Water Mamas among the Makushi in Guyana

Abstract

This article examines folklore concerning water spirits among the Makushi Amerindians in Guyana. Makushi accounts of spirits called ‘water mamas’—twingram or Tuenkaron in Makushi—associate these beings with white people in both past and present. The case is presented here that this folklore reflects Makushi histories and experiences of European contact, colonialism in Dutch and British Guiana, and ongoing relations with Europeans and other outsiders. The themes of abduction, enticement, capricious wealth, and exotic ‘palaces’ found in stories of water mamas relate to these histories and experiences and inscribe them into the present landscape in Guyana. In addition to describing beliefs in water mamas and examining Makushi histories of interaction with Europeans, the article begins to explore the comparative context of this folklore in relation to other beliefs in water spirits across Amazonia and beyond.     

论"五四"时期儒家道统之接续

接续是指对儒家道统在承继基础上予以新时期之创发,是接与续的统一.在承继先秦儒家道统论、宋明儒家道统论基础上,现代新儒家吸纳新鲜元素而充实之,以重构现代儒家道统论.异构是接续传统儒家道统,构建现代道统的一种方式.通过对佛学、西学的批判、比较,以求其异,以此来彰显和重构儒家道统."五四"时期,在国内思想界人文主义回归的背景下,熊十力、梁漱溟、张君劢、冯友兰通过反省传统儒学,以宋明儒家道统论为其理论渊源,通过中、印、西之比较而进行批判,分明壁垒,吸纳佛学的思辨体系或西学某些概念,以中西比较的方式凸显儒学特质之优长及其现代价值,现代新儒家试图以异构来接续儒家道统,复古有余而创发不足.     

Feeding Teotihuacan: integrating approaches to studying food and foodways of the ancient metropolis

This special issue of the Journal of Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences provides a broad overview of the foods and foodways at a premier example of urbanism in the pre-Hispanic New World, the ancient metropolis of Teotihuacan, Mexico. One of the grand challenges of reconstructing ancient urban foodways is determining the social, economic, political, and ideological factors that enabled the production, distribution, consumption, and discard of food. In this volume, we define foodways as a social process, reenacted via the daily interactions between individuals. By bringing together scholars of Teotihuacan that use diverse methods and scales of analysis, we are able to provide a synthetic review of Teotihuacan foodways by summarizing the findings of each of the contributors and contextualizing their results by embedding them within knowledge gained from the long history of investigation at the site.     

Critical development studies in the Anthropocene

In this short commentary, the ramifications of the Anthropocene for a broadly defined critical development studies are considered. The likely anthropogenic roots of increasing cyclonic intensity and associated impacts in the Pacific are drawn upon to propose four research agendas. The first focuses on how places are becoming connected through human‐induced changes to planetary systems. While direct causal relationships are difficult to draw, research efforts can highlight the disproportionate contributions particular development models, actors, and lifestyles are having on more distant socioecological systems. A second more conventional theme focuses on the uneven impacts of the Anthropocene on people and places, as well as on how development is practised and prioritised. A third theme explores how the Anthropocene can be used to retheorise development in creative and more‐than‐human ways, recognising non‐human agencies and the co‐production of development processes. A final agenda involves asking how critical development researchers can strategically use and repurpose the Anthropocene to pursue socially and environmentally progressive ends.     

Conveyor‐Belt Justice: Precarity,Access to Justice,and Uneven Geographies of Legal Aid in UK Asylum Appeals

Ongoing government funding cuts to British legal aid have resulted in the formation of legal deserts and uneven geographies of access to advice and legal representation. Asylum seekers, particularly those subjected to no‐choice dispersal throughout the UK for housing, are enduring the impact of these cuts directly. This paper explores the spatial and legal marginalisation of asylum seekers, drawing upon the findings of a three‐year study of the asylum appeals process. Already precarious, we analyse the manifold spatial marginalisation of dispersed asylum seekers from sources of legal advice and representation. We identify the frames of luck, uncertainty and dislocation as ways to further a spatially cognisant understanding of precarity, alongside identifying strategies employed to counter precarious positionalities.