The Authentic (In)Authentic: Bushman Anthro‐Tourism

Focusing on tourism ventures that market contact with so‐called bushmen, this paper examines some of the current dynamics and consequences of cultural tourism in Namibia, where the Government has instituted a series of progressive policies to promote local control over tourism development. While notions of primitive cultural otherness continue to feature centrally in tourist demand for contact with “bushmen,” the community‐based and collaborative tourism’ ventures currently being developed in Namibia teach tourists to see their “bushman” hosts as modernizing producers of tourism in their own right, and not just as objects of touristic commodification. Drawing from the anthropological literature on tourism and authenticity, and on the work of Slavoj Zizek on the workings of modern ideology, we argue that such ventures encourage tourists to practise a sort of “meta‐tourism,” in which the authenticity of “traditional bushmen” is replaced by the meta‐authenticity of a tourism experience that thematizes its own effects on the lives of those being visited. For the “bushman” participants in such ventures, we contend, the financial and political benefits of tourism, substantial as they can sometimes be, are ultimately offset by the developmentalist underpinnings of meta‐tourist discourse, which casts “bushmen” as forever not‐quite‐yet fully modern, in perpetual contrast to the tourists who visit them.     

The need to incorporate human variation and evolutionary theory in forensic anthropology: A call for reform

In 1992, Norm Sauer called for a language shift in which practitioners would move away from the socially loaded term “race” and replace it with the less provocative term “ancestry.” While many heeded the call and moved towards ancestry in their research and reports, the actual approach to research and analysis did not change. In response to this change, there was a large growth in ancestry estimation method development in the early decade of the 2000s. However, the practice of ancestry estimation did not adequately incorporate evolutionary theory in interpretation or trait selection and continued with little critical reflection. In the past decade, there has been an increase in ancestry validation methods with little critique of the “race” concept or discussion of modern human variation or reference samples. To advance, forensic anthropologists need to reckon with the practice of ancestry estimation as it is currently practiced. We are calling for another reform in the axiom focusing on evolutionary theory, population history, trait selection, and population-level reference samples. The practice needs to abandon the terms ancestry and race completely and recalibrate to an analysis of population affinity. Population affinity is a statistical approach based on the underlying population structure that would allow the understanding of how microevolutionary forces act in concert with historical events (e.g., colonization, the Transatlantic Slave Trade, etc.) to shape modern human variation. This is not to be confused with geographic ancestry that all too often can be perceived as interchangeable with social race and as an affirmation of the biological concept of race. It is time to critically evaluate the social and scientific implications of the current practice of ancestry estimation, and re-frame our approach to studying and analyzing modern human variation through a population structure approach.     

Cogealing divinity: time, worship and kinship in South Indian Hinduism

Daily worship in Hindu temples is characterized by regular repetition. This article juxtaposes iconography and mythology; field data on worship in a Murukan temple in Kalugumalai, South India; and analytic concepts from western and Indian metaphysics, to examine what Gell termed the 'ritual manipulation of time'. In Hindu cosmology, the materialization of divinity – a prerequisite for worship – is inseparably linked not only to the emergence of time but also to the devolution of divinity into gendered forms. Because gender differences play a central role in iconography, mythology and worship, Hinduism provides a rich cultural resource for debating the morality and practice of human kinship, sexuality and procreation. Not only are there significant homologies between human and divine kinship behaviour, but human marriage patterns in South India display the same blend of repetitive yet changing oscillation as do daily and annual temple liturgies.     

The use of tropical forest (Agroecosystems and wild plant harvesting) as a source of food in the bribri and cabecar cultures in the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica

For the Bribri and the Cabecar Indians of Costa Rica the environment is divided in two: the “near”, indigenous space; and the “far”, natural space, which they think does not belong to them. In the former, the following agroecosystems can be distinguished according to biodiversity and intensity of human activity: tropical home garden, rotating slashand-burn agriculture, plantain polyculture, and plantain monoculture. In the “far” space, these two culturally close groups harvest wild plants observing ancestral rules, which have helped ensure a sustainable use of forest resources. Their diet is based on 84 species, of which 24 are harvested in the “far” environment (hombron, semko, platanillo, tacaco, etc.) and 60 are obtained in the “near” environment (maize, bean, cacao, manioc, etc.). Owing to acculturation, exotic species (mainly rice, sugarcane, plantain, cacao and citrus fruit) have become part of their diet and crops.     

