Ancient cancel cultures: The defacement of statues in America replicates a tradition going back millennia
- Written by Sarah Kurnick, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Colorado Boulder

Amid pleas for racial justice, protesters across the United States have mutilated hundreds of monuments. They have decapitated statues of Christopher Columbus, spray-painted graffiti on memorials to Robert E. Lee and mutilated tributes to Jefferson Davis.
As...