̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - aboriginal

Australian Aboriginal spears taken by James Cook to be repatriated

sb726 — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 09:42:24 +0000

̽��ֱ��spears were taken by Lieutenant James Cook in 1770 from Kamay (Botany Bay) at the time of the first contact between the crew of the HMB Endeavour and the Aboriginal people of eastern Australia.

Trinity College has agreed to permanently return the four spears to the La Perouse Aboriginal community. ̽��ֱ��College is now approaching the UK’s Charity Commission to obtain approval for this transfer of legal title.

Cook recorded that 40 spears were taken from the camps of Aboriginal people living at Botany Bay in April 1770.

Lord Sandwich of the British Admiralty presented the four spears to Trinity College soon after James Cook returned to England and they have been part of the collection since 1771. Since 1914 the four spears have been cared for by the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. ̽��ֱ��four spears are all that remain of the original 40 spears collected.

Trinity College’s decision follows the establishment of a respectful and robust relationship over the last decade between the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the Aboriginal community at La Perouse. Discussions included representatives of the local Gweagal people - the Aboriginal group from whom the spears were taken - the broader Dharawal Nation, and leading community organisations, including the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council and the Gujaga Foundation.

̽��ֱ��relationship between Cambridge and La Perouse will continue through collaborative research projects and community visits, once the spears have been returned.

̽��ֱ��La Perouse community is currently lending contemporary spears made by Senior Gweagal Clan leader Rodney Mason to the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology to show how traditional knowledge has been passed down, while adapting to new technologies.

̽��ֱ��decision by Trinity College to return the spears followed a formal repatriation request in December 2022, from the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council and the Gujaga Foundation.

In 2015 and again in 2020, some of the spears were returned temporarily to Australia for the first time since they were taken, and displayed by the National Museum of Australia in Canberra as part of two exhibitions exploring frontier encounters.

̽��ֱ��spears will be permanently repatriated with the assistance of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS).

La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council chairperson, Noeleen Timbery said the spears would be preserved for future generations.

“We are proud to have worked with Cambridge’s Trinity College and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology to transfer the ownership of these enormously significant artefacts to the La Perouse Aboriginal community. They are an important connection to our past, our traditions and cultural practices, and to our ancestors. With assistance from the National Museum of Australia and AIATSIS we will ensure these objects are preserved for our future generations and for all Australians.

"Our Elders have worked for many years to see their ownership transferred to the traditional owners of Botany Bay. Many of the families within the La Perouse Aboriginal community are descended from those who were present during the eight days the Endeavour was anchored in Kamay in 1770,” said Ms Timbery.

Professor Nicholas Thomas, Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, said he was honoured to have worked with the Kamay community to repatriate the spears.

“It has been immensely rewarding to work with the La Perouse community to research these artefacts and we look forward to extending the partnership into the future,” said Professor Thomas.

" ̽��ֱ��spears are exceptionally significant. They are the first artefacts collected by any European from any part of Australia, that remain extant and documented. They reflect the beginnings of a history of misunderstanding and conflict. Their significance will be powerfully enhanced through return to the country."

Dame Sally Davies, Master of Trinity College, welcomed the decision to return the spears.

“Trinity is committed to better understanding the College’s history, and to addressing the complex legacies of the British Empire, not least in our collections,” said Professor Davies.

“ ̽��ֱ��College’s interaction with the La Perouse Aboriginal community, the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and National Museum Australia regarding the return of artefacts to the people from whom they were taken has been a respectful and rewarding process.

“We believe that this is the right decision and I would like to acknowledge and thank all those involved."

Dharawal Elder, Dr Shayne Williams said: “These spears are of immeasurable value as powerful, tangible connections between our forebears and ourselves. I want to acknowledge the respectfulness of Trinity College in returning these spears back to our community. In caring for the spears for over 252 years, Trinity College has ensured that these priceless artefacts can now be utilised for cultural education by the Aboriginal community into the future.”

Four Australian Aboriginal spears – cared for by Cambridge’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology – are to be repatriated after Trinity College agreed to permanently return them to the country.

It has been immensely rewarding to work with the La Perouse community to research these artefacts and we look forward to extending the partnership into the future.

