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MEET OUR RESEARCHERS: PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Rebecca Huss-Ashmore
Associate Curator-in-Charge, Physical Anthropology Section;
Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania
From 2004:
Rebecca focuses her current research on medical anthropology, and particularly
on questions of talk as a healing technology in various medical systems.
For the past five years, she has been studying cosmetic surgery as an
alternative healing system, looking at the therapeutic importance of doctor-patient
talk and social interaction. Her research tries to understand (1) why
cosmetic surgery patients seek surgery in the first place and (2) how
they come to see the process and outcome as positive or negative events
in their lives.
During 2002-2003, she collected cosmetic surgery narratives from a group
of patients who had recently had surgery. This is an excellent way to
examine the meaning of medical events, and to see the themes and metaphors
that people use to describe them. It also gives insight into how cosmetic
surgery patients see themselves and the impact of their surgery on their
lives. She has begun to analyze these stories, and has identified two
very different types of plot structure. One shows the person as a prudent
and courageous individual who has surgery for sensible and mundane reasons–to
make their appearance match the person they feel themselves to already
be. The other type resembles stories of religious conversion, telling
how the person was damaged or stigmatized, and then healed or transformed
through the power of cosmetic surgery. Part of this research was supported
by the Hering Fund.
Also
during 2002-2003, Dr. Huss-Ashmore collaborated with colleagues from the
Department of Family Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, on a study
of depression in the elderly. This study, headed by Joseph Gallo, MD,
will identify ways in which elderly respondents think about depression
(their own definitions and cultural models of depression) and how they
feel it should be treated. This work is funded by the National Institutes
of Mental Health.
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| Janet
Monge
jmonge@sas.upenn.edu
Keeper of Physical Anthropology; Associate Director, Casting
Program, University of Pennsylvania Museum; Adjunct Associate Professor
in the Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania
From 2004:
In 2002-2003, Janet Monge concentrated on the establishment of a virtual
archive of CT scans of many of the major skeletal collections at the Museum.
This work was done in collaboration with Dr. P.T. Schoenemann (Department
of Anthropology) and with the assistance of the Department of Radiology
at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The research project
was funded by a grant from the University Research Council. To date, over
200 skulls, primarily from the Morton Collection of Crania (dated from
circa 1830), have been scanned. In addition, many of the Museum's primate
collections are part of the archived CT scans and arrangements have been
made to scan 25 chimpanzee skulls curated at the American Museum of Natural
History, New York. All of these materials will be available for all interested
scholars worldwide to download and study as part of their own research
projects. Beyond this outreach and archive component, the massive amount
of data generated is now being used as part of theses projects for the
undergraduate and graduate student communities (12 students in total from
Spring 2003 to the Fall 2004). The construction of a web site for the
dissemination of the data is currently underway and should be completed
in the Spring 2005. Preliminary results of this endeavor have been presented
at several professional meetings. Her own research interest in the project
stems from the use of the scans for comparative purposes to the study
of Human Evolution, specifically in the understanding of the cranial-facial
morphology and dentition of Neandertals.
As co-curator, with Dr. Alan Mann, of the Museum's forthcoming traveling
exhibition, "Survivor: The Place of Humans in the Natural World," she
has been active meeting with the exhibition planning and development team.
The exhibition is scheduled to premiere at the Penn Museum in 2007, before
traveling to several sites nationally.
She continues as Associate Director of the Casting Program (non-profit
small business venture, world-wide sales distribution to museums and universities
for research and teaching) that stores over 3000 molds and casts representing
every phase of human evolution. This summer she will travel to France
to mold the newest Neandertal fossils excavated to add to this expanding
collection. A new web page is being developed for the Casting Program
and should be completed this academic year. With American section curator
(and former Museum director) Dr. Jeremy Sabloff, she has received a prestigious
National Science Foundation grant to work with Native American college
students on collections here at the Penn Museum. Six students will arrive
in the Spring semester 2005 and join the undergraduate student ranks taking
a full series of classes. Each of the Native students will partner
with a Penn undergraduate student in this research endeavor. The project
will extend for 3 years (2005-2008).
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 Theodore
G. Schurr
Consulting
Curator, Physical Anthropology & American Sections; Assistant Professor,
Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania
Specialties/Interests:
Subject Areas: molecular anthropology, modern human evolution, human biological
variation, biomedical genetics, ancient DNA.
Geographic Areas: Siberia, Americas, Southeast Asia, South and Central
Asia, Australia, Melanesia, Africa.
Current/Past Research:
As
Director of Penn's Laboratory of Molecular Anthropology, Dr. Schurr and
his colleagues work on a wide variety of projects. Through the Baikal
Archaeology Project, he and his colleagues were able to genetically characterize
Neolithic populations (3000-9000 ybp) from the Cis-Baikal region, and
develop a more nuanced view of the prehistory of Siberia. They also analyzed
the genetic diversity of Melanesian populations, and elaborated the colonization
history of that region relative to Australia and Papua New Guinea. In
addition, the team completed anaylsis of mtDNA variation in indigenous
Altaians and Altaian Kazakhs to elucidate the prehistory of South-Central
Siberia. They will continue genetic studies of both Alatain and Slavic
populations, focusing on Y-chromosome and autosomal variation. Related
work with Old Believer and ethnic Russian populations from Siberia are
helping them to clarify aspects of Slavic and Russian history.
Upcoming Research:
Dr. Schurr was recently appointed Director of the North American Regional
Center for the Genographic Project, an ambitious initiative to collect
and analyze over 100,000 DNA samples from indigenous populations worldwide.
This project, which seeks to trace migration patterns of the world's peoples
from their African origins some 60,000 years ago, involves ten global
centers, and is funded by the National Geographic Society, IBM and the
Waitt Foundation Family. Over the next five (or more) years, Dr. Schurr's
team hopes to work with a number of indigenous communities across North
America.
In addition to this work, Dr. Schurr's lab is also engaged a several new
projects. These include a population history study in Afghanistan with
colleagues from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the UK, and a genetic epidemiology
project with collaborators in Argentina. In addition, the team will continue
their study of mitochondrial diseases in Russia and the Ukraine with physicians
and researchers in those countries, and extend their analysis of prostate
cancer in African and African-American men with researchers at Penn.
Link:
Theodore G. Schurr's website
For a detailed list of recent publications by Theodore G. Schurr, click
here
Photo: Theodore G. Schurr in the Altai Republic in
June 2003.
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