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Anthropology Magazine
A photograph features dark river water out of which grow tall trees that are sparse with leaves.
poem / Identities

The Woods Lament For Me

Jason Vasser-Elong
Poet-anthropologist Jason Vasser-Elong revitalizes stories of interwoven lineages of his African-descent ancestors and those who were Native American.
A picture features a sky with a large, slightly orange, billowing cloud at its center that morphs on its left side to look like the side profile of dark-skinned woman’s face. To the left of her is a bright-blue sky with clouds.
essay / Reflections

Indigenizing What It Means to be Human

Margaret Noodin, Christine Weeber, and Jason Vasser-Elong
SAPIENS offers a curated collection of poems and stories that center Indigenous values, worldviews, and insights, creatively reimagining anthropology and the human experience.
A photograph features numerous light-purple ribbons tied into bows across the surface of a large, green wire fence.
poem / Reflections

Purple in Cycles

Jason Vasser-Elong
A poet-anthropologist speaks to the labyrinthine experiences of domestic violence—the entrapment, the hope for freedom.
A bouquet of red roses rests on top of a wooden coffin in a church under a stained-glass window.
poem / Reflections

We All Love Roses

Jason Vasser-Elong
SAPIENS Poet-in-Residence Jason Vasser-Elong reflects on horrific cycles of violence—and highlights injustices that are often papered over.
A person with many small, long, black braids tied up and flowing down their back looks out onto the water.
poem / Kinship

Maize and Okra

Jason Vasser-Elong
A poet-anthropologist recollects when Muscogee (Creek) people offered his formerly enslaved ancestors refuge, extending the bonds of kinship.
Anti-aircraft missiles leave white contrails in a blue sky above Kyiv, Ukraine.
poem / Reflections

Hard Water

Jason Vasser-Elong
A poet-anthropologist honors World Poetry Day with a piece that imagines alchemizing the suffering and devastation of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
A person wearing a blue shirt, a red neck scarf, a black mask, and a white cowboy hat stands in front of horses and points to something in the distance. He is next to another person with wavy black hair wearing a brown shirt with fringe.
poem / Reflections

“Cowboys and Indians”—When Dirt Rocks Are Dynamite

Jason Vasser-Elong
A poet-anthropologist remembers how a popular childhood game reinforced notions of othering and hate—and reflects on how child’s play can set the stage for how we behave as adults.
A young child in a blue and yellow winter jacket and red hat sits on the shoulders of an adult in a black jacket as they walk across a bridge next to cars.
poem / Kinship

Lessons We Learn

Jason Vasser-Elong
An anthropologist-poet of the African diaspora holds close family lessons on identity, freedom, and relationship in the midst of an anti-Black society.
The view is of rolling hills covered with yellow- and red-leafed trees seen through the front window of a car on the highway.
poem / Reflections

Window

Jason Vasser-Elong
A poet-anthropologist of the African diaspora gives voice to the power of collective memory and place.
A dilapidated dark, wooden barn stands in a dandelion field surrounded by grass and trees.
poem / Kinship

Elder

Jason Vasser-Elong
A poet-anthropologist of the African diaspora travels from a northern city to his ancestral home in the rural U.S. South—both as a memory and a belonging.