The New Worlds Patreon invites you to come inside, rest your weary feet, and consider the topic of hospitality. Comment over there!

This week on the New Worlds Patreon, we don’t always target the body when punishing someone for wrongdoing. Sometimes the punishment is social instead — but that requires certain additional factors to work. Comment over there!

“Spare the rod, spoil the child” — or for that matter, the criminal. The New Worlds Patreon tour of punishments takes a look at those inflicted on the body. Comment over there!

As the New Worlds Patreon looks at punishments, it seems only natural — given modern practices — to think first of imprisonment. Comment over there!

This month on the New Worlds Patreon my patrons have voted to look at the punishment aspect of law and order. Before we get into the specifics of what types of punishment we inflict, we should consider why we punish people at all — what goal(s) that’s supposed to achieve. Comment over there!

Have you ever experienced sleep paralysis, or tried to get an answer to some unsolved question from your dreams? The New Worlds Patreon is wrapping up its sleep month with a look at the magic of dreams. Comment over there!

I’m astonishingly bad at remembering my dreams, but other people are much better at it than I am. This week the New Worlds Patreon talks about dreams: how they happen, why they happen, and what they mean. Comment over there!

Most of you reading this probably sleep on mattresses on bed frames in dedicated bedrooms, with soft pillows and nobody else in the bed except possibly a spouse. But this week the New Worlds Patreon explores a wide variety of sleeping arrangements. Comment over there!

One of the great benefits of my line of work is that I can take a nap if I need to. Which is pertinent to the new topic for the New Worlds Patreon, because my patrons have voted for me to talk about sleep! Comment over there.

As the theory post for this fifth Friday, the New Worlds Patreon is turning its attention to another useful anthropological concept: marked and unmarked categories. Comment over there!

The New Worlds Patreon has spent the whole month talking about religious topics, and we’re wrapping up (for now) with the idea of syncretism: the borrowing of traditions or even whole gods from one religion into another. Comment over there!

The New Worlds Patreon tour of religion continues! Real-world polytheisms feature a dizzying array of gods, but many of them fall into certain recognizable categories. Comment over there!

Polytheism! It’s all over the place in fantasy, and frequently feels all too much like D&D. This week on the New Worlds Patreon, we talk about how polytheism actually works.

For the month of July, the New Worlds Patreon turns its attention back to religion — this time for a look at some of its underlying concepts. We begin with what makes a god . . . which is something that differs quite a bit depending on what religion you ask! Comment over there.

Given how dangerous childbirth was in history — and can still be even today — I sometimes marvel that the human species still exists. This week the New Worlds Patreon delves into the perils and practices of delivering a child, both past and present. Comment over there!

As the New Worlds Patreon proceeds through the topic of childbearing, we’ve finally arrived at the pregnancy stage of the process — or more to the point, all the cultural requirements and prohibitions surrounding that. Comment over there!

This week on the New Worlds Patreon, we’re talking about one of the great advances in human history: birth control. Comment over there!

My patrons are awesome. No sooner do I put potentially “icky” subjects like sanitation or childbearing in the monthly topic polls than they vote for them — in this case with a much clearer majority than most of the polls get. Which is why this week’s New Worlds essay is about menstruation, and all the cultural baggage that surrounds it in various places and times. Comment over there!

As most of you probably know by now, one of the bonus funding goals for the New Worlds Patreon covers a fifth post in the months that have five Fridays. For these “theory posts,” I step away from the specifics of what goes into a world, and instead look at more abstract matters: either techniques of handling this stuff in writing, or anthropological concepts of use in worldbuilding. This month is one of the latter, with the idea of cultural spheres. Comment over there!

The tradition of keeping captive animals for display is an old one. This week, the New Worlds Patreon discusses zoos and menageries, past present, and future! Comment over there.