Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania

Childhoods herding livestock

Across much of Africa, childhood unfolds in ways that differ greatly from what is common in Western urban societies. From an early age, many children take on responsibilities related to caring for livestock—a task that goes far beyond simply feeding animals.

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Kyrgyzstan

Kok-Boru, the nomadic sport

Kok-boru is one of the most representative traditional sports of Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia as a whole. It is an equestrian competition in which two teams of riders compete to gain possession of a freshly slaughtered goat carcass and carry it into a scoring area.

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Angola, Brazil, Sudan

Rites of passage: Thresholds of transformation

During our ethnographic trips around the world we have observed how all human societies have rituals related to coming-of-age in both evident and subtle ways.

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South Sudan

Body modification: projected identities, beliefs and belonging

Tattoos, piercings, scarification, and other permanent body modification reveal one of the oldest and most universal forms of nonverbal communication.

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Brazil

The Kayapo: the people of the place of water

The Kayapo people live in villages scattered across the upper basin of several tributaries of the Xingu River in central Brazil.

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Siberia

The nenets: the last siberian nomads

The Nenets reindeer herders, one of the Siberian nomadic groups that best preserved their culture and way of life throughout the Soviet period, move their herds across the Yamal Peninsula, near the Ural Mountains.

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