When the Ground Refuses to Settle: Living with Unfinished Landscapes in the Western Ghats
On the national highway that cuts across the lower slopes of the Western Ghats, the surface itself is rarely the […] The post When the Ground Refuses to…
On the national highway that cuts across the lower slopes of the Western Ghats, the surface itself is rarely the […] The post When the Ground Refuses to…
An environmental anthropologist investigates deep-time, mythical, and contemporary relations between seals and Orkney Islanders. SEAL SONG One gray afternoon, I saw a seal lying on a rock, eyes…
After the deadly 2022 Itaewon crowd crush, South Korea faced a failure of prevention—and mourning. A group of anthropologists explores how grief was managed, marginalized, and ultimately erased,…
SAPIENS poet-in-residence for 2025 listens to a chorus of dreams in her field recordings from Kashmir. ✽ “Dreaming has a share in history.” —Walter Benjamin, Dream Kitsch …
Indignity: A life Reimagined by Lea Ypi explores the period of transition between the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of Enver Hoxha’s communist regime in…
Taking a photograph of her grandparents as its jumping off point, Indignity by Lea Ypi blends memoir and historical enquiry to explore her grandmother’s life and the period…
Realizing that things are because things are connected. In the spaces between, we create. Some days I wonder if this is [&#…
Through her field recordings, SAPIENS poet-in-residence for 2025 listens to murmurings of clay, debris, and time in Kashmir’s Tsaar. ✽ 1 The shared taxi meanders through Tsaar— resting…
An anthropologist discovers diasporic flights—including her own—that begin at and return to the waters of the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. ✽ WITHIN A FEW HOURS…
How can communications studies contribute to anthropological inquiry of Syria? This essay reflects on the architecture that governs silence and […] The post Do walls still have ears?…
Speaking was very risky during the fifty-four years long Asad family domination of the republic.[1] By speaking, I am not […] The post On Volte-Face (Takwi’) appeared first…
On the morning of December 8, 2024, just hours after the fall of the Al-Asad regime was officially declared, Syrians […] The post The Dictator’s New Clothes: Syrian…
A Tanzanian historian and poet conjures alternative engagements with Black African women who were marginalized by violent colonial histories and imprisoned in the archives. As the 2024 poet-in-residen…
Using an original poetic form, a poet chips away at a difficult history—becoming an agent of her own remaking and more than just an estranged daughter. “Debitage” is…
The Roti Collective, a community-based research project, explores the layered histories that brought a flatbread from the Indian subcontinent around the world. THE PERFECT BITE Roti, an unleavened…
A poet-anthropologist reflects on the resistance of rural women in the Brazilian Cerrado whose wisdom and knowledge help cultivate life amid the devastation of large-scale plantations. “Pequi Winds”…
A poet calls readers to act in the face of interconnected violence, exploitation, and privilege. “Heaven on Earth” and “Jesus Is Palestinian” are part of the collection Poets…
In a themed collection, poets trace contours of power to critique colonialism, environmental destruction, and social violence while transforming the landscape of possibilities. ✽ A detainee prays in…
Black African women in former colonial centers such as London gesture to subversive ways of communicating with those imprisoned in archives across generations. ✽ despite the Maangamizi,( Maangamizi…
A poet-historian reflects on women’s labor carrying memories and the past. ✽ memory is a washerwoman who knows that when the blood is poisoned, you have to slaughter…
It’s a cold early-winter morning in South Brooklyn. The streets are empty. My friend Gabe explains that it’s only a […] The post The Social Act we call…
In a dystopian short story, an anthropologist imagines an alternate world in which Kashmiris are forbidden to dream. Republished by permission from English Language Notes, 61(2): 15–18. Copyright…
SAPIENS is seeking poetry submissions for a curated collection that will publish next year. Deadline: September 1, 2024. ✽ SAPIENS Anthropology Magazine invites creative works for the upcoming…
A visual anthropologist reflects on the history of cillíní, unmarked and mostly hidden burial sites in Ireland where loved ones continue to care for the dead. South of…