JSTOR Daily celebrates Black History Month

Celebrating Black History Month

JSTOR Daily editors pick their favorite stories for Black History Month.
Asahi Beer poster with a young woman of Dai Nippon Brewery. From the Taisho period, circa 1920s.

How Beer Came to Asia

Reactions to the introduced brew ranged from Japanese efforts to imitate German beers to a reluctance to imbibe among Muslims and Hindus in India.
A 19th century madstone

Dubious Medicine on the Texas Frontier

If you got sick in the Texas frontier area in the decades before the Civil War, your options were all pretty bad.
Punctuation Personified: or, Pointing Made Easy (London: John Harris, 1824).

What Is Punctuation For?

Between the medieval and modern world, the marks used to make writing more legible changed from “pointing” to punctuation.
An illustration of a sick horse in a barn, 1872

Civilization Without Horses: The Epizootic of 1872

We’re all now too familiar with the words “pandemic” and “epidemic,” but how about “epizootic”?
The dream of Zulaykha, from the Amber Album, c. 1670

Dreams in Islam

Even before the founding of Islam, Arabia was home to professional dream interpreters.
Paul Borduas

The “Refus Global”

Published in 1948 by the artist group Les Automatistes, the Refus Global manifesto challenged Québécois political, religious, and social traditions.
West Sumatra in Indonesia

The Complicated Gender of Sumatran Tombois

Indonesian tombois are understood as men in many public contexts, but their families of origin often treat them as female in some respects and male in others.
A tricolor India flag flies on top of a vehicle on the backdrop of the Jama Masjid mosque on August 15, 2022 in New Delhi, India.

The Unique History of the Meo Tribes of Mewat

The Meos are singled out as cow slaughterers by vigilantes, but their heritage combines Hindu cultural practices—including raising cattle—with the Islamic faith.
The first page of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution

The Fourteenth Amendment: Annotated

Adopted in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution addresses citizenship rights, due process, and equal protection under the law.