The Green Woods of Resilience
Conservationist Madeleine Nyiratuza (center) walks through Rwanda’s Gishwati Forest with three eco-guards, who were charged with protecting the area. Courtesy of Madeleine Nyiratuza For a…
Tag: history
Comparing Comparisons: From the “Historikerstreit” to the Mbembe Affair
In the late 1980s, mostly German intellectuals discussed the question of the “uniqueness” or “comparability” of the Holocaust. In the Cause Mbembe, the fronts, the participants and the…
Like: Memetic Analogies in Social Media
Memes circulating on the net articulate simple comparisons with political intent, for example as an analogy between the USA today and “Weimar” back then, or between German and…
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…
Saving Ifugao Weaving in the Philippines
Paulette Crespillo-Cuison, president of the Kiyyangan Weavers Association, demonstrates weaving to the next generation. Marlon Martin One cloudy July afternoon in 2019, a group of arch…
Two Surgeries, 800 Years Apart
As an archaeologist, I’ve spent a lot of time wondering what life was like in the past. I’ve also been injured a time or two, and I’ve wondered…
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…
Pandemic Bakers Bring the Past to Life
Experimental archaeologist Farrell Monaco re-creates the baking techniques of ancient Romans to produce classic breads such as the panis quadratus. Farrell Monaco Around 2000 B.C., a bake…
Justine Buck Quijada on her book, Buddhists, Shamans, and Soviets
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/buddhists-shamans-and-soviets-9780190916794 Interview by Claudia Lahr Claudia Lahr: What makes the subject of time – be it linear or recursive – so important i…
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…
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…