14 research outputs found
Sequences From First Settlers Reveal Rapid Evolution in Icelandic mtDNA Pool
A major task in human genetics is to understand the nature of the evolutionary processes that have shaped the gene pools of contemporary populations. Ancient DNA studies have great potential to shed light on the evolution of populations because they provide the opportunity to sample from the same population at different points in time. Here, we show that a sample of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region sequences from 68 early medieval Icelandic skeletal remains is more closely related to sequences from contemporary inhabitants of Scotland, Ireland, and Scandinavia than to those from the modern Icelandic population. Due to a faster rate of genetic drift in the Icelandic mtDNA pool during the last 1,100 years, the sequences carried by the first settlers were better preserved in their ancestral gene pools than among their descendants in Iceland. These results demonstrate the inferential power gained in ancient DNA studies through the application of population genetics analyses to relatively large samples
A backpacker habitus: the body and dress, embodiment and the self
As all cultures ‘dress’ the body through clothing, tattooing and other forms of body adornment such as cosmetics, dress offers a useful lens through which to explore the ways in which identities are constituted in modern leisure and tourism cultures. An analysis of the dress and embodied subjectivity of western backpackers in Nepal finds that dress is constitutive of self-identity and the ways backpackers imagine themselves. This study argues that dress remains an important aspect of a secondary socialization that, in an evolving process, leads to specific (western) backpacker habitus. The use of Pierre Bourdieu as a theoretical resource unravels the relationship between body and dress, embodiment and the self and shows how dress embellishes the body by adding an array of meanings within backpacking culture