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The Saxe–Goldstein hypothesis is a prediction in archaeology about the relationship between a society's funerary practices and its social organization. It predicts a correlation between two phenomena: the use of specific areas to dispose of the dead, and the legitimation of control over restricted resources through claims of descent from dead ancestors. The hypothesis was first formulated by the anthropologist Arthur Saxe in 1970 and was later refined by Lynne Goldstein. Saxe predicted that societies would be more likely to use formal areas for the disposal of the dead, such as cemeteries, if they contained social groups that legitimized their claims to important, restricted resources by claiming ties to ancestors. The Saxe–Goldstein hypothesis was credited with revitalizing interest in funerary archaeology. It was particularly adopted by adherents of processual archaeology, a body of theory that sought to bring archaeology closer to the natural sciences. From the 1980s, it increasingly fell from favor, and was criticized by post-processual archaeologists as an overgeneralization that oversimplified the different factors that influence funerary practices. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Calvin Duncan in 2025

... that Calvin Duncan (pictured) was elected clerk of the same court that wrongfully convicted him of murder and sentenced him to life in prison?
... that there are cognitions about cognitions?
... that Billy Gallagher's Times Square cabaret was open from sundown to dawn, with a mix of "reputable people" and those "who had practical reasons for circulating after dark"?
... that the Cipero Tramway was the first operational railway in Trinidad and Tobago?
... that voice actor Rena Motomura prepared for an audition by practicing a single challenging line a hundred times a day?
... that Al-Qunayyah, a village in Jordan, is thought to have been the site of a Roman-era sanctuary?
... that to teach high school photography, Kent Kammerer took students on trips to the North Cascades and Olympic Peninsula in a home-built camper?
... that Astor Piazzolla's Oblivion has been called "exquisitely melancholic"?
... that Kamaipuʻupaʻa, the mistress of King Kamehameha V, blamed the 1871 Lānaʻi earthquake on a foreigner riding a horse?

In the news

António José Seguro

Shootings at a residence and a school in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, Canada, leave nine people dead.
António José Seguro (pictured) is elected president of Portugal.
In American football, the Seattle Seahawks defeat the New England Patriots to win the Super Bowl.
In the Thai general election, the Bhumjaithai Party, led by Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, wins the most seats in the House of Representatives.

On this day

February 13: Carnival begins in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2026)

Rodney N. Powell at a Nashville sit-in location

1692 – Members of Clan MacDonald of Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands were massacred, allegedly for failing to pledge allegiance to the new monarchs, William III and Mary II.
1960 – African-American college students staged the first of the Nashville sit-ins (protest sign pictured) at three lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee, as part of a nonviolent direct-action campaign to end racial segregation in the U.S.
1981 – Explosions caused by the ignition of hexane vapors destroyed more than 13 miles (21 km) of sewer lines in Louisville, Kentucky.
1991 – Gulf War: The United States Air Force dropped two laser-guided "smart bombs" on an air-raid shelter in Baghdad, Iraq, which was believed to be a military command site, killing at least 408 civilians.
2010 – A terrorist bombing at a bakery popular among foreigners in Pune, India, killed 17 people and injured 60 others.

Béla II of Hungary (d. 1141)
Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva (d. 1591)
Faiz Ahmad Faiz (b. 1911)
Mami Kawada (b. 1980)

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From today's featured list

Ray Charles

In 1962, fifteen songs topped the Billboard Middle-Road Singles, a chart ranking the top-performing songs in the United States that were considered to be "easy listening" or "middle of the road". The listing was compiled simply by extracting from Billboard's pop music chart, the Hot 100, those songs which were deemed by the magazine's staff to be of an appropriate style, and ranking them according to their positions on the Hot 100. Fifteen different songs topped the chart in 52 issues of the magazine in 1962. The chart was published under the title Easy Listening through the issue of Billboard dated October 27, after which it was renamed Middle-Road Singles. Ray Charles (pictured) was the only artist with more than one number-one song in 1962, with two tracks from his album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. When Connie Francis reached number one with "Don't Break the Heart That Loves You" in March, she became the first act to top the Easy Listening chart twice, having previously spent a single week in the top spot in 1961 with "Together". (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The yellow warbler (Setophaga petechia) is a species of bird in the New World warbler family, Parulidae. It is the most widespread species in the diverse genus Setophaga, breeding in almost the whole of North America, the Caribbean, as well as northern South America. It has 35 subspecies, residing in various different habitats. Depending on the subspecies, the yellow warbler may be between 10 and 18 centimetres (3.9 and 7.1 in) long, with a wingspan from 16 to 22 centimetres (6.3 to 8.7 in). It weighs 7 to 25 grams (0.2–0.9 oz). In winter, female and immature birds all have similarly greenish-yellow uppersides and are a duller yellow below, while males acquire breast and sometimes head coloration. This yellow warbler was photographed in the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in New York City, United States.

Photograph credit: Rhododendrites

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