What do mummification, body-snatching, and anaesthetized pigs have in common? The New Worlds Patreon answers that with a look at how we’ve learned about human anatomy. Comment over there!

Happy New Year! The New Worlds Patreon is kicking off 2021 with a look through the more surgical side of medicine . . . but this first essay looks at the diagnosis of all kinds of ailments, disease included. So if that’s something you’d prefer not to think about right now, totally understood. If you do want to read, though, comment over there!

This week on the New Worlds Patreon, not all holidays involve a parade, and not all parades are for holidays — but let’s take a look at them! Comment over there.

Merry Christmas to those of you celebrating it today, and may all of you have a lovely day regardless! Keep safe, keep healthy, and I will see you next year.

This week the New Worlds Patreon acknowledges that we observe holidays in many different ways. Wherever you are and whatever holiday you may be celebrating, please stay safe, so that we’ll still have you around next year.

From the sacred we turn to the secular, with the New Worlds Patreon taking on holidays from the Fourth of July to Mother’s Day to International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Comment over there!

Whether you’re gearing up for a religion-based holiday right now or not, you may be interested in this week’s New Worlds Patreon essay, about holidays based in religion. Comment over there!

Have you ever been called a bastard, or called someone else by that name? This week the New Worlds Patreon takes a look at illegitimate children, and how and why they’ve been stigmatized. Comment over there!

Adultery: illicit crime, or expected behavior for a man in power? This week the New Worlds Patreon continues its study of marriage by looking at what happens outside of marriage. Comment over there!

In speculative fiction, we have surprisingly few stories that focus at all on what happens after someone’s spouse passes away. This week, the New Worlds Patreon looks at widows and widowers — comment over there!

Because humans have historically used marriage as one of the fundamental building blocks of society, previous New Worlds Patreon essays have not quite exhausted the topic. This week we’re talking about a few more types, including a basic anthropological concept underlying all marriages. Comment over there!

Since October has five Fridays, the New Worlds Patreon gets a bonus “theory” essay! This time we’re looking at the concept of essentialism, and how it can be both useful and dangerous in speculative fiction. Comment over there!

It’s time for presents! The New Worlds Patreon is taking a look at the practice of gift-giving: what we give, and when, and how. Comment over there!

Have you been deluged with solicitations to donate to various worthy causes? The New Worlds Patreon takes a look at public and private forms of charity and how those types operate. Comment over there!

Around the world we tend to share the idea that generosity is a good idea . . . but what we expect from that has changed over time. The New Worlds Patreon takes a look at ring-givers and potlatch chieftains, i.e. conceptions of generosity and how they may have changed over time. Comment over there!

The New Worlds Patreon invites you to come inside, rest your weary feet, and consider the topic of hospitality. Comment over there!

This week on the New Worlds Patreon, we don’t always target the body when punishing someone for wrongdoing. Sometimes the punishment is social instead — but that requires certain additional factors to work. Comment over there!

“Spare the rod, spoil the child” — or for that matter, the criminal. The New Worlds Patreon tour of punishments takes a look at those inflicted on the body. Comment over there!

As the New Worlds Patreon looks at punishments, it seems only natural — given modern practices — to think first of imprisonment. Comment over there!

This month on the New Worlds Patreon my patrons have voted to look at the punishment aspect of law and order. Before we get into the specifics of what types of punishment we inflict, we should consider why we punish people at all — what goal(s) that’s supposed to achieve. Comment over there!