Table of contents

Five Questions for Agustín Fuentes

In this live discussion with Agustín Fuentes about his new book, Sex Is a Spectrum: The Biological Limits of the Binary, the Princeton University professor shares his groundbreaking examination of biological sex beyond the binary of male and female.
A person standing outside the frame holds a large knife to peel a cassava fruit to prepare a beverage.

How Women Shaped Human Evolution Through Food Processing

An anthropologist highlights the revolutionary role of food processing and dietary diversity—practices often led by women—that were just as crucial to humans surviving and thriving as hunting.
Five young people stroll in front of a gray concrete building with numerous narrow rectangular windows.

Want to Make Academic Writing More Readable? Ask a High School Student.

The Demystifying Language Project brings together New York City high school and college students with linguistic anthropologists to make research on language and power available for broad audiences.
A woman pushing a stroller on the sidewalk walks briskly past a large billboard advertising a model who sports a fashionable handbag.

To Raise Children, We Must First Raise Parents

An anthropologist compares her early motherhood in London with child care experiences in a hunter-gatherer community of Central Africa.
A well-lit large room features glass-fronted cabinets on the right in a row and glass-covered display cases in rows on the left. An archway leads toward a black-and-white photo of dwellings.

An [un]Heroic Journey

A Tanzanian poet unseats the illusionist tale of the mission museum of the Archabbey of St. Ottilien in Germany.
A black-and-white image shows a footbridge across a road, facing the stacked buildings of a neighborhood.

Snapshots of Losing Jenna

An anthropologist offers a lens on how losses from war dramatically alter a family—and a society.
A black-and-white image shows a person in a military uniform with a tank on their back spraying fire onto a destroyed forest landscape and a wooden structure.

What Vietnam’s Scarred Lands Reveal About Modern Warfare

Fifty years on, Vietnam is still reckoning with the long-term ecological toll of U.S. warfare—a grim warning as Israel and Russia unleash similar destruction in Gaza and Ukraine.
Two people in suits stand talking in front of a large white facade that says “Panama Canal."

Uncovering an Archaeology of U.S. Empire in Panama

An anthropologist investigates how archaeology helped the U.S. colonize the Panama Canal Zone—just as the current U.S. government threatens to retake it.
Dos personas vestidas con traje están hablando delante de una gran fachada blanca en la que se lee “Panama Canal".

Descubriendo una arqueología del imperio estadounidense en Panamá

Una antropóloga investiga cómo la arqueología ayudó a Estados Unidos a colonizar la Zona del Canal de Panamá —justo cuando el actual gobierno estadounidense amenaza con retomarla—.
Deux personnes en costume discutent devant une grande façade blanche sur laquelle est inscrit « Canal de Panama ».

Faire la lumière sur l’archéologie de l’empire américain au Panama

Une anthropologue étudie comment l'archéologie a aidé les États-Unis à coloniser la zone du canal de Panama—alors que le gouvernement américain actuel menace de la reprendre.
Duas pessoas de terno conversam em frente a uma grande fachada branca onde está escrito “Canal do Panamá”.

Desvendando a arqueologia do império americano no Panamá

Uma antropóloga pesquisa como a arqueologia ajudou os EUA a colonizar a Zona do Canal do Panamá—no momento em que o atual governo americano ameaça retomá-la.
Standing at a lookout spot adjacent to a stone wall, a small group holding a blue umbrella looks across a large body of water at the opposite shore.

Why Do Swallows Fly to the Korean DMZ?

An anthropologist discovers diasporic flights—including her own—that begin at and return to the waters of the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.
De pie en un mirador junto a un muro de piedra, un pequeño grupo con un paraguas azul mira al otro lado de una gran extensión de agua, hacia la orilla opuesta.

¿Por qué vuelan las golondrinas a la DMZ coreana?

Una antropóloga descubre vuelos hacia la diáspora —incluido el suyo propio— que parten y regresan a las aguas de la zona desmilitarizada entre Corea del Norte y Corea del Sur.
Debout à un point de vue adjacent à un mur de pierre, un petit groupe tenant un parapluie bleu regarde de l'autre côté d'un grand plan d'eau, vers la rive opposée.

Pourquoi les hirondelles migrent-elles vers la zone démilitarisée coréenne ?

Une anthropologue découvre des vols diasporiques—dont le sien—qui partent et reviennent dans les eaux de la zone démilitarisée entre la Corée du Nord et la Corée du Sud.
Em um mirante ao lado de um muro de pedra, um pequeno grupo segurando um guarda-chuva azul olha para o outro lado de um grande corpo de água, na margem oposta.

Por que as andorinhas voam para a zona desmilitarizada coreana?

Uma antropóloga descobre voos diaspóricos—incluindo o seu próprio—que começam e terminam nas águas da zona desmilitarizada entre a Coreia do Norte e a Coreia do Sul.
Wispy white clouds float in a blue sky above a range of sharp-peaked, snow-capped mountains.

Forest as Kin and Pantry in the Himalayas

In the Sikkim and Kalimpong Himalayas in Northeast India, supply chains are often interrupted by changing monsoon systems that damage highways. Responding to uncertainty, communities are reclaiming ancestral foodways—drawing inspiration from the past to move into the future.
At the base of a tree with a thick trunk, a shirtless man holds a bunch of smoldering vegetation that gives off a large cloud of smoke.

