SAPIENS – Anthropology Magazine

Anthropology Magazine

A tooth is held up with tweezers against a white brick wall.

What Molars and Math Reveal About the Human Brain

A photograph features two smiling people sitting on a bench in a wood-paneled room watching television.

Five Highlights From the 2023 RAI Film Festival

Outside the migrant shelter, a Central American migrant boils water in a Coke bottle for his morning coffee. He carefully adjusts the bottle lid to prevent the water from boiling over or the plastic from burning. Bringing few objects with them on their journey, migrants rely on creative uses of found and recycled items in order to fulfill basic needs.

A person with dark curly hair and a person wearing a black hat lean through and over blue metal bars and use white tools to flatten and smooth painted fabric on a concrete wall.

An ad hoc tattoo shop opens on the train tracks. This diversion facilitates a brief moment of intimacy between two Central American men who make a living off of smuggling, and sometimes robbing, migrants.

Although they are in the process of migrating, these migrants are not wholly defined by their participation in this clandestine activity. During their brief stays in this shelter in Pakal-Na, people find creative and resourceful ways to pass the time. This includes playing music, swapping stories, or, in the case of the men in the photo, inventing a game out of discarded plastic bottle caps. These diversions help take migrants’ minds off what has already happened to them or what lies ahead.

Shame has long been considered maladaptive in the field of psychology, but a new study suggests that shame likely has evolutionary benefits, such as helping protect people from negative reactions to breaking cultural norms.

Men munch on sugarcane after a morning of work in the large communal garden below the main village of Boti. Everyone is expected to help in the communal garden, as well as tend to their own, every day. The garden grows sugarcane, cassava, bananas, and coconut trees as well as other herbs and vegetables.

Eight pictures of Queen Elizabeth II at various ages appear on eight monoliths of Stonehenge, set against a dark-blue sky.

Ancestral Puebloans started living in the Pecos Valley, east of Santa Fe, in A.D. 800. By A.D. 1300, the pueblo consisted of 700 rooms with over 1,500 inhabitants. Pecos shows the use and reuse of timber over time, which is of particular interest to archaeologists because it gives us a relative chronology of human habitation on the landscape. Recent National Park Service reconstructions of the original kivas at Pecos, such as the one shown here, have become new tourist attractions.

Zabi is originally from the Parwan province in Afghanistan. He was the first of his family to make the journey to Belgium, having arrived in 1999. He currently owns and operates a night shop in the south of the city; two of his brothers also own shops—one a news agent and the other a food store—in Antwerp.

Since the 1920s, scientists have debated whether the first Americans arrived from Asia—or somewhere else—some 11,000 years ago, or millennia before. Artifacts such as this Clovis spear point have provided some clues, but new multidisciplinary research is filling in the picture.

Olympics Zika - The World Health Organization stated that there was “no public health justification” to postpone the 2016 Rio Olympics due to the Zika virus. Is the fear of Zika at the games overblown?

Gift economy - Gift giving, such as during weddings in southern India, is an essential part of many relationships and ceremonies across the world.

A person with many small, long, black braids tied up and flowing down their back looks out onto the water.

A person in a scuba suit hovers underwater above a cluster of large vases covered with algae and moss resting on the sea floor.

Native American Activism - Native Americans from many different tribes have unified behind the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s protest in North Dakota against the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline. The controversial pipeline raises numerous cultural and environmental issues, ranging from tribal rights to climate change.

Yardenit Baptismal

amazon gold mining

The photograph features a large recreated model of a neanderthal.

prison labor

Twinship - Sameness is often seen as the defining characteristic of identical twins, but this impression is a result of Western stereotypes about the meaning of selfhood.

The Sumatran rainforest—one of only four primate biodiversity hotspots—faces rampant environmental destruction, fueled in part by recent massive wildfires, unchecked deforestation and unsustainable agriculture.

Cultural heritage - Palmyra was attacked by ISIS in 2015. The Arch of Triumph, shown here the way it looked before the attack, was almost completely destroyed. Many referred to the destruction as “cultural genocide.”

Immigrants and refugees have been the target of Tea Partyists’ and Trump supporters’ anger and fear.

Two Native American archaeology students conduct research in Petrified Forest National Park in June 2015 as part of a field school project.

In Mexico City, critics created a piñata in response to Donald Trump’s claims that many Mexican immigrants to the United States bring drugs and crime, and that many are rapists. Such rhetoric has put the Republican party in a political and moral bind.

