Should You Feel Bad About Your Pandemic-Era Plastic Waste?
Anthropologists in Hong Kong explore how COVID-19 has intensified consumers’ reliance on single-use plastics—revealing the limits of individual action in the face of a global crisis.
Disasters
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The Nightmare of Pandemic-Era Teaching
Two researchers pull the curtain back to provide a look at the alarming reality of elementary teachers in the United States who are working during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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A Window on Humanity’s Turbulent 2021
The SAPIENS editorial team looks back at the year through an anthropological lens—and closes with a roundup of some of our favorite pieces published in the magazine in 2021.
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You Won’t Survive the Apocalypse Alone
In times of societal collapse—including pandemics—past societies persevered not by running away but by banding together.
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We All Live on Permafrost
Thawing permafrost isn’t just a problem facing the Arctic. An anthropologist who works with Indigenous communities in Siberia argues that the way to turn around climate catastrophe is by engaging all knowledge systems.
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Adapt or Abandon? Hard Choices in the Himalayas
Anthropologists are documenting how global warming is transforming Asia’s water tower and threatening the livelihoods of farmers and herders.