Within a Range of Possibilities: Morality and Ethics in Social Life

Despite its now common currency the anthropological concept of morality remains underdeveloped. One anthropologist who has made several important attempts to work out a more precise theoretical concept of morality is Joel Robbins. In his most recent contribution to this endeavor Robbins addresses the tension in anthropology between what he calls the morality of reproduction and the morality of freedom. In this article, I suggest an alternative solution to the problem of conceiving the distinction between a nonconsciously enacted morality and the conscious awareness of ethical dilemmas and moral questioning. I will support this distinction with ethnographic and life-historical material from my research on the moral lives of some Muscovites.     

The Good Farmer: Morality,Expertise, and Articulations of Whiteness in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT

In Zimbabwe, land has always been a visible index of racial domination and oppression. Following independence in 1980, the redistribution of white property to black farmers emerged as one of the most contentious battlegrounds for refiguring citizenship and nationhood. This article explores how white farmers in a small community in western Zimbabwe fought to establish claims to belonging as they faced the threat of imminent land reform at the turn of the millennium. Drawing upon Tania Li’s concept of articulation [2000. “Articulating Indigenous Identity in Indonesia: Resource Politics and the Tribal Slot.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 42 (1): 149–179], I suggest that farmers constructed themselves both as moral subjects who cared for the environment, and skilled subjects with the technical know-how to safeguard and maximise the country’s resources. In the absence of claims to indigeneity, farmers attempted to offset their own compromised morality by invoking the language of expertise. By examining this intersection between morality and expertise, I argue that white farmers in Zimbabwe brought together logics typically imagined to be distinct as a strategy to claim moral belonging while obscuring the historical and political factors that threatened to void those same claims.     

Pathways through the Border of Biomedicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine: A Meeting of Medical Systems in a Japanese Psychiatry Department

This article examines a meetingof biomedicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM) in the context of a psychiatry departmentin a Japanese national medical school. Themeeting is explored through stories of fourindividuals, the professor of the departmentand three Chinese physicians studying asexchange students. Global structures of medicalauthority are revealed in the way eachparticipant follows a different trajectorythrough this space, positioning themselves byvirtue of the medical epistemologies theyembody. The particular geography of thismeeting between systems allowed for aproductive synthesis of diagnostic techniques,quite different from the more commontherapeutic syntheses. This synthesis isparticularly important for contemporarypsychiatry because of its ability to attend todimensional as opposed to categorical aspectsof mental health.     

The French Society of Young Radiation Oncologists: History,goals and perspective

The SFjRO was created ten years ago to promote radiation oncology teaching in France. Our society has now more than 120 members from all around the country. Each year, two national courses are organized where all members are invited.     

Creating Grasslands: Social Institutions and Environmental Change in Mkambati Area, South Africa

Through a case study of the grassland system of the Mkambati area in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, the paper explores the interaction of social institutions and ecological processes in the creation of a diverse grassland environment. A number of different transitions between grassland states are examined in detail, highlighting a range of social and institutional factors influencing grassland change. The spatial patterning of different grassland types and the frequency of transitions between them are shown to be dependent on the institutional relationships between different social actors. Understanding such complex and multifaceted processes of environmental change requires analytical tools which combine social and ecological perspectives;an extended form of qualitative state-transition modeling, which incorporates institutional dimensions, is therefore explored.     

Panic Disorder,Somatization, and the New Cross-cultural Psychiatry: The Seven Bodies of a Medical Anthropology of Panic

This article aims to adduce aframework that will allow for thecross-cultural study of panic disorder. Theauthors take sensation as the key unit ofanalysis, aiming to contribute to a medicalanthropology of sensation. The seven analyticperspectives that are suggested in the articleare the following: the full spectrum of panicattack sensations (the sensation body), thebiological generation of panic sensations (thebiological body), sensation as invoking anethnophysiology (the ethnophysiological body),sensation as metaphor (the metaphoric body),sensation as invoking the landscape (thelandscape body), sensation as invokingcatastrophic cognitions (the catastrophiccognitions body), and sensation as invokingmemory (the memory-associational body).     

