Episode 2- An Anthropological Exploration of the Why of Body Modification

Welcome to Episode 2! It’s a bit later than we expected to be putting it out, due to a few technical issues, but here we are, with more banter for your listening pleasure. This week we’ll talk about why humans modify their bodies, from an anthropological perspective, talk some Euro-American tattoo history and how modern modification falls into the same categories that pre-colonial/pre-industrial modifications fall into.Some notes from stuff discussed on the episode:Ötzi’, the Iceman- This mummy preserved in the Alps lived 5300 years ago, according to researchers. I mis-spoke, most of his tattoos seem to medically related, mostly being sets of lines (2-4 per grouping), located over areas that he may have had medical issues, and 2 that resemble plus signs that were on joints or places that we associate with acupuncture points.- here’s a link to an interesting article about it: https://www.livescience.com/49611-otzi-iceman-mummy-tattoos.htmlThe Siberian Princess, or Princess of Ukok is about 2500 years old, roughly buried in 500 BCE.Here’s a link to an article which shows the 8 oldest tattoos in the world and where they are from: http://www.oldest.org/artliterature/tattoos/Books referred to in the episode:Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology, Mary Douglas, 1970Modern Primitives, David Levi Strauss, found in Modern Primatives: Tattoo, Piercing, Scarification- An Investigation of Contemporary Adornment & Ritual, by V. Vale and Andrea Juno, 1989