An important Sufi ritual brings participants together in a shared experience of trance and movement that actually synchronizes their heartbeats.

In an Indigenous community in Peru, a girl’s first menstruation is accompanied by a “boot camp” during which she’s trained in how to be a woman—but that tradition is ebbing away.

Macabre artifacts hint at regional conflicts around the time of the Maya civilization’s disintegration.

Modern-day shamans in a variety of sectors appear to tame uncertainty by embracing their otherness.

Adornments such as tattoos, piercings, and lip plates help to define our social identities. But what those modifications mean is in constant flux.

A new study suggests young dogs were frequently buried with humans in China some 3,000 years ago, but the precise reasons remain elusive.

A combination of factors, from geography to group identity, supported the endurance of this traditional body art—even as similar practices were lost in other cultures.

How long have we been burying the dead? And why is it so haunting when we can’t set those who have passed to rest?

Whether trick-or-treating in the United States or costume play celebrations in Japan, Allhallows Eve has taken many forms as its traditions travel the world.

An ancient Arctic site suggests a complex relationship between humans and dogs.