Anthropology Magazine
New stories
Inside Amazon’s Union-Busting Tactics
An anthropologist reports on the impediments to labor organizing—and why it’s still worth trying.
Fighting for Reproductive Rights in Retirement
An anthropologist conducts research in an Arizona retirement community, where older women share hard-won insights about how limitations on sexual and reproductive freedom impacted their lives.
Can Embracing Copies Help With Museum Restitution Cases?
Many museums are wrestling with returning looted or unethically obtained ancient objects. An archaeologist considers how a shift in public attitudes toward plaster and 3D copies could make a difference.
Can Art Save the “Post-Apocalyptic” Salton Sea?
In this Mad Max–like California landscape, artists and activists are inventing renewable alternatives to the capitalist system that’s developing but also destroying the region.
Expanding worlds by exploring everything human.
Spotlight
WAR AND PEACE
Is War Inevitable? Consider the Ancient Maya
Two archaeologists show how investigating tactics, weaponry, and the logistics of battle helps answer questions about social conflict in the human experience.
How Culture Allows for War and Peace
The evolution of uniquely human cognitive abilities gave us the means to wage war—as well as the capacity to avoid it.
Haunted by a Secret War
In a new book of ethnographic fiction on the lingering effects of the United States’ Secret War in Laos, the living must find ways to pacify the ghosts of those who suffered past violence.
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With the support of a grant from the John Templeton Foundation, the SAPIENS Public Scholars Training Fellowship program guides anthropologists on accessible writing and podcasting for nonacademic audiences.
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Anthropological poems have the potential to transform ways of thinking and being in the world.
SAPIENS teaching units offer an opportunity to use the magazine's content in the classroom, alongside additional resources, to enrich the teaching and learning experience.
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EXPLORE ANTHROPOLOGY
ASK SAPIENSThe broad field of anthropology studies “everything human,” focusing on what makes different people human in their own distinctive ways.
What Is Anthropology?
The broad field of anthropology is the science of humanity that studies “everything human,” focusing on what makes different people human in their own distinctive ways.
What Is Linguistic Anthropology?
Linguistic anthropologists study language in context, revealing how people’s ways of communicating and expressing themselves interact with human culture, history, politics, identity, and much more.
What Is Cultural Anthropology?
Cultural anthropologists seek to understand the dizzyingly diverse ways people live today, including how they think, act, create, struggle, make meaning, and organize their societies.
What Do Archaeologists Do?
Archaeologists use a wide variety of methods to explore a fascinating range of topics about human history, culture, and behavior. Here’s an overview of the ways archaeologists preserve heritage and how you can work in this field.
Podcast
OpenNEW: SEASON 7
All stories
How Allocating Work Aided Our Evolutionary Success
Societies divide labor by gender and age. A biological anthropologist considers when and why this behavior arose.
Bringing Back the World’s Most Endangered Cat
A social scientist goes behind the scenes at a breeding center in Portugal to explore the challenges and ethical dilemmas of reintroducing the Iberian lynx.
The Shortcomings of Height in Politics
Why is height a focal point for some politicians? An anthropologist explores the significance of height—explaining how cultural perceptions influence and distort political dynamics in the U.S.
Griko’s Poetic Whisper
In two poems, an anthropologist speaks to the timelessness and constant change of the minority language Griko in the Italian landscape.
When a Message App Became Evidence of Terrorism
Beginning in 2016, the Turkish government accused anyone with the messaging application ByLock of terrorism. An anthropologist investigates the risks of this kind of digital evidence.
The Rise of Aunties in Pakistani Politics
Middle-class, conservative women in Pakistan have found a political voice as supporters of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party—putting them at odds with the secular women’s movement their own daughters support.
For Families of Missing Loved Ones, Forensic Investigations Don’t Always Bring Closure
An anthropologist working in Azerbaijan looks beyond forensic science to understand the value of culturally specific ways people navigate uncertainty in protracted conflict zones.
Albania’s Waste Collectors and the Fight for Dignity
An anthropologist shines a light on Romani and Egyptian recyclers whose work has been made illegal, calling for a new way of viewing humanity’s garbage.
Grappling With Guilt Inside a System of Structural Violence
Criminals and Gangmembers Anonymous, a 12-step recovery program, has proliferated in California’s carceral system. An anthropologist investigates the program, which sees criminality as a chronic addiction that can be treated through intervention.
