Collapsing fish stocks,gendered economies,and anxieties of entrapment in coastal Sierra Leone

This article explores the economic negotiations between Sierra Leonean fishermen and the women who compete to buy their fish, tracing how relationships of gendered intimacy and interdependence are being reconfigured in a context of deepening economic precarity. Fish stocks in Sierra Leone are in crisis. Fisherfolk look back with nostalgia to a past in which bountiful harvests had made it possible for transactions of fish to be simple and impersonal. Today, by contrast, it is almost impossible for women to access fish without working to develop strong personal relationships with fishermen: deploying gifts of food, loans of money, and even secret ‘medicines’ to secure the loyalty of potential customers. I analyse how men and women reflect on their growing impoverishment through discourses that emphasize their moral ambivalence at being drawn back into webs of interpersonal dependency, and argue that these anxieties need to be understood in the context of Sierra Leone's history of domestic slavery.     

Bottlenose dolphins that forage with artisanal fishermen whistle differently

Acoustic communication is a taxonomically widespread phenomenon, crucial for social animals. We evaluate social sounds from bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) of Laguna, southern Brazil, whose social structure is organized around a cooperative foraging tactic with artisanal fishermen. This tactic involves stereotyped and coordinated behaviour by dolphins and fishermen and is performed by a subset of the dolphin population, splitting it into two distinct social communities. We compared the acoustic parameters and type of whistles emitted by dolphins of the “non‐cooperative” and “cooperative” communities, both during their interactions with fishermen and in times where dolphins were engaged in other types of foraging. Our findings show how dolphins’ social sounds differ between foraging tactics and social communities. The frequencies of six whistle types (ascending, descending, concave, convex, multiple, flat) were significantly dependent on tactics and communities. Ascending whistles were more common than expected during foraging without fishermen, and among dolphins of the non‐cooperative community. Whistle acoustic parameters (duration, number of inclination changes and inflection points, and initial, final, maximum, minimum frequencies) also varied between social communities. In general, whistles emitted by cooperative dolphins, mainly when not interacting with fishermen, tended to be shorter, had higher frequency and more inflections than those emitted by non‐cooperative dolphins. These results suggest that different whistles may convey specific information among dolphins related to foraging, which we hypothesize promote social cohesion among members of the same social community. These differences in acoustic repertoires add a new dimension of complexity to this unique human–animal interaction.     

Metabolized‐Water Breeding Diseases in Urban India: Sociospatiality of Water Problems and Health Burden in Ahmedabad City

Studies on urban metabolism have provided important insights in the material and sociopolitical issues associated with the flow of water. However, there is a dearth of studies that reveal how infrastructure, as a hybrid of social and material construct, facilitates disease emergence. The article brings together urban metabolism, political ecology, and anthropological studies to examine the social construction and reconstruction of the material flow through everyday practices for addressing the water problem and its health burden in Ahmedabad city. The article georeferences the water problems and occurrence of diseases and, through interviews, documents Ahmedabad's sociospatial characteristics of water problems and health burden in two case study wards. Through a situated understanding of the everyday practices, the infrastructure is exposed through leakages, reveals the citizens desire for better water quality, and struggle to gain access to water using diverse ‘pressure’ tactics. It is these social‐material constructs of water that give structure and coherence to urban space, which spatially coincides with the occurrence of diseases. It reveals the sociopolitical drivers of the water problems and identifies different hypotheses of the hotspots of disease emergences. The methodology offers a way forward for researchers and development agencies to improve the surveillance and monitoring of water infrastructure and public health through an incremental approach that takes into consideration the diffuse interplay of power by diverse actors. It charts out avenues for building on the urban metabolism by emphasizing the importance of examining the sociospatiality of the everyday practices for improving resource use efficiencies in cities of rapidly growing economies.     

Recent Developments in Ireland: The Voisinage Doctrine and Irish Waters: Recent Judicial and Legislative Developments

Voisinage arrangements allowing mutual and reciprocal cross-boundary fishing practices in inshore waters exist throughout the world. In the case of the island of Ireland, the practice between Irish and Northern Irish fishermen was articulated in an exchange of letters between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in the mid-1960s, the terms of which proved later to be incomplete, unpublicized, and to be overtaken by subsequent changing fishery practices. The problem over voisinage rights for Northern Irish fishermen in Irish waters culminated in litigation by Irish mussel-seed fishermen before the Irish Supreme Court. In 2016 the Court found the existing arrangement to be deficient in Irish domestic law. This has necessitated amending legislation, which is presently proceeding through the Irish parliament.     

