In Current Anthropology from Februar is a important debate about how far genetic determinism reaches. Cultural Anthropologists are complaining since some years about a overestimating of genetic determinism. Now they get help from the Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University. Paul Ehrlich and Marcus Feldman write in their paper: "A central theme of the flood of literature in recent years in "evolutionary psychology" and "behavioral genetics" is that much or even most human behavior has been programmed into the human genome by natural selection. We show that this conclusion is without basis." The Stanford authors argued that very visible evolutionary psychologists, such as MIT's Pinker, do not acknowledge "the importance of interactions and of cultural evolution" but promote the idea of a genetically fixed human nature. You should at least read this very good abstract of the debate from stanford university. In Current Anthropology you will find also some critical answers to the paper from scientists.

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We already reported about a new book from an australian historian which tried to disprove the thesis of the genocide of aborigines by the white man. Now Cathie Clement, Vice President of the Australian Council of Professional Historians Associations pointed us to a collection of links to debates and discussings of this book in australia. She explains: "The book is part of a range of writing that seeks to counter left-wing influence on people's thinking about the history of Indigenous Australians." Thanks for that!

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