Uncovering 11 Amazing Anthropology Fun Facts: Discover the Hidden Wonders of Human Culture

1. Cave Paintings: The Original Emojis

Before emojis, LOLs, and texts from the Stone Ages roamed the Earth, our ancestors were all about that art life: The earliest known forms of communication were primitive cave paintings from around 130,000 B.C.E, showcasing the day's hottest events using fruity pigments, mineral palettes, and some chic animal blood.
Source => creativedisplaysnow.com

2. Purple Nutsedge: Ancestor's Toothbrush

Who needs a toothbrush when you've got purple nutsedge on the menu? Our Sudanese ancestors sure knew how to flash a pearly white smile: Anthropological studies discovered that humans in ancient Sudan munched on the antibacterial plant purple nutsedge, resulting in fewer than 1% of them having any signs of tooth decay—an astonishingly low rate for a population sans dental floss or toothpaste!
Source => tompkinsdental.com

Did you know cousin marriages were once popular in 19th-century Europe and the US? The risk of birth defects isn't as dramatic as you might think. Uncover more intriguing facts!

=> Fun Facts about Sociology

3. Anthropologists: Dental Detectives

Who said dentists have all the fun? Anthropologists win the tooth and bone lottery too: They use dental imaging, hip bone analysis, and even DNA to estimate people's age, while also taking cultural context and lifestyle habits into account for a well-rounded understanding of a person's identity.
Source => ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

4. Ötzi: The O.G of Tattoos

Before there were hipsters with ironic mustache tattoos and tribal armbands, there was Ötzi, the O.G. of inked-up individuals: This ancient European Tyrolean Iceman, who kicked the icy bucket around 3250 B.C., proudly sported at least 61 tattoos across his millennia-old bod, making him the current record holder for the oldest confirmed tattoos in human history.
Source => si.edu

5. Neanderthal Family Dinner Surprise

Just when you thought your family dinners were awkward: Anthropologists have discovered evidence of Neanderthals in northern Europe practicing cannibalism, as bones found in a cave in Goyet, Belgium belonged to at least five individuals, showed signs of butchering, marrow extraction, and were even used to shape tools, prompting a debate about how Neanderthals treated their dead and showcasing their culturally sophisticated practices.
Source => npr.org

6. AI's Ancient DNA Dance Party

Ready to take a byte out of history? Artificial intelligence is making ancient DNA dance like it's 1999: By using deep learning and approximate Bayesian computation techniques, researchers have identified a previously unknown archaic ancestor in Asia and Oceania, offering us an electrifying glimpse into the human evolution and history.
Source => en.wikipedia.org

7. Hadza Honey: The Carb Deception

Honey, they didn't shrink the carbs: Despite popular belief, traditional diets of hunter-gatherers, like the Hadza group in Tanzania, contain a high percentage of carbohydrates, with about 15 to 20 percent of calories coming from honey. Shockingly, these folks remain among the healthiest people on Earth with minimal cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, or diabetes and living well into their golden years.
Source => globalhealth.duke.edu

8. Thespis: Theater's First Superstar

Back in ancient Greece, when theater was way more than Netflix and chill, and Broadway was merely a far-off dream: the world's first actor, Thespis, stepped onto the scene in 534 or 535 BC, ditching the choir and hopping on a wooden cart to recite poetry as the character in the lines, giving birth to modern theater and the term thespian, all while tickling ancient Athenians' funny bones during a lively festival called the 'City Dionysia.'
Source => pbs.org

9. MasterChefs of Mesopotamia

Who said ancient diets were barbaric and boring? Those Mesopotamian MasterChefs sure knew how to stew up a storm: Original food bloggers from as far back as 1750 BCE, they had recipes inscribed on cuneiform tablets, featuring a smorgasbord of meats, vegetables, and grains to create their Babylonian feasts, seasoned with onions, garlic, and leeks, and catering only to the culinary elite.
Source => indroyc.com

10. Prehistoric Matchmaking

Say "I do" to prehistoric matchmaking: Anthropology suggests that the tradition of arranged marriages dates back to early human migrations out of Africa, with brideprice and brideservice indicating a regulated exchange of mates and resources between lineages, rather than just practical or economic reasons.
Source => ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

11. Ancestors of Hospice: Laughter & Care

Who says laughter isn't the best medicine? It turns out our ancestors were the OG hospice squad, nursing each other back to health like prehistoric Florence Nightingales: Anthropology research shows that care-giving played a substantial role in human evolution, altering disease progression and selecting for pathogens and immune systems specialized for care-giving, making us the only species with widespread, cooperative care for the sick.
Source => nature.com