Cell junctions in the early chick embryo--a freeze etch study

Cell junctions in the early chick embryo have been examined in freeze-etch specimen. Well developed zonulae occludentes are found in the epiblast as early as stage 4. Large gap junctions are also found in the epiblast at this stage. In those cells which have left the surface to form mesenchymal structures (Hensen's node, juxtanodal mesenchyme, primitive streak mesenchyme), one finds not only gap, but also tight, junctions. These junctions do not form continuous belts, but appear as fragments, often reduced to single strands, of typical tight junctions. They probably correspond to the focal tight junctions described earlier in sectioned material. The origin and possible significance of these contacts is discussed, and it is suggested that they represent remnants of junctions between neighboring cells in the epiblast. These junctional remnants slowly disappear by “dilution,” either through cell division and/or cell movement. The appearance of newly formed gap junctions is also described.     

Additional fossil Theropithecus from Hopefield, South Africa: a comparison with other African sites and a reevaluation of its taxonomic status

Additional fossil Theropithecus remains, recovered from mid to late Pleistocene deposits near Hopefield , South Africa, include portions of the jaws of at least five individuals. Extensive comparisons with fossil Theropithecus from other African sites, including Makapan , Swartkrans , Kanjera , Olorgesailie , and Olduvai , reveal few morphological differences, especially when variation in modern gelada baboons ( Theropithecus gelada ) and savannah baboons (Papio) is considered. The most pronounced differences between fossil forms are overall size and relative P3 length. However, these traits do not separate the fossil forms either chronologically or geographically. Other traits, such as depth of the fossa of the mandibular corpus, slope of the upper symphyseal shelf, and variation in the depth of the mandibular corpus, do not distinguish alleged primitive forms ( Makapan and lower beds at Olduvai ) from remains found at Hopefield , Swartkrans , Kanjera , Olorgesailie , Olduvai Bed IV, or the lower Ndutu Beds. Other traits, such as canine crown height and incisor size, are poorly documented for fossil Theropithecus . Thus, the available evidence suggests that Theropithecus darti and its successional species, T. oswaldi , can best be considered as a single fossil species, T. oswaldi , of which the remains from Hopefield are a late representative. Furthermore, lack of morphological differences dictates that Hopefield Theropithecus not be considered a distinct subspecies. Variation within the Hopefield sample shows that only one taxa is found at this site. Hypothesized physical and climatic conditions at Hopefield during the Pleistocene suggest that T. oswaldi lived near vleis or fresh water lagoons. Comparisons with modern T. gelada suggest a graminivorous diet for the fossil form.     

Question 7: The Vesicle World: The Emergence of Cellular Life can be Related to Properties Specific to Vesicles

The question “What was the minimum number of genes necessary in the early cell” is rephrased as “Is it feasible to assume that early cells had no genes?” It is shown that a kind of primitive life process could exist on the basis only of properties specific to vesicles, and that it would have the potential to evolve into more complex cell-like processes.     

