What on Earth is PopAnth?

PopAnth, or Popular Anthropology. What is it? How do we do it? What do we mean by it?

PopAnth translates anthropological discoveries for popular consumption. Anthropologists do a lot of good work researching, decoding and understanding human societies – past and present. We discover all kinds of really cool stuff about human nature and culture. Anthropology can help us understand who we are as individuals and as a global society.

However, our discoveries are often locked away in academic journals. PopAnth takes anthropology's collective knowledge and translates it for mainstream audiences, much in the way that popular science books, TV shows and trivia quizzes make even the hardest of sciences accessible.

We strive to provide you with the best of anthropology in a format that makes you go, "Wow! I didn't know that!" Our cross-cultural stories help you discover things about yourself and the world you live in.

In The Beginning

The PopAnth Project started after a discussion on a PopAnth group founded by Erin Taylor at the Open Anthropology Cooperative. On 21 July 2012, during a conversation about taking anthropological research to a larger audience, Greg Downey of Neuroanthropology fame asserted:

I think we have to practice DOING accessible, popular writing and see what works.

So, within an hour, Gawain Lynch had registered popanth.com, created Google+, Facebook and Twitter accounts for the project, and had the shell of a website up. Little did we know what was to come.

Engagement continued in OAC discussion and soon after John McCreery volunteered his services as an editor and, most importantly, as The Writing Coach. He invested a generous amount of time into getting our initial content in order.

We officially flung the doors open on 18 September 2012, and quickly grabbed the attention of more than a few people, evidenced by the number of people signing up to author, edit and advise our fledgling community.

In the process, we greatly strengthened our ability to deliver interesting, engaging and fun content borne out of the insightful research done by anthropologists and other people with a deep interest in humanity.

Moving Forward

We're currently looking to expand our author base and the types of articles we produce. If you'd like to be involved, check our Contribute to PopAnth page.