Brea McCauley

Brea McCauley is a PhD candidate at Simon Fraser University. She is overall fascinated by permanent body modification: the origin, evolution, history, and prevalence of the variable types of body modification practices; why we, as humans, permanently modify ourselves; and whether permanent body modification may be a universal cross-cultural custom. Her previous research in this area has centered on cultural finger amputation practices. Her publications on cultural finger amputation have looked at the occurrence of these practices in the ethnographic, historical, archaeological, and folktale records and have found that finger amputation has been a surprisingly common custom in human history. Her PhD thesis focuses on permanent body modification practices more broadly and provides a cross-cultural perspective on the variability of these customs and the cultural motivations for engaging in them.