culture
How much do citizens really value free elections?
The tonal Native American language differentiates words based on pitch and makes Spanish conjugation look like child’s play.
Pugs are funny and cute, but that is because we have bred them intentionally to have debilitating genetic mutations. Is that ethical?
You've certainly seen the paintings — but they don't depict what you think they do. Benjamin Moser discusses with Big Think.
A single knife is sometimes worth more than a thousand armies.
Exile is a kind of death of who you once were.
To see a true cross-section of American society, head to Applebee's, Buffalo Wild Wings, IHOP, Chili’s, and Olive Garden.
After my father died, my journey of rediscovery began with the Czech language.
In a remarkably similar way, conspiracy theories around the world cast doubt on the existence of real places.
Various environmental phenomena can play tricks on our brain.
Thanks to protocols established centuries ago in Europe, world leaders no longer need to worry about having their heads bashed with an axe.
The clash of academic archaeology and what might be called folk archaeology comes into stark focus at Stonehenge.
"Precarious manhood" is the belief that manhood must be earned and constantly defended. It has a poor outcome.
Scientists don't understand why the correlation exists.
The history of hell doesn't begin with the Old Testament. Instead, hell took shape in the 2nd century from Mediterranean cultural exchange.
"Time Warp" all the way back to 1800s spiritualism, magic performances, and spook shows.
Tikal, one of the biggest cities the Maya ever built, was home to a vast and flourishing society.
Using peach and eggplant emojis as shorthand for sex may seem like a new thing, but Renaissance artists were experts at using produce to imply intercourse.
Discover how the threads of myth, legend, and artistry have been woven together by storytellers to craft history.
Serving as the inspiration for the modern horror classic “The Blair Witch Project,” what does our fascination with this unsolvable mystery tell us about our modern psyche?
Once at the pinnacle of Amsterdam’s art scene, Rembrandt van Rijn eventually found himself outcompeted by his own students.
He is only out-sold by William Shakespeare and Lao Tzu.
Rejecting romanticism, these famous paintings depict war as it really is: sadistic and senseless.
China has always been one of the world’s wealthiest nations, but Chinese wealth looks different across the country’s eventful history.
The answer may lie in the power to see far, far beyond yourself.
The toilet “is a portal to a mysterious otherworld.”
In war zones, aggressors steal art to eradicate the cultural heritage of others. Victims, meanwhile, sell stolen art in order to survive.
The Pan-American Highway began a century ago with a vision of unfettered motor-vehicle access between Alaska and Tierra del Fuego. What happened to the dream?
In ancient Rome, collective bathing was the norm. In the West today, it’s the exception — and that’s too bad.