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Anatomy – Wikipedia

Anatomy is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts.[1] Anatomy is inherently tied to embryology, comparative anatomy, evolutionary biology, and phylogeny,[2] as these are the processes by which anatomy is generated over immediate (embryology) and long (evolution) timescales. Human anatomy is one of the basic essential sciences of medicine.[3]

The discipline of anatomy is divided into macroscopic and microscopic anatomy. Macroscopic anatomy, or gross anatomy, is the examination of an animal's body parts using unaided eyesight. Gross anatomy also includes the branch of superficial anatomy. Microscopic anatomy involves the use of optical instruments in the study of the tissues of various structures, known as histology, and also in the study of cells.

The history of anatomy is characterized by a progressive understanding of the functions of the organs and structures of the human body. Methods have also improved dramatically, advancing from the examination of animals by dissection of carcasses and cadavers (corpses) to 20th century medical imaging techniques including X-ray, ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging.

Anatomy and physiology, which study (respectively) the structure and function of organisms and their parts, make a natural pair of related disciplines, and they are often studied together.

Derived from the Greek anatemn "I cut up, cut open" from ana "up", and temn "I cut",[4] anatomy is the scientific study of the structure of organisms including their systems, organs and tissues. It includes the appearance and position of the various parts, the materials from which they are composed, their locations and their relationships with other parts. Anatomy is quite distinct from physiology and biochemistry, which deal respectively with the functions of those parts and the chemical processes involved. For example, an anatomist is concerned with the shape, size, position, structure, blood supply and innervation of an organ such as the liver; while a physiologist is interested in the production of bile, the role of the liver in nutrition and the regulation of bodily functions.[5]

The discipline of anatomy can be subdivided into a number of branches including gross or macroscopic anatomy and microscopic anatomy.[6]Gross anatomy is the study of structures large enough to be seen with the naked eye, and also includes superficial anatomy or surface anatomy, the study by sight of the external body features. Microscopic anatomy is the study of structures on a microscopic scale, including histology (the study of tissues), and embryology (the study of an organism in its immature condition).[2]

Anatomy can be studied using both invasive and non-invasive methods with the goal of obtaining information about the structure and organization of organs and systems.[2] Methods used include dissection, in which a body is opened and its organs studied, and endoscopy, in which a video camera-equipped instrument is inserted through a small incision in the body wall and used to explore the internal organs and other structures. Angiography using X-rays or magnetic resonance angiography are methods to visualize blood vessels.[7][8][9][10]

The term "anatomy" is commonly taken to refer to human anatomy. However, substantially the same structures and tissues are found throughout the rest of the animal kingdom and the term also includes the anatomy of other animals. The term zootomy is also sometimes used to specifically refer to animals. The structure and tissues of plants are of a dissimilar nature and they are studied in plant anatomy.[5]

The kingdom Animalia or metazoa, contains multicellular organisms that are heterotrophic and motile (although some have secondarily adopted a sessile lifestyle). Most animals have bodies differentiated into separate tissues and these animals are also known as eumetazoans. They have an internal digestive chamber, with one or two openings; the gametes are produced in multicellular sex organs, and the zygotes include a blastula stage in their embryonic development. Metazoans do not include the sponges, which have undifferentiated cells.[11]

Unlike plant cells, animal cells have neither a cell wall nor chloroplasts. Vacuoles, when present, are more in number and much smaller than those in the plant cell. The body tissues are composed of numerous types of cell, including those found in muscles, nerves and skin. Each typically has a cell membrane formed of phospholipids, cytoplasm and a nucleus. All of the different cells of an animal are derived from the embryonic germ layers. Those simpler invertebrates which are formed from two germ layers of ectoderm and endoderm are called diploblastic and the more developed animals whose structures and organs are formed from three germ layers are called triploblastic.[12] All of a triploblastic animal's tissues and organs are derived from the three germ layers of the embryo, the ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm.

Animal tissues can be grouped into four basic types: connective, epithelial, muscle and nervous tissue.

Connective tissues are fibrous and made up of cells scattered among inorganic material called the extracellular matrix. Connective tissue gives shape to organs and holds them in place. The main types are loose connective tissue, adipose tissue, fibrous connective tissue, cartilage and bone. The extracellular matrix contains proteins, the chief and most abundant of which is collagen. Collagen plays a major part in organizing and maintaining tissues. The matrix can be modified to form a skeleton to support or protect the body. An exoskeleton is a thickened, rigid cuticle which is stiffened by mineralization, as in crustaceans or by the cross-linking of its proteins as in insects. An endoskeleton is internal and present in all developed animals, as well as in many of those less developed.[12]

Epithelial tissue is composed of closely packed cells, bound to each other by cell adhesion molecules, with little intercellular space. Epithelial cells can be squamous (flat), cuboidal or columnar and rest on a basal lamina, the upper layer of the basement membrane,[13] the lower layer is the reticular lamina lying next to the connective tissue in the extracellular matrix secreted by the epithelial cells.[14] There are many different types of epithelium, modified to suit a particular function. In the respiratory tract there is a type of ciliated epithelial lining; in the small intestine there are microvilli on the epithelial lining and in the large intestine there are intestinal villi. Skin consists of an outer layer of keratinized stratified squamous epithelium that covers the exterior of the vertebrate body. Keratinocytes make up to 95% of the cells in the skin.[15] The epithelial cells on the external surface of the body typically secrete an extracellular matrix in the form of a cuticle. In simple animals this may just be a coat of glycoproteins.[12] In more advanced animals, many glands are formed of epithelial cells.[16]

Muscle cells (myocytes) form the active contractile tissue of the body. Muscle tissue functions to produce force and cause motion, either locomotion or movement within internal organs. Muscle is formed of contractile filaments and is separated into three main types; smooth muscle, skeletal muscle and cardiac muscle. Smooth muscle has no striations when examined microscopically. It contracts slowly but maintains contractibility over a wide range of stretch lengths. It is found in such organs as sea anemone tentacles and the body wall of sea cucumbers. Skeletal muscle contracts rapidly but has a limited range of extension. It is found in the movement of appendages and jaws. Obliquely striated muscle is intermediate between the other two. The filaments are staggered and this is the type of muscle found in earthworms that can extend slowly or make rapid contractions.[17] In higher animals striated muscles occur in bundles attached to bone to provide movement and are often arranged in antagonistic sets. Smooth muscle is found in the walls of the uterus, bladder, intestines, stomach, oesophagus, respiratory airways, and blood vessels. Cardiac muscle is found only in the heart, allowing it to contract and pump blood round the body.

Nervous tissue is composed of many nerve cells known as neurons which transmit information. In some slow-moving radially symmetrical marine animals such as ctenophores and cnidarians (including sea anemones and jellyfish), the nerves form a nerve net, but in most animals they are organized longitudinally into bundles. In simple animals, receptor neurons in the body wall cause a local reaction to a stimulus. In more complex animals, specialized receptor cells such as chemoreceptors and photoreceptors are found in groups and send messages along neural networks to other parts of the organism. Neurons can be connected together in ganglia.[18] In higher animals, specialized receptors are the basis of sense organs and there is a central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and a peripheral nervous system. The latter consists of sensory nerves that transmit information from sense organs and motor nerves that influence target organs.[19][20] The peripheral nervous system is divided into the somatic nervous system which conveys sensation and controls voluntary muscle, and the autonomic nervous system which involuntarily controls smooth muscle, certain glands and internal organs, including the stomach.[21]

All vertebrates have a similar basic body plan and at some point in their lives, (mostly in the embryonic stage), share the major chordate characteristics; a stiffening rod, the notochord; a dorsal hollow tube of nervous material, the neural tube; pharyngeal arches; and a tail posterior to the anus. The spinal cord is protected by the vertebral column and is above the notochord and the gastrointestinal tract is below it.[22] Nervous tissue is derived from the ectoderm, connective tissues are derived from mesoderm, and gut is derived from the endoderm. At the posterior end is a tail which continues the spinal cord and vertebrae but not the gut. The mouth is found at the anterior end of the animal, and the anus at the base of the tail.[23] The defining characteristic of a vertebrate is the vertebral column, formed in the development of the segmented series of vertebrae. In most vertebrates the notochord becomes the nucleus pulposus of the intervertebral discs. However, a few vertebrates, such as the sturgeon and the coelacanth retain the notochord into adulthood.[24]Jawed vertebrates are typified by paired appendages, fins or legs, which may be secondarily lost. The limbs of vertebrates are considered to be homologous because the same underlying skeletal structure was inherited from their last common ancestor. This is one of the arguments put forward by Charles Darwin to support his theory of evolution.[25]

The body of a fish is divided into a head, trunk and tail, although the divisions between the three are not always externally visible. The skeleton, which forms the support structure inside the fish, is either made of cartilage, in cartilaginous fish, or bone in bony fish. The main skeletal element is the vertebral column, composed of articulating vertebrae which are lightweight yet strong. The ribs attach to the spine and there are no limbs or limb girdles. The main external features of the fish, the fins, are composed of either bony or soft spines called rays, which with the exception of the caudal fins, have no direct connection with the spine. They are supported by the muscles which compose the main part of the trunk.[26] The heart has two chambers and pumps the blood through the respiratory surfaces of the gills and on round the body in a single circulatory loop.[27] The eyes are adapted for seeing underwater and have only local vision. There is an inner ear but no external or middle ear. Low frequency vibrations are detected by the lateral line system of sense organs that run along the length of the sides of fish, and these respond to nearby movements and to changes in water pressure.[26]

Sharks and rays are basal fish with numerous primitive anatomical features similar to those of ancient fish, including skeletons composed of cartilage. Their bodies tend to be dorso-ventrally flattened, they usually have five pairs of gill slits and a large mouth set on the underside of the head. The dermis is covered with separate dermal placoid scales. They have a cloaca into which the urinary and genital passages open, but not a swim bladder. Cartilaginous fish produce a small number of large, yolky eggs. Some species are ovoviviparous and the young develop internally but others are oviparous and the larvae develop externally in egg cases.[28]

The bony fish lineage shows more derived anatomical traits, often with major evolutionary changes from the features of ancient fish. They have a bony skeleton, are generally laterally flattened, have five pairs of gills protected by an operculum, and a mouth at or near the tip of the snout. The dermis is covered with overlapping scales. Bony fish have a swim bladder which helps them maintain a constant depth in the water column, but not a cloaca. They mostly spawn a large number of small eggs with little yolk which they broadcast into the water column.[28]

