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Articles on Humanities

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The Maria Fire billows above Santa Paula, California on Oct. 31. AP/Noah Berger

California is living America’s dystopian future

‘California is America fast-forward,’ writes one scholar. Does that mean that the dystopian infernos that have consumed parts of the state are simply a picture of what awaits the rest of America?
Lebanese protesters formed a 105-mile human chain connecting geographically and religiously diverse cities across the country, Oct. 27. 2019. AP Photo/Bilal Hussein

Lebanon uprising unites people across faiths, defying deep sectarian divides

Lebanon’s 1989 peace deal ended a civil war by sharing political power between religious factions. That created a society profoundly divided by religion – something today’s protesters hope to change.
Revelers dressed as Catrina, an iconic Day of the Dead skeleton, at a holiday parade in Mexico City, Oct. 21, 2018. Reuters/Andres Stapff

Day of the Dead: From Aztec goddess worship to modern Mexican celebration

It may sound like a solemn affair, but the Day of the Dead – which blends indigenous and Catholic ritual – is a convivial celebration that allows Mexicans to reconnect with deceased loved ones.
A team photograph of the 1919 Chicago White Sox squad, many of whom would be implicated in throwing that year’s World Series. Heritage Auctions

How gambling built baseball – and then almost destroyed it

Up until the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, gambling and baseball had a marriage of convenience. A century later, gambling is again being seen as a solution to the sport’s woes.
For centuries, people thought nothing of crowding family members or friends into the same bed. miniwide/Shutterstock.com

The bizarre social history of beds

Today’s beds are thought of as bastions of privacy. But not long ago, they were the perches from which kings ruled and places where travelers hunkered down with complete strangers.
Visitors walk through Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s installation ‘Fireflies on the Water.’ maurizio mucciola/flickr

In dandelions and fireflies, artists try to make sense of climate change

Images of wildfires are powerful, but can make climate catastrophe seem like something spectacular and distant. So some artists are focusing on the plants and bugs in our immediate surroundings.
‘Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!’ was a funky, lighthearted alternative to the action cartoons that, for years, had dominated Saturday morning lineups. GeekDad

The strange connection between Bobby Kennedy’s death and Scooby-Doo

Demands for regulation of media violence reached a fever pitch after RFK’s assassination, and networks scrambled to insert more kid-friendly fare into their lineups. Enter: the Mystery Machine.
Mary E. Harper (left) and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (right), whose two photos in ‘Atlanta Offering’ are unusual. Unidentified Artist, 1895, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, & Rare Book Library, Emory University

The hidden story of two African-American women looking out from the pages of a 19th-century book

A 19th-century volume contained a mystery for two historians who combined their knowledge to tell the story of the women and their contributions to American democracy.

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