Professor Nicholas Thomas, Director of the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

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̽��ֱ��fall and rise of Native North America

sjr81 — Mon, 26 Sep 2016 14:46:12 +0000

Blood and Land by Jonathan King, the Von Hügel Fellow at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, is the story of how Native North America has shaped the United States and Canada, and vice versa.

̽��ֱ��product of decades of study, Blood and Land seeks to move beyond the traditional ‘feathers-and-failure’ narrative to interrogate the myriad and multi-layered histories of North America. King takes an unflinching look at the many successes, desperate struggles and threats to the very existence of Native populations.

“So much of what we know about America today is tied up in its history and treatment of Native North Americans over the last few centuries,” said King. “No understanding of the USA is possible without first comprehending the story of its original inhabitants.

“My book provides a different perspective. General histories are often presented as a progressive fall from grace. But the true story is actually one of how Indian people continually recovered and made the country their own again, whether that is through the growth of casinos or mineral exploitation. Each time recovery occurs, new difficulties emerge to threaten the status quo.

“When you look at the challenges Native Americans have faced over time – right through to Eisenhower trying to legislate them out of existence, and the forced sterilisation of Indian women in the 1970s – Native Americans are not only surviving, but thriving as a phenomenon in both the imagination and the intellect. In the early part of the 20th century, very few wanted to be identified as Native American. Now, there is something of a clamour to identify Native blood in one’s family tree, often met with disbelief. Look at Senator Elizabeth Warren, whose early intimation of Cherokee ancestry was met with derision.”

However, Native populations still face many of the struggles connected with racism, poverty and access to the same life chances as non-native populations.

One remarkable example of the ‘otherness’ still ascribed to Native peoples came in 2011 when the War on Terror was compared, by a legal representative of the United States Government, to the early 19th century wars on Indian nations.

In a case against a Guantanamo Bay suspect, United States vs Al Bahlul, it was said that the trial and summary execution by General Andrew Jackson of two Scots in Spanish Florida in 1818, traders with the Seminole, was legal and correct and provided precedent for contemporary behaviour by the USA in the war against Al-Qaeda. ̽��ֱ��Scottish traders had been providing weapons to terrorists. In a non-ironic manner, the Seminole were themselves compared to Al-Qaeda.

̽��ֱ��National Congress of American Indians took exception to the comparison, pointing out that Seminole efforts to defend themselves from an invading genocidal army could be termed as ‘unlawful belligerency’ by only the most jingoistic military historian.

“ ̽��ֱ��case sought to use genocide as a justification for misbehaviour in the wider world in the 21st century,” said King. “It was that same US strategy and behaviour against Indian nations that helped determine US behaviour in dealing with 21st century terrorism. Specifically obnoxious to Native people in 2011 was the fact there were around 24,000 Indian people serving in the military that year, and approximately 383,000 American Indian veterans.”

That there are so many veterans is testament to the 20th century recovery in fortunes that King frequently refers to in Blood and Land. In 1900, there were just 237,196 Indians. In 2010, 5.2 million people recorded themselves as American Indian and Native Alaskans, 1.7pc of the total US population, with an expectation of growth to 8.6 million by 2050 (2pc of the total projected population). In 2010 there were more than 15 states with more than 100,000 American Indian or American Native people, with California (732,225) leading the way.

In Canada, 1.4 million people identified as Aboriginal in 2011, some 4pc of the population. In 1900 that number was thought to be around 100,000. However, compared to a map of the USA’s settlements, the size and scale of Canadian First Nations’ reserves appears to make a much, much smaller footprint on the map of Canada. Outside of the north they have remained just ‘small dots on the map’ according to King.

̽��ֱ��growing strength of Native America has also been symbolised by the removal of racist sporting logos in the last few decades with one major exception: the Washington Redskins have steadfastly stuck to a name considered derogatory by many.

While King rightly points to the many success stories for Native Americans in the 20th century, he does not shy away from tackling subjects such as alcohol abuse and gender violence that are often swept under the carpet by communities and commentators alike in the US.

Although problems with alcohol and substance abuse are well-known if not well discussed, the role of gambling in Indian life – both as a profit-making business enterprise and a social ill for Native communities – has been more visible. Today, Indian gaming is responsible for nearly 612,000 jobs worth more than $27.6 billion. It is estimated that almost half of America’s native tribes operate casinos despite some studies suggesting that the immense tribal gaming revenues can actually make poverty worse in their local communities.

