Negotiating belonging: plants,people, and indigeneity in northern Australia

This article focuses on human‐plant relations, drawing on ethnographic research from northern Australia's Gulf Country to address the concept of indigeneity. Just as the identities of ‘Indigenous’ and ‘non‐Indigenous’ people in this region are contextual and at times contested according to the vernacular categories of ‘Blackfellas’, ‘Whitefellas’, and ‘Yellafellas’, so too the issue of what ‘belongs’ in the natural world is negotiated through ambiguities about whether species are useful, productive, and aesthetically pleasing to humans, as well as local understandings about how plants and animals came to be located in the Gulf region. At the same time, plants’ distinctive characteristics as plants shape their relations with humans in ways which affect their categorization as ‘native’ and ‘alien’ or ‘introduced’. Focusing our analysis on three specific trees, we argue that attention to the ‘plantiness’ of flora contributes significantly to debates about indigeneity in society and nature. At the same time, our focus on human‐plant relations contributes important context and nuance to current debates about human and other‐than‐human relations in a more‐than‐human world.     

Rethinking the conceptual foundations of habitat fragmentation research

The conceptual foundations of habitat fragmentation research have not kept pace with empirical advances in our understanding of species responses to landscape change, nor with theoretical advances in the wider disciplines of ecology. There is now real debate whether explicit recognition of ‘habitat fragmentation’ as an over‐arching conceptual domain will stimulate or hinder further progress toward understanding and mitigating the effects of landscape change. In this paper, we critically challenge the conceptual foundations of the discipline, and attempt to derive an integrated perspective on the best way to advance mechanistic understanding of fragmentation processes. We depict the inherent assumptions underlying the discipline as a ‘conceptual phase space’ of contrasting false dichotomies in fragmentation ‘problem space’. In our opinion, the key determinant of whether ‘habitat fragmentation’ can remain a cohesive framework lies in the concept of ‘interdependence’: 1) interdependence of landscape effects on species and 2) interdependence of species responses to landscape change. If there is non‐trivial interdependence among the various sub‐components of habitat fragmentation, or non‐trivial interdependence among species responses to landscape change, then there will be real heuristic value in ‘habitat fragmentation’ as a single conceptual domain. At present, the current paradigms entrenched in the fragmentation literature are implicitly founded on strict independence of landscape effects (e.g. the debate about the independent effects of habitat loss versus fragmentation per se) and strict independence of species responses (e.g. the individualistic species response models underpinning landscape continuum models), despite compelling evidence for interdependence in both effects and responses to fragmentation. We discuss how strong ‘interdependence’ of effects and responses challenges us to rethink long‐held views, and re‐cast the conceptual foundations of habitat fragmentation in terms of spatial context‐dependence in the effects of multiple interacting spatial components of fragmentation, and community context‐dependence in the responses of multiple interacting species to landscape change.     

Unravelling the Philosophies Underlying ‘Animal Personality’ Studies: A Brief Re‐Appraisal of the Field

The last decade has seen lots of studies on ‘animal personality’ (i.e. the study of consistent between‐individual behavioural differences). As timely and promising as this field is, its development has come with a diversity of research questions. As an unfortunate consequence, it now suffers from substantial confusion about what ‘animal personality’ is, and how relevant related research frameworks are. Here, we stress the current inconsistencies and sources of confusion pertaining to the field, and their consequences on terminology used and miscommunication between researchers. In an attempt to unravel and clarify the concepts underlying the field, we identify two distinct, but complementary, theory‐driven conceptual frameworks: the intra‐individual variability (IIV) approach and the life‐history (LH) approach, which we believe encompass the vast majority of existing ‘personality studies’. Finally, we argue in favour of theory‐driven studies of consistent behavioural differences and state that the integrative statistical properties of random regression models should not override the merit of alternative conceptual frameworks. We then provide brief guidelines and warnings for a parsimonious and sound use of terminology.     

