Stiffs Skulls, and Skeletons: Medical Photography and Symbolism

After looking at these photos from the collection of Dr. Burns, I wonder if the physicians of the 19^th century really had any respect for the patients. This book is interesting, without a doubt, because you get to see the medical schools of old, along with the type of instruction that was commonplace. According to the preface, medicine in the UK had changed in the nineteenth century; gone were the quack barber surgeons, now replaced by years of study at universities. Dissection was no longer done in secret with payments to grave robbers, but in teaching wards, where the students received a lot of training. However, according to these photos, the bodies themselves were often reduced to a freak show.

One of the photos in this book shows a dissected head, with part of the cranium removed, sitting on a plate. The eyes are open and so is the stubbly mouth, as if the deceased is in a stupor. It probably looks less ghastly in an old black and white photo than it would as a clear color digital one, because black and white photos can’t show the blood. Nowadays this is the kind of thing you’d see on a website devoted to “rotten.” Half the photos in this book show the medical students clowning around with the corpses, though how they got the expensive (and large and cumbersome) cameras into the wards I do not know. It would be easier nowadays thanks to iPhone cameras and their capacity to hold a million photos, but the student who takes the photo would probably be expelled.

Plate 1.29, however, has a more scholarly angle to the anatomy photo. It shows three men sitting around a skull, perched on an open book, as they study it. The skull and book bring to mind the old “memento mori” theme in classical painting, where the skull symbolizes the passage of time. As for the photos of the operating theaters, everything is very orderly and respectful, with none of the shenanigans from where the professors weren’t around.

Further chapters have photos from case studies, and before-and-after photos of patients after operations. There are photos of skulls eaten away by syphilis, WWI veterans recovering from jaw surgery, and bullets lodged in bones. The surgeons probably had plenty of opportunity to experiment with all the gruesome injuries that the veterans had, the kind that you can’t do on a cadaver whose bones don’t grow.

Medicine has always been politically controversial, not just because of quality and cost, but the ethics towards the patient. A recent book, Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, portrays how a lack of trust grew among African Americans towards physicians, given how they were often used for unethical experimentation. Then you have last year’s book A Finger In Lincolns Brain, which shows how low the quality of American medicine was. But after reading this book, it’s clear that even in the more primitive days, the patients’ survival rate hinged on how seriously the physician took his job.

Street Fight: Handbook of an Urban Revolution

    This book brings to mind an earlier tome called The Pedestrian Revolution, where the argument for car-free zones is shown to be feasible and profitable. However, The Pedestrian Revolution was written 40 years ago, a time when living in the city wasn’t the vogue. Much of Janette Sadik-Khan’s Street Fight has to do with modern issues of overcrowding and high fuel costs. Not all of her examples are from NYC; she includes Medellin, Colombia, as an example of non-automobile services. That unfortunate city, better known for cocaine, now has cable cars and escalators to get people up the hills. Instead of a two hour bus trip down the winding mountain roads, it’s a ten minute walk to the cable station, twenty minutes down to the city, and a ten minute bus ride to work. Medellin sits at the bottom of a valley, so more cars would equal more smog (like LA, Santiago De Chile, Beirut, Mexico City, etc) and even if the cars go electric, who can afford one anyway? The cable cars and escalators are an alternative to moving everyone to “affordable housing” in an unfamiliar neighborhood.

   Sadik-Khan explores the no-car solutions worldwide, and outlines the benefits; you get less smog, shorter commutes, lower fuel costs, decreased traffic, and if you increase the landmarks, navigation becomes easier. She also discusses the many sacrifices to me made, such as when 1^st Avenue in Manhattan got a bike lane. The Avenue, once a five-lane road, is reduced to only three car lanes; one for bikes, one for buses, and three for cars. While cars end up with fewer lanes and parking, she’s not terribly sympathetic; most of the cars on 1^st Avenue are commercial, and few New Yorkers can afford a car anyway.

