Dental modification practices on the Cape Flats in the Western Cape

The people living on the Cape Flats in the Western Cape have been practicing dental modification for a number of years. A systematic survey of eight adjoining areas in the Northern suburbs was done to investigate the prevalence, motivation and possible historical time depth of this practice. The survey was conducted by means of a questionnaire. A total of 2167 individuals participated in this study of which 41 % had modified their teeth. More males (44.8%) than females (37.9%) were involved in this practice. Residential area and pay class had an impact on dental modification practices as the incidence increased within lower income areas. Six styles of modification were identified, of these; the removal of the upper four incisors (style 400) was often the style of choice (93. 7%). There were four stated reasons (peer pressure, fashion, gangsterism and medical/other) for dental modification of which peer pressure (in males) and fashion (in females) were the most popular. Dentists did most of the extractions. Three quarters of the entire study sample had family members with dental modifications. More than half (69.8%) of individuals with modifications wore dentures. Not only coloured people were modifying their teeth, some study subjects who had self-classified themselves as black or white also practiced it

Pulling teeth for Fashion: Dental modification in modern day Cape Town, South Africa

Friedling and Morris (2005) have reported that intentional removal of incisors as a form of dental modification is relatively common in Cape Town. In this paper we further report on the style of modification and the reasons for the modification. A survey of eight adjoining areas in the northern suburbs of the Cape Town Metropole in the Western Cape was done to investigate the current prevalence of this practice. The survey was conducted by means of a questionnaire. Three groups of study subjects (scholars, working people and retired people) were included to gain a perspective of the community in general. The individual ages ranged from 15 to 83-years-old. A total of 2167 individuals participated in this study. Forty one percent had modified their teeth. More males (44,8%) than females (37,9%) were involved in this practice. Six "styles" of modification were identified. The removal of the upper four incisors was by far the most common modification (93,7%). There were four reported reasons for dental modification i.e. gangsterism, peer pressure, fashion and medical (dental) or accidental. More than two thirds (69,8%) of individuals with modifications also wore dentures

Reflections and Projections on American Feminism and Culture: An Interview with Gloria Steinem

This interview was conducted in September 1995 when Gloria Steinem visited Iowa City during her book tour for the second edition of Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions. Republished in 1995, initially published in 1983, and consisting of essays first released as early as 1963, Outrageous Acts provides an occasion for us to think between decades of American feminist political, cultural, and academic endeavor. As academic feminists of the third wave, we took this opportunity to engage Gloria Steinem as a public intellectual whose cultural work calls us to interrogate both contemporary culture’s “friendly” incorporations and recent “feminist” hostile repudiations of the legacy that is the second wave

Perturbative Quantum (In)equivalence of Dual σ\sigma Models in 22 dimensions

Various examples of target space duality transformations are investigated up to two loop order in perturbation theory. Our results show that when using the tree level (`naive') transformation rules the dual theories are in general {\it inequivalent} at two loops to the original ones, (both for the Abelian and the non Abelian duality).Comment: 11 pages, Latex, uses espcrc2.st

Impacts of tooth loss on ohrqol in an adult population in Cape Town, South Africa

Background: Tooth loss is an important component of the global burden of oral disease, greatly reducing the quality of life of those affected. Tooth loss can also affect diet and subsequent incidences of lifestyle diseases, such as hypertension and metabolic syndromes. This study aimed to evaluate the oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) score using the oral impacts on daily performance (OIDP) index in relation to tooth loss patterns among adults. (2) Methods: From 2014 to 2016, a cross-sectional study was conducted on adults living in Bellville South, Cape Town, South Africa. The OHRQoL measure was used to evaluate the impact of tooth loss. (3) Results: A total of 1615 participants were included, and 143 (8.85%) had at least one impact (OIDP > 0). Males were less likely to experience at least one impact compared to the females, OR=0.6, 95% C.I.: 0.385 to 0.942, p = 0.026. Those participants who did not seek dental help due to financial constraints were 6.54 (4.49 to 9.54) times more likely to experience at least one impact, p < 0.001. (4) Conclusions: Tooth loss did not impact the OHRQoL of these subjects. There was no difference in the reported odds for participants experiencing at least one oral impact with the loss of their four anterior teeth, the loss of their posterior occlusal pairs, or the loss of their other teeth

