Search Results (43)

Background: The foramen of Arnold (FA) and foramen of Vesalius (FV) are two inconstant small openings through the greater wing of the sphenoid bone. When FA is present, the lesser petrosal nerve passes through it. FV usually contains an emissary vein that connects the cavernous sinus to the pterygoid plexus. Objectives: To assess the presence, unilaterally or bilaterally, of the aforementioned inconstant foramina in order to gain a better insight into the anatomic variability of the middle cranial fossa. Methods: We analyzed five hundred random unenhanced CT examinations of human dry skulls from the “Francisc I. Rainer” Craniological Collection of the Human Anthropological Institute in Bucharest, Romania. The collection holds substantial anthropological and radiological value, as dry skulls allow the use of higher spatial-resolution imaging parameters and thus better detection of the small osseous structures. All scans were performed on the same Multi-Detector Computed Tomography (MDCT) scanner (Canon Aquilion One 64 slice, Canon Medical Systems Corporation) in the Department of Radiology of the Bucharest Emergency University Hospital. After collecting data, appropriate statistical analysis was performed. Results: FA was absent in 355 (71%) skulls and present in 145 (29%) skulls, bilaterally in 33 (6.6%) skulls, and unilaterally in 112 (22.4%) skulls. FV was absent in 151 (30.2%) skulls and present in 349 (69.8%) skulls, bilaterally in 223 (44.6%) skulls, and unilaterally in 126 (25.2%) skulls. Conclusions: The great variability in the prevalence of these foramina may be partly explained by the different methods of analysis of the skull base, as well as the different population subgroups on which the research has been focused. Knowledge of this variability holds great importance for anatomists, anthropologists, as well as clinicians who interact with this complex area. Full article

This article develops the concept of Housing for Artful Ageing by integrating theoretical perspectives from Artful Ageing philosophy with empirical insights from an anthropological study of housing for older adults in Copenhagen. Drawing on Jon Dag Rasmussen’s concept of ‘the housing area for older adults’ particular (care) ecology’, we argue that successful housing for older adults requires attention to both spatial (physical–material) and spacious (inclusive–experiential) dimensions of ageing lives. Through detailed analysis of everyday life in Guldbergs Have, a housing area for older adults in Copenhagen, we demonstrate how micro-interactions, sensory experiences, and minor gestures create an ecological whole that supports wellbeing beyond biomedical paradigms of successful ageing. Synthesising Manning’s theory of minor gestures with Basting’s creative care approach, we show how Artful Ageing transforms ageing from a narrative of decline into a dynamic process of becoming. We propose design principles and policy implications for creating housing that enables artful processes of becoming in later life, challenging the pathologising tendencies of active ageing discourse through attention to the small ageing experiences that constitute meaningful everyday existence. Full article

Background/Objectives: An accurate description of facial sexual dimorphism is essential in clinical, forensic, and anthropological contexts to support accurate diagnosis of craniofacial dysmorphisms and differences, treatment planning and evaluation, as well as biological profiling, craniofacial reconstruction, and personal identification. This study investigates sexual dimorphism of the facial soft tissues in a sample of healthy Italian adults, providing reference data and deepening our understanding of normal craniofacial variation. Methods: Three-dimensional stereophotogrammetric facial images of 342 Italian adults (172 males and 170 females; 18–40 years old) were analyzed using a 3D spatially dense geometric morphometric approach to assess both shape and form. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR) were used to explore facial variation and to quantify sex-related differences. Results: Centroid size was significantly larger in males. While PCA revealed that sex is a significant factor in facial shape and form variation, PLSR highlighted the existence of significant associations between sex and both shape and form. Color-coded morphometric maps underlined the most sexually dimorphic traits: males exhibited bigger faces with deep-set eyes and central facial projection extending from the supraorbital rims to the chin, whereas females display smaller faces with fuller cheeks, and a more vertical forehead profile. Conclusions: While our results are consistent with those of previous studies, our study revealed important, distinctive group-specific traits: flatter labiomandibular folds in males and wider temples and fuller cheeks in the infraorbital region extending to zygomatic and mandibular areas in females. Thus, this study provides high-resolution reference data supporting related applications. Full article

