Have you wondered why certain rituals are still practiced today or how ancient traditions have shaped the Kazakh worldview? Researcher Zira Nauryzbai, in her new lecture series for Qalam, takes us into the fascinating, mysterious world of Kazakh customs around life’s biggest milestones: birth, marriage, and death.

Lectures: 3

Friedrich Engels believed that labor created humans, but modern scientists argue that love, children's curiosity, and long-distance running played a much more significant role in the formation and development of our species. In his new lecture series for Qalam, paleontologist Alexander Markov explains how and why Homo sapiens emerged.

Lectures: 4

Our understanding of our distant ancestors and their kin was formed in the 19th and 20th centuries. Back then, there were no signs of any significant breakthroughs. Skulls, jaws, and, more commonly, phalanges and teeth filled museum reserves, prompting only subdued excitement in the specialized academic press. However, in the 2000s, everything changed with the emergence of a new science - paleogenetics. It gave voice to long-muted remains, unveiled a hitherto undiscovered human species, and provided unparalleled insight into the lives of our ancestors, whose legacy had been preserved solely through bone fragments across the ages.

Lectures: 4