Amphibians are a class of animals comprising frogs, salamanders and caecilians. They are tetrapods, but the caecilians and a few species of salamander have either no limbs or their limbs are much reduced in size. Their main bones are hollow and lightweight and are fully ossified and the vertebrae interlock with each other and have articular processes. Their ribs are usually short and may be fused to the vertebrae. Their skulls are mostly broad and short, and are often incompletely ossified. Their skin contains little keratin and lacks scales, but contains many mucous glands and in some species, poison glands. The hearts of amphibians have three chambers, two atria and one ventricle. They have a urinary bladder and nitrogenous waste products are excreted primarily as urea. Amphibians breathe by means of buccal pumping, a pump action in which air is first drawn into the buccopharyngeal region through the nostrils. These are then closed and the air is forced into the lungs by contraction of the throat.[29] They supplement this with gas exchange through the skin which needs to be kept moist.[30]

In frogs the pelvic girdle is robust and the hind legs are much longer and stronger than the forelimbs. The feet have four or five digits and the toes are often webbed for swimming or have suction pads for climbing. Frogs have large eyes and no tail. Salamanders resemble lizards in appearance; their short legs project sideways, the belly is close to or in contact with the ground and they have a long tail. Caecilians superficially resemble earthworms and are limbless. They burrow by means of zones of muscle contractions which move along the body and they swim by undulating their body from side to side.[31]

Reptiles are a class of animals comprising turtles, tuataras, lizards, snakes and crocodiles. They are tetrapods, but the snakes and a few species of lizard either have no limbs or their limbs are much reduced in size. Their bones are better ossified and their skeletons stronger than those of amphibians. The teeth are conical and mostly uniform in size. The surface cells of the epidermis are modified into horny scales which create a waterproof layer. Reptiles are unable to use their skin for respiration as do amphibians and have a more efficient respiratory system drawing air into their lungs by expanding their chest walls. The heart resembles that of the amphibian but there is a septum which more completely separates the oxygenated and deoxygenated bloodstreams. The reproductive system is designed for internal fertilization, with a copulatory organ present in most species. The eggs are surrounded by amniotic membranes which prevents them from drying out and are laid on land, or develop internally in some species. The bladder is small as nitrogenous waste is excreted as uric acid.[32]

Turtles are notable for their protective shells. They have an inflexible trunk encased in a horny carapace above and a plastron below. These are formed from bony plates embedded in the dermis which are overlain by horny ones and are partially fused with the ribs and spine. The neck is long and flexible and the head and the legs can be drawn back inside the shell. Turtles are vegetarians and the typical reptile teeth have been replaced by sharp, horny plates. In aquatic species, the front legs are modified into flippers.[33]

Tuataras superficially resemble lizards but the lineages diverged in the Triassic period. There is one living species, Sphenodon punctatus. The skull has two openings (fenestrae) on either side and the jaw is rigidly attached to the skull. There is one row of teeth in the lower jaw and this fits between the two rows in the upper jaw when the animal chews. The teeth are merely projections of bony material from the jaw and eventually wear down. The brain and heart are more primitive than those of other reptiles, and the lungs have a single chamber and lack bronchi. The tuatara has a well-developed parietal eye on its forehead.[33]

Lizards have skulls with only one fenestra on each side, the lower bar of bone below the second fenestra having been lost. This results in the jaws being less rigidly attached which allows the mouth to open wider. Lizards are mostly quadrupeds, with the trunk held off the ground by short, sideways-facing legs, but a few species have no limbs and resemble snakes. Lizards have moveable eyelids, eardrums are present and some species have a central parietal eye.[33]

Snakes are closely related to lizards, having branched off from a common ancestral lineage during the Cretaceous period, and they share many of the same features. The skeleton consists of a skull, a hyoid bone, spine and ribs though a few species retain a vestige of the pelvis and rear limbs in the form of pelvic spurs. The bar under the second fenestra has also been lost and the jaws have extreme flexibility allowing the snake to swallow its prey whole. Snakes lack moveable eyelids, the eyes being covered by transparent "spectacle" scales. They do not have eardrums but can detect ground vibrations through the bones of their skull. Their forked tongues are used as organs of taste and smell and some species have sensory pits on their heads enabling them to locate warm-blooded prey.[34]

Crocodilians are large, low-slung aquatic reptiles with long snouts and large numbers of teeth. The head and trunk are dorso-ventrally flattened and the tail is laterally compressed. It undulates from side to side to force the animal through the water when swimming. The tough keratinized scales provide body armour and some are fused to the skull. The nostrils, eyes and ears are elevated above the top of the flat head enabling them to remain above the surface of the water when the animal is floating. Valves seal the nostrils and ears when it is submerged. Unlike other reptiles, crocodilians have hearts with four chambers allowing complete separation of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood.[35]

Birds are tetrapods but though their hind limbs are used for walking or hopping, their front limbs are wings covered with feathers and adapted for flight. Birds are endothermic, have a high metabolic rate, a light skeletal system and powerful muscles. The long bones are thin, hollow and very light. Air sac extensions from the lungs occupy the centre of some bones. The sternum is wide and usually has a keel and the caudal vertebrae are fused. There are no teeth and the narrow jaws are adapted into a horn-covered beak. The eyes are relatively large, particularly in nocturnal species such as owls. They face forwards in predators and sideways in ducks.[36]

The feathers are outgrowths of the epidermis and are found in localized bands from where they fan out over the skin. Large flight feathers are found on the wings and tail, contour feathers cover the bird's surface and fine down occurs on young birds and under the contour feathers of water birds. The only cutaneous gland is the single uropygial gland near the base of the tail. This produces an oily secretion that waterproofs the feathers when the bird preens. There are scales on the legs, feet and claws on the tips of the toes.[36]

Mammals are a diverse class of animals, mostly terrestrial but some are aquatic and others have evolved flapping or gliding flight. They mostly have four limbs but some aquatic mammals have no limbs or limbs modified into fins and the forelimbs of bats are modified into wings. The legs of most mammals are situated below the trunk, which is held well clear of the ground. The bones of mammals are well ossified and their teeth, which are usually differentiated, are coated in a layer of prismatic enamel. The teeth are shed once (milk teeth) during the animal's lifetime or not at all, as is the case in cetaceans. Mammals have three bones in the middle ear and a cochlea in the inner ear. They are clothed in hair and their skin contains glands which secrete sweat. Some of these glands are specialized as mammary glands, producing milk to feed the young. Mammals breathe with lungs and have a muscular diaphragm separating the thorax from the abdomen which helps them draw air into the lungs. The mammalian heart has four chambers and oxygenated and deoxygenated blood are kept entirely separate. Nitrogenous waste is excreted primarily as urea.[37]

Mammals are amniotes, and most are viviparous, giving birth to live young. The exception to this are the egg-laying monotremes, the platypus and the echidnas of Australia. Most other mammals have a placenta through which the developing foetus obtains nourishment, but in marsupials, the foetal stage is very short and the immature young is born and finds its way to its mother's pouch where it latches on to a nipple and completes its development.[37]

Humans have the overall body plan of a mammal. Humans have a head, neck, trunk (which includes the thorax and abdomen), two arms and hands and two legs and feet.

Generally, students of certain biological sciences, paramedics, prosthetists and orthotists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nurses, and medical students learn gross anatomy and microscopic anatomy from anatomical models, skeletons, textbooks, diagrams, photographs, lectures and tutorials, and in addition, medical students generally also learn gross anatomy through practical experience of dissection and inspection of cadavers. The study of microscopic anatomy (or histology) can be aided by practical experience examining histological preparations (or slides) under a microscope. [39]

Human anatomy, physiology and biochemistry are complementary basic medical sciences, which are generally taught to medical students in their first year at medical school. Human anatomy can be taught regionally or systemically; that is, respectively, studying anatomy by bodily regions such as the head and chest, or studying by specific systems, such as the nervous or respiratory systems.[2] The major anatomy textbook, Gray's Anatomy, has been reorganized from a systems format to a regional format, in line with modern teaching methods.[40][41] A thorough working knowledge of anatomy is required by physicians, especially surgeons and doctors working in some diagnostic specialties, such as histopathology and radiology. [42]

Academic anatomists are usually employed by universities, medical schools or teaching hospitals. They are often involved in teaching anatomy, and research into certain systems, organs, tissues or cells.[42]

Invertebrates constitute a vast array of living organisms ranging from the simplest unicellular eukaryotes such as Paramecium to such complex multicellular animals as the octopus, lobster and dragonfly. They constitute about 95% of the animal species. By definition, none of these creatures has a backbone. The cells of single-cell protozoans have the same basic structure as those of multicellular animals but some parts are specialized into the equivalent of tissues and organs. Locomotion is often provided by cilia or flagella or may proceed via the advance of pseudopodia, food may be gathered by phagocytosis, energy needs may be supplied by photosynthesis and the cell may be supported by an endoskeleton or an exoskeleton. Some protozoans can form multicellular colonies.[43]

Metazoans are multicellular organism, different groups of cells of which have separate functions. The most basic types of metazoan tissues are epithelium and connective tissue, both of which are present in nearly all invertebrates. The outer surface of the epidermis is normally formed of epithelial cells and secretes an extracellular matrix which provides support to the organism. An endoskeleton derived from the mesoderm is present in echinoderms, sponges and some cephalopods. Exoskeletons are derived from the epidermis and is composed of chitin in arthropods (insects, spiders, ticks, shrimps, crabs, lobsters). Calcium carbonate constitutes the shells of molluscs, brachiopods and some tube-building polychaete worms and silica forms the exoskeleton of the microscopic diatoms and radiolaria.[44] Other invertebrates may have no rigid structures but the epidermis may secrete a variety of surface coatings such as the pinacoderm of sponges, the gelatinous cuticle of cnidarians (polyps, sea anemones, jellyfish) and the collagenous cuticle of annelids. The outer epithelial layer may include cells of several types including sensory cells, gland cells and stinging cells. There may also be protrusions such as microvilli, cilia, bristles, spines and tubercles.[45]

Marcello Malpighi, the father of microscopical anatomy, discovered that plants had tubules similar to those he saw in insects like the silk worm. He observed that when a ring-like portion of bark was removed on a trunk a swelling occurred in the tissues above the ring, and he unmistakably interpreted this as growth stimulated by food coming down from the leaves, and being captured above the ring.[46]

Arthropods comprise the largest phylum in the animal kingdom with over a million known invertebrate species.[47]

Insects possess segmented bodies supported by a hard-jointed outer covering, the exoskeleton, made mostly of chitin. The segments of the body are organized into three distinct parts, a head, a thorax and an abdomen.[48] The head typically bears a pair of sensory antennae, a pair of compound eyes, one to three simple eyes (ocelli) and three sets of modified appendages that form the mouthparts. The thorax has three pairs of segmented legs, one pair each for the three segments that compose the thorax and one or two pairs of wings. The abdomen is composed of eleven segments, some of which may be fused and houses the digestive, respiratory, excretory and reproductive systems.[49] There is considerable variation between species and many adaptations to the body parts, especially wings, legs, antennae and mouthparts.[50]

Spiders a class of arachnids have four pairs of legs; a body of two segmentsa cephalothorax and an abdomen. Spiders have no wings and no antennae. They have mouthparts called chelicerae which are often connected to venom glands as most spiders are venomous. They have a second pair of appendages called pedipalps attached to the cephalothorax. These have similar segmentation to the legs and function as taste and smell organs. At the end of each male pedipalp is a spoon-shaped cymbium that acts to support the copulatory organ.

