How to Improve Consumer DNA Tests
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests offer tantalizing yet speculative promises to connect us with our distant past and live a healthier life. Consequently, by February 2019, an estimated 26…
Tag: In Focus
Ten Things Archaeology Tells Us about Neanderthals
Rebecca Wragg Sykes is an archaeologist and author of the critically acclaimed bestseller Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art. An honorary fellow at the University of Liverpool,…
The Racial Thinking behind ALS Diagnosis
Beliefs about which bodies can and cannot develop certain diseases risk rebiologizing race in genomic research and care. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disease that typical…
Of Maps, Ancestors, and Genes
How the conceptual heritage of the new and old world pervades today’s racial economy of genetics. On a former occasion I wrote to you at some length…
The Next Piece of Our Big Genetic Puzzle
Around 50,000 years ago, Neanderthals contributed their DNA to modern humans. But the genes also flowed the other way, hundreds of thousands of years before. In 1856, in…
Bovine Bloodlines
Selective breeding for milk and muscle has corroded cattle health and genetic diversity. Heritage breed farmers are pushing back. That old cow out there, she’s 18, and she’s…
Call for Pitches: CARE
Image description: Two red hands grasp one another to form the shape of a heart. iStock/fairywong In Anthropology News 62.3, the “Care” issue, we will tell stories that reveal…
Immigrant Women’s Care Work in a Global Pandemic
The shuttering of the global economy and the devastating health ramifications of COVID-19 have left undocumented immigrant women in the United States struggling to provide emotional and economic care…
Evolutionary Foodprints
*This essay includes a photograph of a replica Paranthropus boisei skull and a replica human skull. New approaches to the dental remains of early hominins and the diets…
Tasting Independence
Maggi instant noodles are a treasured favorite among India’s young people. Their banning in 2015 conjured youthful memories of rebellion and revealed the uncertainties of our global food…
Farmer Talk
Facing language problems in Peru’s new coffee economy During a recent trip to the Andean-Amazonian foothills of Southern Peru, I hiked out to a remote corner of the…
How to Build a Sandwich
A degree in sociocultural anthropology may not be the most obvious background for a food stylist, yet it was a love for hands-on, detailed fieldwork that led me…
Embodied Taste
A student-curated exhibition offers an immersive exploration of food and the connections, stories, and memories we consume each time we eat. Image description: A small, neon yellow…
The Coastal Edge
New technologies are refortifying our coastlines against anthropogenic climate change, drawing our water edgelands near and making them tangible and perhaps valuable. Edgelands, those ignored yet sym…
Eat, Drink, and Stand in Japan
Japan’s standing bars offer respite from the daily grind with drinks, lively company, and a feast of small dishes. Image description: People walk down a corridor in front…
From Cocoa Farms to Candy Chutes
The Wonka-fication of chocolate in American society is multiply damaging, increasing cocoa producer vulnerability to COVID-19 and further eliding the inequalities that characterize the value chain. “W…
People of the Bean
An heirloom bean club brings culinary community and diverse foodways to its legume lovers’ doors. Alubia Blanca, Good Mother Stallard, Vaquero, Eye of the Goat. Four times a…
Killing the Workers Who Feed Us
Keeping processing lines running at workers’ expense is not only a sign of our pandemic times. The meat and poultry processing industry has long treated workers as disposable.…
The Darker the History, the Sweeter the Truth
How a white identified city struggles to commemorate the Black lives and deaths that produced its sugar and built its wealth. Sugar Land is a growing, white, politically…
2020 Highlights
Sit back, relax, and enjoy some of our highlights of 2020! Thank you to all our authors and to everyone who contributed to Anthropology News this year. Wishing…
Call for Pitches: PEDAGOGY
Image description: Eight apples are lined up in two rows of four on a light green background. The apples alternate in color between red and green. iStock Class…
Archaeology Worlds, Art Worlds
Archaeologists move from avoiding talking about art to engaging in the critical practice of art. Despite the many books on the subject of archaeology and art, a reader…
How to Make a Zine
Feeling boxed in by traditional professional or academic publishing outlets? A zine—a small self-published pamphlet or booklet—can be a powerful tool for unlocking creativity and expanding the reach…
Thinking Without a Concept
How an artistic method can challenge and enrich our understandings of vision and knowledge. Imagine […] an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but…