CULTURE
Aeon
The Mbendjele BaYaka of the Congo Basin are one of the last highly mobile hunter-gatherer groups in the world, living in multifamily camps of 20 to 80 people that shift location according to the seasonal availability of food, water, and other resources. Researchers studying the group have found that their mobility is not simply a survival strategy but a deeply embedded cultural and cosmological practice — a way of being in the world that has persisted for hundreds of thousands of years. Their movement also serves to maintain genetic diversity and distribute cultural innovations across a wide social network.
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CULTURE
Journal of Applied Philosophy
The ethics of being a sports fan raises a range of philosophical questions about identity, loyalty, and moral responsibility. Scholars have examined whether partisan fandom — unconditional support for a team regardless of its conduct — is morally defensible, or whether fans bear some responsibility for the behavior of the clubs, athletes, and fellow supporters they align with. Key issues include whether fandom reinforces racist or sexist institutional cultures, and how fans should respond when their team or its owners act unethically.
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CULTURE
Medievalists.net
A previously overlooked entry in a 15th-century manuscript has provided new evidence that Thurstan, Archbishop of York from 1114 to 1140, was venerated as a saint — contrary to the longstanding historical assumption that he was never canonized. The discovery was made by English Heritage historian Dr. Michael Carter in the archives at King's College Cambridge. The document, a service book from Pontefract Priory, lists a feast day for "Saint Thurstan, archbishop of York" on February 6th, written in red ink to denote its liturgical significance.
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CULTURE
Smithsonian Magazine
The Lycurgus Cup is a 4th-century Roman glass chalice that appears jade green when lit from the front but shifts to a glowing blood-red when light passes through it from behind. Held at the British Museum, the cup depicts King Lycurgus of Thrace ensnared in grapevines. For decades after the museum acquired it in the 1950s, scientists were baffled by its color-changing properties.
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