What Makes Vaccines Social?
Luis Alvarez/Getty Images
Now is a pressing time for vaccinating the U.S. population (and the world)…
Browsing Category
Sapiens
What a “Safe and Dignified” Burial Means During a Pandemic
Bamileke community members typically mourn the deaths of loved ones through drumming, singing, and other…
Do Twins Share a Soul?
I have a clone.
He’s an identical twin brother, really. But as monozygotic twins derived from one fertilized egg,…
Finding Calm—and Connection—in Coffee Rituals
When I arrived from the Philippines to the airport in the city of Gondar in northern Ethiopia early last…
Partnering with Nonhumans for Climate Action
Arctic sea ice is breaking up and melting as the world’s atmosphere and waters warm.
Julianne Yip…
Best of SAPIENS 2020
Mint Images/Getty Images
This year humanity was confronted with a crush of pressing issues both old…
Unsettling the Past: Radically Reimagining Archaeological Knowledge
For decades, Black and Indigenous archaeologists have rightfully called for a radical reimagining of how…
Crisis and Opportunity—A Look at 2020
Ada daSilva/Getty Images
The Coronavirus Pandemic
2020 will be remembered as the year that COVID-19…
Without Norms, Societies Fall Apart
From time to time, I meet an American who likes to tell me that the United Kingdom, the country of my birth, has a…
What Did the Stone Age Sound Like?
Archaeologists Joshua Kumbani (left) and Sarah Wurz (right) work at a site near the Klasies River in South…
Tackling Care and Capitalism in College Football
Despite the health risks, many college football teams, such as the Stanford Cardinal (pictured here), have…
The CDC Needs Social Science
John Moore/Getty Images
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as the primary agency in…
How Sweat Lodge Ceremonies Heal War’s Wounds
Heated, dome-shaped sacred structures called sweat lodges (the architecture of one shown here) have been used…
dear gretas
Javier Zayas Photography/Getty Images
In my poem, I call up anarchs. Who are they?
Anarchs are us:…
A Startling Link Between Neanderthals and COVID-19
Angus Krieg
SAPIENS host Chip Colwell speaks with evolutionary geneticist Hugo Zeberg about his…
Facing COVID-19 as an Undocumented Essential Worker
Many immigrants in the U.S. continue working in agriculture and other essential sectors amid new pandemic…
What Rez Dogs Mean to the Lakota
Painting by Lakota artist Keith Braveheart from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota.
Keith…
Women at the Hearth and on the Hunt
In an artistic rendition of an ancient scene in the Andes, a focused huntress with a spear thrower and a spear…
The Power of Images
FG Trade/Getty Images
The headlines and powerful prose of the anthropologists and journalists who…
“For the Welfare of the Whole People”: Heritage Stewardship in Indigenous and…
Local descendant communities and Indigenous nations continue to be at the center of heritage preservation efforts.…
Did Processed Foods Make Us Human?
Anthropologist Bill Schindler uses techniques developed thousands of years ago to prepare fresh-caught salmon…
Moments of Resilience Amid a Pandemic
Angus Krieg
SAPIENS host Chip Colwell speaks with Melanie Adams, the director of the Smithsonian’s…
The Evolution of Comfort Food
The winter holiday season will feel different this year for many: Extended families may not be able to gather,…
What’s Left Unsaid When a Language Dies
“Transition” by Papua New Guinean artist Philemon Yalamu.
From Papua New Guinea: A New Dawn by Fondazione …
The Cookout (and All Other Manners of Heavenly Black Things)
Manny Rodriguez
As a poet and an anthropologist, I often write about the cycles of Black grief,…
What Human Hair Reveals About Death’s Seasonality
A lock of hair from Edith Cook, a girl who died in 1876, offers a window into her death.
Jelmer Eerkens…
The Travesties of India’s Tribal Boarding Schools
Biswaranjan Rout/AP Photo
The Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) in Bhubaneswar, Odisha,…
Is the Pandemic Slowing Down Love?
Angus Krieg
SAPIENS host Jen Shannon speaks with biological anthropologist Helen Fisher about her…
The Pandemic and the Process of Becoming
Anthropologist Victor Turner’s work on transitional states may shed light on people’s pandemic experiences of…
Ancient Beer Is Craft’s New Frontier
Ancient artwork, such as this relief in the Israel Beer Breweries museum in Ashkelon, Israel, offers clues to…
Climate Change May Have Been a Major Driver of Ancient Hominin Extinctions
New research suggests some of our species’ closest relatives died out because of significant changes in…
Spelling a Nation’s Name
Ruined buildings serve as reminders of the lives lost and displaced by the Kosovo War more than two decades…
Black and Indigenous Storytelling as Counter-History
For untold centuries, storytelling has been foundational to the ways Black and Indigenous people understand and…
A Journey of Interspecies Surprises
Karen Carr/National Park Service
This article was originally published at The Conversation and has…
When at Home, Bake as the Romans Baked
Angus Greig
SAPIENS host Chip Colwell talks with experimental archaeologist Farrell Monaco about her…
The Casual Menace of a Trump Rally
After the 2016 U.S. presidential election, supporters of president-elect Donald Trump packed the Giant Center…
What If There Is Life on Venus?
In the throes of a pandemic that has underscored the fragility of human life on Earth, news has come of possible…
Why Do Virtual Meetings Feel So Weird?
Anna Shvets/Pexels
It’s morning in Houston, Texas, for Jeremy* and his team of engineers, and nearly…
An Archaeology of Marijuana
In June, the recreational and medical marijuana industry in my home state of Colorado reached US$199 million in…
Early Humans Controlled Fire to Make Stone Tools
Researchers found these ancient flint blades in Israel’s Qesem Cave.
Filipe Natalio
Humanity’s…
A Vaccine Will Not Be Enough
Angus Greig
SAPIENS host Jen Shannon speaks with Agustín Fuentes, a professor of anthropology at…
The Green Woods of Resilience
Conservationist Madeleine Nyiratuza (center) walks through Rwanda’s Gishwati Forest with three eco-guards, who…
What White Power Supporters Hear Trump Saying
President Trump frequently uses language that White power extremists understand as expressing support for…
An Archaeology of Redress and Restorative Justice
Archaeologists and heritage professionals whose work overlays histories of colonialism, exploitation, collective…
When the Gift of Immigration Comes With Strings
Rachaphak Kitbumrung/Getty Images
A year ago, I found myself trying to ease the tension rising in a…
How to Write an Essay: A Guide for Anthropologists
FilippoBacci/GettyImages
For academics used to the idea of “publish or perish,” writing may seem to…
A Mammoth Find Near Mexico City
Archaeologists, restorers, and laborers have worked together to uncover thousands of late Pleistocene animal…
Do Black Lives Matter in Outer Space?
Artist Peter Williams explores Afrofuturist themes in this painting titled “He Was a Global Traveler.” (Peter…
From the Margins to the Mainstream: Black and Indigenous Futures in Archaeology
Widespread protests against police violence and anti-Black racism have recently swept the globe. In the wake of…
When Colorblind Parenting Meets Anti-racism
Author Zeray Alemseged and his daughter attend a Black Lives Matter protest in Chicago.
Peter Stamos…