Entre la estética y la medicina: el cuidado del cuerpo en el Breviarium de Johannes de Sancto Paulo / [Between aesthetics and medicine: care of the body in the Breviarium of Johannes de Sancto Paulo]

El Breviarium de Johannes de Sancto Paulo, compuesto en el entorno de la Escuela de Salerno en la segunda mitad del XII, presenta las características propias del género médico de los compendios o prácticas medievales, una suerte de vademécum que describe en latín los signos, las causas y el tratamiento de las principales enfermedades ordenadas a capite ad calcem. Pese a contar con una importante tradición manuscrita —se han encontrado hasta el momento 36 códices que se conservan en diversas bibliotecas de todo el mundo— el Breviariumes una obra inédita, pues nunca llegó a imprimirse en el Renacimiento. Entre sus capítulos, hallamos algunos dedicados al cuidado y a la higiene del cuerpo (teñido del cabello, manchas y pústulas en el rostro, halitosis, mal olor en las axilas, blanqueamiento de dientes). Todos ellos presentan recetas y experimenta para combatir estos problemas no solo desde un punto de visto médico, sino también estético. El objetivo de nuestro trabajo, por tanto, consiste en analizar estos capítulos, contextualizarlos dentro de la producción médica salernitana, rastrear sus fuentes y atestiguar su pervivencia en tratados posteriores. (AU)

En pos de la belleza. Cuidado de rostro y cabellos en el corpus textual hebreo de medicina / [In pursuit of beauty. Face and hair care in the Hebrew textual corpus of medicine]

Este trabajo presenta el resultado preliminar de una investigación en curso sobre tres géneros o tipologías textuales hebreas de (o con) contenido cosmético poco estudiados hasta ahora: recetarios, libros de medicina general y recetas sueltas. El análisis se ha basado en una muestra de textos concretos, con el fin de que sirvan como estudio de caso, en los que nos hemos centrado en las recetas y procedimientos dedicados a rostro y cabellos, por los que todos ellos revelan una preocupación notoria. Por un lado, se han examinado los diversos propósitos de las recetas, así como los ingredientes, técnicas y procedimientos. Por otro, hemos prestado atención a cómo se articulan el conocimiento y las técnicas cosméticas en distintos contextos médicos que no siempre tienen como objetivo aparente la salud femenina pero que se desarrollan en el marco de los discursos sobre la diferencia sexual y en la intersección de género, clase social y etnicidad. (AU)

True frontal alopecia in 17th-century paintings.

Paintings often show women with a clearance of the frontal hairline. We previously remarked how this was a form of pseudoalopecia that was voluntarily caused by women who shaved the frontal part of their hair for fashionable and esthetic reasons. In this paper, we emphasize in a second set of paintings showing a true alopecia that was caused by traction of the hair due to a tight hairstyle and was culturally favored in the 17th century.

The aesthetic dimension of scientific discovery: finding the inter-maxillary bone in humans.

This paper examines the points of disagreement between Petrus Camper and J. W. von Goethe regarding the existence of the inter-maxillary bone in humans as the link between man and the rest of nature. This historical case illustrates the fundamental role of aesthetic judgements in scientific discovery. Thus, I shall show how the eighteenth century discovery of the inter-maxillary bone in humans was largely determined by aesthetic factors-specifically, those sets of assumptions and criteria implied in the aesthetic schemata of Camper and Goethe. I argue that the relevance of scientifically ascertainable morphological properties that count as evidence for the existence of bona fide anatomical structures depend on the aesthetic schema adopted by the communities assessing the classification. At the same time, I propose and explain mechanisms by which aesthetic considerations might determine the acceptability of empirical claims about the world. Based on the reconstruction of the arguments of Camper and Goethe, I conclude that aesthetic considerations play a substantive role in both the generation and preliminary evaluation of scientific hypotheses. This paper suggests a complementary relation between the mediation of aesthetic criteria in theory choice and in scientific discovery in that while aesthetic considerations in theory choice lead to conservatism; in the context of discovery they often lead to innovation.

Special operations: a hidden chapter in the histories of facial surgery and human enhancement.

