What Problems Does Organic Cotton Solve?
Organic cotton agriculture in India fails, resoundingly, to produce as much cotton as conventional methods. But what if that’s not the point?
Culture
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Heart of Stone
An anthropologist-poet reflects on the stories that spiral on a lava field near Mexico City named El Pedregal, asking what it means to be a part of the Earth.
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Social Distancing in a Sumatra Rainforest
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Orang Rimba, hunter-gatherers in Sumatra’s rainforests, are trying to preserve traditions—including isolating the sick and keeping away from outsiders—despite being displaced from much of their ancestral lands.
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What Does the American Dream Have to do With the COVID-19 Vaccine?
An anthropologist explains how conspiracy theories and recent protests in the U.S. over COVID-19 vaccines can’t be untangled from American dreams of freedom and prosperity.
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Anarchism in Practice Is Often Radically Boring Democracy
Anarchists have been an easy scapegoat for violent events in recent months. But anarchism, as a political philosophy, is fundamentally about collective deliberation and responsibility.
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How Imperialism Gave Us 2020
News headlines suggest that the problems of 2020 were unprecedented, but the collision of a pandemic and racial violence is nothing new under imperialism.