Category: Achondroplasia

The Dwarfs: Pataikos

May 22, 2024 By arne hendriks Off

A wisdom text of ancient Egyptian literature, Instruction of Amenemope, papyrus EA 10474, gives the following instruction: ‘Laugh not at a blind man, nor tease a dwarf’. This seems to indicate that while their differences could attract negative attention, they were to be treated with…

Court Dwarfs: Nano Morgante

June 13, 2022 By arne hendriks Off

Surely one of the most remarkable sculptures created during the reign of Cosimo I de’ Medici is that of the dwarf jester Nano Morgante, whose real name was Braccio di Bartolo. Morgante, which means giant, was ironically nicknamed after the giant from the poem of the same name…

Court Dwarfs

December 6, 2020 By arne hendriks Off

If we are to overcome the irrational prejudice against smallness we must understand how its current perception is the cumulative result of past ways of seeing. Rather than being an abstraction such ‘traditions of perception’ can often be traced back to specific historical traditions and…

Mayan Dwarf Liminality

February 23, 2020 By arne hendriks Off

Short-statured people, dwarfs and people with achondroplasia play a significant role in Maya mythology. It was believed that dwarfs lived together with the gods long before humans even existed. This presumed divine proximity and intimacy gave the small-statured status. Dwarfs knew something that the taller…

Early Heroics

March 17, 2016 By arne hendriks 0

During the excavation of a common grave at Romito Cave in Italy, P. Graziosi discovered the diminutive remains of the earliest known case of dwarfism in the human skeletal record. The specimen, known as Romito 2, exhibits features typical of acromesomelic dysplasia, including a high…

TEDx Lecture on Shrinking

June 10, 2012 By arne hendriks 0

During TEDx Brainport we gave a short talk on some of the reasons the human species should shrink, some of its possible consequences, and how it could be done. See it HERE.

Closing the Bone

May 13, 2012 By arne hendriks 1

Much of our height is determined by the length of our legs, which in turn is determined by the activity of the epiphyseal plates. These plates, located at the end of the thigh bone, function as the center for cartilage and bonecell production during childhood…

A Puzzle with 300+ Pieces

March 19, 2012 By arne hendriks Off

Medical science should approach every single form of dwarfism as a genetic miracle and not, as is often the case, as a genetic defect. We are in danger of throwing away the baby with the bathwater. A negative approach makes it difficult to see the…

Messengers of the Small Truth

March 4, 2012 By arne hendriks 0

Growth is a human default mode. Every individual, every reproduced cell and in fact every selfish copy of our DNA, intends to proliferate. From an evolutionary perspective such a default mode made perfect sense in the year 4.000 BC when the world population of Homo…

Small Wonder

May 14, 2011 By arne hendriks 0

Jyoti Amge is the world’s smallest girl. She weighs about 5 kilograms and at 58 cm’s her height  is really close to The Incredible Shrinking Man’s projected future size of 50 centimeter. She has been the subject of numerous documentaries and enjoys her star status.…