Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Dissertation (MSc (Anatomy))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Anatomy / unrestricted

From the 1650s and corresponding with a trade in African slaves, the livelihood, health and life expectancy of indigenous groups were reported to decline as many Zimbabwean settlements changed their identities due to European influence. In this study, human skeletal remains from three archaeological sites from northern Zimbabwe were investigated to compare the health status of the people that it represents, pre-and post-European contact, to ascertain whether this was indeed the case. The Monk’s Kop (A.D. 1270-1285) and Ashford Farms sites (A.D. 1330-1440) date back to a period prior to European contact, whereas the Dambarare site (A.D. 1630-1693) represents a population consisting of both Africans and the Europeans they were in contact with. This study led to the re-discovery of the Monk’s Kop archaeological site and in particular indicated that the remains most probably resemble the high social status members of the society. In the Monk’s Kop’s skeletal collection (n =43), 14% of individuals presented with signs of skeletal pathology while the corresponding figure was 43% in the Ashford Farms individuals (n=7). The Dambarare sample comprised a total of 40 individuals (both African and European ancestry) of which 43% of the Africans had visible signs of skeletal pathology and included the southernmost case reported for trephination in Africa. Although the pre-European contact populations of Monk’s Kop and Ashford Farms therefore seemed to have suffered less (28% combined average) from pathological conditions in comparison to that of the Dambarare individuals of African ancestry (43%), the difference was not statistically significant. Although most preversus post-contact investigations report that the biological and cultural effects on the native population was catastrophic to their health, it seems that the first Europeans (particularly the Portuguese) that came into contact with the previously isolated indigenous northern Zimbabwean population, had a minor effect on the people that they interacted with during the 17th century. The Europeans from Dambarare, in contrast, showed many skeletal signs that reflect a less healthy population which, most probably, was due to both the poor socio-economic conditions in their home country and the impact of a long voyage to Africa. It should be kept in mind that the skeletons may not have represented all of the once living populations. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / tm2015 / Anatomy / PhD / Unrestricted

Pain is the most frequent cause impairment and disability in the United States. It is estimated that over 97 million Americans are experiencing chronic pain, at a cost of somewhere between 50 and 100 billion dollars a year. The general purpose of this dissertation through qualitative and quantitative methods is to describe and analyze the hegemonic nature of physical therapy practice as an agent of western biomedicine in the treatment of working women with chronic pain using a Critical Medical Anthropological (CMA) lens. Chronic pain will be described, as the data will show, as a complex interaction of biological and socio-cultural factors. The examination and analysis of chronic pain through a CMA lens will provide an analysis and critique, not only western culture but also of Western/Biomedicine serving as a corrective to the biologically reductionist diagnostic and treatment approach that is characteristic of Western/Biomedicine and its agent, physical therapy. It can identify structures and power relations that create pain and foster the progression of acute pain to chronic pain. It can also expand treatment options, opportunities, and choices for patients, as well as allowing rehabilitation (physical therapy) to be more patient empowering (transformative rehabilitation), while examining the larger social/cultural causes and contributors to chronic pain. Lastly, this lens, through the analysis of chronic pain, can help to analyze and deconstruct professional medical hegemony that is characteristic of Western/Biomedicine and physical therapy.

This research attempts to account for the current popularity and use of acupuncture and other holistic therapies in Galway, Ireland. I have identified three research areas that are essential for understanding the popularity and use of holistic medical practices: visual culture, performance, and aesthetics. The visual culture of holistic medicines draws from exoticized imagery associated with Asian and Celtic/Folkloric Ireland and produces visual narratives marked with cultural syncretism. This imagery also provides the initial context in which patients and the general public begin to recognize and distinguish the status of these therapies as alternatives to biomedicine. Patient interpretations of the therapies—and their efficacy—are influenced by the images, symbols, and metaphors used in the magazine and leaflet promotions, as well as by the design of clinical spaces. Examination of the patient-practitioner interactions comprises the “performative” aspects of acupuncture and the social reality it creates. The verbal and nonverbal interactions play a significant role in constructing acupuncture as an appealing form of holistic healing, and how patients come to define it as pleasurable, naturalistic, and—curiously enough—as noninvasive. Patient interpretations of the social and bodily aesthetics of treatments contribute to the ways in which patients develop constructs of efficacy. Descriptions of bodily sensations and somatic imagery, use of metaphorical language, and the aftereffects of treatment experienced by patients all influence how patients define acupuncture’s efficacy. Research into how acupuncture is successfully constructed as a form of holistic medicine in Ireland suggests that its popularity is in part due to its alternative status, which indicates that the success of holistic healing practices in Ireland stems from the culture’s history of concurrently sustaining both biomedical and folk healing practices. We can also regard the popularity and use of acupuncture (as well as other forms of holistic therapies in Galway) as signaling an increase in economic standards of living while also embodying a means for negotiating the social stresses and pressures associated with late-Capitalist modernity. Key words. Visual and medical anthropology, Ireland, Ethnomethodology, Visual Culture, Phenomenology, acupuncture

