When Calls for Vengeance Go Online
An anthropologist reckons with how digital media has changed youth gang culture dynamics—and what can be done to combat the spread of deadly rumors. ✽ In 2019, Luis…
Tag: Policy
Fighting for Justice for the Dead—and the Living
A group of forensic anthropologists argues their field must reject the myth of pure objectivity and challenge systemic inequities through advocacy and activism. ✽ WHEN A PERSON DIES,…
The Battle to Protect Archaeological Sites in the West Bank
An archaeologist from Palestine is urgently working to assess archaeological sites in the West Bank devastated by destruction and looting amid Israel’s ongoing war in the region. ✽…
Best of SAPIENS 2024
Anthropologists from around the globe brought dazzling insights and deeply reported concerns to the digital pages of SAPIENS magazine. ✽ We are honored to have collaborated with dozens…
How Colonialism Invented Food Insecurity in West Africa
Archaeological evidence and Oral Histories show people in what is today Ghana lived sustainably for millennia—until European colonial powers and the widespread trade of enslaved people changed everyth…
Mark Edelman: Make America Think Again
MAKE AMERICA THINK AGAIN. That’s the bumper sticker on my friend’s pickup and that’s what I hope for. I like evidence and data, and I detest TV talking…
Protecting Ancestral Waters Through Collaborative Stewardship
The proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, along California’s Central Coast, would be the first of its kind in the U.S. to be nominated by Native peoples. ✽…
Space Anthropology with Savannah Mandel
View/Download the transcription for this episode. For this episode of Platypod, I interviewed space anthropologist Savannah Mandel about her new book Ground Control: An Argument for the End…
Grappling With Guilt Inside a System of Structural Violence
Criminals and Gangmembers Anonymous, a 12-step recovery program, has proliferated in California’s carceral system. An anthropologist investigates the program, which sees criminality as a chronic addic…
When Scientists Take to the Streets
The scientific community in Argentina is facing a crisis. In response, scientists are protesting to stand up for their work and community. María Pía Tavella is an Argentine…
Living as Stateless Palestinians in Jordan
Israel’s war on Gaza that erupted in 2023 continues a long history of systemic displacement of Palestinians. Over 2 million Palestinian refugees currently live in Jordan in indefinite…
Best of SAPIENS 2023
In another year of exceptional challenges and hardships, anthropologists tackled a range of issues and questions about what it means to be human. Here are some of SAPIENS’…
Orderly Britain: How Britain Has Resolved Everyday Problems, from Dog Fouling to Double Parking – review
In Orderly Britain: How Britain Has Resolved Everyday Problems, from Dog Fouling to Double Parking, Tim Newburn and Andrew Ward explore how ordinary social behaviours – including queuing, drinking and…
How Eugenics Shaped the U.S. Prenatal Care System
Black women in the U.S. are far more likely to die from complications related to pregnancy and birth than White women. Two scholars explore how the discrediting of…
The Conversion of Julio Tiwiram
What is shamanic power? And how does it affect modern politics in Indigenous Amazonia? In this episode, we follow the life of a young Indigenous activist fighting for…
The Power of Criminal Prosecutors
“Criminal.” It’s a label that can follow someone around for much of their life. But how does a person become a criminal? Anyone who is in prison has…
A Mass Shooting in the “Evangelical Vatican”
The recent violent attack on Club Q, an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, happened in a place shaped by decades of anti-LGBTQ organizing by evangelical Christian groups. ✽…
Profit over people? The ‘big business’ of tough immigration laws.
By Renata Carvalho As the new Nationality and Borders Bill sparks yet another wave of debates over the United Kingdom’s immigration tactics, it is important to ask: who…
Heroes of Our Economy
A social economy approach therefore asks why people are engaged in specific enterprises. Are they simply out to make the most money they can? Many people do. Or…
The Nightmare of Pandemic-Era Teaching
Teachers face increasing challenges—from staff shortages to widely varying student achievement levels—with omicron infections sweeping across the country. Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronic…
Jennifer Mack on her book, The Construction of Equality
Interview by Lynda Chubak https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-construction-of-equality Lynda Chubak: Bringing together architecture, urban planning and anthropology, you trac…
When Carbon Credits Drive People From Their Homes
A sign inside the Alto Mayo Protected Forest promotes “conservation agreements that change lives,” including ecotourism and sustainable coffee. Blanca Begert The Mayo River begins in the …
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…
We All Live on Permafrost
Indigenous Sakha communities in Siberia raise a rare native horse breed that can survive the extreme cold. Susan Alexandra Crate One of the most distinct memories from my…