« Je me sens déshandicapée ». Approche anthropologique de la chirurgie de l’obésité et des situations de sortie de handicap

In 2014, the European Court of Justice recognized, for the first time, that severe obesity could be considered as a disability at work. This recognition, not yet applied in France, emerges in a context where obesity as a disease to treat seems to be consensus. The development of obesity surgery and its medical results are reinforcing this perspective. The lack of public debate in France on this potential handicap recognition of obesity, and simultaneously the frequent use of the term disability or “de-disability” by people operated to discuss the effects of this surgery are two findings at the origin of the article. In an ethnographic approach, it is proposed to give an account of the way in which people, experimenting this corporal transformation, participate in redefining obesity, bariatric surgery and disability, before the debates and political decisions that could trigger this recognition of disability. Starting from the emic neologism “de-disability”, the thread of the article, it is questioned the idea of exit from disability and entry into normality, showing that these situations confront the people operated with new social injunctions and examine the relationship between disability and normality in an original way.     

The unintended consequences of emphasising blood-borne virus in research on,and services for,people who inject image and performance enhancing drugs: A commentary based on enhanced bodybuilder perspectives

Blood-borne viruses (BBVs) are an established focus of drug research and harm reduction. While a focus on BBVs has been applied to people who inject image and performance enhancing drugs (IPEDs), research has demonstrated that there are significant differences between this group and people who inject other drugs. Furthermore, the literature on BBVs and IPED use has been misrepresented by the media and harm reduction programs, with significant consequences for how some people who inject IPEDs view academic research and health services. It seems time to ask, is our current approach to the issue of BBV among people who inject IPEDs the most appropriate, and are there ways that it could be improved to ensure that there are no unintended consequences? In this commentary I suggest ways research and harm reduction efforts could tackle the issue of BBV without exacerbating existing divides between people who inject IPEDs and the health and academic communities. These suggestions are based on the views of the enhanced bodybuilders with whom I am privileged to work.     

HLA-A, -B, -C, -DQB1, and -DRB1,3,4,5 allele and haplotype frequencies in the Costa Rica Central Valley Population and its relationship to worldwide populations

The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system is the most polymorphic in humans. Its allele, genotype, and haplotype frequencies vary significantly among different populations. Molecular typing data on HLA are necessary for the development of stem cell donor registries, cord blood banks, HLA-disease association studies, and anthropology studies. The Costa Rica Central Valley Population (CCVP) is the major population in this country. No previous study has characterized HLA frequencies in this population. Allele group and haplotype frequencies of HLA genes in the CCVP were determined by means of molecular typing in a sample of 130 unrelated blood donors from one of the country's major hospitals. A comparison between these frequencies and those of 126 populations worldwide was also carried out. A minimum variance dendrogram based on squared Euclidean distances was constructed to assess the relationship between the CCVP sample and populations from all over the world. Allele group and haplotype frequencies observed in this study are consistent with a profile of a dynamic and diverse population, with a hybrid ethnic origin, predominantly Caucasian-Amerindian. Results showed that populations genetically closest to the CCVP are a Mestizo urban population from Venezuela, and another one from Guadalajara, Mexico.     

Assessment of the accuracy of three-dimensional manual craniofacial reconstruction: a series of 25 controlled cases

The aim of this work was to estimate the accuracy of craniofacial reconstruction (CFR), from a series of 25 controlled cases. Three protocols of blind CFRs (exhibiting an increasing complexity from A to C) were assessed in this paper, allowing comparison of the CFR with the actual face of the deceased. The whole results showed that an excellent, or good, to middle resemblance (between the blind CFR and the actual face of the subject) was reached in 9 out of 25 cases, but the success gradually increased from the A to the C protocol of CFR, reaching six cases out of eight in the latter. Statistical comparison of measurements (between the blind CFR and the actual face) was also achieved, revealing that some anthropological distances were constantly underestimated or overestimated. This experiment shows that a thorough anthropological, odontological, and X-ray analysis is indispensable before performing a CFR, and these encouraging results justify further efforts of research in this field.     

Combined radiographic and anthropological approaches to victim identification of partially decomposed or skeletal remains

Victim identification is the priority in any scenario involving the discovery of single or multiple human remains for both humanitarian and legal reasons. Such remains may be incomplete and in various stages of decomposition. In such scenarios radiography contributes to both primary and secondary methods of identification; the comparison of ante-mortem dental radiographs to post-mortem findings is a primary identification method whereas the analysis of post-mortem skeletal radiographs to help create a biological profile and identify other individuating features is a secondary method of identification. This review will introduce and explore aspects of victim identification with a focus on the anthropological and radiography-based virtual anthropology approaches to establishing a biological profile, identifying other individuating factors and ultimately restoring an individual's identity. It will highlight the potential contribution that radiography, and radiographers, can make to the identification process and contribute to increasing awareness amongst radiographers of the value of their professional role in such investigations.     

男性上颌骨与颅骨的回归分析

目的探讨建立用上颌骨指标推断整体颅骨主要指标的回归方程。方法选用成年男性含下颌骨的颅骨135例,测量指标共计37项,按体质人类学测量方法进行测量,将所得数据用统计分析软件(SPSS17.0)进行分析处理,剔除r0.4相关性较差的配对。结果建立了用上颌骨指标推断整体颅骨主要指标的一元线性回归方程78个。对方程检验P0.01,差异有统计学意义。结论本研究所得方程,可用于利用上颌骨对整体颅骨主要指标的推断,为颅骨的复原提供依据。     

The Cognitive Advantages of Counting Specifically: A Representational Analysis of Verbal Numeration Systems in Oceanic Languages

The domain of numbers provides a paradigmatic case for investigating interactions of culture, language, and cognition: Numerical competencies are considered a core domain of knowledge, and yet the development of specifically human abilities presupposes cultural and linguistic input by way of counting sequences. These sequences constitute systems with distinct structural properties, the cross-linguistic variability of which has implications for number representation and processing. Such representational effects are scrutinized for two types of verbal numeration systems—general and object-specific ones—that were in parallel use in several Oceanic languages (English with its general system is included for comparison). The analysis indicates that the object-specific systems outperform the general systems with respect to counting and mental arithmetic, largely due to their regular and more compact representation. What these findings reveal on cognitive diversity, how the conjectures involved speak to more general issues in cognitive science, and how the approach taken here might help to bridge the gap between anthropology and other cognitive sciences is discussed in the conclusion.