National Identity and the Problem of Kastom in Vanuatu

Vanuatu's transformation into a predominantly Christian country entailed the loss of much traditional culture and the devaluation of the pre-contact era. In the 1970s the growing independence movement used kastom as a rallying cry to evoke a distinctive non-European national identity. In promoting unity and solidarity, the movement's leaders promulgated kastom on a safe ideological plane, avoiding any definition or differentiation of the concept, whereas the populace attempted to interpret kastom pragmatically. This led to confusion and difficulties because kastom is so ambiguous; its capacity to unite at one level is offset a t others by its political utility in defining difference and in marking boundaries. For Christians, a major problem has been to reconcile the new positive view of kastom with long- entrenched negative attitudes. For the nation-builders, the challenge has been to uphold the virtues of kustorn-within-Christianity while avoiding as much as possible its inclusion in legal codes or in structures and strategies associated with Vanuatu's functioning as a Pacific republic.     

Kastom,Christianity and the First Ancestor of the Kwara'ae of Malaita

The Kwara'ae of Malaita, now mainly Christian and enmeshed in the cash economy, invoke an ideology of kastom, reconciling biblical and ancestral origins, validating land claims, and legitimizing as traditional postcolonial political hierarchies built on the old ritual svstem. The political uses of kastom ideology in contemporary Kwara'ae, and their historical roots, are explored.     

The Invention of Convention

The traditional past of the people of South-West Bay, Malekula, featured a great deal of cultural borrowing. Like most Christians in Vanuatu, their negative attitude to a 'pagan' past has been changed into one of positive interest by the recent national emphasis on kastorn. Their older perception of kastorn as commodity - knowledge, rituals, objects, etc. to be bought, sold or exchanged at will - has been supplemented by the more wide- spread notion of kastom as a stable body of traditions, unshared as well as shared. The validatory potential of kastorn is being realized as people re-evaluate and reinvent their past, exploiting lacunae in customary knowledge by imaginative citation of the written ethnographic word. Contemporary needs are apparently more effectively satisfied by reference to fixed truths rather than to fluid and dynamic representations of culture.     

Birds and Kastom Banyans of South Pentecost: Kastom in AntiColonial Struggle

In the traditionalist villages of south Pentecost, kastom has long been a bulwark against European influences, both Christian and secular. However, their retention of the famous gol land dive ritual has brought the south Pentecost people under pressure from tourism, whose great allure masks the risks of a rise of kastom as commodity, packaged for sale, and of the erosion of kasfom's centrality as living practice. Pressures to conform to a pure kastom (i.e. unadulterated by any non-indigenous elements) distort the realities of a dynamic kastom that has long incorporated useful elements of alien material culture into everyday living.     

Reflecting on Loss in Papua New Guinea

This article takes up the conundrum of conducting anthropological fieldwork with people who claim that they have ‘lost their culture,’ as is the case with Suau people in the Massim region of Papua New Guinea. But rather than claiming culture loss as a process of dispossession, Suau claim it as a consequence of their own attempts to engage with colonial interests. Suau appear to have responded to missionization and their close proximity to the colonial-era capital by jettisoning many of the practices characteristic of Massim societies, now identified as ‘kastom.’ The rejection of kastom in order to facilitate their relations with Europeans during colonialism, followed by the mourning for kastom after independence, both invite consideration of a kind of reflexivity that requires action based on the presumed perspective of another.     

Provincialising Lakatoro: Orienting sociality through a state institution in Vanuatu

Focusing on Lakatoro, a provincial centre in Vanuatu, this article explores the ways in which a state institution may allow kastom‐based sociality to proceed for the local population. Rather than considering kastom and the state as necessarily separate, it is demonstrated that the institutions of the state can provide the objective forms needed for kastom to exist in urban space. The article discusses three ways in which this happened—through a staff handbook, daily prayer meetings, and a court case—arguing that ‘the province’s’ polyvalence provided a means by which Lakatoro could be experienced as a place. And that this, in turn, provided a way in which the local population could understand the town to be imbued with appropriate sociality, as measured by kastom.     