The Photograph and the Malanggan: Rethinking images on Malakula,Vanuatu

From the recent efflorescence of anthropological engagements with photography we are by now aware that photography is an embodied practice and that photographs are complex materialisations of the subjective and experiential as well as the objective and evidential. Despite discussions of ‘visual repatriation’ (e.g. Brown and Peers 2006 ), and of local responses to colonial photography and other kinds of archival images in the Pacific, little has been discussed regarding the status of photographs as particularly ‘Pacific’ artefacts—objects that make sense in indigenous terms as well as being understood in terms of the connections to other places that their production and circulation might signify. Following Wright’s exhortation to recognise ‘the provincial nature of Eurocentric notions of photography and … suggesting that a certain corporeality and materiality constitute elements of its identity’ (2004: 74) , I discuss the resonance of historical photographs in Vanuatu, building an analogy with Malanggan—funerary carvings from Northern New Ireland. I do not mean to suggest that photographs are complex ritual artefacts, but rather follow the ways in which Malanggan have been used as anthropological conceits, in order to discuss the representational efficacy and materiality of Melanesian images in facilitating the crystallisation of memory and history ( Küchler 1988 ), the enchantment of technology ( Gell 1998, 1999 ), and the consolidation of certain kinds of property relations ( Strathern 2005b ). As my title suggests, I draw on Strathern’s combination of Malanggan and Patents to rethink the potential utility of Malanggan as a ‘way to think’ about the meanings of photographs in Pacific communities.     

Under the Law of God: mimesis and mimetic discipleship among Jewish‐affinity Christians

Messianic Judaism, a network of congregations that incorporate Jewish ritual into evangelical worship, is one branch of a fast‐growing trend among Christians globally towards ‘Jewish affinity’. Drawing on a multi‐site comparison in North America, this article examines one of Messianic Judaism's most significant internal debates: should non‐ethnically Jewish ‘gentile believers’ (GBs) obey biblical laws? It argues that GBs do not simply imitate Jews badly, as outsiders and their own leaders often believe. Rather, their actions are best characterized as mimesis in two complementary forms: mimesis of Jews and ‘mimetic discipleship’ of Jesus‐the‐Jew. Taken together, these forms offer a heuristic tool sufficiently capacious to explain both individuals’ propensity for Jewish practice and the socially specific ways it is constructed. I conclude that Jewish affinity reflects a key problem in contemporary Christianity, namely what happens when people in one religion (Christianity) come to believe that their God incarnated in the body of a man they now associate with another religion (Judaism)?     

Long‐term shifts in abundance and distribution of a temperate fish fauna: a response to climate change and fishing practices

Aim South‐eastern Australia is a climate change hotspot with well‐documented recent changes in its physical marine environment. The impact on and temporal responses of the biota to change are less well understood, but appear to be due to influences of climate, as well as the non‐climate related past and continuing human impacts. We attempt to resolve the agents of change by examining major temporal and distributional shifts in the fish fauna and making a tentative attribution of causal factors. Location Temperate seas of south‐eastern Australia. Methods Mixed data sources synthesized from published accounts, scientific surveys, spearfishing and angling competitions, commercial catches and underwater photographic records, from the ‘late 1800s’ to the ‘present’, were examined to determine shifts in coastal fish distributions. Results Forty‐five species, representing 27 families (about 30% of the inshore fish families occurring in the region), exhibited major distributional shifts thought to be climate related. These are distributed across the following categories: species previously rare or unlisted (12), with expanded ranges (23) and/or abundance increases (30), expanded populations in south‐eastern Tasmania (16) and extra‐limital vagrants (4). Another 9 species, representing 7 families, experienced longer‐term changes (since the 1800s) probably due to anthropogenic factors, such as habitat alteration and fishing pressure: species now extinct locally (3), recovering (3), threatened (2) or with remnant populations (1). One species is a temporary resident periodically recruited from New Zealand. Of fishes exhibiting an obvious poleward movement, most are reef dwellers from three Australian biogeographic categories: widespread southern, western warm temperate (Flindersian) or eastern warm temperate (Peronian) species. Main conclusions Some of the region's largest predatory reef fishes have become extinct in Tasmanian seas since the ‘late 1800s’, most likely as a result of poor fishing practices. In more recent times, there have been major changes in the distribution patterns of Tasmanian fishes that correspond to dramatic warming observed in the local marine environment.     

