All stories

In a wooden structure without walls, three people wearing loincloths and no shirts, and two individuals wearing T-shirts surround and point to spots on a large tan and green map.

Finding Footprints Laid at the Dawn of Time

In the Brazilian Amazon, a university-trained archaeologist and Wajãpi Indigenous people understand traces from the past differently—but their partnership bears fruit for both.
In front of many people seated around the perimeter of a town square, a person in a brown hat stands in its center over a pile of green leaves on a colorful patterned cloth. They are holding up a bag by a string.

Fair and Balanced—Weighing Coca With a Wipi in Peru

An Andean community’s use of weighing scales shows how meanings of fairness and justice differ across cultures.
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

Three researchers use a study of the cypress pine in Arnhem Land, Australia, to explain why large-scale, institutional fire management is inferior to sustainable cultural burning.
A person lies in bed next to a smartphone displaying numbers and symbols.

Are Insomniacs Overthinking Sleep?

From WiFi-enabled sleep trackers to wearable brain-altering apps, sleep technology is becoming increasingly sophisticated. But is the antidote to insomnia far more ancient?
A painting on a wall shows two people holding a basket containing two infants next to a river.

An Archaeology of Personhood and Abortion

Opinions about fetal personhood and abortion have fluctuated enormously throughout history and differ in surprising ways between cultures.
A person wearing a navy tie and jacket, and a person wearing a blue patterned shirt and blue jeans crouch down next to a seated person wearing a blue-and-white suit and holding a cane.

Margaret Mead Imagined Different Futures

For those anxious about the state of the world, Mead’s celebrated work shows how anthropology can help guide alternative futures.
Green and yellow plants cover rolling hills under a bright blue sky with clouds, an example of pristine wilderness.

How “Wilderness” Was Invented Without Indigenous Peoples

New research reveals how human activity need not always damage nature and may even benefit conservation—a message tied to Indigenous understandings that runs counter to the West’s longstanding myth of “pristine wilderness."
Love and marriage - Thousands of couples were wed in a mass ceremony in South Korea on February 7, 2020. Some of them had only met a few weeks earlier, after being matched by the Unification Church.

Does Love Always Come Before Marriage?

Arranged marriages and love marriages are sometimes seen as cultural opposites, but it’s far more complicated. Anthropology shows how love and marriage are entwined in many different ways.
Rez Dogs - Painting by Lakota artist Keith Braveheart from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota.

What Rez Dogs Mean to the Lakota

Dogs on Native American reservations can be dangerous, but they have a long history and traditional role in many Indigenous communities. Remembering that is key to avoiding future violence.

What Milk-Sharing Communities Reveal

As women in the United States create networks to give or receive breast milk, anthropologists are illuminating the complex social and cultural forces that shape mothers’ choices.
Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, high priestess of a convent of hijras, takes selfies with admirers at India’s 2019 Kumbh Mela religious festival.

India’s Third Gender Rises Again

Hijras are striving to overcome a century of discrimination and reclaim their holy status in society—through a mix of faith rituals and Facebook.
The Hadzabe share food and daily tasks.

Why Don’t Westerners Eat Off One Plate?

Time spent with hunter-gatherers in Tanzania offers a sharp contrast to “normal” social behaviors in the West.
Parents everywhere can relax: There’s no one right way to toilet train a child.

Humanity’s Surprising Variety of Approaches to Toilet Training

Don’t worry, parents. When it comes to potty training, you almost can’t go wrong.
extremism - Words are more than their dictionary definitions.

How Have Attitudes Toward Extremism Changed Over Time?

Language exerts a powerful influence on our perceptions of the world. Looking closely at the way we use words can reveal deep-seated cultural biases.
Color perception - Social scientists have long been fascinated by how people perceive and describe color in different cultures.

Do You See What I See?

Cultural groups throughout the world talk about color differently—some don’t even have a word for color. So is color perception a universal human experience or not?
Our dreams—and the ways we interpret them—are strongly influenced by the culture in which we are raised, but both can change when we travel to different places, such as New Guinea, where this Asabano village is located.

The Night I Was Attacked by a Ghost

Dreaming is an essential part of the way humans learn. But what happens when we dream while immersed in a foreign culture?