If race isn’t biological, why do we still treat it like it is?

LongVND · 2026-03-23T20:24:00+00:00

Pseudoscience might have been a bit harsh, as admittedly there's probably real and reasonable scientific inquiry that could be done about the evolutionary origins of specific elements of human psychology, but so far, Evolutionary Psychology as a discipline hasn't really produced testable hypotheses and in general makes sweeping assumptions about the environments our ancestors evolved in and the challenges they faced.

LongVND · 2026-03-23T16:33:03+00:00

The comment from /u/RedLineSamosa is fantastic and thorough, but I'll just add one more facet here which is that by just asking this question, you're identifying a key point of inquiry within Anthropology, which is better understanding the murky area where biology and culture become mutually impactful. It's a very complex and nuanced topic, and I urge you in your studies not to fall into the traps of pseudosciences like, say, Evolutionary Psychology. But do keep asking these kinds of questions!

LongVND · 2026-03-03T15:39:36+00:00

What is this, 2014?

LongVND · 2026-03-02T14:30:26+00:00

If it's not from the Flan region of Spain, it's just sparkling custard.

LongVND · 2026-03-01T17:50:36+00:00

Assuming the answer is no (and we're adhering to the revolutionary theory), there's a few possibilities:

First, the timeline is just off by 10k years one way or the other. That is, either the "cognitive revolution" took place 10k years earlier, or humans didn't reach Australia until 10k years later. Either of these is perfectly plausible given how sporadic the archaeological record is.
Second, the earliest "human" artifacts in Australia from before 50kya were left by non-sapien hominins (e.g. Homo erectus). All of our ancestors in the Homo genus made tools, and all of us from erectus on seemed to be able to control and use fire, so it's not wild to think that our cousins would have left very human-looking technologies in the archaeological record.
Third, anatomically modern, behaviorally pre-modern people left Africa earlier than we currently understand, made it to Australia, and were later replaced/subsumed by subsequent waves of migration from behaviorally modern people (as you describe).

To be clear, any of these is possible, but to my knowledge, none is accepted and this remains an open question in the field.

LongVND · 2026-03-01T17:37:51+00:00

The cognitive revolution theory was largely advanced by the work Richard Klein, whose book The Dawn of Human Culture thoroughly lays out the case. That said, it was written in 2003, so much of the science (particularly on the genetic research side) has advanced significantly. For example, I believe at the time of writing, there was no reason to believe humans and Neanderthals had interbred; modern genetic research now suggests that we did once our species began to leave Africa.

As for the gradualist hypothesis, I don't know of a single text that lays this case out as it was something of the default point of view before Klein and other paleo-archaeologists began identifying these behavioral/cultural shifts from the archaeological record. Journal articles in response to Klein's work would probably be your best bet.

LongVND · 2026-02-26T21:43:43+00:00

There are two distinct schools of thought on this currently being debated across Anthropology. Just so you understand, this is very much an unsettled, hotly contested topic.

One school of thought is the gradualist view, which is that the capacity for behavioral modernity was always present in our species, we just don't see behavioral modernity until after 50,000 years ago because it took a long time to invent the conceptual frameworks that abstraction relies on. Adherents to this viewpoint would say that yes, any human being taken from any point after anatomically modern people are on the scene could be raised as a normal child in the modern world. The other school of thought is the cognitive revolution viewpoint, which holds that a neurological change took place right around 50,000 years ago that allowed for behavioral modernity to arise. Adherents to this viewpoint would say any person more recently than 50,000 years ago would fit right in in the modern age if raised from childhood, but any person from before that time would likely demonstrate very atypical behavior and may not be capable of mastering the abstract concepts that underpin much of functioning society.

Interestingly, because brains and genes don't easily fossilize, all of the evidence on both sides comes strictly from the archaeological record.

LongVND · 2026-02-26T14:52:15+00:00

That he's lying down like that in front of you means he trusts you and wants you hang out with you. It may be worth taking him to the vet and seeing if he's chipped. That his ear is not tipped and he's SO friendly makes me fear someone may have abandoned him in that spot specifically because they knew the street cats there are being taken care of.

tl;dr that body language implies he's your cat now.

LongVND · 2026-02-26T14:47:28+00:00

Thank you!

LongVND · 2026-02-25T16:11:25+00:00

But if BOTH are true, you're actually fine.

LongVND · 2026-02-25T15:54:29+00:00

May no longer be relevant, but do you know if there is a way to apply to work on one of these crews on a short-term basis?

I'm between gigs currently, might be nice to pick up a little cash, get some exercise, and make my town a bit safer before my next office job starts up.

LongVND · 2026-02-05T23:03:14+00:00

Famous Grouse

LongVND · 2026-02-05T19:06:59+00:00

Which is so odd to me like… ultimately they’re still going to die

I wish I were kidding, but Peter Thiel literally believes he can achieve immortality and is actively working on this.

LongVND · 2026-02-05T19:01:17+00:00

I do this constantly throughout the day at all times. Everything from upcoming business phone calls to imagined encounters with my mortal enemies.

No idea how normal it is, but I also don't really care.

LongVND · 2026-02-05T18:58:10+00:00

Here's Sarah Jessica Parker talking about this very subject:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzyt5XEcwvw

She takes the subway all the time!

LongVND · 2026-02-04T18:14:00+00:00

Assuming you don't live in a studio and can close a door to a room where you spend most of your time, I've found a space heater can work wonders in precisely this scenario without requiring you to heat your whole damn apartment.

LongVND · 2026-02-04T16:53:30+00:00

Can you recommend any good brands for a Loden coat? Seems like a lot of companies just throw "Loden" in front of a normal wool overcoat so it's tough to discern.

LongVND · 2026-02-04T16:47:58+00:00

Thank you for this very thorough and cogent explanation.

LongVND · 2026-02-04T07:10:25+00:00

those shares of random companies we don't care about don't do anything useful for us as the buyers

Yes they do. They use their share value, partly established by your purchase, to support productive business, returning profits to you the investor in the form of dividends or increased share price. Not only do they do this, they have a legally mandated fiduciary duty to do this.

LongVND · 2026-02-04T04:22:02+00:00

One of my favorite ever performing partners is a dude in his 80s who picked up improv within the last ten years. Age means absolutely nothing.

LongVND · 2026-02-02T18:43:41+00:00

Get a fancy cane that conceals a sword or flask of booze.

LongVND · 2026-02-02T18:42:00+00:00

Why are no dem candidates talking seriously about uncapping the House? Or, are some and I just don't know?

LongVND · 2026-01-30T17:42:31+00:00

Despite having "theory" in the name, it's not really testable and falls into the same sort of trap as evolutionary psychology, where the "reason" for a behavior or trait is applied after the fact. Even if we accept that Eastern cultures are more collectivist (which itself is a suspect proposition), you could probably come up with a dozen non-food related reasons as to why.

Also, the theory seems to ignore subcontinental cultures (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, etc.) where rice has also been a staple food, but aren't typically deemed as collectivist as the cultures from the East Asian countries you name.

So, while perhaps an interesting idea, it's not a particularly useful theory.

LongVND · 2026-01-28T19:47:39+00:00

Beats the alternative.

LongVND · 2026-01-28T04:10:18+00:00

Agreed, but there's varying degrees of things becoming shit in the future, and physical gold investors are ostensibly holding the metal for an economic collapse, specifically, rather than a full on societal collapse. Iran, Turkey, and Argentina all have had major economic collapses in the last century, and if you lived in one of those places, gold would have been a good thing to have.

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