Extended lives in global spaces: the anthropology of Yolngu pre‐burial ceremonies⋆

The focus is on a recently developed Yolngu ritual, the memorial or memorial service, which celebrates the lives of Yolngu who have achieved a national reputation. Held before the burial ceremony, the memorial service is orientated ‘both‐ways’ – to the outside as well as to the Yolngu world. Memorial services are analysed in the context of the articulation between Yolngu and the wider Australian society. A diachronically orientated analysis takes into account the longue durée to show how Yolngu create and understand the performance from a historical position and basis of knowledge very different to those of most non‐Yolngu who attend the event. Anthropological research can reveal the durability of local value creation processes that result in very different trajectories of being in an environment of dynamic change.     

Syncretism or Sychronicity? Remapping the Yolngu Feel of Place

For Christian Yolngu in Arnhem Land visions shape the imagined, embodied and affective experiences of places of danger, illness, healing and general wellbeing. In this paper, I argue that Yolngu have consistently constructed their Christian faith through visions stemming from an ancestral aesthetic embodied in the environment. As a result, religious ideology and social action have sometimes been seen as syncretic, raising questions about how Yolngu understand and experience Christian conversion, encounter and revelation. I argue that Yolngu spiritual experiences emerge from the sentiments associated with ancestral places that act as emotive sites for remapping an ancestral aesthetic as Christian experience. The resultant emotional and spiritual synchronicity underlies a Yolngu Christianity that is corporeal and abstracted, negotiated and strategic, practical and experiential.     

Dancing with a Difference: Reconfiguring the Poetic Politics of Aboriginal Ritual as National Spectacle1

This paper argues that indigenous dance is a poetic politics of cross‐cultural encounter that engages Aboriginal identities with those of the Australian nation. I question the nature of this encounter in terms of a performative dialogue that is both musically and kinesically presented by indigenous communities and ‘translated’ into political discourse by the government. The sentiments of ‘translation’ raise questions as to how local ritual expressions of Aboriginal dance can mediate dialogue when presented as national spectacle. What is being meditated? What is happening in the process of evocation? In this performative nexus, I focus specifically on the poetic politics of Yolngu ritual as spectacle; the nature of performative dialogue in terms of shared dance forms between indigenous communities; the problem of the authentication of dance identities; and how corporeal dispositions of indigenous dance genres influence national sentiment by their symbolic power. I pursue these issues through an analysis of how ancestral dances have been repositioned in national performance venues, such as concerts, cultural centres and ritual arenas, as a means of asserting performative statements about indigenous positioning within the nation‐state. The nature of this dialogue raises questions of authenticity and processes of authentication. It highlights indigenous concerns to control representations of indigeneity as national event, as well as a desire to convey something of the sentiment and sentience embodied in the poetics of their ancestral performances.     

A Social Ecology of Stingless Bees

Here we highlight two ontologically different modes of care and management of endemic stingless bees in Australia. While Indigenous Yolngu and backyard beekeepers both engage in caring for stingless bees, neither way of living with bees would classically be defined as ‘domestication’, yet bees are encompassed within the ‘home’, or domus. This requires a different perspective in relation to the kinds of multispecies connections between humans and other beings. We propose that the key difference between Aboriginal Australians hunting for sugarbag on country and beekeeping in the backyard is in the way bee populations are maintained and in the degree of ecological separation from the surrounding environment. For Yolngu the domus is the bush. Backyard beekeeping involves modes of care that separate bees from outside predators, pests and other detrimental elements, while the Yolngu relationship with bees is primarily concerned with maintaining the integrity of the surrounding ecology, or the homeland.     

Re-reading Ronald Berndt: Exploring the Depths of his Yolngu Ethnography

The title of this essay sets its dialogic structure. Ronald Berndt's writing at times obscured the core insights that he had about Yolngu society, and partly as a consequence Australian anthropology has not yet made the best use of the immense richness of his ethnographic legacy. In retrospect, in many areas of their research the Berndts were pioneers addressing themes and topics that had been for too long ignored. They opened up new fields of study and redressed some of the imbalances associated with functionalism, the dominant paradigm of their early years as anthropologists. In this essay I examine two areas of Ronald Berndt's writings in which he had insights that were not fully appreciated at the time: the analysis of Yolngu social organisation and the analysis of Yolngu sexual symbolism. In both cases, his absorption in Yolngu ethnography made him aware that his predecessors had overlooked important themes of Yolngu society, yet in both cases his analysis was less convincing than it might have been.     

