{"title":"[Skeleton or mummy: practices and structures for secondary burial in southern Italy in modern and contemporary age].","authors":"Antonio Fornaciari","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The ancient concepts of death as duration and the practices of secondary burial,first analysed by Robert Hertz, still survive in many areas of southern Italy. According to these beliefs death was perceived not as a sudden event, but as a long-lasting process, during which the deceased person had to go through a transitory phase, passing from one state of existence to another. Recent archeological research documents the persistence of secondary burial rites in Southern Italy during the Modern Age. A survey conducted in the province of Messina in Eastern Sicily has identified two surviving architectural structures appointed for the treatment of the bodies: the 'sitting colatoio' aimed at favoring the skeletonisation and the 'horizontal colatoio' used to obtain mummification by dehydration. Both these structures controlled the corpse's decay and transformed the body in a stable and durable simulacra of the dead.</p>","PeriodicalId":76143,"journal":{"name":"Medicina nei secoli","volume":"25 1","pages":"205-38"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"33160257","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"[Medical practices in the migration novels in Spain].","authors":"Ilaria Rossini","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Starting from the analysis of three Spanish novels written by African authors emigrated in Spain, the article focuses on different medical practices adopted locally, in Africa and in Europe. El Metro, Más allá del mar de arena and Rebeldía give the different disease treatments imagine, showing, on the one hand, the official medicine, and on the other hand, the traditional medicine. In some cases, it is emphasized little contradictions, doubts, and anxieties often experienced by immigrants, even when they are faced with the type of treatment to be undertaken. One of the many mosaic pieces of the world is highlighted: in fact, habits and cultures are very different in a society where more and more people with different physical appearance, language, religion, and customs live understanding that what \"belongs\" to the other is not necessarily something \"distant\" and extraneous, but something that can enrich our cultural identity for our open-mindedness.</p>","PeriodicalId":76143,"journal":{"name":"Medicina nei secoli","volume":"25 2","pages":"581-608"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"33160265","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"[October the 1st 1777: Sigault executes the first symphysiotomy on a living woman].","authors":"Arturo Viglione","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Hippocrates observed that in women, during childbirth, the iliac bones because of the failure of the joints disconnet and move away from their anchorage. In the 17th and 18h century, doctors plagued with severe and frequent mechanical dystocies, often fatal, devoted themselves to resolve these problem through measures aimed at obtaining a more modest growth of the fetus (thanks to an appropriate maternal nutrition, or induction of preterm birth) and both encouraging artificially and strengthening the natural pelvic collapse descripted by Hippocrates. They realized, but with little success, prophylactic measures (fumigation of the pelvis, local applications of emollients, fracture of the del coccyx in the female newborns, antepartum coitus), and absurd pharmacological remedies or resorted to intrapartum obstetric maneuvers, but they did non forget even to suggest the voluntary sterility to stunted or kyphotic women. The symphysiotomy on living women, officially performed for the first time by Dr. Sigault in 1777, in Paris (but certainly in 1774 by Prof. Ferrara in Naples) modified the obstetrical assistance.</p>","PeriodicalId":76143,"journal":{"name":"Medicina nei secoli","volume":"25 2","pages":"415-47"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"33159307","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"[Human remains in museums: research, preservation and communication. The experience of Turin University Museum of Anthropology and Etnography].","authors":"Rosa Boano, Renato Grilletto, Emma Rabino Massa","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The creation of large scientific collections has been an important development for anthropological and paleopathological research. Indeed the biological collections are irreplaceable reference systems for the biological reconstruction of past population. They also assume the important role of anthropological archives and, in the global description of man, permit the integration of historical data with those from bio-anthropolgical research. Thinking about the role of mummies and bones as scientific resources, best practice of preservation of ancient specimens should be of high priority for institution and researchers. By way of example, the authors mention their experience regarding ancient human remains preserved in the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography at the University of Turin.</p>","PeriodicalId":76143,"journal":{"name":"Medicina nei secoli","volume":"25 1","pages":"251-65"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"33159696","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"[The contribute of the trauma analysis to reconstruct the lifestyle of Castel Malnome community (Rome, I-II cent. A.C.)].","authors":"Paola Catalano, Carla Caldarini, Romina Mosticone, Federica Zavaroni","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The relations between fractures and living conditions of a population are important to reconstruct the biological status of a population. This work is focused on the description and interpretation of trauma in the skeletal remains: the sample consist of 218 individuals, coming from Roman imperial necropolis of Castel Malnome (I-II century AD). The trauma incidence has been considered by the calculation offrequencies per individual and per bone. The examination of the pattern offractures in the skeleton for this site indicates that the individuals are characterized by high level of trauma and reveals that ulna and ribs were the mostfrequently affected bones. The evidence of trauma in this population may reflect many factors about the lifestyle of individuals,for example their occupation and environmental conditions, moreover the state of healing of the injuries may also indicate the availability of treatments.