SAPIENS – Anthropology Magazine

Anthropology Magazine

A photograph features a brown stone staircase lined with rough walls of similar stone. A bright yellow light illuminates the far side of a tunnel-like perspective toward the staircase’s top end.

The Dangers of Ancient Apocalypse’s Pseudoscience

A photograph features five people in colorful clothing standing on cement tiles in front of tall trees and green grass.

How a Song Bridged Diné and Ndebele Worlds

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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

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

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.

A photograph shows, through glass, a person with short black hair wearing glasses, a necklace, and a black shirt pointing at a graphic of stick figures. Different clusters of stick people interact in different scenarios as various red lines surround them, with several lines intersecting at a central node.

How Diverse Was Medieval Britain?

Expanding worlds by exploring everything human.

A photograph shows a crying person using a red cane to prop themselves up as they kneel in front of an assortment of flower bouquets, burning candles, and balloons arranged neatly on a sidewalk.

A Mass Shooting in the “Evangelical Vatican”

A child wearing a plaid shirt and a beanie looks up and holds the hand of an adult wearing jeans and a plaid shirt but whose head isn’t visible. They stand next to a cholla cactus.

Monogamy. Grandmas. Milk. The Evolution of Childhood Is Very Strange.

A crowd faces a large outdoor screen showing video of a nuclear missile launching into a blue sky. Several buses are visible in the background.

What Commentators Get Wrong (and Right) About North Korea

A photograph features a large crowd of people marching in a street. People in the front row hold up a large, long yellow banner with black text that reads “WOMEN OF COLOR FOR REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS.” Other people also carry signs with different slogans.

Broadening Demands for Reproductive Justice

A photograph features seven people seated on a grassy plain with a tree and body of water to their left, four flags posted on their right, and mountains and blue skies in the distance. All are wearing headpieces and blue clothing decorated with colorful patches.

Do Mountains Have Souls?

A photograph features two people smiling and holding chopsticks. Surrounded by sunlight, they sit side-by-side at an outdoor table with plates, pots, and plastic cups on it.

What Is Linguistic Anthropology?

Two adults and two children in brightly patterned clothing carry wooden jugs across a sandy setting scattered with clusters of green grass.

A Somali Archaeologist Is Championing Heritage in the Horn of Africa

A photograph features several stone pillars, some tilting towards others, with etched angular and circular designs on their visible front side. Blue skies and mountains lie in the background.

Heritage Forensics Is Tackling Devastating New Forms of Cultural Erasure

An illustration features a person with a protruding forehead, long brown hair, and a beard wearing an animal skin over their shoulders and holding a wooden spear. A child with similar long brown hair and clothing sits on the person’s shoulders.

The Family Lives of the Last Neanderthals

Directed upward, a photograph features leafy tree limbs covered with orange and black butterflies against a blue sky.

Alive in the Flapping of Infinite Orange Wings

A photograph features numerous light-purple ribbons tied into bows across the surface of a large, green wire fence.

Purple in Cycles

A photograph features a person in a sleeveless top and jeans kneeling on the ground and reaching down into a hole. Other people surround the person, but their faces aren’t visible.

Hunting Down the Facts About Paleo Diets

A black-and-white photograph features the head of a person with patterned face paint and a large headpiece adorned with feathers.

The Aztec Antichrist Chronicles Indigenous Resistance and Religious Conversion

A black-and-white photograph features a stone carving that resembles a person’s face inside of a glass box display.

Aztec Antichrist: A Performance of the Apocalypse

An image features a spiral notebook page against a blurry background of a forest. A paper cutout of a drawing of two people walking side by side stands on top of the paper.

Centering the Voices of Victims and Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse

With forest in the background, shirtless people with "USA" painted in red on their chests wear a mix of jean and khaki bottoms. Each person holds a long bamboo stick in their left hand, balancing it on their left shoulder. The group steps forward in unison.

What Cargo Cult Rituals Reveal About Human Nature

A close-up image features a hand covered with a white latex glove holding a tiny test tube as it catches drops of small clear liquid from a pipette.

Will a Nobel Prize Make Paleogenomics More Accountable?

A person wearing a blue-and-white-striped headwrap wades calf-deep in water, bending over to harvest long, woody crops planted in rows.

How Can Societies Decolonize Conservation?

A black-and-white photo features a man and child sitting next to another man who sits cross-legged and takes notes. Behind him, a woman also takes notes.

Unsung Native Collaborators in Anthropology

Three human researchers surround a white robot with a screen on its chest. The robot looks up to meet the gaze of one of the researchers.

Why AI Will Never Fully Capture Human Language

A photograph features a yellow grassy field in the foreground and large orange flames, smoke-covered blue sky, person on a tractor, and lone green leafy tree in the distance.

Why Indigenous Fire Management Works

Cultural Relativity

A woman wearing a blue dress stands at a podium with the seal of the U.S. president in front of an American flag and a wall of Zoom images of people.

Derogatory Place Names Need Indigenous Revision

A person holds the handle of a frying pan filled with a yellow stew on a gas stovetop.

Confronting Xenophobia Through Food—and Comics

A black-and-white photo features three baboons near the side of a dirt road. Two look on as a third bends over to drink from a puddle.

Extracting Hominin Evolution From Fossilized Teeth

Children stand in front of video game displays and a large green tractor.

With So Few Farmers, Why Are Video Games About Farming So Popular?

A short-haired person turns their head to their right in front of the horizon, a sun glare shining from behind them.

Was Our Skin Meant for the Sun?

On a sunny day, two people sit on stools under an awning made of wood and cloth. They are facing each other, and one holds a clipboard.

What Is Cultural Anthropology?

A protestor holds a blue, green, and red patterned flag while wearing a face mask with the same pattern.

In Spain, Scapegoating Spikes During the Pandemic

A photograph features three macaques with red faces and beige fur soaking in hot springs as a person takes their picture with a cellphone.

Does “Monkeypox” Give Monkeys a Bad Name?

A person lies in bed next to a smartphone displaying numbers and symbols.

Are Insomniacs Overthinking Sleep?

Cultural Relativity

A photograph features a group of women dressed in green camo uniforms looking toward their right with stern expressions on their faces.

When Women Answer the Call of Duty

A photo features blocks of wood put together in such a way that you can see the rings of the trees they were made from.MirageC/

Misperceiving Life Expectancy in the Deep Past

A landscape photo features dense buildings on a hillside under blue skies, with a mountain range in the background.

What Is Freedom in a Brazilian Favela?

A wooden medicine cabinet on a wooden table displays numerous clear and green medicine bottles.

Finding Mental Health Issues Hidden in the Past

An adult and three children huddle by a grassy hill in the dark with a tall wire fence in the background.

Archaeology at the Borders of the Refugee Crisis

A photograph features a parade with people in the front holding up gold balloons that spell out “Disney” and those behind holding mouse-head–shaped balloons in rainbow colors.

What’s Behind the Backlash to Lightyear’s Animated Kiss?

A tall, stair-step pyramid of beige stone in the distance towers over other stone ruins, with its top level plateauing just under a light-blue sky with white clouds.

What Ended This Hub of Ancient Maya Life?

A close-up image features an open book with visible text that reads, “Descent of Man.” Around it are a pair of yellow glasses, a hand-drawn schematic, a rolled tie, a harmonica, and a slide rule.

Excavating My Dad’s Life

(RE)THINK HUMAN

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