How Racism Shapes the U.S. Opioid Epidemic

Public health officials say opioid use and related deaths have reached a crisis point in the U.S. An interview with…

How Eugenics Shaped the U.S. Prenatal Care System

Black women in the U.S. are far more likely to die from complications related to pregnancy and birth than White…

The Heaviness

A multidisciplinary poet-scholar and suicide attempt and multi-suicide loss survivor unveils complex anthropological threads that shape suicidal ideation. ✽ Worldwide,…

The Psychedelics Industry Is Booming—but Who’s Being Left Out?

Three researchers discuss the possibilities and problems arising as psychedelic plant medicines, held sacred by many Indigenous communities, move into…

Slow Death by Volcano

A biocultural anthropologist shares new research on the surprising long-term hazards of volcanoes in Iceland—and how to address them. THE…

What a Cow’s Horn Reveals About Khoisan Medicine

An archaeologist explains what a 500-year-old horn container found in South Africa illuminates about precolonial Khoisan medical and spiritual knowledges.…

A Native Alaska Community’s Reckoning With Vaccine Hesitancy

An anthropologist’s research with Tlingit communities in Alaska shows they have good reasons to be skeptical about vaccines. They know…

Broadening Demands for Reproductive Justice

An interview with anthropologist Dána-Ain Davis digs into abortion rights and reproductive justice after the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of…

Does “Monkeypox” Give Monkeys a Bad Name?

The debate over naming the virus known as monkeypox says a lot about the close—but fraught—relationships between humans and our…

An Archaeology of Personhood and Abortion

Opinions about fetal personhood and abortion have fluctuated enormously throughout history and differ in surprising ways between cultures. ✽ After…