Whales, dolphins or fishes? The ethnotaxonomy of cetaceans in São Sebastião, Brazil

Tree worship is very common worldwide. This field study surveys the ceremonies and customs related to sacred trees in present-day Israel; it includes the results of interviews with 98 informants in thirty-one Arab, Bedouin, and Druze villages in the Galilee. The main results are: 1. Sacred trees were treated as another kind of sacred entity with all their metaphysical as well as physical manifestations. 2. There is not even one ceremony or custom that is peculiar only to a sacred tree and is not performed in other sacred places (such as a saint's grave or a mosque). 3. Few customs, such as: quarrel settling (= Sulkha), leaving objects to absorb the divine blessing and leaving objects for charity) seem to be characteristic of this region, only. 4. In modern times, sacred trees were never recorded, in Israel, as centres for official religious ceremonies including sacrifices, nor as places for the performing of rites of passage. 5. There is some variation among the different ethnic groups: Kissing trees and worshipping them is more common among the Druze although carrying out burials under the tree, leaving water and rain-making ceremonies under them have not been recorded in this group. Passing judgments under the tree is more typical of the Bedouin in which the sacred trees were commonly used as a public social centre. Most of the customs surveyed here are known from other parts of the world. The differences between Muslims and Druze are related to the latter's belief in the transmigration of souls.     

The postorbital palatoquadrate articulation in elasmobranchs

Although modern hexanchiforms are the only extant elasmobranchs with a postorbital articulation, according to most morphological and molecular cladistic analyses they are not basal, suggesting that Huxley ( 1876 Proc Zool Soc 1876;24–59) correctly identified this articulation as “an altogether secondary connection.” A postorbital articulation is present in many Paleozoic sharks, but differs from that found in hexanchiforms in its morphology, topographic position on the braincase, and inferred ontogenetic origins. Furthermore, a postorbital articulation is absent in hybodonts (the putative extinct sister group to neoselachians). It is proposed that the term amphistylic should be restricted to the modern hexanchiform condition, where the articular facet is located on the primary postorbital process. An identical articulation probably existed in some extinct galeomorphs (e.g., ?Synechodus dubrisiensis, ?Paraorthacodus), but is not widespread within elasmobranchs generally. The term archaeostylic (“ancient pillar”) is proposed here for the suspensorial arrangement in Paleozic sharks with a postorbital articulation on the ventrolateral part of the lateral commissure. Such an articulation is not known in other gnathostomes and may represent a basal chondrichthyan synapomophy (especially if ?Pucapampella is a stem chondrichthyan), suggesting that the autodiastylic pattern is not primitive for chondrichthyans and that holocephalans have secondarily lost a postorbital articulation. The amphistylic condition may have arisen from the archaeostylic, or it could have been acquired independently within neoselachians, but in either case it is most parsimoniously viewed as apomorphic. J. Morphol., 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

柴达木盆地晚中新世三趾马化石

Bohlin描述的柴达木动物群中的三趾马材料非常少 ,仅能证明三趾马在这个地点的存在。近年来新的野外考察在这一地区发现了更多的三趾马化石材料 ,至少包括 3个种 ,即Hipparioncf.H .chiai、H .weihoense和H .teilhardi。H .cf.H .chiai和H .weihoense在柴达木盆地的发现进一步证实了晚中新世早期 (保德早期 )动物群在这个地区的存在。柴达木盆地的H .teilhardi基本上与H .cf.H .chiai和H .weihoense产自同一层位 ,其时代也应为保德早期。H .cf.H .chiai和H .weihoense在柴达木盆地的发现为该地区在晚中新世早期为草原型环境的判断提供了更多的证据。H .teilhardi更细长的远端肢骨也是对开阔环境的一种适应性状     

Drogues anciennes, drogues nouvelles, pratiques actuelles (1re partie)