Ancestors, magic, and exchange in Yolngu doctrines: extensions of the person in time and space

The article draws on the association drawn by Munn between Aboriginal ancestral transformations and the moral order, and the theory of partible persons, in order to re-examine Yolngu doctrines and related practices to do with totemic ancestors and their traces, magic and sorcery, and exchange. It argues that all three broad domains draw on beliefs about intrinsic relations between part and whole, image and object, and the intrinsic powers of bodily substance and spirits of the dead. These domains imply the extension of persons in time and space, and each relates to a rather distinct aspect of the moral-political order. The article shows that the strong dichotomy drawn by Durkheim and his followers between 'religion' and 'magic' obscures the connections between these domains, and neglects the instrumental aspect of Yolngu ancestral doctrines and practices.     

Identification of quantitative trait loci and a candidate locus for freezing tolerance in controlled and outdoor environments in the overwintering crucifer Boechera stricta

Development of chilling and freezing tolerance is complex and can be affected by photoperiod, temperature and photosynthetic performance; however, there has been limited research on the interaction of these three factors. We evaluated 108 recombinant inbred lines of Boechera stricta, derived from a cross between lines originating from Montana and Colorado, under controlled long day (LD), short‐day (SD) and in an outdoor environment (OE). We measured maximum quantum yield of photosystem II, lethal temperature for 50% survival and electrolyte leakage of leaves. Our results revealed significant variation for chilling and freezing tolerance and photosynthetic performance in different environments. Using both single‐ and multi‐trait analyses, three main‐effect quantitative trait loci (QTL) were identified. QTL on linkage group (LG)3 were SD specific, whereas QTL on LG4 were found under both LD and SD. Under all conditions, QTL on LG7 were identified, but were particularly predictive for the outdoor experiment. The co‐localization of photosynthetic performance and freezing tolerance effects supports these traits being co‐regulated. Finally, the major QTL on LG7 is syntenic to the Arabidopsis C‐repeat binding factor locus, known regulators of chilling and freezing responses in Arabidopsis thaliana and other species.     

Imprinting on the Heart: Photography and Contemporary Yolngu Mournings

This article examines the ways photographs of the recently deceased have come to occupy a central place in Yolngu grieving practices. Harnessing the potentially traumatic ontological qualities of oscillating absence–presence that are inherent in such images, I show how Yolngu in Northern Australia use this affective force as a way to refigure and reconstitute embodied and sensuously mediated relationships between the living and the dead. With vision simultaneously allowing corporeal permeability and expansion, mourners impress the image of the deceased within them, through the eyes to the heart as the fleshly organ of affect, associative recollection, and lived intersubjectivity.     

One family: defining kinship in the neighbourhoods of Kumasi,Ghana

This article investigates how the concept that ‘people from one place are one family’ creates an a priori category of relatedness among otherwise unrelated neighbours in Kumasi, Ghana. A connection between spatial and kinship relations is indicated in the common saying, but unlike similar connections elaborated in other locales, residents often do not share activities such as cooking or cultivating prior to making claims to being ‘one family’. Through interviews and the resolution of a neighbourhood dispute, I show that the assumption that co‐residents are family can precede – and instantiate – the practices that indicate shared family. I argue that the equivalence between place and family is a fundamentally ethical equivalence that renders the actions of selves and others evaluable according to a common understanding of what is good for communities.     

Tuning a ménage à trois: Co‐evolution and co‐adaptation of nuclear and organellar genomes in plants

Plastids and mitochondria arose through endosymbiotic acquisition of formerly free‐living bacteria. During more than a billion years of subsequent concerted evolution, the three genomes of plant cells have undergone dramatic structural changes to optimize the expression of the compartmentalized genetic material and to fine‐tune the communication between the nucleus and the organelles. The chimeric composition of many multiprotein complexes in plastids and mitochondria (one part of the subunits being nuclear encoded and another one being encoded in the organellar genome) provides a paradigm for co‐evolution at the cellular level. In this paper, we discuss the co‐evolution of nuclear and organellar genomes in the context of environmental adaptation in species and populations. We highlight emerging genetic model systems and new experimental approaches that are particularly suitable to elucidate the molecular basis of co‐adaptation processes and describe how nuclear‐cytoplasmic co‐evolution can cause genetic incompatibilities that contribute to the establishment of hybridization barriers, ultimately leading to the formation of new species.     

