Lessons From Mars—and Jamaica—on Sovereignty
Maroons of the Sovereign State of Accompong make their home in mountainous Cockpit Country in Jamaica. Ted Eubanks On February 15, in the darkness and silence of outer…
Tag: place
These Unheralded Workers Are Helping Prevent the Next Wildfire
The author’s late father, Juan Zárate (left), leads a weed abatement crew in Orange County, California. Jon Anderson/Orange County Weed Abatement Program A few months after the wildfire…
Dressing Fish
[no-caption] Abigail Chabitnoy As an Indigenous poet with background studies in anthropology, the more I have reconnected with my culture through poetics, the more I have questioned acade…
Five Solstice Sites That Aren’t Stonehenge
With the summer solstice approaching in the Northern Hemisphere, the site of Stonehenge is likely to pop up quite a bit on your news feeds. While that particular…
How Many People Lived in the Angkor Empire?
This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished under Creative Commons. How big were the world’s ancient cities? At its height, the world’s first…
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…
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…
Can Social Scientists Help Control Epidemics?
A poster in an Ebola response center breaks down the evolving response to the epidemic—including efforts to address social and cultural concerns. Annie Wilkinson On May 24, 2014,…
Arrival Waters
[no-caption] Traumlichtfabrik/Getty Images I am about 70 years away from the experience that led to this poem and about 50 years away from anthropology. Some 20 years ago…
Heart of Stone
“The world is thus ‘animate.’ ‘We’ are not the only kind of we. The world is also ‘enchanted.’” —Eduardo Kohn, How Forests Think: Toward an Anthropology Beyond the Human Anthropologist…
Social Distancing in a Sumatra Rainforest
An Orang Rimba man named Nyeruduk stands in front of a tent on a rubber plantation in Sumatra. Dedi Supriansyah On an otherwise silent night in March 2020,…
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 …
The Equitable Transformation of Communities: A Conversation with John Arroyo
The future of working with newcomer immigrant populations and serving them also means understanding the needs of extant populations: being…
How to “Co-Live” With a Natural Hazard
Tungurahua, an active volcano in Ecuador, sits amid farming communities that have dwelled alongside it for generations. A.J. Faas As the Andes mountain range curves through Ecuador, it…
What Rez Dogs Mean to the Lakota
Painting by Lakota artist Keith Braveheart from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota. Keith Braveheart A tragic event occurred on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakot…
The Evolution of Comfort Food
The winter holiday season will feel different this year for many: Extended families may not be able to gather, leaving holiday meals shared with smaller groups, or digitally,…
What If There Is Life on Venus?
In the throes of a pandemic that has underscored the fragility of human life on Earth, news has come of possible life on another planet, with the detection…
The Green Woods of Resilience
Conservationist Madeleine Nyiratuza (center) walks through Rwanda’s Gishwati Forest with three eco-guards, who were charged with protecting the area. Courtesy of Madeleine Nyiratuza For a…
A Mammoth Find Near Mexico City
Archaeologists, restorers, and laborers have worked together to uncover thousands of late Pleistocene animal remains. Melitón Tapia, National Institute of Anthropology and History, Mexico …
Do Black Lives Matter in Outer Space?
Artist Peter Williams explores Afrofuturist themes in this painting titled “He Was a Global Traveler.” (Peter Williams, “He Was a Global Traveler,” 2020, oil on canvas, 72 x 96…
Saving Ifugao Weaving in the Philippines
Paulette Crespillo-Cuison, president of the Kiyyangan Weavers Association, demonstrates weaving to the next generation. Marlon Martin One cloudy July afternoon in 2019, a group of arch…
Blinded
For the past eight years, I have had the opportunity to bear witness to the metamorphic stages of the construction of Doha, the capital of Qatar, a peninsular…