Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Summer 2018

  • “I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat”: the complicated history of American food aid

    Joy LiuRochester, Minnesota Every afternoon after preschool, I would crisscross the maze of stolid Beijing apartments to collect a jar of fresh suan nai. Equal parts sweet, tangy, and savory, the fermented milk drink was a favorite I usually devoured as soon as the elderly peddler handed me a bottle and straw. One day, I…

  • The fern that makes you fat: access to traditional foods in the Canadian oil sands

    Janelle BakerAlberta, Canada Introduction: the big flame Elder Virginia Stewart from Bigstone Cree Nation crouched down near her family’s derelict home to pull out a “spreading wood fern” or “broad spinulose shieldfern” (Dryopteris expansa) (see Turner et al. 1992) frond and fresh roots, going out of her way to show me the fern that can…

  • Drunk in love: bodies and consumption in Samson and Delilah

    Lee Andrews Peter Paul Rubens’ rendition of Samson and Delilah (1610) depicts Samson sleeping on Delilah’s lap as a Philistine cuts his hair, thereby removing the secret to his herculean strength. The artist who gave us the term “Rubenesque,” in which the words “plump” and “pleasing” describe the female form, had much to express about…

  • Lord Byron and his strange relationship with food

    Mildred Wilson “. . . I would rather not exist than be large.” Lord Byron – Trinity College (1805-1808) On April 15, 1805, George Gordon Byron wrote to Hargreaves Hanson, a fellow classmate at the prestigious school for boys Harrow, in conjunction with a planned visit to Hanson’s home: “. . . wish that you…

  • The modern drought

    Ana Paula Bottle LeónQueretaro, Mexico In any adventure film or novel where the main character gets stranded on an island, a mountain, or in the middle of the woods, an unquestionable priority is to find a source of drinkable water. Water is vital; it regulates body temperature, nourishes the brain, lubricates bones and joints, and…

  • Are we gorging on autonomy?

    Oliver William MorrissCambridge, England A potentially fatal crisis in the contemporary world threatens the very foundations of public health, in that what were formerly known as “diseases of affluence,” namely stroke, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, have become a global phenomenon affecting individual lives as well as national economies. Respect for autonomy is fundamental to bioethics;…

  • Half-digested clues

    Sarah KearnsAnn Arbor, Michigan, USA On a warm spring day in Denmark in 1950 two brothers, Viggo and Emil Hojgaard, ventured out into the marshlands to gather peat to make fuel. With hefty sharp spades, they cut out earthen bricks of decayed organic matter to be used as an energy source. During this laborious task,…

  • Hospital as host: a lesson from the Renaissance

    John David IkeDurham, North Carolina, United States Ruth M. ParkerAtlanta, Georgia, United States Introduction Nestled in the rolling hills of Tuscany atop a jutted butte lies the historic city of Siena, Italy. Regarded as an important site in Renaissance art and a hub of Italian culture, this pastoral city also has a rich gastronomic tradition…

  • Fufu and the body

    Princewill UdomPort Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria Fufu, West Africa’s finest local delicacy, continues to maintain its scintillating sheen, especially in Nigeria. The congealed, doughy, smooth, white lump of processed cassava meal remains as popular as ever. Made from cassava, a root crop widely cultivated in West Africa, it enjoys luxuriant growth because of favorable climatic…

  • A physician examining a patient’s urine

    This painting from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford shows a physician uroscopist examining a specimen of urine in order to determine what was ailing his patient. It is a serious painting, unlike that of Dutch artists such as Jan Steen who regarded uroscopists as quacks and made fun of their pretentious mien and attire. The…