</p>","PeriodicalId":76143,"journal":{"name":"Medicina nei secoli","volume":"25 1","pages":"101-17"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"33160253","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"[Egyptian mummies as anthropological artifacts].","authors":"Giovanni Bergamini","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Ancient human remains like Egyptian mummified bodies cannot be considered on a physical anthropological perspective only. So severe and invasive were the operations on the body, so various were the materials involved in the preservation techniques, so complicated was the embalming and wrapping procedure according to specific rituals, that the final result, the mummy, is to be considered a highly composite product. The human remains are a relevant part of it indeed, but a very wide set of information can be taken.also from the other components, relating to environment, resources, technology, religious beliefs, cultural and technical traditions, skills and arts at the time of the individual's life. That a plain anthropological approach could not be exhaustive on cataloguing such a kind of archaeological finds emerged during the sessions of the scientific board charged by the Italian ICCD of defining a data track for filing anthropological remains as a special kind of cultural heritage.</p>","PeriodicalId":76143,"journal":{"name":"Medicina nei secoli","volume":"25 1","pages":"239-50"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"33160258","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"[Tumors in paleopathology: evidences from mummies].","authors":"Valentina Giuffra, Gino Fornaciari","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The relative abundance of neoplastic lesions documented so far in paleopathological literature, distributed over a wide lapse of time and in different geographic areas, demonstrates that a number of tumours affected past populations. Nevertheless, if dozens of cases of tumors affecting the skeleton are reported, only afew records are documented in soft tissues. The rarity of tumors in mummies is a debated problem; short life span of past populations, scarcity of mummified remains arrived to us in comparison with skeletal remains and technical difficulties to detect neoplastic lesions in ancient tissues seem to be the main reasons of the rarity of findings. It is important to pay maximum attention to any little sign of neoplastic lesion in ancient human remains, in order to increase our limited knowledge about the type of tumours and relative incidence afflicting our ancestors. Comparison with modern data could help understand the evolution patterns of cancer in the history of Mankind.</p>","PeriodicalId":76143,"journal":{"name":"Medicina nei secoli","volume":"25 1","pages":"35-50"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"33159304","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rome's physician: Guido Baccelli and his legacy in the new Italian capital.","authors":"Luca Borghi","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Many Italian physicians played a more or less relevant role in the military, social and political events which paved the way to and accompanied the birth of the unitary State, which 150th anniversary falls in 2011, but probably just one of them, Guido Baccelli (1832-1916), left so many traces in the very landscape of the present-day Italian capital. Even if the millions of tourists pouring into Rome every year are not aware of it, the vision and tenacity of this celebrated physician lay behind quite a lot of the most typical and popular places of the Eternal City. Baccelli, as a politician, took care of his home town with the same kindness and effectiveness he put, as a physician, in the care of the sick.</p>","PeriodicalId":76143,"journal":{"name":"Medicina nei secoli","volume":"25 2","pages":"395-413"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"33159306","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cristina Brazzaventre, Claudia Celletti, Paolo Gobattoni, Valter Santilli, Filippo Camerota
{"title":"[The Ehlers-Danlos syndrome: hystory of a clinical hendiadys].","authors":"Cristina Brazzaventre, Claudia Celletti, Paolo Gobattoni, Valter Santilli, Filippo Camerota","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) is a clinically and genetically heterogeneous group of inherited connective tissue disorders characterized by joint hypermobility, skin hyperextensibility and tissue fragility, which results in easy bruising and abnormal scarring. The condition shows a phenotypic variance from milder to serious presentations. Complaints related to activity (hypermobility, dislocations, impaired balance), to pain (general pain, headache, jaw and tooth pain) and to skin (bruises, fragility, impaired wound healing) are frequent. It was first noted by Hippocrates in 400 BC in his writing 'Airs Water and Places' that the nomads Scythians had lax joints and multiple scars. Whereas the additional flexibility can give benefits in term of mobility and agility, adverse effects of tissue laxity and fragility can give rise to clinical consequences. We recognize that it is important that, in those hypermobility patients, who develop potentially debilitating symptoms of chronicfatigue or widespread pain, there should be prompt an appropriate intervention.</p>","PeriodicalId":76143,"journal":{"name":"Medicina nei secoli","volume":"25 2","pages":"491-501"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"33160261","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}