Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: belly button

  • Omphalos

    Margaret Nowaczyk Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Chambered Nautilus Shell – detail. Photo by Jitze Couperus, 2008, on Flickr. CC BY 2.0. Once, I linked you to the woman who gave birth to you: for forty weeks, a twisted pearly cord, pulsing with two syncopated heartbeats, bound you two together. It fed you and gave you oxygen.…

  • The trouble with the belly button

    Tonse N. K. Raju Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States   It is a simple dimple in the mid-abdomen. Yet for medieval artists, it caused mighty headaches while painting portraits of Adam and Eve. Painting the dimple as a natural anatomic feature could be construed as sacrilegious, implying that Adam and Eve were connected by umbilical cords…