Ancient Greek anatomy and physiology underwent great changes and advances throughout the early medieval world. Over time, this medical practice expanded by a continually developing understanding of the functions of organs and structures in the body. Phenomenal anatomical observations of the human body were made, which have contributed towards the understanding of the brain, eye, liver, reproductive organs and the nervous system.

The city of Alexandria was the stepping-stone for Greek anatomy and physiology. Alexandria not only housed the biggest library for medical records and books of the liberal arts in the world during the time of the Greeks, but was also home to many medical practitioners and philosophers. Great patronage of the arts and sciences from the Ptolemy rulers helped raise Alexandria up, further rivalling the cultural and scientific achievements of other Greek states.[52]

Some of the most striking advances in early anatomy and physiology took place in Hellenistic Alexandria.[52] Two of the most famous Greek anatomists and physiologists of the third century were Herophilus and Erasistratus. These two physicians helped pioneer human dissection for medical research. They also conducted vivisections on the cadavers of condemned criminals, which was considered taboo until the Renaissance Herophilus was recognized as the first person to perform systematic dissections.[53] Herophilus became known for his anatomical works making impressing contributions to many branches of anatomy and many other aspects of medicine.[54] Some of the works included classifying the system of the pulse, the discovery that human arteries had thicker walls then veins, and that the atria were parts of the heart. Herophiluss knowledge of the human body has provided vital input towards understanding the brain, eye, liver, reproductive organs and nervous system, and characterizing the course of disease.[55] Erasistratus accurately described the structure of the brain, including the cavities and membranes, and made a distinction between its cerebrum and cerebellum [56] During his study in Alexandria, Erasistratus was particularly concerned with studies of the circulatory and nervous systems. He was able to distinguish the sensory and the motor nerves in the human body and believed that air entered the lungs and heart, which was then carried throughout the body. His distinction between the arteries and veins the arteries carrying the air through the body, while the veins carried the blood from the heart was a great anatomical discovery. Erasistratus was also responsible for naming and describing the function of the epiglottis and the valves of the heart, including the tricuspid.[57] During the third century, Greek physicians were able to differentiate nerves from blood vessels and tendons [58] and to realize that the nerves convey neural impulses.[52] It was Herophilus who made the point that damage to motor nerves induced paralysis.[59] Herophilus named the meninges and ventricles in the brain, appreciated the division between cerebellum and cerebrum and recognized that the brain was the "seat of intellect" and not a "cooling chamber" as propounded by Aristotle [60] Herophilus is also credited with describing the optic, oculomotor, motor division of the trigeminal, facial, vestibulocochlear and hypoglossal nerves [61]

Great feats were made during the third century in both the digestive and reproductive systems. Herophilus was able to discover and describe not only the salivary glands, but the small intestine and liver.[61] He showed that the uterus is a hollow organ and described the ovaries and uterine tubes. He recognized that spermatozoa were produced by the testes and was the first to identify the prostate gland.[61]

In 1600 BCE, the Edwin Smith Papyrus, an Ancient Egyptian medical text, described the heart, its vessels, liver, spleen, kidneys, hypothalamus, uterus and bladder, and showed the blood vessels diverging from the heart. The Ebers Papyrus (c. 1550 BCE) features a "treatise on the heart", with vessels carrying all the body's fluids to or from every member of the body.[62]

The anatomy of the muscles and skeleton is described in the Hippocratic Corpus, an Ancient Greek medical work written by unknown authors.[63]Aristotle described vertebrate anatomy based on animal dissection. Praxagoras identified the difference between arteries and veins. Also in the 4th century BCE, Herophilos and Erasistratus produced more accurate anatomical descriptions based on vivisection of criminals in Alexandria during the Ptolemaic dynasty.[64][65]

In the 2nd century, Galen of Pergamum, an anatomist, clinician, writer and philosopher,[66] wrote the final and highly influential anatomy treatise of ancient times.[67] He compiled existing knowledge and studied anatomy through dissection of animals.[66] He was one of the first experimental physiologists through his vivisection experiments on animals.[68] Galen's drawings, based mostly on dog anatomy, became effectively the only anatomical textbook for the next thousand years.[69] His work was known to Renaissance doctors only through Islamic Golden Age medicine until it was translated from the Greek some time in the 15th century.[69]

Anatomy developed little from classical times until the sixteenth century; as the historian Marie Boas writes, "Progress in anatomy before the sixteenth century is as mysteriously slow as its development after 1500 is startlingly rapid".[69]:120121 Between 1275 and 1326, the anatomists Mondino de Luzzi, Alessandro Achillini and Antonio Benivieni at Bologna carried out the first systematic human dissections since ancient times.[70][71][72] Mondino's Anatomy of 1316 was the first textbook in the medieval rediscovery of human anatomy. It describes the body in the order followed in Mondino's dissections, starting with the abdomen, then the thorax, then the head and limbs. It was the standard anatomy textbook for the next century.[69]

Leonardo da Vinci (14521519) was trained in anatomy by Andrea del Verrocchio.[69] He made use of his anatomical knowledge in his artwork, making many sketches of skeletal structures, muscles and organs of humans and other vertebrates that he dissected.[69][73]

Andreas Vesalius (15141564) (Latinized from Andries van Wezel), professor of anatomy at the University of Padua, is considered the founder of modern human anatomy.[74] Originally from Brabant, Vesalius published the influential book De humani corporis fabrica ("the structure of the human body"), a large format book in seven volumes, in 1543.[75] The accurate and intricately detailed illustrations, often in allegorical poses against Italianate landscapes, are thought to have been made by the artist Jan van Calcar, a pupil of Titian.[76]

In England, anatomy was the subject of the first public lectures given in any science; these were given by the Company of Barbers and Surgeons in the 16th century, joined in 1583 by the Lumleian lectures in surgery at the Royal College of Physicians.[77]

In the United States, medical schools began to be set up towards the end of the 18th century. Classes in anatomy needed a continual stream of cadavers for dissection and these were difficult to obtain. Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York were all renowned for body snatching activity as criminals raided graveyards at night, removing newly buried corpses from their coffins.[78] A similar problem existed in Britain where demand for bodies became so great that grave-raiding and even anatomy murder were practised to obtain cadavers.[79] Some graveyards were in consequence protected with watchtowers. The practice was halted in Britain by the Anatomy Act of 1832,[80][81] while in the United States, similar legislation was enacted after the physician William S. Forbes of Jefferson Medical College was found guilty in 1882 of "complicity with resurrectionists in the despoliation of graves in Lebanon Cemetery".[82]

The teaching of anatomy in Britain was transformed by Sir John Struthers, Regius Professor of Anatomy at the University of Aberdeen from 1863 to 1889. He was responsible for setting up the system of three years of "pre-clinical" academic teaching in the sciences underlying medicine, including especially anatomy. This system lasted until the reform of medical training in 1993 and 2003. As well as teaching, he collected many vertebrate skeletons for his museum of comparative anatomy, published over 70 research papers, and became famous for his public dissection of the Tay Whale.[83][84] From 1822 the Royal College of Surgeons regulated the teaching of anatomy in medical schools.[85] Medical museums provided examples in comparative anatomy, and were often used in teaching.[86]Ignaz Semmelweis investigated puerperal fever and he discovered how it was caused. He noticed that the frequently fatal fever occurred more often in mothers examined by medical students than by midwives. The students went from the dissecting room to the hospital ward and examined women in childbirth. Semmelweis showed that when the trainees washed their hands in chlorinated lime before each clinical examination, the incidence of puerperal fever among the mothers could be reduced dramatically.[87]

Before the era of modern medical procedures, the main means for studying the internal structure of the body were palpation and dissection. It was the advent of microscopy that opened up an understanding of the building blocks that constituted living tissues. Technical advances in the development of achromatic lenses increased the resolving power of the microscope and around 1839, Matthias Jakob Schleiden and Theodor Schwann identified that cells were the fundamental unit of organization of all living things. Study of small structures involved passing light through them and the microtome was invented to provide sufficiently thin slices of tissue to examine. Staining techniques using artificial dyes were established to help distinguish between different types of tissue. The fields of cytology and histology developed from here in the late 19th century.[88] The invention of the electron microscope brought a great advance in resolution power and allowed research into the ultrastructure of cells and the organelles and other structures within them. About the same time, in the 1950s, the use of X-ray diffraction for studying the crystal structures of proteins, nucleic acids and other biological molecules gave rise to a new field of molecular anatomy.[88]

Short wavelength electromagnetic radiation such as X-rays can be passed through the body and used in medical radiography to view interior structures that have different degrees of opaqueness. Nowadays, modern techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, fluoroscopy and ultrasound imaging have enabled researchers and practitioners to examine organs, living or dead, in unprecedented detail. They are used for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes and provide information on the internal structures and organs of the body to a degree far beyond the imagination of earlier generations.[89]

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Anatomy – New World Encyclopedia

Anatomy may refer either to the internal structure and organization of an organism, to any of the parts of an organism, or to the branch of biology that studies the internal structure and organization of living things and their parts. Such meanings of anatomy are synonymous with internal morphology (Towle 1989), which is to be distinguished from general morphology with its focus on external structure.

