All stories

A person wearing a colorful dress and green bracelets sits on the ground and holds up a fistful of matted, dark hair.

The Hard Labor That Fuels the Hair Trade

Anthropologists are studying the global supply of human hair—a billion dollar industry for wigs, weaves, toupees, and more—that relies on hair pickers who gather discarded strands from streets and drains to make ends meet.
Pandemic liminal - Anthropologist Victor Turner’s work on transitional states may shed light on people’s pandemic experiences of the betwixt and between.

The Pandemic and the Process of Becoming

With no end to the COVID-19 pandemic in sight, people find themselves in a prolonged liminal state of transition. Why does that feel so unsettling?
trump rally hostility - After the 2016 presidential election, supporters of president-elect Donald Trump packed the stadium shown here for a victory rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

The Casual Menace of a Trump Rally

As the U.S. closes in on Election Day 2020, an anthropologist remembers the chilling mix of cruelty and cheer he witnessed at a Trump victory rally after the 2016 election.
evolutionary history exercise - Many people have a strong desire for physical rest despite the fact that health experts advise them to exercise more.

What’s Behind Humanity’s Love-Hate Relationship With Exercise?

Evolutionary history can help resolve the question of why so many people desire a physical break even when their bodies need movement.
coronavirus Sardinia music

When Coronavirus Emptied the Streets, Music Filled Them

A singer-songwriter anthropologist who has been experiencing Italy’s COVID-19 quarantine reflects on how pandemic-inspired songs connect people and reveal shifting power dynamics.
mexico border - A child’s backpack abandoned on a migrant trail in the Tumacácori Mountains suffers the decay of time.

What Migrants Leave Behind

Piles of backpacks, empty water jugs, and even high heels left scattered on migrant trails leave visible markers of the desperation and endurance of those who traveled there.
Chinese oracle bones - These “oracle bone” fragments, some of which show an ancient Chinese script, are housed at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. The pieces here are just a tiny fraction of the many thousands discovered thus far at a single site in China.

The Chinese History That Is Written in Bone

The bones of 3,000-year-old sacrificial victims in China are revealing unexpected new twists.
Moroccan marijuana - Most formal tours in Morocco offer travelers an experience—such as camel rides in the southern region of the country—while informal tours are typically designed to convince customers to buy a particular product, like hash.

Inside a Moroccan Marijuana Farm

An unwitting traveler finds himself on a tour of one of North Africa’s largest underground attractions.
social pharmacy

Camaraderie in the Face of Greek Austerity

Networks of volunteers are responding to the needs of citizens, migrants, and refugees in Greece. But can they fill the gaps in a failing welfare state?
Soon after Jeffrey Cohen and his wife, Maria, arrived in Oaxaca, Mexico, they were invited to a wedding. This experience, over two decades ago, ushered in their fieldwork and revealed how much they had to learn.

The Uninvited Invitados

A couple of young gringo anthropologists adjust to village life in Oaxaca, Mexico. They start with a wedding—and the food.
The photograph features a large recreated model of a neanderthal.

The Birth of the “Neanderthals”

Library archives reveal the Gibraltar skull’s role in the discovery of our sister species.
The Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford holds cultural objects collected from around the world. Archaeologists can find telling clues there about the ancient—and more recent—human past.

Stone Points to a Connected World

Signs of 19th-century globalization surface in a museum storage room.