Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Category: Anthropology

  • The interplay of spirituality and traditional medicine in Indonesia

    Shabrina Jarrell Charleston, West Virginia, United States   Jamu gendong in Yogyakarta. Photo by aa on Wikimedia. CC BY-SA 3.0. In the cultural fabric of Indonesia, spiritual healing has thrived for centuries. The practice of spiritual and traditional healing remains relevant alongside modern medical advances. The contrast and interplay of traditional wisdom and contemporary influences…

  • Adolf Bastian, pioneering anthropologist

    Adolf Bastian, 1892. Via Wikimedia. Adolf Bastian (1826–1905) was one of the pioneers of modern anthropology, born June 26, 1826, in Bremen, Germany. This multicultural port city exposed him to many different cultures and customs, eventually igniting his interest in studying different societies. From his father, who belonged to a well-known merchant family, he inherited…

  • Studying mummies and eggs: The delights of paleopathology

    Left: Statue of the pharaoh Mernephta Right: Mummy of Mernephta. Via Wikimedia. No known restrictions on publication. Paleopathology is the study of disease by using mummified and skeletal remains, documents, early books, paintings, sculptures, and coprolites. Earlier investigators such as Esper and Cuvier focused on non-human specimens, but later ones expanded their interests to humans.…

  • Marc Ruffer, founder of paleopathology

    Mummy. Photo by Paul Hudson on Flickr. CC BY 2.0. Sir Marc Armand Ruffer (1859–1917) is considered the founder of paleopathology, the study of disease in human remains. He was born in Lyons, France, the son of Swiss banker Baron Jacques de Ruffer and a German mother. He was educated in Germany and France, Oxford…

  • More on Arthur Aufderheide, the mummy doctor (1922–2013)

    Arthur C. Aufderheide (1922–2013) received his undergraduate degree in anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1943 and his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1952. After completing his education, he became a professor at the University of Minnesota in Duluth and spent most of his active life there. Aufderheide’s major contribution to anthropology…

  • The pyramids of Petach Tikvah

    Simon Wein Petach Tikvah   Dead bodies may be burned, buried, left for carrion animals,1 dropped into the sea, mummified, made into fertilizer or diamonds,2 or sent to universities to be dissected. However, there are several reasons why in many cultures the dead are buried in cemeteries and mausoleums: Respecting the dead focuses survivors on…

  • Tattoos in the twentieth century

    Howard Fischer Uppsala, Sweden   “It was in 1972 and you didn’t really go around showing tattoos or talking about them… And now all of a sudden it has become the thing to do.”1 – Cher, American singer, actor   Sailor being tattooed by a fellow sailor aboard USS New Jersey in 1944. Photo by…

  • Rudolf Virchow and the anthropology of race

    Friedrich C. Luft Detlev Ganten Berlin, Germany   Fig. 1. Rudolf Virchow as anthropologist. Portrait by Hanns Fechner (1891). Rudolf Virchow, born in 1821, was arguably the most important German physician, biologist, social scientist, and anthropologist of the nineteenth century. His establishment of cellular pathology is known by all and his comment that “politics is…

  • Dr. Aufderheide and the mummies

    Philip R. Liebson Chicago, Illinois, United States   Curator for the Department of Physical Anthropology at the San Diego Museum of Man prepares a 550-year old Peruvian child mummy for a CT scan. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Samantha A. Lewis/Released). Via Wikimedia. Public Domain. Paleopathology, the study of early animal…

  • The role of lullabies in mother-baby attachment

    Özge Suzan Nursan Çinar Sakarya, Turkey   Lullaby by William-Adolphe Bouguereau. 1875. From Bartoli, Damien & Ross, Frederick C. William Bouguereau: His Life and Works. Via Wikimedia. A lullaby is defined as a sweet, gentle song that is sung to entice a baby to sleep. In Turkish folklore, a mother’s voice is very important for…