Positive deviance study to inform a Chagas disease control program in southern Ecuador

Chagas disease is caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, which is mainly transmitted by the faeces of triatomine insects that find favourable environments in poorly constructed houses. Previous studies have documented persistent triatomine infestation in houses in the province of Loja in southern Ecuador despite repeated insecticide and educational interventions. We aim to develop a sustainable strategy for the interruption of Chagas disease transmission by promoting living environments that are designed to prevent colonisation of rural houses by triatomines. This study used positive deviance to inform the design of an anti-triatomine prototype house by identifying knowledge, attitudes and practices used by families that have remained triatomine-free (2010-2012). Positive deviants reported practices that included maintenance of structural elements of the house, fumigation of dwellings and animal shelters, sweeping with "insect repellent" plants and relocation of domestic animals away from the house, among others. Participants favoured construction materials that do not drastically differ from those currently used (adobe walls and tile roofs). They also expressed their belief in a clear connection between a clean house and health. The family''s economic dynamics affect space use and must be considered in the prototype''s design. Overall, the results indicate a positive climate for the introduction of housing improvements as a protective measure against Chagas disease in this region.     

Fishing Effort Allocation and Fishermen's Decision Making Process in a Multi-Species Small-Scale Fishery: Analysis of the Conch and Lobster Fishery in Turks and Caicos Islands

In this paper we analyze the fishing effort allocation of fishermen in the artisanal fisheries of the Turks and Caicos Islands (British West Indies). These fishermen use a free-diving technique to simultaneously exploit the local stocks of queen conch and spiny lobster. Using an integrated framework combining a set of analytical tools within a multi-disciplinary holistic approach, we attempt to identify the biological, economic, and social mechanisms which govern the fishermen's effort allocation between the two targeted stocks. The analysis shows that the seasonal dynamics of the whole system are essentially dictated by the very remunerative lobster fishery. Although this result tends to espouse the predictions of classical economic theory, a closer analysis reveals that the economic rationality approach does not entirely explain the observed fishermen behavior. Information from a series of socio-anthropological surveys shows that the fishermen's decision making is further influenced by collective and individual constraints related to the specific diving abilities required to operate in the two fisheries and by the socio-historico-cultural environment within which the fishing community has been evolving over the last century.     

Conflicts with fisheries and intentional killing of freshwater dolphins (Cetacea: Odontoceti) in the Western Brazilian Amazon

We report three cases of conflicts with fishing activities of freshwater dolphins Inia geoffrensis and Sotalia fluviatilis in the Western Brazilian Amazon. The animals presented several cuts produced by perforating and cutting objects, especially on the dorsum, sides and flukes. The wounds were probably caused by harpoons and machetes, gear commonly used by local inhabitants for fishing and agricultural practices in the Amazon. The carcasses had not been subsequently used in any way, which suggests that the animals were not killed for consumption. Conflicts with fishermen and persistent cultural taboos may have led to the deaths. These records are an indication of a growing situation of conflict with fishing activities that should be taken into consideration in the conservation policy planning of aquatic mammals in the Amazon.     

长江流域生态退捕渔民生计脆弱性评价及生计风险预测

渔民作为长江十年禁渔的参与主体,其后续生计发展将直接决定此生态保护政策的实施成效。在重构非自愿生态移民生计脆弱性评价体系的基础上,结合长江流域重点禁渔水域典型退捕渔民的抽样数据,测度渔民生计脆弱性指数(LVI)并找出影响后续生计恢复的主要障碍因子,最后跨领域的引入支持向量回归(SVR)预测模型动态分析了不同区域渔户生计脆弱性的演变趋势。结果表明:(1)渔民弃船上岸后呈现出生计脆弱性的比例较高,但不同类型区域间存在明显差异,其中内湖保护区最高,干流非保护区次之而干流保护区最低;(2)敏感性维度在诱发渔民生计脆弱性上起着主导作用,即个体禀赋比安置区条件更为重要,特别是成员年龄大但无基本社保兜底,受教育程度低且"双转"难的渔民家庭更易陷入生计困境;(3)自然和金融资本是推动渔民生计恢复的主要生计资本,而阻碍渔民生计脆弱性降低的共性因子主要有上岸后的收支失衡,社会支持不足及过分依赖原有生计方式等,同时各区域在脆弱性各维度上还有特殊的障碍因子;(4)推动安置区经济社会发展和家庭转产增收后,并不一定能确保缓解未来五年中的渔户生计脆弱性程度,上岸后完成社会融入并有效降低生产生活成本也至关重要,而干流保护区则还需加强人力资本建设,否则后续将面临极高的返贫风险;(5)长江临近区域的同类渔民生计脆弱性现状、面临的生计风险、后续生计恢复的进程具有一定的相似性和规律性,生计监测和帮扶政策可进行协同统筹。     

Palaeobotanical evidence for social difference? The example of the early medieval domain of Serris-Les Ruelles, France

Serris-Les Ruelles is an early medieval demesne (manor house) showing the bipartite structure which is typical of this kind of landed property. The organisation is based on social difference: on the one hand the lord in his manor house, on the other the peasant in their village. The difference is apparent from the inorganic remains. Two out of four possible criteria were applied to investigate whether the difference is also apparent in plant food. The result of the investigation was negative. The reason might be that the spatial and economic separation between lord and peasant was not yet wide enough where food was concerned.     