Neritid and thiarid gastropods from French Polynesian streams: how reproduction (sexual, parthenogenetic) and dispersal (active, passive) affect population structure

• 1 The streams of French Polynesia contain several species of Neritidae and Thiaridae (Mollusca: Gastropoda). The neritids are dioecious and amphidromous with a freshwater adult stage and a poorly known, marine larval stage. The thiarids are parthenogenetic and viviparous, and rely on passive dispersal for colonisation of new habitats.
• 2 Populations of the neritid Clithon spinosus and the thiarids Melanoides tuberculata and Thiara granifera were analysed using mitochondrial DNA sequences from COI to compare the population structure of the snails at three different scales: between streams (N = 9), between islands (N = 4), and between age and distance of paired islands.
• 3 The amphidromous C. spinosus showed no evidence of genetic isolation at any of the scales tested (F_st values 0.02). Parsimony analyses resulted in two haplotype clusters separated by a three‐step segment, which were not linked to geographic isolation. The larval phase of C. spinosus is most likely a long‐lived planktotroph and a very effective disperser.
• 4 Two haplotypes of M. tuberculata, separated by 16 base pairs, were found. Both haplotypes were found in snails on all islands, and individuals representing both were often collected in the same habitat. One haplotype of T. granifera was found. M. tuberculata has the characteristics of the ‘general‐purpose genotype’ of clonal population structure and although it relies on passive dispersal, it has colonised nearly all freshwater habitats on the islands.

     

Ciguatera fish poisoning: Incidence,health costs and risk perception on Moorea Island (Society archipelago,French Polynesia)

Ciguatera Fish Poisoning (CFP) is a non-bacterial seafood poisoning well characterized in the remote archipelagos of French Polynesia, yet poorly documented in the Society archipelago, most notably on Moorea, the second most populated island in French Polynesia, which counts a high proportion of fishermen fishing on a regular basis. To address this knowledge gap, a holistic study of the ciguatera issue was conducted on Moorea. First, ciguatera risk was analysed in terms of incidence rate, fish species most commonly involved and risk stratification in Moorea lagoon based on 2007–2013 epidemiological data. A mean incidence rate of 8 cases per 10,000 inhabitants for the study period and an average under-reporting rate of 54% were found. Taking into account hospitalization and medication fees, and loss of productive days, the health-related costs due to CFP were estimated to be USD $1613 and $749 for each reported and unreported case, respectively, with an overall cost of USD $241,847 for the study period. Comparison of the present status of CFP on Moorea with a risk map established in the late 1970’s showed that the spatial distribution of the risk has stayed relatively stable in time, with the north shore of the island remaining the most prone to ciguatera. Evaluation of the current knowledge on CFP among different populations groups, i.e. fishermen, residents and visitors, was also conducted through direct and indirect interviews. About half of the fishermen interviewed were actually able to identify risky fishing areas. While, overall, the CFP risk perception in the fishing community of Moorea seemed accurate, although not scientifically complete, it was sufficient for the safe practice of their fishing activities. This may be due in part to adaptive responses adopted by 36% of the fishermen interviewed, such as the avoidance of either high-risk fishing sites or toxic species. At the residents and visitors’ level, the study points out a striking lack of awareness of the CFP issue among visitors, as compared to local residents. Indeed, less than 25% of Moorea visitors vs. an average of 98% in residents were aware of CFP or of its presence on the island. Interestingly, evaluation of the fish consumption preferences showed that 70% of visitors do not consume lagoon fish during their stay, not for fear of CFP, but mainly due to the lack of availability of these species in recreational facilities or because they have nutritional preference for pelagic fish. This lack of awareness, along with the report by several CFP patients of the consumption of fish species yet banned for sale, stress the need for improved communication efforts on this critical issue among both residents and visitors on Moorea. The implementation of a public outreach strategy is proposed, based on both existing information networks and low-cost communication actions through information displays at various strategic locations, e.g. Tahiti-Faa’a international airport, the ferry boat station, recreational facilities, as well as the major trading points on Moorea Island.     

Focus: The Aging Brain: Social capital,health, and elderly driver status

Driving a car enables many people to engage in meaningful activities that, in turn, help develop and maintain personal social capital. Social capital, a combination of community participation and social cohesion, is important in maintaining well-being. This paper argues that social capital can provide a framework for investigating the general role of transportation and driving a car specifically to access activities that contribute to connectedness and well-being among older people. This paper proposes theoretically plausible and empirically testable hypotheses about the relationship between driver status, social capital, and well-being. A longitudinal study may provide a new way of understanding, and thus of addressing, the well-being challenges that occur when older people experience restrictions to, or loss of, their driver’s license.     

Icelandic Fisher Women's Experience: Implications,Social Change,and Fisheries Policy

Icelandic women have been a part of the Icelandic fishing fleet since before the seventeenth century and continue to hold positions at all levels of the fishing industry. This appears to be different from any other group of female fishers about whom a study has been done in the industrialized world. This article examines the role of these women and how multiple factors such as social change, fisheries policy, technology, mobility, and economics – including Iceland's 2008 dramatic economic crash – are affecting these women's ability and desire to fish. This article demonstrates the importance and implications of a gendered perspective when considering the effects of fisheries policy, practice, and any potential for sustainable fisheries that includes diverse factors including communities, economics, social change, and the natural environment.     

