Can the Hunt for Skeletons Help Heal a Nation’s Wounds?
[no-caption] David Williams/SAPIENS The abandoned Nicosia airport in Cyprus is a strange place for an anthropology lab. But there I was—at the end of a humid spring day…
[no-caption] David Williams/SAPIENS The abandoned Nicosia airport in Cyprus is a strange place for an anthropology lab. But there I was—at the end of a humid spring day…
The famous statues of Easter Island have long been a source of awe and wonder. John Elk III/Alamy Photos This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been…
Hillbrow, Johannesburg: It’s April 2008. I am in the lobby of the Ambassador Hotel, one of Johannesburg’s most happening nightclubs since the Apartheid era. As with the Hillbrow…
Each January, the science and security board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists unveils an estimate of the likelihood that humanity will self-destruct. They do so by…
REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain Introduction by Maaike Matelski In June 2015 the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology organized a seminar on account of the increasing number of Rohingya refug…
An anthropologist reflects on ethical responsibility and everyday violence. Sitting on a bench in a beautiful town-center park in Calais, we speak to a number of Ethiopian refugees…
When the United Nations drafted The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, it established a vision of peak humanity, articulating what the assembly considered appropriate rules for…
The Samburu people, pastoralists who live in northern Kenya’s semiarid lands, have a rich oral tradition recounting stories of their ancestors. In the late 19th century, one story…
Some researchers argue that human warfare develops out of innate tendencies for collective violence and that only culture, or reason, keeps violent and aggressive urges in check. But…
When considering the question of whether humans are a naturally aggressive and violent species, it might be good to take a deep breath and have a look at…
Words are more than their dictionary definitions. Amir Ridhwan/Shutterstock This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished under Creative Commons. The …
Many street dwellers wait to sleep until the sun rises and people bustle through public spaces, providing a level of safety that the homeless cannot find at night.…
Not all forms of violence are created equal. On August 12, violence unfolded at a white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. President Trump’s immediate reaction…
White supremacists surrounded counterprotesters at the University of Virginia campus on August 11. Shay Horse /Associated Press On the evening of August 11, a torch-bearing mob assaulted …
I started my own journey in the Brazilian northeast, on the plane from Rio de Janeiro to Fortaleza, Ceará, with a dream. After wandering around the airport, hot…
By now, the main contours of the recent events in Rakhine State, in western Myanmar, are well-known. On August 25, an insurgent group calling itself the Arakan Rohingya…
By Elisa Sandri In late August, alarming reports and harrowing images started to surface from Myanmar. It soon became clear that Rohingya people—a Muslim minority living in a…
It all began, over a year ago (June 2016), with what author Ethan Zuckerman described as hate-linking. Through this practice, Zuckerman stumbled upon and read an article by…
The word “ends” has at least two significant meanings. We can speak of “ends” as goals, aspirations or outcomes. For example, we might ask, “What are the ends…
Whether we take the perspective that evolutionary selection made humans prone to violence matters to our sense of ourselves. Are we born to be aggressive or peaceful? David…
Cities in the southern U.S. are currently under pressure to take down statues of Confederate leaders, whose publicly sanctioned presence is a constant source of injury to many.…
An immigrant farmworker listens to activist Ethel Kennedy and a representative from the Florida-based human rights organization Coalition of Immokalee Workers speak as part of the Robert F.…
Dark clouds over Yemen By Marina de Regt. Last Saturday the holy Muslim month of Ramadan started. Ramadan, a month of fasting and feasting, a month of contemplation,…
Over the last three decades, India’s occupation of a large portion of Kashmir has brought political strife, widespread oppression, and violence. David Williams/SAPIENS On a hot sunny day…