Eco‐efficiency Based on Social Performance and its Relationship with Financial Performance

As corporate responsibility for environmental management has gained attention, eco‐efficiency has become recognized as an important concept for improving the social performance of the business sector as well as that of the public sector. Improving eco‐efficiency is widely accepted not only as a means of increasing economic value, but also as a means of reducing environmental effects. However, managing for eco‐efficiency should take into consideration the differences among industries, because the impact of eco‐efficiency on financial and social performance varies among industries. To explore this variation, we conducted a cross‐industry analysis of eco‐efficiency based on social performance using data envelopment analysis (DEA). DEA measures relative efficiency and is a useful tool for taking into account the relative importance of industry‐specific characteristics. Using DEA, eco‐efficiency scores were derived based on the ratio of two factors of social performance: (1) value‐added inducing and production‐inducing economic spillover effects and (2) the amount of greenhouse gases emitted and energy used. Then, we identified the relationships between our eco‐efficiency score and financial performance, which is a measure of the firm's stability. The case study is based on 272 firms in 16 industries in South Korea. Results show that firms in product manufacturing and service‐intensive industries tend to have higher eco‐efficiency scores than those in raw material or chemical‐intensive industries. In addition, most of the industries reveal no relationship between traditional financial performance metrics and eco‐efficiency scores. A handful of industries had significant relationships with one or more financial performance metrics; in some cases, these relationships were negative, whereas in others they were positive. Surprisingly, almost all industries have no significant relationships between eco‐efficiency and financial performance. This result implies that government support for policies that reward firms that attempt to be eco‐efficient are needed, or that other nonfinancial metrics that influence eco‐efficiency, such as employment and brand reputation, should be considered. This article is expected to support policy makers as they formulate industry‐specific environmental strategies.     

The phatic finger: Public gesture and shared meaning on the highways of the Australian Outback

This paper explores the cultural significance of ephemeral public greetings on the highways of Australia's Northern Territory. Despite the exceptional speed at which vehicles pass one another and the fact that such salutations are mostly between travellers who have no acquaintance with one another, few drivers fail to acknowledge the co‐presence of others on the highway. The main concern of this account is to detail how this greeting system works, including the diverse meanings which can be attached to participation in it. In conclusion, it is suggested that this is a form of phatic communication which, as Malinowski (1923) said, eschews engagement with weighty economic and political issues, but contributes significantly to a sense of community between those involved.     

Fire,Heroes and the Cosmic: Aesthetic Resonances of Fire‐walking in Northern Greece

In the Greek village of Mavrolefki in Thrace, a small number of women and men. about ten in number, once a year, on the feast day of St. Constantine, undertake a series of rites, ranging from dancing to the icons, blood sacrifice, to the most spectacular fire‐walking (pyrovasia). It is the last which brings spectators from all over Greece and further afield. The principal participants, however, are known as the anastenarides (shakers, tremblers). Several concerns are addressed in the paper. Given the peculiar mix of proceedings, the first is to lay out the components of the affair, asking what's going on? Furthermore, there are the conceptual issues. What aesthetic is being implicated? What emotions are being brought into play? What does the event amount to? In addressing such questions the paper draws on certain aesthetic formulations of the Hindu rasa theory.     

First report on the emergency dance of Apis cerana japonica,which induces odorous plant material collection in response to Vespa mandarinia japonica scouting

Previously, we observed several instances in which Apis cerana japonica performed dancing around the hive entrance and smeared plant materials there immediately after scouting of Vespa mandarinia japonica. In this study, we conducted a series of attack simulation experiments with three hornet species to investigate whether the hive entrance dance is a specific response to V. m. japonica scouting. We also tracked dancing bees and dance‐follower bees to observe whether they perform hive entrance smearing. Only V. m. japonica scouting induced dancing, and we confirmed that dancing and dance‐follower bees performed smearing behavior at the hive entrance. These results suggest that the hive entrance dance informs nestmates of a specific emergency and of the urgent need to collect odorous plant materials as a counter‐attack strategy.     

A burden from birth? Non‐invasive prenatal testing and the stigmatization of people with disabilities

The notion of being a burden to others is mostly discussed in the context of care‐intensive diseases or end‐of‐life decisions. But the notion is also crucial in decision‐making at the beginning of life, namely regarding prenatal testing. Ever more sophisticated testing methods, especially non‐invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), allow the detection of genetic traits in the unborn child that may cause disabilities. A positive result often influences the decision of the pregnant women towards a termination of the pregnancy. Thus, critics claim that these testing methods send a negative message to people with disabilities. At the core of this is what we call the burden assumption. This assumption claims that children with disabilities are necessarily a burden to others, especially to their parents and other family members. In this paper, we discuss what being a burden to others means in this context and how such an attitude can be avoided without restraining reproductive autonomy. A closer examination shows that the burden assumption is mostly based on misinformation and a false model of disability. Empirical studies as well as narrative evidence from parents who raise a child with disabilities show that the burden assumption is wrong. Raising a child with disabilities does not necessarily mean a decrease in the quality of life. We show how the burden assumption can be challenged through an advanced genetic counselling that combines empirical evidence with narratives from a first‐person perspective.     

