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What’s Behind the Evolution of Neanderthal Portraits
Since the 1800s, Neanderthal depictions have evolved not only with changing science but also due to social views. An archaeologist explains why visualizations of our evolutionary cousins matter.
What Indiana Jones Gets Right About Archaeology
As Dr. Jones returns to the big screen, a real archaeologist acknowledges the movie franchise's shortcomings while espousing its merits.
Club-Wielding Ancestors: Myth or Reality?
Inspired by pop culture depictions of cavepeople, an archaeologist searches for elusive evidence of ancient wooden clubs.
Unsung Native Collaborators in Anthropology
Anthropologists such as Franz Boas and Margaret Mead could not have achieved success without their local assistants’ insider knowledge and extensive labor.
Head of a Maiden
A poet-anthropologist considers the life of a looted fourth-century B.C. Etruscan maiden.
How Billy Graham Married Evangelism and Anthropology
“America’s Pastor” left behind a complex legacy built on Christian worldviews and a deep sense of racial injustice. But, he wished for more.
How Ursula Le Guin’s Writing Was Shaped by Anthropology
A connection can be made between the iconic writer’s science fiction and her father’s groundbreaking work in anthropology.
How Will the Power of the Pussyhat Endure?
The United States is divided between those who came together to support the inauguration of President Donald Trump on January 20 and those who gathered for human rights on January 21. Can we knit it back together?
Graffiti Bombing in U.S. National Parks
Vandalism can be a form of resistance to oppression. But is that the case when a privileged artist mars our public lands?
![The ladder acts as a central axis holding the universe together. According to anthropologist Elsie Clews Parsons, for the Acoma, “the Earth Mother is held in position by the Galaxy arching overhead, and a stick-image of the Mother is called [a] center pole; it holds the four stratified skies and the four stratified earths together, so to speak, a pole of gravity.”](https://www.sapiens.org/app/uploads/2016/03/4-Acoma-Pueblo_3-333x500.jpg)
Ladders to Other Worlds
For many Pueblo Indians, the ladder is at once a practical tool and a powerful metaphor. The ladder is used to descend and ascend—and to cross multiple worlds.
Remember Your Loved One—Build a Birdhouse
Humans are symbolic animals who create meaning from things. An eccentric movement to craft birdhouses into personal memorials has arisen spontaneously in central Florida.
Confessions of a Blackhawks Fan
Can an anthropologist who loves hockey embrace his team’s race-based mascot?
