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To many, the inner workings of the gut remain a mystery, although it makes its presence felt via rumblings and emanations. First, a micro-biologist will take you on a journey through the bacteria in the gut – how they help us, protect us and steal from us. Then, moving to its outward emanations, a social anthropologist will take you on an excursion into the cross-cultural meanings of flatulence.
Friends, thieves and warlords: A story on gut bacteria
Dr Volker Behrends
(Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Science)
The human genome has roughly 23,000 genes... sounds a lot but is dwarfed by the 3 or so million genes we ferry about on our skin, in our nose and mouth and most importantly, our guts. So, you are mostly microbe, at least genetically. And these genes don't just sit around waiting be sequenced by scientists, they govern the lives of the microbes they belong to... and maybe ours, too. In my talk, I'll speak about these microbial-human interactions, how it literally shapes how we look, how we feel and, in some cases, how we behave.
Silent but deadly: The anthropology of farting
Professor Kirsten Bell
(Professor of Social Anthropology)
Benjamin Franklin once observed that if not for its offensive smell, farting in public would be accorded the same status as blowing one’s nose. In this talk, I consider farting from an anthropological perspective, focusing on whether our response to farts is distinctively human, how farting is understood cross-culturally, and social theories that help explain why this natural bodily function generates such a strong response.
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