While the sequencing of the human genome was a landmark achievement, the availability and manipulation of such a vast amount of data about our species has inevitably led to questions that are increasingly fundamental and urgent: now that information...

In February 2016, a multidisciplinary team of geologists, biologists, social scientists, and local residents explored the rivers, forests, and human communities of a remote area in northern Amazonian Peru, along the Putumayo, Algodon, and Mutun river...

One of the towering classics of twentieth century French literature, "Phantom Africa" is a singular and ultimately unclassifiable work: a book composed of one man's compulsive and constantly mutating daily travel journal – by turns melodramatic, self...

Who owns the past and the objects that physically connect us to history? And who has the right to decide this ownership, particularly when the objects are sacred or, in the case of skeletal remains, human? Is it the museums that care for the objects...

For sale in CIS only! Bruno Gutmann (1876-1966) was a German Lutheran missionary. In 1902 he went to Chaggaland on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Deutsch-Ostafrika (now Tanzania) and stayed with brief interruptions for 36 years. Owing to his "inte...

Self-harm is thought by many to be a modern epidemic: a phenomenon of the late twentieth century, a symptom of extreme emotional turmoil in young people, particularly young women. Yet it was 150 years ago, within early asylum psychiatry, that self-mu...

In this book, Nina Sylvanus tells a captivating story of global trade and cross-cultural aesthetics in West Africa, showing how a group of Togolese women – through the making and circulation of wax cloth – became influential agents of taste and histo...

Arising triumphantly from the ashes of its predecessor, the phoenix has been an enduring symbol of resilience and renewal for thousands of years. But how did this mythical bird become so famous that it has played a part in cultures around the world a...

When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, the world reacted with shock on seeing residents of this distinctive city left abandoned to the floodwaters. After the last rescue was completed, a new worry arose – that New Orleans's unique historic fabric...

The Cordillera Escalera mountain range on the Loreto-San Martin border in Amazonian Peru was barely known to scientists until the September 2013 expedition described in this report. Richly illustrated with twenty four color plates featuring more than...