Book Burning
Are we living in the greatest ever era of incineration? Add your favourite book burning quotes here. Bradbury’s F◦451, Maugham’s Razors Edge, Umberto Eco’s name of the Rose,…
Tag: environment
The cats of Gaza, or why Nakba is a multispecies catastrophe
Like many of my friends and colleagues, I have been relying on the social media accounts of Gazan journalists, photographers, and others (some so young they could be…
Ancient Pollen Is Hiding in a Surprising Place
A paleoecologist explains what pollen in fossilized mammal urine can reveal about past ecosystems and environmental change. This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been repu…
AnthroKino
In November and December, Allies meet (online) to watch ethnographic films and discuss with their makers. We have a wonderful line up of movies that explore humanitarianism (The…
Let there be Light: Frontiers of techno-Solar Capitalism
I grew up in an area surrounded by miombo woodland, located approximately 200 kilometres southeast of Lake Tanganyika. In the early 1990s, when I was five, my father…
Past and Present Approaches to the Management of Red Deer
An archaeologist weighs the pros and cons driving debates around the rising population of Scotland’s renowned animal and explains what historical archaeology could add to the conversation. This…
Through Film, Discovering Hope in the Face of Environmental Destruction
In the midst of acute eco-anxiety, can community-based filmmaking help young people imagine a different future? FILMMAKING IN THE ANTHROPOCENE A group of 12-year-olds enters a decrepit building…
Can Archaeology Help Restore the Oceans?
On the Channel Islands, archaeologists draw lessons in sustainability from historic Chumash fishing practices. USING THE PAST FOR THE FUTURE Off the southern California coast lies a little-known…
The Persistence of Fukushima’s Fisherfolk
In a new book, an anthropologist with long-term ties to northeastern Japan shares stories of how fishing communities have continued making a living in uncertain waters after the…
On the Quandaries of Aquatic Forensics
A team of scientists, including an anthropologist, explains the challenges and methods for locating, identifying, and retrieving human remains from underwater. This article was originally published a…
AI, Climate Adaptation, and Epistemic Injustice
Amid global climate impacts, vulnerable communities—including indigenous peoples, farmers, fisherfolk, and low-income groups—are frequently expected to adapt, change, and build resilience to uncerta…
The Heaviness
A multidisciplinary poet-scholar and suicide attempt and multi-suicide loss survivor unveils complex anthropological threads that shape suicidal ideation. ✽ Worldwide, most people know someone who ha…
Why Nahua Pilgrims Carry Thousands of Papers Up Sacred Peaks
Along mountain pilgrimages, two anthropologists learn how an Indigenous Mesoamerican religion helps people practice a reciprocal relationship with the Earth. Based on Pilgrimage to Broken Mountain: Na…
Podcast on Gulf Almanac Lore
My podcast with Ahmed AlMaazmi and Tamara Fernando is posted online on the New Books Network.
Post-
An Indigenous poet-anthropologist writes to her daughter of the limits of her motherly protection. “Post-” is part of the collection Indigenizing What It Means to Be Human. Read…
Aného’s Disappearing Coast
How do people adapt when the ground beneath their feet starts to wash away? All over the world, coastal communities are facing the same challenges: rising sea levels…
The Conversion of Julio Tiwiram
What is shamanic power? And how does it affect modern politics in Indigenous Amazonia? In this episode, we follow the life of a young Indigenous activist fighting for…
Notes on Beuret.
An annotation of someone’s article abstract is probably a bit unfair. I’ve managed some awful ones myself. Sigh. Here I was, stuck in a long meeting, listening to…
The Astounding Origins of Chaco Canyon Timber
In a nearly treeless desert, Ancestral Puebloans built Great Houses with more than 200,000 massive log beams. Where they got the wood has long puzzled archaeologists. THE QUESTION…
The Human Roots of Japan’s Cherry Blossoms
Most cherry blossom trees planted in Japan today are the iconic pale-pink somei-yoshino variety—but its reign may be coming to an end. SAKURA FEVER I was in Japan…
Why These Hong Kong Urbanites Are Farming
An anthropologist takes readers inside a Hong Kong ecovillage, revealing a small but thriving movement built around food, sustainability, and community. A HONG KONG ECOVILLAGE One January morning,…
The Mexican River Defenders Fighting for the San Pedro
Nature-loving volunteers in the Mexican state of Chihuahua gather weekly on the banks of the San Pedro River to collect trash. But their aims are bigger. ✽ If…
Car-user paid model for funding bike-transportation infrastructure; a cheeky proposal reconsidered for 2025
I wrote this first in 2023, when Edmonton’s city council failed to fully budget for completion of the planned bicycle-as-transportation infrastructure. Mine was an audacious, madcap response to…
How Ancient Humans Came to Cope With the Cold
Two anthropologists explain how humans managed to not just survive but dominate northern climates despite evolutionary origins in—and hence, biological predispositions to—warmer environments. This ar…