Kit Opie

Congratulations to Dr Becerra-Valdivia and her colleagues on this new publication! 🐢 🌊

Want to have a look at our department (and some flint knapping)?

Have look below👇📽️

Video created by the wonderful Naia Lewendon-Wicks & Bianca Li, 3rd-year Film & TV BA students at @uobartsmatter.bsky.social.

Congratulations to Prof Mhairi Gibson and Dr Hannelore Van Bavel for their new publication!

This work is a broad review on how anthropologists are contributing to understanding on FGMC.

Read through link 👉 doi.org/10.1111/aman...

Why Trump’s options are limited when it comes to using force against Iran As US president tells protesters ‘help is on the way’, any military action would be unlikely to succeed

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

The 1953 Coup in Iran was led by MI6 with CIA support @dansabbagh.bsky.social #Coup53

The Gulf states look towards a joint defensive strategy at the 46th GCC summit - Monocle As Gulf leaders convene for the 46th GCC summit during a tense time for the region, we discuss what role...

Interview (from 17.00) for the Briefing with Monocle_Radio
on State formation: grain, tax and writing - from research (with @quentinatkinson.bsky.social) @nathumbehav.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41....

monocle.com/radio/shows/...

The marvellous @kitopie.bsky.social explaining how both monogamy and 'promiscuous' mating can help females avoid infanticide, "both early humans and chimpanzees are trying to solve the same problem"!

How monogamous are humans compared to other animals?

Check out this BBC interview with @kitopie.bsky.social to learn more!

Recent research by @kitopie.bsky.social also discussed in The Archaeology Channel 👇🏽👏🏽

www.archaeologychannel.org/audio-guide/...

@uobartsmatter.bsky.social

Nice to have heard Kit on the radio yesterday discussing his recent publication on @nathumbehav.nature.com!

Congrats on all the engagement 🙌 🎉

@uobartsmatter.bsky.social

The Gulf states look towards a joint defensive strategy at the 46th GCC summit - Monocle As Gulf leaders convene for the 46th GCC summit during a tense time for the region, we discuss what role...

Interview (from 17.00) for the Briefing with Monocle_Radio
on State formation: grain, tax and writing - from research (with @quentinatkinson.bsky.social) @nathumbehav.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41....

monocle.com/radio/shows/...

Fascinating stuff.

The real reason states first emerged thousands of years ago – new research New findings add weight to the theory that states didn’t just spring up from any kind of farming – it had to be grain.

'It may feel worlds apart, but the challenges and choices facing states today have been playing out since the dawn of the earliest states, thousands of years ago.'

Dr @kitopie.bsky.social (@bristolantharch.bsky.social) writes in a new piece for The Conversation

theconversation.com/the-real-rea...

Here’s @theconversation.com piece accompanying the recent paper by Kit and colleague. Check it out👇🏽

Initial work on this project funded by @leverhulme.ac.uk.

The real reason states first emerged thousands of years ago – new research New findings add weight to the theory that states didn’t just spring up from any kind of farming – it had to be grain.

Agreed - and there also maybe more things causing turbulence for the state. A look at how states emerged in the first place might help us understand what is happening right now. theconversation.com/the-real-rea...

This is the more accessible version.

bsky.app/profile/kito...

The current discussion around tax would benefit from a look back in time don't you think? @meadwaj.bsky.social @paulmason.bsky.social @jonathanfreedland.bsky.social @newstatesman1913.bsky.social

The real reason nation states first emerged thousands of years ago – new research New findings add weight to the theory that nation states didn’t just spring up from any kind of farming – it had to be grain.

We (with @drqueue.bsky.social) explain the process in @uk.theconversation.com theconversation.com/the-real-rea....

Tax the rich to help the poor? That’s certain NOT how states originally emerged. People were forced to grow grain because it was eminently taxable. Those taxes were then used to construct extreme hierarchies with the rich at the top. Writing was used to record taxes and build their institutions.

Our research shows strong evidence to support James Scott's view of the origin of the state @lukekemp.bsky.social, as you discuss in your great book Goliath's Curse.

Thanks for this great article about my study.

Easily taxed grains were crucial to the birth of the first states The cultivation of wheat, barley and maize, which are easily stored and taxed, seems to have led to the emergence of large societies, rather than agriculture generally

Grain, tax and the birth of states. Great piece by @chrisnsimms.bsky.social www.newscientist.com/article/2505... in @newscientist.com on our research rdcu.be/eRGzT (with @drqueue.bsky.social) in @nathumbehav.nature.com. Understanding the origins of tax @newsagents.bsky.social for the budget.

Congratulations to our own, @kitopie.bsky.social, and his colleague on this new @nathumbehav.nature.com paper on the role of cereal grains in the creation of early states! 🙌👏

Clink on the post below to access and enjoy 👇

Taxable grain needed writing, which was invented and adopted to record those taxes. This system was then used by small elites to maintain extreme hierarchies. Our findings support Scott's theory. And understanding these forces may help explain why modern states are under pressure today!

Grains (or grasses) - wheat, barley, rice, and maize were ideal crops because they grow above ground, ripen at a predictable time, and are readily stored, allowing elites to tax efficiently.

This extraction by "Mafia-style protection rackets" according to James Scott —was the origin of the state.

State formation across cultures and the role of grain, intensive agriculture, taxation and writing - Nature Human Behaviour Opie and Atkinson conduct a global phylogenetic analysis of 868 cultures and find evidence indicating that cereal grain cultivation, not agricultural surplus, drove state formation. Their findings als...

The invention of agriculture (around 9,000 years ago) spurred the rise of early states? NO. Our research www.nature.com/articles/s41... (with @drqueue.bsky.social) in @nathumbehav.nature.com supports an alternative theory that States almost invariably formed in societies that grew cereal grains.

How not to run a university | Quentin’s Substack | Quentin Atkinson | Substack A case study of one university’s managerial misadventures, why it is happening and what we can do about it. Click to read Quentin’s Substack, by Quentin Atkinson, a Substack publication. Launched a mo...

My colleague Quentin Atkinson wrote this piece - How Not To Run a University. It is an insanely good read about how managerialism is destroying universities.

Make time for it. Talk about it. Share it.

quentinatkinson.substack.com/s/how-not-to...

New evidence on international inequality of opportunity - how does the UK rank? - The Sutton Trust A new OECD measure offers insights into the state of opportunity in the UK.

🗨️ "According to these findings, opportunity in England is determined by inherited circumstances more so than compared to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland."

What does the OECD's new measure of inequality say about the state of opportunity in the UK? ⤵️

www.suttontrust.com/news-opinion...

This news just in: we hoped the middle- and upper-class capture of the media would lessen. It’s got worse | Carl Cullinane Since our last survey, we find more columnists, podcasters and executives are from privileged backgrounds. That’s too narrow a segment of society, says Carl Cullinane, director of research and policy ...

✍️"It’s striking and somewhat depressing that so many of those providing commentary on the issues affecting British people’s lives – columnists, talking heads and podcasters – are from a private school background."

@carlcullinane.bsky.social in @theguardian.com 👇

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Tax wealth now!