Since the function of a part is related to its structure, anatomy naturally is related to physiology, which refers either to the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms and their parts or to the study of those functions.

Anatomy comprises the subdivisions of animal anatomy and plant anatomy (or phytotomy). (Study of external plant structure is known as plant morphology.) Anatomy may also be subdivided either regionally or systemically; that is, relating to particular bodily regions, such as the head and chest, or to specific systems, such as the nervous or respiratory systems.

Major branches of the science of anatomy include comparative anatomy, cytology, histology, and human anatomy. Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the structure and organization of organisms; cytology is the study of cells and examines their internal anatomy; and histology is the study of aggregates of cells called tissues. Human anatomy, or anthropotomy, is a special field within anatomy and studies structures and systems of the human body.

The term anatomy comes from the Greek anatomia, from anatemnein, meaning to cut up or cut open.

Like all fields of knowledge, anatomy is necessarily tied to a conceptual framework. Galen, the Greek anatomist whose anatomical studies and conceptual framework undergirded Western medicine for 15 centuries, taught that the blood moved to and from the heart under the impetus of Aristotle's substance "quintessence," and that three human soulsvegetative, animal, and rationalresided respectively in the liver, the heart, and the brain, the three largest solid organs in the body. Galen's anatomy and medical model remained largely intact until the publication by Andrea Vesalius in 1543 of his detailed drawings of human anatomy, which became the basis for a radical revisioning of human physiology and of medical treatment. (Bergland, 1985)

From the time of Vesalius, anatomy has been a key field of scientific investigation that from one perspective has been stripping away the vestiges of mystery and wonder about the human body. Yet as anatomical studies reveal the human body components, the studies also open the challenge of how these multiple layers of components achieve their integrated functioning and how they could have come to exist.

The history of anatomy as a science extends from the earliest examinations of sacrificial victims to the sophisticated analysis of the body performed by modern scientists. It has been marked, over time, by a continually developing understanding of the functions of organs and structures in the body. Methods have also advanced dramatically, from examination of animals, through dissection of cadavers, and on to technologically complex techniques developed in the twentieth century. The following is largely a history centered on the developing science of studying human anatomy.

The study of anatomy began at least as early as 1600 B.C.E., the date of the ancient Egyptian Edwin Smith papyrus. This treatise identifies the heart, liver, spleen, kidneys, uterus, and bladder, and indicates that blood vessels come from the heart. Other vessels are described, some carrying air, some mucus, while two to the right ear are said to carry the "breath of life," and two to the left ear the "breath of death." The Ebers papyrus (c. 1550 B.C.E.) features a treatise on the heart. It notes that the heart is the center of the blood supply, with vessels attached for every member of the body. The Egyptians seem to have known little about the function of the kidneys and made the heart the meeting point of a number of vessels that carried all the fluids of the bodyblood, tears, urine, and sperm (Porter 1997).

The earliest medical scientist of whose works any great part survives today is Hippocrates, an ancient Greek physician active in the late fifth and early fourth centuries B.C.E. (460-377 B.C.E.). His work demonstrates a basic understanding of musculoskeletal structure, and the beginnings of understanding of the function of certain organs, such as the kidneys. Much of his work, however, and much of that of his students and followers later, relies on speculation rather than empirical observation of the body.

In the fourth century B.C.E., Aristotle and several contemporaries produced a more empirically founded system, based on dissection of animals. Works produced around this time are the first to identify the difference between arteries and veins, and the relations between organs are described more accurately than in previous works.

The first use of human cadavers for anatomical research occurred later in the fourth century B.C.E. when Herophilos and Erasistratus performed dissections of cadavers in Alexandria under the auspices of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Herophilos in particular developed a body of anatomical knowledge much more informed by the actual structure of the human body than previous works had been.

The final major anatomist of ancient times was Galen, active in the second century. He compiled much of the knowledge obtained by previous writers, and furthered the inquiry into the function of organs by performing vivisection on animals. His collection of drawings, based mostly on dog anatomy, became the anatomy textbook for 1500 years. The original text is long gone, and his work was only known to the Renaissance doctors through the careful custody of Arabic medicine, since the Roman Catholic Church destroyed the work as heresy. Hampered by the same religious restrictions as anatomists for centuries after him, Galen assumed that anatomical structures in dogs were the same as for humans.[1]

Little progress was made in anatomy for some time after the fall of the Roman empire. Although Arab scientists contributed heavily to medieval learning and culture, taboos against handling corpses limited their contributions to anatomical research. The first major development in anatomy after Galen occurred at Bologna in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, where a series of authors dissected cadavers and further contributed to the accurate description of organs and the identification of their functions. Prominent among these anatomists were Mondino de Liuzzi and Alessandro Achillini.

The sixteenth century also saw the first challenges to Galen. Thanks to the printing press, all over Europe a collective effort proceeded to distill the original Galen from the various, mostly Arab, added texts. Vesalius was the first to publish a treatise that challenged him "drawing for drawing," traveling all the way from Leuven[2] to Padua for permission to dissect victims from the gallows without fear of persecution. His drawings are triumphant descriptions of the, sometimes major, discrepancies between dogs and humans, showing superb drawing ability. Many later anatomists challenged Galen in their texts, though Galen reigned supreme for another century.

A succession of researchers proceeded to further refine the body of anatomical knowledge, giving their names to a number of anatomical structures along the way. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries also witnessed significant advances in the understanding of the circulatory system, as the purpose of valves in veins was identified, the left-to-right ventricle flow of blood through the circulatory system was described, and the hepatic veins were identified as a separate portion of the circulatory system. The lymphatic system was also identified as a separate system at this time.

The study of anatomy flourished in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. With the aid of the printing press, the exchange of ideas across Europe was easily facilitated. Since the study of anatomy concerned observation and drawings, the popularity of the anatomist was equal to the quality of his drawing talents, and one need not be an expert in Latin to take part. [3] Many famous artists studied anatomy, attended dissections, and published drawings for money, from Michelangelo to Rembrandt. For the first time, prominent universities could teach something about anatomy through drawings, rather than relying on knowledge of Latin.

The only stumbling block was a possible reprimand from the Church, which frightened several anatomists of that time from performing dissections on their own kind. Though a very fruitful period for the sciences, the Renaissance could be dangerous, as is seen in the case of Galileo. Some scientists of the time were scared enough to keep moving from city to city. Descartes is a prime example. Though all physicians agreed that a sound knowledge of anatomy was important to perform medicine, only certified anatomists were allowed to perform dissections, sometimes only yearly. These dissections were sponsored by the city councilors and often charged an admission fee, rather like a circus act for scholars. Many European cities, such as Amsterdam, London, Copenhagen, Padua, and Paris, all had Royal anatomists (or some such office) tied to local government. Indeed, Nicolaes Tulp was Mayor of Amsterdam for three terms. Though it was a risky business to perform dissections, attending dissections was perfectly legal, and many anatomy students traveled around Europe from dissection to dissection during the course of their study.

Many Europeans interested in the study of anatomy traveled to Italy, where the center of anatomy resided. Only in Italy could certain important research methods, such as dissections on women, be used. M. R. Columbus and Gabriele Falloppio were pupils of Vesalius, the sixteenth century anatomist. Columbus, as his immediate successor in Padua, and afterwards professor at Rome, distinguished himself by rectifying and improving the anatomy of the bones; by giving correct accounts of the shape and cavities of the heart, of the pulmonary artery and aorta and their valves, and tracing the course of the blood from the right to the left side of the heart; by a good description of the brain and its vessels, and by correct understanding of the internal ear, and the first good account of the ventricles of the larynx. Osteology at nearly the same time found an assiduous cultivator in Giovanni Filippo Ingrassias.

The Nineteenth century saw anatomists largely finalize and systematize the descriptive human anatomy of the previous century. The discipline also progressed to establish growing sources of knowledge in histology and developmental biology, not only of humans but also of animals. Extensive research took place in a growing number of areas, with England being a particular center of research. Demand for cadavers grew so great that body-snatching and even murder came into use as a means of obtaining them. In response, parliament passed the Anatomy Act of 1832, which finally provided for an adequate and legitimate supply of corpses. The relaxed restrictions on dissection provided the groundwork for Gray's Anatomy, a text that was a collective effort and became widely popular. Now seen as unwieldy, Gray's Anatomy was born out of a need to create a single volume on anatomy for the traveling doctor.

Anatomical research in the past hundred years has taken advantage of technological developments and growing understanding of sciences such as molecular biology to create a thorough understanding of the body's organs and structures. While disciplines such as endocrinology have explained the purpose of glands that previous anatomists could not explain, medical devices such as MRI machines and CAT scanners have enabled researchers to study the organs of living people. Progress today in anatomy is centered in the field of molecular biology, as the macroscopic aspects of the field have now been cataloged and addressed.

All links retrieved October 4, 2012.

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The Victorian Love Affair with Death! Morbid Anatomy Going Away Party! Death-Themed Screenings! "Resurrection" Themed Gala! Santa Muerte! Taxidermy! Insect Shadowboxes! The Cult of Beautiful Death! Morbid Anatomy Presents in February

This will be a very exciting February at Morbid Anatomy Presents. This Friday the 1st, we will be showing death-themed films in tandem with Imagine Science. In the weeks that follow, we have two insect shadowbox classes, including one special Valentine's Day edition (Feb. 2 and 10); two raccoon head taxidermy class with rogue taxidermist Katie Innamorato (Feb. 9 and 23) a resurrection-themed art show and fundraising costume extravaganza (Feb. 2); a workshop on research methods for artists and scholars with Rachel Herschman (February 3, 1:00 PM); a Santa Muerte book singing and party complete with mariachi band, funeral flowers, mini-exhibit and wedding cake (Feb. 3, 7:00 PM); a class on the art of Victorian hair jewelry (Feb. 5); Blake Schwarzenbach of the seminal punk band Jawbreaker waxing poetic on "death as muse" and playing a set (Feb. 7); An illustrated lecture on the Victorian love affair with death doubling as a Morbid Anatomy going away party with artisinal cocktails by Friese Undine (Feb. 8th); an illustrated lecture on the cult of beautiful death in Vienna (February 12) and a special Valentine's Day lecture and reading with Tattoo Scholars Anna Felicity Friedman and Matt Lodder (Feb. 14).