The complex relationship between urban torrents and riparian communities is investigated in this research, from a landscape point of view, in the aftermath of the catastrophic floods in Volos, Greece, in September 2023. The study starts with a multi-scalar approach, investigating through plural timescales and space-scales the way communities and torrents have co-existed in the Mediterranean; particularly in Volos, the way neoteric urban infrastructures have affected and underestimated torrentscapes, is observed critically. This investigation extends to the legislative spatial planning framework in Greece and the EU, concerning the torrent-beds and torrentscapes, in the framework of extreme climate events brought about by climate change. Highlighting the dual challenges of floods and droughts, the research uncovers the inadequacy of existing gray infrastructure and of top-down management approaches, in addressing flood risk. Co-vulnerability emerges as a binding agent, between riparian communities and torrent ecosystems. By the means of research-by/through-design in synergy with anthropological research tools, this approach aims at fostering “just” resilience, by presupposing social justice, towards the promotion of Integrated - Catchment- Management- Plans -(ICMPs) that combine the mitigation of flood risk and extreme drought challenges, the enhancement of torrentscape ecosystems, and the strengthening of the symbiotic relationship between the city inhabitants and its torrents. Full article

The proliferation of smartphones and social media has intensified debates about authenticity in contemporary pilgrimage, with critics arguing that digital connectivity undermines the spiritual depth of sacred journeys. This article explores how pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago negotiate this tension, asking whether digital mediation necessarily diminishes authentic experience. Through ethnographic fieldwork in Santiago de Compostela, semi-structured interviews with 20 pilgrims, and digital ethnography of online forums and social media platforms, the study identifies four interconnected ‘digital authentication strategies’: temporal regulations (when to connect/disconnect), spatial restrictions (where technology is appropriate), social negotiations (group norms), and narrative curation (selective digital storytelling). Rather than abandoning technology or experiencing diminished authenticity, pilgrims develop reflexive practices that integrate physical and digital dimensions while maintaining subjective experiences of spiritual legitimacy. These findings challenge classical anthropological models positioning pilgrimage as total separation from everyday life. Instead, contemporary pilgrims inhabit ‘connected liminality’—a digitally mediated liminal state where transformation occurs amid continuous connectivity, and where authenticity emerges through attentional discipline rather than technological absence. Digital mediation thus operates not as contamination but as transformation, creating hybrid ritual forms that reflect broader shifts in late modern religiosity. Full article

This study examines the construction of individual and collective identity in pre-Neolithic Egypt and the Levant through the post mortem manipulation of human remains. Focusing on funerary rituals and skull reuse, interpreted using recent anthropological theory frameworks, we propose a totemic framework of ontological identity, in which clans associated with specific animals structured their ritual and spatial practices. Based on archaeological, taphonomic, and ethnohistorical evidence, it is possible to identify how these practices reflect clan-based social units, seasonal mobility, and a reciprocal relationship with the environment, integrating corporeal and mental continuity. Plastered skulls in the Levant acted as intergenerational anchors of communal memory, while early Egyptian dismemberment practices predate the standardization of mummification and reveal the function of some structures of pre-Neolithic sanctuaries. By interpreting these mortuary rituals, we argue that selective body treatment served as a deliberate mechanism to reinforce totemic identity, transmit ancestry, and mediate ontological transitions in response to sedentarization and environmental change. Full article

This multidisciplinary study investigates the enduring vitality of Guan Di worship on Peninsular Malaysia’s West Coast by proposing and systematically testing ‘Interpretive Malleability’ as a core explanatory mechanism. This is achieved through an integrated methodology combining historical anthropology, GIS spatial data, and a dual comparative analysis. By examining cases across different regions and historical periods, this analysis, both synchronic and diachronic, assesses how the mechanism operates in varied contexts. The study defines ‘Interpretive Malleability’ as a two-part process: an ‘Inherent Potential’ within the symbol, rooted in the ‘Persistence of the Human Prototype’, and a ‘Local Generative Process’ activated by local actors. Findings reveal that the uniqueness and vitality of Guan Di’s cult are forged in practice-oriented domains through the creative agency of its followers. Ultimately, this study offers a mechanism-based, agency-centered framework for understanding religious resilience, highlighting the dynamic interplay between a symbol’s intrinsic structure and local creative engagement. Full article

