Ancient Cranial Modifications with Medical and Cultural Significance PDF Download

Author: Emily A. Brahler
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Human remains (Archaeology)
Languages : en
Pages : 59

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Book Description
Artificial cranial deformation and trephination are two cranial modification practices that leave behind evidence on the skull. These practices were prominent in ancient South American societies. This study begins by detailing the process and results of a craniofacial reconstruction on a skull cast of a male individual from the Inca Empire who exhibits signs of these cranial modifications. Based on this inspiration, this study also provides discussions from the previous literature on artificial cranial deformation and trephination in both South America, and elsewhere throughout the world. This study explores the ritualistic or cultural, and medical significance these cranial modification practices may have held in ancient societies, in an attempt to support bioarchaeological analysis of human remains. Highlighting individual stories of past individuals through the artistic reconstruction of the face, or through analysis of health conditions that occurred during life, can ultimately serve to answer a variety of research questions, and provide a meaningful outlet for honoring the unique identities of the dead.

Author: Vera Tiesler
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461487609
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
The artificial shaping of the skull vault of infants expresses fundamental aspects of crafted beauty, of identity, status and gender in a way no other body practice does. Combining different sources of information, this volume contributes new interpretations on Mesoamerican head shaping traditions. Here, the head with its outer insignia was commonly used as a metaphor for designating the “self” and personhood and, as part of the body, served as a model for the indigenous universe. Analogously, the outer “looks” of the head and its anatomical constituents epitomized deeply embedded worldviews and longstanding traditions. It is in this sense that this book explores both the quotidian roles and long-standing ideological connotations of cultural head modifications in Mesoamerica and beyond, setting new standards in the discussion of the scope, caveats, and future directions involved in this study. The systematic examination of Mesoamerican skeletal series fosters an explained review of indigenous cultural history through the lens of emblematic head models with their nuanced undercurrents of religious identity and ethnicity, social organization and dynamic cultural shift. The embodied expressions of change are explored in different geocultural settings and epochs, being most visible in the centuries surrounding the Maya collapse and following the cultural clash implied by the European conquest. These glimpses on the Mesoamerican past through head practices are novel, as is the general treatment of methodology and theoretical frames. Although it is anchored in physical anthropology and archaeology (specifically bioarchaeology), this volume also integrates knowledge derived from anatomy and human physiology, historical and iconographic sources, linguistics (polisemia) and ethnography. The scope of this work is rounded up by the transcription and interpretation of the many colonial eye witness accounts on indigenous head treatments in Mesoamerica and beyond.

Author: Charles G. Gross
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262291592
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 367

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Book Description
Essays on great figures and important issues, advances and blind alleys—from trepanation to the discovery of grandmother cells—in the history of brain sciences. Neuroscientist Charles Gross has been interested in the history of his field since his days as an undergraduate. A Hole in the Head is the second collection of essays in which he illuminates the study of the brain with fascinating episodes from the past. This volume's tales range from the history of trepanation (drilling a hole in the skull) to neurosurgery as painted by Hieronymus Bosch to the discovery that bats navigate using echolocation. The emphasis is on blind alleys and errors as well as triumphs and discoveries, with ancient practices connected to recent developments and controversies. Gross first reaches back into the beginnings of neuroscience, then takes up the interaction of art and neuroscience, exploring, among other things, Rembrandt's “Anatomy Lesson” paintings, and finally, examines discoveries by scientists whose work was scorned in their own time but proven correct in later eras.

Author: Sandra Kahn
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 1503606465
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
There's a silent epidemic in western civilization, and it is right under our noses. Our jaws are getting smaller and our teeth crooked and crowded, creating not only aesthetic challenges but also difficulties with breathing. Modern orthodontics has persuaded us that braces and oral devices can correct these problems. While teeth can certainly be straightened, what about the underlying causes of this rapid shift in oral evolution and the health risks posed by obstructed airways? Sandra Kahn and Paul R. Ehrlich, a pioneering orthodontist and a world-renowned evolutionist, respectively, present the biological, dietary, and cultural changes that have driven us toward this major health challenge. They propose simple adjustments that can alleviate this developing crisis, as well as a major alternative to orthodontics that promises more significant long-term relief. Jaws will change your life. Every parent should read this book.