Ever since homo sapiens let go of the hand of the ape to descend from the trees, endowed with a large frontal brain allowing projection and self-reference in the dry savannah, humans left, finally erect, the shaded quiet of those fruit trees for a scary world full of danger and unknowns. From that point on, people invented gods, myths, language, and war and would search in magical plants for ways to relieve suffering and anxiety, ways of escaping the enclosing world, or, by contrast, find the courage to confront it. For millennia, drugs have been the objects of sacred, magical, and therapeutic knowledge. The entirety of medical psychopharmacology is based on the same foundations as this “primitive” psychopharmacology and the technological and scientific revolution of the 19th century, which made it possible to isolate active ingredients and synthesize new molecules, facilitating the emergence of specific means of consumption, increased by the planetary-scale circulation of people, objects, and information. This mass consumption and trafficking, and the profits they generate, create major public health challenges for modern societies, as well as serious sociopolitical and economic problems. In terms of evolution, pure psychoactive drugs and the direct means of administering them are recent phenomena and pathogenic in that they short-circuit adaptive processes by acting directly on the circuits of the primitive brain, which controls emotions and basic survival behaviour. In this way, psychoactive multiple drugs seem to translate into an evolution toward the true chemical regulation of existence. In this first section, we will discuss tranquilizers and psychostimulants, true “analogue” drugs that act as volume controls for wakefulness andmood. Often strongly addictive, they raise widely recognised social, medical and psychological issues, secondary to addiction and its consequences.     

Fertilization and Embryo Development in Wheat x Maize Crosses

The fertilization and embryo development in crosses of hexaploid wheat “Kangxuan 9” X maize “SS 7700” were studied. Of 180 florets fi,ced after pollination 34(18.9%) had embryo and endosperm, 46(25.6%) had only embryo and 12(6.7%) had only endosperm. Percentages of single or double fertilization were higher than that in control (“Chinese Spring” X maize). The hybrid embryos and endosperms obtained were karyotypically unstable and characterized by rapid elimination of the maize chromosomes to produce haploid wheat embryos. The potentials for wheat haploid production and transfer of DNA segments, including transposable elements, from maize to wheat is discussed.     

Body weight prediction in early fossil hominids: Towards a taxon-“independent” approach

The choice of a model taxon is crucial when investigating fossil hominids that clearly do not resemble any extant species (such as Australopithecus) or show significant differences from modern human proportions (such as Homo habilis OH 62). An “interhominoid” combination is not adequate either, as scaling with body weight is strongly divergent in African apes and humans for most skeletal predictors investigated here. Therefore, in relation to a study of seven long bone dimensions, a new taxon-“independent” approach is suggested. For a given predictor, its taxonomic “independence” is restricted to the size range over which the body weight-predictor relationship for African apes and humans converges. Different predictors produce converging body weight estimates (BWEs) for different size ranges: taxon-“independent” estimates can be calculated for small- and medium-sized hominids (e. g., for weights below 50 kg) using femoral and tibial dimensions, whereas upper limb bones provide converging results for large hominids (above 50 kg). If the remains of Australopithecus afarensis really belong to one species, the relationship of male (above 60 kg) to female body weight (approximately 30 kg) does not fall within the observed range of modern hominoids. Considering Sts 14 (22 kg) to represent a small-sized Australopithecus africanus, the level of encephalization lies well above that of extant apes. If OH 62 (approximately 25 kg), with limb proportions less human-like than those of australopithecines, indeed represents Homo habilis (which has been questioned previously), an increase in relative brain size would have occurred well before full bipedality, an assumption running counter to current assumptions concerning early human evolution. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

现代人的出现与扩散——中国的化石证据

自2002年在周口店附近的田园洞发现大约4万年前的现代人化石以来,相继在湖北郧西黄龙洞、广西崇左智人洞等地点发现了早期现代人化石。这些化石发现证实大约10万年前早期现代人在华南地区已经出现。最近在湖南道县福岩洞发现的人类牙齿化石及相关研究进一步揭示具有完全现代形态的人类8万-12万年前在华南局部地区已经出现;而在这个时间段的华北地区,以许家窑人为代表的人类化石形态仍较原始,其演化尚未进入早期现代人阶段。这些研究发现提示,在中国地区,华南是现代人形成与扩散的中心区域,早期现代人以及完全现代类型的人类都可能首先在华南地区出现,然后向华北地区扩散。现有的化石形态证据显示,更新世晚期华南地区人类具有较大的演化变异,可能同时生存有几种不同的演化类群。智人洞属于从古老型智人向现代人演化的过渡类型,而道县则代表着演化进入完全现代类型的人类。基于前人研究及本文的分析,作者认为柳江、资阳、丽江、田园洞等更新世晚期人类化石特征比较进步,在演化上属于与道县相似的现代类型人类。值得注意的是,这些研究进展在引起对现代人在东亚地区出现和扩散关注的同时,古人类学界对其中涉及的许多问题还存在争论。本文在回顾分析这些研究进展的基础上,就相关问题进行了讨论。     

