Indigenous Cultures Have Archaeology Too
A resident burns off vegetation to clear his garden plot on lands that previously were part of an ancient village called Popo. Chris Urwin In late 2015, I…
Tag: history
40: Quarantine & The Origins of Computation
Quarantine is a number. Quarantine was the name given to the strategy of isolating potentially harmful populations for forty days in an effort to impede potential dangers. Deriving…
In the Journals – Conflict and Captivity
POW release to UN authorities was the first step in repatriation. Here, communists turn over UN troops at the POW receiving center at Panmunjon, on the border of…
Why Capitalizing “Black” Matters
An intergenerational photo of a Black family in Texas captures the enduring legacy of both community and family. Thomas Barwick/Getty Images In the last few weeks, major media…
Archaeologists Respond to the Black Lives Matter Movement
Students work with archaeologist Alexandra Jones (center) on an excavation at the Estate Little Princess plantation in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Archaeology in the Community Amid th…
Book Review: The Anthropology of Epidemics by Ann H. Kelly, Frédéric Keck and Christos Lynteris
In The Anthropology of Epidemics, editors Ann H. Kelly, Frédéric Keck and Christos Lynteris curate a collection that provides insight into how ethnographic studies of epidemics might challenge…
Were Women the True Artisans Behind Ancient Greek Ceramics?
This amphora comes from a period in ancient Greek history called the Early Iron Age. Zde/Wikimedia Commons Painted over the enormous midsection of the Dipylon amphora—a nearly 2,800-year-…
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…
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…
What Ancient Gender Fluidity Taught Me About Modern Patriarchy
Some figurines, like this one from the La Tolita-Tumaco culture, seem to blend gender characteristics from breasts to loincloths into a possible transgender or nonbinary figure. Museo Naciona…
Why the Whiteness of Archaeology Is a Problem
Most archaeological projects in the U.K. and U.S. are largely conducted by people of European descent. Wessex Archaeology/Flickr One hot, sunny day in the Sonoran Desert, I (William)…
Christopher Kelty’s The Participant: A Century of Participation in Four Stories by Talia Dan-Cohen
The Participant: A Century of Participation in Four Stories Christopher M. Kelty University of Chicago Press, 2020. 344 pages. A book about participation? Chris Kelty’s delightful new bo…
Hush-Hush, a Pale-Horse Cometh: Mirabilis Manducat
[no-caption] PhotoTalk/Getty Images “O res mirabilis! Manducat Dominum …” —Saint Thomas Aquinas, 13th Century I did not know well my Uncle-Cousin Ron. He was my mother’s cousin. He…
One
“The sea cannot know itself as yet unborn until the eye of the storm passes above its tumultuous skin, blinking.” I remember when lions came for the weak…
The FBI’s Repatriation of Stolen Heritage
The sewing kit above is one of multiple items from a massive private collection held in Indiana that the FBI helped repatriate. This particular item is now in…
Brushes with racism in Minnesota and why Black lives matter
Black lives matter across any geographical border. My research and my own racial encounters confirm what I have known in my soul: our fates are inextricably linked. And…
Reigniting student activism at UWI
This co-authored op-ed from University of the West Indies, Sociology PhD candidate Nathan Chapman and myself, is meant as a conversation starter about the importance of student activism…
Reigniting student activism at UWI
This co-authored op-ed from University of the West Indies, Sociology PhD candidate Nathan Chapman and myself, is meant as a conversation starter about the importance of student activism…
Can Archaeology Explain the Bread Baking Craze?
[no-caption] Jutta M. Jenning/Flickr As coronavirus social distancing wears on, my social media feeds have changed. Travel photos, parties, and concerts have disappeared, replaced by phot…
Why Are There So Many Humans?
Savanna Pumé (hunter-gatherers in Venezuela) children, shown here building a house, learn to cooperate from a young age. Russell D. Greaves Something curious happened in human population …
Rethinking Easter Island’s Historic “Collapse”
A row of massive anthropomorphic statues on Easter Island. Henrykkcheung/Flickr Easter Island’s colossal statues loom large—both literally and figuratively—in the popular imagination. The…
How to Make Sense of “Traditional (Chinese) Medicine” In a Time of Covid-19: Cold War Origin Stories and the WHO’s Role in Making Space for Polyglot Therapeutics by Helen Tilley
Note: I wrote this for anyone trying to “teach the virus,” something I will soon be doing myself. The question in the title is meant to signal that…
Unearthing the True Toll of the Tulsa Race Massacre
The Booker T. Washington High School parade processes along Greenwood Avenue in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Greenwood Cultural Center Just north of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma, Greenwood once had one o…