“Dying out”: conversion and the complexity of neighbourliness on the Polish Belarussian border

This paper addresses the way that religious affiliation and conversion shape ongoing tensions over historical periods of exile, resettlement, exodus and elimination in a small town on the Eastern Polish border. I explore how local Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian’s negotiations of a troubled past are materialized and managed through narrating family histories of conversion, In particular, this paper focuses on the compromises that enable mixed faith marriages and the conflicts that emerge over the burial of religious converts. In these negotiations, members of both congregations deploy the local model of “neighbourliness” and the ideal of the borderlander, to greater and lesser success. Day-to-day the practice of considered neighbourliness helps local people to acknowledge and minimize religious and ethnic difference. However, conversion brings the realms of religion and relatedness into conjunction in a risky manner: marriage may offer an opportunity to enhance neighbourly connections, but burial is an event where the tensions over histories of conflict become apparent disrupting neighbourly relations and practices.     

Associations between coastal proximity and children’s mental health in Australia

Limited research has explored associations between blue spaces and mental health, specifically in children. This study assessed links between coastal proximity and depression and anxiety among children in Australia and tested whether duration of residency at current address moderated associations. It also explored associations between within-individual changes in coastal proximity and changes in depression and anxiety. Data were from 2400 children aged 11–12 years in Wave 5 (2012) and aged 14–15 years in Wave 6 (2014) of the national Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Outcomes were children’s self-reported symptoms of depression and anxiety. Exposure was coastal proximity (<2, 2–<5, 5–<10, 10–<20, 20–<50, and ≥50 km). Linear models were fitted to examine cross-sectional associations and fixed effects models for within-individual associations. After adjustment for potential confounders, findings suggested that those living close to the coast (<2 km) had lower levels of depression than those living the furthest from the coast (≥50 km) during childhood (Wave 5) but not adolescence (Wave 6). No associations were observed with anxiety. There was weak evidence to suggest residency duration moderated associations. No associations were observed for within-individual changes. Further research is needed to understand whether and what characteristics of coastal environments may benefit children’s mental health.     

Memory and Legend: Recollections of Penal Times in Irish Folklore

Stories of priests being hunted down and murdered at Mass Rocks by priest-catchers and soldiers during the Penal era in Ireland persist to the present day. Using a tripartite taxonomy of memory, this article explores the reasons why these images continue to dominate and reflect the persecuted nature of Catholicism.     

Unintended Consequences? Monumentality as a Novel Experience in Formative Mesoamerica

To contribute to creation of a model for the initial steps in monumental construction in Formative period Mesoamerica (ca. 1100–700 B.C.), this article employs concepts from theories of structuration. It treats evidence of differential durability of construction materials as sources of insight on possible intended and unintended consequences of the construction of earthen platforms by the generations of people who lived through these new construction projects. It explores the changes in spatiality, connection to place, and materialization of time at multiple scales that these construction projects produced.