The estimation of age is an important aspect in osteoarchaeological analysis. In order to understand people and their fates in past societies, researchers must turn to palaeodemography. Therefore, it is vital that the methods of age estimation, which the foundations of palaeodemographic reconstructions rest upon, are as accurate and reliable as possible. In current Swedish cremation-osteoarchaeology, two methods of age estimation are commonly used: suture closure and relative thickness of the diploë. However, no substantial evaluation of these two methods have been undertaken. This study aims to evaluate the two methods of age estimation of cremated remains, suture closure and relative thickness of the diploë. This was done by testing the two methods on two unburnt populations, Mediaeval city-dwellers from Helgeandsholmen, Stockholm, Sweden, and Middle-Neolithic hunter-gatherers from Ajvide, Gotland, Sweden. Suture closure and proportion of diploë was observed in comparison with age-related changes of the auricular surface of the ilium and the pubic symphysis. Based on the results of the study, possible courses of action were proposed and then applied on cremated remains from a Late Iron Age burial ground on Lovö, Stockholm, Sweden. The results showed significant moderate correlation with age for both methods (0.61 for suture closure and 0.58 for proportion of diploë). However, early stage of suture closure could identify a group consisting of juveniles and young adults, while advanced suture closure could identify a group consisting of middle adults and old adults. These results, which proved to be more reliable than existing methods, can, hopefully, lead to improvements of the assessment of age in cremated remains, and increase our understanding of the fates of people of the past.

Since the arrival of the Dutch colonists in the Cape, Khoesan populations were subjected to severe political and economical marginalization and often fell prey to racial conflict and genocide. These circumstances persisted until the early 20th century, during which an astonishing number of Khoesan skeletons were transported from South Africa to various locations in Europe, as at the time, different institutions competed to obtain these valuable remains. Due to the above mentioned circumstances, Southern African Khoesan groups suffered from nutritional stress, as well as substandard living conditions. Such living conditions probably did not allow for health care and medical benefits at the time. It will therefore be interesting to evaluate the health status of this group through palaeopathological assessment. Skeletal remains housed in two different European institutions were studied. The sample comprises of 140 specimens from the Rudolf Pöch Skeletal Collection in Vienna, Austria and 15 specimens from the Musée de l’Homme in Paris, France. These individuals represent both sexes and were aged between newborn and 75 years, with 54 individual being younger than 20 years of age and 101 being adults. The aim was to analyse all skeletal lesions. Results indicated high levels of typical disease conditions associated with groups under stress, such as periostitis, cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis. Treponemal disease, rickets, osteoarthritis and trauma were also encountered amongst other more specific indicators of health and disease. This study provided additional knowledge on the health status and lives of the Khoesan people during the turn of the 20th century, as well as focused new awareness on a group of severely mistreated individuals. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Anatomy / unrestricted

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Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / From 1907 to 1909, the Austrian anthropologist, Dr Rudolf Pöch (1870-1921), conducted an expedition in southern Africa that was financed by the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna. Pöch enjoyed administrative and logistical support from Austria-Hungary as well as the respective colonial governments and local authorities in the southern African region. During this expedition, he appropriated the bodily remains of more than one hundred people and shipped them to Vienna. When Pöch started teaching anthropology and ethnography in 1910, the remains became an essential part of the first ‘anthropological teaching and research collection’ at the University of Vienna.

This experiment was designed to examine the effects of burning pig (Sus scrofa) remains on insect succession. Remains can be found burnt in a range of natural disasters including earthquakes, motor vehicle accidents, house fires, and brush fires. In homicides, more often than not, remains may be burnt to try and disguise the crime or destroy evidence. There has been little research conducted on the rate of insect succession at different levels of burning. This study will help to build upon the hypothesis that diverse levels of burning will each affect insect succession differently. The experiments took place in May 2017, and was repeated in August 2017. There were a total of three pigs used during this study, which were divided into quarters. Two quarters were used to represent each treatment level. One treatment remained unburnt and was used as a control in each experiment. The quarters were burnt at the research site in Holliston, MA. The Crow-Glassman Scale (CGS) was used to burn one treatment to level 2 and one treatment to level 3-4. They were then placed on site, no closer than five meters apart, surrounded by modified lobster cages and allowed to decompose. Notes, photographs, and insect collections took place every 2 hours on day 2 and twice a day for days 2 through 7. A final collection was then made on day 10 after the majority of tissue and insects were no longer present. The amount of insect activity was documented, photographs were taken, and samples were both preserved and reared through to adults. It was hypothesized that there was a correlation between insect activity and the level of burning. This was found to be true based on the results of this study, and with further research, will have the potential to aid in the determination of the post mortem interval (PMI) when burnt remains are found at the scene.

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