Category Archives: book reviews

Book Review: The Evolution of Human Populations in Arabia

Posted on July 9, 2010 by Carl Feagans

The Evolution of Human Populations in Arabia: Paleoenvironments, Prehistory and Genetics (Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology). Michael D. Petraglia and Jeffrey I. Rose, eds. The Netherlands: Springer. 2009. 312 pp., $129.00 USD. Nestled between three continents that have a rich record … Continue reading →

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Review: Beyond The Hoax

Posted on July 3, 2010 by Carl Feagans

Cover via Amazon Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture, by Alan Sokal (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-19-956183-4, 465 pp. Paper $24.95. The “Hoax” in the title of this book is, of course, the famous (infamous?) post-modernist … Continue reading →

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Vampire Forensics: A Book to Sink Your Teeth in

Posted on March 6, 2010 by Carl Feagans

Vampire Forensics presents the lore and myth of vampires with an eye for science, particularly anthropology, psychology, physiology and, more to my liking, archaeology. I have always enjoyed stories and movies about vampires. At age four, I was hooked on … Continue reading →

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The Greatest Show on Earth has a Sneak-Peak

Posted on August 24, 2009 by Carl Feagans

Image via Wikipedia Richard Dawkins’ new book, The Greatest Show on Earth: the Evidence for Evolution, is due to hit the shelves on September 22nd but he’s written an article in the Times Online, a U.K. news outlet, which appears … Continue reading →

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Czech Biologist or Ethnographer?

Posted on July 8, 2009 by Carl Feagans

Image via Powell’s Books He’s a biologist, but from the posts I linked to below, Vojtech Novotny reads like an ethnographer. It just goes to show you, when it comes to doing science in the world -out of the laboratory, … Continue reading →

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The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Reviewing an Ethnography

Posted on September 6, 2008 by Carl Feagans

I recently had the pleasure of reading Ruth Benedict’s The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, an ethnography done in an experimental style just at the end of World War II in 1946. Benedict studied anthropology under Franz Boas and was the … Continue reading →

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Video: Dawkins vs. McGrath

Posted on July 15, 2007 by admin

I reviewed Alister McGrath’s book, Dawkins’ God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life over a year ago and have been waiting ever since for Dawkins and McGrath to square of and hash out their disagreements. John Loftus at, Debunking … Continue reading →

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Science Blogging Anthology Now in Print

Posted on January 17, 2007 by Carl Feagans

Open Laboratory: The Best Writing on Science Blogs 2006 has been published and is available for purchase and download at Lulu. For those of you that didn’t know, Bora Zivkovic, whose nom de blog is Coturnix at A Blog Around … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Dancing Skeletons, an ethnography

Posted on October 23, 2006 by admin

Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa Author: Katherine A. Dettwyler Publisher: Waveland Press, Long Grove, IL Year: 1994 On average, about 17 children out of 1000 under the age of 7 dies in the world each year (El-Ghannam … Continue reading →

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[Book Review] The Science of Noah’s Flood (part 2 of 2)

Posted on October 4, 2006 by Carl Feagans

Image via Wikipedia The first part of this 2 part review can be found here. In this part, I conclude my review of Noah’s Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries About The Event That Changed History (Ryan and Pittman, 1998), and … Continue reading →

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