Featured Archived
Seasons Episodes
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.

The Sisters of Loretto Share a Kinship With the Earth

An anthropologist looks to a religious community of women in rural Kentucky for scientifically informed lessons in land stewardship. Could they be a model for activists and policymakers to move beyond partisan approaches to climate change?

Do Stolen Sacred Objects Experience Culture Shock?

Ancestral memorials from Kenya called vigango have been stolen and sold as “art” around the world. An anthropologist working to return them wonders what the spirits experience when they are displaced.

Did Aliens Build the Pyramids? And Other Racist Theories

Pseudoarchaeology, conspiracy theories that ancient civilizations were founded by aliens or the denizens of Atlantis, are more than just silly—they’re dangerous.

Archaeology’s Role in Finding Missing Indigenous Children in Canada

Evidence of unmarked children’s graves on the sites of former Indian Residential Schools has triggered a long-overdue national awakening. Will it be enough to spur lasting action?

Haunted by My Teaching Skeleton

Many skeletons that students use to learn about the human body are the remains of people with lives and stories. We need to remember and respect that.

“The State” Is a Story We Tell Ourselves

After a nail-biting election that dragged on for weeks, officials have finally named Peru’s next president. An anthropologist explains the country’s recent upheavals and shows how nation-states are “ideological artifacts” that attribute morality to the amoral goings on of the government.

When the Guinea Pig Goes Gourmet

In recent years, the guinea pig has gone from a humble and ceremonial food eaten in the Andes to a delicacy among urbanites. What’s behind this change in tastes?

Death as Something We Make

An anthropologist dives deeply into how “medical aid-in-dying” is transforming the ethics and aesthetics of death.

Why Are Black People’s Remains in Museums?

Two archaeologists consider how the remains of thousands of Black people ended up in U.S. museums and what it would take for these institutions to begin to address the harm they have caused.

The Dawn of CRISPR Mutants

An anthropologist dives into the world of genetic engineering to explore whether gene-editing tools such as CRISPR fulfill the hope of redesigning our species for the better.