Cultures

What impact are information and communication technologies such as the Internet and social media having on our health, politics, and culture? While there is considerable controversy about this topic, informed analysis and empirical evidence to address it...

The idea of building a wall on the U.S./Mexico border serves as a potent symbol across the political spectrum—a means of assuaging social and economic anxieties by placing them onto a remote frontier. Ieva Jusionyte will consider how an anthropological...

The Center for Land Use Interpretation explores how land in the United States is apportioned, utilized, and perceived. Through exhibitions and public programs, the Center interprets built landscapes—from landfills and urban waterfalls to artificial lakes...

Domesticated animals such as dogs, pigs, and horses often sport floppy ears, patches of white hair, and other features that are unknown in their wild ancestors. These traits—collectively referred to by scientists as a “domestication syndrome”—are the...

The destruction of iconic images and monuments—iconoclasm—carried out today by extremists representing a wide range of political and religious views, makes many recoil in horror. This response, however, is in part derived from the fact that our Western...

The human body has not changed significantly during recorded history—we share sensory faculties, metabolism, sexuality, aging, and mortality with even our distant ancestors. Concepts of body and self, on the other hand, evolve as cultural and historical...

2017 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the discovery of the Lord of Sipán, one of the most spectacular gold tombs found in the Americas and the first of many elite tombs found in northern Peru. The remains of these burial sites provide a treasure trove...

Peru’s early colonial history is generally viewed from the perspective of the Europeans who invaded the region and documented their conquests. Recent archaeological studies, however, are revealing new insights into the experiences of Indigenous and other...

Richard Evans Schultes—ethnobotanist, taxonomist, writer, photographer, and Harvard professor—is regarded as one of the most important plant explorers of the twentieth century. In 1941, Schultes traveled to the Amazon rainforest on a mission to study how...

From dynastic armories and curiosity cabinets to Gothic Revival castles, private collections, and modern museums, armor and weapons have been methodically collected, studied, and preserved for their artistic and historical importance, beginning in the...