All stories

A large, brown sculpture depicts a cluster of people looking outward, one cradling a child in their arms. A village and blue sky are visible in a distant horizon.

Poems of Witness and Possibility: Inside Zones of Conflict

Anthropological poems from around the globe speak to people’s creative will, resistance, and resilience—and the significance of our shared humanity.
Under an arched ceiling, a person wearing a white headwrap and T-shirt nestles a pencil in the palm of their hand while drawing with charcoal on a large white canvas. The scene they are sketching depicts a building and public square flanked by flowering trees.

The Vibrant Worlds of Batuan Paintings in Bali

A new multimedia project connects the development of a Balinese regional painting style with anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, who began commissioning art in the region in the 1930s.
A black silhouette of a person contrasts with an illuminated cobalt-blue background with two bright spotlights shining from behind their head.

Bringing Nhakpoti, the Kayapó Story of Star Girl, to the Screen

Over years and across long distances, an international filmmaking team collaborated to bring to life the origin story of how agriculture came to Kayapó communities, Indigenous peoples in the Brazilian Amazon.
A person in a burgundy jumpsuit stands on a road with their back to the viewer and their hands behind their head. They look into the distance, where yellowed billows of smoke rise from a burning field of grass and trees.

A Call for Anthropological Poems From Within “Zones of Conflict”

SAPIENS is seeking poetry submissions for a curated collection that will publish in early 2024. Deadline September 15, 2023.
A close-up image features a circular street sign with random black symbols such as an exclamation mark and hashtag and a red circle and strikethrough over them.

Why I Ask My Students to Swear in Class

An anthropologist uses explicit insults to get students thinking about gender and power in everyday language. Plus, a brief explainer on the slang term “sus.”
A photograph features two smiling people sitting on a bench in a wood-paneled room watching television.

Five Highlights From the 2023 RAI Film Festival

This March, SAPIENS is partnering with the Royal Anthropological Institute’s RAI Film Festival to celebrate anthropological documentaries.
A photograph features a large desert plain scattered with brush and cacti with a sun setting behind a distant horizon lined with mountains.

Rock Drawings

A Tohono O’odham poet and linguist reflects on the stories and wisdom ancestors communicated—how people survived, how they dispersed and differentiated, how they remember.
A photograph features a large tree fully topped with green leaves along the side of a dirt road and in front of an iron and concrete fence that encloses green grass. A car is partially visible in the foreground, and beige buildings lie in the background.

A Tree’s Tongue

A Nigerian poet-anthropologist witnesses the powerful rising up of ancestors through the revival of a tree in the Igbo village of Ogbodu.

Rhyme & Reason: Poetry as a Cultural and Communal Bridge

In this Q&A, SAPIENS 2022 Poet-in-Residence Jason Vasser-Elong celebrated the end of his residency with a discussion of poetry as a dialogue across the ages.
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

An anthropologist recounts a magical moment of songwriting collaboration between Diné (Navajo) and Ndebele artists gathered for the WOMAD Festival in South Africa.
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.

How Deaf and Hearing Friends Co-Navigate the World

For deaf people in the U.S., accessibility has become synonymous with provisioning professional sign language interpreters. But in everyday life, deaf people’s experiences of “access” often include more informal language facilitation such as “friendterpreting.”
An illustration in color shows ancient humans painting mammoths on a cave wall.

Did Neanderthals Make Art?

Experts continue to debate whether Neanderthals were painters and jewelry-makers. A paleoanthropologist explores the evidence for Neanderthal art and the sources of people’s skepticism.
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.

Crystal Worl’s Countermural Tells a Different History of Alaska

Indigenous artist Crystal Kaakeeyáa Worl’s new public mural honoring Tlingit activist Elizabeth Peratrovich places Alaska Native peoples’ resistance to colonialism at the center of Juneau’s history.
A person with a shaved head wearing a grey long-sleeved shirt holds a black, purple, white, and yellow striped flag over their head.

Why English Might Let Go of “He” and “She”

A linguistic anthropologist invites English-speaking cisgendered allies to stop using “she” and “he” to advance radical gender inclusion.
A comic strip colored in blue, green, and red tones.

How People Actually Use Their Smartphones

Smartphones have become ubiquitous—but do we really know how people around the world are using these devices? A team of anthropologists collaborated with a comics artist to share their findings.
A painting of five framed portraits on a wall and young children in color interacting with older people who are black and white.

Lead Me to Life: Voices of the African Diaspora

Through poetry and prose, anthropologists of the African diaspora unveil the echoes of the past in the present.