Making sense of Jewish ethnicity: Identification patterns of New Zealanders of mixed parentage

Modern social life is sometimes characterized as ‘post‐traditional’, an environment where personal identity is continually reconstructed. Concepts of ethnic identity on the other hand usually evoke some notion of tradition, continuity with the past, and intersubjectivity. This article discusses the personal accounts of Jewishness given by a sample of New Zealanders with ‘mixed’ (Jewish and gentile) backgrounds. It explores and analyses their use of themes that come from both modernity and Jewish tradition and defines the different types of identification implicit in their accounts. Particular attention is paid to how these kinds of identification are transmitted, because the literature (on both Jewishness and ethnicity in general) contains debates about the persistence of different expressions of identity. I conclude that a substantial dispersal of Jewish identity has occurred in New Zealand which apparently contradictory theoretical positions are useful in explaining. This suggests that a more holistic perspective is required to account adequately for the diversity of ethnic identity in contemporary society.     

Risk factors in the prevalence of anencephalus and spina bifida in New Zealand

This paper presents results from an epidemiological study on the 51 anencephalus and 53 spina bifida cases in the 1978 New Zealand birth cohort. Multiple sources were used in the ascertainment, and the prevalence rates were 0.98 and 1.02 per 1,000 total births, respectively. No association was found with the traditional indicators of the effect of environmental factors: maternal age, social class, nuptiality, month of birth, or estimated month of conception. Males comprised 41% of anencephalus and 36% of spina bifida cases; the prevalence was higher in the non-Maori than in the Maori population. New Zealand-born mothers appear to have a much lower risk of spina bifida, but not anencephaly, than those born in England/Scotland. The rate for the latter population was within the range of a number of UK-based studies. As the bloodstock of New Zealand whites has been predominantly derived from the UK population, and as New Zealand is a low prevalence area, this suggests that the higher risk for these women is likely to be attributable to factors present in their birthplace but absent in New Zealand. These findings provide further evidence that the epidemiologic patterns of anencephalus and spina bifida in low-prevalence areas are at variance with those in high-prevalence areas, such as the United Kingdom. They also support the hypothesis that the contrast in rates between high- and low-prevalence areas is a reflection of the impact of environmental factors in high-prevalence areas on the "background" or baseline frequency of anencephalus and spina bifida found in low-prevalence areas.     

Genes,genomes and identity. Projections on matter

This paper aims to show that references to genes and genomes are counterproductive in legal and political understandings of what it is to be human and a unique individual. To support this claim, I will give a brief overview of the many incompatible meanings the term ‘identity’ has gathered in reference to genes or genome in the contexts of biology and family ancestry, personal identity, species identity. One finds various and incompatible understandings of these expressions. While genetics is usually considered to deliver definitive knowledge about history and the future, genomics seems to work with more complicated relations between DNA, inheritance and phenotype. In genomics, ‘identity’ is no longer about identification and status markers but about individualization. Regulatory and legal documents project from traits to genomes, implying that the individuality is at least represented, if not created, in a unique genome. Boundaries between humans and other animals, between different ‘kinds’ of humans, and between all individual humans are re‐established via reference to the chemical matter of DNA. My analysis will show how this trend is a reactionary response to modern understandings of identities as social products and that it ignores new biomedical understandings of human bodies.     

Factors affecting commercial application of embryo technologies in New Zealand: a modelling approach