However, although King argues that casinos have largely been a force for good, he does believe gambling in reservation casinos may have reached its high water mark. Beyond casinos he also warns of the impact of declining natural resources and climate change.

“Casinos should not be seen as a blight, even if gambling can be seen as a highly destructive vehicle of achievement,” added King. “They have provided wealth and income to communities on an incredible scale, and much gambling wealth has been put into providing police forces, schools and hospitals. But this decade is likely to be the climax of Indian gambling. What will happen when these casinos disappear in favour of online gambling which is accessible without the need to travel?

“However, the long centuries of change for Native people have resulted in a resilience that ensures survival. This in part is to do with the uniqueness and hyper-diversity of Indian culture, its ability to recreate and rethink identity and circumstance, architecture and art; but it is also to do with the way in which Nativeness is embedded in the United States and Canada.

“Indians are unique in their contribution to world history. Whether it be kayaking, canoeing, snow- shoeing or lacrosse, Blood and Land repeatedly outlines the innovation of Indian society and its huge contribution to global culture, far outweighing the number of Native people there are today. That is the truest measure of their success.”

̽��ֱ��story of Native North America – from its vast contribution to world culture, to the often taboo social problems of drinking, gambling and violence – is the subject of a sweeping new history by a Cambridge academic and authority on the subject.

No understanding of the USA is possible without first comprehending the story of its original inhabitants.

Jonathan King

Anton Gag

1904 painting "Attack on New Ulm" by Anton Gag

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Unprecedented study of Aboriginal Australians points to one shared Out of Africa migration for modern humans

tdk25 — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 18:00:19 +0000

̽��ֱ��first major genomic study of Aboriginal Australians ever undertaken has confirmed that all present-day non-African populations are descended from the same single wave of migrants, who left Africa around 72,000 years ago.

Researchers sequenced the complete genetic information of 83 Aboriginal Australians, as well as 25 Papuans from New Guinea, to produce a host of significant new findings about the origins of modern human populations. Their work is published alongside several other related papers in the journal Nature.

̽��ֱ��study, by an international team of academics, was carried out in close collaboration with elders and leaders from various Aboriginal Australian communities – some of whom are co-authors on the paper – as well as with various other organisations representing the participating groups.

Alongside the prevailing conclusion, that the overwhelming majority of the genomes of non-Africans alive today stem from one ancestral group of migrants who left Africa together, there are several other standout findings. These include:

Compelling evidence that Aboriginal Australians are descended directly from the first people to inhabit Australia – which is still the subject of periodic political dispute.
Evidence of an uncharacterised – and perhaps unknown – early human species which interbred with anatomically modern humans as they migrated through Asia.
Evidence that a mysterious dispersal from the northeastern part of Australia roughly 4,000 years ago contributed to the cultural links between Aboriginal groups today. These internal migrants defined the way in which people spoke and thought, but then disappeared from most of the continent, in a manner which the researchers describe as “ghost-like”.

̽��ֱ��study’s senior authors are from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, the Universities of Copenhagen, Bern and Griffith ̽��ֱ�� Australia. Within Cambridge, members of the Leverhulme Centre for Evolutionary Studies also contributed to the research, in particular by helping to place the genetic data which the team gathered in the field within the context of wider evidence about early human population and migration patterns.

Professor Eske Willerslev, who holds posts at St John’s College, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, the Sanger Institute and the ̽��ֱ�� of Copenhagen, initiated and led the research. He said: “ ̽��ֱ��study addresses a number of fundamental questions about human evolution – how many times did we leave Africa, when was Australia populated, and what is the diversity of people in and outside Australia?”

“Technologically and politically, it has not really been possible to answer those questions until now. We found evidence that there was only really one wave of humans who gave rise to all present-day non-Africans, including Australians.”

Anatomically modern humans are known to have left Africa approximately 72,000 years ago, eventually spreading across Asia and Europe. Outside Africa, Australia has one of the longest histories of continuous human occupation, dating back about 50,000 years.

Some researchers believe that this deep history indicates that Papuans and Australians stemmed from an earlier migration than the ancestors of Eurasian peoples; others that they split from Eurasian progenitors within Africa itself, and left the continent in a separate wave.

Until the present study, however, the only genetic evidence for Aboriginal Australians, which is needed to investigate these theories, came from one tuft of hair (taken from a long-since deceased individual), and two unidentified cell lines.