Homology and synapomorphy‐symplesiomorphy—neither synonymous nor equivalent but different perspectives on the same phenomenon

In a recent debate, either synapomorphy and symplesiomorphy or only synapomorphy have been claimed to be synonymous or equivalent to homology. In my view, exactly the same relationship exists between homology supported by a congruence test on the one hand and synapomorphy as well as symplesiomorphy on the other hand. Both conditions become established at the same time with the process of rooting of an unrooted topology. I, however, do not consider the concept of homology equal or synonymous to that of synapomorphy and symplesiomorphy. In my view, they represent different perspectives on the same phenomenon, i.e. correspondence by common origin. Homology has no implication on the direction of transformation, whereas symplesiomorphy as “primitive” condition and synapomorphy as “derived” condition refer directly to phylogenesis, the real historical evolutionary process of speciation and transformation. In addition, synapomorphy and symplesiomorphy might also refer to a character state that refers to the absence of a structure/organ, which creates problems with traditional homology concepts. Hennig's terms synapomorphy and symplesiomorphy are necessary and sufficient for the evolutionary interpretation of character states. For what is corroborated in an unrooted topology as the result of a congruence test, I suggest as a new term “synmorphy” because it can well be applied also to those characters where one state represents the absence of a structure/organ. The place for homology in morphological cladistics, however, is restricted to the characterization of the relationship between different character states of one transformation series (i.e. character).     

Mobbing in the Pied Flycatcher. Effect of Experiencing a Live Owl on Responses to a Stuffed Facsimile

A surprisingly high proportion (42 %) of breeding pied flycatchers failed to mob a stuffed pygmy owl placed near the nests. To determine whether the range of effective stimulus objects eliciting mobbing could be extended in these “non-mobbers”, a live owl, resembling the ineffective dummy in nearly all static owl traits, was briefly exposed. It evoked strong mobbing from all birds, as did the stuffed specimen on a subsequent presentation. The role of experience with live predators and the effect of labile properties of the latter on the mobbing response are discussed.     

Dentition and Jaw of Kokopellia juddi, a Primitive Marsupial or Near-Marsupial from the Medial Cretaceous of Utah

We add to the knowledge of the dentition and lower jaw of the primitive marsupial or near marsupial, Kokopellia juddi, based on newly collected materials from the medial Cretaceous (Albian–Cenomanian) of central Utah. The dental formula, i4 c1 p3 m4, is primitive for (or with respect to) Marsupialia, as are a number of features of the dentary and dentition: presence of a labial mandibular foramen, ?an inflected angle, ?and a trace of the meckelian groove; lack of “staggering” of the lower incisor series; lack of “twinning” between entoconid and hypoconulid on lower molars; incompletely lingual position of lower molar paraconid; upper molar protocone relatively small and mesiodistally narrow; and conules placed about halfway between the protocone and the paracone–metacone. Other than the stylocone, cusps are lacking from the stylar shelf; we argue that this represents the primitive marsupial condition based on the economy of character change and the stratigraphic record of marsupials in the Cretaceous of North America. Recent discoveries of early marsupials, eutherians, and therians of metatherian–eutherian grade provide data indicating that some derived features of the dentary and dentition (e.g., loss of coronoid, meckelian groove, and labial mandibular foramen; acquisition of strong, “winged” conules, double rank postvallum/prevallid shearing, and stylar cusp D) probably arose independently, in some cases more than once, among the major groups of tribosphenic mammals. In turn, this suggests that a common ancestor for marsupials and placentals was more primitive than has generally been appreciated.