New reproductive technologies include sexed sperm and embryo-based technologies. The technology of sperm sexing, for various reasons, is not available in New Zealand and its use has not been modelled. Embryo technologies are however already in use on a limited scale and various scenarios for their use in both the dairy and beef industries in New Zealand have been modelled. This review briefly discusses the various technologies available and some of their potential strengths and weaknesses. In the dairy industry, modelling has been used to simulate the production of breeding bulls for large breeding companies and the production of replacement heifers in dairy herds. For the beef industry, similar modelling has been carried out to determine the opportunities for more efficient beef production.All the models confirmed that at current levels of performance, embryo-based reproductive technologies are usually not profitable in New Zealand except in niche market situations where the returns from the resulting offspring are significantly greater than can be obtained from natural mating or artificial insemination (AI) reproduction systems. This is confirmed by the low uptake of these technologies in this country to date. Even if performance lifts to levels similar to AI, profitability is likely to occur only if the costs of pregnancies to embryo-based reproductive technologies can occur at prices less than two to four times greater than AI or natural mating. This break-even requirement depends on the returns that can be achieved and the advantages that can be captured by the technology over and above those available from AI or natural mating. Two new uses for reproductive technologies in dairy cattle could be the proliferation of novel or rare genotypes from gene discovery programs and improving the female reproductive rate for optimal marker assisted selection. In both these uses the technology is not at present competing with AI or natural mating. The challenge exists therefore for the biological scientists to satisfy these requirements, coupled with the ethical and human factors involved in the introduction of any new technology.Potential end users of the technologies have been surveyed. They are quite positive about the technologies provided they can use them profitably and are keen to obtain more information about them.     

Understanding the ‘epidemic’ of complete tooth loss among older New Zealanders

doi:10.1111/j.1741‐2358.2009.00306.x
Understanding the ‘epidemic’ of complete tooth loss among older New Zealanders Objective: The aim of this study was to obtain a deeper understanding of the social factors driving New Zealand’s historic ‘epidemic of edentulism’ and how they operated. Method: In‐depth, semi‐structured interviews with 31 older New Zealanders were analysed using applied grounded theory. Results: Universal factors present in the data were: (a) the way in which New Zealand society accepted and indeed encouraged edentulism without stigma for those who had a ‘sub‐optimal’ natural dentition; (b) how the predominant patterns of dental care utilisation (symptomatic and extraction‐based) were often strongly influenced by economic and social disadvantage; and (c) the way in which lay and professional worldviews relating to ‘calcium theory’ and dental caries were fundamental in decisions relating to the transition to edentulism. Major influences were rural isolation, the importance of professional authority and how patient‐initiated transitions to edentulism were ultimately facilitated by an accommodating profession. Conclusion: The combined effects of geography, economics, the dental care system and the professional culture of the day, in the context of contemporary (flawed) understandings of oral disease, appear to have been the key drivers. These were supported (in turn) by a widespread acceptance by the profession and society alike of the extraction/denture philosophy in dealing with oral disease.     

Aboriginal mortality in Canada, the United States and New Zealand

Indigenous populations in New World nations share the common experience of culture contact with outsiders and a prolonged history of prejudice and discrimination. This historical reality continues to have profound effects on their well-being, as demonstrated by their relative disadvantages in socioeconomic status on the one hand, and in their delayed demographic and epidemiological transitions on the other. In this study one aspect of aboriginals' epidemiological situation is examined: their mortality experience between the early 1980s and early 1990s. The groups studied are the Canadian Indians, the American Indians and the New Zealand Maori (data for Australian Aboriginals could not be obtained). Cause-specific death rates of these three minority groups are compared with those of their respective non-indigenous populations using multivariate log-linear competing risks models. The empirical results are consistent with the proposition that the contemporary mortality conditions of these three minorities reflect, in varying degrees, problems associated with poverty, marginalization and social disorganization. Of the three minority groups, the Canadian Indians appear to suffer more from these types of conditions, and the Maori the least.     

Like one of the family: race,ethnicity, and the paradox of US national identity

The tensions between individual rights promised to US citizens and group discrimination targeted against African Americans and similar racial/ethnic groups constitute one enduring paradox of US society. This essay examines this paradox by exploring how a gendered family rhetoric contributes to understandings of race and US national identity. Using African American women's experiences as a touchstone for analysis, the article suggests that African American women's treatment as second-class citizens reflects a belief that they are 'like one of the family', that is, legally part of the US nation-state, but simultaneously subordinated within it. To investigate these relationships, the article examines 1) how intersecting social hierarchies of race and ethnicity foster racialized understandings of US national identity; 2) how the gendered rhetoric of the American family ideal naturalizes and normalizes social hierarchies; and 3) how gendered family rhetoric fosters racialized constructions of US national identity as a large national family.     

