Topic description and stories

Derge iron water bottle.

Where to find a dragon in Cambridge

24 Jun 2015

The Cambridge Animal Alphabet series celebrates Cambridge's connections with animals through literature, art, science and society. Here, D is for...

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A shaman, shamaness and Achinsk Lama with helpers, June 1912. Right: A young boy with his sister, July/August 1912.

Life in the snow forests: 100-year-old photographs reunited with communities

20 Jun 2015

Indigenous people from the snow forests of Inner Mongolia and Siberia have been reunited with century-old photographs of their family and communities...

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Lightsaber lessons

Return of the new gods: Jedis, auras and online witch schools

24 Oct 2014

Research by a digital anthropologist is looking at how new religious movements are harnessing online platforms. These ‘invented religions’ take...

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The Tibetan lama who wrote a world geography

14 Jun 2014

A study by Tibetan scholar Lobsang Yongdan revisits a long-ignored section of a historic text to reveal how Tibetans were engaging with western...

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Skulls in print: scientific racism in the transatlantic world

19 Mar 2014

A PhD student’s research at Cambridge’s Department of History and Philosophy of Science has revealed how racist ideas and images circulated between...

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Drawer of ammonoids from the Woodwardian collection, the founding collection of the Sedgwick Museum, dating to the late 17th and early 18th century

We ask the experts: why do we put things into museums?

26 Nov 2013

Our lives are bound up with objects. Museums are evidence of our deep preoccupation with the things that surround us, whether natural or the product...

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Steel Dust: Young and Old

We ask the experts: does society really care about the old and the vulnerable?

28 Oct 2013

On November 1 Melvyn Bragg will talk about his book Grace and Mary at the Festival of Ideas. The novel is based on Bragg’s own bitter-sweet...

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Shooting in the field: capturing life as it’s lived

14 Aug 2013

A student photography competition showcases some of the stunning visuals that result from modern Social Anthropology research

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Reporting from Zimbabwe: a family in Bulawayo talks about politics

10 Aug 2013

Last week’s Zimbabwean elections saw Robert Mugabe return for a seventh presidential term. Anthropology student Rowan Jones reports on the views of...

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Loving beggars: how to avoid the trap of stereotyping

08 Aug 2013

While his peers studied global banking systems, PhD candidate Johannes Lenhard became fascinated by the economics of life on the street. Speaking to...

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Plastic hair comb, 21st century, bought in Nigeria

Origins of the Afro Comb: 6,000 years of culture, politics and identity

02 Jul 2013

The 6,000-year history of the Afro Comb, its extraordinary impact on cultures worldwide, and community stories relating to hair today are being...

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Human-shaped figures and pendants of whale ivory strung on fine plaited coir cords. Probably presented to Lady Gordon, 1875-80, Fiji.

First major UK exhibition of Fijian art opens at Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

07 Jun 2013

The most historically significant collection of Fijian objects in the world outside of Fiji will go on display from today (June 7) at Cambridge...

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