On 16 December 2020, Professor Holly Dunsworth from the University of Rhode Island presented a webinar in the CRESIDA seminar series titled ‘Tall men, broad women, difficult childbirth, and helpless babies have stronger evolutionary explanations than the oppressive myths to which science and pop culture cling’.
Category: the body
‘It’s a kind of magic’: Coronavirus attire, mimesis and the limits of rationalism[1]
By Kirsten Bell Over the past few weeks, airport travel has had the feel of a global game of musical chairs, with everyone scrambling to find their seat (i.e., return home) before the music stops – namely, countries close their borders and airlines suspend international flights. Many remain standing (stranded), but I was one of Read More…
The Anthropology of Life & Death: Death and emotional jet lag
As part of our third year Anthropology of Life and Death module, students explore cross-cultural understandings of life and death. This week, our featured essay is by Olivia Mounsor. Olivia’s bio: I have just completed my third year at Roehampton studying Anthropology and over the duration of my course I have been fascinated with animism Read More…
Being Human: Social and biological explanations for race and variation
As part of our first year Being Human module, students write an essay where they consider social and biological anthropological perspectives on a key topic in anthropology. This week, our featured essay is by Meenal Warrier. Meenal’s bio: I am a first year anthropology student. Anthropology became a field of interest for me because of how Read More…
Hands, shadows and puppets: transcending puppetry
By Yu-Chun Chen Yu-Chun Chen is currently a PhD candidate in social anthropology in the Department of Life Sciences at the University of Roehampton. Her thesis ‘Become and becoming a dancer: an ethnography of the Taipei Dance Circle’ focuses on the liminality across bodies, space and time in this dance troupe which lost their leader. Puppets, the inanimate things off Read More…
HIV/AIDS and Global Health: Hijras and HIV
Our third year HIV/AIDS and Global Health module, which explores broader anthropological questions around HIV/AIDS, illness and healing, sexual and reproductive relationships, and global health. As part of the module students are required to design a HIV awareness poster or research proposal. This week, we are featuring a poster assignment by Jana-Sharmila Sen on HIV among the Read More…
Reflections on the Childhood Obesity Plan for Action
By Sue Reeves On the 25 June the Department of Health and Social Care launched Childhood Obesity: A Plan for Action, Chapter 2. This document builds on the original childhood obesity plan and outlines the government’s aim to halve childhood obesity by the year 2030. Some of the new proposals are outlined below. Currently in the UK, almost Read More…
7,000 year-old stressed toddlers: a tale of two cemeteries
A new publication by CRESIDA member Colette Berbesque, and collaborator Kara Hoover (University of Alaska, Fairbanks) compared stress in remains from two populations of hunter-gatherers living about seven thousand years ago in different regions of the US (Texas and Florida). Lots of different types of illness and disease leave indicators on the human skeleton. These Read More…
The weird and wonderful world of cigarette packaging
Two weeks ago, The Guardian featured an article about Tom Fraine, the British man who inadvertently ended up as the ‘dead’ body on the ‘smoking causes heart attacks’ label. In describing his experience of how he came to be a cigarette packaging model, Fraine recounts: ‘I was offered €200 and asked to come to a disused hospital on the outskirts of Berlin. They painted my face grey, put me in a body bag and took me to the morgue. Being in a body bag really freaked me out, especially when the photographer zipped the bag up fully and whispered: “This is for Dresden”, before unzipping me. He had a dark sense of humour.’
