Human Bridges Project
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Nineteenth-century activists revolutionized attitudes toward nonhuman animals amid cultural, economic, and moral shifts in a rapidly changing nation.
By Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy in Animal Rights | Earth Food Life Project and Human Bridges Project | English | February 3, 2025
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This is a guide to notable prehistoric and ecological sites in Costa Rica and the museums and supplemental media you can use to learn more about them.
As we head into a future shaped by climate change, we must find ways to stabilize societies and reduce conflict. Solutions may lie in the archaeological record.
By applying a concept widely used in mathematics and computer science, Carole Crumley has radically changed the way anthropologists see and study societies.
The Venetian Republic’s political system, emerging alongside those of other Italian city-states, was founded on collaboration and power distribution. Its rise and decline highlight the importance of adaptability in the face of shifting global political dynamics.
Frederick L. Coolidge explains the link between numerosity and language.
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This is a visual guide to two journeys through South Africa created by the Cradle of Human Culture.
What reading Georges Bataille could teach you about the birth of art—and of humanity.
The Mesoamerican city of Monte Albán is a powerful case study that early investments in public infrastructure and goods foster longer-term sustainability.
By Linda M. Nicholas and Gary M. Feinman in Human Bridges | Human Bridges Project | English | Guide to Human Bridges
What we can learn from an ancient egalitarian civilization in the Indus Valley.
The evidence tells us that cooperative and pluralistic governments were at least as common as and more resilient than despotic states in the region.
The movement to revillage our modern world seeks to combat mental illness, housing and climate disasters.
A 2021 study on the effects of climate crises in ancient Mesopotamia found increased cooperation and a more widespread distribution of power.
Mysterious stone balls continue to puzzle archaeologists.
A paradigm shift has occurred in our understanding of when the first humans settled in Western Eurasia.
There are strong evidence that clans, culture, and dialects are not unique to humans.
Looking to our cultural evolutionary origins might help us improve society at many levels.
Anthropologists’ research on the origins of war, going back to the beginning of human history and our closest ape relatives, suggests war is not part of our evolution. They also find systems of peace work, and many already exist.
Collaborative efforts between forest agencies and Indigenous communities are improving wildfire management by combining oral histories with long-term archaeological datasets, demonstrating the value of integrating an understanding of the past into solutions for a better future.
Peer learning is a way of transferring important information beyond our own native social groups.
Anthropologists have recognized the characteristic patterns of butchery on human remains in archaeological sites from around the world, across huge swathes of time.
What draws us to such a distant and long-gone time? A fruitful relationship has always existed between prehistory (a scientific discipline constantly refreshed by new discoveries) and the visual artists who interpret it.
Language plays an important role in understanding the concept of numbers.
An interview with renowned archaeologist Gary M. Feinman on the emergence of a global data set from our past that humanity can use to prosper—and avoid the biggest mistakes.
An interview with renowned economic historian Michael Hudson on where our calendar comes from, his collaborations with the late intellectual David Graeber, and the long-lost practice of forgiving debt.
Discover how hunter-gatherer societies actively maintained equality through mockery, shared resources, and social strategies, challenging the assumption that egalitarianism is “simple” and revealing the complex effort it takes to keep everyone on equal footing.
What led humans on the unique path of cultural development? And can we do anything useful with newly reconstructed histories of this process?
Developments in the study of human prehistory hold clues about our times, our world, and ourselves.
You can learn a lot about humanity from the first technological revolutions of more than 10,000 years ago.
How exclusionary social movements rise in polarized societies, fueled by economic, political, and social factors. Can inclusive movements find a way forward?
By Colin Greer and Eric Laursen in Human Bridges | Human Bridges Project | English | September 11, 2024
Examines toxic polarization's origins in malignant bonding, scarcity mindsets, and trauma, offering strategies for societal change.
African ape fossils are missing from a key Miocene period. Did apes evolve in Eurasia and return to Africa, or are fossils missing?
Twin research sheds light on genetics, behavior, and evolutionary psychology, helping us understand human nature and individual differences.
How pseudo-archaeology and alternative history, fueled by media and conspiracy culture, have gained popularity in the U.S., influencing extremist ideologies.
New findings and significant advances in research have scientists rethinking our origins, and museums around the world are working to catch the public up.
Interviewing the neuroscientist and primate behavior expert on a question that could radically change our understanding of reality.
The wealth of qualitative and quantitative archaeological data challenges the Eurocentric notion of a single linear course in human history.
Just as humans gradually developed bipedalism to aid their survival, they have innate responses to circumstances and tendencies that guide their behavior.
Our first molars emerge at exactly the right time for a primate trying to build an enormous brain the size of ours.
Ancient human retrovirus DNA could be one of the markers of susceptibility to mental illness—specifically schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder, a new study suggests.
The overall picture of when and where the specific characteristics of our human ancestors appeared has a plausible answer.
By Marjorie Hecht in Human Bridges | Human Bridges Project | English | May 31, 2024 | Guide to Human Bridges
Humans learn cues to perceive social hierarchy as early as infancy, and later self-perceptions of lower rank, however accurate, affect health and happiness.
Playing encourages cooperation and tolerance, and may even support collective decision-making.
The human species boasts something rare among all animals: females who live long beyond their ability to reproduce.
Legible and open urban plans with widespread access to services and power tend to be associated with more collective, less autocratic forms of governance, says a new study.
In a world so profoundly transformed by science and technology, it seems reasonable to ask: Why do religions still exist?
Of all the pivotal technologies discovered by humans, fire making was the one that gifted our species with power beyond all others.
Can we pinpoint a time in our evolutionary trajectory when we wandered from the path of empathy, compassion and respect for one another and for all forms of life?
Extensive ocher use reflects the culture and cognitive abilities of early humans, who inherited an affinity for red from primate ancestors.
We need a broad comparative lens to produce useful explanations and narratives of our origins across time
Evolution has shaped the way we bond with one another, especially in regards to our rather unlikely mating system: monogamy.
Is large-scale intraspecific warfare Homo sapiens’ condition, or can our species strive to achieve global peace?
The success of our species may come down to one key trait: the ability to cooperate with people who are not relatives.
It is necessary to challenge some pervasive myths that fundamentally shape not just what we think about the past, but why so many see history as irrelevant when it comes to guiding the present and shaping the future.
Today’s hot-button issue is actually as old as the human race.
We are witnessing a dramatic decline in the legitimacy of democracy as a governing ideal.
Mark Changizi’s study offers a scientific and anthropological explanation for a phenomenon many take for granted.
Associated Authors
Deborah Barsky is a writing fellow for the Human Bridges project of the Independent Media Institute, a researcher at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution, and an associate professor at the Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona, Spain, with the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). She is the author of Human Prehistory: Exploring the Past to Understand the Future.
Yann Perreau is a writer, educator, contemporary art curator, and writing fellow for the Human Bridges project of the Independent Media Institute. He has published several books on art, climate, anonymity, and more. His articles have appeared in many publications, including Libération, Art Press, and East of Borneo. He has served as a cultural attaché for both the French Embassy in London and the French Consulate in Los Angeles. He holds an MPhil in art history from Paris’s EHESS.
Brenna R. Hassett is a biological anthropologist and archaeologist whose research focuses on childhood, growth, and health in the past.
Irina Matuzava is a contributor to the Human Bridges project.