Genes, genomes and identity. Projections on matter

This paper aims to show that references to genes and genomes are counterproductive in legal and political understandings of what it is to be human and a unique individual. To support this claim, I will give a brief overview of the many incompatible meanings the term 'identity' has gathered in reference to genes or genome in the contexts of biology and family ancestry, personal identity, species identity. One finds various and incompatible understandings of these expressions. While genetics is usually considered to deliver definitive knowledge about history and the future, genomics seems to work with more complicated relations between DNA, inheritance and phenotype. In genomics, 'identity' is no longer about identification and status markers but about individualization. Regulatory and legal documents project from traits to genomes, implying that individuality is at least represented, if not created, in a unique genome. Boundaries between humans and other animals, between different 'kinds' of humans, and between all individual humans are re-established via reference to the chemical matter of DNA. My analysis will show how this trend is a reactionary response to modern understandings of identities as social products and that it ignores new biomedical understandings of human bodies.     

Kung Fu Fighting: The Cultural Pedagogy of the Body in the Vovinam Overseas Vietnamese Martial Arts School

This paper explores the pedagogic practices by which Overseas Vietnamese elites seek to enlist the young in a shared conception of Vietnamese identity in the context of a martial arts organisation. It shows how the contradictory principles of gerontocratic and meritocratic social structuration, identified in the Vietnamese system of person reference, are given embodied form in the school's practice. The paper concludes with a reflection on how incorporation into this habitus and the relation to the Vietnamese body it offers may act as a defence, albeit an ambivalent one, against classifications of the Vietnamese body as abject emanating from the host society.     

Looking back, looking beyond: revisiting the ethics of genome generation

This paper will explore some of the ethical imperatives that have shaped strategic and policy frameworks for the use of new genetic technologies and how these play a role in shaping the nature of research and changing attitudes; with an attempt to conceptualize some theories of genetic determinism. I analyse why there is a need to put bioethical principles within a theoretical framework in the context of new technologies, and how, by doing so, their practical applications for agriculture, environment medicine and health care can be legitimized. There are several theories in favour of and against the use of genetic technologies that focus on genes and their role in our existence. In particular the theory of geneticisation is commonly debated. It highlights the conflicting interests of science, society and industry in harnessing genetic knowledge when the use of such knowledge could challenge ethical principles. Critics call it a ‘reductionist’ approach, based on arguments that are narrowed down to genes, often ignoring other factors including biological, social and moral ones. A parallel theory is that there is something special about genes, and it is this “genetic exceptionalism” that creates hopes and myths. Either way, the challenging task is to develop a common ground for understanding the importance of ethical sensitivities. As research agendas become more complex, ethical paradigms will need to be more influential. New principles are needed to answer the complexities of ethical issues as complex technologies develop. This paper reflects on global ethical principles and the tensions between ethical principles in legitimizing genetic technologies at the social and governance level.     

Can natural enemies of current insect pests provide biotic resistance to future pests?

1. Economic pests jeopardize agricultural production worldwide. Classical biological control, comprising the import of exotic natural enemies to control target pest populations, has a successful history in many countries. However, little is known about how these natural enemies contribute to the suppression of pests that are yet to arrive. Biotic resistance theory, though, posits that communities resist species invasions as a result of natural enemies.
2. We assessed the potential of the resident exotic parasitoid wasp fauna in New Zealand (intentionally‐introduced biological control agents and unintentionally‐introduced species) to provide biotic resistance against possible future pests. A dataset was generated containing resident exotic parasitoid species (Ichneumonoidea: Braconidae; Ichneumonidae) in New Zealand, as well as their known global host ranges and the pest status of host species, to infer the potential for biotic resistance.
3. The known exotic ichneumonoid fauna in New Zealand comprises 65 species. These species associate with 107 host species in New Zealand, of which 54 species are pests. However, the current exotic species could potentially suppress 442 pest species not yet occurring in New Zealand.
4. This approach could be used to inform pest management programmes worldwide. Future research should consider how biotic resistance from the established parasitoid fauna can be used to inform specific decisions with respect to classical biological control.

