Table of contents

Cultural anthropologists seek to understand the diverse ways people live today, including how they think, act, create, struggle, make meaning, and organize their societies.

A person dressed in a red Santa Claus suit with white trim kneels on a military runway while speaking into a handheld radio. In the background are two rows of large military airplanes.

Unwrapping Operation Christmas Drop

An anthropologist takes a critical eye to a long-running holiday tradition: a U.S. military mission that drops toys and supplies throughout Micronesia.
An image focuses on two hands of a statue in shadow coming together holding a white flower.

Survival Notes

Black African women in former colonial centers such as London gesture to subversive ways of communicating with those imprisoned in archives across generations.
A line of cattle travel across a dry desert landscape, kicking up dust.

An Imagined Monograph for Nongqawuse

A 19th-century prophetess reportedly bore a serious message from the ancestors to her Xhosa people amid British colonial assault. The written archives judged her—but much still remains unknown and unacknowledged.
On a quiet street at night, a small, glowing rectangular device rests on the sill of a stall window shuttered with a corrugated metal cover.

Phantom Vibrations of a Lost Smartphone

An anthropologist who studies human-computer interactions explores how and why losing one’s smartphone feels so unsettling.
An old bucket coated in multicolored limestone sits in front of a limestone-covered wall out of which protrudes a faucet dripping water that falls into the bucket.

Her Dirge

A poet-historian reflects on women’s labor carrying memories and the past.
A photo shows the back of a person in a dark suitcoat standing at a podium and speaking to a large, captive, seated audience. Most onlookers wear red MAGA hats and Trump T-shirts.

Five Reasons Why Trump Won Again

In an effort to address toxic polarization in the U.S., an anthropologist of the “Trumpiverse” explains MAGA supporters’ thinking in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
A gnarled tree stands on a reddish cliff, beyond which stretches a landscape of deeply hued sandstone plateaus that an ox-bowed river cuts through.

Gathering Firewood—and Redefining Land Stewardship—at Bears Ears

At Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, a new co-management plan brings together federal agencies and a consortium of Native American tribes—revealing deep tensions over land rights and demands for environmental justice.
A black painted hand covered in red paint holds a skull figure decorated with floral patterns in shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Painted white with black accents to resemble a skull, the face—and also gray hair and flower headband—of the person holding the skull are blurry in the background.Cindy Ord/Getty Images

Harvest Song

A poet-anthropologist celebrates relatedness across difference in a poem that honors the festivals of Navratri, Durga Puja, Kali Puja, Day of the Dead, and Halloween—all of which draw on otherworldly connections and mysteries.
A stream of clear water pours into an orange bucket. Behind it, two slightly out-of-focus women and a child look on.

How Water Insecurity Impacts Women’s Health

Anthropologists and local activists in Indonesia and Peru uncover links between water scarcity and gendered violence, and work together to lessen the harms of gender inequality.
Two pairs of scissors, two rocks, and two slips of paper rest on a pale-yellow surface.

Playing Rock, Paper, Scissors Across the Red-Blue Divide

As toxic polarization deepens in the U.S., some global conflict prevention experts are now addressing political violence at home. An anthropologist shares three key insights from a community action program in Wisconsin.
A man in a t-shirt, jacket, and jeans sits comfortably with a leg folded, on a stage. A microphone extends in front of him.

Revisiting the Spiritual Violence of BS Jobs

Anthropologist David Graeber’s celebrated theory of “bullshit jobs” continues to provide a critical window into why modern work is often so useless, soul-sucking, and absurd.
Dozens of papers with text on them are punctured and strung horizontally on wires.

Archived Haints

SAPIENS’ 2024 poet-in-residence conjures the voices of those imprisoned in archives.
Two people sit face-to-face on a bench and sign with each other. Behind them, a mural shows the outline of a human ear with Arabic writing inside it.

Gaza’s Deaf Community in the Face of Genocide

An anthropologist who works with deaf communities in the Arabic-speaking Middle East argues that ending Israel’s war on Gaza and occupation of Palestine is a matter of disability justice.
A whale’s tail appears above the water, creating white foam as it splashes on the ocean’s surface. A small bird flies in the background.

Protecting Ancestral Waters Through Collaborative Stewardship

The proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, along California’s Central Coast, would be the first of its kind in the U.S. to be nominated by Native peoples.
A close-up image features two stained-orange hands holding a cluster of objects that look like small, orange strands.

The Land of Dreams

In a dystopian short story, an anthropologist imagines an alternate world in which Kashmiris are forbidden to dream.
A man with long, dark hair tied in a braid holds up a small child to a mirror, which reflects the child’s pensive face.

Finding Our Way Forward—by Remembering

In a personal essay, a mixed-race and Native anthropologist draws strength from his ancestors.
A white cartoon speech bubble on a red background is wrapped in barbed wire.

Speaking Truth to Israel Requires More Than Academic Freedom

Educators and students critical of Israel’s war on Gaza face censorship, harassment, and dismissal. An anthropologist who researches coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians argues such critics need more than free speech protections.
A person wearing a gray T-shirt and tan baseball cap pushes buttons on a camera that is attached to a tree in the forest.

