Combating Anti-Black Racism in Brazil and Beyond
Protests against police violence in Brazil, like this march commemorating the life of a Black youth killed in his home, help speak to the transnational nature of anti-Blackness…
Tag: identity
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…
#Review: Contesting Leviathan
In Contesting Leviathan, a reference on both the mythical sea-serpent and Thomas Hobbes’ political philosophy, Les Beldo seeks to provide a multi-faceted view of the Makah whaling conflict,…
Why Capitalize “Indigenous”?
(no-caption) Alison Wright/Getty Images Ask SAPIENS is a series that offers a glimpse into the magazine’s inner workings. Some readers may have noticed that SAPIENS uses a capital…
Christina Dunbar-Hester on her book, Hacking Diversity
Interview by Héctor Beltrán https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691182070/hacking-diversity Héctor Beltrán: In your ethnographic work with voluntaristic open technology communities across…
Ep #56: Imagined Communities, Freedom, Death and not blaming Capitalism: This month on TFS
Given the recently instigated social distancing rules in Canberra, this week we bring you a special “online” episode! For the safety of everyone, and especially in line with…
Why We Buy Weird Things in Times of Crisis
The world is in the grip of a serious pandemic as a novel virus sweeps from continent to continent, causing cases of sometimes-deadly COVID-19. Yet much of the…
Review: #Identity: Hashtagging Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Nation
#Identity: Hashtagging Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Nation by Abigail de Kosnik and Keith Feldman (eds) serves as an exciting reminder of the illuminating potential of academic inquiry. An edited…
“Porous Borders”: José Reyes on the Fluid Mosaic
Introduction José Reyes is a researcher and an activist. In his contribution here, he offers us an exercise of autoethnography (Adams et al.)[1], a research method in which…
Ep. #51: Newsworthy stories, Becoming projects, Ethics of danger & Balancing values: This month on TFS
Jodie [1:26] begins our panel this month with a recent incident in Canberra, Australia, where a woman was shot by a ‘random’ gunman. Luckily her wound was not…
Ep. #50 An Anthropology of Universities: Jodie Trembath on Selling Academia
This episode, Kylie interviews a very familiar guest … Dr Jodie-Lee Trembath (aka Jodie from TFS)! Now, Jodie’s no stranger to qualifications, but this year she completed her…
Why Are Languages Worth Preserving?
This illustration represents how Indigenous peoples around the globe, as highlighted by depictions of a few specific communities, are striving to keep endangered languages alive as dynamic source…
How Names Tell Stories of Loss and Resilience
Bhutanese Nepali performers—including Shyam “San” Rai at center—pose at a cultural festival. Katie Reilly When Shyam “San” Rai was 8 years old, he and his family were forced…
The Deep Roots of Navajo Country Music
[no-caption] Marcel Hirshegger/SAPIENS What is it about certain musical traditions that cause them to take root in communities far away from where they originated? Anthropologist Kristina…
Do You Dream What I Dream?
Anthropologist Roger Lohmann sees a ghost in a dream while working in Papua New Guinea. Even though he knows it’s just a dream, he’s scared long after he…
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…
Ep. #45: Financial Identity, Quiet Fields, Silencing Students & Angry Anthropologists: This Month On TFS
Simon [1:00] begins our chat by asking what happens to your identity when you become a dependent spouse; that is, when your partner is supporting the household financially…
Blockchain Reactions: The peril and promise of techno-governance for stateless Rohingya
While Myanmar’s recent ethnic cleansing of its Rohingya minority, which saw 800,000 people driven into Bangladesh, has brought the community’s oppression to the world’s attention, it has also…
Why Navajos Love Their Country Music
Native Country Band at Windy Mesa Bar in Page, Arizona. Left to right: Errison Littleben, author Kristina Jacobsen, Tommy Bia, LeAnder Bia, Arlondo Bia. Doug Reilly When I…
How Skirts Are Changing Bolivian Wrestling
Martha La Alteña (right) and Susana La Bonita (left) wrestle in El Alto, Bolivia. Aizar Raldes/Getty Images This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republis…
How Some Tried—and Failed—to Kill “Race” in Latin America
DNA sequencing is now used extensively in medicine, forensic science, and explorations of ancestry. Andrew Brookes/Getty Images When the structure of DNA was first revealed in 1953, it…
How the Samoan Tattoo Survived Colonialism
In Samoan communities, men traditionally receive a pe’a tattoo from mid-torso to knees as a marker of maturity. Sandra Mu/Getty Images In the 1800s, a chief in the…
How Traditional Knowledge Opens Nature’s Medicine Cabinet
A natural pharmacist at a complementary medicine clinic in Trujillo, Peru, displays a plant tincture. Jane Palmer Under the clear, moonlit sky of Friday, July 13, 2018, Elide…
Remembering the Woman Who Was My Second Mother in Cuba
Caro in the terrace of her house in Havana, 2001. Ruth Behar When my cellphone rang on the morning of December 12, 2018, and I saw the call…