The effect of clothing on decomposition and vertebrate scavengers in cooler months of the temperate southwestern Cape, South Africa

With research providing conflicting results from different habitats across the globe, the effect of clothing on decomposition is unclear; some studies indicate clothing increases decomposition rate by facilitating increased insect activity, and others conclude clothing prolongs the decay process. In South Africa, such research is lacking, with no data for the Western Cape Province, which suffers from a high murder rate with many unclaimed, unidentified bodies. Improving post-mortem interval (PMI) estimates will increase chances of correct forensic identification of decedents by narrowing the search window for police. Since no current PMI estimation method accounts for the possible influence of clothing, this study was designed to examine the effect of seasonally appropriate common clothing on decomposition rate in the thicketed Cape Flats Dune Strandveld, Cape Town, a forensically significant region. Four ∼60 kg domestic pig carcasses (Sus scrofa domesticus) were used as proxies for human decomposition, two were clothed and two unclothed. The clothing, altered by a seamstress to ensure an appropriate fit, caused a notable decrease in decay rate in this initial sample. Daily weight loss was used as a quantitative measure of decomposition progression, as the clothing prevented the use of visual decomposition scoring systems. Weight loss was closely associated with scavenging activity by the Cape grey mongoose (Galerella pulverulenta), with a clear scavenger preference for unclothed carcasses. This suggests that the effect of clothing on decomposition may be better assessed in this environment by examining how scavengers interact with only a single clothed carcass

Quantum equivalence of sigma models related by non Abelian Duality Transformations

Coupling constant renormalization is investigated in 2 dimensional sigma models related by non Abelian duality transformations. In this respect it is shown that in the one loop order of perturbation theory the duals of a one parameter family of models, interpolating between the SU(2) principal model and the O(3) sigma model, exhibit the same behaviour as the original models. For the O(3) model also the two loop equivalence is investigated, and is found to be broken just like in the already known example of the principal model.Comment: As a result of the collaboration of new authors the previously overlooked gauge contribution is inserted into eq.(43) changing not so much the formulae as part of the conclusion: for the models considered non Abelian duality is OK in one loo

Grave tales : an osteological assessment of health and lifestyle from 18th and 19th century burial sites around Cape Town

Includes bibliographical references (p. 249-270).Two unwalled 18th and 19th century colonial burial sites, Cobern Street and Marina Residence, were assessed osteologically and dentally to reconstruct the life histories and activity patterns of the poorer people living at the Cape. This was done to add to the history and knowledge of the descendants of these people, as little other information exists on them. Questions pertaining to diet, stress, activity patterns and trauma were investigated. Visual (standard and novel macroscopic methods e.g. distal humeri method), metric (femoral neck method) and histological (proximal anterior femur) techniques were tested and employed to estimate age and sex, as the skeletal material was fragmentary and incomplete. Only adults were assessed and analysed (n = 86 and n = 75 for Cobern Street and Marina Residence respectively) as the infant, juvenile and sub-adult skeletal material was too badly preserved and fragmentary to attempt reconstruction. Mortality profiles reveal that the two study sites were different in community dynamics. They led hard active lives as seen from their muscle marking and degenerative joint disease patterns. Osteoarthritis was not only very frequent within the groups but was found in much of the younger adult skeletal material. Stress and trauma were relatively low within the two populations. Dental disease was relatively high within the two study groups. This was as a result of a carbohydrate rich diet and poor oral hygiene. Thus the food they were consuming as well as the activities they were involved in had a huge impact on their lives. The first possible cases of syphilis, tuberculosis and Paget's disease at the Cape were found within these two study groups