Aztec Cannibalism and the Calorific Obsession

Assessing the calorific significance of episodes of human cannibalism in the Palaeolithic

Episodes of Palaeolithic cannibalism have frequently been defined as 'nutritional' in nature, but with little empirical evidence to assess their dietary significance. This paper presents a nutritional template that offers a proxy calorie value for the human body. When applied to the Palaeolithic record, the template provides a framework for assessing the dietary value of prehistoric cannibalist...

Covering the Aztec Diamond

There are 107 non-isomorphic coverings of the Aztec diamond of order 5 by the 25 one-sided tetrasticks. In [6] Donald Knuth describes how to attack certain types of puzzles by computer. One type of puzzle he tried to solve is the covering of patterns by tetrasticks. Tetrasticks — or more general polysticks — were introduced by Brian Barwell [1]: Pieces made from a fixed number of line segments ...

Academia's obsession with quantity.

We live in the era of rankings. Universities are being ranked, journals are being ranked, and researchers are being ranked. In this era of rankings, the value of researchers is measured in the number of their papers published, the citations they received, and the volume of grant income earned. Academia today is governed by one simple rule: more is better. The idea to reward those who are produc...

Aztec medicine.

THE discovery of America placed the European nations in contact with three major civilizations, the Aztec in the Mexican plateau, the Maya in the Yucatan peninsula, and the Inca in the Peruvian Andes. The Mayas had been settled for centuries in the same area and developed a civilization with high cultural manifestations, whereas the Aztecs and Incas, in spite of their political power and strong...

Aztec Art