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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.

Were Women the True Artisans Behind Ancient Greek Ceramics?

A new paper makes the case that scholars have ignored the role of female ceramicists in Greece going back some 3,000 years—and that this failing could speak to a more consequential blind spot involving gender.

The Life and Meaning of Margaret Mead

The famous anthropologist argued that non-Western cultures offered alternative, often better, ways to be human. Why was she so vilified for it?

Neanderthal Bones: Signs of Their Sex Lives

With whom did Neanderthals mate? In some cases, inbreeding looks likely.

The Anthropologists Who Undid Sex, Race, and Gender

In Gods of the Upper Air, a biographer reveals how anthropologist Franz Boas and his students helped transform how human differences and similarities are perceived.

When Black Female Victims Aren’t Seen as Victims

In Peru, rampant stereotypes about Afro-Peruvian women as aggressive and hypersexual leaves many women unwilling or unable to seek support as victims of abuse.

The Pussyhat’s Identity Crisis

Critics maintain that the now iconic pink caps are too stereotyped and exclusionary. Can an inclusive symbol of women’s rights be found?

Is Gender Unique to Humans?

Evidence from our closest evolutionary relatives suggests that we might not be the only animals with a sense of gender identity.

What Our Skeletons Say About the Sex Binary

Society increasingly accepts gender identity as existing along a spectrum. The study of people, and their remains, shows that sex should be viewed the same way.

The Myth of Badass Sperm

We’ve all been taught that human fertilization is an Olympic-style competition. The truth is that it’s much more like a gigantic lottery.

Secrets of a Brothel Privy

The outhouse of a 19th-century Boston brothel might not be the first place you’d think to look for revealing clues about the past—but maybe it should be.