This study interrogates the interplay between architectural practice and ethnographic inquiry to elucidate human spatial experience across time and culture. Employing a mixed-methods design that integrates computational bibliometric analysis with thematic coding of international academic literature, the research identifies six thematic domains—memory, pedagogy, urban injustice, institutional care, domesticity, and vernacular epistemes. These domains reveal how ethnographic methods, though increasingly incorporated in architectural discourse, are frequently relegated to an instrumental role focused on design optimisation rather than the critical examination of cultural practices and power structures. The findings underscore that architecture functions as both a technical and cultural medium, simultaneously shaping and reflecting human behaviour and social relations. By foregrounding ethnography as a tool for capturing situated, embodied knowledge, the study advocates for a reconceptualisation of architectural practice that embraces reflexivity, inclusiveness, and contextual sensitivity. In doing so, it contributes to interdisciplinary debates central to anthropology, challenging established epistemological hierarchies and highlighting the potential for transformative, culturally informed spatial design. Full article

Gacheon Village, a traditional rice-terrace community in Korea, possesses ecological, cultural, and anthropological significance but is confronted by population decline and loss of ecological function. This study investigates the interrelationship between space and human activities in a traditional village through an integrated approach involving a cognitive perspective and spatial syntax analysis. Using Lynch’s five image elements, we analyzed social and cultural meanings through cognitive maps and interviews with 25 indigenous people. We applied detailed tools of spatial syntax analysis to analyze quantitative structures associated with cognitive representations and confirmed that cognitive space and syntax analysis are mutually complementary. In particular, segment analysis revealed symbolic places that were not identified in the general axis analysis, and we confirmed that these places were based on sociocultural contexts. By encompassing the complex functions of cognitive space and the quantitative elements of syntax analysis, we hypothesize that meaningful insights into spatial characteristics and taking an integrated approach to qualitative and quantitative data can enable spatial interpretation beyond the limitations of existing studies. The results of this study can be used to establish sustainable urban planning and preservation measures that consider the cultural and environmental contexts of traditional villages. Full article

This article explores the transformative changes in Catholic liturgy during the twentieth century and their implications for the stability of religious meaning and cultural identity in the West. In critical dialogue with Chantal Delsol’s diagnosis of the decline of Christianitas, this study argues that the reform of ritual following the Second Vatican Council, rather than political entanglements, played a decisive role in weakening the public credibility of Catholic truth claims. Drawing on Roy A. Rappaport’s theory of ritual as a stabilizer of cultural meaning, the author analyzes how this postconciliar liturgical reform altered the semiotic structure of Catholic worship—shifting communication from indexical to symbolic forms and reorienting the liturgy from a vertical–concentric order to a more decentralized horizontal dynamic. The chosen method combines theoretical reflection with liturgical anthropology to assess how changes in the Roman Missal, ritual posture, and spatial arrangement disrupted the transmission of canonical messages. The conclusion suggests that this semiotic transformation undermined the liturgy’s capacity to ritually confirm the truths of faith, contributing to the broader civilizational disintegration observed by Delsol. Ultimately, this article contends that any future revitalization of Catholic culture will depend less on political influence and more on recovering the liturgy’s ritual capacity to sustain belief in transcendent truth. Full article

This paper is an introduction to the Humanities Special Issue on ‘The Phenomenology of Travel and Tourism’. It is made up of four sections, the first two of which provide the main focus of discussion. We start by considering the idea of travel ‘in comfort’, which, as we show, has been historically bound up with cultures of the mobile virtual gaze. Comfort, by this reckoning, reflects a phenomenological disposition whereby the act of gazing at an object of spectacle is understood not in purely visual terms but as a spatial and somatic prefiguring of that object as an object of spectacle. A phenomenology of comfort, we argue, steers consideration towards the way forms of travel or tourism practice reflect embodied or disembodied modes of engagement with the world. This line of enquiry brings with it the need for more fine-grained analyses of questions of experience, which is picked up and developed in the second section. Here, we examine some of the important and foundational work that has helped push forward scholarship oriented towards the development of a phenomenological anthropology of travel and tourism experiences. Accordingly, a key aim of this paper, and of the Special Issue it provides the introduction to, is to push further and more resolutely towards these ends. The third section is an overview of the nine Special Issue contributions. The paper ends with Kay Ryan’s short poem, ‘The Niagara River’, a quietly foreboding meditation on the hazards of travelling in too much comfort and of reducing the world to little more than ‘changing scenes along the shore’, all the while remaining blind to what awaits downstream. Full article

