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Cultural Anthropology
5mins
80% of the world was once polygamous. What happened?
Modern robotics are creating a kind of cultural paradox, where the best religion is the one that eventually involves no humans at all.
Brian C. Muraresku, New York Times best-selling author of "The Immortality Key," unpacks ancient evidence for the widespread ritual use of psychoactive plants.
Some would say AI is immortal and all-knowing — Godlike, even.
About 1 in 5 adults now say they have no religious affiliation, up from 1 in 50 in 1960.
5mins
Expert Michael Spitzer explains how culture can “tune” your musical taste.
Democratic freedom, rapturous religion, and newspapers created a hotbed for social experimentation in 19th-century America.
If tourism is the lifeblood of the Peruvian economy, then Machu Picchu is the heart pumping that blood — in sickness and in health.
Wealth concentration among elites was common in ancient nations, but the scale on which it took place in Egypt’s 18th Dynasty was unprecedented.
The amazing life of “Gudrid the Far-Traveled” was unjustly overshadowed by her in-laws, Erik the Red and Leif Erikson.
Seneca thought the use of ice was a "true fever of the most malignant kind."
We might be dining on insect-based Christmas pies with robot-harvested algae on the side.
Some of the weirdest characters in Greek mythology were Athenian kings.
We don’t know when or how music was originally invented, but we can now track its evolution across space and time thanks to the Global Jukebox.
8mins
He lived with a tribe of hunter-gatherers to witness how an ancient culture survives one of the most brutal climates on Earth. His learnings may surprise you.
Today’s scary clowns are not a divergence from tradition, but a return to it.
With almost every shovel of sand shifted in Egypt, another artifact comes to light.
More than any other nation, Japan tends to feel comfortable with the idea of humanoid robots entering the home.
Instead of worshipping Yahweh, the devotees were perhaps dedicated to Mars and Jupiter.
Between 30% and 50% of the US population says they believe in ghosts.
More than 1,000 years ago, Mesoamerican societies conducted one of history's most interesting experiments in commodity money.
Million Stories
From politics to culture, we blame “tribalism” for humanity’s problems. This explanation is entirely wrong.
John Templeton Foundation
How drugs, demons, and the search for immortality gave us words we use everyday.
There are nearly 100 towns named "Troy."
Mesopotamian beer was not flavored with hops, and it was probably on the thick, porridgey side.
Thanks to genetics and improving nutrition, denizens of the Western Balkans have surpassed the Dutch in height.
Long before Christopher and Magellan, ancient explorers voyaged into the unknown and brought home extraordinary tales.
8mins
The history of music from bone flutes to Beyoncé.
4mins
From superstition to religion, we are surrounded by supernatural thinking. Is that a bad thing?
John Templeton Foundation