    The author devotes a chapter to the anti-bike lane people, such a Toronto’s mayor Rob Ford (given his girth, he could use a bike) and doesn’t turn them into villains. Not everybody wants to ride, like the grocery magnate John Castimatides, who has the money to get driven to work daily, and like Rob Ford, would benefit from a few rides. Sadik-Khan does, however, criticize the anti-bike people with regard to their attitude to casualties. When a cyclist gets run over, they’re likely to say “he deserved it,” but when a cyclist hits a pedestrian, they’re up in arms.

    The earlier book by Jane Jacobs is mentioned in Street Fight, along with the changes that did not happen as a result. Robert Moses becomes the villain in this book, because it was Moses that pushed for car accommodations and not pedestrians. Maybe this book is really about the change from the city-to-suburb-to-city change in today’s world? Perhaps the number of young people putting off marriage influences the desire to live in cities? This book is one of several pro-urban arguments that have hot the bookshelves in recent years, the most recent one of which was Never Built Los Angeles. It turns out that LA had many planned neighborhoods proposed in the 1950’s, all of which had a rail link, and none of which were taken seriously. But given 30 years of “the freeway is a parking lot,” maybe it’s time?

DIY Detroit by Kimberley Kinder

Kimberley Kinder’s book argues that in cash-strapped cities, residents have two options; either they handle their civil needs on their own, or they suffer from the lack of it. Detroit is her main example of a city where the residents are on their own to pick up garbage, maintain abandoned properties, and even to perform law-enforcement duties.

The idea of local residents having to handle everything on their own is nothing new. In parts of Vermont, you have to take your trash to the depot yourself, because there’s no trash pickup. In order to have public trash collection, the property taxes would have to be raised, which nobody wants. However, Vermont is full of pig farms, and the trash can be fed to pigs, so that offsets the cost. It would not work in a city like New York or Chicago. While services like ambulances and fire departments can be staffed by volunteers, as they are in small towns, it would not be feasible in a large urban area.

The chapter “Seeking New Neighbors” has the residents padlocking vacant houses and finding buyers themselves, rather than risk having the place sit empty. The empty house phenomena is one of Detroit’s biggest blights, because they obviously attract drug-using squatters. Some banks are open to this, because it saves them having to constantly replace stolen pipes and boilers. Others are not open this idea, and the houses become an eyesore. Though not mentioned in this book, there is a concept called “attractive nuisance,” where a property owner can be penalized if his property attracts trespassers. For instance, let’s say you own a house with a pool, but you’re way for a week at a time, and teens keep sneaking in to use it. The Sheriff can call this an attractive nuisance because of the hassle it causes him, but the property taxes pay for him to keep it safe. Detroit, however, lost its tax revenue, so the police can do nothing. It’s up to the neighbors.

Further chapters deal with urban farms, neighborhood watch, street lighting, and land use. With the city government practically non-functional, volunteering is vital. However, I’m not entirely sympathetic to everything in this book, starting with the handling of the empty house problem. Volunteering to maintain a property is great, but why aren’t the residents lobbying to have them demolished? So few people are moving into the city, so why would anyone think the houses will sell. The “Seeking New Neighbors” chapters discusses the foreclosures, and how residents walk away from $50,000 mortgages and pay $10,000 cash for the home next door. The residents could easily seek out an area with better police service, offer a pittance for a county-foreclosed home, promise to start paying the taxes, and there you go. Blocks of foreclosed homes could then be torn down and turned into farms.

Some of the problems here were discussed in an earlier book called The Metropolitan Revolution. It cites Detroit as an example of the “fractured municipality,” where the mayor and the selectmen can’t agree on what to do. Public works end up stalling, and the community decays. The role of the politicians is mostly avoided in DIY Detroit, and I don’t fault the author for it. I doubt they’re of much help, especially not after Mayor Kilpatrick spent the city’s money on his girlfriends.