̽��ֱ��new research dramatically improves that picture. Working closely with community elders, representative organisations and the ethical board of Griffith ̽��ֱ��, Willerslev and colleagues obtained permission to sequence dozens of Aboriginal Australian genomes, using DNA extracted from saliva.

This was compared with existing genetic information about other populations. ̽��ֱ��researchers modelled the likely genetic impact of different human dispersals from Africa and towards Australia, looking for patterns that best matched the data they had acquired. Dr Marta Mirazon Lahr and Professor Robert Foley, both from the Leverhulme Centre, assisted in particular by analysing the likely correspondences between this newly-acquired genetic evidence and a wider framework of existing archaeological and anthropological evidence about early human population movements.

Dr Manjinder Sandhu, a senior author from the Sanger Institute and ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “Our results suggest that, rather than having left in a separate wave, most of the genomes of Papuans and Aboriginal Australians can be traced back to a single ‘Out of Africa’ event which led to modern worldwide populations. There may have been other migrations, but the evidence so far points to one exit event.”

̽��ֱ��Papuan and Australian ancestors did, however, diverge early from the rest, around 58,000 years ago. By comparison, European and Asian ancestral groups only become distinct in the genetic record around 42,000 years ago.

̽��ֱ��study then traces the Papuan and Australian groups’ progress. Around 50,000 years ago they reached “Sahul” – a prehistoric supercontinent that originally united New Guinea, Australia and Tasmania, until these regions were separated by rising sea levels approximately 10,000 years ago.

̽��ֱ��researchers charted several further “divergences” in which various parts of the population broke off and became genetically isolated from others. Interestingly, Papuans and Aboriginal Australians appear to have diverged about 37,000 years ago – long before they became physically separated by water. ̽��ֱ��cause is unclear, but one reason may be the early flooding of the Carpentaria basin, which left Australia connected to New Guinea by a strip of land that may have been unfavourable for human habitation.

Once in Australia, the ancestors of today’s Aboriginal communities remained almost completely isolated from the rest of the world’s population until just a few thousand years ago, when they came into contact with some Asian populations, followed by European travellers in the 18th Century.

Indeed, by 31,000 years ago, most Aboriginal communities were genetically isolated from each other. This divergence was most likely caused by environmental barriers; in particular the evolution of an almost impassable central desert as the Australian continent dried out.

Assistant Professor Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas, from the Universities of Copenhagen and Bern, and a lead author, said: “ ̽��ֱ��genetic diversity among Aboriginal Australians is amazing. Because the continent has been populated for such a long time, we find that groups from south-western Australia are genetically more different from north-eastern Australia, than, for example, Native Americans are from Siberians.”

Two other major findings also emerged. First, the researchers were able to reappraise traces of DNA which come from an ancient, extinct human species and are found in Aboriginal Australians. These have traditionally been attributed to encounters with Denisovans – a group known from DNA samples found in Siberia.

In fact, the new study suggests that they were from a different, as-yet uncharacterised, species. “We don’t know who these people were, but they were a distant relative of Denisovans, and the Papuan/Australian ancestors probably encountered them close to Sahul,” Willerslev said.

Finally, the research also offers an intriguing new perspective on how Aboriginal culture itself developed, raising the possibility of a mysterious, internal migration 4,000 years ago.

About 90% of Aboriginal communities today speak languages belonging to the “Pama-Nyungan” linguistic family. ̽��ֱ��study finds that all of these people are descendants of the founding population which diverged from the Papuans 37,000 years ago, then diverged further into genetically isolated communities.

This, however, throws up a long-established paradox. Language experts are adamant that Pama-Nyungan languages are much younger, dating back 4,000 years, and coinciding with the appearance of new stone technologies in the archaeological record.

Scientists have long puzzled over how – if these communities were completely isolated from each other and the rest of the world – they ended up sharing a language family that is much younger? ̽��ֱ��traditional answer has been that there was a second migration into Australia 4,000 years ago, by people speaking this language.

But the new research finds no evidence of this. Instead, the team uncovered signs of a tiny gene flow, indicating a small population movement from north-east Australia across the continent, potentially at the time the Pama-Nyungan language and new stone tool technologies appeared.

