2020 news & events

7 December
The Interplay of Headhunting, Pacification & Diseases Among the Marind-Anim
Dr John Richens
Retired
SYNAPSE Seminar Series
View the recording

30 November
Innovation as Process: A Social Archaeological Approach
Associate Professor Catherine Frieman
Australian National University/ECDI
SYNAPSE Seminar Series
View the recording

24 November
ABC show Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds wins International Emmy
Associate Professor Evan Kidd
Australian National University/MPI Nijmegen/ECDI
Read the story

23 November
Digital fieldwork, pt. 3: Forging ahead
Professor Carmel O’Shannessy
Australian National University/ECDI
Read the story

16 November
Congratulations to ECDI researchers Joao Teixeira, Evan Kidd & Kim Sterelny of funding successes

16 November
Comparative Cultural Psychology: Envisioning a Research Program
Prof Daniel Haun
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
SYNAPSE Seminar Series

26 October
Children’s Language Learning and the Making of Human Lifeworlds
Emeritus Prof Alan Rumsey
Australian National University/CoEDL
SYNAPSE Seminar Series
View the recording

23 October
The Cute critter rewriting our understanding of prehistory
Dr Shimona Kealy
Australian National University/ECDI
Atlas Obscura
Read the story

22 October
Investigating cultural diversity
Dr Ben Shaw
Australian National University/ECDI
ECDI website
Read the story

12 October
Relatively Speaking: The Cultural Evolution of Kinship Diversity
Prof Fiona Jordan
University of Bristol
SYNAPSE Seminar Series

9 October
New Evidence for Lapita Settlement of the Massim Islands in Eastern New Guinea
Dr Ben Shaw
Australian National University/ECDI
Tropical Archaeology Research Laboratory Seminar Series

2 October
40,000 years of adapting to sea-level change on Alor Island
Dr Shimona Kealy
Australian National University/ECDI
ANU Media Release
View media release

28 September
Language Diversification Through a Biogeography Lens
Dr Hannah Haynie
University of Colorado Boulder
SYNAPSE Seminar Series
View the recording

24 September
The Earliest Sea Voyages to Australia
Dr Shimona Kealy
Australian National University/ECDI
Biological Anthropology Research Seminars
Read abstract

28 August
Dealing with Sahlins’ Legacy: What criteria for a Comparison of Past and Present Sociopolitical Systems in Melanesia?
Francois-Xavier Faucounau
L’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)/ Australian National University/ECDI
SYNAPSE Seminar Series

27 August
Interview with Lincoln Wesley regarding community reaction to the archaeological research in Tok Pisin
Dr Ben Shaw
Australian National University/ECDI
ABC Radio National
Listen the interview (at 22m 45sec)

24 August
Archaeologist’s last minute discovery helps unearth 17-thousand year old history of the Massim / Milne Bay in PNG
Dr Ben Shaw
Australian National University/ECDI
ABC Radio National
Watch the interview

20 August
Stone tools from a remote cave reveal how island-hopping humans made a living in the jungle millennia ago
Dr Shimona Kealy
Australian National University/ECDI
The Conversation
Read the story

15 August
Lapita Conference Volume Reaches Vanuatu: Free For Download
Dr Stuart Bedford
Australian National University/ECDI
Daily Post Vanuatu
Read the story

27 July
Speculation Made Material: Experimental Archaeology & Maker’s Knowledge
Dr Adrian Currie
University of Exeter
SYNAPSE Seminar Series
View the recording

21 July
Whose here and whose there? Double perspective and the grammar of social cognition
Prof Nick Evans
Australian National University/ECDI
Abralin ao Vivo Seminar Series
View Abralin ao Vivo recording

29 June
The earliest sea voyages to Australia: Maps, models, and anecdotes from the field
Dr Shimona Kealy
Australian National University/ECDI
SYNAPSE Seminar Series
View the recording

12 June
Online Zoom Screening of film, Kaja-warnu-jangka ‘From the bush’
Carmel O’Shannessy
Australian National University/ECDI
See full movie

30 January
Unravelling human history with ancient DNA
Dr Ray Tobler
University of Adelaide
SYNAPSE Seminar Series