The aim of this study is to determine the species of parasite that infected the population of Brussels during the Medieval and Renaissance periods, and determine if there was notable variation between different households within the city. We compared multiple sediment layers from cesspits beneath three different latrines dating from the 14th–17th centuries. Helminths and protozoa were detected using microscopy and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). We identified Ascaris sp., Capillaria sp., Dicrocoelium dendriticum, Entamoeba histolytica, Fasciola hepatica, Giardia duodenalis, Taenia sp. and Trichuris sp. in Medieval samples, and continuing presence of Ascaris sp., D. dendriticum, F. hepatica, G. duodenalis and Trichuris sp. into the Renaissance. While some variation existed between households, there was a broadly consistent pattern with the domination of species spread by fecal contamination of food and drink (whipworm, roundworm and protozoa that cause dysentery). These data allow us to explore diet and hygiene, together with routes for the spread of fecal–oral parasites. Key factors explaining our findings are manuring practices with human excrement in market gardens, and flooding of the polluted River Senne during the 14th–17th centuries.

Musical instruments provide material evidence to study the diversity and technical innovation of music in space and time. We employed a cultural evolutionary perspective to analyse organological data and their relation to language groups and population history in South America, a unique and complex geographic area for human evolution. The ethnological and archaeological native musical instrument record, documented in three newly assembled continental databases, reveals exceptionally high diversity of wind instruments. We explored similarities in the collection of instruments for each population, considering geographic patterns and focusing on groupings associated with language families. A network analysis of panpipe organological features illustrates four regional/cultural clusters: two in the Tropical Forest and two in the Andes. Twenty-five percent of the instruments in the standard organological classification are present in the archaeological, but not in the ethnographic record, suggesting extinction events. Most recent extinctions can be traced back to European contact, causing a reduction in indigenous cultural diversity.

Since Myers ( 1915 ) coined the term ‘shell shock’ to define the prolonged suffering of soldiers returning from the Great War, the psychological and physical result of distressing experiences, known as trauma, has been of academic interest. Transgenerational transmission of trauma effects has been recorded, demonstrating that on some level, the exposure to trauma of one generation can impact individuals of a subsequent generation (Yehuda & Lehrner, 2018 ). Observational studies on children of holocaust survivors formed the basis of this trajectory of research (Rakoff, 1966 ), and eventually this phenomenon became referred to as the transgenerational transmission of trauma (TTT). Since then, TTT has been observed in several contexts, including within families who have experienced high rates historical trauma (O’Neill et al., 2016 ), within regions high-frequencies of historical war and terrorism (Yehuda & Lehrner, 2018 ) and those who have undergone famine (Ahmed, 2010 ). This report aims to outline several pathways (biological, psychological, and sociological) by which trauma may be transmitted across generations. Moreover, it discusses several methods of trauma assessment and the related challenges and benefits. Lastly, this report advocates a biopsychosocial approach – an interdisciplinary model using the interplay of biological, psychological, and social-environmental factors – to research TTT. By promoting the benefits of such an interdisciplinary approach we attempt to break up silos between disciplines and encourage collaboration between academics from various backgrounds researching this topic to better serve individuals impacted by TTT.

El presente artículo explora cómo el racismo, la discriminación de género y la hipersexualización afectaron a las mujeres indígenas del Perú virreinal, para lo cual se toma como base la novela Aves sin nido de Clorinda Matto de Turner. Del mismo modo, se analiza cómo estos mismos factores afectaron también a las mujeres afroamericanas estadounidenses en los tiempos de la esclavitud. Para ambos casos, se sostiene que la idea del comportamiento racial refuerza la represión contra las mujeres que representan la minoría en sus respectivos países.