The nonprofit human service sector in the United States is much slower than the private sector in adopting new data technologies to track and improve services, evaluate outcomes, and communicate successes. While for‐profit companies sell data warehouses and analytic services to human service organizations, many organizations lack the resources or administrative commitment to develop data cultures and

Current Anthropology, Volume 66, Issue 3, Page 443-445, June 2025.

Current Anthropology, Volume 66, Issue 3, Page 440-441, June 2025.

Current Anthropology, Volume 66, Issue 3, Page 287-288, June 2025.

The question of which African hominin taxon/taxa was responsible for producing Oldowan stone tools has persisted for nearly a century. Homo habilis, Paranthropus boisei, Homo erectus, Australopithecus garhi, and Australopithecus africanus, among others, have been proposed as candidates, but we have never had a definitive answer to ‘who made the Oldowan’. We review the hominin taxa that overlap temporally

Grounded in the archaeology of persistence, decolonial perspectives, and technological approaches to ceramic manufacture, this study examines pottery-making as both a material expression of resilience and a site of ongoing identity negotiation. Integrating notions of intersubjectivity and intercorporeality, this paper explores the interrelation between technical processes, embodied knowledge, and territorial

This paper presents the results of a study that investigates the settlement history of Mongolia’s desert-steppe to understand the role of foragers in the evolution of pastoralism. The study examines land use, mobility, technological organization, and environmental context prior to, during, and after the transition to food production (Neolithic-Kitan Periods, ca. 6050 BCE-1150 CE) to detect differences

This article analyzes the data processes that render US agricultural landscapes knowable at scale as objects of anthropological inquiry. We focus our inquiry on the US Department of Agriculture's Cropland Data Layer (CDL), a widely used, moderate‐resolution raster data set classifying national agricultural land use annually. The CDL's crop categories are based upon—but depart significantly from—those

Sustainable natural resource use and management is widely proposed as the solution to our current planetary ecological crises. However, there are multiple pathways to sustainability: consume fewer resources or modify the environment to be more productive. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in 17th century New England provide an informative case study of the historical ecology of sustainable

North American archaeology is increasingly embracing the study of existing museum collections to fulfill longstanding ethical obligations to document curated materials and to avoid unnecessary excavation of archaeological sites. Working with collections from historic excavations in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, this article confronts some of the challenges of collections-based research and demonstrates

This paper is based on a theoretical perspective focused on the materiality of rock art: breaking away from the primacy of communication and representation in the archaeology of art, it proposes a set of concepts to approach the engagement of people with rock art via its techno-visual and performative qualities. These concepts are applied to a regional case study in Southern Mendoza (Central-West Argentina)

Ceramic molding is often addressed as a simple, repetitive, and standardized technique. Similarly, mold-making, though much less studied than molding itself, is frequently viewed as equally straightforward. Yet what specific gestures, techniques, and tools are involved in mold-making? Does internal technical variability exist behind apparent external standardization? What insights into ancient craft

Current Anthropology, Ahead of Print.

For a century, Copper Age Iberia (c. 3200-2200 BCE) has been seen as a grand laboratory for discussions of early social complexity. And yet, most theories were, from an empirical view point, infra-determined, as evidence was limited and restricted to a few sites. This situation has changed, as the availability of high-quality scientific data for a broader spectrum of sites now provides opportunities

Migration and diffusion are universal phenomena that fell out of favor in American archaeology during the processulist turn. David Anthony’s 1990 defense spurred renewed interest in migration as a structured behavior worthy of serious analysis; yet we continue to dismiss diffusion as a nonexplanatory cultural force that is both difficult to identify in the material record and overemphasizes the roles

This article investigates the unique economic practices of Slab City, California, an off‐grid community that rejects mainstream US values. Despite operating within the broader US economic system, Slab City residents have developed alternative forms of exchange, using cigarettes and cannabis alongside US dollars. The article examines the symbolic meanings associated with these alternative currencies

Current Anthropology, Ahead of Print.

The discovery of Ebla in 1964 revolutionized our understanding of ancient Near Eastern civilizations, offering a unique glimpse into the sophisticated urban culture that flourished in the 3rd millennium BCE. Despite extensive research on Ebla’s administrative and cultural achievements, its culinary traditions have remained largely unexplored. This study seeks to fill this knowledge gap by reconstructing

Current Anthropology, Ahead of Print.

This special issue explores the complex question: What does it mean to talk about identity in the context of subjects shaped by mobility, and what insights can archaeology provide that other fields may overlook? This inquiry lies at the heart of both archaeology and historical archaeology, which have long grappled with the diverse mobilities and identities reflected in the archaeological record. As

Since the 2016 attempted coup in Turkey, more than 215,000 people have been investigated for allegedly using ByLock, an encrypted‐message app. According to government officials and courts, the app was used exclusively by Fethullah Gülen's network, which the Turkish state classifies as a terrorist organization. Legal experts transformed ByLock data into vehicles of suspicion that could “testify” to

In 2018 and 2019, the Bureau of the Royal Household sponsored a festival in Bangkok called Love and Warmth at Winter's End. Framed as a gift to the Thai people from the then uncrowned King Vajiralongkorn, the free event immersed visitors in vintage imagery and experiences sympathetic to royal absolutism, recruiting visitors to experience as pleasant a past era in which the Thai king's power was absolute

What can we learn about temporality by studying different ways of measuring time, institutional time regimes, and (a)typical experiences and creations of time when growing older? This introduction sets perspectives on this question from the anthropologies of ageing, ethics, and temporality. Understanding humans as time beings, we argue that attention to connections between large‐scale history, collective