Do Stolen Sacred Objects Experience Culture Shock?
Early on the gray, dreary, morning of September 23, I landed at the Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., after a 36-hour journey from Kilifi, on Kenya’s coast.…
Early on the gray, dreary, morning of September 23, I landed at the Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., after a 36-hour journey from Kilifi, on Kenya’s coast.…
At the King’s Palace Museum in Nyanza District, Rwanda, tourists can visit coffee shops built in a traditional architectural style. GIZ/Martin Karenzi Most tourists visit the district of…
This comic book reimagines the oral traditions of Mexico’s Ñäñho people, introducing mischievous creatures called Tlaloques, which inspired the toy at left. María Gámez Tlaloc is a tempes…
[no-caption] The Archaeological Mission in the Sahara This article was originally published at Knowable Magazine and has been republished under Creative Commons. Unearthed from the graves…
People must regularly repair and rechalk the Cerne Abbas Giant, or “Rude Man,” in Dorset, England, to prevent it from becoming overgrown, carrying on a practice that stretches…
Participants of FunKino, a collaborative filmmaking laboratory in Italy, discuss ideas for storyboarding in 2019. FunKino—Cinema for Inclusion project promoted by Zabbara In the first sce…
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…
[no-caption] Kim Herbst With over 131 million people fully vaccinated in the U.S. and numbers of new infections dropping nationwide, some have started to declare the “end” of…
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…
These handprints were made by blowing pigment around a hand placed against the wall in Sumpang Bita Cave, Sulawesi. Franco Viviani In 2019, I made a trip to…
The Notre Dame fire was devastating but has opened the door to research on building materials now available for study. Aurélia Azéma/Laboratoire de Recherche des Monuments Historiques The…
[no-caption] Maria Franklin The chronicles of ordinary Black Americans who lived and labored in Texas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries are largely unheralded. That’s especially…
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…
I have a clone. He’s an identical twin brother, really. But as monozygotic twins derived from one fertilized egg, we share the exact same genome. Since birth, we…
Archaeologists Joshua Kumbani (left) and Sarah Wurz (right) work at a site near the Klasies River in South Africa. Joshua Kumbani On South Africa’s southern coast, above the…
Local descendant communities and Indigenous nations continue to be at the center of heritage preservation efforts. While their methods are not always recognized by academic or governmental organizatio…
For untold centuries, storytelling has been foundational to the ways Black and Indigenous people understand and connect to the world around them. However, knowledge systems upheld in academic…
[no-caption] Karen Carr/National Park Service This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been repub lished under Creative Commons. Every parent knows the feeling….
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…
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…
A resident burns off vegetation to clear his garden plot on lands that previously were part of an ancient village called Popo. Chris Urwin In late 2015, I…
A row of massive anthropomorphic statues on Easter Island. Henrykkcheung/Flickr Easter Island’s colossal statues loom large—both literally and figuratively—in the popular imagination. The…
Author: Holly Walters, a cultural anthropologist at Wellesley College, United States. Her work focuses on religion, language, and ritual practice in South Asia. Her current research addresses issues…
Hawaiian language teacher Nako’olani Warrington instructs 9-year-old Maleka Benjamin at an immersion school in Honolulu. Lucy Pemoni/AP Photo In the 1970s, the Hawaiian language seemed po…