The Fight to Secure Rights for Rainforests
The Sarayaku community hopes to convince Ecuador’s highest court that their territory is entitled to exist unmolested. Similar rights have been granted to the Ganges River and Te…
Tag: Culture
What Dog Breeds Say About Race
In the Philippines, the most sought-after dogs are those that have a breed—and preferably a certificate that proves their provenance. Be it Alaskan malamute, German shepherd, or Siberian…
Unlikely Blessings
[no-caption] Glenn H. Shepard Jr. When I discovered the poetry of Paul Celan as an undergraduate, I had little idea his words would later guide me through dark…
The Struggles of a “River People” in Assam
A member of the Mising, a tribal, Indigenous community in Assam, India, explains how erosion displaced people along the banks of the Brahmaputra River. Nimisha Thakur One night…
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 …
Death as Something We Make
[no-caption] Rouzes/Getty Images Renee (a pseudonym) closed her eyes, lay her head in her brother’s arms, and gently drew her last breath. Minutes before, she had chugged a…
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,…
Can the Holy Spirit Be Livestreamed?
A pastor reaches out to his global congregants online to emphasize the importance of pandemic lockdowns. Pastor Samuel K Majok—Online Ministry Every Sunday, during her fieldwork, Cristina…
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…
When Kinship Is Traced Through Women, Their Health Follows
Among the ethnically Mosuo community in China, some groups are matrilineal, meaning inheritance passes from mothers to their children rather than from fathers to sons. Patrick Aventurier/Gamm…
What Is Vaccination Equity?
Born in Mexico, Rosario (a pseudonym) has worked as a cleaner in the Los Angeles public hospital system for more than three decades. But despite meeting California state…
Arrival Waters
[no-caption] Traumlichtfabrik/Getty Images I am about 70 years away from the experience that led to this poem and about 50 years away from anthropology. Some 20 years ago…
What’s Behind Match Day’s Algorithm?
The opening of Match Day letters at medical schools across the U.S., including Penn State College of Medicine (shown here), has become an annual rite of passage. Penn…
Mucus Passports: Mobility in the Time of COVID-19
[no-caption] Bim/Getty Images GUARANTEE “Have you gotten your COVID-19 test result already?” Vijay (a pseudonym) asks me while ringing up my bill at his salon. “Yes,” I answer.…
What Problems Does Organic Cotton Solve?
[no-caption] Andrew Flachs One warm afternoon several years ago, I was walking with Korianna,* a farmer in Telangana, India, when I smelled something bad. The scent of diesel…
Heart of Stone
“The world is thus ‘animate.’ ‘We’ are not the only kind of we. The world is also ‘enchanted.’” —Eduardo Kohn, How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human Anthropologist…
Social Distancing in a Sumatra Rainforest
An Orang Rimba man named Nyeruduk stands in front of a tent on a rubber plantation in Sumatra. Dedi Supriansyah On an otherwise silent night in March 2020,…
What Does the American Dream Have to do With the COVID-19 Vaccine?
Protestors gather outside Dodger Stadium, a mass vaccination site in Los Angeles, in January. Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images On January 30, protesters disrupted a mass…
Anarchism In Practice Is Often Radically Boring Democracy
Most anarchist organizing requires the full participation and consensus of all members. Sterling College/Flickr Two hours into a weekly planning session, the 15 or so black-clothed, tatto…
How Imperialism Gave Us 2020
Violence and disease have long been intertwined in the Americas. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images The world is caught in the grip of a deadly pandemic and yet another wave…
Love Poem for the Shape of the Field
[no-caption] Johannes Plenio/Pexels The sun opens, shutters. The social scientist wants to know where to look, keeps widening her gaze. Over here on the earth, a girl fries…
Does Love Always Come Before Marriage?
Thousands of couples were wed in a mass ceremony in South Korea on February 7, 2020. Some of them had only met a few weeks earlier, after being…
A Radical Recentering of Dignity
A protestor in 2020 in Santiago waves the Chilean flag. Marcelo Hernandez/Getty Images In an interview during October of 2019, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera made a statement that…
Why Losing Bonds Sports Fans
Football fans respond to their team during a match. Motortion Films/Shutterstock This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished under Creative Commons. …