The Impact of West African Trade on the Distribution of Chimpanzee and Elephant Populations (Guinea,Guinea-Bissau,Senegal, 19th–20th Century)

This article elaborates a relational historical geography of human, chimpanzee and elephant populations, working mainly from precolonial and early colonial (nineteenth and twentieth century) narratives by travellers to regions now corresponding to parts of Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal. It then compares a global ‘West African trade’ model of human and animal population’s spatial distribution with elements of an ‘East African settlement colony’ model drawn from other historical research. This perspective balances mainstream evolutionary approaches to animal biogeography with the human history, ecology and the geopolitics of their habitats. Taking such historical processes into account helps to unravel contrastive spatial and temporal dynamics of large mammal populations and to raise new questions about the anthropogenic causes of present-day population distributions.     

Settler indigeneity and the eradication of the non‐native: self‐determination and biosecurity in the Falkland Islands (Malvinas)

This article analyses how settlers of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) construct themselves as ‘natives’ through environmental management. Taking a multispecies ethnographic and historical approach to studying the Falkland Islanders’ self‐determination claim, I explore a series of ecological practices that demonstrate how some nonhumans become institutionalized into systems of racial and colonial classification whereas others appear natural. I show how agroindustrial and technoscientific value systems categorize human and nonhuman cohabitants according to degrees of political, economic, and ecological status through particular periods in the Falklands: from the eradication of ‘native pests’ (1833‐1982) to defence against ‘alien invaders’ (1982‐present). Towards a conclusion, I analyse how Islanders have begun to uproot their own ecological imperial past through removal of British‐introduced ‘invasive’ species and native habitat restoration. The article argues that attention to how settlers colonize with natives contributes significantly to a critical multispecies anthropology with broader implications for debates on ethnogenesis and indigeneity.     

Life After Logging: Strategic Withdrawal from the Garden of Eden or Tactical Error for Wilderness Conservation?

Conservation management has undergone a dramatic paradigm shift from the strong ‘wilderness conservation’ ethos of the 1980s and 1990s to the ‘biodiversity on degraded lands’ ethos of recent years. Most conservation biologists now consider that wilderness conservation alone is no longer sufficient to conserve biodiversity, and conservation strategies must also demand more effective protection for biodiversity on degraded lands. Recognition of this shifting paradigm in biodiversity conservation has led to an overt change in tone of recent studies, emphasizing relatively modest effects of human disturbance, and high biodiversity values on some degraded lands. A case in point is a series of studies from Southeast Asia reporting relatively modest impacts of logging on biodiversity, with the majority of species (75%) persisting after repeated intensive logging. This is a marked shift in conservation message after >30 yrs of research showing substantial adverse effects of logging on biodiversity, and raises serious questions about the appropriate ways to qualify the conflicting messages that ‘human impact degrades biodiversity’ yet ‘degraded habitats have high biodiversity value.’ Clearly logging is the lesser of two land‐use evils compared with conversion to intensive cattle pastures, crop fields or oil palm plantations, but there is a real risk that overselling the ‘biodiversity on degraded lands’ paradigm might end up being a double‐edged sword for conservation management. After all, if >75 percent of species are resilient to repeated logging, why bother trying to preserve the few remaining wilderness areas from being logged themselves? It remains to be seen whether this new message of ‘weak’ effects of logging on biodiversity will serve its strategic purpose of conserving biodiversity on degraded lands, or simply devalue the last vestiges of wild nature.     

