Essay Treasure troves: Freeing the hidden histories in German ethnological museums July 27, 2021 Germany’s heated repatriation debates reached a milestone in April 2021. As public discussions became particularly intense over the preceding five years, they focused largely on the opening of the Humboldt Forum, a new exhibition venue in the heart of Berlin. Read More
Essay A look inside The Mushroom at the End of the World June 14, 2021 In 1908 and 1909 two railroad entrepreneurs raced each other to build track along Oregon’s Deschutes River. The goal of each was to be the first to create an industrial connection between the towering ponderosas of the eastern Cascades and the stacked lumberyards of Portland. Read More
Podcast The water crisis on the High Plains April 12, 2021 The Ogallala aquifer has nourished life on the American Great Plains for millennia. But less than a century of unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the aquifer beyond repair. Read More
Interview Book Club Pick: The Preacher’s Wife March 04, 2021 This month’s Book Club Pick is The Preacher’s Wife by Kate Bowler. In this book, Bowler tells the story of an important new figure that has appeared on the center stage of American evangelicalism—the celebrity preacher’s wife. Read More
Essay Eric Cline on Digging Deeper: How Archaeology Works November 10, 2020 To be perfectly honest, this is the book that I wish had been available when I was just starting out in archaeology and before I went on my first dig as a sophomore in college—a book small enough that I could slip it into my back pocket and pull out whenever I had a spare moment to read a couple of pages or a whole chapter. Read More
Essay Forgiveness works: What can we learn from a victim‑centered justice system July 27, 2020 As many of us march in the streets or watch televised protests, we are forced to acknowledge the brutalities of our punitive justice system all across the United States. Read More
Interview Eric H. Cline on Digging Up Armageddon June 09, 2020 In 1925, James Henry Breasted, famed Egyptologist and director of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, sent a team of archaeologists to the Holy Land to excavate the ancient site of Megiddo—Armageddon in the New Testament—which the Bible says was fortified by King Solomon. Read More
Essay Craigslist’s lessons for a weirder, more ethical internet February 07, 2020 When I first started teaching undergrad courses on the internet and society, it was 2010. Back then, students usually walked into the classroom with a fairly positive attitude about digital technology. They saw the internet as a vital tool for democracy, an important way to network for future jobs and connect with their friends. Read More
Video Jessa Lingel on An Internet for the People January 28, 2020 Begun by Craig Newmark as an e-mail to some friends about cool events happening around San Francisco, craigslist is now the leading classifieds service on the planet. It is also a throwback to the early internet. Read More
Essay Ten Ways to Think Like an Anthropologist January 23, 2018 Are you ready to start thinking like an anthropologist? Follow these 10 tips to gain a deeper understanding of how different groups of humans organize their lives and articulate their values! Read More
Interview Robert Wuthnow on The Left Behind January 12, 2018 What is fueling rural America's outrage toward the federal government? Why did rural Americans vote overwhelmingly for Donald Trump? And, beyond economic and demographic decline, is there a more nuanced explanation for the growing rural-urban divide? Read More
