Why AI Will Never Fully Capture Human Language
Researchers in artificial intelligence have made extraordinary strides in mimicking human language—but they still can’t capture the parts that truly make language human. ✽ The story begins with…
Tag: Indigenous
Why Indigenous Fire Management Works
Three researchers use a study of the cypress pine in Arnhem Land, Australia, to explain why large-scale, institutional fire management is inferior to sustainable cultural burning. This article…
Derogatory Place Names Need Indigenous Revision
Changing offensive place names on public lands is a strong move toward decolonization. But to heal relationships and address ecological crises, non-Native people must do more. ✽ On…
Maize and Okra
I saw big momma once, seated in a wooden chair with hair braided all the way like if you look downriver, you could imagine the chillin’ playing— after…
Crystal Worl’s Countermural Tells a Different History of Alaska
Her dark gray eyes scan the horizon. An iridescent golden sun and stars encircle her head, flanked on one side by a cobalt sockeye salmon and the other…
Cooking Debris in an Australian Cave Tells a Story of Resilience
Starting around 4,000 years ago, Bininj (Aboriginal people in Australia) adapted their diets to include more freshwater plants from wetlands, such as those in the Kakadu region (shown…
Indigenous Mapmaking, or Bringing a Dead Map to Life
Two Indigenous Marind clan representatives peruse a map of their customary territories produced by local village members. Sophie Chao Excerpted from In the Shadow of the Palms: More-Than-…
The Amazing Archive of First Nations Stories Written on Stone
This rock art in Australia features four of Josie Maralngurra’s hand stencils. The Pathway Project This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished under…
SAPIENS Podcast Season 4 Reflections and Celebrations
In this live event, a panel of archaeologists and podcasters celebrates the completion of SAPIENS Podcast Season 4 and RadioCIAMS’ SAPIENS Talk Back series. Meet the amazing people…
The Yaghan Rise Again
Archaeologist Atilio Francisco Zangrando, foreground, has excavated along the Beagle Channel, or Onashaga in the Yaghan language, since 1998. Katrina Pyne This article was originally publ…
Rituals to help us out, and beliefs one professes tongue in cheek – Part II
By Ton Salman This is part II of the blog “Rituals to help us out….” If you have not yet read part I, you can read it here.…
What Ancient DNA Reveals About Life in Africa 20,000 Years Ago
Kondoa Irangi rock art in present-day Tanzania features the cultural expressions of hunter-gatherers and pastoralists over a 2,000-year span. Nina R/Wikimedia Commons This article was ori…
More Than a Mountain
The sky island of Dzil Nchaa Si’an is more than a mountain. It is a significant landmark in Arizona for Apache tribal members to collect medicinal plants, perform…
Revealing an Ice Age Route for Indigenous Peoples
Research at British Columbia’s Topknot Lake and Little Woss Lake shows what the environment might have been like during the last ice age. Shanna Baker This article was…
Curating as Caretaking
History is taught in all kinds of ways—through textbooks, movies, and … museums. In this episode, museum curators challenge the status quo and connect their ancestry to advance…
“Cowboys and Indians”—When Dirt Rocks Are Dynamite
The Lone Ranger and Tonto. Silver Screen Collection/Archive Photos/Getty Images “With his faithful Indian companion Tonto, the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains led the fi…
At the Heart of It All
For its practitioners, archaeology can feel like it is unearthing events deep in the past … until it doesn’t. What is the experience of researchers who discover their…
A Genetic Chronicle of the First Peoples in the Americas
Beringia National Park in present-day Russia is part of what was once a vast refuge that allowed ancestors of Native Americans to cross into North America and survive…
How “Wilderness” Was Invented Without Indigenous Peoples
Anthropologist Spencer Greening, a member of the Gitga’at First Nation, maps 2,000-year-old fish traps in an intertidal area as part of his graduate studies in Indigenous resource management…
Consumer Culture Won’t Lead to Body Positivity
Focusing on what bodies can do shifts attention away from cultural lenses that focus on how bodies look. Holly Falconer/Getty Images I have an 8-year-old daughter. From time…
A Hidden Figure in North American Archaeology
As a historian of science, I am interested in determining who gets credit for scientific discoveries and why. Sadly, credit often goes to the powerful and connected, not…
The Spring a Time for Calving and Cleaving
This poem was partly inspired by my first foray into the world of Sámi reindeer herding back in 2013. In this new year of 2022, I’ve been reflecting…
You Won’t Survive the Apocalypse Alone
Cooperation and kindness are key qualities necessary for surviving disasters, as demonstrated by the volunteers who distributed donated supplies after Superstorm Sandy hit New York City. Robe…
Does DNA Simplify or Complicate Repatriation Claims?
University of Cape Town archaeologist Simon Hall leads a visit to the farm in Sutherland, South Africa, from which the remains of several individuals were taken a century…