Humans, Volume 5, Issue 2 (June 2025) – 5 articles

In zooarchaeological research, animal bone fractures can result from various processes including slaughtering, dismemberment, marrow/grease extraction, craft processing, carnivore gnawing/trampling, sediment compression, bioturbation, and recovery bias. These fractures are further influenced by bone freshness/dryness and environmental temperature. The animal bones analysed in this study, excavated from Han dynasty tombs in the Xinxiang Plain New District, China, represent ritual offerings. These specimens exhibit distinct truncation features—chop surfaces, rough planes, and fracture traces—created by ancient iron tools for culinary purposes such as stewing preparation or consumption facilitation. These characteristics differ significantly, from the V-shaped butchery marks produced by stone/bronze tools and fracture patterns from marrow/grease extraction to post-depositional breakage formed during burial processes. In this study, steel tools were employed in the rocking slicing and rolling slicing of animal bones, complemented by techniques such as breaking to sever bone shafts. Subsequently, the marks on the cross-sections were observed using a stereomicroscope, and the results were compared and analysed with the materials from Han dynasty tombs unearthed at Xinxiang city, Henan Province. From the comparison between experimental observation results and archaeological materials, it is evident that the fine processing of meat-bearing bone materials mainly involved the use of rocking and rolling slicing methods. The cross-sections of the slices revealed shearing surfaces, rough patches, bone splinters, and sliced ends. The shearing surfaces in particular exhibited numerous visible trace characteristics, with the types and quantities of these traces varying with different cutting tools. This study holds significant reference value for exploring cutting tools and techniques in antiquity. Full article

The human pelvis is adapted to accommodate bipedal locomotion while retaining a wide enough pelvic canal to birth large babies. Many forces act on the pubic bone, with the pelvis being in charge of supporting the organs of the abdominopelvic cavity. In this research, we investigate whether increases in gut volume (GV) and number of births (parity) impact the skeletal morphology of the pubic bone at two regions: the pubic symphysis and the pubic arch. Our results indicate that in our female sample, the pubic symphysis width increased with increased GV and parity, while the pubic arch width decreased with increased GV and parity, although not significantly. In the male sample, there was almost no effect of increased GV on the pubic symphysis, while the pubic arch width increased in response to increased GV. We hypothesize that while significance is not present for this entire data set, these pelvic structures are impacted by GV and parity, and these changes should be investigated further. These changes in the structure can impact the function of the pelvic girdle and result in pain and changes to mobility. Pelvic girdle pain may be one result of these structural changes due to increased forces, and thus it is vital to investigate what factors may or may not contribute to these bone morphology changes. Full article

The urgency of managing the COVID-19 health crisis in workplaces led to tensions, work overload, and confusion about preventive measures. This study presents a secondary analysis of qualitative data on paradoxes and double binds (PDBs) experienced by precarious essential workers in Canada who interacted with the public and their supervisors. Based on 13 interviews from a larger qualitative dataset, we examine how workers navigated public health recommendations and organisational demands during the pandemic. Findings reveal multiple organisational and managerial PDBs—both COVID-19-related and pre-existing—that contributed to psychological distress and compromised well-being. We argue that PDBs represent a significant occupational health hazard for precarious workers. Addressing these structural contradictions through proactive management strategies could help mitigate workplace tensions, reduce stress, and enhance resilience in both crisis situations and regular organisational contexts. Our study contributes to occupational health and safety (OHS) by underscoring the risks posed by PDBs and advocating for strategies to support vulnerable workers in navigating conflicting demands. Full article

Accepting the premise that sociocultural anthropology is colonialist and Audre Lorde’s maxim that the master’s tools cannot remake the master’s house, I consider the value of a tool from outside the master’s house to reconstruct sociocultural anthropology. Intersectionality, variously known as a theory, a lens, or a metaphor, is rooted in U.S. Black women’s abolitionism of the mid-nineteenth century, which argued that rights-seeking efforts framed out Black women. The 1970s and 1980s brought increased attention, especially from Black American feminists, to the multiplying effects of the intersections of race, gender, and class. In 1989, the term intersectionality first appeared in print, and a theory was named. Since then, many fields of study and activism have embraced intersectionality. Edward Said posited that radical theories lose their edge when they travel outside their original context. I explore intersectionality’s travels to sociocultural anthropology—its chronology, advocates, and transformations. Although barely visible in much of sociocultural anthropology’s Whitestream, intersectionality has gained not only in numbers but also a stronger voice since its first published appearance in 2001. Nearly two centuries have passed since intersectionality’s origins in U.S. enslavement, but interlocking conditions of inequality pervade the world today, nurturing intersectionality’s radical ethos in sociocultural anthropology. Full article

Sustainability is currently seen as the central unifying idea necessary to mobilize collective responsibility to address the set of serious problems and challenges facing humanity, appealing to cooperation and the defense of the general interest. This article analyzes the social sustainability of the rural environment, in order to enhance its value beyond the traditional agricultural activities of the territory. Methodologically, it is based on ethnographic fieldwork through participant observation and in-depth interviews, carried out in the rural environment of Castilla y León. This has allowed us to reflect on the strategies that we have tried to articulate, combine, and relate to achieve rural social sustainability. The conclusions show the need to give political content to the rural space and the elements that derive from it. Political, economic, and social problems cannot be solved only from the local level; they need to create alliances beyond the communities to deal with economic structures that seek continuous growth. Full article