Over the summer, I worked with one of my students on a project to locate any signs of physical therapies (massage and manipulation, remedial gymnastics, electrotherapy, and hydrotherapy) in New Zealand during the 19th century. Although physical therapies were hugely popular in Europe and North America at the time, they appear to have been almost unused in New Zealand, which is surprising since the indigenous Māori population were known to use massage (mirimiri) and hot spring water for treatment, and the early settlers would have known and practiced these therapies too. It seems that New Zealand was much like a frontier settlement before 1900, with most people working in farming, gold … [Read more...] about Soaking
What work is
Something reflective for your Easter weekend. Happy holidays everyone. What work is - by Phllip Levine We stand in the rain in a long line waiting at Ford Highland Park. For work. You know what work is--if you're old enough to read this you know what work is, although you may not do it. Forget you. This is about waiting, shifting from one foot to another. Feeling the light rain falling like mist into your hair, blurring your vision until you think you see your own brother ahead of you, maybe ten places. You rub your glasses with your fingers, and of course it's someone else's brother, narrower across the shoulders than yours but with the same sad slouch, the grin that does not hide the … [Read more...] about What work is
Anatomy – old and new
The human body has fascinated people for as long as we have had recorded history, but never more so than over the last 400 years. Since the Renaissance, artists, performers, and natural philosophers (who would later just be called 'scientists') drew their inspiration from the mysterious inner workings of the body. There's some great recent writing about the history and philosophy of anatomy, including studies of anatomy in Britain from 1700-1900 (MacDonald, 2014), critical analyses of anatomy lectures (Frieson and Roth, 2014), and Andreas Vesalius's public anatomy lessons (Shotwell, 2015). But there are also two new resources on the web that I came across recently that are quite amazing … [Read more...] about Anatomy – old and new