Author: Joe Mellen
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 1907222391
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
A heavily expanded edition of Joe Mellen's legendary, long out-of-print auto-trepanation memoir. A heavily expanded edition of Joe Mellen's legendary, long out-of-print auto-trepanation memoir, Bore Hole takes us deep into the dawning of the UK's psychedelic counter culture, and into a mind breaking free from the confines of a traditional English upbringing. Travelling to Morocco and Ibiza, then back to the first spring of swinging London, Joe Mellen discovers the pleasures of hashish, is captivated by the visionary intensity of LSD and, after meeting the Dutch psychedelic guru Bart Huges, attempts the ultimate head trip, the bore hole. As well as a selection of unseen archive photographs, this edition includes a new postscript, essays, appendices and a 1967 interview with Bart Huges.

Author: James P. Allen
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
ISBN: 1588391701
Category : Art, Egyptian
Languages : en
Pages : 117

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Book Description
Diseases and injuries were major concerns for ancient Egyptians. This book, featuring some sixty-four objects from the Metropolitan Museum, discusses how both practical and magical medicine informed Egyptian art and for the first time reproduces and translates treatments described in the spectacular Edwin Smith Papyrus.

Author: Plinio Prioreschi
Publisher:
ISBN: 1888456019
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 569

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Book Description

Author: Geoffrey H. Sperber, Geoffrey D. Guttmann, Steven M. Sperber
Publisher: PMPH-USA
ISBN: 9781550091274
Category : Embryology, Human
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
The accompanying CD-ROM includes the complete text and illustrations from the print volume, as well as three-dimensional movies that show reconstructions of embryos.

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309288037
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
In the past decade, few subjects at the intersection of medicine and sports have generated as much public interest as sports-related concussions - especially among youth. Despite growing awareness of sports-related concussions and campaigns to educate athletes, coaches, physicians, and parents of young athletes about concussion recognition and management, confusion and controversy persist in many areas. Currently, diagnosis is based primarily on the symptoms reported by the individual rather than on objective diagnostic markers, and there is little empirical evidence for the optimal degree and duration of physical rest needed to promote recovery or the best timing and approach for returning to full physical activity. Sports-Related Concussions in Youth: Improving the Science, Changing the Culture reviews the science of sports-related concussions in youth from elementary school through young adulthood, as well as in military personnel and their dependents. This report recommends actions that can be taken by a range of audiences - including research funding agencies, legislatures, state and school superintendents and athletic directors, military organizations, and equipment manufacturers, as well as youth who participate in sports and their parents - to improve what is known about concussions and to reduce their occurrence. Sports-Related Concussions in Youth finds that while some studies provide useful information, much remains unknown about the extent of concussions in youth; how to diagnose, manage, and prevent concussions; and the short- and long-term consequences of concussions as well as repetitive head impacts that do not result in concussion symptoms. The culture of sports negatively influences athletes' self-reporting of concussion symptoms and their adherence to return-to-play guidance. Athletes, their teammates, and, in some cases, coaches and parents may not fully appreciate the health threats posed by concussions. Similarly, military recruits are immersed in a culture that includes devotion to duty and service before self, and the critical nature of concussions may often go unheeded. According to Sports-Related Concussions in Youth, if the youth sports community can adopt the belief that concussions are serious injuries and emphasize care for players with concussions until they are fully recovered, then the culture in which these athletes perform and compete will become much safer. Improving understanding of the extent, causes, effects, and prevention of sports-related concussions is vitally important for the health and well-being of youth athletes. The findings and recommendations in this report set a direction for research to reach this goal.

Author: Brien Foerster
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781507892817
Category : Craniology
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"Elongated human skulls have been found in the archaeological record on every inhabited continent, and most commonly these people existed about 2000 years ago. The vast majority were elite members of various societies and artificial cranial deformation was performed on them as infants in order to achieve a specific look so as to differentiate them from the general public. Nowhere was this more commonplace than in Peru and Bolivia, and this book sets out to figure out where these societies lived, when, and how they may have been related. The most mysterious aspect is that some of the ancient people of Peru and Bolivia may have in fact been born with elongated skulls. Should this turn out through medical examination to be true, the history of humanity many have to be re-written."--Supplied by publisher