Crisis
What Makes Vaccines Social?
Some people are wary of or may refuse vaccines. Social scientists are part of a movement to encourage self-empowerment to end the current pandemic.
SAPIENS
Features
Crisis
What a “Safe and Dignified” Burial Means During a Pandemic
When public health protocols disrupt normal funeral and mourning practices, such as in Cameroon, alternative approaches need to be engaged to keep people safe while respecting the dead and their loved ones.
Curiosities
Do Twins Share a Soul?
An anthropologist—and identical twin—grapples with different cultural understandings of twinship.
Entanglements
Finding Calm—and Connection—in Coffee Rituals
During the pandemic, an anthropologist finds new meaning in the everyday ritual of preparing and drinking coffee.
Op-Ed
Partnering With Nonhumans for Climate Action
Geoengineering plans to save Arctic ice tend to treat technology as a means for asserting human control over the environment. Instead, we should develop human-nonhuman partnerships to tackle climate change.
Letters
Best of SAPIENS 2020
In the wildest of years, SAPIENS writers covered a stunning range of stories about human culture, biology, history, and language. The editorial team selected some of their top favorites.