Can Machine Learning Translate Ancient Egyptian Texts?
A new program aims to use AI to help academics and the public decipher hieroglyphs. Here’s an inside look at how—and whether—it works. ✽ I have long been…
Tag: communication
Can Machine Learning Translate Ancient Egyptian Texts?
Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs adorn the Temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu near Luxor. Vyacheslav Argenberg/Wikimedia Commons I have long been intrigued by archaeogaming—an academic di…
What the Vai Script Reveals About the Evolution of Writing
This handwritten example of Vai script dates to around 1850. British Library/Wikimedia Commons In a small West African village, a man named Momolu Duwalu Bukele had a compelling…
What Is SAPIENS Magazine?
SAPIENS magazine is an online portal for readers to better understand the world and what it means to be human. AerialPerspective Images/Getty Images WHAT IS SAPIENS MAGAZINE? SAPIENS…
What Do Anthropologists Do?
A person documents a centuries-old Basque carnival in Alsasua, Spain. Many anthropologists investigate cultural phenomena, such as rituals and religious traditions. NurPhoto/Getty Images …
Does Green on COVID-19 Maps Mean What You Think?
Picture a traffic light. This isn’t a trick question. We want you to visualize some sort of box housing three lightbulbs, each behind a colored filter: red on…
How to Promote Research on Social Media
Since SAPIENS launched in 2016, several social media outlets have been central to the magazine’s promotion strategy. Every week, we publish multiple posts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram…
How Dr. Li Wenliang Went From a Whistleblower to a National Hero
A memorial at Wuhan Central Hospital in Hubei province, China, honored Li Wenliang, who died on February 7, 2020. STR/AFP/Getty Images On January 3, 2020, Li Wenliang, an…
Margaret Mead Imagined Different Futures
Anthropologist Margaret Mead (center), actor Robert Redford (left), and historian Lola Van Wagenen (right) attend “A Future With Alternatives,” a symposium held in 1978 in New York City.…
When Anthropology Meets the Graphic Novel in Thailand
The graphic novel The King of Bangkok follows the story of Nok, a blind man who makes his living selling lottery tickets on the streets of Bangkok. Claudio…
Ori Schwarz on his book, Sociological Theory for Digital Society
https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Sociological+Theory+for+Digital+Society%3A+The+Codes+that+Bind+Us+Together-p-9781509542963 Interview by: Dan M. Kotliar Dan Kotliar: There is something very conv…
What Industrial Societies Get Wrong About Childhood
[no-caption] ER Productions Limited Each year across the world, kids of roughly the same age are packed into classrooms and confined to desks with the intent of learning…
How People Actually Use Their Smartphones
[no-caption] John Cei Douglas In 2022, the smartphone, first introduced by IBM, will celebrate its 30th birthday. Most of us now use a smartphone every day—whether we like…
They’ll Steal Your Eyes, They’ll Steal Your Teeth
[no-caption] Attila Haag/EyeEm/Getty Images “They’ll Steal Your Eyes, They’ll Steal Your Teeth” is part of the collection Lead Me to Life: Voices of the African Diaspora. Read the…
Illustrating ASSA’s findings with comics – part 4
By Georgiana Murariu and Laura Haapio-Kirk In this blog post, we present the fourth comic in our ASSA comics series, this time set in Kyoto, one of Laura…
Can Indigenous Language Comics Save a Mother Tongue?
This comic book reimagines the oral traditions of Mexico’s Ñäñho people, introducing mischievous creatures called Tlaloques, which inspired the toy at left. María Gámez Tlaloc is a tempes…
What Misspellings Reveal About Cultural Evolution
[no-caption] DrAfter123/Getty Images Something about me must remind people of a blind 17th-century poet. My last name, Miton, is French, yet people outside of France invariably misspell i…
How to Work With a Developmental Editor
[no-caption] Rawpixel/Getty Images Ask SAPIENS is a series that offers a glimpse into the magazine’s inner workings. I sometimes shudder to think of my authors’ faces when they…
Not “just tools”: The framework of equivalence and cochlear implants in Jordan by Timothy Y. Loh
“Should all deaf children learn sign language?” This seemingly innocuous question was the theme of a roundtable article published in the influential journal Pediatrics in 2015, which compiled…
Deaf and Incarcerated in the U.S.
Deaf incarcerated people may have trouble accessing prison programming and educational opportunities due to a lack of necessary accommodations. Michael Williamson/The Washington Post/Getty Im…
How Cellphones Make and Break Human Connections
Cellphones have become an integral part of many people’s lives. Towfiqu Barbhuiya/EyeEm/Getty Images Cellphones have come to occupy increasingly important roles in everyone’s lives, from …
Can Social Scientists Help Control Epidemics?
A poster in an Ebola response center breaks down the evolving response to the epidemic—including efforts to address social and cultural concerns. Annie Wilkinson On May 24, 2014,…
Reviews: Theorising Media & Conflict
This post compiles extracts of published reviews of the edited volume Theorising Media & Conflict (eds. P. Budka & B. Bräuchler, Berghahn Books, 2020). Younes Saramifar (Free University…
Why a Mexican Village’s DIY Cellphone Network Matters
A campesino checks his cellphone while working in the fields outside of Talea de Castro, Mexico (the mountain village in the distance on the upper left). Agustine Sacha…