Photograph of an old newspaper page in pre-reform spelling, with an Observations section about fruit blessed in churches and given to the poor.

NB! · Faith · Mores · Ethnography

Apple Feast and the Russian tradition of giving fruit to the poor and the sick

On the Feast of the Apple Saviour we not only have the fruit blessed in church and prepare treats from apples, but also do charitable deeds. In keeping with old Russian tradition

Four women with choppers stand at a long trough of cabbage, with two children and an elderly man beside a basket of cabbage heads.

Archive · Ethnography

Chopping cabbage in Orenburg Governorate in the 1900s

Chopping the Cabbage. Orenburg Governorate, 1900s

The East · Art · Books · Mores · Ethnography

Iranian Women of the Qajar Era in Japanese Woodcuts from the Book by the Engineer and Topographer Naoyuki Furukawa, Describing Japan's First Diplomatic Contact with Iran in 1880 and 1881

Iranian women of the Qajar era in Japanese woodcuts from the book by the engineer and topographer Naoyuki Furukawa, describing Japan's first diplomatic contact with Iran in 1880 and 1881. The mission was carried out under the leadership of Yoshida Masaharu. Besides recounting the incidents of the journey,

Observations · Science · Ethnography · Humour

Misiak and Tureček build a model of cannibalism as an economic practice

A Polish-Czech team of scholars investigates the complexities of cannibalism. They are, of course, careful to stipulate that they are merely modelling, not conducting fieldwork. The aim is to explain why cannibalism never took hold as a regular strategy, and why a taboo arose in different cultures. Why, indeed?

Geography · Science · Nature · Ethnography

Climate and the Southern Jê shaped the spread of Araucaria forest in southern Brazil

In southern Brazil, on a high plateau in the coldest part of the country, an araucaria forest grows. The araucaria is a coniferous tree whose ancestors were alive in the days of the dinosaurs. The forest does not form a solid mass but is interspersed with grassy glades, onto which

Art · Monarchies · Ethnography

The legend of Queen Matilda's authorship and the origin of the Bayeux Tapestry

Queen Matilda Working on the Bayeux Tapestry, Alfred Guillard, 1848. The painting draws on the legend that attributes the making of the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the conquest of England, to Matilda, Duchess of Normandy and Queen of England, wife of William the Conqueror. Such romantic vignettes belong to the

Coming Up · London · Museums · Society · Ethnography

British Museum opens exhibition on Indigenous peoples and American independence

The British Museum has opened a most interesting exhibition on the USA. It is not, however, a parade of panegyrics for the 250th anniversary of the United States, but a reminder that many indigenous peoples were not at all delighted by American independence. Although the exhibition, Declaring Independence: USA 250,

Aristocracy · Monarchies · Mores · Ethnography

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon's little house with textiles made by her mother, the Countess of Strathmore

The Queen Mother's dolls' house from Glamis Castle in Scotland, the ancestral seat of the Earls of Strathmore, where Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the future wife of George VI and mother of Elizabeth II, spent her childhood. Inside the future Queen Mother's house there are two

Faith · Reportage · Ethnography

In Tutayev, more than two thousand people walked in a procession of the cross along the right bank of the Volga with an icon that takes thirty men to lift

In Tutayev, more than two thousand people walked in a procession of the cross along the right bank of the Volga with an icon that takes thirty men to lift. This is the “Saviour Most Merciful” from the Resurrection Cathedral: a half-length Pantocrator with an open Gospel in his

Archaeology · Science · Nature · Ethnography

The terms “invasive” and “non-native” carry fatal legal consequences for biological species

The terms “invasive” and “non-native” carry fatal legal consequences for biological species. These labels, in essence, open the way to measures up to and including the complete destruction of populations. In science this is called eradication. What mostly comes to mind are examples of the total eradication of species

Archaeology · Geography · Ethnography

Early medieval grave of a woman with a newborn and a horse, discovered in 2014

This is a gilded bronze earring from a tenth-century burial investigated by an expedition of the Academy of Sciences in the Sayan Mountains of southern Siberia. The grave, discovered as long ago as 2014 during preparations for the building of a railway, contained the remains of a woman, a

Archaeology · Science · Ethnography

A team of researchers at Yale University has established that the earliest populations of Near Oceania interbred with at least three distinct groups related to the Denisovans

A team of researchers at Yale University has established that the earliest populations of Near Oceania interbred with at least three distinct groups related to the Denisovans. The conclusion rests on an analysis of the genomes of 177 people from 12 populations in Papua New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and