Society
video
Rituals and celebrations
Flirtation, negotiation and vodka – or how to couple up in 1950s rural Poland
5 minutes
essay
Archaeology
Why make art in the dark?
New research transports us back to the shadowy firelight of ancient caves, imagining the minds and feelings of the artists
Izzy Wisher
video
Anthropology
Why are witchcraft accusations so common across human societies?
4 minutes
video
Rituals and celebrations
A whale hunt is an act of prayer for an Inuit community north of the Arctic Circle
8 minutes
video
Work
A Swedish expat in the Philippines wonders: what’s up with people sleeping at work?
14 minutes
essay
Anthropology
Societies of perpetual movement
Why do hunter-gatherers refuse to be sedentary? New answers are emerging from the depths of the Congolese rainforest
Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
essay
Language and linguistics
Our language, our world
Linguistic relativity holds that your worldview is structured by the language you speak. Is it true? History shines a light
James McElvenny
essay
Religion
Indomitable Sufis
Once a centre of Afghan culture, Sufism seems to have disappeared in the maelstrom of war and upheaval. But still it survives
Annika Schmeding
essay
Earth science and climate
When does after begin?
Three earthquakes hit Mexico City on the same date in 1985, 2017 and 2022. The coincidence left the city stranded in time
Lachlan Summers
essay
Anthropology
A glimpse of the world’s heart
I wanted to visit Colombia’s sacred mountains. But there are some places we cannot go – and some things we cannot know
Nick Hunt
video
Sports and games
A unique project frames college football as an intricately choreographed mass ritual
7 minutes
video
Anthropology
A riveting collage portrays a century of Inuit history, and envisions a vibrant future
14 minutes
essay
Family life
Amazonian childcare
In the eyes of the Runa people, Western kids grow up indulged, over-mothered and incapable of facing outward to the world
Francesca Mezzenzana
essay
Anthropology
How to mourn a forest
The Marind people of West Papua deploy mourning not only to grieve their animal and plant kin but as political resistance
Sophie Chao
essay
Anthropology
Memories within myth
The stories of oral societies, passed from generation to generation, are more than they seem. They are scientific records
Patrick Nunn
video
Rituals and celebrations
Beware the Nalujuit! A rare glimpse into a chilling Labrador Inuit tradition
13 minutes
essay
Anthropology
Lessons from the foragers
Hunter-gatherers don’t live in an economic idyll but their deep appreciation of rest puts industrialised work to shame
Vivek V Venkataraman
essay
Archaeology
Children of the Ice Age
With the help of new archaeological approaches, our picture of young lives in the Palaeolithic is now marvellously vivid
April Nowell
essay
Archaeology
Finding the First Americans
Archaeology and genetics can’t yet agree on when humans first arrived in the Americas. That’s good science and here’s why
Jennifer Raff
essay
Anthropology
Keeping the score
The gifts we exchange are both generous and yet fraught with social rules and obligations. Marcel Mauss explained why
Gili Kliger
essay
Thinkers and theories
The generous philosopher
Bruno Latour showed us how to think with the things of the world, respecting their right to exist and act on their own terms
Stephen Muecke
essay
Religion
The meaning of Purgatory
Think less of a holding pen for Heaven and more as a flow of love from the living, and the weirdness starts making sense
Magnus Course
essay
Computing and artificial intelligence
The people of the cloud
Hot, strenuous and unsung. There is nothing soft and fluffy about the caretaking work that enables our digital lives
Steven Gonzalez Monserrate
essay
Anthropology
Keeping our options open
Frantic human activity has reduced both cultural and biological diversity. Now we must protect the dwindling alternatives
Thomas Hylland Eriksen