Artefacts and collectors in the tropics of North Queensland

This paper outlines some of the ways early artefact collecting contributed to the definition of the Australian region now known and marketed as the ‘World Heritage Wet Tropics’. While others have collected in this region, we focus on the collecting activities of Hermann Klaatsch and the work of Norman Tindale to explore some factors that contributed to their claims that certain artefacts represent a region and its history. We argue that these understandings of region and the past, along with the now widely dispersed artefacts, maintain a lively, albeit transformed, presence in current debates about Aboriginal regional culture, linking assertions of rights to lost and stolen cultural property with notions of large‐scale environmental management within the ‘Wet Tropics’.     

From Ethical Exceptionalism to Ethical Exceptions: The Rule and exception Model and the Changing Meaning of Ethics In German Bioregulation

Germany is an interesting case with respect to the governance of reprogenetics. It has a strong profile in the technosciences and high aims regarding the global bioeconomy, yet her regulation of human genetics, reproductive medicine and embryo research has for a long time been rather restrictive. German biopolitical exceptionalism has often been explained by reference to Catholicism and the legacy of the Nazi past. The Germans, so goes the common story, have learnt the lessons of history and translated them into unconditional respect for human dignity, which in turn translates into unconditional protection of human life, including the human embryo, and the firm repudiation of any eugenic distinction between ‘life worth to live’ and ‘life not worth to live’. This, however, is not the whole story. Alongside deontological strictness we find another strand of governing body politics and reprogenetics in Germany, the rule‐and‐exception model, running from the mid‐1970s abortion law via the 2002 Stem Cell Act to the 2011 regulation of pre‐implantation genetic diagnosis. In contrast to the former, that strongly draws on Kant and his concept of human dignity, the latter bears resemblances to Carl Schmitt's concept of state of exception. The article will show that the rule‐and‐exception model builds the exception into the rule and transforms the meaning and mandate of ethics, namely from safeguarding ethical standards to deciding about the exception. Given that the exception has now tended to become the rule, the question is whether the lessons of history will govern German reprogenetics for much longer.     

Anthropology in Disneyworld: Rapport,Gardner, and the ‘Discipline‘ of Social Anthropology

This article examines the response by Rapport to the critique made by Gardner of his book Transcendent Individual. Rapport eschews the idea of discipline in relation to anthropology. This is connected to his distaste for any hint of social determinism, and his eulogising of the essay format as the most suitable means of conveying human contrariety. His approach necessarily leads him to embellish his accounts of what the world is like with visions of what it should be like if only everyone adopted his literary and liberal stance. A contrary ‘manifesto’ is here presented: the job of social anthropology is to explain actual historical societies, and one cannot simply appropriate the subject so that it now becomes about a kind of never‐never land. Rapport's approach, far from leading to a glorification of individuality, leads only to a monochrome vision which paints all human beings as reductively ‘aesthetic’, ignoring, and rendering impossible the explanation of all institutionalised forms of belief and practice, not least those brutal forms which, says Rapport, inspire his work.     

Local above‐ground persistence of vascular plants: Life‐history trade‐offs and environmental constraints

Questions: 1. Which plant traits and habitat characteristics best explain local above‐ground persistence of vascular plant species and 2. Is there a trade‐off between local above‐ground persistence and the ability for seed dispersal and below‐ground persistence in the soil seed bank? Locations: 845 long‐term permanent plots in terrestrial habitats across the Netherlands. Methods: We analysed the local above‐ground persistence of vascular plants in permanent plots (monitored once a year for ca. 16 year) with respect to functional traits and habitat preferences using survival statistics (Kaplan‐Meier analysis and Cox’ regression). These methods account for censored data and are rarely used in vegetation ecology. Results: Local above‐ground persistence is determined by both functional traits (especially the ability to form long‐lived clonal connections) and habitat preferences (especially nutrient requirements). Above‐ground persistence is negatively related to the ability for dispersal by wind and to the ability to accumulate a long‐term persistent soil seed bank (‘dispersal through time’) and is positively related to the ability for dispersal by water. Conclusions: Most species have a half‐life expectation over 15 years, which may contribute to time lags after changes in habitat quality or ‐configuration (‘extinction debt’). There is evidence for a trade‐off relationship between local above‐ground persistence and below‐ground seed persistence, while the relationship with dispersal in space is vector specific. The rate of species turnover increases with productivity.     

