Hakarl vs. Hot Dogs
Sveinn Sigurdsson
Akureyri, Iceland
Major: anthropology
Minor: philosophy
It’s one of life’s great mysteries:“Why don’t people eat as much rotten shark meat and lamb’s brain as they used to?” Sveinn Sigurdsson aims to find out with a summer research project that will return him to his homeland to study generational differences in nutrition. Hákarl and svid (the aforementioned shark and lamb’s brain) are as central to Sveinn’s grandparents’ diet as hot dogs and pizza are to his. He jokes, “My grandparents don’t even know what salad is,” yet they and their ontemporaries— despite eating what appears to be pretty unhealthy stuff—have tremendously long life expectancies. Under the guidance of Mark Jenike, his anthropology professor, Sveinn and his research partner (who happens to be his girlfriend) plan to publish the results of their study. If all goes well—and it should, since this is the first study of its kind—Sveinn hopes to parlay this research experience into further studies in grad school on his way toward becoming an anthropology professor. (Note: In the photo, Sveinn is the person on the right; the person on the left is pithecanthropus erectus.)
