A study finds that there may be health benefits when family ties are linked through mothers and women head households.
By Deepa Padmanaban
Anthropologists have long been intrigued by the Mosuo, an ethnic Chinese community that lives in Yunnan province. The Mosuo share a common language and cultural practices, but they are unique in that they maintain what anthropologists call two different kinship systems: matriliny and patriliny.
More specifically, inheritance passes from mothers to their children among the matrilineal Mosuo and from fathers to sons among patrilineal Mosuo. Globally, matriliny is less common than patriliny — and some societies now link inheritance and kinship through both parents.
In general, women have greater autonomy and control of resources in matrilineal Mosuo…
When an Indigenous community in Oaxaca, snubbed by telecom giants, created its own mobile network, things didn’t go exactly as planned. But the experiment revealed the strength of its social bonds.
By Roberto J. González
Imagine you’re in a picturesque Mexican village, nestled high in the mountains of the Sierra Madre.
In your hand, you’re gripping a cellphone. You’re staring at your device’s signal bars, hoping to see them come alive for the first time.
Suddenly, the bars glow brightly. Success!
You continue testing the network, winding up steep cobblestone paths between sunbaked, stucco houses. Gleeful cheers begin erupting everywhere. Stunned villagers stagger outside, holding cellphones.
“I’m connected!” cries a woman, raising her device.
“I just called Mexico City!” bellows another.
“¡Madre Santísima … tenemos servicio! We have service!”
It’s the…
In a yearly ritual, an algorithm pairs medical students with U.S. residency programs. An anthropologist explains how this technology of destiny is all too human.
By Paige Edmiston
Hmm, difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind, either.
There’s talent, oh yes. And a thirst to prove yourself. But where to put you?
— The Sorting Hat, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (film)
This week,* students in their final year of medical school will gather across the United States in the Zoom equivalent of banquet halls, anxiously awaiting an envelope that will determine the next three to seven years of their lives. Held every year on the third Friday of March, Match Day is a rite of passage in the…
Organic cotton agriculture in India fails, resoundingly, to produce as much cotton as conventional methods. But what if that’s not the point?
By Andrew Flachs
One warm afternoon several years ago, I was walking with Korianna,* a farmer in Telangana, India, when I smelled something bad. The scent of diesel and sulfur wafted over the dusty red clay and fertile black earth characteristic of the Deccan plateau. Korianna pointed to fields of tightly planted, vibrant green cotton in the distance, where a neighboring villager was using a motorized sprayer to unleash pesticides onto crop rows. “When they start to face losses, they’ll want to join us,” he told me.
Telangana farmers grow about 15 percent of the cotton produced in India, but…
OP-ED
Highways, factories, and other development projects across the United States are threatening the sacred spaces of African American cemeteries. An archaeologist looks to new Congressional action to stop the destruction.
By Alexandra Jones
In the late 19th century, a group of once-enslaved, free African Americans in Cabin John, Maryland, succeeded in creating a space they could call their own: a community called Gibson Grove. They purchased land, built homes and a church, started a school, and created a cemetery, all to protect themselves in life and death from discrimination.
But now the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) is attempting to claim eminent domain of a portion of this private property — a move that threatens to destroy this sacred space — in the name of highway expansion.
Op-Ed
Anarchists have been an easy scapegoat for violent events in recent months. But anarchism, as a political philosophy, is fundamentally about collective deliberation and responsibility.
By David Flood
Two hours into a weekly planning session, the 15 or so black-clothed, tattooed, and pierced activists were getting cranky. People wanted action, and tempers were flaring. I thought that my research on leftist organizing might finally get exciting.
But then the meeting facilitator quickly reminded everyone of the group’s commitment to discussion and consensus, and called a 10-minute break.
After milling around and getting snacks, everyone filed back into the cold, uncomfortable break room at the back of a small bookstore. …
An anthropologist explains how conspiracy theories and recent protests in the U.S. over COVID-19 vaccines can’t be untangled from American dreams of freedom and prosperity.
By Elisa Sobo
On January 30, protesters disrupted a mass COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, a city hard-hit by the pandemic. Around 50 picketers attempted to pass out pamphlets and used bullhorns to share messages such as “You’re a lab rat” with people trying to get vaccinated. “Save Your Soul TURN BACK NOW” read a sign featured in that evening’s Los Angeles Times reportage.
The intrusion put older people and others who qualified for vaccination based on their vulnerability to COVID-19 into proximity with unmasked and censorious demonstrators. …
Arranged marriages and love marriages are sometimes seen as cultural opposites, but it’s far more complicated. Anthropology shows how love and marriage are entwined in many different ways.
By William Jankowiak and Alex Nelson
Love and marriage aren’t the same thing: Passionate love is a feeling, and marriage is a social contract. But over time and around the world, the two have been intertwined in fascinating ways — not always with romance coming first.
The concept of partnering up in some kind of marriage-like arrangement is virtually universal in human societies. But the notion that romantic love should direct such partnerships has not been a constant. …
News headlines suggest that the problems of 2020 were unprecedented, but the collision of a pandemic and racial violence is nothing new under imperialism.
By Rick W.A. Smith
The world is caught in the grip of a deadly pandemic and yet another wave of sickness is hitting the Americas hard. At the same time, Black, Indigenous, migrant, and other historically marginalized peoples are facing disproportionate levels of disease and state-mediated violence.
It may seem like I am only writing about current events, but these could just as easily be the opening lines of a story about the 1918 flu pandemic and the Jim Crow era in the U.S. …
The ways in which Andean villagers have adapted to a neighboring volcano could offer lessons to other communities in reframing risks and responding to disasters.
By Amber Dance
As the Andes mountain range curves through Ecuador, it rises to the peak Tungurahua. The name comes from the Kichwa language, spoken by some of the Indigenous communities of Ecuador, and means “Throat of Fire,” which is fitting for a volcano that towers more than 5,000 meters into the sky. It’s been active over the past 20 years or so, resulting in spectacular displays of flying lava and ash.
But some residents of Penipe Canton, the territorial district that borders the volcano, give Tungurahua another name: abuela, Spanish for “grandmother.” They see the volcano as a familiar…
SAPIENS
SAPIENS is a digital magazine about the human world.