Brazilian mothers' beliefs, attitudes and practices related to child weight status and early feeding within the context of nutrition transition

With the rapid pace of the nutrition transition worldwide, understanding influences of child feeding practices within a context characterized by the co-existence of overweight and undernutrition in the same population has increasing importance. This qualitative study describes Brazilian mothers' child feeding practices and their perceptions of their association with child weight status and explores the role of socioeconomic, cultural and organizational factors on these relationships. Forty-one women enrolled in the Family Health/Community Health Workers Programme were selected from rural, urban, coastal and indigenous areas in Ceara State, north-east Brazil, to participate in four focus group discussions. Content analysis identified fourteen emergent themes showing mothers' child feeding practices in this setting were influenced by economic resources, mothers' immediate social support networks (e.g. neighbours and family members) and participation in nutrition assistance programmes. Child malnutrition was the most common nutritional concern; nevertheless, mothers were aware of the negative health consequences of obesity but misunderstood its causes (e.g. foods filled with fat would make a person fat; others thought that birth control pills and stimulants given to children were causes of obesity); several reported their own struggles with overweight. Food assistance programmes emerged as an important influence on children's dietary adequacy, especially among mothers describing dire economic situations. The findings have implications for targeting food assistance as well as health and nutrition education strategies in low-income families undergoing the nutrition transition in north-east Brazil.     

The structure of a bottlenose dolphin society is coupled to a unique foraging cooperation with artisanal fishermen

Diverse and localized foraging behaviours have been reported in isolated populations of many animal species around the world. In Laguna, southern Brazil, a subset of resident bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) uses a foraging tactic involving cooperative interactions with local, beach-casting fishermen. We used individual photo-identification data to assess whether cooperative and non-cooperative dolphins were socially segregated. The social structure of the population was found to be a fission-fusion system with few non-random associations, typical for this species. However, association values were greater among cooperative dolphins than among non-cooperative dolphins or between dolphins from different foraging classes. Furthermore, the dolphin social network was divided into three modules, clustering individuals that shared or lacked the cooperative foraging tactic. Space-use patterns were not sufficient to explain this partitioning, indicating a behavioural factor. The segregation of dolphins using different foraging tactics could result from foraging behaviour driving social structure, while the closer association between dolphins engaged in the cooperation could facilitate the transmission and learning of this behavioural trait from conspecifics. This unique case of a dolphin-human interaction represents a valuable opportunity to explore hypotheses on the role of social learning in wild cetaceans.     

Ethnicity and population structure in personal naming networks

Personal naming practices exist in all human groups and are far from random. Rather, they continue to reflect social norms and ethno-cultural customs that have developed over generations. As a consequence, contemporary name frequency distributions retain distinct geographic, social and ethno-cultural patterning that can be exploited to understand population structure in human biology, public health and social science. Previous attempts to detect and delineate such structure in large populations have entailed extensive empirical analysis of naming conventions in different parts of the world without seeking any general or automated methods of population classification by ethno-cultural origin. Here we show how 'naming networks', constructed from forename-surname pairs of a large sample of the contemporary human population in 17 countries, provide a valuable representation of cultural, ethnic and linguistic population structure around the world. This innovative approach enriches and adds value to automated population classification through conventional national data sources such as telephone directories and electoral registers. The method identifies clear social and ethno-cultural clusters in such naming networks that extend far beyond the geographic areas in which particular names originated, and that are preserved even after international migration. Moreover, one of the most striking findings of this approach is that these clusters simply 'emerge' from the aggregation of millions of individual decisions on parental naming practices for their children, without any prior knowledge introduced by the researcher. Our probabilistic approach to community assignment, both at city level as well as at a global scale, helps to reveal the degree of isolation, integration or overlap between human populations in our rapidly globalising world. As such, this work has important implications for research in population genetics, public health, and social science adding new understandings of migration, identity, integration and social interaction across the world.     