     

‘Make-up’: Personhood through the lens of biotechnology

This paper looks through the ethnographic lens of ‘new reproductive and genetic technologies’ (NRGT) at the idiom of ‘make-up’ in English understandings of personhood and relatedness. In the kinship thinking of interest here, persons are both ‘made’ and ‘made-up’. There are both unpredictable and inevitable elements in the way in which people ‘turn-out’ and their character or personality is meant to be idiosyncratic, lumpy and unique. The paper draws on the way in which residents of a town in the north of England explore possibilities presented by NRGT in ways that make explicit their understandings of personal identity, interpersonal relatedness and communal belonging. The paper attempts to integrate the quotidian and personal narratives of residents with broader social and economic changes occurring in their town.     

新西兰银杏种质资源研究

新西兰位于南半球太平洋南部,介于南极洲和赤道之间,是目前为止南半球唯一一个将银杏作为产业来发展的国家。银杏在新西兰已有100多年的栽培历史,其南岛和北岛的各个城市和地区均栽植有银杏,但主要用作庭院、公园、街道绿化树种零星种植,直到21世纪初才开始被作为一种产业来发展。通过对新西兰的Auckland,Wellington,Hamilton,Hastings等主要城市的银杏种质资源进行广泛调查和定点观测,结果只发现有梅核类、佛指类、马铃类、园子类等四种类型。种核也较小,最大的为2.15g,最小的仅1.44g。本文主要报道了银杏在新西兰的栽培历史、生物学特性、种质资源及发展现状等,以期为中新两国开展在银杏方面的合作提供相关信息。     

Whakapapa, genealogy and genetics

This paper provides part of an analysis of the use of the Maori term whakapapa in a study designed to test the compatibility and commensurability of views of members of the indigenous culture of New Zealand with other views of genetic technologies extant in the country. It is concerned with the narrow sense of whakapapa as denoting biological ancestry, leaving the wider sense of whakapapa as denoting cultural identity for discussion elsewhere. The phenomenon of genetic curiosity is employed to facilitate this comparison. Four levels of curiosity are identified, in the Maori data, which penetrate more or less deeply into the psyche of individuals, affecting their health and wellbeing. These phenomena are compared with non-Maori experiences and considerable commonalities are discovered together with a point of marked difference. The results raise important questions for the ethical application of genetic technologies.     

Procreation,Personhood and ethnic difference in Highland Bolivia

Academic debates on the difference between ‘indians’ and ‘non‐indians’ in highland Latin America typically revolve around issues of race, ethnicity and class understood from an etic perspective. Although there may be a consensus as to where the boundary between one status and the other lies, how this boundary is understood varies dramatically between scholars, as well as between actors on each side of the boundary. This paper examines the identity of those denominated ‘indian’ from an emic perspective. It argues that ‘race’, ‘ethnicity'and ‘class’ are insufficient in themselves to explain this level of social difference. At the root of the difference between jaqi (indians) and q'ara (non‐indians) are understandings of personhood. An examination of procreation beliefs and understandings of personhood sheds light on how identity is understood. The dyads indian/non‐indian and jaqi/q'ara are not, of course, generated independently of each other and this paper also examines how the one articulates with the other. Although the category ‘indian’ is one imposed historically from outside, this does not preclude people's ability to generate a different understanding of that category from within.     

