Monks on the move? An assessment of mobility at the medieval Nubian monastery of Ghazali,Sudan (ca. 680–1,275 CE)

The location of Ghazali monastery away from the Nile valley within the relatively isolated environs of the Bayuda desert presents a landscape suggestive of mobility toward the monastery by those who chose to reside there as monks. To assess this potentiality, a sample of 37 individuals from the monastic cemetery (Cemetery 2) were analysed for ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and δ¹⁸O to assess residency during dental enamel formation. The data generated bring into question the nature of mobility to Ghazali monastery, particularly in regard to the potential movement of people from the Nile valley, adjacent desertic landscapes, and further afield.     

Great Ancestral Women: Sexuality,Gendered Mobility,and HIV among the Bamu and Gogodala of Papua New Guinea

Faced with a potentially devastating epidemic of HIV/AIDS in Papua New Guinea (PNG), sexuality and mobility have become a focus of national research and prevention programs. In Gogodala and Bamu communities in the Western Province, gendered mobility and sexuality intersect with ancestral narratives that form part of a wider series of Hero Tales found in the southern regions of PNG and Irian Jaya. In this paper we highlight the way these stories detail the travels and activities of female ancestors – known as Sagalu among the Bamui and Sawiya among the Gogodala. We outline the way such ancestral figures are now linked to understandings of contemporary STIs such HIV/AIDS as well as gendered mobility and sexuality more generally. Among the Bamu such links are sometimes directly asserted, with Sagalu represented as the origin if not cause of a uniquely defined variant of HIV/AIDS. Among the Gogodala, however, HIV/AIDS is predominantly understood as something external to the Gogodala and unrelated to ancestors like Sawiya. To explain this difference we note that, historically, Gogodala women have been less mobile and less transactable than their Bamu counterparts who have continued to enact unique understandings of the intersection of heterosexual marriage, gendered mobility, and illness. We argue that the mobility and sexuality of gendered ancestors is salient to understanding these contemporary enactments and their potential implications in light of the HIV epidemic in PNG.     

Women who DARE: driving attitudes and road experiences among ultraorthodox women in Israel

This study seeks to gain insight into a unique group, ultraorthodox women in Israel, and their views and attitudes on driving and road experiences. Ultraorthodox women are generally contending with spatial and mobility restrictions due to stringent gendered spaces and social norms in their communities. Specifically in Israel, throughout the ultraorthodox sector, women are strictly forbidden to drive. In this research, we put the emphasis on driving dilemmas that have received marginal attention both socially and empirically. A qualitative method was used, based on face-to-face in-depth interviews, with women from three major ultraorthodox communities. The findings reveal that the driving ban for ultraorthodox women in Israel generates ambivalence and conflict, and exacts a heavy social price. Moreover, in line with approaches of feminist geography, it raises issues of gender relations and cultural implications, such as restricting the space and the mobility of women in order to keep them in a subordinate position. The results are discussed in terms of gender roles, cultural exclusion, and spatiality, on both the practical and emotional levels. The study opens a window to a unique sector of the Israeli population, revealing unique dilemmas with which ultraorthodox women grapple daily in their community.     

Chinese Queer Images on Screen: A Case Study of Cui Zi’en’s Films

The image of Chinese LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) is largely absent from the big screen under the Chinese Communist Party’s censorship control. Taking advantage of the now cheaply available digital-video (DV) technology, queer activist and filmmaker Cui Zi’en has produced more than 10 LGBT-themed films since 2002, which shows the momentum of Chinese independent DV filmmaking. Although circulated mainly underground in China and at international film festivals, Cui’s films seek to promote the visibility of Chinese LGBT by representing queer diversity in this community. As the only filmmaker consistently dealing with LGBT themes and experimenting with new film techniques in China, Cui employs unconventional film aesthetics, featuring extreme long takes, unstable camerawork and minimal narrative, to challenge the oppression of Chinese LGBT by heteronormative conventions, as embodied by state power and a patriarchal social order. Furthermore, facilitated by DV technology, Cui adapts Western New Queer Cinema to the Chinese context, which brings a new dimension to Chinese cinema. In China’s restrictive political environment, Cui, like many other independent filmmakers, uses moving images to challenge official interpretations of social realities in contemporary China.     

