“You can’t say anything anymore! You can’t even make jokes!” There’s a constant complaint from people in positions of power, mostly men, who keep making the...

Though I’ve been familiar with the terms for years, I wasn’t sure of the exact differences between a pidgin and a creole. So: A creole is the combination...

Maciej is (1) a friend (2) very funny and (3) in agreement with my beliefs, so I couldn’t resist linking to Dabblers and Blowhards , his new essay. But the...

Now that we’re in the last few months of the Era of Pop-Ups on the web, I’m kind of curious what the annoying ad format means. I think pop-ups are distinct fro...

The History of Eating Utensils . Dig in....

RCB has written an illuminating essay on polygyny , it’s a terrific read. She had given me a briefer version of these thoughts this weekend, but seeing the br...

The National Anthropological Archives website offers a wide range of fascinating information, with exhibits favoring research on the indigenous peoples of No...

The Ainu people , the aboriginal inhabitants of Japan, have fewer than 100 surviving full-blooded members. There’s something terribly heartbreaking just thi...

I really must be a product of my culture, this is the goverment homepage of the state my parents are from. Absentmindedness as a tribute to one’s heritage…?...

At long last, the mystery is solved ! The incredibly complicated layout of street numbers and addresses in Queens apparently does follow a pattern. This a...