Mark Collard: Simon Fraser University Archaeology

Afzal Upal: OccidentalCognitive anthropologists such as Pascal Boyer have argued that religious concepts are minimally counterintuitive and that this gives them mnemic advantages. I will ague that people have the memory architecture that results in such concepts being more memorable because it makes them better learners which gives them an evolutionary edge over their competitors. […]

Roger Sullivan: CSU Sacramento, Anthropology, and UC Davis School of Medicine, Psychiatry and Behavioral SciencesNeurobiological models of drug abuse propose that drug use is initiated and maintained by rewarding feedback mechanisms. However, most commonly used drugs are plant neurotoxins that evolved to punish, not reward, consumption by animal herbivores. Reward models therefore implicitly assume an […]