Consent, Autonomy, and the Benefits of Healthy Limb Amputation: Examining the Legality of Surgically Managing Body Integrity Identity Disorder in New Zealand

Upon first consideration, the desire of an individual to amputate a seemingly healthy limb is a foreign, perhaps unsettling, concept. It is, however, a reality faced by those who suffer from body integrity identity disorder (BIID). In seeking treatment, these individuals request surgery that challenges both the statutory provisions that sanction surgical operations and the limits of consent as a defence in New Zealand. In doing so, questions as to the influence of public policy and the extent of personal autonomy become important. Beyond legal issues, BIID confronts dominant conceptions of bodily integrity, medical treatment, and ethical obligations. This paper seeks to identify the relevant public policy concerns raised by BIID in New Zealand and the limits of autonomy, before moving on to consider how BIID sufferers may legally seek the treatment they require and how a doctor might be protected from criminal proceedings for assault for performing this treatment. It will be argued that it is possible to legally consent to the amputation of a healthy limb as medical treatment and that public perception should not be allowed to take precedence over this right.     

Mechanisms of song differentiation in introduced populations of Chaffinches Fringilla coelebs in New Zealand

Chaffinches Fringilla coelebs were introduced to New Zealand from Great Britain over 100 years ago, and since then their songs have diverged from British ones in both syllable structure and basic organization of syllable sequences. The New Zealand populations seem to be unique in that their songs have undergone differentiation of trill segments by progressive elaboration of syllable morphology and hp ascending and descending changes of pitch. Published sonagrams of British song types have significantly more trill phrases and significantly fewer syllables in the end phrase than do Yew Zealand ones. Many New Zealand song types have much elaborated end phrases and concomitantly simpler trill segments, with songs quite commonly having only one trill phrase. This reversal of complexity between the trill and end phrase in New Zealand seems to have been derived by progressive reduction of the ultimate trill phrase to one syllable, and by recombination of end phrase syllables from different song types into one compound end phrase. The significance of the increased complexity in the end phrases of many song types may relate to the sound transmission properties of dense pine forests in New Zealand, in which Chaffinches are ubiquitous. Elaborate end phrases degrade much less from reverberation in pine forests because individual syllables have more dispersed temporal patterning.
Recombination of syllables to form new song types is a major mechanism of song differentiation in New Zealand. Although whole song copying is the predominant mode of replication, very few song types in a locality sample are composed of a unique set of syllables. Rather, song types in an area are interconnected by different combinations of shared syllables, suggesting that the incorporation of some local syllables in a bird's repertoire is sufficient to signal its status as a member of a neighbourhood and also allows the evolution of broadcast complexity.     

Appropriation and Dementia in India

Biomedical technologies like MRI scans offer a way for carers and people with dementia to ‘see’ pathology, as a means to reorient their perceptions of the body and functionality. Through interpretive and syncretic processes, the MRI and the diagnosis of dementia facilitate the incorporation of the clinical category ‘dementia’ into social understandings of illness and care in India. Complex shifts occur as families and providers move from socio-cultural explanations of disruption to bio-social etiologies of the disease ‘dementia’ and then to socio-ecological frameworks of causality. Both the biomedicalisation of illness and the localisation of illness occur as the clinical category ‘dementia’ is folded into local understandings of illness and care. Through elucidating how the dialectic between biomedical and local knowledge is operationalized, we offer insights into how dementia is absorbed and appropriated into Indian cultural contexts.     

Defining core health services: the New Zealand experience

The New Zealand health service has been extensively changed over the past four years, with the introduction of four new Regional Health Authorities, required to purchase services on behalf of the Government from a range of providers. In order to ensure fairness across the four regions a Core Services Committee has been set up to define which services must be purchased. However, no clear agreement has emerged about a "core" and no list, either positive (inclusions) or negative (exclusions), has been defined. Instead general criteria have been suggested and steps have been taken to consult the community on their priorities. This paper describes seven workshops run by the author in an effort to discover how the community would reach decisions on the rationing of scarce resources. The outcome of these workshops is that there is virtually no community support for an approach based on the social utility of individuals in need.