The Macabre and Magical Human-Canine Story

Zooarchaeologists and geneticists are exploring how wolves and domestic dogs have been humanity’s predator, prey, and partner.

A Letter From COVID-19

An anthropologist imagines COVID-19 as a wise representative of Earth who is sharing a vital message with humans.

What Dog Breeds Say About Race

In the Philippines, the practice of placing dogs into hierarchies based on breeds can be traced back to a problematic colonial legacy of ranking people based on race.

Unlikely Blessings

When the unthinkable happens, how do we even speak? A poet-anthropologist finds a way through a poem written during his infant son’s chemotherapy treatments, caught in the haunting terrain between hope and despair.

How Cellphones Make and Break Human Connections

An ethnographic study of U.S. high schoolers highlights their ambivalence toward communication technologies.

Arrival Waters

A poet-anthropologist’s initial arrival in Guatemala decades ago yielded a new beginning—and a limitless illumination.

Mucus Passports: Mobility in the Time of COVID-19

In an experimental essay, an anthropologist sends pandemic dispatches about her journey from Delhi to Jakarta via Dubai, recording the absurdities and vulnerabilities of travel during these times.

What Problems Does Organic Cotton Solve?

Organic cotton agriculture in India fails, resoundingly, to produce as much cotton as conventional methods. But what if that’s not the point?

Heart of Stone

An anthropologist-poet reflects on the stories that spiral on a lava field near Mexico City named El Pedregal, asking what it means to be a part of the Earth.

Love Poem for the Shape of the Field

Anthropologist-poet Nomi Stone reflects on the scope of a social scientist’s gaze—and unfurls a startling insight.