Women and the Iranian Revolution: A village case study

Conclusion All in all, the activism of the Aliabad seyyid women in the Iranian Revolution followed the lines of traditional concerns, traditional methods, and traditional constraints on the activities of women. Women hoped for improved justice, safety for their families, and restoration of a semblance of peace in the village and the nation as a whole. Women's political methods were those of social interaction and use of their verbal abilities, emotional displays, and physical presence to show support. They followed the usual constraints on their behavior by marching in the company of their usual network of companions, separate from men and covered with their chadors, and did not neglect their families and households.The two changes were in the level of political involvement: national rather than local level, and the locus of political activity—Shiraz rather than the village of Aliabad. The local level of political activity was no longer the level at which policy and forces determined the safety and welfare of their family and relatives. With the Shah's centralization program, power over the lives of villagers lay at higher levels. With the merging of local level politics and national level politics during the incidents of violence on December 7 and 8, 1978, women began to realize that the target of their political activism must also be at higher levels. In hopes of having some effect on national level politics and thereby on the safety and welfare of their family members, the Aliabad seyyid women traveled into Shiraz to demonstrate in the revolutionary movement

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Big men and the conversational marketplace of Tanna (Vanuatu)

“Big men” in different parts of Melanesia achieve political status by various means. However, all big men possess a reputation—a “big name.” Reputations grow or decline as people talk. Big men acquire renown by meeting the costs of the “conversational marketplace,” to use Randall Collins’ term. Some of these costs are systemic, given by the local mode of communication; others are discursive, related to cultural rules for producing authentic talk. This paper describes the conversational costs of acquiring renown on Tanna, Vanuatu. It traces how Nampas, who emerged as a leader of the John Frum movement, made his name by investing in the island's conversational marketplace.     

Kastom and Anticolonialism on Malaita: “Culture” as Political Symbol

Most Melanesians invoking ideologies of kastom have, in becoming Christianized and partly Westernized, hearkened back to ways now lost or abandoned. But the Kwaio of Malaita are preoccupied with kastom, while traditional religion, social organization and exchange still prevail. Why and how? The Kwaio are compared with Kwara'ae and other Malaita peoples concerned with kastom - many Christianized, others clinging to old ways.     

“代谢工程”课程思政案例的挖掘与运用

“代谢工程”课程是生物类工科专业本科生或研究生的一门重要的专业选修或必修课程,涉及学科领域广、应用性强。加强“代谢工程”课程思政教学是适应教书育人和立德树人的时代需求。文中详细列举了“代谢工程”课程中开展思政教学的一些典型案例,寓思政教育于课程教学环节之中,借此对工科生进行正确的价值引领,从而培育学生的科学精神,加强学生的文化自信和家国情怀,增强学生勇攀科学高峰的信心。     

Convention on Biological Diversity: a review of national challenges and opportunities for implementation

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) lies at the heart of biodiversity conservation initiatives. It offers opportunities to address global issues at the national level through locally grown solutions and measures. This article reviews the national challenges and opportunities in meeting requirements of the CBD by analysing twenty Third National Reports (TNRs), covering five different CBD regional clusters from the three global economic groups. While there is a plethora of challenges, the predominant ones discussed in this study include: institutional and capacity, knowledge and accessible information, economic policy and financial resources, cooperation and stakeholder involvement, and mainstreaming and integration of biodiversity. The underlying problem is that limited capacity in developing countries and transition economies undermines conservation initiatives. Lack of capacity in science, coordination, administration, legislation, and monitoring are barriers to on-ground implementation of biodiversity programmes. Opportunities to overcome these challenges embrace use of knowledge products, information-sharing mechanisms, participatory platforms, educational programmes, multi-level governance, and policy coherence. Innovative market-based instruments are also being trialled in various countries, which seek to offer incentives to local communities. The article concludes that conservation measures should be supported by multiple sectors and secure high level political support. Political, economical, and legislative sectors are more likely to show interest in CBD implementation and use it as a tool for managing biodiversity when they know the Convention processes and perceive it as a benefit. Modest investments in capacity building and training, and engaging different sectors in setting priorities would have a significant pay-off.     

