For people in South and Southeast Asia and Oceania, chewing betel nut is a tradition dating back thousands of years. What is referred to as betel nut is actually a piece of nut from the areca palm dabbed with slaked lime and wrapped in a […]
Women in the Mithila region of southeastern Nepal and northeastern India have painted in a distinct style for centuries. Created with a variety of tools and natural dyes and pigments, the paintings are characterized by their bright colors, two-dimensional imagery, and geometrical designs. Artists avoid […]
The San people of southern Africa have lived in the region of the Kalahari Desert for thousands of years. Formerly called “Bushmen,” a label that is now recognized as both racist and sexist, the term San actually refers to a diverse collection of hunter-gatherer groups […]
The Lobi people live primarily in southwest Burkina Faso in West Africa. They migrated to the region from present day Ghana around 1770. Although the Lobi make many types of ceramics, the spikes on this style of pot indicate that it was used as a […]
The Ye’kuana (also referred to as Makiritare) are an indigenous group living in the tropical forest of the Orinoco Basin in southern Venezuela and a small part of northern Brazil. Although estimates vary, the Ye’kuana population is likely fewer than 5,000 people. With their name […]
This mud mask was made by Asaro villagers in the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. Known today as holosa, which literally translates to ghosts, this type of mask is an early example of the costume of the Asaro mudmen, a prominent cultural symbol […]