Stop Calling the Aleutians Pristine
Most of the Aleutian Islands are today unpopulated. Ariel Taivalkoski The Aleutian Islands, which stretch 1,100 miles across the Bering Sea from the Alaska Peninsula, are commonly describ…
Tag: Indigenous
Understanding My Mom’s Unorthodox Healing Practices
Sheets of newspaper cover a portion of the floor of our house in Manila, and on top of those thin pieces of paper sits a white candle, a…
Who is the Nesher Ramla Homo?
This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished under Creative Commons. An international group of archaeologists has discovered a missing piece in the story…
When the Guinea Pig Goes Gourmet
“Do you eat guinea pig?” I asked Leonardo. We were perusing the menu in a restaurant in Lima, and I wanted to know what my Peruvian friend thought…
Ethnographic Poetry and Academic Writing: A Reflection
“Whatever your eye can see, it’s vecik.” This line resonated with me while I was conducting my fieldwork in Taiwan with the indigenous Paiwan village known as Paridrayan.…
Chasing the Myths of Mexico’s “Superrunners”
Surrounded by torch-bearing supporters, runners kick a ball as part of a traditional rarajípare racing event practiced by the Rarámuri people of Mexico. Marcos Ferro On a mesa…
Discovering Africa’s Oldest Burial
This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished under Creative Commons. Africa is often referred to as the cradle of humankind—the birthplace of our…
How Early Humans Shaped the World With Fire
Ancient humans used fire for warmth and food preparation, but also as a tool to shape the physical environment. Jessica Thompson This article was originally published at The…
The forest spirits who hunt honey
As unbelievable as it seems to me, I’m now in the final 4 weeks of my PhD fieldwork. Technically, anthropology fieldwork is supposed to be around 1 year…
Horizon No Less Curved
Toutswemogala Hill in Botswana. Thato Moahi/Department of National Museum and Monuments, Botswana My poem “Horizon No Less Curved” grew from insights about humanity and history, timelessn…
Why the Camp Grant Massacre Matters Today
In 2015, members of the Apache Nation and their allies protested actions by the U.S. Congress that granted parts of Oak Flat to Resolution Copper Mining. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty…
A West African Window Into Human Evolution
This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished under Creative Commons. Our species, Homo sapiens, rose in Africa some 300,000 years ago. The objects that…
The Fight to Secure Rights for Rainforests
The Sarayaku community hopes to convince Ecuador’s highest court that their territory is entitled to exist unmolested. Similar rights have been granted to the Ganges River and Te…
The Struggles of a “River People” in Assam
A member of the Mising, a tribal, Indigenous community in Assam, India, explains how erosion displaced people along the banks of the Brahmaputra River. Nimisha Thakur One night…
Why a Mexican Village’s DIY Cellphone Network Matters
A campesino checks his cellphone while working in the fields outside of Talea de Castro, Mexico (the mountain village in the distance on the upper left). Agustine Sacha…
Black and Indigenous Futures
In this final webinar of the series, archaeologists, artists, and cultural theorists turn to questions of what’s next in the struggle for the recognition and promotion of Indigenous…
The Fire This Time: Black and Indigenous Ecologies
In the past year, the world witnessed devastating fire seasons in Australia and the U.S. West, an Atlantic hurricane season with a record thirty storms, and a global…
The Phantom Forests That Built Mesa Verde
Mesa Verde National Park (MVNP) in what is today southwestern Colorado is a UNESCO World Heritage site dedicated to the preservation and presentation of the amazing cliff dwellings…
A Radical Recentering of Dignity
A protestor in 2020 in Santiago waves the Chilean flag. Marcelo Hernandez/Getty Images In an interview during October of 2019, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera made a statement that…
Who First Made the Caribbean Home?
Volunteers and students from the United States and the Bahamas helped excavate the dunes where the Lucayan ancestral remains were found. William F. Keegan Locals in the Bahamas…
Must Conservation and Indigenous Rights Clash?
A group of Baiga tribespeople stand together. The Indian government has evicted thousands of Baiga people to make way for a wildlife reserve. Simon Williams/Ekta Parishad/Wikimedia Commons …
Fugitive Archaeological Spaces
Over the past year, we have seen renewed organizing amongst Black and Indigenous heritage professionals as well as the emergence of new collectives globally. These efforts have led…
In the Journals – Policing Migration
A Macedonian police officer raises his baton toward migrants by Freedom House via creativecommons Welcome back to In the Journals! This ongoing series aims to bridge conversations that…
Decolonising protected areas: Sapelli in eastern Cameroon
In 2018, the Colombian anthropologist Arturo Escobar remarked: We are facing modern problems for which there are no longer modern solutions What he’s referring to is that the…