A TYPICAL DAY FOR MONICA Tromp might include scraping tartar off 3,000-year-old human incisors. “It’s basically like being a dental hygienist for the dead,” says Tromp, an Affiliated Researcher at New Zealand’s University of Otago, about her work studying ancient Pacific Islanders’ diets. The hot, humid climate of places like Vanuatu, an archipelago 1,100 miles eastContinue reading “How Ancient Tooth Plaque Solved the Mystery of the Banana’s Trans-Pacific Journey”
Author Archives: reinagattuso
Australian Wildfires Uncovered Hidden Sections of a Huge, Ancient Aquaculture System
IN VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA, AN ANCIENT labyrinth of waterways snakes across a once-volcanic landscape. This is the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, a vast aquacultural system the Gunditjmara Aboriginal people, who still call this country home, began constructing 6,600 years ago. Parts of the system are still in use today. Ask locals about Budj Bim, and you’ll invariablyContinue reading “Australian Wildfires Uncovered Hidden Sections of a Huge, Ancient Aquaculture System”
How to Spend Valentine’s Day If You’re Single
Whenever I read a self-help article that advises women to “put yourself first,” or “cultivate self-love,” I want to throw my laptop out my fourth floor apartment window in despair. (I don’t actually do it, of course, because laptops are expensive.) Often, these seemingly empowering pieces of advice come with subtle directives about what weContinue reading “How to Spend Valentine’s Day If You’re Single”
The Culinary Legacy of Brooklyn's First Free Black Community
SOMETIMES, WE CAN ONLY UNDERSTAND history from above. That, anyway, seemed to be the outlook of historian James Hurley and pilot Joseph Hays when, in 1968, they flew a plane over Brooklyn. They were looking for the remnants of a village founded 130 years earlier, the free Black community of Weeksville. Read more at Atlas Obscura. FeaturedContinue reading “The Culinary Legacy of Brooklyn's First Free Black Community”
The Chocolate-Brewing Witches of Colonial Latin America
IT HAPPENED, PERHAPS, ONE HOT, humid night, mist over the mountains that bordered the colonial city of Santiago de Guatemala. Melchora de los Reyes, a young, mixed-raced woman, had sex with her lover. When she met him, she was a virgin, a doncella, a status that made her eligible for marriage in the strict, Catholic society ofContinue reading “The Chocolate-Brewing Witches of Colonial Latin America”
Rape is an Economic Crime: The Case for Mental Health Restitution
On TV, the plot looks something like this: a woman is raped or abused. She is a sympathetic character, traumatized yet brave. She reports the crime to the police, who perform a detailed forensic investigation and arrest the perpetrator. A trial ensues, and the survivor steps forward to tell her story. She wins over theContinue reading “Rape is an Economic Crime: The Case for Mental Health Restitution”
Eat Like a 1970s Radical With ‘The People’s Philadelphia Cookbook’
“A VERY GAY MEAT LOAF” requires several key ingredients. First, wrote Michael Goldberger, a gay activist and neuroscience researcher, combine ground beef, pork, and veal with spices. Then, add partially-cooked spinach and—if you have the money—mushrooms, taking care not to overmix. Hard-boiled eggs and sour cream top it off. Goldberger adapted the recipe from gay New YorkContinue reading “Eat Like a 1970s Radical With ‘The People’s Philadelphia Cookbook’”
How to Reclaim Your Sexuality After Trauma
Ending an abusive relationship felt like being reborn: slowly, painfully, sharp as shattered glass. My body had been rearranged, Mr. Potato Head-style, into something new, simultaneously more sensitive and blunter, more empathic but liable to shut down unexpectedly—on the sidewalk, in the bedroom, in the grocery store. Many of us, especially women and queer people, have survived someContinue reading “How to Reclaim Your Sexuality After Trauma”
How Aboriginal Hunting and ‘Cool Burns’ Prevent Australian Wildfires
THERE IS A SCAR ACROSS Australia’s Western Desert. For millennia—no one is sure how many, though evidence of Aboriginal people’s presence in Australia stretches back 50,000 years—the Martu people used fire to hunt in the scraggly bush. In a practice called cultural burning, they set low blazes patient enough for small animals such as bettongs and wallabiesContinue reading “How Aboriginal Hunting and ‘Cool Burns’ Prevent Australian Wildfires”
Why It’s Harmful To Tell Kids “He’s Mean Because He Has a Crush on You”
If you are a child of the 90s, you might remember Helga Pataki. She was blond, had a strangely shaped head like the rest of her peers, lived in New York City, and, most importantly, relentlessly bullied television’s cartoon sweetheart, everyone’s favorite oblong-noggined Arnold. A character on the Nickelodeon kids’ show Hey, Arnold!, Helga typified theContinue reading “Why It’s Harmful To Tell Kids “He’s Mean Because He Has a Crush on You””