“金课”背景下生物化学课程教学的创新与实践

传统课程教学存在教学理念与目标陈旧、教学能力与资源不足、信息化融合程度低、局限课堂有限时空和教材有限内容、忽略学生思政素养与综合能力培养等问题,不适于新时代高素质人才培养。生物化学课程团队从理念目标、魅力能力、平台资源、知识体系、教学时空、教学模式、思政育人、评价体系等方面推进了课程的全方位系统性改革,通过树立“全面育人、学生中心、产出导向、开放共享”教学理念,提升团队教学能力与课程优质平台资源,构建“教学+科研+实践”融合式新育人模式、“3+X”复合型新知识体系,教学与育人相融相促新教学模式、多维度过程式新评价体系,使课程凸显出新时代“金课”特征,提升了学生思政素养、课程成绩、综合能力,实现了价值塑造、知识传授、能力培养的有机协同,并成为国家级一流课程、省级课程思政示范课程。     

Voting patterns and alliance formation in the European Parliament

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have voluntarily formed transnational political groups and invariably follow the voting instructions of these groups. This is intriguing as there are few obvious incentives for doing so. Unlike national parties, for example, the political groups in the European Parliament are not punished by the electorate if they are divided on key issues, as citizens know very little about what goes on inside the European Parliament. This paper pieces together an explanation of why the European political groups exist and why they have become so powerful by looking at the determinants of group cohesion and by undertaking a spatial analysis of voting in the European Parliament. MEPs who share preferences on a range of issues on the European Union policy agenda have an incentive to establish a division-of-labour contract and to share the costs of collecting information. Once internal party policy specialization and agenda setting has been established, MEPs have incentives to follow the voting instructions of their group owing to the advantages of cohesion in a context of repeated voting.     

Ethnicity,region and nation: Valencian identity and the Spanish nation-state

In the exploration of the relationships between ethnicity, national identity, and symbolic building of the region, this article deals with a key issue: the achievements and limitations of the assimilation of culturally heterogeneous populations by European nation-states. The modern Spanish national identity (at times shown as purely political) has included and still includes cultural elements (above all, the spread of the Spanish language). This meant that the ethnicity of the Valencians (a population with autonomous political structures until their violent destruction in 1707) had to be redefined as a regional identity in order to avoid coming into conflict with national identity. This re-working excluded the Catalan language, spoken by most of the inhabitants of the region, from the political sphere. In the long term, this cultural characteristic became stigmatized, which favoured its undercommunication to the extent that a process of language shift was initiated. This case study highlights the historical analysis of ethnic identity and the instability of its integration into national structures.     

Anti Intellectualism and the ‘Aboriginal Problem: Colin Tatz and the ‘Self Determination’ Approach

Over the past two decades, writings generalizing about the place of Aborigines in Australia at the national level and proposing policies have been dominated by what I will call the ‘self-determination’ approach. This approach has made little theoretical or substantive contribution at the level at which moral judgement and policy have been directed because moral and political concerns have constrained and biased inquiry. This paper offers a critique of the self-determination approach by focusing on the works of Professor Tatz, who has been a major influence in its development and proselytization.     

The impact of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) on health and wellbeing in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): A case study of Kenya

Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) remain endemic to many regions of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) left behind by socioeconomic progress. As such, these diseases are markers of extreme poverty and inequity that are propagated by the political, economic, social, and cultural systems that affect health and wellbeing. As countries embrace and work towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the needs of such vulnerable populations need to be addressed in local and global arenas. The research uses primary qualitative data collected from five NTD endemic counties of Kenya: interviews key informants (n = 21) involved in NTD implementation programs and focus groups (n = 5) of affected individuals. Informed by theories of political ecology of health, the research focuses on post-devolution Kenya and identifies the political, economic, social, and cultural factors that propagate NTDs and their effects on health and wellbeing. Our findings indicate that structural factors such as competing political interests, health worker strikes, inadequate budgetary allocations, economic opportunity, marginalization, illiteracy, entrenched cultural norms and practices, poor access to water, sanitation and housing, all serve to propagate NTD transmission and subsequently affect the health and wellbeing of populations. As such, we recommend that post-devolution Kenya ensures local political, economic and socio-cultural structures are equitable, sensitive and responsive to the needs of all people. We also propose poverty alleviation through capacity building and empowerment as a means of tackling NTDs for sustained economic opportunity and productivity at the local and national level.     