Infant stumptailed macaques reared with mirrors or peers: Social responsiveness,attachment, and adjustment

Comparisons of activity toward mirrors and peers in infant macaques being reared with one of these stimuli as the primary rearing partner revealed markedly greater social responsiveness to a fully accessible cagemate than to one's own reflection. Measures of exploration, aggression, and especially play all revealed the cagemate to be the more potent social stimulus. Mirror-reared infants given additional experience of a live peer behind a transparent partition were less responsive to the mirror than were infants with no social stimulation other than a mirror. In contrast, cagemate-directed behavior of peer-reared infants was not seriously affected by additional exposure to a mirror. A fully accessible peer also elicited more social responding than a peer behind a transparent partition, and infants with experience of both a live cagemate and mirrors were generally more responsive toward the former. Greater agitation in peer-reared than in mirror-reared stumptailed monkeys during separations from their rearing partners suggests that exposure to the physically accessible partner led to stronger attachments. Infants reacted positively to a moderately unfamiliar environment but showed behavioral disruption when placed in a very unfamiliar environment. Disruption was especially evident in peer-reared infants, in which exposure to the unfamiliar environment was compounded with the absence of the attachment figure. Mirror-rearing appeared to reduce the tendency toward ‘isolation syndrome’ behaviors compared to alone-rearing, and these behaviors appear to be less common in stumptailed than in rhesus macaques.     

Intraspecific genetic differentiation of Leporinus friderici (Anostomidae, Pisces) in French Guiana and Brazil: a genetic approach to the refuge theory

A genetic study was carried out on a neotropical fish species to illustrate the refuge theory, whose main principles are summarized. The geographical structure of the anostomid species Leporinus friderici was analysed in French Guiana and Brazil by horizontal starch gel electrophoresis. Fifteen enzymatic systems corresponding to 21 loci were studied, revealing the following particularities: (1) specimens of fish from six independent coastal rivers of French Guiana form two groups geographically situated on either side of the Kourou River; (2) two alleles can serve as geographic markers, Ldh2 ( l30 ) showing an affinity between the populations in eastern French Guiana and Brazil, and Me 1 ( 300 ) being specific to the west.
These observations are probably related to the refuges that were formed in the Quaternary in South America, especially on the Guiana Shield. We consider that the populations of French Guiana are separated into two groups at the boundary between the two migratory flows, one arising in the west from the refuge of the Guiana Shield and the other in the east from a nearby undetermined Amazonian refuge.     

Social Capital,Collective Action and Group Formation: Developmental Trajectories in Post-socialist Mongolia

Group formation, social capital and collective action have been the focus of much recent attention amongst donors and policy makers. Optimistic scenarios highlight their contributions to poverty reduction and effective natural resource management. However, recent critiques have focused on the exclusionary potential or ‘dark side’ of groups and social capital. Not only are their longer term livelihood impacts unclear, but lacunae persist in our understanding of how social capital, especially trust, is built. This paper presents a longitudinal evaluation of trust, collective action and cooperation among herders in post-Soviet Mongolia in the context of recent donor projects. Results highlight the important catalytic effect of external interventions in overcoming a lack of trust and promoting formalised collective action, but only in the context of a particular conjunction of circumstances. Indications for livelihood outcomes confirm the differentiated benefits, exclusionary potential and fragility of social capital and new institutional forms.

Social rationality and scales of action: inter-ethnic relations in cockfighting and game-fishing,Raiatea, French Polynesia

This article challenges the notion of economic rationality as a criterion for explaining ethnic boundary maintenance. It offers an ethnographic analysis of inter-ethnic relations in the context of games (cockfights and game-fishing contests) in the island of Raiatea (French Polynesia). Although all players engage in the same basic gambling practices, money is differentially scaled and mobilized by the Tahitian and Chinese participants. Building on recent pragmatic approaches to rationality, it is shown that the players' rationalities differ not from the point of view of economic maximization, but only in so far as they participate in social relations at different scales.     

Social isolation,and concentration effects: William Julius Wilson ­revisited and re-applied

Two concepts employed by William Julius Wilson in his effort to advance scholarship on race and urban poverty in America are social isolation and concentration effects. These concepts help comprise a conceptual scheme that provides an alternative lens to that which centres on the behaviour of the urban poor as the principal source of their troubled lives. This article elucidates a research agenda that asserts that the impact of social isolation and concentration effects extends beyond measures of distance or proximity to institutions and individuals that can enable greater efficacy for the urban poor. Rather, social isolation and the concentration of disadvantaged people within bounded geographic regions also facilitates serial patterns of social contact and exposure that become crucial factors for how people construct interpretations of social reality. These interpretations are crucial factors for initiating (or, in some cases, inhibiting) individual action on the part of the urban poor.     

