What do muscle marker ruggedness scores actually tell us?

Musculoskeletal stress markers (MSM) have been used to reconstruct activity patterns and labour intensity of past populations. Age and size have been found to correlate with MSM, and these aspects should be considered in activity reconstructions. The aim of this study was to find out the nature and the effects of labour intensity, age and size on MSM. Study material were skeletons (N = 108) of individuals of known age, sex and occupation housed at the Natural History Museum, Finland. MSM were scored for Pectoralis major, Deltoid, Teres major and Biceps brachii. These scores were combined to reflect total activity of an individual. Geometric mean of humeral measurements was used as a size indicator and radial tuberosity size was used as a muscle size indicator. Factors explaining MSM were studied using ANCOVA. This included age, size, muscle size, sex, labour intensity, and their interactions. Age and muscle size were the most significant factors explaining MSM, where muscle attachment areas and MSM grow with advancing age. Muscle attachment areas and skeletal frame size were also found to correlate. Least squares regression parameter estimates were used to study the effects of labour intensity, sex and side on MSM. It was found that in early life scores are higher in heavy labour group, but there is less age‐related increase in these scores. This could mean that bone is unable to respond to heavy and continuous loading with surface structure. Therefore labour intensity cannot be reliably recorded in old individuals. Also age and size (as reflected in muscle attachment area) affect MSM and these aspects should be considered before making assumptions on labour intensity. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Loosening/tightening spaces in the geographies of hanging out

The article is based on research conducted with young people who spend their free time hanging out in a shopping mall and its surroundings in the city centre of Helsinki, Finland. ‘Geographies of hanging out’ is understood here as an interaction between the location and young people: the space offers affordances to the young people and thus affects their ways of being. At the same time, they give new meanings to the space by hanging out and thus take part in the production of that space. Empirical material gathered in the project includes the researcher's observations, in-depth interviews conducted with young people, youth workers, the police and the management of the mall and the photographs taken by the young participants. In this article, hanging out is interpreted as a process where ‘looseness’ and ‘tightness’ of space are negotiated and re-defined. Shopping malls are seen as spaces where boundaries between public and private are often blurred. The presence of young people can make these commercial spaces tighter or looser and thus change the nature of urban space not only for the young people, but for other urban dwellers, too.     

Computed tomography of mummified human remains in old Finnish churches,a case study: the mummified remains of a 17th-century vicar revisited

Summary: Mummified human remains have been preserved in the cool, well-ventilated crypts of old Finnish churches, which were popular burial sites among the elite of the early modern period. Here, the authors present the results of a computed tomography study of the remains of an early 17th-century vicar of Keminmaa. They examined the preservation of his remains and made several pathological findings; the causes of the latter possibly had a severe impact on his health. He was a large man who achieved relative longevity for his time, although he suffered from conditions related to obesity. There were also potential indications of tuberculosis. Inflammatory changes, for example, had afflicted his spine.     

Modeling skeletal traits and functions of the upper body: Comparing archaeological and anthropological material

The aim of this study is to look at upper body functional modifications caused by mechanical loading. We look at 4th lumbar vertebra as well as fibrous humeral musculoskeletal stress markers (MSMs). This study uses information provided by magnetic resonance images of living individuals from the University of Oulu Hospital data banks (N = 91), archaeological skeletons from Sweden (N = 54) and England (N = 61), and autopsied skeletal collection of early 20th century Finns in Natural History Museum, University of Helsinki (N = 48). The lumbar vertebrae and MSM are subjected to mechanical loading caused by the upper body weight and loads lifted and/or carried. We hypothesized that the vertebral size reflect body size, habitual mechanical loading and the overall skeletal robusticity as mechanical competence to withstand mechanical loading standardized to body size, which has decreased over millennia. For Helsinki material occupation, age and sex is known and the material was used in Niinimäki (2011). In the study by Niinimäki (2011) MSM were found to be affected by the intensity of muscular action as well as body size and age. This study is reviewed here in light of re-analysis of the data to follow the current anatomical understanding of the entheses as well as viewing MSMs as a part of upper body functional complex. Only fibrous entheses were included in the re-analysis. Furthermore, due to small number of females where activity intensity could be assessed, females were dropped from the re-analysis.     

Picturing the city: young people's representations of urban environments

Urban environments form the setting of everyday life for most Western young people. This article explores visual representations of cities made by young people in a range of environments within four countries. The findings inform a larger study on urban geographies within geography education. We analyse students' drawings of cities regarding physical characteristics, activities and issues. There are many commonalities between drawings from the four countries, the majority showing a ‘big, busy city’ representation with skylines, traffic and shopping areas. There are also distinctive characteristics for each set, for example Finnish students tended to emphasise environmental and social issues more than in the other countries. In relation to methodology, we conclude that drawings, supported by contextual information, are a useful source to understand young people's representations of cities. Further, this research supports thinking about how to merge young people's experiences and imaginaries with the teaching of urban geography.     

PARKOUR: CREATING LOOSE SPACES?

Parkour is a spectacular and highly mediatized new way of movement that challenges conceptions of acceptable or appropriate behaviour in urban public space. This article will examine the potential of parkour to “loosen” urban spatial texture by applying recent thinking on loose and tight space by Karen A. Franck and Quentin Stevens to data gathered through in‐depth interviews with parkour practitioners (traceurs) in two Finnish cities. When practising in urban public spaces, the traceurs we interviewed often caused confusion among other people. We explore how they negotiate their right to public space in the face of these reactions, either by evasion or with a combination of legal and moral arguments. We argue that parkour is not only a playful and confrontational practice with a potentially subversive character, but that the process of loosening space constitutes a complex dialectic, which may also involve a certain degree of tightening in the public space for other unexpected or unintended activities.