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.

How “Wilderness” Was Invented Without Indigenous Peoples
New research reveals how human activity need not always damage nature and may even benefit conservation—a message tied to Indigenous understandings that runs counter to the West’s longstanding myth of “pristine wilderness.”
What a Shipwreck’s Tree Rings Reveal

In 1629, the Batavia, a ship of the Dutch East India Company, met disaster off the coast of Australia. A new analysis of the shipwreck’s tree rings uncovers how such vessels were built to advance European colonialism.

Best of SAPIENS 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.

When Biblically Inspired Pseudoscience and Clickbait Cause Looting

A team of anthropologists argues that shoddy research linking biblical Sodom to an archaeological site created media hype that harms science and leads to looting.

Does DNA Simplify or Complicate Repatriation Claims?

A restitution effort in South Africa illustrates the challenges to scientists, policymakers, and living descendants as they navigate the complex repercussions of genetic analysis for unethically obtained human remains.

The Humans We Haven’t Met Yet

One anthropologist contends that far too many species have been lumped into one category: Our story is more complicated, he argues.

The Blockbuster Exhibit That Shouldn’t Have Been

Museum curators have occasionally embellished archaeological finds with compelling but questionable stories. Consider the Field Museum’s “Magdalenian Girl.”

Repatriation Has Transformed, Not Ended, Research

A myth persists that when museums and other institutions return ancestral remains to Indigenous communities, it is in opposition to research—that needs to change.

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?

Five Breakthrough Signs of Early Peoples in the Americas

More and more archaeological finds reveal a complex picture of how and when people first arrived in North America.