Colombian taitas, 2001

The Diverse Shamanisms of South America

In Brazil, Indigenous people and city-dwellers of all backgrounds mix various shamanic practices, including rituals imported from North America and elsewhere.
The Westinghouse Time Capsule at the 1939 New York World's Fair

Time in a Box

Humans like to seal collections of ephemera in containers that they then hide in soon-to-be-forgotten places. Whither the time capsule?
Korean style assorted savory pancakes

K-cuisine in Malaysia: Are Locals Biting?

By neglecting local tastes and the culinary presence of Korean migrants, state-sponsored initiatives to globalize Korean food may fall short in Malaysia.
Illustration of a man catching a catfish with his arm.

Doing Some (Catfish) Noodling?

Remember to leave the hooks at home.
A Navajo Nation volunteer collects coal to distribute to Native Americans in need at a free wood collection site on December 17, 2021 in Tuba City, Arizona.

Renewable Energy and Settler Colonialism

What can we learn from colonial legacies in pursuit of sustainable futures?
Looking northwards in the Isle of Skye Scotland

Surprising Discovery Challenges Key Principle of Modern Cosmology

Observations of an enormous cosmic structure, dubbed the "Big Ring," seem to violate the Copernican principle.
María Telón and María Mercedes Coroy in Ixcanul

The Development of Central American Film

A new collection of essays examines the reasons behind the recent boom in feature and documentary film-making from Belize to Panama.
Maud Lewis

Remembering Maud Lewis

A symbol of resilience and resourcefulness, Lewis remains one of Canada’s best-loved and most-celebrated folk artists.
White rice

Rice, Famine, and the Seven Wonders of the World

Well-researched stories from Atlas Obscura, Yale Environment 360, and other great publications that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.
A General View of the Falls of Niagara by Alvan Fisher, 1820

The Fashionable Tour: or, The First American Tourist Guidebook

Offering advice for visiting Sarasota Springs and other sights, Gideon Davison combined the travel narrative and road book to create a new type of travel guide.