Netting in Nepal: Social Change,the Life Course,and Brideservice in Sangila

The links among family characteristics, pre-marital experiences organized outside the family, and participation in choice of spouse are now well established for historical transformations in a range of social settings. Less examined are the consequences of these changes for subsequent inter-familial relationships in societies where marriage organizes kin alliances and interfamilial labor obligations. Using survey and ethnographic data gathered in Nepal, this paper examines the implications of change in work, living experiences, and the marriage process for subsequent inter-familial relationships exemplified by crosscousin marriage and the provision of brideservice. Hypotheses are developed which consider the impact of community context on these behaviors; these are tested in logistic regression analyses for the first marriages of all 430 ever-married women in the community. Cross-cousin marriage and brideservice are shown to be related to prior familial characteristics, life-course experience, and elements of the marriage process in ways that are significantly conditioned by community history and proximity to urban centers.     

Focus: Preventive Medicine: The Opportunity of Social Ecological Resilience in the Promotion of Youth Health and Wellbeing: A Narrative Review

Youth experience adversity that increases their risk for immediate and long-term health consequences. Resilience has traditionally been conceptualized as an internal disposition or trait that supports youth to overcome that risk and avoid the negative impact on their health and wellbeing. However, this model of resilience overemphasizes the role of the individual and their capacity to control their environment, while minimizing the integral role of relational, social, structural, and cultural contexts in which they live. Instead, social ecological resilience (SER) emphasizes the influence of social and environmental factors on individual processes and outcomes and offers different pathways for preventive interventions to promote youth health and wellbeing. Within preventive medicine, it is important for researchers and practitioners to understand the processes that support or impede SER, particularly in youth when adversity can impact health throughout the lifespan. The purpose of this review was to examine the contributions and scope of the SER model in research on youth, with the goal of advancing SER-informed research and interventions within preventive medicine. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) approach as a guiding framework, we conducted a narrative review of the literature. The review characterizes 37 existing studies across the fields of education, psychology, and social work in terms of topic, focal population, methods, use of SER, and implications. We conclude with recommendations for future applications of SER to promote the health and wellbeing of youth.     

Social organization and space use in California voles: seasonal,sexual, and age-specific strategies

We intensively monitored space use and movement in Microtus californicus over a 2-year period that included 1 year of high density (maximum 618/ha) and one of low (minimum 5/ha); historically this population has exhibited cycles of 2 or 4 years. Adults of both sexes dispersed at the start of the breeding season, culminating in the establishment of intrasexually exclusive territories. In females, these territories persisted throughout life, except that many young females recruiting during the breeding season established contiguous, overlapping, or adjacent home ranges with their mothers. This female philopatry explains the conclusion of previous workers that females of this species are non-territorial. In the dry (non-breeding) season, females had smaller ranges that often overlapped and were clustered. Adult males moved breeding territories at a modal interval of 6 weeks; this is consistent with their avoidance of inbreeding with philopatric daughters. Ranges overlapped 1–4 adult females at any one time, and a cohort of 7 long-lived males overlapped an average of 16.4 females during their tenure on the grid. The period of maximum overlap with adult females varied among individual males, and did not correlate with the time of maximum body weight. Ranges of males in the dry season overlapped extensively, with persistent associations among some individuals. In the lowdensity year, ranges of some adults failed to overlap intersexually. Juvenile males dispersed gradually between 3 and 13 weeks of age (half before 9 weeks), with some leaving after reaching sexual maturity; a few remained philopatric. Of juvenile females, 47% remained philopatric with the rest disappearing before 9 weeks of age. New understanding of vole social behavior, dispersal, and space use is achieved by focusing on the seasonal dynamics of spatial relationships among individuals with respect to age, sex, and relatedness.     

Before the Call: Mobile Phones,Exchange Relations,and Social Change in South-western Uganda

ABSTRACT

This article contributes to recent attempts to provide ethnographically and historically nuanced accounts of Africa's mobile phone ‘revolution’. It does so by examining the coming of mobile phones in one particular place and time: Bugamba Sub-County, in rural Mbarara District, South-western Uganda, between the years 2000 and 2012. In so doing, it extends recent anthropological scepticism regarding the transformative potential of mobile communication per se, by showing how in this case, the most notable effects generated by mobile telephony were in fact those produced by a series of exchanges of phone-related objects, which took place in a sense ‘prior’ to communication. These circulations effected a kind of ‘time–space expansion’, which allowed for new imaginaries of physical and social mobility. The article illustrates these arguments through a detailed examination of the mobile spaces of taxis, and through a discussion of changing burial practices.