During the Second World War, Britain's Special Operations Executive (SOE), a secret service established to encourage resistance and carry out sabotage, employed various techniques of enhancing the ability of its personnel to operate undetected in enemy territory. One of these methods was surgery. Drawing on recently declassified records, this article illuminates SOE's reasons for commissioning this procedure, the needs and wants of those who received it, and the surgeons employed to carry it out. It also aims to underline the role of context in shaping perceptions of facial surgery, and the potential for surgery for wartime disguise to resonate with current debates about human enhancement.

What Historical Ideals of Women's Shapes Teach Us About Women's Self-Perception and Body Decisions Today.

The Body Issue: What Global and Historical Perspectives of the Ideal Female Body Can Teach Us About Our Own Present-Day Bodies is a graphic memoir that explores cultural and social factors that influence women's body image and restrict their decisions about their bodies. Drawing from historical and contemporary sources, such as advertisements, magazines, and body satisfaction surveys, as well as personal experience, the memoir offers insight into the cultural and social overemphasis on women's physical appearance. This article summarizes key points from The Body Issue and invites readers to consider bodies as a means to individuality instead of assimilation.

Aesthetics.

Our everyday lives are full of aesthetic experiences. We wake up and frown at an overcast sky, or smile at the sight of the sun. Myriad decisions depend on the aesthetic appeal of the available options like which shirt to wear, which route to take to work, or where to eat. Even life-changing decisions, like where to live or who to live with, are partly based on their aesthetic appeal.

Katharsis of the skin: peeling applications and agents of chemical peelings in Greek medical textbooks of Graeco-Roman antiquity.

BACKGROUND: Recipes for peelings date back to medical texts of old Egypt. The oldest medical papyri contain recipes for 'improving beauty of the skin' and 'removing wrinkles' by use of agents such as salt and soda. The Egyptian Queen Cleopatra (69-30 BC) is said to have taken bathes in donkey's milk to improve the beauty of her skin. However, little is known about other agents and peeling applications in later Greek medical textbooks. OBJECTIVE: We will discover new agents and describe ancient peeling applications. First, we will have to identify ancient Greek medical terms for the modern terms 'peeling' and 'chemical peeling'. Second, on the basis of the identified terms, we will perform a systematic full-text search for agents in original sources. Third, we will categorize the results into three peeling applications: (i) cleansing, (ii) aesthetical improvement of the skin and (iii) therapy of dermatological diseases. METHODS: We performed a full systematic keyword search with the identified Greek terms in databases of ancient Greek texts. Our keywords for peeling and chemical peeling are 'smexis' and 'tripsis'. Our keywords for agents of peeling and chemical peeling are 'smégmata', 'rhýmmata', 'kathartiká' and 'trímmata'. RESULTS: Diocles (4th century BC) was the first one who mentioned 'smexis' and 'tripsis' as parts of daily cleansing routine. Criton (2nd century AD) wrote about peeling applications, but any reference to the agents is lost. Antyllus (2nd century AD) composed three lists of peeling applications including their agents. CONCLUSION: Greek medical textbooks of Graeco-Roman antiquity report several peeling applications such as cleansing, brightening, darkening, softening and aesthetical improvement of the skin by use of peeling and chemical peeling, as well as therapy of dermatological diseases. There are 27 ancient agents for what is contemporarily called peeling and chemical peeling. We discovered more specific agents than hitherto known to research.

Eyebrow Shapes of Chinese Empresses of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

