Cameron Allan McKean
Editor, Aeon+Psyche
Cameron is a writer, editor and underwater anthropologist in Melbourne, Australia. After a decade in Tokyo working as an arts journalist, he began doctoral studies at Deakin University involving fieldwork with scientists and divers at coral reefs in the Pacific Ocean. Cameron is a former books and culture editor for The Japan Times, and a past contributor to CNN, ArtAsiaPacific, Dwell, Apartamento, and art-agenda.
Edited by Cameron Allan McKean
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Rituals and celebrations
A life in Zen
Growing up in countercultural California, ‘enlightenment’ had real glamour. But decades of practice have changed my mind
Anshi Zachary Smith
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Anthropology
Spider divination
Life is complicated. In Cameroon, initiated diviners read the messages of spiders to untangle possible futures
David Zeitlyn
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The environment
Beyond food and people
Nietzsche shows us how to embrace our connection with nature – without denying its essential conflict, strife and suffering
Nicholas E Low
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Language and linguistics
The grammar of a god-ocean
To truly explore alien languages, linguists must open themselves to the maximum conceivable degree of cosmic otherness
Eli K P William
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The future
Homo crustaceous
‘Everything becomes crab’ is more than an absurd meme. The crab is a deep symbol of our devil’s bargain with technology
Michael Garfield
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Animals and humans
Animals taught us culture
Prehistoric humans didn’t create art and architecture out of nothing. They took inspiration from the nonhuman world
Sarah Newman
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Archaeology
Deep time and the revenant
In enigmatic burials, crafted to bind the bodies within, we can see how truly ancient our fears of the undead must be
Rebecca Batley
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Art
Out of the fog
It’s a ‘failed painting’ that obscures the profound power of German Romanticism. Why do we love the ‘Wanderer’ so much?
Gianluca Didino
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Global history
Vikings on the Silk Roads
The Norse ravaged much of Europe for centuries. They were also cosmopolitan explorers who followed trade winds into the Far East
Neil Price
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Computing and artificial intelligence
Chatbots of the dead
We can now create compelling experiences of talking with our dead. Is this ghoulish, therapeutic or something else again?
Amy Kurzweil & Daniel Story
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Global history
There are no pure cultures
All of our religions, stories, languages and norms were muddled and mixed through mobility and exchange throughout history
Inanna Hamati-Ataya
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Stories and literature
Laboratories of the impossible
By testing the boundaries of reality, Spanish-language authors have created a sublime counterpart to experimental physics
Joshua Roebke