The Emotional Toll of Death in Syria: Revolution to Toppling
After more than eight years of no contact, I conducted a video call with a former non-influential officer from an […] The post The Emotional Toll of Death…
Tag: Death
Presentation Announcement:「The “Crisis” of Sociality: Caring for the Dead Otherwise with Anne Allison」
May 23, 2025 / 6:00pm -7:30pm / Room 301, Building 10, Sophia University / In person only / No registration required Responding to the record low birthrate and…
In Japan, Rethinking What It Means to Care for the Dead
Facing an increasing aging population and other societal shifts, people are looking beyond traditional family-based mortuary practices. ✽ It’s August in Tokyo—hot and muggy, as usual. So I’ve…
Fighting for Justice for the Dead—and the Living
A group of forensic anthropologists argues their field must reject the myth of pure objectivity and challenge systemic inequities through advocacy and activism. ✽ WHEN A PERSON DIES,…
Harvest Song
A poet-anthropologist celebrates relatedness across difference in a poem that honors the festivals of Navratri, Durga Puja, Kali Puja, Day of the Dead, and Halloween—all of which draw…
Fire bodies
Fire Bodies was written in response to the death of my partner and the embodied experience of climate catastrophic events. […] The post Fire bodies appeared first on…
For Families of Missing Loved Ones, Forensic Investigations Don’t Always Bring Closure
An anthropologist working in Azerbaijan looks beyond forensic science to understand the value of culturally specific ways people navigate uncertainty in protracted conflict zones. ✽ I first met…
Buried in the Shadows, Ireland’s Unconsecrated Dead
A visual anthropologist reflects on the history of cillíní, unmarked and mostly hidden burial sites in Ireland where loved ones continue to care for the dead. South of…
Nameless Woman
Archives often render marginalized people’s histories invisible. In response to such erasure, a poet writes a letter to explore the experience of historically enslaved African and Creole women…
What a Community’s Mourning of an Owl Can Tell Us
An anthropologist examines what the outpouring of grief over New York’s Flaco the owl, who died recently, reveals how much attitudes toward these creatures have changed. This article…
Bila Mwili
A poet-historian in Tanzania remembers those who have passed but who are still nearby. “Bila Mwili” is part of the collection Poems of Witness and Possibility: Inside Zones…
“On Bread Alone”: A Deeper Cut
Photo Neni Panourgiá. Necromancer (The Oracle of the Dead) by the river Acheron, Greece. Jugs that held cereal and other seed offerings to the shrine. 14th-13th century BCE.…
On Bread Alone
Neni PanourgiáJustice-in-Education Initiative, Heyman Center for the HumanitiesColumbia University The Beginning My father would cut the bread against his chest. Winter or summer, dressed for d…
What It’s Like to Grow Old on the Margins
In a brief documentary, an anthropologist provides a glimpse into the precarious lives of poor older Peruvians whose experiences mirror those of countless elders around the world. ✽…
How Racism Shapes the U.S. Opioid Epidemic
Public health officials say opioid use and related deaths have reached a crisis point in the U.S. An interview with anthropologist and psychiatrist Helena Hansen unpacks the racial…
Mara Buchbinder on her book, Scripting Death
https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520380202/scripting-death Hyemin Lee: Readers might be curious about your intellectual trajectory as well as the motivation behind the years-long research and …
Funeral for an Embryo
On a freezing February morning, I pulled my rental car into the small parking lot behind a sprawling Minnesota church. I had flown halfway across the country to…
Decoding Diversity and Power at Machu Picchu
New DNA analysis has revealed surprising diversity among remains from burial sites in Peru. A genetic anthropologist explains what this suggests about the 15th century Inca palace. This…
Giving Winter a Funeral in Transylvania
In a village in Romania, residents maintain a centuries-old carnival tradition called farsang to mark winter’s death. ✽ As the morning sun ambles over blunted cliffs, whips break…
Finding Mrs. Jackson
From your backyard to a hill by the ocean, you can come upon an archaeological find just about anywhere. But what happens when that object was a keepsake…
I Do This for You, Mom
One day, a woman in Baltimore received a text message from her mother wishing her a happy holiday. But something didn’t feel quite right. Jeri Hutton Green is…
Can Digitizing Gravestones Save History?
An anthropologist is digitizing gravestones at Burial Hill, a historic cemetery in Plymouth, Massachusetts, that holds the remains of some of the first Pilgrims. Documenting these unique records…
Centering Black Lives in the Study of Human Remains
A contributor to a special series on decolonizing anthropology reckons with bioarchaeology’s racist past by focusing on Black women’s creativity and everyday lives in her work. This contribution…
Aztec Antichrist: A Performance of the Apocalypse
A 16th-century play written by the descendants of the Aztecs after the Spanish conquest dramatically reveals Indigenous people’s responses to their religious conversion. Excerpted from Aztec Antichri…