The role of the social sciences and economics in understanding and informing tree biosecurity policy and planning: a global summary and synthesis

Increased global biosecurity threats to trees, woods and forests have been strongly linked to the upsurge in worldwide trade and the expansion of tourism. A whole range of social, economic and political actors are implicated and affected by the movement of pests and diseases along these international pathways. A number of factors affect the actions of stakeholders, and wider public, including their values and motivations, how risks are perceived and acted upon, their ability to act, as well as the existing regulatory and economic environment. Understanding these factors is key to any future attempts to improve biosecurity policy and practice, and we present available evidence on six key dimension: (1) the role of different stakeholders and the broader public within tree health; (2) levels of knowledge and awareness of tree pests and diseases amongst the variety of end-user ‘stakeholder’ groups, and influences on their attitudes and practices; (3) social acceptability of management approaches; (4) the impact of formal and informal governance arrangements; (5) risk communication; (6) economic analyses on the impact of tree pests. We conclude by identifying evidence gaps and emphasising the need for better integration within the social sciences and between the social and natural sciences to promote effective interdisciplinary and policy-relevant contributions to tree health.     

Determinants of the domiciliary density of Triatoma infestans, vector of Chagas disease

In two heavily infested rural villages of Santiago del Estero, Argentina, where no indoor-spraying with residual insecticides had ever been carried out by official control services, we studied the influence of roof and wall structure, domestic use of insecticide, family size and the number of domestic dogs, on the domiciliary density of Triatoma infestans (Klug). Bug density was significantly associated with (1) the interaction between insecticide use and type of roof, (2) the structure of indoor walls, (3) the number of dogs sharing sleeping areas of people (room-mate dogs), and (4) the number of people plus room-mate dogs, but not with just the number of people resident in the house. The interaction between insecticide use and a roof made of 'simbol', a locally available grass (Pennisetum sp.), also reflected a younger age structure of domestic bug populations. In infested houses, the density of bugs infected with Trypanosoma cruzi Chagas was significantly correlated with overall bug density. Our data suggest that the application of environmental management measures by the affected people, such as plastering of walls and modification of roofs, coupled with keeping dogs away from bedrooms and application of insecticides, should limit the domestic population density of T. infestans and thus reduce the transmission of T. cruzi to people.     

Local Ecological Knowledge and Scientific Data Reveal Overexploitation by Multigear Artisanal Fisheries in the Southwestern Atlantic

In the last decades, a number of studies based on historical records revealed the diversity loss in the oceans and human-induced changes to marine ecosystems. These studies have improved our understanding of the human impacts in the oceans. They also drew attention to the shifting baseline syndrome and the importance of assessing appropriate sources of data in order to build the most reliable environmental baseline. Here we amassed information from artisanal fishermen''s local ecological knowledge, fisheries landing data and underwater visual census to assess the decline of fish species in Southeastern Brazil. Interviews with 214 fishermen from line, beach seine and spearfishing revealed a sharp decline in abundance of the bluefish Pomatomus saltatrix, the groupers Epinephelus marginatus, Mycteroperca acutirostris, M. bonaci and M. microlepis, and large parrotfishes in the past six decades. Fisheries landing data from a 16-year period support the decline of bluefish as pointed by fishermen''s local knowledge, while underwater visual census campaigns show reductions in groupers'' abundance and a sharp population decline of the Brazilian endemic parrotfish Scarus trispinosus. Despite the marked decline of these fisheries, younger and less experienced fishermen recognized fewer species as overexploited and fishing sites as depleted than older and more experienced fishermen, indicating the occurrence of the shifting baseline syndrome. Here we show both the decline of multigear fisheries catches – combining anecdotal and scientific data – as well as changes in environmental perceptions over generations of fishermen. Managing ocean resources requires looking into the past, and into traditional knowledge, bringing historical baselines to the present and improving public awareness.     

The arts in Brazilian public schools: Analysis of an art education experience in Mato Grosso State,Brazil

This article examines the relation between official policy on art education in Brazilian basic education and what is actually taught and done in public school teaching in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Making use of interpretative analysis, I directly observed art classes in schools selected in the state of Mato Grosso. I also analyzed the laws, guidelines, parameters, and other official documents related to art education in Brazilian primary and secondary schools and compared them to the observed practices in the selected schools. Specifically in Mato Grosso, there is a gap between the theoretical guidelines of these documents and what is taught and done in public schools. Conceptions of the discipline of art education in official documents are not in line with the practices of this discipline in the researched elementary schools, a discord that may contribute to art being misunderstood as a lesser discipline. Using the results of this research, I intend to seek effective ways to discuss the arts in the curriculum of primary and secondary schools and highlight their importance in school curricula. My objective is not only that these results benefit public schools by encouraging the expansion of concrete and effective public policies for the quality and improvement of primary and secondary school education and the training of arts teachers, but also that these results will assist researchers studying arts education by showing how to extend that study beyond the academic walls.     