The aim of this study was to analyze eyebrow shapes in portraits of Chinese empresses of Ming and Qing dynasties.The frontal portraits of 20 Ming empresses and 24 of Qing in which the eye and eyebrows were identifiable were measured and analyzed. The arch shape did not differ significantly (P > 0.05) between Ming and Qing. The head-up type (66.6%) was significantly more common (P < 0.001), than tail-up (13.6%), horizontal (13.6%), and arched (6.8%). The brow arches of Ming and Qing empresses were classified as 5 arch types: L (Lamas), A (Anastasia), H (Hwang), M (Empress Ma), and D (Empress Du). In Ming, type-H (45.0%) was the most frequent, followed by type-D (25.0%). In Qing, type-L (45.8%) was the most frequent, followed by type-H (16.7%) and type-D (16.7%). The relative eyebrow width (REW) of Ming and Qing was 1.59 ±â€Š0.28. The REW of Qing (1.63 ±â€Š0.30) and Ming (1.55 ±â€Š0.26) did not differ significantly. The relative medial height (RMH, 1.05 ±â€Š0.20) and relative lateral height (RLH; 1.05 ±â€Š0.21) were the same, and greater than the relative mid-pupillary height (RPH; 0.84 ±â€Š0.19; P < 0.001). The RMH of Ming (1.09 ±â€Š0.24) and Qing (1.02 ±â€Š0.16) did not differ significantly. The RLH likewise did not differ significantly between Ming (1.01 ±â€Š0.21) and Qing (1.08 ±â€Š0.22). However, the RPH of Ming (0.91 ±â€Š0.21) was significantly (P = 0.042) greater than Qing (0.79 ±â€Š0.17). The relative brow thickness (RBT) of Qing (0.13 ±â€Š0.06) was significantly (p = 0.033) greater than Ming (0.17 ±â€Š0.06). The RBT of Ming and Qing was 0.15 ±â€Š0.06 and increased with time (P = 0.023).The results of this study may be useful for brow lift or the tattooing.

The handaxe reconsidered.

The Acheulean handaxe is one of the longest-known and longest-surviving artifacts of the Palaeolithic and, despite its experimentally tested functionality, is often regarded as puzzling. It is unnecessary to invoke a unique-for-mammals genetic mechanism to explain the handaxe phenomenon. Instead, we propose that two nongenetic processes are sufficient. The first is a set of ergonomic design principles linked to the production of sturdy, hand-held cutting tools in the context of a knapped-stone technology that lacked hafting. The second is an esthetic preference for regular forms with gradual curves and pleasing proportions. Neither process is a cultural meme but, operating together in a cultural context, they can account for all of the supposedly puzzling time-space patterns presented by handaxes.

What can science and technology studies learn from art and design? Reflections on 'Synthetic Aesthetics'.

In this paper we reflect on a project called 'Synthetic Aesthetics', which brought together synthetic biologists with artists and designers in paired exchanges. We - the STS researchers on the project - were quickly struck by the similarities between our objectives and those of the artists and designers. We shared interests in forging new collaborations with synthetic biologists, 'opening up' the science by exploring implicit assumptions, and interrogating dominant research agendas. But there were also differences between us, the most important being that the artists and designers made tangible artefacts, which had an immediacy and an ability to travel, and which seemed to allow different types of discussions from those initiated by our academic texts. The artists and designers also appeared to have the freedom to be more playful, challenging and perhaps subversive in their interactions with synthetic biology. In this paper we reflect on what we learned from working with the artists and designers on the project, and we argue that engaging more closely with art and design can enrich STS work by enabling an emergent form of critique.

Cosmetic Medicine: Innovative Beauty Care as Popular Medicine in Days Gone By.

Throughout the ages, people yearned for beauty and longevity. This article examines how European physicians began to engage with the field of cosmetics over a century ago, thus introducing the category of aesthetics into medical practice. This historical phenomenon is currently repeating itself.

Malleability and Machines: Glenn Gould and the Technological Self.

The Pianist Glenn Gould has often been portrayed as a musical idealist who embraced mundane recording media as a way of escaping the anxiety of the concert hall. In pursuing his musical ideals, however, Gould obsessed over material objects-the qualities of a chair, the action of piano keys, the placement of splices in magnetic tape. This paper argues that for him, the detailed properties of machines and electronic media were crucial, not just as tools for pursuing disembodied aesthetic aims, but as instruments and material sites for a moral project. Locating Gould's concerns among the techniques and technologies that inspired him, the concert hall he despised, and the jazz and chance music he tolerated, the paper explores how Gould's famed philosophy of technology was rooted in a "technological self" that tied morality and aesthetics, and intimacy and isolation, to concrete ideals for the kinds of people we ought to be.

Celebrating the Fiftieth Baker Gordon Symposium on Cosmetic Surgery: The Legacy of Thomas J. Baker, M.D.