Drawing on patristic sources and modern Orthodox authors, this paper explores the paradoxes of the heart as the deepest and most hidden place of the human being. The heart can be both the highest and deepest point of an encounter with God, as well as the highest and deepest place of the secret self. The paper describes the difficulty of searching for the place of the heart in the context of the philosophies of interiority, subjectivity, and self and examines the spatial metaphors involving the centrality of the heart. The paper also considers the dynamics of purification, which places the heart at the crossroads between purifying the body and achieving the transparency of intellect through divine illumination. The heart is revealed as the coincidence of dispassion (apatheia) and the purest and most intense charity (agape), which means regaining the purity of desire (oriented to God). As a space of both hiddenness and revelation, the heart invites an apophatic anthropology. Full article

Starting from the concept of death in contemporary Serbian culture (in the context of thanatological and anthropological studies), the author focuses on the analysis of communication with the deceased in dreams, which is still perceived as an important form of contact with the otherworldly. The analysis of material collected during field research at various locations in Serbia and in Serbian communities in Romania (from 2017 to 2024), supplemented by dream narratives from the internet, has shown that based on the main messages conveyed by the deceased to the living, dreams can be divided into: (1) dreams about “the unappeased deceased” (who lack something in the otherworld, usually due to an omission by the living related to funerary rituals); (2) dreams in which the deceased show the otherworld and provide verbal assessments of it; (3) dreams in which the deceased inform of their departure or final passing into the world of the dead; (4) dreams in which the deceased demonstrate their presence in the world of the living, i.e., providing information pertaining to the sphere of the dreamer’s social reality; (5) dreams in which the deceased convey their messages, advice or warnings to the living; and (6) dreams interpreted as the deceased person’s call to the dreamer to join them in the otherworld. Basic element analysis of the spatial world image, projected via the dream, highlights the importance of the locus perceived as a border space. Dreams about the deceased seem to be ambivalent in this respect, given that, on the one hand, they are perceived as an important means of communication between this world and the otherworld, and on the other hand, through the ideas on which they are founded and that they further transmit, they are also part of the narrative strategies of the boundary between this concept of two worlds. Full article

This study delves into the profound impact and significance of religious culture on the urban spatial configuration and local cultural essence of Macau amidst contemporary societal transformations. Emphasis is placed on how religious sites undergo functional reshaping and role redefinition within the urban fabric, thereby influencing residents’ quality of life, cityscape, and cultural identity. Adopting a spatial anthropological lens, this research employs a multitude of methodologies including city walking, participatory observation, and historical analysis to investigate the spatial configurations and developmental trajectories of Macau’s diverse religious sites and their immediate environments. The aim is to unearth the historical drivers behind the formation and dissemination of religious culture in Macau and to elucidate its intricate interactions with urban space. The findings reveal that religious sites in Macau not only physically delineate unique urban spatial patterns but also serve as vital hubs for fostering local cultural cohesion and weaving social networks through routine religious practices, community engagements, and a plethora of festive and ritualistic events. The pervasive influence of these sites extends across multiple domains of society, culture, and economy, playing a pivotal role in maintaining regional stability and harmony, enriching cultural diversity, and propelling socioeconomic transformation. Full article

A spatial turn is increasingly being recognised across education, the humanities, and social sciences to critique Western Cartesian assumptions treating space as either empty or a diametric opposition bringing dualistic splits between reason/emotion and mind/body. Bacon’s vision of human subjugation of nature as a tool for human progress is examined as a diametric spatial projection, where humans are above and apart from nature, in a mirror-image inverted symmetry of above/below hierarchy and side-by-side assumed separation as diametric space. Building on an interdisciplinary synthesis between an aspect of the structural anthropology of Lévi-Strauss, De Beauvoir’s othering, and Bronfenbrenner’s social-ecological systems in psychology, allied with a Heideggerian critique of being as needing a mode of ‘being alongside the world’, a shift in experiential and conceptual space is proposed in this conceptual review article for education. This shift is towards a framework of concentric spatial systems of sustainability. Concentric relational spaces of assumed connection and relative openness and away from diametric spaces of splitting and closure have been developed recently for sustainability concerns regarding inclusion in education. This article goes further to interrogate systems of concentric relational space for belonging with and encountering the natural world for environmental sustainability. Full article