Payangko, or Echidna (Zaglossus attenboroughi)

After a 60-year haitus, an Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna was seen in Indonesia’s Cyclops Mountains. A poet-anthropologist reflects on the echidna’s message through the storied lens of the people of Yongsu Sapari.
A person wearing a rust-colored hooded coat and a black face mask stands in front of a large facility while holding a red sign that reads: “It’s Been a Long Time Coming but I Know a Change Is Coming!”

Inside Amazon’s Union-Busting Tactics

An anthropologist reports on the impediments to labor organizing—and why it’s still worth trying.
A close-up view features an art exhibit composed of multiple photographs arranged side by side. The photos show people riding a horse, receiving medical care, and speaking at a women’s event.

Fighting for Reproductive Rights in Retirement

An anthropologist conducts research in an Arizona retirement community, where older women share hard-won insights about how limitations on sexual and reproductive freedom impacted their lives.
A large metal sign with the letters S.O.S. carved through it stands in a shallow lake in front of a blue sky with pink clouds.

Can Art Save the “Post-Apocalyptic” Salton Sea?

In this Mad Max–like California landscape, artists and activists are inventing renewable alternatives to the capitalist system that’s developing but also destroying the region.
An officer dressed in black, wearing a baseball-style hat and balaclava, with a machine gun slung across his chest, stands before a gray concrete building.

When a Message App Became Evidence of Terrorism

Beginning in 2016, the Turkish government accused anyone with the messaging application ByLock of terrorism. An anthropologist investigates the risks of this kind of digital evidence.
Amid a political rally where red, black, and green colors are prominent, a smiling woman wearing glasses, a khaki shirt, and a black headscarf holds aloft a sketch of a person’s face that says, “Khan Is Hope.”

The Rise of Aunties in Pakistani Politics

Middle-class, conservative women in Pakistan have found a political voice as supporters of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party—putting them at odds with the secular women’s movement their own daughters support.
A dark shelf leaning against a wall covered in gold-tinted wallpaper displays the personal items of a missing loved one, including a portrait of the person dressed in a black suit and tie, a photograph, a red plastic hard hat, and books.

For Families of Missing Loved Ones, Forensic Investigations Don’t Always Bring Closure

An anthropologist working in Azerbaijan looks beyond forensic science to understand the value of culturally specific ways people navigate uncertainty in protracted conflict zones.
A young person holding a red sack stands atop an enormous heap of trash, backdropped by white smoke from burning garbage and mountains in the distance.

Albania’s Waste Collectors and the Fight for Dignity

An anthropologist shines a light on Romani and Egyptian recyclers whose work has been made illegal, calling for a new way of viewing humanity’s garbage.
A stylized painting of a person’s head—with wide eyes, red lips, and a headscarf—is covered in various numbers and symbols, and set against a black background.

Grappling With Guilt Inside a System of Structural Violence

Criminals and Gangmembers Anonymous, a 12-step recovery program, has proliferated in California’s carceral system. An anthropologist investigates the program, which sees criminality as a chronic addiction that can be treated through intervention.
Amid a crowd, a woman with dark auburn hair and a black jacket embraces a child who faces away from the camera and wears a jacket with blue cartoon monkeys on it.

Inside Russia’s Campaign to Steal and Indoctrinate Ukrainian Children

An anthropologist investigates an insidious side of Russia’s genocide against Ukrainians meant to shatter families: snatching children and occupying their minds.
Clear water streams down moss-covered rocks amid thick, luxurious vegetation with broad tropical leaves and bright red and yellow flowers.

Coastal Eden

A poet interrogates the garden of Eden origin story by reimagining it against the backdrop of East Africa’s coastal environment.
A serene lake is surrounded by a dense forest of evergreen trees. The calm, blue water reflects the clear sky above.

On the Tracks to Translating Indigenous Knowledge

A team of researchers will journey by railway to Lac Seul First Nation in Canada to better understand alternative ways of seeing the world.
A person stands inside a moving flame of yellow light while sparks fly out in all directions. A second person stands on the left side holding an umbrella against the sparks.

A Call for Anthropological Poems of Resistance, Refusal, and Wayfinding

SAPIENS is seeking poetry submissions for a curated collection that will publish next year. Deadline: September 1, 2024.
A narrow, paved trail cuts through a grassy field and ends at a small white building in the distance that has a cross on its roof.

Buried in the Shadows, Ireland’s Unconsecrated Dead

A visual anthropologist reflects on the history of cillíní, unmarked and mostly hidden burial sites in Ireland where loved ones continue to care for the dead.
A blurred, black-and-white image features a person from the shoulders up looking to their left against a pitch-black background.

Nameless Woman

Archives often render marginalized people’s histories invisible. In response to such erasure, a poet writes a letter to explore the experience of historically enslaved African and Creole women in Tanzania and Mauritius—and the ways in which they may have navigated their lives.