Witness: A Hunkpapha Historian’s Strong-Heart Song of the Lakotas

The value of these journals is that they were written by a Native American, but using western writing style that Americans could understand. Josephine Waggoner came from the Lakota tribe, but she was educated at the Hampton Normal school. She writes about the organization of the tribes (and sub tribes) along with their history, customs, and mythology.

Waggoner discusses how the tribes were divided into groups that remained near rivers and hunting grounds, rarely going far from their familiar territory. When settlers began moving in, the various groups were forced to move, and though she doesn’t expressly say it, the migration probably crowded the territory. That would’ve put a strain on the hunters’ supply of game.

The most fantastic story in the book is called Hampton and Back to Standing Rock. Two boys get into a dispute with a farmer, he tries to beat them, they beat him back, and off they run. These boys travel over mountains and rivers with meager food, all the way to Chicago, then join Hobos on a train ride home. Then they get taken in by Sitting Bull, who rails at an Army Major for conning the boys. The chapter describes how the schools used tricks to force the kids to learn English; they would house different tribes, like Apache and Sioux, in the same room. Since they didn’t speak the same language, they had no choice but to speak English to each other. However, the tribal work ethic shows through, like the time where some boys fix the cabin of a Black family, at their own expense.

My only fault with the book is that it is a little too extensive. I would rather see this book divided into several, with the author’s life story, chief’s biographies, and descriptions of tribal life in separate volumes. The story of her own life would make for a great book in itself. I would also be interested to learn about her interaction with tribes that she would never have encountered, like the Oneida from New York and the Apache from the Southwest. But I’m grateful to be able to read a book like this, because it describes the Native American experience from someone who knew it firsthand.

A Culinary Tour of India by Vogesh Singh

The book begins with philosophical and health related aspects of Indian gastronomy.  Vata is what controls the flow of air and breathing, while pitta controls heat. Spicy foods are to be avoided in summer, and one is advised not to eat herbs found in dry areas. Rather than a cookbook, this text is all about the different types of food on the subcontinent, and the ways in which they are eaten.

    One of the main points of this book is that certain foods are meant for occasions. In the north, there is something called Dastarkhwan, a ceremonial meal where certain foods are expected to be served. It includes kebabs, beef in gravy, vegetables in gravy, bead, and rice. This meal, however, would only be eaten by Muslims, Jews, or Christians, because Hindu don’t eat meat. If you’re a vegetarian, then Indian cooking will be a more viable option than any of the frozen vegetarian meals you find in the supermarket. A massive range of cooking oils, spices, and ingredients are used, so you can have great options with no meat, fish, poultry, or eggs.

    The book includes a wonderful chapter on Hyderabad cuisine, heavy in chilies. On the Malabar coast, seafood is very common, while the chief staple food is always rice. The region is also known for pickled fruits and vegetables, with a sour taste. Lemon and tamarind predominate, and you have pickled mangoes and other fruits. You also get vegetables that are sautéed, and others that are deep fried.

   My only fault with this book is that the photos that accompany the entries are in black and white, while the color photos that come at the end are of poor quality. When you are photographing food, you want the photo to convey the rich colors, which make the dish look more appetizing.

Women's America: Refocusing the Past

The introduction to this book suggests that women’s history (and I mean in the USA) can be studied in stages, with each era of history bringing changes and progress. Take for instance Amelia Earhart, which the authors use as an example of courage. While she was definitely an innovator, as there were few women aviators at the time, she wasn’t the first woman in the USA to show courage. Half a century earlier, hadn’t thousands of women taken risks when their families moved into the Great Plains? Anyone who saw the recent remake of True Grit knows that the “pioneer woman” of the 1800’s had to have assumed great risk. It is for this reason, that the authors advise the following criteria when reading this book; identify the historical source, ask who created it, ask why, ask how the attitudes (or laws) of the time influenced the recording, and ask who it was meant for.