The Baker Gordon Symposium on Cosmetic Surgery celebrates its fiftieth year. A review of its history mirrors the evolution of aesthetic surgery in terms of advancements in techniques, and the acceptance of cosmetic surgery as a credible subspecialty of plastic surgery. Beginning in 1967, the Baker Gordon Symposium was the first live surgery symposium that focused on aesthetic surgery, and set a precedent for aesthetic surgery education over the ensuing decades. Historically, the pioneers in aesthetic techniques first presented their innovations at the Baker Gordon Symposium, helping to educate and train their peers to perform cosmetic procedures. The legacy of Thomas Baker is intertwined with the history of the Baker Gordon Symposium, both in terms of his contributions to plastic surgery education, and to the acceptance of the subspecialty of aesthetic surgery.

Divinos cadáveres: género, discurso médico y colecciones anatómicas en la leyenda de Pedro González de Velasco / Divine cadavers: gender, medical discourse, and anatomical collections in the legend of Pedro González de Velasco

Este artículo examina la imbricación entre el personaje público del anatomista Pedro González de Velasco (1815-1882), célebre por su extensa colección anatómica y por fundar el Museo de Antropología de Madrid en 1875, y la leyenda popular que relata la muerte, embalsamado y posterior exhumación de su hija Concepción. La imagen del médico entregado a la patria se imbrica con otra como la del científico loco, y la biografía entra en el ámbito de la leyenda urbana. Más allá de la mera anécdota, este trabajo mostrará cómo las metáforas estéticas asociadas al cadáver femenino y la feminidad artificial penetran en el imaginario cultural, mostrando la cercanía entre el discurso médico y la esfera de la representación literaria y artística (AU)

This paper examines the relationship between the public image of Pedro González de Velasco (1815-1882), famous for his anatomical collections and his Anthropological Museum, founded in 1875 in Madrid, and the popular legend related to the death, embalming and exhumation of his daughter Concepción. The doctor who is committed to the nation becomes a mad scientist, and his official biography is transformed into an urban legend. Beyond the merely anecdotal, I show how the aesthetics associated with female corpses and artificial women organize cultural imaginaries, bringing together medical discourses and literary and artistic representations (AU)

Pierre Bourdieu and Jacques Rancière on art/aesthetics and politics: the origins of disagreement, 1963-1985.

Rancière published two substantial criticisms of the work of Bourdieu in the early 1980s. It is possible that these were provoked by his sense that he needed to oppose what he considered to be the sociological reduction of aesthetic taste offered by Bourdieu in Distinction (Bourdieu 1986 [1979]) at precisely the moment when he (Rancière) was beginning to articulate his commitment to the potential of aesthetic expression as a mode of political resistance. Except in so far as it draws upon some of the retrospective reflections offered by Rancière in his introductions to the re-issues of his early texts, this paper examines the parallel development of the thinking of the two men up to the mid-1980s--but not beyond. The discussion is situated socio-historically and, by definition, does not seek to offer comparatively any transhistorical assessment of the values of the positions adopted by the two men. I argue that Rancière misrepresented the character of Bourdieu's sociological work by failing to recognize the underlying phenomenological orientation of his thinking. Bourdieu suppressed this orientation in the 1960s but, after the May events of 1968, it enabled him to expose the extent to which the practices of both science and art operate within constructed 'fields' in strategic distinction from popular primary experience. The challenge is to introduce an ongoing dialogue between primary and constructed cultures rather than to suppose that either social science or art possesses intrinsic autonomy.

The Rescue of the Aesthetic Character of Existence in Kierkegaard Philosophy.

The intention of this article is to develop considerations regarding the unity in all that constitutes the multifaceted work of Soren Kierkegaard. The guides to the subject of this investigation are the stages of existence. His work is devoted to considering the unity of all spheres in their original place, which is concrete existence. To search for this unity, Kierkegaard resumes the aesthetic element of existence, which had been abandoned since the Greeks, passing by Christianity and radicalizing itself since philosophers of subjectivity, to show that this abandon provokes the suppression of the aesthetic element, without which oneness is not possible.