Sister Parks: North American Coloniality and the Monarch Butterfly
Monarch migration and the making of North America At the end of each summer, the northern prairies and Great Lakes regions of North America host a new generation…
Tag: Violence
Maize and Okra
I saw big momma once, seated in a wooden chair with hair braided all the way like if you look downriver, you could imagine the chillin’ playing— after…
The Same Old Song and Dance: Nothing Has Been Done to Reduce Mass Shootings
We are only a few days removed from the horrific mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX where nearly two dozen people were murdered in cold…
Markus Virgil Hoehne: Perpetuating conflict through democratization: Presidential elections in Somalia
Presidential elections will happen in Somalia on Sunday, 15 May 2022. This will most likely not bring peace and stability to the war-torn Somali society. To the contrary,…
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…
Repatriation Is Our Future
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990, or NAGPRA, is supposed to curb the illegal possession of ancestral Native American remains and cultural items. But…
The Ukrainian Refugee Crisis’ Double Standard
Watching the war unfold in Ukraine due to the recent Russian invasion, I, like many others, have been gripped by heartbreaking images of refugees arriving to the borders…
What Kenya’s Killer Cops Reveal About Police Culture
On July 7, 2021, Nairobi residents marched to protest police brutality and harassment, particularly against poor people. The date also commemorates demonstrations against authoritarian rule that …
“We don’t have to whisper”: Fieldnotes from Odesa
I met Engineer Yakiv[1] on board a merchant ship I had joined just south of Sri Lanka in early 2013. I was there to study seafarers’ perceptions of…
Slavery, Sustenance, and Resistance
Archaeology helps re-imagine a fuller range of experiences, including how people ate, innovated, and rebelled. In this episode, “slave cuisine” opens a window to honor the legacy of…
5 Questions About War Virtually
Join us for a free 25-minute live Q&A between former SAPIENS Media and Public Outreach Fellow Yoli Ngandali and anthropologist Roberto J. González about his new book, War…
Requiem for a War Robot
An experimental robotic pack mule, the Legged Squad Support System, walks alongside U.S. Marines on patrol. Sarah Dietz/U.S. Marine Corps Excerpted from War Virtually: The Quest to Autom…
‘Call to Arms: Silver and Lead’ Campaign Review
‘Call to Arms: Silver and Lead’ campaign review Posted December 10, 2034 by Julie Annie (staff writer at Génial Gaming) Answering the Call to Arms (yet again)…
Writing Life No. 18: An Interview with Stefania Pandolfo by Basit Kareem Iqbal
The anthropologist Stefania Pandolfo approaches ethnography as not just the depiction of a world but as what addresses and displaces both the writer and the reader, where ethnography…
Ep # 87: Squatters in The Stag: Adrian Watts on Activism & Squats
The Familiar Strange · Ep # 87: Squatters in The Stag: Adrian Watts on Activism & Squats Before we dive into today’s episode we’d just like to add…
#MeToo Anthropology and the Case Against Harvard
On February 4, The Harvard Crimson broke the news of an open letter, signed by 38 faculty members, in support of John Comaroff. This prominent professor of anthropology…
“Cowboys and Indians”—When Dirt Rocks Are Dynamite
The Lone Ranger and Tonto. Silver Screen Collection/Archive Photos/Getty Images “With his faithful Indian companion Tonto, the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains led the fi…
Who gets to be ‘Myanmar’ at the ICJ?
The Myanmar military will appear at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on 21 February 2022. Their main interest does not lie in defending the…
Heritage out of Control: Human bones as inherited waste of Europe
Central and Eastern Europe – known as “Bloodlands”, the area where Nazi and Stalin’s atrocities met, leaving behind many sites marked by mass killings – provide an obvious…
Heritage Out of Control – (B)Lasting Bombs
On January 30, 2021, more than 8000 inhabitants of Göttingen, Germany, had to evacuate their homes. Four suspected WWII bombs had been detected underground, and in order to…
Heritage out of Control: Don’t trash my holocaust
It was an ordinary, unseasonably cool, summer day in a sleepy town just forty minutes outside of Berlin. Oranienburg once was home to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, one of…
Street Affects in Kashmir
This piece offers an ‘inside-out’ perspective on everyday life in a militarized space. As a researcher and a Kashmiri, the writer is struggling to document the ordinary-everyday lives…
The Emotional Logic of a Black Poetics: Truth, Metaphor, Beauty, Joy
In this free live event, Poetry Editor Christine Weeber and SAPIENS Public Anthropology Fellow Eshe Lewis will speak with Justin D. Wright, a doctoral student in sociocultural anthropology…
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…