Healing is as healing does: Pragmatic resolution of misfortune among the Senufo (Ivory Coast)

Using the example of the representations and practices relative to the resolution of misfortune among the Senufo Fodonon, this article aims to show the non‐autonomy and irrelevance of categories such as ‘therapeutic,’ ‘illness,’ ‘medicine,’ usually taken for granted by anthropology.

These activities and representations refer to — and depend on for their coherence — heterogeneous domains of social organization extrinsic to ‘illness,’ in biomedicine's isolation of this concept. These domains consist of the matrilineage structure, the form of initiation institutions, the logic of secrecy, and the unobservable ‘religious’ entities which are fluctuating and transformable (ancestors, spirits, twins, etc.) amongst which the possible causalities of the misfortune are selected.

Following the stages of the “therapeutic processes,”; the first part describes one of two aspects — the procedures and institutions concerning the resolution of illness — and shows that they form a sub‐set of the local ways of treating the ‘event’ in general.

The second part describes the other aspect: the logic of possible causalities and the modalities of connection with the “therapeutic”; register. Far from being homogeneous, totalizable, mutually informative, these two domains, composite and paradoxical, are actualized and unified in concrete therapeutic procedures whose particular form and content are determined by constraints which are primarily pragmatic, issuing from historical situations peculiar to these individuals and groups.     

Turkish nationalism and ethno‐symbolic analysis: the rules of exception

This article examines the applicability of the ethno‐symbolic approach to the study of patriotic Turkish nationalism. In this venue, first it addresses the issue of why many of the existing theoretical models are difficult to use for attending to the case of Turkish nationalism in a comparative framework. Capitalising on the ethno‐symbolic understanding of ideological and ethno‐cultural continuities in the formation of modern nationalisms, this study provides an analysis of points of contestation regarding the history of modern, patriotic Turkish nationalism. It then discusses the demographic and socio‐cultural background of the bonding of exiled masses of Ottoman Muslims with the native Muslims of Anatolia under the banner of a revived, independent Turkish nation. The debate offered here is based on a critical evaluation of the myths and symbols of Turkish national identity within the larger context and time frame of Ottoman/Turkish history.     

Capitalism, cities, and the production of symbolic forms

A striking characteristic of contemporary capitalism is the increasing importance (in terms of growth, employment, revenue, etc.) of sectors whose outputs are imbued with significant cultural or symbolic content. Sectors of these sorts are predominantly, though not exclusively, located in large cities. I describe how these cities function as creative fields generating streams of both cultural and technological innovations. Post-Fordist cities are shown to be especially fertile terrains of commodified cultural production. A number of these cities have become major centres of image-producing industries such as film, music recording, or fashion clothing, and this phenomenon is also often associated with profound transformations of their physical landscapes. I argue that the economic foundations of these trends reside, in part, in the structural characteristics of image-producing industries, marked as they frequently are by modularized, network structures of production and a strong proclivity to geographic agglomeration. At the same time, the main centres of the contemporary cultural economy are caught up in insistent processes of globalization. I suggest that after an initial phase of product standardization and concentrated development in only a few major centres, the cultural economy of capitalism now appears to be entering a new phase marked by increasingly high levels of product differentiation and polycentric production sites. I also submit that the contemporary cultural economy of capitalism constitutes a historical shift beyond consumer society as such.     

Nitrates,water and salt: maintaining the fertility of agriculture

Abstract

The fertility of the soil depends on an ample supply of nitrogen compounds and on a variety of other nutrients and trace elements. The supply of nitrates by natural means has posed a limit to productivity since the inception of agriculture, and the avoidance of soil salination has been a necessity in many environments. Since the invention of an industrial process for fixing atmospheric nitrogen (the Haber process), there has been an ample supply of nitrates in the form of chemical fertilisers, capable of sustaining agriculture worldwide, and enabling it to feed the burgeoning human population. The growth in agricultural supply has been attributable, in the second half of the twentieth century, to the combined agency of hybrid crop species, chemical fertilisers and irrigation. Now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the problem of soil salination is limiting this growth and threatening to reverse it.     

Between the devil and the deep blue sea: nationality,power and symbolic trade‐offs among evangelical Protestants in contemporary Northern Ireland1

ABSTRACT. National identity is a symbolically complex configuration, with shifts of emphasis and reprioritisations of content negotiated in contexts of power. This paper shows how they occur in one post‐conflict situation – Northern Ireland – among some of the most extreme of national actors – evangelical Protestants. In‐depth interviews reveal quite radical shifts in the content of their British identity and in their understanding of and relation to the Irish state, with implications for their future politics. The implications for understanding ethno‐religious nationalism, nationality shifts and the future of Northern Ireland are drawn out.     

The myth and the stones of Venice: an historical geography of a symbolic landscape

John Ruskin's Stones of Venice criticized the Victorian city and Victorian society in the light of a reconstruction of medieval Venice. But Ruskin's reconstruction embodied elements of a long-standing myth propagated by Venetians themselves and inscribed in their organization of urban space and urban landscape. The geographical dimensions of the myth, its changing character through time, its iconographic expressions and its significance for English attitudes to Venice are described and explained. Ruskin used the myth to support his ideology, constructing a homology between architectural development and social structure. But the appeal of Venice transcends historical contingency and may, in part, be understood by reference to psychoanalytic categories, specifically sexual symbolism.     

The Belgammel Ram,a Hellenistic‐Roman Bronze Proembolion Found off the Coast of Libya: test analysis of function,date and metallurgy,with a digital reference archive

The Belgammel Ram was found off the coast of Libya in 1964, and examined during 2008–9. The following techniques were used: surface non‐contact digitizing using a laser scanner, reflectance transformation imaging using polynomial texture mapping and hemi‐spherical harmonics, digital photogrammetry with dense surface modelling, structured light optical scanning, and X‐ray fluorescence analysis. For internal structure the ram was examined by X‐radiography and 3‐D X‐ray tomography. Metallurgical composition was studied by micro‐drilling and subjecting the samples to scanning electron microscope X‐ray micro‐analysis, micro X‐ray fluorescence and X‐ray backscatter. The lead isotope composition was analysed. The alloy has average percentage composition Cu = 86.9, Sn = 6.3, Pb = 6.6, and Zn = < 0.10. The Belgammel Ram is probably a Hellenistic‐Roman proembolion from a small military vessel or tesseraria. The archived data are at the Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Engineering Sciences, Material Data Centre, University of Southampton ( muvis@soton.ac.uk ).     

济南市博物馆藏竹木牙雕鉴赏

在数千年的历史长河中,聪明智慧的中国先民创造了光辉灿烂的文明,同时也为我们留下了丰富的物质文化遗产。中国人很早便开始利用自然界生长的竹、木和动物的骨、牙、角制造生产工具、生活用品和美化生活的装饰品,并在长期的生产实践中不断改进创新制造工艺,逐渐形成了多姿多彩且富有民族风格的艺术门类。     

A spatial analysis of human fertility in Scotland: Reappraisal and extension

In an earlier study of Scottish fertility (Jones, 1975) it was concluded that a substantial part of the areal variability in county and major city Crude Birth Rates could be attributed to variations in age structure and, to a lesser extent, socio‐economic composition. Because Crude Birth Rate levels are affected by population composition this study seeks to determine the extent to which areal variations in reproduction can be attributed to behavioural rather than structural effects. It is suggested that areal differences in Scottish reproductive behaviour reflect well defined, deeply ingrained and temporally persistent differences within Scottish society.