Inside Russia’s Campaign to Steal and Indoctrinate Ukrainian Children
An anthropologist investigates an insidious side of Russia’s genocide against Ukrainians meant to shatter families: snatching children and occupying their minds.
Coastal Eden
A poet interrogates the garden of Eden origin story by reimagining it against the backdrop of East Africa’s coastal environment.
On the Tracks to Translating Indigenous Knowledge
A team of researchers will journey by railway to Lac Seul First Nation in Canada to better understand alternative ways of seeing the world.
A Call for Anthropological Poems of Resistance, Refusal, and Wayfinding
SAPIENS is seeking poetry submissions for a curated collection that will publish next year. Deadline: September 1, 2024.
Buried in the Shadows, Ireland’s Unconsecrated Dead
A visual anthropologist reflects on the history of cillíní, unmarked and mostly hidden burial sites in Ireland where loved ones continue to care for the dead.
Nameless Woman
Archives often render marginalized people’s histories invisible. In response to such erasure, a poet writes a letter to explore the experience of historically enslaved African and Creole women in Tanzania and Mauritius—and the ways in which they may have navigated their lives.
A Palestinian Family’s History—Told Through Olive Trees
A new book chronicles a Palestinian family’s life and connections to their land over decades under Israeli occupation in the West Bank.
Can “Made in China” Become a Beacon of Sustainability?
In the epicenter of fast fashion, a small cohort of Chinese eco-friendly designers is amplifying the call for a less wasteful and environmentally destructive clothing culture.
The International Order Is Failing to Protect Palestinian Cultural Heritage
As Israeli forces destroy sites and monuments in Gaza, an archaeologist explains how international organizations charged with protecting cultural heritage should intervene—but have not.
Spotlighting Black Women’s Mental Health Struggles
An anthropologist discusses her film that honors and grieves the loss of Kime, a friend who passed away after experiencing physical and state violence.
Being a “Good Man” in a Time of Climate Catastrophe
An anthropologist follows a group of men who work in India’s rickshaw industry, revealing how their practices of masculinity and mutual aid shape their responses to intensifying flood disasters and political divides.
The Visit
SAPIENS’ 2024 poet-in-residence imagines a wordless conversation with a troubled figure from the past and considers legacies of marginalization during the figure’s life and in archives.
Cultivating Modern Farms Using Ancient Lessons
An anthropologist examines what past farmers can teach us about adapting to climate change amid—and sometimes against—powerful political influences.
Imphal as a Pond
As civil war continues to rip apart and threaten communities and families in Manipur in Northeast India, a poet reflects on those who leave and those who stay in the capital city of Imphal.
A Freediver Finds Belonging Without Breath
An anthropologist takes us on a journey “down the line” to explore what freediving can teach us about ourselves and kinship with the sea.
The Trauma Mantras
An anthropologist’s memoir in prose poems offers insights into her experiences working with refugees and on humanitarian projects in many parts of the globe over the last 20 years.
Baltimore’s Toxic Legacies Have Reached a Breaking Point
In a new book, an anthropologist reveals the heavy tolls industries have placed on residents in this eastern U.S. city. Here, she explains how these burdens have only worsened since the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
What a Community’s Mourning of an Owl Can Tell Us
The outpouring of grief over New York’s Flaco the owl, who died recently, reveals how much attitudes toward these creatures have changed.
Why I Talked to Pseudoarchaeologist Graham Hancock on Joe Rogan
An archaeologist explains his motivations and strategies for appearing on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast with a purveyor of misinformation about the ancient past.
Conflicting Times on the Camino de Santiago
As increasing numbers of pilgrims walk the Camino, a European network of historic pilgrimage routes, those who journey to “slow down” their lives often don’t recognize the burdens of tourism on locals.
Spotlighting War’s Cultural Destruction in Ukraine
An archaeologist, anthropologist, and film expert examine the staggering amount of damage to cultural heritage caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Learning From Snapshots of Lost Fossils
Not all fossil discoveries happen in the field. In museum archives, researchers found photos of remains from Paleolithic children who had belonged to a group of early Homo sapiens in Eurasia.
How Accurate Is the Stone Age Thriller Out of Darkness?
An archaeologist with expertise in human origins assesses the accuracy of a 2022 film about Homo sapiens who encounter Neanderthals.
