Culture

Across cultures and continents, most people prefer to tackle life’s toughest choices alone, trusting their own gut or inner voice over the counsel of friends or the wisdom of the crowd, according to a new study.

Traces of a psychoactive compound has been found in the dental plaque of a woman buried 4,000 years ago, making it the earliest direct chemical evidence of humans chewing betel nut – the world's fourth biggest drug, after tobacco, caffeine and alcohol.

Sure, they're from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but words and phrases from Star Wars have taken on a life of their own in modern English. For the first time, a study reveals how deep-rooted offerings like "to the dark side" truly are.

The earliest spice mix for a Southeast Asian curry has been identified on a sandstone slab excavated from the Óc Eo site in Vietnam. Incredibly, many of the ingredients are still key in curries today, but it also tells a tale about ancient trade routes.

In a study that blows apart the long-held stereotype of women historically playing the role of caregivers and homemakers in societies, researchers have discovered that across they board they've long been born hunters, equal to their male counterparts.

Scientists have demonstrated that clusters of brain cells in a lab dish can be taught to play Pong in an approximation of sentience. This is the first time that these cells have performed goal-directed tasks, opening the door for better brain models.

​In the largest cross-cultural survey ever conducted, a team of anthropologists has determined 7 moral rules they suggest are universal. Surveying ethnographic accounts from 60 different cultures the research concludes every single culture analyzed seems to be ruled by the same moral precepts.​

To us vampires are the stuff of movies, but for many ancient cultures the undead were seen as a very real threat. Now archaeologists excavating a children’s cemetery in Italy have uncovered the skeleton of a child with a large stone jammed into its mouth, to prevent the body returning from the dead.

A new study has shown that regardless of culture or previous exposure, people were accurately able to recognize three emotions in Western music - happiness, sadness and fear.