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…
Tag: Ritual
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
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…
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…
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…
El espíritu de la danza
Read Time:9 Minute, 27 Second Hace un par de años me invitaron a la comunidad de Zaragoza, esta comunidad pertenece al municipio de…
The Spring a Time for Calving and Cleaving
This poem was partly inspired by my first foray into the world of Sámi reindeer herding back in 2013. In this new year of 2022, I’ve been reflecting…
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…
Centro urbano y centralidad ritual
La foto es de Jenxi Seow y está tomada de iamseow.com En José María García-Pablos, ed. Nombrar lo urbano, Escuela de Arquitectura, Ingeniera y Diseño, Universidad Europea, Madrid,…
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…
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’…
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…
Relatos para una reconciliación oportuna
Read Time:9 Minute, 38 Second El antropólogo neoyorquino Elijah G. Costanza realizó entre 1973 y 1975 un trabajo de campo en el val…
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…
Chasing the Myths of Mexico’s “Superrunners”
Surrounded by torch-bearing supporters, runners kick a ball as part of a traditional rarajípare racing event practiced by the Rarámuri people of Mexico. Marcos Ferro On a mesa…
Discovering Africa’s Oldest Burial
This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished under Creative Commons. Africa is often referred to as the cradle of humankind—the birthplace of our…
And You Watch as We Make Woodwater Again
[no-caption] Arterra/Universal Images Group/Getty Images and you wonder how we remember our culture of traumatization our body beings tied to a land we were told was not ours…