The colour of seawater: colour perception and environmental change in Dominican seascapes★

The colour of seawater is a topic of daily discussion among diver fishermen in the Dominican Republic, who navigate shifting ocean environments alongside conservation politics. While conservation policies often target fishing as the main cause of declines in the health of marine ecologies, fishermen use colour to create alternative narratives about changing climates. Describing the sea as blue, black, brown, green, whitewash, purple, and chocolate, divers point to the broader causes of shifting seascapes while chronicling their affective and embodied consequences. Based on ethnographic fieldwork among Dominican diver fishermen, this article explores the colour of seawater as a lens for understanding the physical, affective, social, and political consequences of changing climates for communities who are deeply entangled in shifting sea ecologies. For diver fishermen, whose engagements with the sea depend on visibility, colours provide ways of interpreting fishing possibilities, navigating ocean spaces, and measuring the effects of changing environments. Given the centrality of colour perception in fishermen's lives, this article argues that colours provide an alternative narrative about changing climates, linking shifting marine conditions to global systemic problems, rather than blaming changes in environmental conditions on supposedly irresponsible practices of local people.     

陇中黄土高原农村经济结构变化对退耕还林(草)的响应

黄土高原退耕还林(草)政策的实施有效改善了区域生态环境,然而其对社会经济的影响存在明显的地域差异。以甘肃省定西市安定区近郊凤翔镇和远郊鲁家沟镇为例,采用重复测定方差分析、主响应曲线分析和相关分析等解析2镇1998—2015年农村经济结构及收入变化对退耕还林(草)政策实施的响应特征,确定退耕还林(草)政策实施驱动的土地利用变化与农村收入之间的关系。研究发现:(1)退耕还林(草)政策实施解释了2镇70.4%的农业收入结构差异,因政策的实施推动了小麦等夏粮作物向玉米、马铃薯等秋粮作物的转变,进而影响了农业收入结构的变化;(2)退耕还林(草)政策对农村经济结构的影响弱于对农业收入结构的影响,它解释了2镇54.1%的农村经济结构差异,近郊凤翔镇农村经济收入明显高于远郊鲁家沟镇。退耕还林(草)政策对以农业为主导产业的远郊鲁家沟镇农村经济结构影响相对较小,近郊凤翔镇工业、服务业和商业餐饮业等非农产业占农村经济总收入的比重随着农业收入比重的降低而有所提高;(3)退耕还林(草)政策的实施带动了该区种植业结构的转变,这在一定程度上缩小了凤翔镇和鲁家沟镇农村集体收入之间的差距;(4)退耕还林(草)政策实施过程中,梯田面积、玉米和马铃薯等秋粮作物种植面积的增加提高了农村居民纯收入。研究认为退耕还林(草)在实施过程中需考虑地域差异,依据区域经济发展状况进行相应调整,在推动种植业发展的同时还应兼顾林业、牧业和一些非农产业发展,最终实现生态环境恢复与农村经济的协调发展。     

Multidimensional analysis of fishery production systems in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil

A total of 17 fishery systems covering gillnets, traps and seines targeting fish and crustaceans as well as hand-collected mussels in the state of Pernambuco (Brazil) were compared and analyzed in the present study using the RAPFISH method and 57 attributes to qualify five evaluation dimensions: economic, social, ecological, technological and management. The aim was to determine the sustainability of each field from the fishery (i.e. stocks) and social standpoint (i.e. fishermen). With regard to sustainability, it was generally apparent that the fisheries analyzed are far from any ideal that would permit long-term exploitation, but are nonetheless also distant from the extremes of non-sustainability in the environments investigated. The low degree of organization demonstrated in most fisheries of Pernambuco and the low level of schooling among the fishermen contribute toward maintaining the status quo, with an increase in situations of conflict and a lack of valorization regarding the activities. The shrimp system is the least sustainable, mainly due to its environmental impact; however, this is compensated by the relatively higher quality of living provided stakeholders through its exploitation. The evaluation dimensions showed the most sustainable system in Pernambuco to be the stationary 'uncovered pound net', followed by the line system. Alternative procedures for integrated fishery management, such as an increase in statistical data, coastal zoning to limit shrimp farms and establishing protected areas are proposed and discussed. Such procedures may contribute toward the formulation of public policies for the fishery industry of the state, which is essentially made up of artisanal fisheries with low yields and exercised by the 11 926 fishermen affiliated with coastal fishing colonies.