WHO at country level--a little impact,no strategy.

The acid test of WHO''s effect on the world''s health is its impact at country level. Unless it has an impact there, all of its declarations, its debates at the World Health Assembly, its conferences, its pamphlets, its political manouvering in Geneva and the regions, all of these come to nothing. Working as it does through national governments, WHO insists that it has no role in directly managing or delivering health care. Judging WHO''s impact in individual countries is therefore difficult--its approaches are largely indirect, and initiatives may take years to bear fruit. But from the meagre resources that WHO makes available at country level it is clear why its country operations are criticised as the weakest link in an already weak chain of influence from its headquarters in Geneva to the people in its member states. Poorly funded, undertrained, and with no clear strategy to follow, its staff at country level stand little chance of making an impact.     

Do Committees Ru(i)n the Bio‐Political Culture? On the Democratic Legitimacy of Bioethics Committees

Bioethical and bio-political questions are increasingly tackled by committees, councils, and other advisory boards that work on different and often interrelated levels. Research ethics committees work on an institutional or clinical level; local advisory boards deal with biomedical topics on the level of particular political regions; national and international political advisory boards try to answer questions about morally problematic political decisions in medical research and practice. In accordance with the increasing number and importance of committees, the quality of their work and their functional status are being subjected to more and more scrutiny. Besides overall criticism regarding the quality of their work, particular committees giving political advice are often suspected of being incompatible with democratic values, such as respect for affected parties, representation of diverse values and transparency in the decision-making processes. Based on the example of the German National Ethics Council, whose inauguration caused a still ongoing debate on the aims and scopes of committees in general, this paper discusses: (1) the requirements of modern democratic societies in dealing with complex scientific-technical problems; (2) the composition and organisation of committees working as political advisory boards; and (3) the appointment procedures and roles of laymen and experts, and here in particular of ethicists, who may legitimately be taken on by a committee. I will argue that bioethics committees do not necessarily endanger democratic values, but can considerably improve their realisation in democratic decision-making procedures--if, and only if, they do not act as substitutes for parliamentarian processes, but help prepare parliamentarian processes to be organised as rationally as possible.     

A Multi-Level Geographical Study of Italian Political Elections from Twitter Data

In this paper we present an analysis of the behavior of Italian Twitter users during national political elections. We monitor the volumes of the tweets related to the leaders of the various political parties and we compare them to the elections results. Furthermore, we study the topics that are associated with the co-occurrence of two politicians in the same tweet. We cannot conclude, from a simple statistical analysis of tweet volume and their time evolution, that it is possible to precisely predict the election outcome (or at least not in our case of study that was characterized by a “too-close-to-call” scenario). On the other hand, we found that the volume of tweets and their change in time provide a very good proxy of the final results. We present this analysis both at a national level and at smaller levels, ranging from the regions composing the country to macro-areas (North, Center, South).     

Politicizing place perception: a phenomenology of urban activism in Istanbul

Phenomenology intuits that people's perception of the environment is related to their lived activities, emotions, and perspectives, and is in this process also temporally experienced. This article applies these insights to political activism, exploring its conditioning of militants’ sensory experience of the city and showing how militants’ urban knowledge is intimately connected to political practices of organizing, mobilizing, and agitating, each orientated in turn by the pursuit of revolution. Based on fieldwork in Istanbul with ex‐militants and their memories of political action from the years immediately before and after the 1980 military coup, the article applies and extends phenomenological understandings of place perception to explore their changing experiences of the city. This quality of perception as a temporal process is vital for understanding both historical and contemporary features of ex‐militants’ remembering of Istanbul, related as they are to a state project to shape and simplify public knowledge of their activities, and to certain political developments posited by activists themselves as efficacious in transforming the meaning of their past acts. It concludes by illustrating how these two processes come together in the recent institution by ex‐militants of a new museum (12 September Museum of Shame), opened some thirty years after the events it objectivizes.