"Visual Anthropology Is Dead, Long Live Visual Anthropology!"

Rethinking Visual Anthropology. Marcus Banks and Howard Morphy. eds. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997. 306 pp.
Principles of Visual Anthropology. Paul Hockings. ed. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1995. 562 pp.
Fields of Vision: Essays in Film Studies, Visual Anthropology, and Photography. Leslie Devereaux and Roger Hillman. eds. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. 362 pp.     

Anthropology! Distinguished Lecture—2000

The transformation of anthropology in the twenty-first century can be seen in new mixes between anthropology's subfields and between anthropology and our publics interested in theory, research, and the practical. For most of the twentieth century anthropology was marked by increasing specialization. Now there is a reassembling that is more inclusive of all humankind. There is a reconnection of the particular and the universal, the local and the global, nature and culture. Fragmentation and holism move us back and forth, yet an anthropological perspective on the new technologies affecting the nature of nature, the forms of globalization, the environment, and intellectual property requires the use of all the anthropologies. Each epistemology privileges different aspects of reality. Anthropology, among the first of the "new" sciences rather than the last of the "old," is exploring new ways to understand the human condition writ large, [nature, culture, holism, epistemologies, new mixes]     

What Is Canadian Anthropology?

The Management of Myths: The Politics of Legitimation in a Newfoundland Community. Anthony P. Cohen . Newfoundland Social and Economic Studies, 14. St. John's: Institute of Social and Economic Research, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1975. viii + 146 pp. n.p. (cloth).
Saint Pascal: Changing Leadership and Social Organization in a Quebec Town. Gerald L. Gold . Cultures and Communities: A Series of Monographs, Community Studies. Toronto: Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada, 1975. viii + 215 pp. n.p. (paper).
Natives without a Home. Mark Nagler . Canadian Social Problems Series. Don Mills, Ontario: Longman Canada, 1975. xvii + 85 pp. $2.95 (paper).
Crime in Canadian Society. Robert A. Silverman and James J. Teevan, Jr ., comps. Toronto: Butterworth, 1975. xi + 455 pp. $7.95 (paper).     

The Differentiation of Live From Dead Sperms in Fowl Semen

A combined stain solution is made by dissolving 0.1 gm bromphenol blue and 0.2 gm nigrosin in 100 ml of a M/15 buffer solution of KH₂PO₄ and Na₂HPO₄ adjusted to pH 7.5. This staining solution was used to prepare stained fowl semen smears. Such smears give stable differentiation of live from dead sperms. The dead sperms are stained with a dark violet color while the live ones are not stained.     

Enumerative Fluorescent Vital Staining of Live and Dead Pathogenic Yeast Cells

A quantitative technique is presented for differentiating live and dead yeast cells grown in culture through the use of the fluorescent dye acridine orange. the method gives results that correlate well with those of other commonly used vital staining techniques and is free of certain interpretative errors inherent in them. Vital staining of yeasts with acridine orange also allows for more precise assessment of the physiological state of individual cells and the culture as a whole. the progressive senescence of yeast cells in culture can be monitored by the changing staining characteristics of several subcellular organelles. the method is simple and reliable.     

Comparative Growth and Development of Spiders Reared on Live and Dead Prey

Scavenging (feeding on dead prey) has been demonstrated across a number of spider families, yet the implications of feeding on dead prey for the growth and development of individuals and population is unknown. In this study we compare the growth, development, and predatory activity of two species of spiders that were fed on live and dead prey. Pardosa astrigera (Lycosidae) and Hylyphantes graminicola (Lyniphiidae) were fed live or dead fruit flies, Drosophila melanogaster. The survival of P. astrigera and H. graminicola was not affected by prey type. The duration of late instars of P. astrigera fed dead prey were longer and mature spiders had less protein content than those fed live prey, whereas there were no differences in the rate of H. graminicola development, but the mass of mature spiders fed dead prey was greater than those fed live prey. Predation rates by P. astrigera did not differ between the two prey types, but H. graminicola had a higher rate of predation on dead than alive prey, presumably because the dead flies were easier to catch and handle. Overall, the growth, development and reproduction of H. graminicola reared with dead flies was better than those reared on live flies, yet for the larger P. astrigera, dead prey may suit smaller instars but mature spiders may be best maintained with live prey. We have clearly demonstrated that dead prey may be suitable for rearing spiders, although the success of the spiders fed such prey appears size- and species specific.     

