Is It Always Good to Talk? The Paradoxes of Truth-Telling by Rwandan Youth Born of Rape Committed during the Genocide

Social scientists have extensively debated the virtues, pitfalls, and practical effects of open dialogue and truth-telling versus silence and concealment in global post-conflict endeavours for justice and reconciliation. This article addresses these debates not by endorsing practices of either talk or silence, but by investigating the practical dilemmas faced by Rwandan youth born of rape committed during the 1994 genocide as they find themselves caught in dual cultural imperatives to reveal and to conceal the circumstances of their origins. On the one hand, the post-genocide moment has seen the rise of truth-telling and self-revelation through testimonial practices in settings like post-genocide trials and reconciliation or peace-building workshops. On the other hand, silence and concealment are accepted and expected modes of dealing with hardship in Rwandan cultural practice, and youth participants struggled with the stigma of having been born of genocidal rape. We argue that the youths’ ambivalent and sometimes contradictory moral evaluations of talking about versus hiding their origins highlight the challenges and complexities of identity and belonging in post-genocide Rwanda, since their very existence draws them, their mothers, and their perpetrator-fathers into ongoing relationships. These youths’ lives and experiences speak to larger and powerful conundrums at the heart of what it means to live with legacies of violence, including what should be said or remain unsaid, and how the very opposition between revealing and concealing can be confounded by social and cultural variances in the meaning of “truth.”     

Growing up in a tourist destination: negotiating space,identity and belonging

There is little research on children’s experiences of growing up in a popular tourist destination, where place and space are contested with visitors, migrants and temporary residents. Existing literature on young people’s experiences of their socio-spatial surroundings has focused predominantly on the rural/urban dichotomy, often neglecting to explore how identity and belonging are negotiated in complex community contexts such as tourist destinations. This paper reports on recent research that suggests that young people’s experiences of growing up in such an environment are nuanced and diverse, with their rich narratives disrupting socially constructed distinctions between the rural and the urban, merging experiences from both worlds.     

New ontogenetic information on Duyunaspis duyunensis Zhang & Qian in Zhou et al., 1977 (Trilobita,Corynexochida) from the Cambrian and its possible sexual dimorphism

Lei, Q.P., September .2015. New ontogenetic information on Duyunaspis duyunensis Zhang & Qian in Zhou et al., 1977 (Trilobita, Corynexochida) from the Cambrian and its possible sexual dimorphism. Alcheringa 40, XXX–XXX. ISSN 0311-5518.

The hypostomal condition and the complete ontogenetic development of Duyunaspis duyunensis Zhang & Qian in Zhou et al., 1977 are restudied on the basis of abundant specimens from the Balang Formation (Cambrian, Qiandongian) in Zila Village, Paiwu Township, Huayuan County, Hunan Province. The relatively complete ontogenetic series (degree 0 to 9) provides new evidence that the holaspis of this species has nine rather than seven thoracic segments as proposed by McNamara et al. (2006). Comparisons between Duyunaspis duyunensis and two associated species, Arthricocephalus chauveaui and Changaspis elongata, support its placement in the Subfamily Oryctocarinae. Moreover, based on observations of a large number of specimens, the presence of an anterior indentation on the pygidial end is possibly representative of sexual dimorphism.

Qianping Lei [cicelyapple@126.com], Natural Department, Changzhou Museum, Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, 213022, PR China; State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, PR China.     

Pray the gay away: identity conflict between Christianity and sexuality in Hong Kong sexual minorities

Recognition and respect for sexual minorities in Hong Kong is still a contested area. Public sexual identity politics in Hong Kong has been framed by traditional Chinese gender ideology and imported Christian beliefs which are profoundly negative. Focusing on the interpersonal relationships in three spheres of life, the research adopted the sociological perspective of personal life and the feminist geographers’ idea of spatialization of identity management to analyze how the sexual self of sexual minorities has been marginalized and excluded in intimate social spaces of family, church communities and schools in Hong Kong with specific spatial practices and different forms of power/knowledge. By examining overlooked intimate injustice in personal life, this study illustrates that identity conflicts between Christianity and non-heterosexuality in everyday life is constructed through misrepresentation, misrecognition, harassment and exclusion in intimate relationships. Different types of knowledge are being used to reiterate pre-existing norms and institutionalized patterns of cultural value that constitute the sexual minorities as comparatively unworthy of respect. These micro-political processes involve both conformity and resistance to gender and sexual stereotypes. Participants managed to develop spatial coping strategies such as concealment, compartmentalization, confrontation and alternative sources of support to manage their lives with dignity and self-esteem.     

Metapodial asymmetry in draft cattle

Traction work by oxen has been well documented in various pictorial and written sources throughout human history. Analysis of metapodial dimensions has been carried out with the aim of quantifying asymmetry related to sexual dimorphism, body size and possibly heavy duty traction work. A modern reference sample of 103 animals from Hungary and Rumania has been used for this purpose. Bone measurements were correlated with bone density and morphological characteristics in order to make the results applicable for the identification of remains from draft cattle in archaeozoological assemblages. Asymmetry is more pronounced in the thoracic extremity and metacarpals of older or heavier animals, sometimes showing excessive widening of the third, medial ray within the fused bone. Relative broadening is also intensive in the distal end of medial metatarsals of cows and oxen. The bone mineral content of the medial carpal region attains mature density first. The weight of phalanges increases for a longer time in the laterally located toes.     

