Is the Pandemic Slowing Down Love?
[no-caption] Angus Krieg SAPIENS host Jen Shannon speaks with biological anthropologist Helen Fisher about her research on love, sex, and everything in between. Fisher is the author of…
Tag: Culture
The Pandemic and the Process of Becoming
Anthropologist Victor Turner’s work on transitional states may shed light on people’s pandemic experiences of the betwixt and between. Pixabay/Pexels As a parent of two kids in elementary…
Sexworkers’ long history as political experts: Thierry Schaffauser
The other day Thierry Schaffauser posted some reflections on facebook on the history of sexworkers as thinkers and leaders in activism for social change. Objecting to the exclusion…
The Casual Menace of a Trump Rally
After the 2016 U.S. presidential election, supporters of president-elect Donald Trump packed the Giant Center (shown here) for a victory rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Anand Pandian Thin…
What If There Is Life on Venus?
In the throes of a pandemic that has underscored the fragility of human life on Earth, news has come of possible life on another planet, with the detection…
We started a podcast!
Standplaats Wereld is expanding with a new component. We will continue to marvel you with our stories, but from now on, we will also explore them in the…
When the Gift of Immigration Comes With Strings
[no-caption] Rachaphak Kitbumrung/Getty Images A year ago, I found myself trying to ease the tension rising in a makeshift classroom in Istanbul, Turkey, where I was a volunteer…
Do Black Lives Matter in Outer Space?
Artist Peter Williams explores Afrofuturist themes in this painting titled “He Was a Global Traveler.” (Peter Williams, “He Was a Global Traveler,” 2020, oil on canvas, 72 x 96…
How the Zapotec Are Fighting COVID-19
Some Indigenous Mexican communities protect themselves against the novel coronavirus by using age-old practices. zug zwang/Flickr This article was originally published at The Conversat…
How COVID-19 Is Changing People’s Relationships With Houseplants
“Since when did people start naming plants?” my mother asked me. We were at the dining room table, scrolling through pictures of plants on my iPhone. The photos—close-ups…
Waterloo-Redfern and the Racism Rooted in Cities
Who are cities designed for? Resolution Productions/Getty Images This June, a statue of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, was…
A Japanese Sea Spirit Battles COVID-19
Some public health messages in Japan use the image of Amabie, a three-legged folklore mermaid, to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare…
The Public Problem With Counterterrorism
A British army helicopter flies over Estonian forests during a massive annual military training exercise. NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization/Flickr The terrorist attacks on Septem…
Why White Kids Need Hamilton More Than Ever
[no-caption] Travis Wise/Flickr Every morning when my son opens the dishwasher for his morning chores, his daily tribute to the Broadway musical Hamilton begins in song: “How does…
The Dead Must Be Counted
Crosses bear the names of the dead and the missing along a migrant trail connecting Mexico to Arizona. Christina Felschen In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, disputes…
What Many Don’t Know About Welfare
This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished under Creative Commons. When Americans talk about people receiving public assistance—food stamps, disability, unemplo…
What Scars Say About Sex and Stereotypes
[no-caption] Dean Krakel/Getty Images I recently noticed a curious phenomenon playing out on various television series. In Outlander, Scottish heartthrob Jamie Fraser’s back is seared wit…
What Milk-Sharing Communities Reveal
[no-caption] Getty Images Heather Wascak was devastated. In 2014, within days of giving birth to a baby girl, Lucia, she was aching to be with her child. “She’s…
Can a Robot Guess What You’re Thinking?
What on earth are you thinking? Other people think they know, and many could make a pretty decent guess, simply from observing your behavior for a short while.…
Communities Grapple With Exposure to “Forever Chemicals”
PFAS foam washes ashore in Van Etten Lake in Oscoda, Michigan, near a former Air Force base. Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy/Flickr Every summer, Ruth and…
Gretchen Bakke on The Likeness
Interview by Krisztina Fehérváry https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520320048/the-likeness Krisztina Fehérváry: Something I love about great ethnography is the classic move of introducing the reader to…
Reflecting on the Rise of the Hoteps
Egyptian culture and art have been harnessed by some African Americans as a focal point for Black pride. Steve Evans/Flickr A meme circulating on social media shows “the…
Will U.S. University Students Spread COVID-19?
In the 1980s, the Reagan administration made plans for the orderly evacuation of U.S. cities in the event of an imminent nuclear war. Supposedly, city residents with odd-numbered…
Who Gets to Study Whom?
[no-caption] recep-bg/Getty Images About a decade ago, Chisomo Kalinga was in a bind. The medical humanities scholar, then a graduate student at King’s College London, was looking for…