How Israeli Prisons Terrorize Palestinians—Inside and Outside Their Walls
Sapiens
by Bridget Alex
2d ago
An anthropologist in the West Bank explains how Israel’s prison regime dehumanizes Palestinians, who nevertheless dream of freedom and resist erasure. CAMERAS ON CARCERAL VIOLENCE In December 2023, as Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza entered its third month, the Israeli occupying forces (IOF) released photos and videos of military trucks crammed with Palestinian captives: stripped to their underwear, kneeling, blindfolded, and with hands bound behind their backs. While Israeli media boasted the images depict “Hamas terrorists surrendering in Gaza,” Palestinian and international organizations rea ..read more
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Bila Mwili
Sapiens
by Chip
3d ago
A poet-historian in Tanzania remembers those who have passed but who are still nearby. “Bila Mwili” is part of the collection Poems of Witness and Possibility: Inside Zones of Conflict. Read the introduction to the collection here. ✽ the grey sediment of you, floating like a mass, a mess sinking down to lie on the ocean’s belly your body turned to ash not exactly soil-like but something closer to rough gravel or the burnt embers of charcoal the flowers i pick red and white flame and jasmine the blueness of the water the air weighs heavy with sea salt antiseptic threaded into the clouds above ..read more
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The Viral Atrocities Posted by Israeli Soldiers
Sapiens
by Bridget Alex
1w ago
Tracing 75 years of Israeli war photography, an anthropologist explains how images that reframe disproportionate violence as proof of victory have intensified in the war on Gaza that erupted in 2023. Content Warning: The materials below include images of violence. ✽ In early January, a TikTok account affiliated with Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Shas party posted a video that an Israeli soldier filmed in Gaza. Somewhere in the northern part of the Strip, the soldier stands inside a bedroom in a Palestinian home. He has just finished wrapping himself in tefillin—straps with small leather boxes cont ..read more
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Unearthing the Origins of Plantation Slavery on São Tomé
Sapiens
by Bridget Alex
1w ago
The African island nation played a central—but little-known—role in the rise of the global sugar trade based on enslaved labor. To uncover this past, a team launched the country’s first archaeological research. THE FOREST-SHROUDED ESTATE On an island 300 kilometers west of mainland Africa, in 2020, our small team began down a barely visible path flanked by shoulder-high, shimmering capim grass. Soon the tropical forest thickened. Lush felt like an understatement. There are stories of old men’s staffs taking root and sprouting while their owners chatted. We were heading to rumored ruins of an e ..read more
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Infant, Name Once Known
Sapiens
by Chip
1w ago
A poet-anthropologist of the Chickasaw Nation honors infant remains historically used in teaching collections at the University of Illinois. “Infant, Name Once Known” is part of the collection Poems of Witness and Possibility: Inside Zones of Conflict. Read the introduction to the collection here. ✽ Before putting a newly printed label on a brown lidded box, I hummed a lullaby, tears streaming, while removing the remains of someone’s child from the wires, wingnut, and metal rod that had held them on display for more than half a century, and placed them in their new cardboard cradle.  I w ..read more
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What It’s Like to Grow Old on the Margins
Sapiens
by Keridwen Cornelius
2w ago
In a brief documentary, an anthropologist provides a glimpse into the precarious lives of poor older Peruvians whose experiences mirror those of countless elders around the world. ✽ As we ate breakfast in her room at La Merced shelter, Anita (a pseudonym) described her plight and that of her fellow residents: “You know, Magdalena? We have come to die here. There is no possibility for a better life within these walls. It’s all death. We are trash, and nobody wants us.” Anita’s words hit me emotionally. It was my second year of field research at La Merced, one of 92 long-term elder care faciliti ..read more
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Fishing for Dust
Sapiens
by Christine Weeber
2w ago
A poet-historian from Manipur, India, shapes tensions between violence and beauty into an allegory, calling residents and readers alike to stay awake. “Fishing for Dust” is part of the collection Poems of Witness and Possibility: Inside Zones of Conflict. Read the introduction to the collection here. ✽ They keep knocking, asking her for a ransom for her long hair and the sum of that very gold she lost as a young bride to the fire. Intrepid souls lost within the divine gamble of swimmers, man, and fish. This is fishing. The wind screams in her favor, and yet even her weeping eyes stray, helples ..read more
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Excavating the Coexistence of Neanderthals and Modern Humans
Sapiens
by Marlaina Martin
3w ago
An archaeologist explains how remains recently recovered from a cave in present-day Germany suggest that Neanderthals and modern humans populated Europe together for at least 10,000 years. This article was originally published at The Conversation and has been republished under Creative Commons. ✽ THE IDEA THAT TWO different human species, Homo sapiens (us) and Neanderthals, coexisted in Western Eurasia 50,000–40,000 years ago has long captured the imagination of academics and the public alike. It is therefore not surprising that this time period—the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition—has ..read more
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At the Intersection of Sarinah Plaza, Thamrin Street
Sapiens
by Chip
3w ago
A poet-anthropologist in Indonesia criticizes extremist militants who use religion to commit violence. “At the Intersection of Sarinah Plaza, Thamrin Street” is part of the collection Poems of Witness and Possibility: Inside Zones of Conflict. Read the introduction to the collection here. ✽ At the street intersection we often pass through,  on that sunny day, suddenly grief falls heavier  than laughter.  Steps become more anxious and hurried.  In the usual chairs  where we sipped coffee,  you heard a deafening sound echoing into the distance,  and objects fel ..read more
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Among Gun Rights Activists, Fears About Survival Reign
Sapiens
by Emily Sekine
1M ago
An anthropologist delves into what the rising ranks of local firearm-touting militias in Virginia reveal about intensifying political polarization in the U.S.—and what these shifts might mean for the 2024 presidential election. ✽ Last year, the U.S. witnessed more than 650 mass shootings. Racially motivated acts of vigilante justice and hate crimes are on the rise. Since October 2023, reports of anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim attacks have increased in major U.S. cities, in part provoked by the Israel-Hamas war. Armed protests and other acts of political violence are also escalating, as epitomized ..read more
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