Forensic Anthropology in a Changing Climate
In 2018, a wildfire swept through Northern California. Forensic anthropologists were called in to identify skeletal remains in a devastated recovery scene. In a smoke-filled parking lot, our…
Tag: Featured Posts
My Petrochemical Love
For women of color on Louisiana’s Gulf Coast, everyday environmental and climate activism is entangled with intimate lives. It is April, and it is hot and humid in…
The Long View of Climate Change and Human Health
The deterministic view that climate change invariably causes migration, competition, violence, and collapse is overly simplistic. Bioarchaeology shows us that human responses are far more complex and …
After Oil
To navigate the growing storms of climate change, St. Croix is doubling down on the fiscal promise of oil. Residents demand otherwise. St. Croix stands at a climate…
Death of a Glacier
In 2014, the first of Iceland’s named glaciers suffered death by human-made climate change. Two anthropologists decided to mark its passing. Sometime around the year 2000, no one…
The Twin Threat Facing Indigenous Peoples
For the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon, COVID-19 is a radical threat, one which strikes at their worldview and mirrors the violence of predatory invaders. In quarantine in…
The Use of Money to Maintain Connection (and Toilet Paper)
When I received an email containing one of the first Covid-19 payment memes—“How do you wish to pay?”, with an image of Visa, MasterCard, and a roll of…
Capitalism and the Coronavirus Conspiracy
In France, like many other places, social confinement due to the Coronavirus unfolded quickly. On March 12, President Emmanuel Macron addressed the country to announce the first nation-wide…
How Do You Do “Social”?
We invite you to share your strategies for feeling connected and balancing home and work responsibilities in these social distancing times. Image description: A photo of someone’s desk…
Going Viral in Hong Kong
Disease is but the most obvious part of an epidemic. As coronavirus spreads, it fuels many other kinds of contagious forces. AN editor’s note: How can anthropology help…
Ten Things You Don’t Know About Me
Image Description: Drawing of a blonde woman in a light green shirt with an orangutan peering over her shoulder. Charlotte Hollands I was an actor before I became…
Stars—They Talk Just Like Us!
How an Instagram-based gossip franchise allows celebrities to manage the authenticity of their public personae. They go to the market! They pump gas! They explore the park! One…
“We Use Our Mouths to Trade”
At Ghana’s Kumasi Central Market gossip is more than idle talk. It helps traders mitigate economic risk and boost professional reputations. In the yam yard, wholesale traders bargain…
Tea Fit for a Queen
Tea sipping has a distinctly queer pedigree. To serve tea properly, one must be skilled in the art of verbal delivery. During last summer’s Women’s World Cup, Alex…
Gossip—A Thing Humans Do
Gossip and rumor are important informal modes of communication, influencing public opinion and individual actions. But, the distinction between information and falsehood can be difficult to see. Is…
Gossip in the Aid Industry
For international aid workers, gossip is a means of navigating a complex industry and acquiring essential information. All we have to do now Is take these lies and…
Threats to Destroy Cultural Heritage Harm Us All
Trump’s Twitter intimidation may have been politically expedient bluster. But, it threatened our collective cultural legacy, regional stability, and scientific inquiry. When United States President D…
CFP: ART
Image Description: An illustrated image of black splotches of paint on a white background overlaid with the word “ART” written in pink. American Anthropological Association Polish your len…
Truth and Responsibility
“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” ― Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God “Truth and Responsibility” is a call to reimagine anthropology…
Top Articles of 2019
Another year almost done! Sit back, relax, and read some of the most-clicked articles on the website in 2019. With thanks to everyone involved with Anthropology News this…
Ariana Curtis
Ariana Curtis is the first person to hold the curatorial position dedicated to Latinx Studies at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). Her research…
I Choose to Look Above the Prison Walls…
From razor wire to emotional barriers, women serving life sentences contend with walls of all kinds—physical, rhetorical, and of their own making. My walls were riddled with bullet…
Bangkok’s New City of Walls
In a city famous for its relaxed attitude to living with water, climatic disjuncture has prompted citizenship demands for ecological security. In October 2011, a massive pulse of…
The Emerald Curtain
Four reflections on Brexit and borders on the island of Ireland. You will never know unless you go A fisherman clad in a green anorak sits in a…