These intrepid travellers, who must have braved forbidding environmental barriers, were small in number, but had a significant, sweeping impact on the continent’s culture. Mysteriously, however, the genetic evidence for them then disappears. In short, their influential language and culture survived – but they, as a distinctive group, did not.

“It’s a really weird scenario,” Willerslev said. “A few immigrants appear in different villages and communities around Australia. They change the way people speak and think; then they disappear, like ghosts. And people just carry on living in isolation the same way they always have. This may have happened for religious or cultural reasons that we can only speculate about. But in genetic terms, we have never seen anything like it before.”

̽��ֱ��paper, A Genomic History of Aboriginal Australia, is published in Nature. doi:10.1038/nature18299.

Inset images: Professor Eske Willerslev talking to Aboriginal elders in the Kalgoorlie area in southwestern Australia in 2012. (Photo credit: Preben Hjort, Mayday Film). / Map showing main findings from the paper. Credit: St John's College, Cambridge.

̽��ֱ��first significant investigation into the genomics of Aboriginal Australians has uncovered several major findings about early human populations. These include evidence of a single “Out of Africa” migration event, and of a previously unidentified, “ghost-like” population spread which provided a basis for the modern Aboriginal cultural landscape.

We found evidence that there was only really one wave of humans who gave rise to all present-day non-Africans, including Australians

Eske Willerslev

Preben Hjort, Magus Film

Aubrey Lynch, elder from the Wongatha Aboriginal language group, who participated in the study.

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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Modern art’s missing chapter

sjr81 — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 01:01:34 +0000

After being awarded £100,000 by the Art Fund to build a collection of work from Australia, South Africa and Canada, the museum officially opened ̽��ֱ��Power of Paper yesterday. ̽��ֱ��exhibition focuses on artworks made in those countries during an epoch of decolonisation.

It exhibits for the first time in the UK some of the earliest prints made by Aboriginal, Inuit and black South African artists – a rich variety of indigenous art from the 1950s onwards as the end of empire informed works reflecting attachments to land and belief, as well as struggles with violence, dislocation and contemporary city life.

"This show is a revelation," said Nicholas Thomas, Director of MAA and the exhibition's curator. "It presents visions of place and history that are rarely given the attention their eloquence and power deserve, even in today's supposedly global and inclusive art world.

“I'm taken aback by the sheer artistic accomplishment of all the works included, but also love the quirkiness of the artists' take on everything from empire, to township life, to climate change. Why should a military helicopter be hoisting an oversized caribou, walrus and polar bear through the air? You need to come to the show to find out."

Modern art was more than just a project of great Europeans. From the late 1950s onward, as the end of empire gathered momentum, artists in native and local communities began to produce work in modern media in both remote community workshops and city studios; wryly expressing everyday life in townships or settlements, and often illuminating both personal and collective concerns in artworks that could be evocative, oblique or polemical.

Responding to the very limited representation of modern indigenous art movements in British collections, in 2011 the Art Fund awarded the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge £100,000 to build a collection of work on paper from Australia, Canada and South Africa.

For more than two years, working with a network of artists, workshops and specialist curators, Thomas embarked on what he described as a ‘dream shopping trip’, building a unique collection of around 300 works. While some of the artists are internationally famous, only a few of the works have been on display in Europe.

Art on display in Britain for the first time includes the very first prints produced at the famous Rorke’s Drift print workshop, which played a major role in the development of black art during apartheid.

South African artist Frank Ledimo, whose work King Ubu Encounter (2002) is featured in the exhibition, said: “I create work that is based on the urban landscape in which I live. I have been fascinated by the representation of the figure to relay messages of urban squalor, city life, survivors and victims of urbanisation.”

Added Thomas: “ ̽��ֱ��Power of Paper gives voice to great but marginalized artists, whose words caption their own work. ̽��ֱ��exhibition's most vital message is that art has offered a route to freedom.”

̽��ֱ��Power of Paper runs at MAA until December 6, 2015. ̽��ֱ��exhibition will also feature a working press with opportunities to participate in practical workshops as visitors explore the medium of printmaking as a form of expression.

