Fair and Balanced—Weighing Coca With a Wipi in Peru
An Andean community’s use of weighing scales shows how meanings of fairness and justice differ across cultures. THE WIPI SCALE IN PERU On a cool spring morning in…
Tag: Ritual
Sacando a las vírgenes de paseo para pedir la lluvia. El caso de los agricultores de “La Muela” (Zaragoza)
Read Time:14 Minute, 52 Second Rubén Blasco Rubén Blasco “Que llueva, que llueva, la Vírgen de la Cueva, los pajaritos cantan…” Canc…
Asado argentino, un manjar reconocido en todo el mundo
Read Time:6 Minute, 24 Second Diego Moll Soto El asado en Argentina es una costumbre, un ritual, un motivo para reunirse o un fin en s…
Why Nahua Pilgrims Carry Thousands of Papers Up Sacred Peaks
Along mountain pilgrimages, two anthropologists learn how an Indigenous Mesoamerican religion helps people practice a reciprocal relationship with the Earth. Based on Pilgrimage to Broken Mountain: Na…
Giving Winter a Funeral in Transylvania
In a village in Romania, residents maintain a centuries-old carnival tradition called farsang to mark winter’s death. ✽ As the morning sun ambles over blunted cliffs, whips break…
A Love Letter to the Munay-Ki
A poet exuberantly gives thanks for the Munay-Ki rites enlivened across the ages and shared by the Q’ero people in the Peruvian Andes. “A Love Letter to the…
The Human Roots of Japan’s Cherry Blossoms
Most cherry blossom trees planted in Japan today are the iconic pale-pink somei-yoshino variety—but its reign may be coming to an end. SAKURA FEVER I was in Japan…
a love letter to my qáqnaʔ
A sqilxʷ poet and artist who currently lives in Mohkínstsis, Treaty 7 in Canada speaks to their grandmother of longing and connection, wanting to wake up the medicine…
Una visión etnográfica del carnaval en pueblos del estado español: el carnaval serrano abulense de la sierra de Gredos y el carnaval en la Comunidad foral de Navarra
Read Time:10 Minute, 15 Second El Carnaval es una antigua celebración festiva documentada desde la Edad Media y con una rica perso…
A Free Man: The Story of a Menominee Elder
An anthropologist and Menominee Indian Nation citizen recounts the story of independent-minded Frank, a man who kept tribal lifeways in the early 20th century. “A Free Man: The…
A Tree’s Tongue
A Nigerian poet-anthropologist witnesses the powerful rising up of ancestors through the revival of a tree in the Igbo village of Ogbodu. “A Tree’s Tongue” is part of…
Purity, Danger, and Handwashing
Author: Michael Dunford is currently a PhD Candidate at the School of Culture History and Language. His research asks how how agrarian economies and agrarian ecologies intersect with…
Do Mountains Have Souls?
An anthropologist explores the resurgence of “new Animism”—interest in spiritual practices that recognize the interrelationships among animals, places, plants, and people. This article was originally…
Xantolo
Read Time:6 Minute, 46 Second En un sistema capitalista que todo lo convierte en mercancía, no es de extrañar que las tradiciones c…
Vistiendo el vacío. La persona y la comunidad como frontera piacular
Read Time:12 Minute, 50 Second Sólo hay una cosa más lamentable que las calles vacías de un pueblo en navidad. Esas mismas calles, …
What Cargo Cult Rituals Reveal About Human Nature
In Melanesia, Indigenous communities developed elaborate rituals to bring themselves material wealth starting in the late 19th century. These practices reveal a profoundly important and universal soci…
Wisdom From the Winding Path
An anthropologist dreams of his work with Songhay sorcerers in Niger and of French poet Edmond Jabès, fictionalizing conversations and experiences to polish nuggets of wisdom for our…
Wisdom From the Winding Path
[no caption] Frans Lemmens/Getty Images Excerpted from Paul Stoller’s essay “Jabès Amongst Songhay Sorcerers” in Philosophy on Fieldwork: Case Studies in Anthropological Analysis, e…
Looking Into the World of Frog Gigging
The moon emerged out of the clouds at a few minutes past midnight, reflecting on the murky water of a forest pond. I watched as Wyatt*, the organizer…
Looking Into the World of Frog Gigging
Frog hunters, known as “giggers,” search for bullfrogs in southern Indiana. Saish Solankar The moon emerged out of the clouds at a few minutes past midnight, reflecting on…
Arctic Midsummer – party time with pagan roots
In the European Arctic Midsummer nowadays marks mostly the start of the summer holidays. But at the roots of this big holiday, celebrated on or close to the…
Understanding the Shaman’s Tribulations
Understanding the Shaman’s Tribulations – By Taba Menia – The scholarship of shamanism is closely related to ideas about traditional healing and their knowledge. Found across the world…
The Cosmic Serpent
Most Carnival celebrations in Brazil have been canceled again in 2022 due to the resurgence of COVID-19, though larger cities like Rio and São Paulo are holding scaled-down…
Cuentepec: una comunidad nahua de Morelos que lucha contra el capitalismo
Read Time:9 Minute, 30 Second La comunidad de Cuentepec es uno de los pueblos nahuas de estado de Morelos en México, está ubicado e…