant differences between both types of samples and markers. Genetic ancestry among Andalusians seems to be constituted by three foremost continental origins: European, African and Middle Eastern. The examined male group has revealed a noticeable proportion of individuals (over 45%) with a non-correspondence between maternal and paternal haplogroup origins, a signal of different population demographic histories linked to both sexes in the past. Andalusian males seem to be well differentiated according to ancestries. As expected, mtDNA diversity was much higher than that for Y chromosome, a fact that can be caused by patrilocality, which lead to particular social structures with effects on haploid genomes in modern human populations.

Concerns have been raised that an excess of men leads to societal violence, including violence against women, though recent evidence has challenged this view. One area that remains untested is honour killings, a type of femicide perpetrated by unrelated family members, such as intimate-partners, and related family members, such as parents and siblings. Using a novel dataset of media reports of honour killings from Pakistan we test whether the sex ratio is associated with femicide. To address reporting bias, we implement two case-control studies. The first compares media reports of honour killings to male suicides. The second compares honour killings perpetrated by unrelated individuals to those perpetrated by kin. We find evidence that honour killings perpetrated by unrelated individuals are higher in male-biased areas compared to those perpetrated by kin. Honour killings of women by kin therefore appear less sensitive to the sex ratio. Results align with sexual selection theory, suggesting more male competition may lead to more violence. We also find weak evidence that male biased areas report more male suicides than honour killings. However, we caution against drawing causal conclusions due to potential confounding variables, particularly economic deprivation. This research highlights the challenges of studying sensitive topics quantitatively.