Author Archives: nshains

By Nick Hainsworth Language is another way we can trace the origin of our species. Think about the word “dog” for a minute. Why is it that when English speakers say the sounds in the word “dog,” a picture of a dog comes into our mind? There isn’t anything about the sounds themselves that hasContinue reading “The Story of Homo Sapiens: Part III”

By Nick Hainsworth In Part I of this blog series, we learned that the physical geography and climate of earth affected the migration of people out of Africa and to the rest of the world. Part II and III focus on two ways that migration affected humanity, and how these things can help teach usContinue reading “The Story of Homo Sapiens: Part II”

By Nick Hainsworth Have you ever wondered how it came to be that there are humans all over the earth? How is it that one species managed to find itself in virtually every spot of land on the planet? The answer is a geographic one. We owe the diversity (or in some instances, the lackContinue reading “The Story of Homo Sapiens: Part I”

By Nick Hainsworth Language is one of the most powerful aspects of culture we have. Language can move, uplift, and inspire, or it can demean, oppress, and slander. Some of the most influential people and movements in history got that way because of charismatic and persuasive language. However, a language can’t go beyond the personContinue reading “Language and Geography”

Members of an isolated tribe living in the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil. Photograph by Gleilson Miranda, distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Brazil license. By Nick Hainsworth Since the dawn of human civilization, people have been in contact with their neighbors. Human communities have almost never lived in true isolation. In our increasingly global world, humanity hasContinue reading “Isolated Peoples”