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Culture

Essays and videos on the arts, literature, travel, rituals and celebrations
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Rituals and celebrations

Flirtation, negotiation and vodka – or how to couple up in 1950s rural Poland

5 minutes

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Rituals and celebrations

A whale hunt is an act of prayer for an Inuit community north of the Arctic Circle

8 minutes

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Rituals and celebrations

A beginner’s guide to a joyful Persian tradition of spring renewal and rebirth

3 minutes

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Rituals and celebrations

Meet the entrepreneur whose business is crafting perfect peak experiences

12 minutes

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Rituals and celebrations

The spectacular Mardi Gras artworks born of a unique New Orleans tradition

16 minutes

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Subcultures

Of memes and magick

Bending a mysterious world to your will was the goal of esoteric practices. Now it’s the unashamed aim of the tech titans

Tara Isabella Burton

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Food and drink

Is a ‘gastronomic society’ dinner the height of decadence, or an act of artistry?

11 minutes

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Sports and games

A unique project frames college football as an intricately choreographed mass ritual

7 minutes

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Archaeology

The secret life of Druids

The Greeks and Romans portrayed these elusive priests as bogeymen who bathed in their victims’ blood. Who were they really?

Miranda Aldhouse-Green

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Religion

Miracles not magic

It took a tremendous effort to distinguish early Christianity from the finely tuned world of pagan beliefs and rituals

Martha Rampton

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Food and drink

Crème de la crème

How French cuisine became beloved among status-hungry diners in the United States, from Thomas Jefferson to Kanye West

Kelly Alexander & Claire Bunschoten

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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

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History of ideas

Disorient yourself

Now associated with childhood fun, the swing has a near-universal history of ritual transgression and transformation

Javier Moscoso

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Rituals and celebrations

Beware the Nalujuit! A rare glimpse into a chilling Labrador Inuit tradition

13 minutes

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Politics and government

‘Without a poster, you don’t exist!’ – on the curious political banners of Mumbai

20 minutes

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Sports and games

The brutality and beauty of the West African martial art of ‘dambe’

15 minutes

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Archaeology

The pharaoh’s trumpet

The truly wondrous treasures of Tutankhamun’s tomb are not made of gold. They are the mundane things of everyday life

Toby Wilkinson

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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

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Food and drink

From set-up to close, a day at the farmers market is a whirlwind sensory feast

10 minutes

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Sports and games

Bodies, bikes and groovy music propel this stylish classic film from 1965

17 minutes

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Rituals and celebrations

From roaring fire and molten glass an artist creates a healing ritual

13 minutes

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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

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Rituals and celebrations

In a Mongolian wind burial, a body falls on land before getting swept up to the heavens

6 minutes

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Dance and theatre

Absorb the infectious rhythms of Setapa – a joyous dance from southern Africa

7 minutes