What did the Greeks mean?

By tracing in the work of medical authorities, some of whom are not widely quoted, the changing meaning of three neurological terms used in ancient Greece - poplexia, epilepsia and cephalalgia - the development of Greek ideas about neurological science may be appreciated. It may be concluded that the achievement of the schools of Greek medicine was in keeping with the level attained by the ancient Greeks in philosophy and other aspects of civilization.     

Policy for children and young people: What is the evidence and can we trust it?

In a range of settings in health, education, social care, housing and justice, policy makers are urged to make decisions based on research evidence. At present, those seeking sound research evidence to underpin interventions with children and young people will frequently find the evidence cupboard disappointingly bare. This article signposts resources pointing to networks producing research evidence for policy and practice, and discusses drivers and obstacles to the use of research evidence in policy. The authors highlight the importance of synthesising different kinds of evidence in order for practice, policy and end point research users to have greater confidence in interventions in the lives of children and young people.     

What does a republican government with Donald Trump as President of the USA mean for children,youth and families?

This viewpoint outlines the likely impact of the election of a Republican government with Donald Trump as President on children, youth and families. It focuses primarily on the impact on undocumented and mixed-status families, and briefly addresses the impacts on children’s health services, juvenile justice and education.     

What is scepticism and can it be found in the Hebrew Bible?

Abstract

This is the first installment of a two part study examining scepticism and irinic correlations in the joy statements of Qoheleth. In this article, a synoptic overview of scepticism is provided from Pyrrho to Descartes, Hume and Kant. The article then examines scepticism's methodology and provides a working definition followed by a critical assessment of the above. The article then examines both the general views of a sceptical tradition in the Hebrew Bible and Dell's specific view of scepticism in the Book of Job followed by a critical assessment of them. Finally, a conclusion is provided for this article.     

Funeral practices and foodstuff behaviour: What does eat meat mean? Stable isotope analysis of Middle Neolithic populations in the Languedoc region (France)

The aim of this study is to reconstruct the dietary patterns and economic behaviours of Neolithic populations in the Northwestern Mediterranean using isotopic and archaeological data. Burials come from four sites located in Languedoc–Roussillon region in French Mediterranean area. These sites are dated from the Middle Neolithic period (ca. 4500–3500 BC). They represent the Chasséen culture, characterized by regional features, such as economy management, resulting from territorial control. For this investigation, a stable isotopes (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) method has been used on 50 human bone collagens and 28 associated animal bones. This method provides direct dietary information on the protein consumed including the relative amounts of marine vs. terrestrial and animal vs. plant proteins in diets. Isotopic results are mainly compared to archaeological data to understand economic distinctions and potential social status variations between different groups using specific funeral practices, i.e. lithic chamber graves vs. domestic/funeral pits. Results show that individuals buried in lithic chamber graves and those buried in pits did not have the same dietary pattern. This result suggests a possible differentiation between two socio-economic groups, i.e. consumers of resources from herding and from farming. No aquatic food appeared to be routinely consumed by these individuals despite a relative close proximity to sea and freshwater sources. Moreover, these outcomes lead us to hypothesize that: (1) funeral practices could be linked to specific economies and/or (2) to different social status and that (3) burial type and foodstuff could be an expression of religious worship. Further research could include data from other areas, such as Spanish Catalonia where there are funeral structures similar to Languedoc lithic chamber graves.     

The politics of the accord does corporatism explain it?

The period between the holding of the National Economic Summit Conference in April 1983 and the 1984 election has seen the politics of the Accord shift from a primary concern with wage setting through the Arbitration Commission to the management of trade‐offs in non‐wage areas between business, government and the ACTU. The politics of the Accord in this period is not understood by adopting an interest group approach to business, the ACTU and the government or by accepting EPAC's view of its own institutional role. Rather, business and the ACTU obey two different logics of collective action and Epac is a ‘disorganising’ institution. It is a representation system based on closure by exclusion called partial corporatism. Partial corporatism benefits business disproportionately and excludes women, welfare recipients and the unemployed.     

World Heritage List: does it make sense?

