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Table of contents
Introduction 0 Why Write for the Public? 1 What to Expect, from Pitch to Publication 2 How to Write a Pitch 3 How To Tell a Great Story, Part 1: Structure 4 How To Tell a Great Story, Part 2: Style 5 Navigating Ethics and Reducing Harms 6 Habits of Thriving Public Anthropologists 7 Cultivating the Craft of Writing 8
Table of contents
Introduction 0 Why Write for the Public? 1 What to Expect, from Pitch to Publication 2 How to Write a Pitch 3 How To Tell a Great Story, Part 1: Structure 4 How To Tell a Great Story, Part 2: Style 5 Navigating Ethics and Reducing Harms 6 Habits of Thriving Public Anthropologists 7 Cultivating the Craft of Writing 8
Announcement

After ten years of exploring humanity in all its diversity, SAPIENS has concluded its publishing chapter.

While the magazine has closed, its living archive endures—open to all and preserving the many ideas, voices, and discoveries that deepen our understanding of what it means to be human.

Earliest-Known Animal Cave Art

Archaeologists’ dates on ancient cave art in Indonesia push the timeline for the first animal depictions back thousands of years.

Do Twins Share a Soul?

An anthropologist—and identical twin—grapples with different cultural understandings of twinship.

The Power of Images

Selecting art for the magazine often raises sticky anthropological questions about ethics, representation, and storytelling.

Were Women the True Artisans Behind Ancient Greek Ceramics?

A new paper makes the case that scholars have ignored the role of female ceramicists in Greece going back some 3,000 years—and that this failing could speak to a more consequential blind spot involving gender.

What Ancient Gender Fluidity Taught Me About Modern Patriarchy

Nonbinary genders and male hierarchy as expressed in Ecuadorian clay sculptures led one archaeologist to see biases in her modern life with fresh eyes.

Confronting the Colonial Legacies of Museum Collections

The Humboldt Forum, a new exhibition venue in Berlin, has raised questions about museum restitution and the importance of researching objects’ provenance.

Why Poetry + Anthropology?

SAPIENS’ first poetry contest received dozens of remarkable entries. A total of five winning poems will be featured for World Poetry Day in March and National Poetry Month in April. Find out why we think anthropological poetry matters.

The Fish Trap

SAPIENS celebrates World Poetry Day with a poem by an anthropologist-poet who works with Indigenous peoples in Latin America.

How Did Belief Evolve?

An anthropologist traces the development of Homo sapiens’ most creative and destructive force, from the making of stone tools to the rise of religions.

Why Targeting Heritage Is a Crime Against Humanity

Trump’s threats to Iran’s cultural treasures are the latest in a long history of such tactics. Thousands of artistic and architectural marvels have been destroyed in wars—a travesty that must be stopped.