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ANTHROPOLOGY

Unboxing cultural rituals: Christmas in pandemic times
17-12-2020 | @ GettyImages
Why do children believe in Santa Claus, and how could Christmas rituals bring us closer together in the current pandemic crisis? By exploring the fundamental causes and consequences of cultural rituals, ERC grantee Harvey Whitehouse at the University of Oxford could provide answers to these questions. His research seeks to help policymakers tackle major global challenges such as COVID-19, terrorism and climate change.
What makes us Europeans?
10-11-2020 | @ GettyImages
What holds Europe together? In the face of economic instability, shifting political trends and a global pandemic, this question comes to mind more and more often. ERC grantee Anelia Kassabova is part of a team of four researchers who, in 2019, won a Synergy Grant to investigate this issue and find what really ‘unites us in diversity’.
A new look into prehistoric motherhood
22-10-2020 | @ Bundesdenkmalamt Austria / Burial of a 12-14 year-old girl from Franzhausen
Same past, different histories: Remembering the Jagiellonians across Europe
21-10-2019 | © picture
When you think of the Renaissance period in Europe, what springs to mind? Perhaps the Medici family in Italy where the Renaissance is said to have begun, or the discovery of the ‘New World’ by Europeans like Christopher Columbus or Abel Tasman. But have you heard of the Jagiellonians?
Asian highlands: remote, yet thoroughly connected to the outside world
09-07-2018 | Image: at the crossroads in Sary Tash,Kyrgyzstan ©Martin Saxer, 2013
In the highlands of Asia, an area spanning the mountain regions between the Pamirs and the eastern Himalayas, livelihoods are shaped as much by remoteness as by connectivity. With ERC funding, Dr Martin Saxer intends to shed new light on these areas at the edge of nation-states yet in the centre of geopolitical concerns.
Old and new diversities recreating urban spaces
28-04-2017 | ©Illustration: MPI-MMG - Steven Vertovec
Global migration flows show a profound diversification of migrants’ groups in recent years. Their patterns of nationality, ethnicity, language, age, gender and legal status are growing ever more complex and migrants with ‘new diversity’ traits live in cities alongside people from previous immigration waves. Prof. Steven Vertovec’s comparative study helps understand how old and new waves of migrants meet, mix, interact and get integrated into a given society.
Fascination for humans
05-04-2017 | © picture
Virpi Lummaa holds an Academy of Finland Professorship at the University of Turku, Finland. She is interested in ageing, lifespan and natural selection in contemporary human populations, looking at evolutionary, ecological and demographic factors. At present, Prof. Lummaa also focuses on senescence patterns of the Asian elephant, a long-lived mammal that offers unique opportunities to address ageing mechanisms. Her latest findings highlight the significant role that elephant grandmothers play to ensure the survival of the calves, providing vital baby elephant care comparable to childcare in human communities across the world. Originally published in March 2017 as part of the multimedia campaign "ERC - 10 years – 10 portraits."