Living With the Prospect of Assisted Dying
[no-caption] The Real Tokyo Life/Getty Images Excerpted from The Day I Die: The Untold Story of Assisted Dying in America by Anita Hannig. © 2022 by Anita Hannig.…
Tag: relationships
Haunted by a Secret War
In Old Sepon in Savannakhet province, Laos, a temple wall riddled with bullet holes and shrapnel scars hints at war’s remains. Leah Zani Excerpted from Strike Patterns: Notes…
Unmasked: Illustrating COVID-19 in Okoboji
[no-caption] Aaron Gronstal These illustrations tell the story of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in a small tourist town in the Iowa Great Lakes region: my…
Nurturing Autism Acceptance in Indonesia
Idris (right), a teenager on the autism spectrum, visits a local mosque in Indonesia to pray with his father. Elemental Productions On a typical day, Wawan, a teenager…
Transracial Adoption and the Limits of Love
A photo installation by artist Glenn Morey explores how Korean adoptees in the U.S. grapple with questions related to belonging, identity, and family. Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images On a…
Hard Water
I. That cloud hovering looks like it came all the way from Ukraine, sadness has darkened our skyline. The rain is hail shattering the landscape into pieces of…
What Chimpanzees Know About Giving Medicine
Chimps exhibit unique behaviors in different communities, such as these who clasp hands while grooming one another. P. Gagneux/GMERC This article was originally published at The Conversat…
Margaret Mead Imagined Different Futures
Anthropologist Margaret Mead (center), actor Robert Redford (left), and historian Lola Van Wagenen (right) attend “A Future With Alternatives,” a symposium held in 1978 in New York City.…
What’s the Appeal of Deep Voices in Men?
Deep voices, like singer Barry White’s bass-baritone, are seen as appealing across a variety of cultures and sexual identities. POP-EYE/ullstein bild/Getty Images For many people, Barry W…
How Filipino Sailors—and Coconuts—Helped Create Mexico’s National Drink
While visiting Oaxaca, Mexico, last year, I joined a mezcal tasting tour. The guide, Antonio, asked participants to introduce ourselves. When I told everyone I was an anthropologist…
Five New Year’s Rituals of Renewal
In Auckland, New Zealand, Māori people celebrate the rising of Mataraki, also known as the Pleiades star cluster, as the start of the new year in July. Hannah…
I Carry My Grief With Me, but I Also Carry My Joy
When you lose someone the future dies. Or, at least, the one with them, that you thought about with them, in it. I imagine any relationship that ends…
Lessons We Learn
“Lessons We Learn” is part of the collection Lead Me to Life: Voices of the African Diaspora. Read the introduction to the collection here. The past flashes like…
The Sisters of Loretto Share a Kinship With the Earth
The Sisters of Loretto, a women’s religious community, prioritize environmental stewardship at their working farm in rural Kentucky. Cody Rakes This month, global delegates have been gath…
Mourning Kin After the End of Cannibalism
Clockwise from top left: (1) Indigenous Wari’ dwellings in Amazonia, Brazil. (2) The author (middle) with her adopted father, Paletó (right), in 2012. (3) The author interviewing Wari’…
How People Actually Use Their Smartphones
[no-caption] John Cei Douglas In 2022, the smartphone, first introduced by IBM, will celebrate its 30th birthday. Most of us now use a smartphone every day—whether we like…
Confronting Anti-Blackness in “Colorblind” Cuba
A man holds his grandson inside the doorway of a fruit and vegetable shop in Havana, Cuba. Artur Widak/NurPhoto/Getty Images I sat waiting for Yudell* to finish his shift…
Did Dads Evolve?
[no-caption] Vincent van Gogh/Wikimedia Commons This article was originally published at Knowable Magazine and has been republished under Creative Commons. Lee Gettler is hard to get on t…
Brotherhood and Anti-Blackness in College Football
Clemson Tigers teammates celebrate a successful play against the Boston College Eagles in 2020. David Grooms/TigerNet.com/Flickr This article was originally published at Black Perspective…
Introducing the Other “AI”: Anthropology Intelligence
[no-caption] DrAfter123/Getty Images “The last thing a fish would ever notice would be water.” —attributed to anthropologist Ralph Linton I sat in a drab Soviet hotel room in…
Culture—Not Genetics—Was More Salient for Anglo-Saxons
An Anglo-Saxon burial mound rises in Taplow Court, England. Shutterstock This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished under Creative Commons. Scholar…
When the Guinea Pig Goes Gourmet
“Do you eat guinea pig?” I asked Leonardo. We were perusing the menu in a restaurant in Lima, and I wanted to know what my Peruvian friend thought…
The Macabre and Magical Human-Canine Story
Researchers found this dog skull in a Czech Republic site inhabited by humans some 28,500 years ago, offering a clue to understanding the ancient story of domestication. Mietje…
A Letter From COVID-19
[no-caption] Beastfromeast/Getty Images In June 2020, I published a “Letter From COVID-19” in the Italian newspaper la Repubblica. At the time of writing, Italy was still under lockdown…