Use of Propidium Monoazide for Live/Dead Distinction in Microbial Ecology

One of the prerequisites of making ecological conclusions derived from genetic fingerprints is that bacterial community profiles reflect the live portion of the sample of interest. Propidium monoazide is a membrane-impermeant dye that selectively penetrates cells with compromised membranes, which can be considered dead. Once inside the cells, PMA intercalates into the DNA and can be covalently cross-linked to it, which strongly inhibits PCR amplification. By using PCR after PMA treatment, the analysis of bacterial communities can theoretically be limited to cells with intact cell membranes. Four experiments were performed to study the usefulness of PMA treatment of mixed bacterial communities comprising both intact and compromised cells in combination with end-point PCR by generating community profiles from the following samples: (i) defined mixtures of live and isopropanol-killed cells from pure cultures of random environmental isolates, (ii) wastewater treatment plant influent spiked with defined ratios of live and dead cells, (iii) selected environmental communities, and (iv) a water sediment sample exposed to increasing heat stress. Regions of 16S rRNA genes were PCR amplified from extracted genomic DNA, and PCR products were analyzed by using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). Results from the first two experiments show that PMA treatment can be of value with end-point PCR by suppressing amplification of DNA from killed cells. The last two experiments suggest that PMA treatment can affect banding patterns in DGGE community profiles and their intensities, although the intrinsic limitations of end-point PCR have to be taken into consideration.     

The Anthropology of Simple Societies: The Kalahari !Kung

Demography of the Dobe !Kung . Nancy Howell
The Bushmen A. P. Wannenburgh, Peter Johnson, and Anthony Bannister.
The !Kung San: Men, Women, and Work in a Foraging Society Richard B. Lee     

Mass and Density Measurements of Live and Dead Gram-Negative and Gram-Positive Bacterial Populations

Monitoring cell growth and measuring physical features of food-borne pathogenic bacteria are important for better understanding the conditions under which these organisms survive and proliferate. To address this challenge, buoyant masses of live and dead Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Listeria innocua were measured using Archimedes, a commercially available suspended microchannel resonator (SMR). Cell growth was monitored with Archimedes by observing increased cell concentration and buoyant mass values of live growing bacteria. These growth data were compared to optical density measurements obtained with a Bioscreen system. We observed buoyant mass measurements with Archimedes at cell concentrations between 10⁵ and 10⁸ cells/ml, while growth was not observed with optical density measurements until the concentration was 10⁷ cells/ml. Buoyant mass measurements of live and dead cells with and without exposure to hydrogen peroxide stress were also compared; live cells generally had a larger buoyant mass than dead cells. Additionally, buoyant mass measurements were used to determine cell density and total mass for both live and dead cells. Dead E. coli cells were found to have a larger density and smaller total mass than live E. coli cells. In contrast, density was the same for both live and dead L. innocua cells, while the total mass was greater for live than for dead cells. These results contribute to the ongoing challenge to further develop existing technologies used to observe cell populations at low concentrations and to measure unique physical features of cells that may be useful for developing future diagnostics.     

Modern Approaches to Differentiation of Live and Dead Bacteria Using Selective Amplification of Nucleic Acids

Microbiology - Specific amplification of nucleic acids is a convenient and quick alternative to the culture-based method of detecting bacterial cells. However, conventional PCR and other...     

Is Rukun Dead? Ethnographic Interpretations of Social Change and Javanese Culture

Within the ethnography of Indonesia in general and Java in particular, the Javanese notion of rukun, the appearance of harmony and helpfulness, has frequently been interpreted as referring not only to social harmony, but also to economic egalitarianism. Hence ‘traditional’ Javanese economic practices such as open harvests, the distribution of harvest shares and the use of the finger-knife in rice harvesting have been seen as explicable by reference to rukun. Changes in harvesting practices with the introduction of ‘modern’ techniques, such as the use of contract labourers, have been depicted as signalling the death of rukun, both as an economic practice and as a cultural value. This article argues that such a view of social change in Java is theoretically and empirically flawed. Rukun is not a practice but rather a central ideological concept through which Javanese contextualise and apprehend their lives, their aspirations, their motivations and their social relations. In this sense, the ‘traditional’ notion of rukun is equally applicable to contemporary Java, and contemporary Javanese are just as likely to interpret the ‘modern’ world in terms of rukun.