Launching Starship in South Texas
An anthropologist witnesses the first integrated flight attempt of the world’s largest rocket—and the wide range of responses it elicited from people. This piece is part of a…
Tag: space
A Spacecraft’s Dance From French Guiana to Jupiter
As the European Space Agency launches its flagship mission to explore Jupiter’s moons, an anthropologist explores the gap between launch enthusiasts and local residents. This piece is part…
The First Space Launch for Mauritius
An anthropologist recounts how a small island nation built and deployed its first satellite—and what their effort says about unequal access to the growing space economy on Earth.…
How Cosmic Explorations Are Reshaping Life on Earth
In a series of essays, a collaborative research project brings together “space anthropologists” to investigate how communities around the globe are grappling with the current boom in outer…
What Ancient Egyptians Knew About Meteorites—Long Before Modern Astronomers
An Egyptologist’s study of hieroglyphic texts has revealed that ancient Egyptians likely understood the celestial origins of iron-rich meteorites. ✽ “(The king) Unis seizes the sky and splits…
Do Washing Machines Belong in Kitchens? Many Brits Say “Yes.”
An anthropologist moves from Canada to the U.K. and finds herself reflecting on what home design patterns reveal about a society. Excerpted from Silent but Deadly: The Underlying…
“T”
A poet-anthropologist celebrates how the Orring people of southeastern Nigeria conceptualize the origins—and workings—of the cosmos. “T” is part of the collection Indigenizing What It Mean…
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…
Did an Asteroid Shape This Famous Biblical Story?
Ancient ruins show the cosmic impact’s destruction layer about midway down exposed walls. Phil Silvia This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished un…
“Take your skills to the streets”: Skateboarding and Social and Physical Urban Space
by Luiza Fonini Reis and Luisa Voss / Images: Ella Bowler Anthropology is the study of intersections, of community and its inherent conflict between the self and the…
… And the Street Goes on
Népszínház utca is a street that begs to be the subject of study. Its name, People’s Theatre Street, produces expectations that are fully met. Its surroundings are a…
Exploring Faith and Space with Hillsong Church
Mimicking a rock concert, I had to pre-book my space for the Hillsong service online before attending. Once on-site, I was scanned in by ushers with radios and…
Lionel Wee and Robbie Goh on their book, Language, Space, and Cultural Play
Interview by Ida Hoequist https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/language-space-and-cultural-play/327DE07D95DC80767188DE0AA9139EDD Ida Hoequist: In this book, you combine affect theory with an …
Cosmic Interbeing
Summer, Eastern Oregon Do you think about space as someplace out there? As something in the future, somewhere you will never go? One of the most amazing things about…
Horizons, Not Curves: Creating Space for Radical Care in a Pandemic
By Randall Burson II and Angela Ross Perfetti § “If you have an R0 of 2 — two more cases on average for every person infected — the…
Translating Truth: Heaven’s Vault and Its Message to Gamers
By Catherine Hill If you’re a gamer, chances are you’ve played, seen, or at least heard of Heaven’s Vault, the newest game from Inkle Studios. In this adventure, players…
Virus and the City: Urban Experiences in Self-Isolation
The way we make sense of space has radically changed as a novel Coronavirus spread, with no clear end in sight. While our physical surroundings shrink and our…
“In Transit”: Wong Kwang Lin on the Fluid Mosaic
Introduction Wong Kwang Lin is an anthropologist and a dancer based in Singapore. K.L. Wong asked her colleagues and friends to create a collective choreography that brings together…
Space, Futures, Tech at “Changing Climates” — AAA/CASCA 2019
Space, Futures, Tech at “Changing Climates” — AAA/CASCA 2019 A list of space, futures, and tech related papers, panels, and roundtables, at the joint meeting of the Canadian Anthropology Society…
Can Anthropologists Propel Astronauts Toward Mars?
Jack Stuster poses with a NASA space shuttle. Jack Stuster In the fall of 1957, the Soviet Union satellite Sputnik 1 streaked across the night’s sky. The event kicked off…
When Women Take Up Space Not Built for Them
It is not enough to be intentional and intersectional in research settings. We must rework the spaces of the academy and knowledge production to better acknowledge and suit…
A Postcolonial Civic? Shi‘i Philanthropy and the Making and Marking of Urban Space in Mumbai #MUHUM
Scholarly discussions of charity, philanthropy and humanitarianism in varied contexts tend to uphold the moral ideal of giving for the sake of humanity at large or the common…
Making, Holding, and Guarding as Spatial Politics of Healing
“I wouldn’t want anyone to get attached to a space. But if, for the sake of an example, there is going to be a space, then it needs…