Evolution of Polynesian bark cloth and factors influencing cultural change

The origin and dispersal of the first human inhabitants of the Polynesian Triangle have been studied from many perspectives and significant progress in our understanding of Polynesian prehistory has derived from an intermingling of linguistics, archaeology, and genetics. Contributions from the ethnographic record, however, have been limited by the dearth of comparative methods that are useful for reconstructing prehistory and identifying and analyzing cross-cultural trends. For more than fifty years, cladistic phylogenetic methods have been used to reconstruct the evolutionary history of biological systems from contemporary trait distributions. These rigorous methods are applied herein to reconstruct the prehistoric evolution and dispersal of Polynesian bark cloth, using ethnographic data recorded since European contact with Polynesian cultures. Contrary to expectation given the earlier settlement of Western Polynesia, the Eastern Polynesian bark cloth traditions retained many ancestral features. In contrast, a suite of innovations appear in the Western Polynesian bark cloth traditions and it is asserted herein that the distribution of these traits may be associated with the rise of the Tongan maritime Empire. Within Eastern Polynesia, the pattern of diversification of bark cloth traditions is consistent with the breakdown of interaction spheres late in the settlement era.     

“History had taken such a large piece out of my life” — Neuroscientist refugees from Hamburg during National Socialism

ABSTRACT

Approximately 9,000 physicians were uprooted for so-called “racial” or “political” reasons by the Nazi regime and 6,000 fled Germany. These refugees are often seen as survivors who contributed to a “brain drain” from Germany. About 432 doctors (all specialties, private and academic) were dismissed from the major German city of Hamburg. Of these, 16 were Hamburg University faculty members dismissed from their government-supported positions for “racial” reasons, and, of these, five were neuroscientists. In a critical analysis, not comprehensively done previously, we will demonstrate that the brain drain did not equal a “brain gain.” The annihilation of these five neuroscientists’ careers under different but similar auspices, their shameful harassment and incarceration, financial expropriation by Nazi ransom techniques, forced migration, and roadblocks once reaching destination countries stalled and set back any hopes of research and quickly continuing once-promising careers. A major continuing challenge is finding ways to repair an open wound and obvious vacuum in the German neuroscience community created by the largely collective persecution of colleagues 80 years ago.     

Signs of sinusitis in times of urbanization in Viking Age-Early Medieval Sweden

The influence and possible negative impact on sinus health of living conditions in rural and urban environments in Viking Age (AD 800–1050) and Early Medieval Sweden (AD 1050–1200) is investigated. Skeletal samples from 32 rural settlements in the Mälaren Valley (AD 750–1200) and burials in the nearby proto-urban port of trade Birka (AD 750–960) are examined. Based on the diagnostic criteria for maxillary sinusitis used in earlier studies, the results show that there is no significant difference in the prevalence of signs of sinusitis between the two materials (i.e. the Mälaren Valley versus Birka). Consequently, this provides no evidence that living in a proto-urban environment had a negative impact on sinus health. However, when compared with previously studied samples from the early medieval town Sigtuna, dated to AD 970–1100, the populations of the Mälaren Valley and Birka show significantly lower frequencies of bone changes interpreted as chronic maxillary sinusitis (95%, 70% and 82% respectively). This implies that the urban environment of Sigtuna could have led to impaired sinus health. There is also a significant difference between males and females in the Birka material, in which more females (100%) than males (68%) were affected. A gender based differentiation in work tasks is suggested by this, or exposure to environmental risk factors that affect sinus health. No difference between males and females could be detected in the samples from the Mälaren Valley and Sigtuna.     

The sun in Sámi mythology

The topic of this paper is the position of the sun, Biejvve, in the Sámi religion. The main source of our knowledge about Sámi religion is the accounts of the missionaries and priests from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, who measured the Sámi's beliefs by the standards of classical Greek/Roman religion. Consequently, Biejwe was seen as one of the major celestial gods. Many have continued to follow this line of thinking. There is, however, another context in which Biejwe should be viewed. In almost all circumpolar societies, there exists/existed the concept of female goddesses or ‘mothers’ who regulate fertility and protect the family, especially women during pregnancy and children. Sáráhkká, the Sámi goddess of the hearth, is one of these goddesses. Her realm is the fire in the middle of the tent, at the center of people's lives. Consequently, she intercedes in everyday life; she cares for the family and the upholding of social values. Biejvve is also part of this complex. She is the burning fire in the sky, the annually recurring force which in springtime makes the hillsides turn green again and ensures there is food for the reindeer. She protects the reindeer calves during spring and sees to it that women get milk from the animals during summer. Unlike Såråhkkå, she does not intervene directly in people's lives and doesn not have the same elaborate cult, but she does carry the same life‐giving force.     

Zones of Exclusion: Offshore Extraction, the Contestation of Space and Physical Displacement in the Nigerian Delta and the Mexican Gulf

Abstract:  This article examines two aid interventions that manifest the merging of community development/relief and industrial security policy in the petroleum offshore of the Nigerian Niger Delta and the Mexican Gulf. In the Nigerian case, the article considers the crisis in the Warri region of Delta State in 2003, the subsequent evacuation of local residents, and the surrounding context of oil-related violence. Simmering since the 1990s, the 2003 Warri conflict displaced thousands due to competing community claims to territory that "hosts" oil installations, Shell and Chevron primarily. In Mexico, the analysis centers on the implementation of 2003 Mexican security legislation, prompted by International Maritime Organization post 9/11 security policy, that amplifies the "Zone of Exclusion" around offshore installations. To offset the loss of livelihoods resulting from the "exclusion zone", Mexican state agencies offered financing to support the conversion of the displaced small-scale fishers to fish farming. The varying forms of displacement prompted by these two "liberating" interventions reflect the socio-historical specificity of territorial relations in the Nigerian and Mexican extractive regimes. These relations constitute divergent extractive settings which have come to play contrasting roles in the global political economy of oil, one highly volatile, the other relatively stable.     

The European Union Structural Funds and Regional Development. The Perspective of Small and Medium Enterprises in Eastern Poland

Abstract

The article concentrates on the role of European Union (EU) structural funds in the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The analysis presented in this paper is based on the results of computer-assisted telephone interviews conducted with 394 representatives of enterprises localized in three Polish Voivodships: the Podkarpackie, the Lubelskie and the Podlaskie. The entire EU structural funds are based on the assumption that by additionally financing the development of SMEs, they influence regional development indirectly. Even though EU structural funds are not the only factor influencing economic growth and the creation of Gross Domestic Product, they affect the development potential of enterprises indirectly. However, from the perspective of the representatives of researched SMEs, EU structural funds are not so significant for commitment to investment. Actually, for SMEs in Eastern Poland, they have no effect on future investment plans. This bottom-up perspective researched in one of the poorest areas of the EU puts the assumption of the positive relation between the EU structural funds and regional development into doubt.