Pearls before Swine
Pearls, in the Parish of St. Andrew’s, Grenada, just up the road from the main town of Grenville, is a unique place that sits at the intersection of two…
Tag: history
Stringing Together an Ancient Empire’s Stories
For centuries, Andean people encoded messages in intricate patterns of knotted and colored strings known as khipus. Thanks to the collaborative approach of anthropologist Sabine Hyland and others,…
Should the Story of Homo’s Dispersal Out of Africa Be Rewritten?
Researchers excavate in Jordan’s Zarqa Valley. Fabio Parenti Giancarlo Scardia was in Jordan in 2013 as the Syrian Civil War ground on. He recalls seeing refugees gathered in…
What Do Monuments Reveal About Their Makers?
Twice a day, on my way to and from work at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS), I walk through a magnificent, monumental stone gate that…
Two Schools at Grand Ronde Indian Reservation, 1863
There are a few reports that open the windows wide to a vision of the reservation, its changes, its struggles, and its peoples. In the 1863 Grand Ronde…
Dos veces víctimas: mujeres negras agredidas no se les reconoce como víctimas
Mujeres activistas, incluida la autora (derecha), marchan en contra de la violencia de género y feminicidios en Lima, Perú, en noviembre de 2016. Fotoholica Press/Getty Images Clara* colg…
Waste is not “matter out of place”
Douglas’ theory of matter out of place is about power. Something in the wrong spot, something poisonous, is not matter out of place. Unless it threatens power.
The Anthropologists Who Undid Sex, Race, and Gender
Anthropologist Margaret Mead—a museum curator, a professor, a popular commentator, and an author, among other roles—was perhaps the most famous student of Franz Boas. Bettmann /Getty Images …
The Knotty Question of When Humans Made the Americas Home
Modern footprints in the sand echo far more ancient ones found on a beach off the coast of Canada. Joanne McSporran/PLOS ONE Humans have long found comfort on…
Archaeology of the 99 Percent
Using a remote-sensing tool called lidar, archaeologists can see what lies hidden underneath dense vegetation. This lidar image reveals the grand plaza of the Maya city of Tikal…
Remembering the Forgotten Chinese Railroad Workers
Chinese workers with the Central Pacific Railroad camped close to Brown’s Station, Nevada, in the 1860s. Alfred A. Hart In 1864, 15-year-old Hung Lai Wah and his older…
The Human Body on the Verge of Collapse by Ketil Slagstad
The Human Body in the Age of Catastrophe: Brittleness, Integration, Science, and the Great War Stefanos Geroulanos and Todd Meyers University of Chicago Press, 2018. 416 pages. 1.…
Web Roundup: Lunar Bodies by Blair Bainbridge
The past month has been a big one for the moon. There was a total solar eclipse across Chile and Argentina on July 2, a partial lunar eclipse…
Can Anthropologists Propel Astronauts Toward Mars?
Jack Stuster poses with a NASA space shuttle. Jack Stuster In the fall of 1957, the Soviet Union satellite Sputnik 1 streaked across the night’s sky. The event kicked off…
The Tragedy of the Tragedy of the commons
A Twitter essay by Matto Mildenberger (@mmildenberger) Something I’ve been meaning to say about The Tragedy of the Commons. Bear with me for a small thread on…
Religion and politics in the US: How the Christian Right moves away from Jesus
Along with an anthropology degree, I also completed a degree in philosophy with a focus on philosophy of religion. My primary interests in that are theodicies (excuses for…
Are Trophy Skulls Evidence of Civil War Among the Classic Maya?
[no-caption] Archivio J. Lange /Getty Images This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished under Creative Commons. Two trophy skulls, recently discove…
Presentation: MyKnet.org: The cultural history & social life of an indigenous web-based environment
Budka, P. (2019). MyKnet.org: The cultural history and social life of an indigenous web-based environment. Paper at “The Web That Was: Archives, Traces, Reflections” Conference (RESAW19),…
Yes, Genocide (a primer on the term) #MMIWG
For Raphael Lemkin, who invented the term, genocide was the effort to destroy a group as a group. #MMIWG
Anthropology and History: summer school 5-11 August
Colleagues from Russia put together a really interesting programme to revisit the relation of anthropology and history, particularly in Russia and post-socialist countries. Their summer school announc…
America: Imagine an America without Her
What might world history have looked like if there had never been a United States, or if it ceased to exist before the 20th-century? Is “America” an “exceptional”…
Tax Season Woes Have Complex Roots
In Cochabamba, Bolivia, people’s acceptance of taxes owed varies widely. Miranda Sheild Johansson In the midsize Bolivian city of Cochabamba, informal work is the norm among the lowest-pa…
Excavating Long-Buried Stories From the Nazi Era
Reinhard Bernbeck presents the entrance of a shelter at an archaeological site on the premises of a former concentration camp and forced-labor camp in Berlin, Germany. Stephanie Pilick/Getty…
Fat, Not Meat, May Have Led to Bigger Hominin Brains
[no-caption] sodapix/Getty Images Northern Ethiopia was once home to a vast, ancient lake. Saber-toothed cats prowled around it, giant crocodiles swam within. The streams and rivers that …