Full details follow on all events; hope very much to see you at one or more!

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"All My Tomorrows," Directed by Sonia Herman Dolz: Film Screening with Imagine Science Films
Screening with Imagine Science Films
Date: Friday, February 1
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy and Imagine Science Films

Tonight, join Imagine Science Films and Morbid Anatomy for an exclusive U.S. premiere screening of "All My Tomorrows" directed by Sonia Herman Dolz. Imagine Science Films aims to transform the way science and scientists are portrayed in mainstream media, while emphasizing the importance of storytelling, narrative structure, and visual communication.
About the film:

"One must never forget that one dies not from disease, but from life," wrote the philosopher Michel de Montaigne. Five centuries later, cancer surgeon Casper van Eijck arrives at the same conclusion: "You get cancer because you're alive." This film follows Van Eijck as he goes about his daily tasks at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. We also meet a cell biologist, a night nurse, a pediatric oncologist and a pathologist. Examining a culture of rapidly multiplying cancer cells, the biologist sighs, "That you can reveal so much, but know so little about what's going on." We owe progress in medical science exclusively to unremitting human curiosity and attentiveness; the fundamentals have changed little since Hippocrates. Then as now, doctors relied on human techniques of looking, feeling and cutting. We also see patients and parents of sick children respond bravely to the devastating news doctors so often have to give. Perhaps mice will provide the answer to the question of why cells divide uncontrollably, because this animal shares 80% of its genes with humans.

Imagine Science Films is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in existence since 2008 committed to promoting a high-level dialogue between scientists and filmmakers. ISF encourages a greater collaboration between scientists who dedicate their lives to studying the world we live in and filmmakers who have the power to interpret and expose this knowledge, ultimately making science accessible and stimulating to a broader audience.
Imagine Science Films is committed to drawing attention to the sciences, whether it is through art or our community outreach efforts.

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Anthropomorphic Insect Shadowbox Workshop with Former AMNH Senior Insect Preparator Daisy Tainton
With Daisy Tainton, Former Senior Insect Preparator at the American Museum of Natural History
Date: Sunday, February 2
Time: 1 - 4 PM
Admission: $65
***Must RSVP to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com to be added to class list (please specify date)
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

Today, join former AMNH Senior Insect Preparator Daisy Tainton for a special Valentine's Day-themed edition of Observatory's popular Anthropomorphic Insect Shadowbox Workshop. In this class, students will work with Rhinoceros beetles: nature's tiny giants. Each student will learn to make--and leave with their own!--shadowbox dioramas featuring carefully positioned beetles doing nearly anything you can imagine. Beetles and shadowboxes are provided, and an assortment of miniature furniture, foods, and other props will be available to decorate your habitat. Students need bring nothing, though are encouraged to bring along dollhouse props if they have a particular vision for their final piece; 1:12 scale work best.

Daisy Tainton was formerly Senior Insect Preparator at the American Museum of Natural History, and has been working with insects professionally for several years. Eventually her fascination with insects and love of Japanese miniature food items naturally came together, resulting in cute and ridiculous museum-inspired yet utterly unrealistic dioramas. Beetles at the dentist? Beetles eating pie and knitting sweaters? Even beetles on the toilet? Why not?

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RESURRECTION 3rd Annual Observatory Fundraiser and Costume Party
Please come support us at our RESURRECTION-themed annual fundraiser costume party and group art show opening!
Date: Saturday, February 2nd
Time: 8pm
Admission: $20

Observatory has had quite a year, full of fires, floods, threats of floods, and much more besides. On Saturday, February 2nd, we cordially invite you to join us in celebrating our against-the-odds survival in the face of it all with our 4th anniversary back-from-the-dead-themed fundraiser. This party will also serve as the inauguration for our "Resurrection" group show, which will open to the public this evening.

The party will feature:

* Costume contest with Celebrity Judge Evan Michelson of TV's Oddities. Best "resurrection" costume wins!
* Screening of brand new episodes from Ronni Thomas' Midnight Archive series
* Charm and handsomeship by MC Lord Whimsy
* Music by DJ Mangoose
* Kikkerland giveaways
* Glorious raffle prizes including a gift certificate from Palo Santo restaurant; books and CDs from green witch Robin Rose Bennett; Books and merch from Morbid Anatomy; Tarot readings by Shannon Taggart; Abraxas Esoteric Journal; Audiobooks from Hachette, and more!
* Artwork by Grace Baxter, Ben Blatt, Jesse Bransford, Ryan Matthew Cohn, Joanna Ebenstein, Barbara Ensor, Ethan Gould, Pam Grossman, Megan Hays, Katie Innamorato, Sue Jeiven, Amber Joliffe, Megan Murtha, Rebeca Olguin, Katy Pierce, Sigrid Sarda, Dana Sherwood, Mark Splatter, Daisy Tainton, & Shannon Taggart
* Lots of booze and treats! YES!

Looking forward to seeing you there!

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Research Methods for Artists and Scholars: A Workshop with Rachel Herschman
Date: Sunday, February 3
Time: 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Admission: $20
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

For curious exploration or focused research--this course will provide participants with strategies for investigating a topic and tricks for discovering the unexpected. From card catalogs to digital search tools, learn about a range of resources and how to use them with savvy. Find out how to gain borrowing privileges at university libraries and access to private collections.
We will also discuss how to critically evaluate both primary and secondary sources. A range of materials will be used to demonstrate how to get the most out of what you unearth in libraries and archives.

Participants are encouraged (but not required) to come with their own research topic.
Rachel Herschman is a PhD Candidate in Germanics at the University of Washington. She is currently writing her dissertation on the history of puppets and puppetry in 20th century Germany. Rachel is an educator at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and lives in New York.

Image: Old “Main Building” of the Public Library of Cincinnatti, 1874. The building seen below closed in 1955. Source

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“Viva la Muerte: The Mushrooming Cult of Saint Death” : Lecture, Book Signing and Party
Illustrated lecture by Professor R. Andrew Chesnut, author of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint; Q and A moderated by The Revealer's David Metcalfe; Music and cocktails by Friese Undi ne; Santa Muerte and Jesus Malverde wedding cake and Funeral floral arrangements compliments of Tonya Hurley and Tracy H urley Martin; Mini-exhibit of newly-donated Santa Muerte materials from the Morbid Anatomy Libra ry; Live music by Mariachi Tapatio de Alvaro Paulino
Date: Sunday, February 3
Time: 7:00 (Doors at 6:00)
Admission: $12
Produced by Morbid Anatomy and Borderline Projects
*** Copies of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint will be available for sale and signing

On Sunday, February 3rd, please join us to celebrate the Morbid Anatomy Library's new acquisition of a large and spectacular lot of materials relating to Santa Muerte, a Mexican-based “cult” or possibly even a “new religion” which takes as its central figure a sanctified Lady Death. Literally translating to “Holy Death” or “Saint Death,” the worship of Santa Muerte--like Day of the Dead--is a popular form of religious expression rooted in a rich syncretism of the beliefs of the native Latin Americans and the colonizing Spanish Catholics.

Tonight's celebration will begin with a highly-illustrated lecture on the roots, history and worship of Santa Muerte by Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut, Chair in Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University and author of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint. Following, attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions during a Q and A which with the lecturer and death in Mexico scholar Salvador Olguín moderated by David Metcalfe of The Revealer.
Come early (doors open at 6) and stay late to enjoy special artisanal cocktails utilizing the favorite spirits of "The Boney Lady" herself, compliments of Friese Undi ne. You can also admire--and indulge in!--a special Santa Muerte and Jesus Malverde Wedding Cake with special topper by Heidi Holmes, compliments of our generous Santa Muerte artifact donors Tonya Hurley and Tracy Hurley Martin, and take in a temporary mini-exhibit of the amazing donations themselves. There will also be live mariachi music by Mariachi Tapatio de Alvaro Paulino, gorgeous funeral floral arrangements, and Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut will be happy to sign copies of his new book Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint which will be available for sale.

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Class: The Victorian Art of Hair Jewelry with Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann
With Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann
Date: Tuesday, February 5
Time: 7-11 PM
Admission: $75
***Must RSVP to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com to be added to class list; 15 person limit
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

Hair jewelry was an enormously popular form of commemorative art that began in the late 17th century and reached its zenith during the Victorian Era. Hair, either of someone living or deceased, was encased in metal lockers or woven to enshrine the human relic of a loved one. This class will explore a modern take on the genre.
The technique of "palette working" or arranging hair in artful swoops and curls will be explored and a variety of ribbons, beads, wire and imagery of mourning iconography will be supplied for potential inclusion. A living or deceased person or pet may be commemorated in this manner.
Students are requested to bring with them to class their own hair, fur, or feathers; all other necessary materials will be supplied. Hair can be self-cut, sourced from barber shops or hair salons (who are usually happy to provide you with swept up hair), from beauty supply shops (hair is sold as extensions), or from wig suppliers. Students will leave class with their own piece of hair jewelry and the knowledge to create future projects.

Karen Bachmann is a fine jeweler with over 25 years experience, including several years on staff as a master jeweler at Tiffany & Co. She is a Professor in the Jewelry Design Dept at Fashion Institute of Technology as well as the School of Art & Design at Pratt Institute. She has recently completed her MA in Art History at SUNY Purchase with a thesis entitled Hairy Secrets:... In her downtime she enjoys collecting biological specimens, amateur taxidermy and punk rock.

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Death As Muse: An Intimate Evening With Blake Schwarzenbach, Musician, Painter, Jawbreaker, Forgetter
Date: Thursday, February 7
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy'

From Dante to Donnie Darko perhaps no other idea has inspired more creative pursuits than life’s final act: death. Love, it could be argued, is a close second—and if that’s the case, let us bow down yet again to Woody Allen’s film, Love and Death.

Which brings us to the man at the darkened heart of tonight’s event: Blake Schwarzenbach, who has sampled a line from one of Mr. Allen’s films in a song. Schwarzenbach, you see, also knows from love and death.

As the singer, songwriter, and guitarist for the late, much-loved Bay Area punk trio Jawbreaker, Schwarzenbach once sang: “We met in rain, you asked me in, seemed like a good sign. Now I need a guillotine to get you off my mind.”?? With his newest group, Forgetters, he's gone darker.
How dark?