Understanding human genetic variation in the era of high-throughput sequencing

The EMBO/EMBL symposium ‘Human Variation: Cause and Consequence’ highlighted advances in understanding the molecular basis of human genetic variation and its myriad implications for biology, human origins and disease. As high‐throughput sequencing allows us to define genetic variation and its functional consequences at genome‐wide resolution for a large number of people, important questions need to be asked about how to use new technologies to maximize the translational relevance of genetic research for society and the individual patient.     

Confocal Microscopic Observations on Actin Filament Distribution in Lily Pollen Protoplasts

Actin filaments (F-actin) were localized in the isolated pollen protoplasts of lily using TRITC-phalloidin probe and confocal microscopy. Two kinds of pollen protoplasts were examined: one from pollen grains of non-dehiscent anthers(referred to as ‘nearly mature’ pollen); and the other from pollen grains of just dehiscent anthers(referred to as ‘just mature’ pollen). In the cytoplasm of the pollen protoplasts of the ‘nearly mature’ pollen there was a very well organized actin network made up of thick actin bundles. Two types of bundle connections were seen in the network; namely ‘branch’ connections and 'junction' connections. The ‘branch’ connection (or branching points) was formed due to branching or merging of bundies. The ‘junction’ connection (or 'junction' point) had two or more bundles associated with it. Some of the ‘junction’ points might be actin filament organization: centres. The generative cell in iht pollen protoplasts of the ‘nearly mature’ pollen also contained an actin network. But this network was structurally quite loose and the pundles made up the network were short and thick. In the cytoplasm of the pollen protoplasts of the ‘just mature’ pollen the actin net work was more densely packed. The bundles made up the network were also thinner. The actin network in the generative cell was, however, less densely packed. If the pollen protoplasts from both the ‘nearly mature’ and the 'just mature' pollen grains were transferred from a B5 medium into a Brewbaker and Kwack medium supplemented with sucrose, protoplasts rapidly (i.e. within 2 to 3 hours) developed vacuoles and transvacuolar strand. In these va cuolated protoplasts the vegetative nucleus andthe generative cell became tightly surrounded by a new actin network. In the transvacuolar strands there were numerous actin bundles. The “ends” of some of these bundles appeared to be tightly attached to the protoplast membrane indicating that some kind of structures might be present in the protoplast membrane for actin filament attachment.     

Oral health promotion among older persons and their care providers in a nursing home facility

Objectives: To assess oral health status and oral health‐related quality of life (OHRQoL) of residents in an extended care facility and to assess the care providers’ oral health attitudes and knowledge. Methods: Participants included 137 residents (58.1% female, age range 32–94 years, 91% African–American) and 22 care providers. Residents received an oral examination and completed the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP‐14), an OHRQoL questionnaire. Care providers completed an oral health knowledge (OHK) questionnaire before and after the on‐site geriatric oral health education and training programme. Results: Oral examinations showed that 58% of the residents had extensive oral health needs. On the OHIP‐14, the mean severity was 9.2 (SD = 12.0), extent (number of items rated as ‘fairly often’ or ‘often’) was 1.2 (SD = 2.6) and prevalence (participants rating at least one item at least ‘fairly often’) was 37.8%. Most prevalent negative impact items were about ‘oral pain’, ‘appearance’ and ‘self‐consciousness’. Regarding OHK, caregivers’ knowledge improved following instruction from 65% correct on the pre‐test to 90% correct on the post‐test (p < 0.05). Subsequent to the eight in‐service workshops, providers reported that physical limitations, fear of getting bitten and time constraints were barriers to providing oral hygiene to their residents. Conclusion: Examination data showed a high level of dental needs among the majority of residents, accompanied by significantly reduced OHRQoL. Although care providers’ OHK improved following the geriatric service programme, they reported specific barriers regarding their provision of oral hygiene care to the residents.