Better job prospects and richer lives are among the many reasons to learn a foreign language. Half of the world population is bilingual, but only 25% of Americans can hold a conversation in another language. Changing that is one of the goals of language advocacy efforts, such as the Lead with Languages campaign. As the[…]
A linguist considers whether saving languages is sentimental or critical. I met the last speaker of Naati on an empty stretch of beach on Malekula, an island in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu. I had been hiking for hours along narrow paths through the hot, dense forest, wading across the occasional waist-high stream with[…]
An anthropologist works in American Samoa, taking advantage of the island’s longstanding tattoo culture to tease out the effects tattoos have on the body’s immune function. Introduction I lay on the mat of the open-air bungalow in Apia, Samoa, looking up at a gecko. As its tail quivered, I felt a sympathetic twitch in my[…]
Tattoo patterns and art on the face and body differed from one Polynesian island group to the next. By Kim MartinsHistorian Introduction Te Papa Tongawera (or simply Te Papa) is New Zealand’s innovative national museum situated near the foreshore of beautiful Wellington harbour. Te Papa Tongawera means “container of treasures” in Te Reo Maori, which is the indigenous language[…]
The history of slave rebels and resistance in the Caribbean is a rich and complicated story. Marissa: On August 30, 1789, hundreds of enslaved people gathered along the waterfront in St. Pierre, Martinique. They had just received news that the King of France had abolished slavery but their masters denied that any declaration took place.[…]
It was justified by reference to historical myths that nobles and servile peasants were separated by courage and cowardice. Introduction The Uprising of the Catalan servile peasants (remences) between 1462 and 1486 was unusual in the history of European insurrections. Waged by a surprisingly well-armed force of peasants who played an important military role as[…]
A few people have had the luxury of enjoying representative governments in human history. Most of the dictators may have fallen short of the likes of Stalin or Hitler in regard to the cruelty to the people, however, history is rife with war criminals, oppressors, morally complacent individuals, and sociopaths who were elected as government[…]