Bundling: An Old Tradition on New Ground
Common in colonial New England, bundling allowed a suitor to spend a night in bed with his sweetheart—while her parents slept in the next room.
What Does It Take to Be Crowned Miss Vietnam USA?
Beauty pageants, a familiar part of post-war diasporic Vietnamese culture, help participants and viewers forge new identities amid forces of globalization.
Digital Ethnography: An Introduction to Theory and Practice
The rise of the internet age and digital spaces has created a whole new world for ethnographic investigation.
An Explosive Easter Celebration
The Orthodox Easter tradition of throwing dynamite on the island of Kalymnos echoes the Greek resistance to the Italian occupation of the 1940s.
Marshall Islands Wave Charts
Charts constructed of carefully bound sticks served as memory aids, allowing sailors of the Marshall Islands to navigate between the islands by feel.
Return to Pirate Island
The history of piracy illustrates a surprising connection to democratic Utopian radicalism—and, of course, stolen treasure.
The Ethical Life of Euphemisms
Euphemisms can hide facts that need to be confronted. How do they work from a linguist's point of view?
Will AI Restore Our Sense of Wonder?
According to philosopher Max Weber, science led to humanity's disenchantment. But reaching AI Singularity might spark our sense of wonder all over again.
What’s Causing the Rise of Hoarding Disorder?
Now that the DSM lists severe hoarding as a disorder apart from OCD, psychologists are asking what explains its prevalence.
Why Are Video Games so Great?
An anthropologist investigating one group of committed gamers found people attracted not to realism, but to deeply engaging cooperative projects.