Anatomy talk covers human dissection, bodysnatchers and the work of executioners
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To celebrate International Women's Day, High Life Highland will be talking to world-renowned anatomist and forensic anthropologist Professor Dame Sue Black.
The discussion, released on YouTube on Tuesday (March 8), is with Highland Archive Service community engagement officer Lorna Steele-McGinn, well known for her Learn with Lorna series.
Lorna said: “This year marks the 190th anniversary of the controversial 1832 Anatomy Act – a turning point in the long story of anatomy and human dissection.
“It was a fantastic opportunity to discuss this subject with Sue whose work has been recognised nationally and internationally, particularly investigating war crimes, mass fatality incidents and forensic casework.
“We look at this history through documents in the Highland Archive Service collections and we cover the early years of anatomy, when anatomical research was carried out on animals to prevent incurring the wrath of God by dissecting his human creations, right through to recent developments in scientific knowledge, body preservation and surgical training.”
Professor Dame Sue Black is pro-vice chancellor for engagement at Lancaster University and was awarded an OBE following her leadership of war crimes investigations in Kosovo in 2001 and a DBE in 2016 for her services to science and education.
Viewers will be given a guided tour from the past to the present, taking in the early need for anatomists to gain royal patronage, and the fashion for having portraits painted round the anatomists’ table.
The pair also discuss the unholy crimes of the bodysnatchers, the executioners who provided the bodies of convicted murderers for the surgeons to study, and the supply and demand issues created by the World Wars.
As well as the conversation on YouTube, people can discover more with a blog at www.highlifehighland.com/highland-archive-centre