How Societies Morph With the Seasons

An evolutionary anthropologist details seasonal changes among foraging communities—and distills how the fixed political structures of industrialized societies are an outlier in human history.
A black-and-white photograph shows people in dark suits and ties performing on a fashion runway. In the center, a person wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a plaid women’s suit holds a small dog. Above the performers, a sign reads “love ball.” Photographers aim their cameras at the performers.

Shading U.S. Empire in Puerto Rico’s Ballroom Scene

A linguistic anthropologist explores the queer Ballroom scene in San Juan—and how performers are incorporating critiques of colonialism into the art form.
A view of two mounds of dirt with a deep groove in the center extends from the foreground into the distance. Bright green fields lie on either side and a dark-gray mountain range hovers in the background under a bright blue sky.

How Cultural Knowledge Sustained Desert Farms in the Ancient Andes

An archaeologist who studies past farming practices in the north coast of Peru argues these offer models for navigating current climate crises.
The sun peaks out from behind a wooded mountain, its rays casting a slanting contrast of light and shadow on the snowy valley below. In the foreground stands a lone silhouetted tree with bare branches.

Earworm

A poet-anthropologist listens to an accidental field recording from Kashmir: What might be dismissed as noise becomes a way to unsettle the settled—making audible dispossession and theft, stealth and refusal.
Two cellular phones sit on a small wooden shelf beside family photos and other mementos.

Caring Across Distance—One Call at a Time

An anthropologist explores how a phone call home may seem simple but carries layers of meaning for migrating nurses and their families in India.
Beneath a cloudy gray sky, three people work with measuring tools and archaeological sifting screens near an excavation pit in sandy ground. Behind them, rows of yellowish-brown corn and trees grow.

Excavating the Traces of Ice Age Foragers

A filmmaker showcases archaeologists unearthing tiny lithics that evidence the presence of hunters from 13,000 years ago in what is today Michigan.
Beneath a blue sky with big white fluffy clouds, a corner of a fence in a green field is painted to look like the American flag, with red and white stripes and white stars on a blue background.

Reclaiming Collective Life in a Fractured U.S.

After Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election win, an anthropologist set out across the U.S. to understand the nation’s deepening divides. In the new book Something Between Us, he grapples with these rifts and how to repair them.
A person wearing a bright-pink jacket, brown slacks, tennis shoes, and a tan, brown, and black hat crouches on a patch of brown dirt with a small instrument in one hand and a bag in the other, collecting a sample from an archaeological site.

Ancient Tools in East Asia Reveal Middle Paleolithic Innovation

An archaeologist explains his team’s insights into how Quina scrapers in southwest China overturn long-standing assumptions about the region’s humans more than 50,000 years ago.
A beige cylindrical object with lines and marks carved on its surface rests on a soft green surface.

When Wartime Plunder Comes to Campus

An archaeologist considers whether students should learn from antiquities looted from Iraq.
A statue of a woman clasping her hands in a prayer-like gesture, her head surrounded by a halo of illuminated stars, stands in front of a large stained-glass window featuring blue and purple shapes with accents of red and green.

Why Are People Worshipping the Virgin Mary as a Goddess?

Amid a goddess worship revival, some feminists are revering the mother of Jesus as a deity, defying Christian doctrines and confronting the use of Mary as a handmaiden of patriarchy.
In a room with a chalkboard and bright-red walls, a woman stands next to a person wearing a white-colored device that covers the eyes and is strapped onto the head. A third person in a pastel green shirt looks on.

How Virtual Reality Is Restoring Liberia’s Culture

Traveling Treasures is a new project led by a team of anthropologists that puts Liberians directly in touch with their dispersed cultural heritage through immersive technologies designed to bridge continents and histories.
A man silhouetted against purple, red, orange, and yellow glass blocks bows with his hands clasped before a candle.

In Japan, Rethinking What It Means to Care for the Dead

Facing an increasing aging population and other societal shifts, people are looking beyond traditional family-based mortuary practices.
In a bright white art gallery, plaques on the wall spell out interjections such as “Hmm,” “Pff,” and “Ach” in colorful block letters. To the side of the artwork, two people stand gazing into an adjoining room.

Huh? The Valuable Role of Interjections

Utterances like “um,” “wow,” and “mm-hmm” aren’t garbage, they keep conversations flowing.
A shadow of a person in a baseball cap holding a smartphone is cast against a gray wall.

When Calls for Vengeance Go Online

An anthropologist reckons with how digital media has changed youth gang culture dynamics—and what can be done to combat the spread of deadly rumors.
As the setting sun reflects on wet sand, a silhouetted figure runs on a beach surrounded by palm trees.

A Poetics of Liberation: An Imagined Archive

A Tanzanian historian and poet conjures alternative engagements with Black African women who were marginalized by violent colonial histories and imprisoned in the archives. As the 2024 poet-in-resident at the magazine, she imaginatively reaches for new possibilities.
Situated on display in a spacious building is a large, illuminated sculpture of an ancient humanoid face with glowing neon lines highlighting its features.

The Hopes and Hazards for AI in Reconstructing Ancient Worlds

An archaeologist explains how generative artificial intelligence has the potential to reshape our views of ancient people, arguing that a critical perspective is needed to use this technical innovation and avoid misrepresentations.
Archaeology Biology Culture Language