All posts tagged: anthropology

What Memorial Day once meant for us

What Memorial Day once meant for us

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — I’ll rise this Memorial Day to remember W. Lloyd Warner, the distinguished anthropologist who gave us the single best account of how civil religion in America works — or rather, how it worked once upon a time. “An American Sacred Ceremony,” a chapter in Warner’s 1953 book, “American Life: Dream and Reality,” focuses on the celebration of Memorial Day in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in the wake of World War II. Memorial Day originated in the North after the Civil War to show respect for the fallen Union soldiers, but by the middle of the 20th century it had become a commemoration of all who had died for the country. Warner, without using the term “civil religion,” calls it a “cult of the dead which organizes and integrates the various faiths and national and class groups into a sacred unity.” In “Yankee City” (as he identified Newburyport), preparations would begin several weeks before Memorial Day itself with various participating civic and religious organizations holding meetings and sending messages to the local newspaper announcing their activities …

Red meat once helped human evolution but now carries serious risks

Red meat once helped human evolution but now carries serious risks

Published by Jenni Sidey

Red meat has long occupied a near-mythic place in the story of human evolution. It is often cast as the food that helped make us human, feeding bigger brains, stronger bodies, and more complex societies. But a sweeping new review in The Quarterly Review of Biology argues that the story no longer ends there. The same food source that may once have helped early humans survive is now tied to chronic disease, environmental damage, and a global food system whose scale looks nothing like anything in the human past. In the review, Juston Jaco, Kalyan Banda, Ajit Varki, and Pascal Gagneux from the University of California, San Diego pull together evidence from archaeology, anthropology, nutrition, epidemiology, and molecular biology. Their conclusion is not that meat was a mistake. It is that modern red meat consumption has drifted far from its original biological and ecological setting. “The nature, scale, and context of red meat consumption today differ drastically from those of our evolutionary past,” the authors write. As Homo sapiens increasingly relied on animal-derived foods—whether hunted …

Imagination research bridges anthropology with future societal challenges

Imagination research bridges anthropology with future societal challenges

Published by skeptic

Imagination research in anthropology examines how culturally grounded stories, routines, and collective aspirations shape what communities see as possible—and worth fighting for—amid climate disruption, political upheaval, and other future-defining crises Imagination research uses ethnographic fieldwork, participatory methods, and memory work to connect past experience to present desires and future planning. Researchers track how narratives shift over time while addressing ethical risks such as misrepresentation and extractive storytelling. What is imagination research in anthropology? Imagination, as a lens, names an anthropological approach that examines how cultural narratives and collective aspirations shape understandings of the future and catalyse social change within specific communities. Imagination research in anthropology extends conventional fieldwork by tracing how people connect past experiences to emerging societal challenges, including ecological crises and political upheavals. It attends to creativity and speculative thinking as socially organised capacities, not merely individual fantasy, and examines how visions of possible futures are produced, contested, and enacted. Using ethnographic methods, anthropologists gather ethnographic insights into local stories, rituals, and everyday decision-making, situating future-oriented projects within historical and cultural frameworks. This …

People Who Believe These 5 Myths About Monogamy Sadly Often End Up In Unhappy Relationships

People Who Believe These 5 Myths About Monogamy Sadly Often End Up In Unhappy Relationships

Published by Jenni Sidey

According to anthropologists, when humans don’t understand how something works, we create myths to explain them. Some of the myths that have developed around love, like the concepts of soul mates and twin flames and they are quaint and hopeful. Others, like myths about monogamy and commitment feel hopelessly trapped in the past and can contribute to people’s unhappiness in relationships.  Kinsey Institute researcher, Justin R. Garcia, Ph.D. is a biological anthropologist who is particularly interested in myths surrounding monogamy. His latest book, The Intimate Animal, explores the science behind why we live for love. On a recent episode of Getting Open, Dr. Garcia explained how we can use clinical research to learn how to spend more time in the “ups” and less in the “downs” of our romantic relationships. This was his real goal as an evolutionary biologist: to help people have happier relationships by letting go of old relationship rules that don’t work for today’s couples.  Truth: Scientists define two different types, social monogamy and sexual monogamy. Intimacy is a biological drive as …