- Archaeology ,
- Biology ,
- Culture (774) ,
- Language
Cultural anthropologists seek to understand the diverse ways people live today, including how they think, act, create, struggle, make meaning, and organize their societies.
In Japan, the Philosophical Stance Against Having Children
An anthropologist delves beyond simplistic portrayals of the anti-natalist movement to understand what motivates its adherents.
Padi Nyawa Urang
A poet and aspiring anthropologist in Indonesia reflects on the values reflected in rice cultivation in a traditional village in Lebak, Banten, Indonesia.
Connections and Conflicts With Seals in a Scottish Archipelago
An environmental anthropologist investigates deep-time, mythical, and contemporary relations between seals and Orkney Islanders.
Sounding the Border
An anthropologist-poet listens to echoes of laughter and other sounds of crossings in Kashmir.
How Bird’s Nests Become Markers of Vitality and Status
An anthropologist explores how nests made from the saliva of swiftlets—long valued within some Asian medicinal and culinary traditions—have reached a growing global market.
Following the Life of an Abandoned Bull in Nepal
A visual anthropologist explores how divine cattle collide with urban realities in Kathmandu, revealing contradictions between ancient values and contemporary lifeways.
Black, Pregnant, and Always Vigilant
A former National Health Service doctor and multidisciplinary scholar explores how Black women in the U.K. manage reproductive risks and anxieties.
The Sacred Heartbeat at Houston Pride
An anthropologist participates in the Houston Pride Parade, offering dance, music, and prayer with others to counter intensifying oppression faced by queer and Latine communities.
The Politics of Mourning After Itaewon
After the deadly 2022 Itaewon crowd crush, South Korea faced a failure of prevention—and mourning. A group of anthropologists explores how grief was managed, marginalized, and ultimately erased, raising questions about who we remember and why.
Dreamscapes of Refusal: A Chorus
SAPIENS poet-in-residence for 2025 listens to a chorus of dreams in her field recordings from Kashmir.
The Cost of Cutting Anthropology Out of U.S. National Parks
A former National Park Service anthropologist reflects on the vital role of cultural anthropology to the agency’s mission—and what might be lost if the Trump administration’s cuts to federal funding and staffing continue.
Ukrainian Volunteers Weave Camouflage and Care
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukrainians have been gathering to support the war effort by creating camouflage nets for fighters on the frontlines.
When Women Say “Ta-Ta” to Ta-Tas
An anthropologist fighting cancer navigates the social pressure to get breast reconstruction after a mastectomy.
Five Questions for Anand Pandian
In this live discussion, anthropologist Anand Pandian shares insights from his timely new book, Something Between Us: The Everyday Walls of American Life, and How to Take Them Down.
Cold-Water Swimming Brings New Life to Aging Bodies
A researcher dips into life at a community pool in Cambridge, England, to find out why so many people over 60 are finding joy and pleasure in a cold-water swim.
Surveillance and Suspicion From the Margins
A Venezuelan anthropologist reflects on distrust he felt from residents of informal settlements in Santiago, Chile—and how his experiences track global trends of fearing outsiders.
The Power of Mistrust
A group of anthropologists working in Indonesia explores how mistrust among on-demand drivers—toward companies and one another—can be a form of individual power.
The Myth of “Risk-Free” Gold
An anthropologist unpacks how colonial histories and racial and class hierarchies shape who is allowed to desire and accumulate gold today.
When Tiger Conservation Overlooks Human Lives
An anthropologist looks at how tiger conservation efforts in the Sundarbans region of West Bengal appear successful yet often ignore the needs and rights of forest-dwelling communities.
Five Questions for Brian Goldstone
In this live discussion, journalist and anthropologist Brian Goldstone answers questions about his searing investigation of the working unhoused—and what their stories reveal about the unraveling of the American Dream.
The Many Lives of a Face Mask
An anthropologist explores how the COVID-19–era surgical face mask went from a health precaution to a fashion choice among women in Peshawar, Pakistan.
Listening to Murmurs
Through her field recordings, SAPIENS poet-in-residence for 2025 listens to murmurings of clay, debris, and time in Kashmir’s Tsaar.
When People—and Files—Talk Back to Bureaucracy
Two ethnographic filmmakers enter the government maze in India, documenting how citizens make claims on the state while imagining alternate bureaucratic encounters.
The Tangled Roots of Corruption in Today’s South Africa
A legal scholar turned anthropologist connects South Africa’s colonial and apartheid past to corruption she witnesses while shadowing parole officers.
Salt and Paper in Bureaucratic Jerusalem
As all-out genocidal violence against Palestinians continues in Gaza, an anthropologist calls attention to how the Israeli state operates through quieter, bureaucratic means to displace and dispossess Palestinians living in East Jerusalem.
What’s Behind a Michelin Star?
As judges scout new restaurants to evaluate in U.S. cities, an anthropologist investigates the elite, Eurocentric history of the Michelin Red Guide and how it became the ultimate arbiter of culinary excellence.
An [un]Heroic Journey
A Tanzanian poet unseats the illusionist tale of the mission museum of the Archabbey of St. Ottilien in Germany.
Snapshots of Losing Jenna
An anthropologist offers a lens on how losses from war dramatically alter a family—and a society.
What Vietnam’s Scarred Lands Reveal About Modern Warfare
Fifty years on, Vietnam is still reckoning with the long-term ecological toll of U.S. warfare—a grim warning as Israel and Russia unleash similar destruction in Gaza and Ukraine.
Why Do Swallows Fly to the Korean DMZ?
An anthropologist discovers diasporic flights—including her own—that begin at and return to the waters of the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.
Forest as Kin and Pantry in the Himalayas
In the Sikkim and Kalimpong Himalayas in Northeast India, supply chains are often interrupted by changing monsoon systems that damage highways. Responding to uncertainty, communities are reclaiming ancestral foodways—drawing inspiration from the past to move into the future.
Earworm
A poet-anthropologist listens to an accidental field recording from Kashmir: What might be dismissed as noise becomes a way to unsettle the settled—making audible dispossession and theft, stealth and refusal.