Analyses of measurements taken from adult femurs of a British population

The femur remains an important bone in palaeoanthropology and this paper reports various analyses of measurements taken from long-cassette radiographs of adult femurs of a reference population from the south of England (n=81, males 33, females 48). Discriminant analysis confirmed that the male femur is usually larger than the female femur, and that a femur may be sexed with some confidence. Discriminant scores have been derived to permit estimates to be made, from the whole or a part of a femur, of the probability of the male gender. Outcomes from a principal component analysis suggest: that the female proximal femur is a morphological unit; that neck length and shaft length are dissociated and there is no common factor representing linearity; and that the male bicondylar width is anomalous, a finding that is confirmed by other analyses. An estimate of the robusticity of the complete female, but not male, bone may sometimes be made from a proximal fragment. The robusticity of the complete bone may be made confidently from the shaft for both genders. The two width variables relating to a distal fragment cannot be used to predict the robusticity of the complete bone for either gender. A method of defining the position of the waist in terms of displacement in deciles down the shaft is described. The position of the waist seems to have a bimodal distribution. The positive association between age and distal displacement may be due to remoulding of the shaft with age or to a cohort (generational) effect. There is a weak correlation between a small neck–shaft angle and the distal displacement of the waist, two archaic phenotypic traits. Ten statements in the literature relating to the femur have been examined and tested; six are confirmed and four are unconfirmed, and it is suggested that there is a need for further studies relating to the morphology of the femur.     

Auditory Exostoses in Pre‐Hispanic Populations of the Lower Paraná Wetlands,Argentina

Auditory exostosis (AE) has been characterised from the medical and anthropological perspectives as an adaptive biological response to repeated immersion in cold water as well as exposure to cold environmental temperatures and wind chill. At the archaeological level, the highest prevalence has been found in societies living in coastal environments in areas located at 30–45° north or south latitude with a subsistence pattern based on fishing and mollusc gathering. The region of the lower Paraná River wetlands in Argentina is an area dissected by multiple rivers, streams, and lakes, especially in the Paraná delta near Buenos Aires where these features create a landscape composed of many islands. A variety of archaeological analyses performed on faunal remains, stone tools, bone, and ceramic artefacts are consistent with the interpretation that towards the end of the late Holocene (2000–700 BP), this region was inhabited by hunter–gatherer populations with a subsistence pattern based mainly on fishing and hunting along with the gathering of molluscs. In this work, we present an analysis of 176 crania of individuals recovered from 21 archaeological sites in the region. Results indicate the presence of AE in 6.25% of the cases, with all of these corresponding to adult male individuals. This moderate prevalence coincides with the expected levels for populations where contact with water is frequent in regions located at 30–45° latitude. The absence of female individuals showing evidence of AE allows us to suggest a possible sex‐based division of labour. We hope that this work can contribute to ongoing discussion of the economic and social aspects that characterised pre‐Hispanic life in the study area, while also expanding the available information on AE at the worldwide level. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The City Evita Built. Cinematic Childhood and Peronism in Luis César Amadori’s Soñemos (1951)

This article examines the under-studied film productions known in Peronist Argentina as “docudramas”. Placing documentary elements within a fictional plot, docudramas marked a significant change in the state propaganda machine and were used as a new vehicle to influence social habits. I focus particularly on Soñemos [Let’s Dream], a short film directed in 1951 by Luis César Amadori to showcase urban reforms. Through an analysis of Amadori’s docudrama in regard to its representation of the Children’s City built by the Eva Perón Foundation, I discuss relationships between entertainment, the constitution of a political hegemony, and modernisation. With film techniques such as the dissolve, Soñemos depicts the Children’s City as an enterprise capable of delivering material happiness and amplifies the narrative of a fairy tale come true promised by Evita’s social service programmes. Ultimately, the docudrama affirms the central role played by the state in the definition of the “right to a home” – from supportive benefactor to constitutive replacement.     

Time,temporality, and woman–child relations

This is the second in a series of Viewpoints about a symposium on the intersections and antagonisms between various forms of feminism and the politics of childhood. This article traces the various ways in which time and temporality were mobilised in symposium papers and discussions and considers the implications for efforts to conceptualise woman–child relations. In conclusion, the potentials and risks of focusing on temporality when theorising relations between those positioned as women and those positioned as children are considered.     

Geotheorizing mountain–child relations within anthropogenic inheritances*

This paper focuses on children’s relations with what is now known as Burnaby Mountain in British Columbia, Canada. In particular, it grapples with encounters with the mountain, atop which several childcare centres are located. The mountain, on unceded Indigenous Coast Salish territories, has become a contested site of colonial capitalist extraction due to a proposal to build a tar sands oil pipeline that would tunnel through the mountain. Sustained protest action emerged at the site amidst initiation of test borehole drilling activity by the pipeline company. In this paper, I engage with the potential of geotheorizing children’s relations as a critical response that interrupts dominant understandings of what is seen as appropriate for young children’s curriculum. I consider the effects of refiguring children’s subjectivities through geologic and geontological relations for the normalization and resistance of settler colonialism’s human-centric and extractive structurings.