Here’s the cold data: Over 11 bloody tracks on the band’s eponymous–and somewhat psychedelic–new record, released in late 2012, there are roughly 27 lyrical variations on the word “death.” And there are multiple instances within just one song title: “O Deadly Death.”
That’s not to say Schwarzenbach doesn’t have a sense of humor. On an earlier Forgetters EP, after all, he cleverly made a verb out of tennis great John McEnroe (to throw a McEnroe is to have a very public fit.)

It is, in fact, the sui generis way Schwarzenbach balances light and dark, wit and warts, romance and rancor—both musically and lyrically—that makes his creative work so compelling. Or, as the writer Maccabee Montandon has put it: Schwarzenbach’s songs are “bounding, literate, often hyper-local anthems about pony-keg-powered house parties, girls he adored, girls he did not adore and books. Kerouac and cop killing live in a single lyrical line.”
On this evening, Schwarzenbach and Montandon will discuss the music, muses, and more: Schwarzenbach has grown increasingly interested in visual arts, painting and sculpting prolifically in his Brooklyn apartment; some of his pieces will be on display tonight. Following the conversation, Schwarzenbach will play solo acoustic versions of a few of his songs and take questions from the crowd. His own personal nine circles of hell revealed!

Image: "Impossible t-shirts" (a series). Blake Schwarzenbach. Pen, acrylic, graph paper. 2012.

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The Victorian Love Affair with Death and the Art of Mourning Hair Jewelry: Morbid Anatomy Going Away Party and Part Three of "Hairy Secrets" Series
Illustrated lecture with Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann and Morbid Anatomy Going Away Party, with Cocktails and Music by Friese Undine
Date: Friday, February 8 (Formerly January 31; Please note date change)
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
***Part 3 of a 3 part series "Hairy Secrets: Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry"

The Victorians had a love affair with death which they expressed in a variety of ways, both intensely sentimental and macabre. Tonight's lecture--the last in a 3-part series on human relics and Victorian mourning jewelry--will take as its focus the apex of the phenomenon of hair jewelry fashion in the Victorian Era as an expression of this passion. Nineteenth century mourning rituals will be discussed, with a particular focus on Victorian hairwork jewelry, both palette worked and table worked. Also discussed will be the historical roots of the Victorian fascination with death, such as high mortality rates for both adults and children, the rise of the park cemetery, and the death of Queen Victoria's beloved Prince Albert and her subsequent fashion-influencing 40-year mourning period. Historical samples of hair art and jewelry from the lecturer's personal collection will also be shown.

Karen Bachmann is a fine jeweler with over 25 years experience, including several years on staff as a master jeweler at Tiffany & Co. She is a Professor in the Jewelry Design Dept at Fashion Institute of Technology as well as the School of Art & Design at Pratt Institute. She has recently completed her MA in Art History at SUNY Purchase with a thesis entitled "Hairy Secrets; Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry". In her downtime she enjoys collecting biological specimens, amateur taxidermy and punk rock.

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Raccoon Head Taxidermy Class with Rogue Taxidermist Katie Innamorato
Date: Saturday, February 9
Time: 11 – 5 PM
Admission: $350
***SOLD OUT; Email morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com to be added to wait list
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

This course will introduce students to basic and fundamental taxidermy techniques and procedures. Students will be working with donated raccoon skins and will be going through the steps to do a head mount. The class is only available to 5 students, allowing for more one on one interaction and assistance. Students will be working with tanned and lightly prepped skin; there will be no skinning of the animals in class. This is a great opportunity to learn the basic steps to small and large mammal taxidermy. All materials will be supplied by the instructor, and you will leave class with your own raccoon head mount.

Rogue taxidermist Katie Innamorato has a BFA in sculpture from SUNY New Paltz, has been featured on the hit TV show "Oddities," and has had her work featured at La Luz de Jesus gallery in Los Angeles, California. She is self and professionally taught, and has won multiple first place ribbons and awards at the Garden State Taxidermy Association Competition. Her work is focussed on displaying the cyclical connection between life and death and growth and decomposition. Katie is a member of the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists, and with all M.A.R.T. members she adheres to strict ethical guidelines when acquiring specimens and uses roadkill, scrap, and donated skins to create mounts.
Her website and blogs-
http://www.afterlifeanatomy.com
http://www.afterlifeanatomy.tumblr.com
http://www.facebook.com/afterlifeanatomy
http://www.etsy.com/shop/afterlifeanatomy

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Anthropomorphic Insect Shadowbox Workshop: Special Valentine's Day Edition, with Former AMNH Senior Insect Preparator Daisy Tainton
With Daisy Tainton, Former Senior Insect Preparator at the American Museum of Natural History
Date: Sunday, February 10 (Special Valentine's Day Edition!)
Time: 1 - 4 PM
Admission: $65
***Must RSVP to morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com to be added to class list
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

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"Schöne Leiche," or "The Beautiful Corpse": The Cult of Beautiful Death in Vienna
Illustrated lecture by Mark 'Splatter' Batelli; thematic drinks and music by Friese Undine
Date: Tuesday, February 12
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $8
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Tonight's highly illustrated lecture will explore the special Viennese relationship to death as exemplified by their notion of Schöne Leiche, or the "Beautiful Corpse." Batelli will trace the history of this distinctive approach to mortality and discuss funerary customs, mourning culture, black humor, idiom, art, music, suicide and psychology, providing examples and exploring its origins and development in the former imperial capital. Before and after the lecture, enjoy special thematic "Death in Vienna" artisinal cocktails and music complements of artist Friese Undine.

Mark 'Splatter' Batelli is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York. He lived 5 years In Berlin and traveled extensively travels through Europe, spending much time in Vienna.

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Tragic Tattoo Tales: A Valentine’s Day Lecture and Reading with Tattoo Scholars Anna Felicity Friedman and Matt Lodder
Illustrated lecture and reading with tattoo scholars Anna Felicity Friedman and Matt Lodder
Date: Thursday, February 14 (Yes, Valentine's Day!)
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Love, loss… and disfigurement, murder, and flayed skin (with a bit of cannibalism and sadism thrown in for good measure). What better way to spend your Valentine’s Day evening than to join us for a glass of red wine, a bite of delicious chocolate, and a lecture on the history of tattooing combined with a reading of a series of historical tattoo-centered short stories by authors such as Roald Dahl (1958), Saki (1911), Junichiro Tanazaki (1910) and John Rickman (1781)?

Tonight, please join us for an evening with tattoo scholars Anna Felicity Friedman and Matt Lodder (both heavily tattooed themselves) who will lecture about and read tales that interweave tattoo history with romance and the macabre. Through illustrated slide lectures, Drs. Friedman and Lodder will present comparative historical material to provide context and deeper understanding and to separate fact from fiction. Learn about wide ranging tattoo topics in both Western and non-Western cultures and have questions answered that the stories raise. Did people really preserve tattooed skin? What were people reading about tattoos in the early twentieth century? Were Maori really tattooed head to foot? What were the connections between Ukiyo-e and Japanese tattooing in the Edo period?
And the stories… Come hear the account of a young Maori woman and an English sailor who had himself completely tattooed to gain her favor, only to be forcibly returned to his ship (in John Rickman’s 1781 travel narrative from Captain James Cook’s third voyage). Cringe at the tale of a businessman tattooed in Italy with an elaborate scene, but who was prohibited from ever showing it to anyone, swimming, or leaving the country (in Saki’s 1911 “The Background”). Shudder at the story of a Japanese woman lured into a tattooer’s studio, drugged, and forcibly tattooed (in Junichiro Tanazaki’s 1910 “Shisei (The Tattooer)”. Enjoy the fantasy of a young and not-yet famous Chaim Soutine who, during a bacchanalian evening, rendered a dorsal portrait of a tattoo artist’s wife that later mysteriously turns up as a “canvas” in an art gallery (in Roald Dahl’s 1952 “Skin”). Additional images related to the stories will be screened during the readings.
Chocolate and red wine will make things festive.

Anna Felicity Friedman has been researching the history of tattooing for over 20 years. Her recently completed PhD, from the University of Chicago, focuses on tattooed transculturites—Europeans and Americans who acquired non-Western tattoos as part of a process of cultural identity transformation. Her photoblog, Tattoo History Daily, offers glimpses into myriad aspects of tattoo history. An interdisciplinary scholar, she has taught, written, and lectured about body art, maps, rare books, and other sundry topics, works as a freelance curator, and currently teaches hybrid literature/film/art courses at the University of Chicago.

Matt Lodder is a London-based art historian. His work is primarily concerned with the history of Western tattooing and the artistic status of body art and body modification practices including tattooing, body piercing and cosmetic surgery. He writes regularly for Total Tattoo magazine, gives public lectures on tattoo history and related topics, works as a freelance writer and broadcaster for both radio and television, and teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in contemporary art and theory at the University of Reading and the University of Birmingham. He is currently writing a book called 'Tattoo: An Art History' for IB Tauris, due for publication in 2014.

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Raccoon Head Taxidermy Class with Rogue Taxidermist Katie Innamorato
Date: Saturday, February 23
Time: 11 – 5 PM
Admission: $350
***SOLD OUT; Email morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com to be added to wait list
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

___________________________________________________

You can find out more about all of these events here, or sign up for them on Facebook by clicking here.

Image: Victorian Mourners; found here.Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-victorian-love-affair-with-death.html

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Apocalyptic Anime! Memento Mori! Death-Themed Screenings! Annual Fundraiser! Research Methods for Artists! Santa Muerte! The Cult of Beautiful Death in Vienna! Morbid Anatomy Presents this Month and Beyond

Morbid Anatomy Presents has a few things cooked up to amuse you these cold winter nights. This evening, we will be hosting JR Pepper who will be speaking on the Apocalypse in Japanese anime; Thursday Jan. 24, Karen Bachmann will elucidate us on the history of memento mori and death's head imagery as it relates to Victorian hair art jewelry, while on Friday Feb. 1, we will be screening death-themed films in tandem with Imagine Science. In the weeks that follow, we have two insect shadowbox classes, including one special Valentine's Day edition (Feb. 2 and 10); a raccoon head taxidermy class with rogue taxidermist Katie Innamorato (Feb. 9) a resurrection-themed art opening and fundraising party (Feb. 2); a workshop on research methods for artists and scholars with Rachel Herschman (February 3, 1:00 PM); a Santa Muerte book singing and party complete with mariachi band, funeral flowers, mini-exhibit and wedding cake (Feb. 3, 7:00 PM); a newly introduced class on the art of Victorian hair jewelry (Feb. 5); Blake Schwarzenbach of the seminal punk band Jawbreaker on "death as muse" (Feb. 7); An illustrated lecture on the Victorian love affair with death doubling as a Morbid Anatomy going away party with artisinal cocktails by Friese Undine (Feb. 8th); an illustrated lecture on the cult of beautiful death in Vienna (February 12) and a valentine's day lecture and reading with Tattoo Scholars Anna Felicity Friedman and Matt Lodder (Feb. 14).

