Languages are windows into the worlds of the people who speak them – reflecting what they value and experience daily. In our recently-published study we took a broad approach towards understanding the ...

Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. That old cliché is a lie. It’s long been discredited, or at least ...

EVERYONE KNOWS the Eskimos have dozens, if not hundreds, of words for snow because of their intimate knowledge of their environment. Except that everyone cannot “know” this, because knowledge requires ...

James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...

FRANZ BOAS didn’t mean to spark a century-long argument. Travelling through the icy wastes of Baffin Island in northern Canada during the 1880s, the anthropologist simply wanted to study the life of ...