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Rituals and celebrations

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People dining at long tables adorned with blue tablecloths in a narrow, lantern-lit street lined with old buildings and blue-and-white flags.

Community

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Take a seat: the long table is an antidote to loneliness

While some consider the long, shared dining table outdated or inconvenient, it is actually a powerful social tool

by Antone Martinho-Truswell

Two traditional-style pagodas in a grassy field under a blue sky with scattered clouds, with mist and mountains in the background.

Rituals and celebrations

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Together forever: ‘at-home burial’ in southern Vietnam

What might a traveller along the Mekong Delta learn about the beliefs and traditions behind the country’s elevated tombs?

by Gina Elia

The bone outline of a skull is seen in relief where excavated on a cave floor

Rituals and celebrations

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Digging for answers in a cave filled with Neanderthal skeletons

When a team of researchers returned to an Iraqi cave believed to be a Neanderthal burial site, here’s what they found

by Shayla Love

Archaeological dig showing three weathered stone head sculptures, partially buried in the ground.

Death and dying

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Why ancient Mesopotamians buried their dead beneath the floor

In an age before photos or audio recordings, people found other ways to stay sensorially connected to their deceased

by Nicola Laneri

A group of people in white attire and backpacks walk along a wooden path through green fields under a blue sky with scattered clouds.

Rituals and celebrations

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More radical and practical than Stoicism – discover Shugendō

As they train for their own deaths, Japan’s mountain priests develop a form of acceptance that goes beyond the Stoics

by Tim Bunting

People holding signs supporting Kennedy outdoors near Franklin Road, smiling and waving.

Civic life

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Voting in person brings democracy to momentous life

Elections are about more than tallying votes – they offer voters a deeply felt connection to democracy and their role in it

by Emilee Booth Chapman

Various coloured stone rings of different sizes arranged on a blue background.

Rituals and celebrations

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Far-flung ancient communities forged bonds through broken rings

What can the fragments of Neolithic slate rings found in Finland tell us about social relationships 6,000 years ago?

by Marja Ahola, Elisabeth Holmqvist & Petro Pesonen

A close-up of hands holding papers with handwritten notes, coin purses, and a pen, set on a wooden surface with grass in the background.

Sports and games

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For players of fafi, dream interpretation is a vital skill

The fafi lottery game in South Africa requires the careful interpretation of dreams and the waking world around you

by Brittany Birberick

Tattoo on chest reads “RIP My Baby Boy” with dates “13-10-1989” and “27-02-2010,” framed by rosary beads. Hand with rings visible.

Grief

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‘A tattoo is for life’: how memorial tattoos help the bereaved

More intimate and permanent than other reminders, tattoos offer an embodied form of meaning-making in the wake of loss

by Jennifer L Buckle & Sonya Corbin Dwyer

Close-up of colourful, glossy Skittles sweets - red, yellow, green, orange and purple

Emerging therapies

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Why placebo pills work even when you know they’re a placebo

New evidence of the power of the placebo effect – even without any deception – is raising important questions for medicine

by Darwin A Guevarra & Kari A Leibowitz

Black and white photo of a woman at a table by open windows, overlooking a mountainous village with scattered houses and a winding road.

Stories and literature

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On the pleasures of hand-writing letters you’ll never send

Hand-writing letters you’ll never send takes the heat off feelings and lets you look back on drafts of a previous self

by Anandi Mishra

A wooden box containing trinkets including a pink crystal and a heart-shaped stone on a wooden table.

Place

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In hatboxes, pouches and bags lie the items that define us

Whether it be in a hatbox, wooden chest or leather bag, what makes some stuff personal, rather than just private property?

by Andreas Gehrlach