Anthropology / Everything Human

The World Hates Fat People

Reflections

  • A nurse in a bariatric surgery unit tries on a fat suit to simulate the experience of her patients. As blame and shame around excess weight have become more common, so too have surgical weight-loss procedures.

    The World Hates Fat People

    Being overweight is stigmatized in most countries around the world. But does obsessive talk about excess fat lead to weight reduction—or to cruel, useless shaming?

  • Twinship - Sameness is often seen as the defining characteristic of identical twins, but this impression is a result of Western stereotypes about the meaning of selfhood.

    How Twin Culture Challenges Our Notions of Self

    Researchers have long viewed identical twins as mutants, oddballs, and freaks. Bothered by a biased scientific literature, two anthropologists who are also identical twins go native and conduct their own twin research.

  • An archaeologist’s photographic montages evoke the struggles of Plains Indian tribes in the 19th century and honor the sacred power of forgotten historical places.

    Conflict on the Plains

    An archaeologist’s photographic montages evoke the struggles of Plains Indian tribes in the 19th century and honor the sacred power of forgotten historical places.