The UNESCO World Heritage List contains the 900 most treasured sites of humanity's culture and landscapes. This List is beneficial where heritage sites are undetected, disregarded by national decision‐makers, not commercially exploitable, and where national financial resources, political control, and technical knowledge for conservation are inadequate. Alternatives such as market and national conservation lists are more beneficial where the cultural and natural sites are already popular, markets work well, and where inclusion in the List does not raise the destruction potential by excessive tourism, and in times of war, or by terrorists.     

What to do with conspiracy theories?: Insights from contemporary Turkey

This article presents ethnographic insights into the everyday lives of people who circulate conspiratorial narratives through an ethnographic study of ultranationalist men in contemporary Turkey. Drawing on the findings of this research, the author suggests that conspiratorial discourses should be examined not solely in terms of their (anti-)truth qualities but as social practices through which masculine subjectivities and socialities are engendered. The author then explores how the circulation of conspiratorial narratives forges agency and political subjectivity for the men involved, while also inducing sociopolitical effects such as vigilantism and paramilitary violence. This article contends that through the circulation of conspiratorial narratives and everyday engagements with vigilantism and extralegal violence, the men reconfigure sovereignty and the way that the state operates in contemporary Turkey. The findings of this research suggest that the focus should be moved away from the epistemological shortcomings of conspiratorial narratives or strategies to debunk them – such as fact-checking – which presume that exposure of ‘the truth’ would lead to the dissolution of ‘untruthful’ conspiracies. Rather, the author suggests that researchers attend to the particular forms conspiracies take in concrete situations, how they mould political subjectivities and social groups and reconfigure the ways that the state operates alongside the law in other similar settings.     

Whom does heritage empower,and whom does it silence? Intangible cultural heritage at the Jemaa el Fnaa,Marrakech

Since the 2001–2005 Proclamations of Masterpieces and the highly successful 2003 Convention, the UNESCO paradigms of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) and safeguarding have become influential concepts in international, national and local cultural policy. But the thinking employed in the ICH model – where practitioners are ‘bearers’ of reified, bounded heritage practices – neglects the lived realities of practitioners, ultimately safeguarding little and potentially exacerbating existing inequalities. While the ICH model contains promises of community empowerment, its actual execution can in fact disempower many, merely replicating existing inequalities in the new context of ICH management. While existing literature addresses the theoretical shortcomings of UNESCO’s approach, the purpose of this article was to examine the ways in which they unfold in real life. As a practical case study, it is based on fieldwork among the performers at the Jemaa el Fnaa Square in Marrakech, a site addressed in the earliest rounds of the UNESCO ICH project. Using this case study, I discuss ways in which the issues of power inherent in the ICH paradigm have real consequences for those affected and implications for the success of the projects developed under its umbrella.     

Race-based districting: does it help or hinder legislative representation?

This paper assesses the impact of using race-based districts on membership diversity of the US Congress and state legislative chambers as well as on electoral competition and voter participation in US Congressional and state legislative elections. In the 1990s membership diversity has increased in the US House of Representatives and state legislative chambers due to increased reliance on the use of race and ethnicity in drawing Congressional and legislative districts. But anecdotal evidence suggests that the creation of more homogeneous districts may lead to a decline in electoral competition, and thus a decline in voter participation in elections held within those districts. Uncompetitive Congressional or state legislative districts are posited to reduce the incentives for candidates or parties to mobilize voters and to restrict the electorate to habitual voters only. A lack of incentives to vote in district elections may diminish overall participation and have consequences in elections for statewide offices. I examine electoral competition and voter participation in recent Congressional and state legislative elections to determine whether electoral competition and voter participation have decreased, and whether that decrease can be linked to changes in the homogeneity of districts. I conclude by suggesting that bodies who adopt districting plans as well as those charged with a review of such plans take into account how line drawing affects electoral competition and voter participation as well as membership diversity.     

What is network analysis,and what is it good for?

Jeremy Boissevain and J. Clyde Mitchell, eds. Network Analysis: Studies In Human Interaction. The Hague: Mouton, 1973. xiii + 271 pp. Tables, figures, bibliography, and index. $11.00 (Dutch Guilders: 29).