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Culture

Essays and videos on the arts, literature, travel, rituals and celebrations
Nalujuk Night | Aeon
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video

Rituals and celebrations

Beware the Nalujuit! A rare glimpse into a chilling Labrador Inuit tradition

13 minutes

Wanderlust of the ancients | Aeon
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essay

The ancient world

Wanderlust of the ancients

The Roman Empire enabled an early version of globalisation that offered travellers adventure, novelty and opportunity

Fabio Fernandes

Bird of prey | Aeon
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video

Biology

Journey deep into the Philippine forest in search of the world’s largest, rarest eagle

95 minutes

Our trip to Antioch | Aeon
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essay

The ancient world

Our trip to Antioch

Ancient Romans bought mementos to commemorate their travels. These speak eloquently of their world, if we care to listen

Maggie Popkin

Stray in Kars | Aeon
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video

Animals and humans

What the ancient city of Kars looks like from the perspective of its stray dogs

9 minutes

Dashing to nowhere | Aeon
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essay

Travel

Dashing to nowhere

D H Lawrence’s restless travels in Sardinia were a quest for self-knowledge. The real island slipped beneath his notice

William Atkins

The Bombay highway code | Aeon
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video

Travel

A postcard from Mumbai, where there’s poetry in getting from A to B

5 minutes

The end of travel | Aeon
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essay

Travel

The end of travel

Driven by the need for a storied life, I relished the opportunity for endless travel. Is that a moment in time, now over?

Henry Wismayer

Caribbean honeymoon No 1 | Aeon
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video

Travel

‘My people!’ A Trinidadian’s love letter to his island, just before its 1962 independence

17 minutes

Where the rivers meet | Aeon
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essay

Spirituality

Where the rivers meet

Pilgrims have long sought in India’s holiest city an antidote to the modern West, but Varanasi is more dream than reality

Manini Sheker

Thai country living | Aeon
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video

Home

The rhythms of rural Thailand, where both food and music are sourced from the ground

15 minutes

Fishcakes and cocaine | Aeon
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video

Home

Eccentrics, artists and Luddites find community on a remote Scottish peninsula

26 minutes

Maria’s way | Aeon
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video

Meaning and the good life

Maria’s life work is counting the pilgrims passing by on Spain’s Camino de Santiago

16 minutes

Fukuzawa Yukichi in Europe | Aeon
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video

Global history

‘Farcical situations’ and culture clashes – when Japan met modern Europe in 1862

18 minutes

Fly with me | Aeon
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essay

Travel

Fly with me

Jet-age glamour was more than just aesthetic: its promise of motionless movement reshaped perception of time and space

Vanessa R Schwartz

All inclusive | Aeon
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video

Pleasure and pain

The ritualised excess of life aboard a cruise ship is tragic and parodic by turns

10 minutes

Who was Jack Tar? | Aeon
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essay

Oceans and water

Who was Jack Tar?

He was a patriot and a prisoner, a delegate and a drunk; circling the globe when few Englishmen ever left their home counties

Stephen Taylor

We are wayfinders | Aeon
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essay

Anthropology

We are wayfinders

Navigation and spatial awareness sustained humans for tens of thousands of years. Have we lost the trail in modern times?

Michael Bond

Kitezh-Vladimirskoe | Aeon
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video

Travel

Postcards from Vladimirskoye – the sleepy town near the ‘Russian Atlantis’

9 minutes

Matkalla | Aeon
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video

Travel

‘It’s a journey into slowness’: on the road with a Model-T Ford through Europe in winter

11 minutes

Chunyun | Aeon
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video

Demography and migration

Chinese New Year is a stunning spectacle of human migration in 3 billion journeys

7 minutes

Ed Ruscha: Sunset Boulevard and other LA streets | Aeon
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video

Art

Ride shotgun through mid-century LA with Ed Ruscha’s photos and Jack Kerouac’s words

2 minutes

Auto | Aeon
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video

Film and visual culture

Strap in for a delightfully disorienting dance of humans going places

6 minutes

Daybreak express | Aeon
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video

Film and visual culture

D A Pennebaker transformed documentary filmmaking. This is his first film

5 minutes