Julia Pastrana


Book Description

In a dusty corner at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in norway lie the remains of Julia Pastrana, half hidden in a black plastic sack, all but forgotten. Yet in the middle of the nineteeth century, this 'ape woman' was renowed, visited by scientists of international repute, and drawing the populace of three continents to the freakshows in which she starred. just 4ft 6in tall, she was covered in hair, with a protruding jaw; but she also spoke several languages, married, had a child, made money. This is the compelling and strange story of how a woman born in the backwoods of Mexico came to be one of the most infamous women in Europe and America and how, nearly 150 years after she first set foot upon the stage, Julia is still being shown to others. The exhibition goes on.




Russia • Women • Culture


Book Description

Een aantal essays over de culturele bijdrage die Russische vrouwen geleverd hebben aan de Russische beschaving. De volgende bijdragen zijn opgenomen: The second fantasy mother, or all baths are women's baths / door Nancy Condee; Keeping a-breast of the waist-land: women's fashion in early-nineteenth-century Russia / door Helena Goscilo; Female fashion, Soviet style: bodies of ideology / door Ol'ga Vainshtein; Getting under their skin: the beauty salon in Russian women's lives / door Nadezhda Azhgikhina en Helena Goscilo; Domestic porkbarreling in nineteenth-century Russia, or who holds the keys to the larder / door Darra Goldstein; The ritual fabrics of Russian village women / door Mary B. Kelly; Dirty women: cultural connotations of cleanliness in Soviet Russia / door Nadya L. Peterson; Women on the verge of new language: Russian salon hostesses in the first half of the nineteenth century / door Lina Bernstein; Stepping out/going under: women Russia's twentieth-century salons / door Beth Holmgren; Pleasure, danger, and the dance: nineteenth-century Russian variations / door Stephanie Sandler; "The incomparable" Anastasiia Vial'tsva and the culture of personality / door Louise McReynolds; Flirting with words: domestic albums, 1770-1840 / Gitta Hammarberg; Gendering the icon: marketing women writers in fin-de-siècle Russia / door Beth Holmgren; Domestic crafts and creative freedom: Russian women's art / door Alison Hilton.




Deviance in Neo-Victorian Culture


Book Description

This book argues that ‘deviance’ represents a central issue in neo-Victorian culture, and that the very concept of neo-Victorianism is based upon the idea of ‘diverging’ from accepted notions regarding the nineteenth-century frame of mind. However, the study of the ways in which the Victorian age has been revised by contemporary authors does not only entail analogies with the present but proves – by introducing what is perhaps a more pertinent description of the nineteenth century – that it was much more ‘deviant’ than it is usually depicted and perceived. Deviance in Neo-Victorian Culture: Canon, Transgression, Innovation explores a wide variety of textual forms, from novels to TV series, from movies and graphic novels to visual art. The scholarly and educational purpose of this study is to stimulate readers to approach neo-Victorianism as a complex cultural phenomenon.




Anatomical Anomalies


Book Description

The human body is an immensely complex and amazing system, but sometimes something goes haywire and causes one or more of its vital elements to misfire, resulting in bizarre and often devastating anatomical anomalies. Such physical abnormalities in times past often meant that the affected individuals would be stigmatized and shunned from the rest of society, primarily out of fear of the unknown. Thankfully, modern science and modern medicine working together have been able to solve many of these physical problems so that the currently afflicted can lead relatively normal lives. The general public has also grown more knowledgeable about the physical disfigurements that plague the human race and has thus become much more accepting of the pain and hardship faced on a daily basis by those so challenged. Extreme physical deformities are not viewed in the same light today as they were 100, or even 50, years ago. The very real people who once would have been the spectacles flaunted at freak shows are today shown understanding. Regardless of the modern times we enjoy, rare cases of physical abnormalities still persist that are so extreme little can be done to ameliorate the deformity.




The Darwin Effect


Book Description

Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, an imprisoned doctor in the Auschwitz camp, wrote that Nazi doctors hoped studying twins would solve the problem of faster reproduction of superior races. Nazis hoped to have each German mother bear as many twins as possible.What Darwin influenced went far beyond the Nazi death camps: Shocking political, social, and scientific legacies of Darwin and his family Disturbing disclosure of how over 45 million Christians were killed in the 20th century because of their faith Revealing and layman-friendly presentation. This book is the result of 30 years of research and study carefully documenting the common destructive threads that tie some of history’s most murderous dictators, uncaring capitalists, and aggressive social activists to the flawed concepts of Charles Darwin in an effort to change the world — and how they succeeded. The extermination of races considered “lower” than others, the profound lack of empathy for less-advanced cultures, the corrupted atheistic justifications for taking the lives of millions — all done to advance the agendas of social Darwinism at work in the world today. More than mere theoretical discussions, we have seen the horrifying evidence of the practical results when applying these destructive and misleading concepts to society in the last 100 years!




501 Fascinating Facts


Book Description




Julia Pastrana


Book Description

The shocking life story of a young woman thrust into the tragic world of the 1850's sideshows.




The Myth of Individualism


Book Description

New edition forthcoming in time for fall 2017! The Myth of Individualism offers a concise introduction to sociology and sociological thinking. Drawing upon personal stories, historical events, and sociological research, Callero shows how powerful social forces shape individual lives in subtle but compelling ways.




Come See the Living Dryad


Book Description

"Come See the Living Dryad" by Theodora Goss is a fantasy about a contemporary woman investigating the murder of an ancestor suffering from a rare disease who was a famous sideshow attraction in the nineteenth century. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.