What constitutes a ‘trip’? Examining child journey attributes using GPS and self-report

Active travel is associated with improved health and development outcomes in children. Accurate detection of children's travel behaviors and routes, however, is problematic. Travel diaries are often used to collect information on children's travel behaviors, yet no evidence for the accuracy of this methodology exists. This study investigated the validity of children's self-reported trips (origin, destination) compared with an objective criterion (global positioning systems units; GPS). Children (n = 10, 9–11 y) wore the GPS units for seven consecutive days between March and June 2011 and completed travel diaries daily with researcher assistance. Affinity group interviews were conducted in December 2011 with 30 children from two schools to garner perspectives on trip definition, neighborhood perceptions, and to illuminate GPS and travel diary findings. GPS journeys were manually compared with travel diary journeys for destination sequencing, start times, and travel mode. Accuracy in trip sequencing was compared by day type, and journey type using percentage differences and the chi-square (χ²) statistic. Of the 380 trips captured, 54.5% of journey sequences were fully or partially matched, 22.4% were GPS only trips and 23.2% travel diary only. Greater accuracy (full/partial match) was observed for weekdays than for weekend days and for the journey to or from school than for other journeys. Travel mode agreement existed for 99% of matched trips. Although children's travel diaries may confer contextual journey information, they may not provide completely accurate information on journey sequencing. Thematic analysis of affinity group data revealed that reasons for this are multifaceted, including differing concepts of what constitutes a ‘trip’. A combined approach of GPS and travel diary is recommended to gather a comprehensive understanding of children's journey characteristics.     

两种主张的较量与战后德国经济发展

战后德国经济是在左和右,即主张国家干预和自由经济,这两股社会和政治势力交互作用下发展起来的。前者主由社民党体现,后者由基民彤社民盟主张。最初这两股势力形成了有效互补,使得德国社会和经济进入高发展期,后来由于这两股势力彼此抗衡过度,失落了有效互补,社会体制失去活力,经济和社会进入发展低迷期。如今,德国经济一直挣扎在这样的发展困境中。     

“We’ve Lost Our Bearings”: Place,Tourism, and the Limits of the “Mobility Turn”

Abstract: The “mobility turn” claims that conceding analytical priority to the study of mobility is the best way to overcome methodological approaches based on fixed and stable categories argued to be unviable in a world that is increasingly mobile. In this paper I argue that the mobility approach, far from reaching this goal, in fact reifies the cleavage between mobility and immobility, relegating immobility to a passive, undertheorized position, and collapsing the complex workings of power, thus foreclosing a dialectical understanding of the contradictory albeit co‐produced processes of mobilization and immobilization. Drawing on an ethnographic analysis of the impacts of changing patterns of accumulation of the tourist industry on the urban space of Palma (Majorca, Spain), I suggest a relational approach attentive to the dialectics of mobility and stability, continuity and change.     

“It's About Time You Came Out”: Sexualities,Mobility and Home

Abstract: Helping redress the dominance of metropolitan narratives upon which much literature on sexuality is framed, this article interprets the narrative told by a “white” 16‐year‐old man living in regional Australia. Our aim is to investigate the intersections of migration and homemaking in sexual subject formation. Finding a place to call “home” can be a complex process for young men born in regional Australia and not conforming to the social formations of a “normal guy”. This young man's narrative expressively reveals the fluidity and spatiality inherent in processes of negotiating sexual subjectivities. His story provides telling insights into how migration and mobility change his understandings of home and of self by making possible a third‐space configured by neither the gender norms of his hometown nor the “gay scene” in Sydney.     

Identifying locals, migrants, and captives in the Wari Heartland: A bioarchaeological and biogeochemical study of human remains from Conchopata, Peru

The site of Conchopata in the central Peruvian Andes was the secondary center in the heartland of the Wari Empire (AD 600–1000), and in this study we examine whether this urban locale was populated by locals, voluntary migrants from distant regions, and/or captives who were forcibly brought to Conchopata. We examine radiogenic strontium isotope ratios from 72 dental enamel and bone samples representing 31 formal burials and 18 human trophy heads to distinguish between locals and non-locals, and we examine skeletal and archaeological data to establish whether non-local persons were voluntary migrants or captives. We also describe a new, straightforward technique in the evaluation of radiogenic strontium isotope ratios to assist in detecting non-locals when large datasets are available.Results show that natal Conchopata inhabitants should exhibit radiogenic strontium isotope ratios that range from ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr = 0.70548 to ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr = 0.70610. Thus, among the 31 burials, 29 exhibit local values, suggesting that Conchopata was not a cosmopolitan center to which numerous foreigners migrated; rather, it was populated by local peoples, likely the descendants of the preceding Huarpa culture. The two individuals with non-local radiogenic strontium isotope ratios are an infant and a 17–22 years old female. The archaeological context suggests that the female may have been taken captive for subsequent sacrifice, as she was interred in front of the ritual D-shaped structure in which decapitated human heads (trophy heads) and sacrificed camelids were deposited. Among the 18 trophy heads sampled, 14 have non-local values, confirming previous studies of smaller samples that suggested that Wari warriors travelled to other locales and took captives—both adults and children—for subsequent transformation into trophy heads. Additional analyses of bone-tooth pairs from a subsample (12 burials and six trophy heads) shows that the burial group was much more sedentary (homogenous radiogenic strontium isotope ratios in bones and teeth) and the trophy head individuals were much more mobile (heterogenous radiogenic strontium isotope ratios in bones and teeth). Overall, the multiple lines of evidence support the notion that the Wari Empire occasionally used militaristic means, combined with elaborate ritualism, to subjugate other populations, a tactic that may have helped Wari establish and maintain control in particular regions in the Andes.