Cultural Practices

Cultural Practices

a pile of uncooked macaroni shells on a white surface.
His plan to replace it with homegrown rice did not go well.
a bottle of beer next to a toilet paper roll.
Beer's flavor begins to change as soon as it is packaged. Are cans or bottles better at preserving flavor?
a black and white photo of an animal skull.
Researchers discovered something modern humans had never before seen—a flashy Neanderthal horn collection.
Archaeologists turn to other scientific fields to fill in the picture of how victims lived and why they died.
The strange bronze artifact perplexed scholars for more than a century, including how it traveled so far from home.
If you get married in South Africa, don't be surprised if someone shows up to the ceremony dragging along a smelly goat.
A map of "I love you" in various European languages
How to say “I love you” in Basque, the "most loving" cities around the world, and where most of America’s singles live — and so much more!
Hand-drawn treasure map, complete with a red X that "marks the spot."
X marks the spot. The Dutch town of Ommeren has been swamped by detectorists armed with shovels looking for $20-million treasure.
Mauna Kea with Gemini North
A history of injustice and the greatest natural location for ground-based telescopes have long been at odds. Here's how the healing begins.
europe digital divide
Some Europeans really don't want to use the internet.
love
A new study of global love finds that Americans have some of the most loving relationships, while Chinese and Germans have some of the least.
Pederasty
In many city-states, it was perfectly acceptable for older men to have sexual relationships with young boys.
Hinduism emphasizes the journey, whichever path that takes. And it holds us responsible for our own self-improvement.
If comedies do get made today, they usually bypass the big screen and go straight to streaming platforms.
The Athenian rich paid their taxes because they craved the social success of being perceived as "useful."
Illustration of Earth with labeled axes, equator, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, and magnetic and geographic poles. Orange lines indicate Earth's tilt and rotation.
4mins
Why do so many cultures celebrate holidays at the same time of year?
John Templeton Foundation
We might be dining on insect-based Christmas pies with robot-harvested algae on the side.
"The Da Vinci Code" popularized the idea that Christians stole much of their theology. It's wrong, especially regarding Christmas.
Use words with plosives and affricates if you really want to make sure everyone knows you mean business.
Zen masters often have strikingly different ideas about how to live and attain enlightenment.
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.
Bilingualism confers various mental health and social benefits. Perhaps knowing a second alphabet confers even more.
Mahāyāna is the most popular type of Buddhism in the world today.
Its apples taste bad, but institutions all over the world want a descendant or clone of the tree, anyway.
You can buy over 400,000 products tagged “witch” on Etsy, from candles to spell bottles to pentagram necklaces.