Full details follow on all events; hope very much to see you at one or more!

___________________________________________________

Bright Eyes at the Apocalypse: Exploring The End of the World in Japanese Animation
Illustrated lecture with JR Pepper
Date: Monday, January 21
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Having been confronted with extreme devastation during WWII, the Japanese have not been shy about illustrating the end of the world and post-apocalyptic landscape in their films. This can perhaps be most notably seen in their animation. Brilliant feats of Japanese animation like, Akira, Princess Mononoke, X/1999, and Neon Genesis Evangelion have painstakingly detailed worlds devastated by war, disease, technology and the fall of civilization. Why has the world of Japanese anime embraced such a macabre event? This lecture will examine the phenomenon of the post-apocalyptic Earth in anime as well as explore the current trends.

JR Pepper is a photographer, archivist and full-time geek. Her photography had been shown at events throughout New York and Paris and a myriad of publications and websites. Presently she is devoting her time to photographing New York's nightlife as well as a continuing documentation of the eccentricities of Tulsa, Oklahoma, her adopted home. Her geek writing can be found on Pink Ray Gun.com and she has given panels at New York Comic Con, New York Anime Fest, Salon Con, Big Apple Anime Fest and Tokyo in Tulsa.

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The History of the Memento Mori and Death's Head Iconography: Part Two of "Hairy Secrets" Series
Illustrated lecture with Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann
Date: Thursday, January 24
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
***Part 2 of a 3 part series "Hairy Secrets: Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry"

In tonight's lecture--the second in a 3-part series on human relics and Victorian mourning jewelry--master jeweler and art historian Karen Bachmann will explore the development of the memento mori, objects whose very raison d'être is to remind the beholder that they, too, will die. Bachman will trace the symbolism and iconography of the memento mori and death's head imagery in both Medieval and Renaissance art, focusing on jewelry. She will also discuss the development of the "portable relic" -- a wearable form of body part reliquary, will be the focus of this lecture. The importance of hair in contemporaneous art of the period will be addressed, as well as the development of bereavement jewelry with hair.

Karen Bachmann is a fine jeweler with over 25 years experience, including several years on staff as a master jeweler at Tiffany & Co. She is a Professor in the Jewelry Design Dept at Fashion Institute of Technology as well as the School of Art & Design at Pratt Institute. She has recently completed her MA in Art History at SUNY Purchase with a thesis entitled "Hairy Secrets; Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry". In her downtime she enjoys collecting biological specimens, amateur taxidermy and punk rock.

___________________________________________________

The party will feature:

* Costume contest with Celebrity Judge Evan Michelson of TV's Oddities. Best "resurrection" costume wins!
* Screening of brand new episodes from Ronni Thomas' Midnight Archive series
* Charm & handsomeship by MC Lord Whimsy
* Music by DJ Mangoose
* Kikkerland giveaways
* Glorious raffle prizes including a gift certificate from Palo Santo restaurant; books and CDs from green witch Robin Rose Bennett; Books and merch from Morbid Anatomy; Tarot readings by Shannon Taggart; Abraxas Esoteric Journal; Audiobooks from Hachette, and more!
* Artwork by Grace Baxter, Ben Blatt, Jesse Bransford, Ryan Matthew Cohn, Joanna Ebenstein, Barbara Ensor, Ethan Gould, Pam Grossman, Megan Hays, Katie Innamorato, Sue Jeiven, Megan Murtha, Rebeca Olguin, Katy Pierce, Sigrid Sarda, Dana Sherwood, Mark Splatter, Daisy Tainton, & Shannon Taggart
* Lots of booze & treats! YES!

Looking forward to seeing you there!

___________________________________________________

Research Methods for Artists and Scholars: A Workshop with Rachel Herschman
Date: Sunday, February 3
Time: 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Admission: $20
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Image: Old “Main Building” of the Public Library of Cincinnatti, 1874. The building seen below closed in 1955. Source

___________________________________________________

Tonight's celebration will begin with a highly-illustrated lecture on the roots, history and worship of Santa Muerte by Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut, Chair in Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University and author of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint. Following, attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions during a Q and A which with the lecturer and death in Mexico scholar Salvador Olguín moderated by David Metcalfe of The Revealer.
Come early (doors open at 6) and stay late to enjoy special artisanal cocktails utilizing the favorite spirits of "The Boney Lady" herself, compliments of Friese Undi ne. You can also admire--and indulge in!--a special Santa Muerte and Jesus Malverde Wedding Cake compliments of our generous Santa Muerte artifact donors Tonya Hurley and Tracy Hurley Martin, and take in a temporary mini-exhibit of the amazing donations themselves. There will also be live mariachi music by Mariachi Tapatio de Alvaro Paulino, gorgeous funeral floral arrangements by Emily Thompson Flowers, and Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut will be happy to sign copies of his new book Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint which will be available for sale.

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Death As Muse: An Intimate Evening With Blake Schwarzenbach, Musician, Painter, Jawbreaker, Forgetter
Date: Thursday, February 7
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy'

Image: "Impossible t-shirts" (a series). Blake Schwarzenbach. Pen, acrylic, graph paper. 2012.

___________________________________________________

Karen Bachmann is a fine jeweler with over 25 years experience, including several years on staff as a master jeweler at Tiffany & Co. She is a Professor in the Jewelry Design Dept at Fashion Institute of Technology as well as the School of Art & Design at Pratt Institute. She has recently completed her MA in Art History at SUNY Purchase with a thesis entitled "Hairy Secrets; Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry". In her downtime she enjoys collecting biological specimens, amateur taxidermy and punk rock.

___________________________________________________

Raccoon Head Taxidermy Class with Rogue Taxidermist Katie InnamoratoDate: Saturday, February 9
Time: 11 – 5 PM
Admission: $350
***SOLD OUT; Email morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com to be added to wait list
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

___________________________________________________

Mark 'Splatter' Batelli is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York. He lived 5 years In Berlin and traveled extensively travels through Europe, spending much time in Vienna.

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You can find out more about all of these events here, or sign up for them on Facebook by clicking here.

Image: From this recent post; Caption reads (to the best of my deciphering, and sic on the spelling throughout):

Beautys Lot
Adorn'd with Tates, I well could Boast, Of Tons and Macaronys Toast;
I once was Fair, Young, Frisky, Gay, Could Please with songs and Dance the Hay
Dear Belle's reflect Ye Morals see, As I now am, so You shall be.
Pub as the act directs Feb. 1, 1778...

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2013/01/apocalyptic-anime-memento-mori-death.html

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Macabre New York! Christian Death Rituals! Haunted Hotels! Medieval Automata! Morbid Anatomy Presents this Week and Beyond in New York City!

We have quite a January and February lined up at Morbid Anatomy Presents. This week alone, we have an evening dedicated to macabre sites in New York ("A Dark Day in New York," tonight!); tales of ghost hunters centered on a Los Angeles-based "haunted hotel" with Morbid Anatomy Anthology co-editor Colin Dickey ("The Haunted Hotel: A Story of LA's Ghosts, and LA's Ghost Hunters," Tuesday night offsite at Acme Studio); a lecture on the tradition of reliquaries and Christian death rituals comprising part one of our Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry" series (Thursday night, "'Speaking Reliquaries' and Christian Death Rituals" with art historian Karen Bachmann); and a lecture on the surprising world of Medieval automata with Bryn Mawr professor Elly Truitt ("Medieval Robots: Automata Since the First Millennium," Friday night).

In the weeks to come, we have also a lecture on the spectre of the Apocalypse in Japanese anime films (Jan. 21); a lecture on the history of memento mori and death's head imagery (Jan. 24); death-themed science films in tandem with Imagine Science Films (Feb. 1); two insect shadowbox classes, including one special Valentine's Day edition (Feb. 2 and 10); a raccoon head taxidermy class with rogue taxidermist Katie Innamorato (Feb. 9) a resurrection-themed art opening and fundraising party (Feb. 2); a Santa Muerte book singing and party complete with mariachi band, funeral flowers, mini-exhibit and wedding cake (Feb. 3); a newly introduced class on the art of Victorian hair jewelry (Feb. 5); Blake Schwarzenbach of the seminal punk band Jawbreaker on "death as muse" (Feb. 7); An illustrated lecture on the Victorian love affair with death doubling as a Morbid Anatomy going away party with artisinal cocktails by Friese Undine (Feb. 8th); and a valentine's day lecture and reading with Tattoo Scholars Anna Felicity Friedman and Matt Lodder (Feb. 14).

And, believe it or not, more to come, so stay tuned for that!

Full details follow on all events; hope very much to see you at one or more!
___________________________________________________

A Dark Day in New York: Dispatches from The New York Grimpendium: Lecture and Launch Party for Book of Death-related Sites and Artifacts in New York
An Illustrated Lecture and Book Signing with J.W. Ocker
Date: Monday, January 14
Time: 8:00
Admission: $5
Produced by Morbid Anatomy
*** Copies of The New York Grimpendium will be available for sale and signing

J.W. Ocker spent a year traveling around New York, visiting some 250 death-related sites and artifacts in the state. A brain collection. A ship graveyard. An abandoned spiritualist mecca. And yes, even The Morbid Anatomy Library. For this presentation, he will be showing pictures and recounting some of the stories from from the darkest corners of the state.

J.W. Ocker grew up in Maryland and currently lives in New Hampshire. He is the author of The New England Grimpendium, for which he won the Lowell Thomas Award for travel writing, and the recently released The New York Grimpendium. He writes about his travels to strange sites around the country at his site OddThingsIveSeen.com.