̽��ֱ��artworks of black and indigenous peoples – a missing chapter in the history of modern art – is brought into sharp focus in a ‘revelatory’ exhibition at Cambridge ̽��ֱ��’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

̽��ֱ��exhibition's most vital message is that art has offered a route to freedom

Nicholas Thomas

Joseph Pootoogook

Joyfully I Saw Ten Caribou

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Fevered imaginations

jfp40 — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 10:53:15 +0000

̽��ֱ��thyroid hormone thyroxine, which controls our day-to-day activity and was previously believed to remain at a constant level in the blood, actually fluctuates as a result of a protein which modifies the release of the hormone depending on body temperature, new research reveals. ̽��ֱ��research was published today, 29 January, in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

̽��ֱ��hormone thyroxine regulates metabolism in all mammals, including humans. If there is too much, it leads to hyperactivity, and if there is too little, it leads to dormancy. This essential hormone is carried and stored in the blood by the protein thyroxine-binding globulin (TBG).

It was previously thought that the levels of the hormone remained constant. However, the new research, led by Robin Carrell, Emeritus Professor of Haematology at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, found that when the body’s temperature rises, TBG’s affinity for thyroxine decreases, resulting in an increase of the available hormone and a subsequent increase in metabolism. If the body temperature drops, such as when an animal goes into hibernation, TBG’s affinity for thyroxine increases, resulting in a decrease in the availability of the hormone and a decrease in metabolism.

̽��ֱ��findings provide insight into the changes that occur during fevers, when the body accelerates its metabolism to counter infection and inflammation. ̽��ֱ��research shows that TBG has an inbuilt booster which gives a surge in thyroxine release as the body temperature rises above 37ºC. ̽��ֱ��study found that a body temperature of 39ºC will result in a 23 per cent increase in concentration of thyroxine levels in the blood – temporarily moving into the range seen in patients with hyperthyroidism.

Professor Carrell said: “ ̽��ֱ��effect of temperature on thyroxine levels has been largely overlooked because most measurements of the hormone are carried out when the blood is at room temperature. As a result, blood samples taken from hypothermia or heatstroke patients, or from an infant with fever, would not show the change of free thyroxine in the blood. We are excited by our findings as they are directly relevant to better understanding fevers, which, although beneficial, can pose problems, especially to young children.”

Evidence of the significance of this surge in thyroxine during fevers is demonstrated in a unique way – an environmental adaptation in the aboriginal Australian. ̽��ֱ��researchers discovered that a genetic modification in aboriginal Australians recalibrates the TBG protein’s effect during fevers and so will cancel the fever-induced boost in metabolism.

̽��ֱ��researchers believe that whilst being advantageous as a defence mechanism in temperate climates, such an increase will be a potential disadvantage in the arid climate of central Australia. There the historic survival risk has been not so much the infection itself, but rather the dehydration and heat exhaustion that accompany dysentery and other common illnesses in childhood. ̽��ֱ��two genetic mutations have become incorporated in the DNA of some 40% of West Australian aboriginals, to give a halving of the surge in metabolic activity that would otherwise take place in fevers.

̽��ֱ��research also sheds light on infant febrile seizures - convulsive episodes that often accompany the spiking fevers during early childhood. Although not typically life threatening, these seizures, which can occur in young babies, can be a terrifying experience for parents. ̽��ֱ��researchers believe that part of the reason these seizures may occur is because the brain is especially sensitive to thyroxine - rises in thyroxine result in increased brain activity, hyper-excitability and, in the extreme, convulsive seizures. ̽��ֱ��occurrence of the last in response to increased thyroxine can now be seen to have direct implications for the previously inexplicable febrile seizures which cease as soon as the infant’s body is cooled.

Additionally, the scientists believe their discovery helps explain the euphoric feeling some people experience after spending time in a sauna or hot-tub.

Professor Carrell added: “In everyday life, the accelerated release of thyroxine that will take place as the body core temperature rises to 39ºC in a sauna or hot-tub will contribute to an enhancement of the activity of body and mind: to the euphoria and to the occasional Eureka! Old figures of speech - ‘hot headedness’ and ‘fevered imagination’ – can now be seen to have a basis in science.”

New study finds links between thyroid hormones and body temperature, shedding new light on changes that occur during fevers, and euphoric feelings arising from a hot bath or sauna

In everyday life, the accelerated release of thyroxine that will take place as the body core temperature rises to 39ºC in a sauna or hot-tub will contribute to an enhancement of the activity of body and mind: to the euphoria and to the occasional Eureka!

Professor Robin Carrell

Toshiyuki IMAI

Thermometer

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