Agustín Rivas Vázquez (pictured here), an ayahuasquero, or plant medicine specialist, manages a lodge near Tamshiyacu, Peru.

Research suggests that parents who choose to vaccinate their children often do so out of adherence to their own upbringing and personal experience, rather than as a result of a deeper understanding of the science behind immunization.

Rwandan Genocide rescuers - Compassion and a shared sense of humanity motivated many rescuers to put their lives on the line to save others during the killings.

Autism human evolution - Some cave paintings, such as these from Chauvet Cave in southern France, show characteristics that are also commonly expressed by some autistic artists.

Senegal wrestling drug testing - The sport’s magico-religious rituals, such as wrestlers pouring specially prepared potions and liquids over their heads before a competition, carry meaning and power.

Kashmir Justice

At the site of an old Moroccan mine, paleoanthropologist Jean-Jacques Hublin (pictured) points to one of the oldest Homo sapiens fossils yet found.

Cally Steussy and Meriah Dainard clean animal bones recovered at the Hamanaka II site with toothbrushes in a school gym.

In the woods, a man wearing a tan shirt, jeans, and cowboy hat holds a long pronged metal spear in his left hand and pulls a gun out from the back of his pants with his right hand. A long machete in a case hangs from his belt.

An empty sandy desert sits below a darkening sky with yellow from the sun peeking through.

Two hands hold a book whose cover reads, "The Great Seal of the Chickasaw Nation; A Chickasaw Dictionary compiled by Jessie Humes and Vinnie May (James) Humes"

The photograph features a person with a hearing aid sitting next to a person smiling on a couch. They face each other and communicate using sign language.

From behind, a photograph features a group of children wearing patterned hats and clothing—some with black backpacks—standing in a village square. All but a few children in the back of the group have both hands on their heads.

Looking for the Lepchas

Expanding worlds by exploring everything human.

A photograph shows an adult and child watching a black truck pass in front of a memorial of flowers and stuffed animals. The truck has several Canadian flags flying from it and carries a black banner with white text that reads, “Just now found but were never forgotten.”

Advocating for Archaeology’s New Purpose

A close-up photograph features a yellow Lego toy shaped like a caveman holding a wooden club posed in front of a shadow it casts.

Club-Wielding Ancestors: Myth or Reality?

A photograph features a wide river lined on both sides with trees ranging in color from green to orange to yellow. Topped with blues skies, the trees along the back of the image are optically reflected in the water below.

A Free Man: The Story of a Menominee Elder

Creative Nonfiction

A photograph shows a grassy riverbank descending into water littered with trash.

The Mexican River Defenders Fighting for the San Pedro

A photograph features a person in a red hooded cape standing in a dark forest, looking back at the viewer.

Should Paviland’s Red Lady “Come Home”?

A photograph features a group of people in colorful ponchos and brimmed straw hats waving colorful flags and holding large drums. A banner in the distance reads “21 de Junio."

Seeker of Life/Kawsay Thawiq

A photograph features a person in a hooded windbreaker in the foreground looking left, away from a large tiered moss-covered stone structure in the background.

The Colonial Roots of Peru’s Troubles

A photograph shows the silhouettes of three people against a large screen with an image of a colorful galaxy across it.

Picturing the Deep Universe Is Deeply Human

A photograph features a person with short, wavy hair holding a child near an ocean with a bright line shining from the background, blowing out an otherwise dark image. Matt Hoffman/Unsplash

Born of “All That Good”

Three people sit in a museum with their hands on the frame of a large painting depicting people sitting at a long table. Under the painting, the words “No New Oil” are spray-painted on the wall.

Reconsidering Fragility in Museums—and the World

A photograph features a building’s white wall covered with a large colorful mural of a curly haired young person with a green sprig tucked behind their ear. The mural surrounds a window through which a woman can be seen standing with her hand on her hip.

What Does the Armenian Genocide Have to Do With Florida?

A photograph features a metal statue of a man on an elevated platform in a grassy circle in the center of a park. Orange and yellow flowers surround the platform.

How the Early Battle Over Race Science Was Lost

A photograph features dark river water out of which grow tall trees that are sparse with leaves.

The Woods Lament For Me

A team of people wear gloves and work around a large square hole in the dirt. Some dig, one takes notes, and two hold up a wooden frame in the background.

