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A review by kassiani
All That Remains by Sue Black
Forensic anthropology as investigating the life lived as it left its traces on the physical body, reinstating identity, rekindling our instincts to care and protect, our empathetic responses against the anonymity of remains.
The body as Theseus’s ship due to constant cell renewal - only four constants in our cells :
"There are at least four cell types in our bodies that are never replaced and which can live to be as old as we are – technically even longer, in the case of those formed before we are born. Perhaps these cells might be cited as the unlikely seat of our corporeal biological constancy. The four permanent cell types are the neurons in our nervous system, a tiny little area of bone at the base of our skull called the otic capsule, the enamel in our teeth and the lenses in our eyes. Teeth and lenses are only semi-permanent as they can be removed and substituted by modern dentistry or surgery respectively without harming the host. The other two are immovable and therefore truly permanent, remaining locked in our bodies as irrefutable evidence of our biological identity from before our birth until after our death."
On coping and compartementalizing horrors:
"The actor and advocate of communicating science Alan Alda says that sometimes the greatest things happen at thresholds, and it is by consciously stepping across a threshold envisioned in my mind that I move from one world into another. There are probably several very self-contained compartments lurking in there – I think of them as rooms – and I know them all so well that I automatically choose the one that best suits the job at hand that day"
The body as Theseus’s ship due to constant cell renewal - only four constants in our cells :
"There are at least four cell types in our bodies that are never replaced and which can live to be as old as we are – technically even longer, in the case of those formed before we are born. Perhaps these cells might be cited as the unlikely seat of our corporeal biological constancy. The four permanent cell types are the neurons in our nervous system, a tiny little area of bone at the base of our skull called the otic capsule, the enamel in our teeth and the lenses in our eyes. Teeth and lenses are only semi-permanent as they can be removed and substituted by modern dentistry or surgery respectively without harming the host. The other two are immovable and therefore truly permanent, remaining locked in our bodies as irrefutable evidence of our biological identity from before our birth until after our death."
On coping and compartementalizing horrors:
"The actor and advocate of communicating science Alan Alda says that sometimes the greatest things happen at thresholds, and it is by consciously stepping across a threshold envisioned in my mind that I move from one world into another. There are probably several very self-contained compartments lurking in there – I think of them as rooms – and I know them all so well that I automatically choose the one that best suits the job at hand that day"