PopAnth | Hot Buttered Humanity | Popular Anthropology

Popular anthropology for everyone. Exploring the familiar and the strange, demystifying and myth busting human culture, biology and behaviour in all times and places. Myths, music, art, archaeology, language, food, festivals, fun.

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- Urban Porto, Portugal - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Silence in Port au Prince, Haiti - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Relief text in La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Marx and Lenin in Saigon - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Market in Port au Prince, Haiti - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Market in Pedernales, Dominican Republic - Copyright © Gawain Lynch
- Love potions in Marche en Fer, Port-au-Prince, Haiti - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Graffiti in Portugal - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Graffiti in Barcelona, Spain - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Fuck the System in Portugal - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Election campaign in Pedernales, Dominican Republic - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Drying Fish in Anse-à-Pitres, Haiti - Copyright © Gawain Lynch
- Camp in Port-au-Prince, Haiti - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Beach in Pedernales, Dominican Republic - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Street art in Petionville, Port-au-Prince, Haiti - Copyright © Erin B. Taylor
- Xochimilco, Mexico - Copyright © Lance Richardson
- Tsavo, Kenya - Copyright © Lance Richardson
- Rodeo in Chinchilla, Queensland - Copyright © Lance Richardson
- Real de Catorce, Mexico - Copyright © Lance Richardson
- Mexico City Distrito Federal, Mexico - Copyright © Lance Richardson
- Masai Mara, Kenya - Copyright © Lance Richardson
- Ibra Souq, Oman - Copyright © Lance Richardson
- Hmong children in the mountains of North Vietnam - Copyright © Lance Richardson
- Clyde Park, Montana, USA - Copyright © Lance Richardson
- Bullfight in Oman - Copyright © Lance Richardson
- Bac Ha Market, Vietnam - Copyright © Lance Richardson

One ring to rule them all? By 1791Rings (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.

An anthropologist’s guide to choosing an engagement ring

by Erin B Taylor

You might be surprised to realise how much your engagement ring actually conveys: it’s far more than a signal of love and a promise to get married sometime down the track.

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James Bond playing James Bond? Skyfall reflects upon its own past.

An archaeology of Skyfall

by Dawid Kobialka

The ancient world left us mummies and pottery. Are James Bond films part of the cultural legacy we leave for future generations?

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Debt: The First 5,000 Years, by David Graeber

by Erin B Taylor

Do we really have a moral obligation to pay our debts? According to anthropologist David Graeber, the answer to this question is a resounding ‘no.’

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Thinking in radioactive time

by Luke Bennett

A problem with designing nuclear waste repositories is that they are meant to last for up to 100,000 years – far longer than we can imagine. Do our efforts to conceptualize “deep time” find us out of our depths?

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Kimigayo, the national anthem of Japan. By Sakurambo, CC-BY-SA-3.0.

The curious history of Western martial music in Japan

by John McCreery

Japan is known for its distinctive culture, but its national anthem and many other popular songs have roots in Europe. How did music make its way to Japan – and stick?

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“Oota aitha?” Eating culture in South India

by Gillian Bowan

Had your lunch? Why eating is such a serious matter in Bangalore – and how you can learn to navigate India through food.

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Graffiti Art at Dinorwig Slate Quarry by Jack Murray (Used with kind permission)

No rock art here!

by Luke Bennett

Rock paintings: high art or 30,000-year-old graffiti? In a defunct rock quarry, climbers vie with spraycan-wielding artists for the right to public expression.

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A Nganga in the Cuban province of Cienfuegos, 2007. Photo by Ana Stela Almeida Cunha

Unmaking spirits? A case of witchcraft in Cuba

by Diana Espírito Santo

Where does your body end and the rest of the world begin? An encounter with witchcraft in Cuba.

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Monument 6, the element of Tortuguero most commonly associated with belief in a 2012 apocalypse. Photo by Alfredo Sanchez, reproduced by Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons license.

Waiting for the end of the world… as we know it

by Donnelley Hayde

Is surviving the apocalypse a matter of consumer choice? Why companies like Vivos are making a killing out of luxury bunkers and survivalist reality TV.

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