___________________________________________________

The Haunted Hotel: A Story of LA’s Ghosts, and LA’s Ghost Hunters
An illustrated lecture by Colin Dickey, author of Cranioklepty and Afterlives of the Saints
Date: Tuesday, January 15
Time: 8:00
Admission: $8
***Location: OFFSITE at Acme Studio, 63 N. 3rd St., Williamsburg, Brooklyn (MAP)
Presented by Morbid Anatomy and Acme Studio

Every city has its ghosts, and every city has its ghost hunters. But no city’s ghost hunters are quite like those that hunt in Los Angeles, home not just to haunted houses, hotels and theaters but to dozens of paranormal investigation “crews,” many of whom are trying to break into reality TV with the next hit Ghosthunters. At the center of much of this rivalry is the Aztec Hotel of Monrovia, California, just outside of Pasadena, which in the past few years has found itself the center of a bizarre battle over its paranormal legacy. Just who “owns” a ghost story, and its telling? Do the spirits even respect “turf”? Colin Dickey will discuss these questions, as well as the motivations of some of these ghost hunters, which range from the cynical to the inquisitive to the quixotic.

Colin Dickey is the author of Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius and Afterlives of the Saints and the co-editor (with Joanna Ebenstein, Morbid Anatomy Library) of The Morbid Anatomy Anthology, Volume 1. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Cabinet, TriQuarterly, and The Santa Monica Review. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, he now lives in Santa Cruz. This is a return visit for Colin, who has graced us with his presence on numerous occasions.

___________________________________________________

"Speaking Reliquaries" and Christian Death Rituals: Part One of "Hairy Secrets" Series
Illustrated lecture with Art Historian and Master Jeweler Karen Bachmann
Date: Thursday, January 17
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid Anatomy
***Part 1 of a 3 part series "Hairy Secrets; Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry"

In tonight's lecture--the introductory lecture of a 3-part series on human relics and Victorian mourning jewelry--master jeweler and art historian Karen Bachmann will focus on what are termed "speaking" reliquaries: the often elaborate containers which house the preserved body parts--or relics--of saints and martyrs with shapes which reflect that of the body-part contained within.

Bachmann will examine these fascinating objects from an art historical perspective, and discuss their relationship to concepts of human body parts as icons of the immortal. They will be put into the larger context of Christian death rituals, in particular the veneration of saints body parts as sacred and magical relics. Also discussed will be the extremely odd proclivities of a variety of renaissance saints, such as Catherine of Sienna who drank pus from open sores. This will serve as the genesis in our further discussions of human hair, teeth, and nails as icons of the immortal.
Hairy Secrets: Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry is a series which will explore in lectures and a workshop the history of the preservation of human remains for reasons sacred and profane, culminating in the flowering of Victorian hair art mourning jewelry, or jewelry which incorporates the hair of the beloved dead.

Karen Bachmann is a fine jeweler with over 25 years experience, including several years on staff as a master jeweler at Tiffany & Co. She is a Professor in the Jewelry Design Dept at Fashion Institute of Technology as well as the School of Art & Design at Pratt Institute. She has recently completed her MA in Art History at SUNY Purchase with a thesis entitled "Hairy Secrets; Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry". In her downtime she enjoys collecting biological specimens, amateur taxidermy and punk rock.

___________________________________________________

Medieval Robots: Automata Since the First Millennium
An illustrated lecture with Elly R. Truitt, Bryn Mawr College
Date: Friday, January 18 (PLEASE NOTE DATE CHANGE)
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $10
Presented by Morbid Anatomy

Robots are everywhere. They build our cars, fight our wars, and clean our homes. Robots help us define concepts of humanity, explore the ethical ramifications of knowledge, and question the role of complex technology in our lives. Yet these liminal objects have a long history. Medieval robots, also called automata, appear throughout the Middle Ages in literature, art, courtly ceremony, and liturgical ritual. They could reveal the time of day or the date of your death, and they might be made by artisans or sorcerers. This illustrated lecture will explore these seductive, strange, and sometimes terrifying objects, and will uncover the hidden medieval past of our robotic present.

Elly R. Truitt is Assistant Professor of Medieval History at Bryn Mawr College. She has published articles in a number of scholarly journals, and is currently finishing a book on medieval automata. She also has a blog, called Medieval Robots. She lives in Philadelphia, PA and is left-handed.

___________________________________________________

Karen Bachmann is a fine jeweler with over 25 years experience, including several years on staff as a master jeweler at Tiffany & Co. She is a Professor in the Jewelry Design Dept at Fashion Institute of Technology as well as the School of Art & Design at Pratt Institute. She has recently completed her MA in Art History at SUNY Purchase with a thesis entitled "Hairy Secrets; Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry". In her downtime she enjoys collecting biological specimens, amateur taxidermy and punk rock.

___________________________________________________

The party will feature:

* Costume contest with Celebrity Judge Evan Michelson of TV's Oddities. Best "resurrection" costume wins!
* Screening of brand new episodes from Ronni Thomas' Midnight Archive series
* Charm & handsomeship by MC Lord Whimsy
* Music by DJ Mangoose
* Kikkerland giveaways
* Glorious raffle prizes including a gift certificate from Palo Santo restaurant; books and CDs from green witch Robin Rose Bennett; Books and merch from Morbid Anatomy; Tarot readings by Shannon Taggart; Abraxas Esoteric Journal; Audiobooks from Hachette, and more!
* Artwork by Grace Baxter, Ben Blatt, Jesse Bransford, Ryan Matthew Cohn, Joanna Ebenstein, Barbara Ensor, Ethan Gould, Pam Grossman, Megan Hays, Katie Innamorato, Sue Jeiven, Megan Murtha, Rebeca Olguin, Katy Pierce, Sigrid Sarda, Dana Sherwood, Mark Splatter, Daisy Tainton, & Shannon Taggart
* Lots of booze & treats! YES!

Looking forward to seeing you there!

___________________________________________________

Tonight's celebration will begin with a highly-illustrated lecture on the roots, history and worship of Santa Muerte by Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut, Chair in Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University and author of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint. Following, attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions during a Q and A which with the lecturer and death in Mexico scholar Salvador Olguín moderated by David Metcalfe of The Revealer.
Come early (doors open at 6) and stay late to enjoy special artisanal cocktails utilizing the favorite spirits of "The Boney Lady" herself, compliments of Friese Undi ne. You can also admire--and indulge in!--a special Santa Muerte and Jesus Malverde Wedding Cake compliments of our generous Santa Muerte artifact donors Tonya Hurley and Tracy Hurley Martin, and take in a temporary mini-exhibit of the amazing donations themselves. There will also be live mariachi music by Mariachi Tapatio de Alvaro Paulino, gorgeous funeral floral arrangements by Emily Thompson Flowers, and Dr. R. Andrew Chesnut will be happy to sign copies of his new book Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint which will be available for sale.

___________________________________________________

___________________________________________________

Death As Muse: An Intimate Evening With Blake Schwarzenbach, Musician, Painter, Jawbreaker, Forgetter
Date: Thursday, February 7
Time: 8:00 PM
Admission: $5
Presented by Morbid Anatomy'

Image: "Impossible t-shirts" (a series). Blake Schwarzenbach. Pen, acrylic, graph paper. 2012.

___________________________________________________

Karen Bachmann is a fine jeweler with over 25 years experience, including several years on staff as a master jeweler at Tiffany & Co. She is a Professor in the Jewelry Design Dept at Fashion Institute of Technology as well as the School of Art & Design at Pratt Institute. She has recently completed her MA in Art History at SUNY Purchase with a thesis entitled "Hairy Secrets; Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry". In her downtime she enjoys collecting biological specimens, amateur taxidermy and punk rock.

___________________________________________________

Raccoon Head Taxidermy Class with Rogue Taxidermist Katie InnamoratoDate: Saturday, February 9
Time: 11 – 5 PM
Admission: $350
***SOLD OUT; Email morbidanatomy [at] gmail.com to be added to wait list
This class is part of The Morbid Anatomy Art Academy

___________________________________________________

You can find out more about all of these events here, or sign up for them on Facebook by clicking here.

Image: Memento Mori-themed ecclesastical robe from a book residing in The Morbid Anatomy Library.

Source:
http://morbidanatomy.blogspot.com/2013/01/macabre-new-york-christian-death.html

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Brain Anatomy May Play Role in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Latest Mental Health News

TUESDAY, Nov. 6 (HealthDay News) -- In combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, the area of the brain that controls fear and anxiety responses is much smaller than normal, according to a new study.

The finding is the first to provide evidence that a smaller amygdala is associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but it's not clear whether this smaller size is caused by PTSD or whether people with a smaller amygdala are more likely to develop PTSD, the researchers said.

For the study, MRI brain scans were conducted on 200 combat veterans, half with PTSD and half without, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. MRI brains scans of the participants showed that both the right and left amygdala were smaller in those with PTSD.

The researchers also confirmed previous study findings that linked PTSD with a smaller left hippocampus, a region of the brain that plays an important role in memory.

Amygdala size does not appear to be affected by the severity, frequency or duration of the mental trauma that can lead to PTSD, which indicates that such exposures do not cause the amygdala to shrink, said study lead author Dr. Rajendra Morey, assistant professor of psychiatry at Duke University.

This suggests that people with a smaller amygdala to begin with are susceptible to PTSD. Morey and colleagues are conducting further research to determine if that's the case.

"This is one piece in a bigger puzzle to understanding why some people develop PTSD and others do not," Morey said in a university news release. "We are getting closer to that answer."

The study was published Nov. 5 in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

PTSD affects nearly 14 percent of U.S. combat veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. It also affects nearly 7 percent of adults in the general population who have been victims of abuse, crime and other traumas during their lives.

Here is the original post:
Brain Anatomy May Play Role in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

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The Victorian Love Affair with Death! Morbid Anatomy Going Away Party! Death-Themed Screenings! "Resurrection" Themed Gala! Santa Muerte! Taxidermy! Insect Shadowboxes! The Cult of Beautiful Death! Morbid Anatomy Presents in February

Apocalyptic Anime! Memento Mori! Death-Themed Screenings! Annual Fundraiser! Research Methods for Artists! Santa Muerte! The Cult of Beautiful Death in Vienna! Morbid Anatomy Presents this Month and Beyond

Macabre New York! Christian Death Rituals! Haunted Hotels! Medieval Automata! Morbid Anatomy Presents this Week and Beyond in New York City!

Brain Anatomy May Play Role in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

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