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…
Tag: Indigenous
Ep #49: Intolerable Ads, Introvert Anthros, Irrevocable Ties & Indigenous Symbols: This Month on TFS
This month, Kylie [0:50] kicks off our conversation by reflecting on our blog about racism in sport and asks us about the ethics of ad targeting on social…
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…
A Tale of Two Ruins
I’ll show you a place, high on a desert plain / Where the streets have no name … —U2, The Joshua Tree, 1987 I recently flew over two…
Florida’s Indigenous Heritage Faces a Watery Grave
Six ancient Native American mounds lie in Lake Jackson Mounds Archaeological State Park near Tallahassee, Florida. Ebyabe/Wikimedia Commons This article was originally published at The Co…
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,…
Amazing triple set of resources on Indigenous waters: from Standing Rock to Australia (book + 2 special issues)
There are three recent (and really good) resources that have come out on Indigenous waters in the past several weeks: a book and two special issues, each below…
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…
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…
Why Land Acknowledgments Matter
[no-caption] Fred Harvey/Library of Congress This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished under Creative Commons. In Toronto, before singing “O Canad…
Witnessing an Endangered Puberty Ritual
Yanesha’ women and girls participate in a right-of-passage ritual called ponapnora in the remote community of Puellas Yuncullmas. Anna Luisa Daigneault It was before dawn. I lay curled…
Observations on Rastafari Cosmopolitics from the Caribbean
Rastafari-grounded and Caribbean imaginative reinventions have long influenced the evolution of Caribbean ethnography. They could inspire a decolonial anthropology for this century. “I am Ethiopian j…
Resisting Indigenous Erasure from Alcatraz Island to Elizabeth Warren
A critical look at anthropology and 50 years in the fight for Indigenous sovereignty (1969–2019). Indians must be redefined in terms that white men will accept, even if…
Ep. #34 Knowledge Making: Emma Kowal talks Indigenous health care, difference & genomics
“A lot of what individual white anti-racists, as I called them, but also the broader policy frameworks are struggling with is the question of how do we enact…
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…
A New Generation is Reviving Indigenous Tattooing
Nahaan, a Tlingit-Inupiaq-Paiute tattoo artist, inks a woman’s face. Nahaan To celebrate her graduation from the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Alaska Native Studies program in 2012, Mar…
Why the Myth of the “Savage Indian” Persists
Media portrayals of “good Indians” and “bad Indians” have shaped the minds of generations of Americans. Harold M. Lambert/Getty Images Peter Pan, the beloved children’s classic, is sure…
New Book – Our history is the future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance
Nick Estes has been writing about Indigenous resistance at Standing Rock in powerful ways, so his new book coming in just over one month’s time is one I…
North Sentinel Island and the Right to Be Left Alone
North Sentinel Island Vivaswa/Shutterstock This article originally appeared on The Conversation and has been republished under Creative Commons. John Allen Chau knew he might die. The 26-year-old U.S…
What Google Maps Don’t Show You
When I was a boy, my father and I used to plan road trips together. We would go to our local American Automobile Association (AAA) office and get…
Nuclear State, Nuclear Waste
Nuclear State, Nuclear Waste: Emily Simmonds on Canada as a nuclear nation & ongoing colonialism through uranium mining.