Should Museums Display Shrunken Heads?
Tsantsas, or shrunken human heads, remind us of how museums have often been founded on a violent trade in indigenous culture.
I Could Spend All Day Looking at the Covers of These LGBTQ Publications
A treasure trove of queer publications from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s are now available through Reveal Digital’s open access collection "Independent Voices."
Brazil’s Maroon State
For nearly a century, Quilombo of Palmares was an Afro-Brazilian state, populated and run by people who had freed themselves from slavery.
African-American GIs and German Radicals: An Unexpected Alliance
In December 1969, radical German students reached out to the increasingly politicized black GIs. Together, they organized a series of rallies and teach-ins at German universities.
The Downfall of the American Cowboy
As the need for ranch workers has dwindled, the iconic status of cowboys has continued to grow.
The Amoral Scientist
Fritz Haber was a chemist who made discoveries that improved global agriculture… but also helped spawn the modern era of chemical warfare.
The Trouble with Absinthe
When temperance advocates won the ban on absinthe in 1915, many of them saw it as the first step in a broader anti-drinking campaign.
Anthropologists Hid African Same-Sex Relationships
Sex between people of the same gender has existed for millennia. But anthropologists in sub-Saharan Africa often ignored or distorted those relationships.
The Origins of Women’s Soccer
The British Ladies Football Club held their first match at Alexandra Park in Crouch End, London in 1895.
The Movable Tent Cities of the Ottoman Empire
The most lavish among them were festooned with colorful appliqué and brightened with gilded leather.