With the Fall of a Tree, Archaeology Returns to Liberia

An aerial photograph features a large arc-shaped complex of stone ruins showing the remains of rectangular rooms and circular sacred gathering places.

Navigating the Ethics of Ancient DNA Research

A photograph features women in a train car, standing and holding black handlebars attached to the ceiling.

In Delhi, Women Find Their Place on the Metro

A photograph features a dirt path leading deeper into a dark, wooded area densely packed with green leafy trees.

The Path

A person with black hair wearing a gray T-shirt sits at a table brushing a cylindrical clay object that stands next to several stone fragments labeled with yellow tags.

What Do Archaeologists Do?

A close-up photograph features a sculpture depicting a person wearing a headwrap and dress leaning on a tombstone at a gravesite etched with the numbers “1941–1945.”

When Life Imitates Art in Ukraine

From below, a photograph features a person in a brown fur coat attaching a large ice block to an in-progress igloo from inside, with a blue sky above.

How Ancient Humans Came to Cope With the Cold

A zoomed-out photograph features white-capped mountains towering in the distance against a blue sky with light clouds. Flags of different colors and dark, sparse shrubbery are in the foreground.

Mayel Lyang

A photograph features several people wearing caps, sports jackets, khaki pants, and rainboots gathered on a mountainside plot of dirt, grass, and trees. Several are carrying wooden sticks.

When Disaster Tests the Strength of Human Cooperation

A photograph features a group of people in patterned clothing gathered on a sandy plot with domed huts visible in the distance. In front, two people dance as others cheer.

Did Humanity Really Arise in One Place?

A photograph features two people kneeling by buckets and working to clean a tiled mosaic on the ground.

Piecing Together History From a Roman Mosaic

A photograph features a large desert plain scattered with brush and cacti with a sun setting behind a distant horizon lined with mountains.

Rock Drawings

A photograph features a square area of concrete tiling in a park’s center with bench seating around its perimeter. At the center of the square is a stone statue of a man’s bust covered in red paint.

To Decolonize, We Must End the World as We Know It

A photograph features a large body of water with a cityscape visible in the distance. On the left side, a person stands on a wooden pier near a white sign that reads: “PLEASE KEEP YOUR PIER CLEAN. USE TRASH CANS.”

Planting Seeds for a More Ethical Future

A photograph features a dark scene with red light shining from the left to silhouette a crowd of people under an overhanging tree. In the center, a person wearing hoop earrings and a head wrap poses in front of a projected illustration of a person in a white dress and head wrap.

Centering Black Lives in the Study of Human Remains

A photograph features a large crowd inside an atrium holding up flyers emblazoned with capitalized red text that reads “Decolonize This Museum.”

Embracing the Poetry of Being Human

A photograph features the corner of a large bookcase filled with books. The books’ various multicolored covers evoke patterns common on African wax print fabrics.

Can Anthropology Be Decolonized?

A photograph features a large tree fully topped with green leaves along the side of a dirt road and in front of an iron and concrete fence that encloses green grass. A car is partially visible in the foreground, and beige buildings lie in the background.

A Tree’s Tongue

Indigenizing What It Means to Be Human

A photograph features a wax figure of a seated person with a large nose and broad jaw wearing a gray collared button-up shirt under a suit jacket of a darker gray shade. Their body is angled left as they look into the distance.

What If Neanderthals Had Outlived Homo Sapiens?

A photograph features a person wearing a collared shirt and apron in a large kitchen pouring coffee from a kettle into one of several white mugs on a wooden counter.

When Coffee Is Like Angel Cake With Strawberry Jam

Rhyme & Reason: Poetry as a Cultural and Communal Bridge

A large, sheep-shaped stone with etchings on its side sits on grass alongside a road where a car speeds by in a blur of orange lights.

How Gravestones Shaped as Sheep United the Caucasus

A photograph features a person wearing torn beige clothing kneeling in the front of a cave over a stone, rubbing wooden sticks together atop the latter to create sparks. Another brown-haired person in beige clothing is barely visible in the background on the right side of the image.

The Paleolithic Age Cooked Up Creative Chefs

A photograph features a narrow street lined with tall white and beige buildings. Left of the photo’s center, a large telephone pole has numerous wires extending from it.

In Lebanon, Solar Power Is Booming. Why?

(RE)THINK HUMAN

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