Culture
essay
Anthropology
How to mourn a forest
The Marind people of West Papua deploy mourning not only to grieve their animal and plant kin but as political resistance
Sophie Chao
essay
History of ideas
Disorient yourself
Now associated with childhood fun, the swing has a near-universal history of ritual transgression and transformation
Javier Moscoso
video
Rituals and celebrations
Beware the Nalujuit! A rare glimpse into a chilling Labrador Inuit tradition
13 minutes
video
Politics and government
‘Without a poster, you don’t exist!’ – on the curious political banners of Mumbai
20 minutes
video
Sports and games
The brutality and beauty of the West African martial art of ‘dambe’
15 minutes
essay
Archaeology
The pharaoh’s trumpet
The truly wondrous treasures of Tutankhamun’s tomb are not made of gold. They are the mundane things of everyday life
Toby Wilkinson
essay
Anthropology
Keeping the score
The gifts we exchange are both generous and yet fraught with social rules and obligations. Marcel Mauss explained why
Gili Kliger
video
Food and drink
From set-up to close, a day at the farmers market is a whirlwind sensory feast
10 minutes
video
Sports and games
Bodies, bikes and groovy music propel this stylish classic film from 1965
17 minutes
video
Rituals and celebrations
From roaring fire and molten glass an artist creates a healing ritual
13 minutes
essay
Religion
The meaning of Purgatory
Think less of a holding pen for Heaven and more as a flow of love from the living, and the weirdness starts making sense
Magnus Course
video
Rituals and celebrations
In a Mongolian wind burial, a body falls on land before getting swept up to the heavens
6 minutes
video
Dance and theatre
Absorb the infectious rhythms of Setapa – a joyous dance from southern Africa
7 minutes
video
Gender
The nearly forgotten origin myth of Hawaii’s third-gender healers, as told by one
9 minutes
essay
Death
Is grandad on the moon?
We no longer have a clear sense of how to introduce our children to death. But their questions can help us face up to it
Pragya Agarwal
video
Rituals and celebrations
Dissolve into the immersive, entrancing rhythms of a Sufi chant
17 minutes
essay
Dance and theatre
Phantasia
Imagination is a powerful tool, a sixth sense, a weapon. We must be careful how we use it, in life as on stage or screen
Paul Giamatti & Stephen T Asma
essay
Neuroscience
Myth and the mind
Saturated with rites and symbols, psychology feeds a deep human need once nourished by mythology
Rami Gabriel
essay
Anthropology
Longhouse lockdown
On a regular cycle, the Nias islanders of Indonesia would retreat into enforced seclusion. What can we learn from them?
Andrew Beatty
video
Meaning and the good life
Maria’s life work is counting the pilgrims passing by on Spain’s Camino de Santiago
16 minutes
essay
Rituals and celebrations
Broomstick weddings
From Kentucky to Wales and all across the Atlantic, the enslaved and downtrodden got married – by leaping over a broom. Why?
Tyler D Parry
video
Anthropology
The uncanny allure of the annual Cajun crawfish festival in Louisiana
10 minutes
video
The ancient world
Haunting dispatches from the edge of the Roman Empire, just before its collapse
15 minutes
video
Rituals and celebrations
How a village’s first totem pole ceremony in a century sparked a spiritual awakening
16 minutes