DNA Testing of Immigrants Is Unethical
The collection of genetic biodata for the reunification of families must safeguard individuals’ agency, provide meaningful informed consent, and protect privacy. DNA testing has been used for nearly…
Tag: Top News
Evolutionary Foodprints
*This essay includes a photograph of a replica Paranthropus boisei skull and a replica human skull. New approaches to the dental remains of early hominins and the diets…
Tasting Independence
Maggi instant noodles are a treasured favorite among India’s young people. Their banning in 2015 conjured youthful memories of rebellion and revealed the uncertainties of our global food…
Farmer Talk
Facing language problems in Peru’s new coffee economy During a recent trip to the Andean-Amazonian foothills of Southern Peru, I hiked out to a remote corner of the…
How to Build a Sandwich
A degree in sociocultural anthropology may not be the most obvious background for a food stylist, yet it was a love for hands-on, detailed fieldwork that led me…
Embodied Taste
A student-curated exhibition offers an immersive exploration of food and the connections, stories, and memories we consume each time we eat. Image description: A small, neon yellow…
The Coastal Edge
New technologies are refortifying our coastlines against anthropogenic climate change, drawing our water edgelands near and making them tangible and perhaps valuable. Edgelands, those ignored yet sym…
Eat, Drink, and Stand in Japan
Japan’s standing bars offer respite from the daily grind with drinks, lively company, and a feast of small dishes. Image description: People walk down a corridor in front…
From Cocoa Farms to Candy Chutes
The Wonka-fication of chocolate in American society is multiply damaging, increasing cocoa producer vulnerability to COVID-19 and further eliding the inequalities that characterize the value chain. “W…
People of the Bean
An heirloom bean club brings culinary community and diverse foodways to its legume lovers’ doors. Alubia Blanca, Good Mother Stallard, Vaquero, Eye of the Goat. Four times a…
Killing the Workers Who Feed Us
Keeping processing lines running at workers’ expense is not only a sign of our pandemic times. The meat and poultry processing industry has long treated workers as disposable.…
The Darker the History, the Sweeter the Truth
How a white identified city struggles to commemorate the Black lives and deaths that produced its sugar and built its wealth. Sugar Land is a growing, white, politically…
2020 Highlights
Sit back, relax, and enjoy some of our highlights of 2020! Thank you to all our authors and to everyone who contributed to Anthropology News this year. Wishing…
Water in the Desert
In 2019, a nonprofit volunteer was acquitted of a misdemeanor charge for leaving jugs of water in the desert for passing migrants on the grounds that his actions…
Call for Pitches: PEDAGOGY
Image description: Eight apples are lined up in two rows of four on a light green background. The apples alternate in color between red and green. iStock Class…
Archaeology Worlds, Art Worlds
Archaeologists move from avoiding talking about art to engaging in the critical practice of art. Despite the many books on the subject of archaeology and art, a reader…
How to Make a Zine
Feeling boxed in by traditional professional or academic publishing outlets? A zine—a small self-published pamphlet or booklet—can be a powerful tool for unlocking creativity and expanding the reach…
Thinking Without a Concept
How an artistic method can challenge and enrich our understandings of vision and knowledge. Imagine […] an eye which does not respond to the name of everything but…
Singing with Pippa Bacca
In noughties Italy, the Bubble Gum choir performed a liberatory counterimage of the feminine. Today, Bacca’s chorus breathes new life into the ensemble of characters and an impermanent…
All Things Ape
One illustrator’s approach to conveying the multidimensional lives of apes with particular focus on their anatomy. *This essay includes scientific illustrations as well as descriptions of the observin…
The Human Cost of Border Enforcement Policies
A participatory pop-up exhibition breaks down traditional disciplinary boundaries between art and anthropology to inform wider audiences about the humanitarian crisis occurring at the United States–Me…
The Anthropologist as Artist
A deeply interdisciplinary visual artist creates objects that are both art and ethnography. Her installations produce space for immersive, social forms of understanding. As a visual artist and…
Beer Can Photography
In an age of digital technology, an experiment with pinhole cameras reveals a striking record of the sun’s daily path and a changing landscape in northern Sweden. Uffe…
Race, Place, and Latinx Political Choices
How can there be talk of a singular Latinx vote without recognizing the differentiated racial experiences among Latinxs? During the 2020 primary elections, a New York Times headline,…