Concepts of ‘balance’ have been central to modern politics, medicine and society. Yet, while many health, environmental and social challenges are discussed globally in terms of imbalances in biological, social and ecological systems, strategies for addressing modern excesses and deficiencies have focused almost exclusively on the agency of the individual. Balancing the Self explores the div…
In Acts of Care, Sara Ritchey recovers women's healthcare work by identifying previously overlooked tools of care: healing prayers, birthing indulgences, medical blessings, liturgical images, and penitential practices. Ritchey demonstrates that women in premodern Europe were both deeply engaged with and highly knowledgeable about health, the body, and therapeutic practices, but their critical r…
Scientists have identified southern China as a likely epicenter for viral pandemics, a place where new viruses emerge out of intensively farmed landscapes and human--animal interactions. In Virulent Zones, Lyle Fearnley documents the global plans to stop the next influenza pandemic at its source, accompanying virologists and veterinarians as they track lethal viruses to China's largest freshwat…
A sociological and historical study of the development of reproductive technologies, this book focuses on key technological developments through a biomedicalization lens with special attention to gender. Using in vitro fertilization (IVF) as a hub, it critically examines the main areas of related socio-technical developments: reproductive science, birth control, animal husbandry, genetics and r…
This timely book examines the interaction of health research and regulation with law through empirical analysis and the application of key anthropological concepts to reveal the inner workings of human health research. Through ground-breaking empirical inquiry, Regulatory Stewardship of Health Research explores how research ethics committees (RECs) work in practice to both protect research part…
Conceiving the Goddess is an exploration of goddess cults in South Asia that embodies research on South Asian goddesses in various disciplines. The theme running through all the contributions, with their multiple approaches and points of view, is the concept of appropriation, whereby one religious group adopts a religious belief or practice not formerly its own. What is the motivation behind th…
The Bulgarian dipteran fauna has been studied for 160 years (Löw 1862). Since then, a vast material of faunistic data concerning the territory of Bulgaria has been accumulated. During the last 70 years, different parts of the country are under landscape changes and anthropogenic impact. Changes in the natural communities are caused by some alien species, introduced in the last 100 years. The e…
The 5-year EU project project Securing the Conservation of biodiversity across Administrative Levels and spatial, temporal, and Ecological Scales (SCALES) has come to an end in July 2014 resulting in a first of its kind description of challenges that arise in protecting biodiversity across different scales. A wide range of practical methods and recommendations to improve conservation at region…
This book presents the results from the palynological and paleoecological studies conducted with my participation in Southwestern Bulgaria during the period 1985-2020. The study area has always played a key role in the investigation of the Late Quaternary vegetation history in Bulgaria since the middle of the past century. With the development of the research methods (pollen analysis, determina…
The main objective of the LIFE project Monitoring of Insect with Public Participation (MIPP) is to develop and test methods for the monitoring of five species of beetles listed in Annexes II and IV of the Habitats Directive (Osmoderma eremita, Lucanus cervus, Cerambyx cerdo, Rosalia alpina and Morimus funereus). A second objective of the project is the collection of faunistic data, gathered by …