     An early chapter here covers the issue of women in early America, with special emphasis on those that were enslaved. The authors write about how rice harvesting was a back-breaking job, often done by the women. They cut through the Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima stereotypes, and show us how the reality was even worse. The women performed hard manual labor, and relatively few were tasked strictly with cooking, cleaning, and childcare.

   A more interesting piece is the issue of something called “Interspousal Tort Immunity.” Under English Common Law, the husband and wife were considered one person, so they could not sue each other. The wife could therefore not claim any damages of her husband beat her or stole from her. The chapter is comically titled “Why Diamonds Really Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” in that the jewelry bestowed as an engagement gift was in fact a defense. A woman could sue a man for breaking an engagement, because it was considered a breach of contract. However, in the event of such a broken promise, she was expected to keep the jewelry, so she wouldn’t have to humiliate herself by going to court. As for a married woman, her jewelry was the last thing that creditors could seize if her husband defaulted his debts.

    As I mentioned before, women of the pioneer era are detailed, along with convents in the cities. The contribution of the nuns was covered in an earlier book titled Women of Faith, where the Chicago nuns were the founders of education for children in Chicago. In Women’s America, however, the New York nuns are said to have gotten some political clout (though not necessarily power) by establishing childcare and education institutions. It was the only situation where the male politicians would listen to the women, because without the nuns and their schools, the city would be caring for the poor on its own. In anti-tax USA, the last thing the politician wants to do is tax the men to pay for social services. As discussed in Women of Faith, the anti-Catholic sentiment of the time encouraged the establishment of the convent schools, as a way of alleviating (what was seen as) the Irish Catholic root of poverty.

   Further chapters discuss the change in rape prosecution, how the boredom of the post-war housewife led to Friedan’s feminist movement, and the changes with regard to education, health, technology, law, ad government. The authors do great justice to the history of American women with their unbiased research and writing. From the very beginning, they advise the scholar to examine the primary and secondary sources, so they can be aware of bias and undue favoritism. While this might seem new to some, keep in mind that bias is always evident in history. Remember the old adage, “history is written by the victors?” Now remember the other one, that “to the victors go the spoils of war?” By studying the sources carefully, you can get to the root of history, and cut through all the prejudices. That in itself is the basis for the study of any history.

Iranian Jews in Israel by Alessandra Cecolin

Alessandra Cecolin doesn’t take the most optimistic platform in this book. According to her, the Iranian Jews have, since 1948, made very attractive pawns for Zionism. She writes of how they were encouraged to emigrate to Israel by both the secular and religious parties, both of whom wanted to use their Iranian brethren for political gain. The secular Zionists wanted the Iranian Jews to give up many of their customs, while the religious Zionists favored Ashkenazi (German) customs. Before I go further, I want to state that this was common for all Jews in Muslim countries, be they from Iran, Yemen, Morocco, or Ethiopia. The Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews never had their customs respected.

    The myth of Muslim tolerance is shown in this book to be just that, a mere myth. The author includes many examples of Persian Muslims abusing their Jewish neighbors, through massacres, mass thefts, and forced conversions. The Jews of Mashad, for instance, converted to Islam en masse in the 1830’s, while practicing Judaism in secret, so they were relieved to be able to emigrate to Israel. Part of the reason behind the anti-Jewish activities, though not directly stated here, was the Iranian government’s weakness. Moving to a country like Israel, even at the cost of becoming a second class citizen, was a better alternative to a government that couldn’t protect you. A sizeable number of Jews went to Herat, Afghanistan, rather than say “Alla Hu Akbar,” so perhaps the emigration part wasn’t really new to them?

   Altogether, the image that Cecolin paints of Iran’s Jews comes off as bleak. However, this book is missing some essential documentation. There aren’t enough firsthand accounts of Iranian Jewish life in Israel, nor reprints of speeches or letters. It might also make sense to compare the situation of Israel’s Iranian Jews with that of other non-European Jews, like the Yemenite community. However, with Israel’s Mizrahi community becoming ever more powerful, whatever marginalization is probably waning fast.