The phylogenetic structure of plant–pollinator networks increases with habitat size and isolation

Similarity among species in traits related to ecological interactions is frequently associated with common ancestry. Thus, closely related species usually interact with ecologically similar partners, which can be reinforced by diverse co‐evolutionary processes. The effect of habitat fragmentation on the phylogenetic signal in interspecific interactions and correspondence between plant and animal phylogenies is, however, unknown. Here, we address to what extent phylogenetic signal and co‐phylogenetic congruence of plant–animal interactions depend on habitat size and isolation by analysing the phylogenetic structure of 12 pollination webs from isolated Pampean hills. Phylogenetic signal in interspecific interactions differed among webs, being stronger for flower‐visiting insects than plants. Phylogenetic signal and overall co‐phylogenetic congruence increased independently with hill size and isolation. We propose that habitat fragmentation would erode the phylogenetic structure of interaction webs. A decrease in phylogenetic signal and co‐phylogenetic correspondence in plant–pollinator interactions could be associated with less reliable mutualism and erratic co‐evolutionary change.     

Discovery and development of exome‐based,co‐dominant single nucleotide polymorphism markers in hexaploid wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Globally, wheat is the most widely grown crop and one of the three most important crops for human and livestock feed. However, the complex nature of the wheat genome has, until recently, resulted in a lack of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)‐based molecular markers of practical use to wheat breeders. Recently, large numbers of SNP‐based wheat markers have been made available via the use of next‐generation sequencing combined with a variety of genotyping platforms. However, many of these markers and platforms have difficulty distinguishing between heterozygote and homozygote individuals and are therefore of limited use to wheat breeders carrying out commercial‐scale breeding programmes. To identify exome‐based co‐dominant SNP‐based assays, which are capable of distinguishing between heterozygotes and homozygotes, we have used targeted re‐sequencing of the wheat exome to generate large amounts of genomic sequences from eight varieties. Using a bioinformatics approach, these sequences have been used to identify 95 266 putative single nucleotide polymorphisms, of which 10 251 were classified as being putatively co‐dominant. Validation of a subset of these putative co‐dominant markers confirmed that 96% were true polymorphisms and 65% were co‐dominant SNP assays. The new co‐dominant markers described here are capable of genotypic classification of a segregating locus in polyploid wheat and can be used on a variety of genotyping platforms; as such, they represent a powerful tool for wheat breeders. These markers and related information have been made publically available on an interactive web‐based database to facilitate their use on genotyping programmes worldwide.     

Attack of the clones: reproductive interference between sexuals and asexuals in the Crepis agamic complex

Negative reproductive interactions are likely to be strongest between close relatives and may be important in limiting local coexistence. In plants, interspecific pollen flow is common between co‐occurring close relatives and may serve as the key mechanism of reproductive interference. Agamic complexes, systems in which some populations reproduce through asexual seeds (apomixis), while others reproduce sexually, provide an opportunity to examine effects of reproductive interference in limiting coexistence. Apomictic populations experience little or no reproductive interference, because apomictic ovules cannot receive pollen from nearby sexuals. Oppositely, apomicts produce some viable pollen and can exert reproductive interference on sexuals by siring hybrids. In the Crepis agamic complex, sexuals co‐occur less often with other members of the complex, but apomicts appear to freely co‐occur with one another. We identified a mixed population and conducted a crossing experiment between sexual diploid C. atribarba and apomictic polyploid C. barbigera using pollen from sexual diploids and apomictic polyploids. Seed set was high for all treatments, and as predicted, diploid–diploid crosses produced all diploid offspring. Diploid–polyploid crosses, however, produced mainly polyploidy offspring, suggesting that non‐diploid hybrids can be formed when the two taxa meet. Furthermore, a small proportion of seeds produced in open‐pollinated flowers was also polyploid, indicating that polyploid hybrids are produced under natural conditions. Our results provide evidence for asymmetric reproductive interference, with pollen from polyploid apomicts contributing to reduce the recruitment of sexual diploids in subsequent generations. Existing models suggest that these mixed sexual–asexual populations are likely to be transient, eventually leading to eradication of sexual individuals from the population.     

Migration highways and migration barriers created by host–parasite interactions

Co‐evolving parasites may play a key role in host migration and population structure. Using co‐evolving bacteria and viruses, we test general hypotheses as to how co‐evolving parasites affect the success of passive host migration between habitats that can support different intensities of host–parasite interactions. First, we show that parasites aid migration from areas of intense to weak co‐evolutionary interactions and impede migration in the opposite direction, as a result of intraspecific apparent competition mediated via parasites. Second, when habitats show qualitative difference such that some environments support parasite persistence while others do not, different population regulation forces (either parasitism or competitive exclusion) will reduce the success of migration in both directions. Our study shows that co‐evolution with parasites can predictably homogenises or isolates host populations, depending on heterogeneity of abiotic conditions, with the second scenario constituting a novel type of ‘isolation by adaptation’.