Sultans of Spin: Syrian Sacred Music on the World Stage

This article examines how the performance of a variety of Islamic music in transnational cultural circuits helps to promote the idea of a style of sacred music within the category of world music. Taking as an example the performance of the mawlawiyya, or "Whirling Dervish," music and dance by a Syrian–based ensemble, I show how the idea of an authentic local Syrian sacred music tradition requires its performance globally. I use the concept of the "world stage" to examine how musical performance practices that are represented as authentic local traditions obtain both their authenticity and their local specificity through their staging in global contexts. I further explore how such musical styles as sacred and Sufi emerge as naturalized categories in world music discourse, and how processes of differentiation and commodification reconfigure both the "local" and "global." [Keywords: world music, globalization, style, Syria, Islam]     

Social Relations and Commodity Chains: The Live Reef Fish for Food Trade

This paper considers the relationship between anthropology and the interdisciplinary field of commodity studies through an examination of an important commodity chain in the Asia-Pacific, the live reef fish for food trade. Using an ethnographic perspective, I focus on how particular social relationships within this commodity chain have significant implications for two key concerns of commodity studies—the distribution of benefits through commodity chains and how commodity chains are regulated. The social relationships between fishers and traders provide a powerful avenue for relative economic prosperity for fishers, yet the forms of social relationships that operate between fishers, traders and regulators mean that regulation of the trade is not being implemented. This analysis provides an example of how an ethnographic lens can provide a useful perspective that can contribute to an interdisciplinary dialogue on commodity chains.     

Physiological temperature regulation by flowers of the sacred lotus

Flowers of the sacred lotus, Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn. (Nelumbonaceae) are thermogenic and physiologically thermoregulatory. The 42 g flowers remain between 30-36°C during a 2 to 4-day period despite fluctuations in environmental temperatures between about 10-45°C. As the ambient temperature drops, the flowers increase heat production in proportion. Temperature regulation apparently occurs at a cellular level, by a steep, reversible thermal inhibition of respiration at flower temperatures above 30°C. There was a marked time lag between change in flower temperature and compensatory response, suggesting regulation through a biochemical feedback mechanism rather than structural changes in enzymes or membranes. By oxidizing carbohydrate, the flowers produce up to 1 W, with about half of the heat coming from the 8.5 g carpellary receptacle. The period of temperature regulation begins before petal opening and continues through the period of stigma receptivity. Temperature regulation may reward insect pollinators with a warm, equable environment, or it possibly enhances and coordinates flower development.     

我国观赏花卉品质形成的功能基因研究进展

花色、花香、花形和花期等品质性状与花卉商品价值体现有着直接的关系, 花卉品质形成相关的功能基因研究十分重要。该文综述了近10年来我国观赏花卉品质形成相关的功能基因研究成果, 以期为花卉分子育种研究提供理论参考。     

Catholicism and Conservation: The Potential of Sacred Natural Sites for Biodiversity Management in Central Italy

The connection between religion, nature and conservation has become a prominent topic among scholars and conservation practitioners. Numerous studies have shown that spiritual beliefs have contributed to preserving important biodiversity in sacred areas around the world. In Western contexts, however, that link has been underexplored, perhaps due to a common view of Christianity as anti-naturalistic. Here, I rely on a literature review and first-hand observations to identify patterns and trends characterizing Catholic sacred sites in Central Italy. I show that a high proportion of the sites are located in natural areas, and that some types of sites and strands of Catholicism are associated with natural settings more frequently than others. Further, these natural sacred sites often display ecological features that highlight their important conservation role. Greater awareness and consideration of local spiritual heritages are recommended to guarantee more effective and integrated management of the sites.     

The price of your soul: neural evidence for the non-utilitarian representation of sacred values

Sacred values, such as those associated with religious or ethnic identity, underlie many important individual and group decisions in life, and individuals typically resist attempts to trade off their sacred values in exchange for material benefits. Deontological theory suggests that sacred values are processed based on rights and wrongs irrespective of outcomes, while utilitarian theory suggests that they are processed based on costs and benefits of potential outcomes, but which mode of processing an individual naturally uses is unknown. The study of decisions over sacred values is difficult because outcomes cannot typically be realized in a laboratory, and hence little is known about the neural representation and processing of sacred values. We used an experimental paradigm that used integrity as a proxy for sacredness and which paid real money to induce individuals to sell their personal values. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we found that values that people refused to sell (sacred values) were associated with increased activity in the left temporoparietal junction and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, regions previously associated with semantic rule retrieval. This suggests that sacred values affect behaviour through the retrieval and processing of deontic rules and not through a utilitarian evaluation of costs and benefits.     

Architecture as animate landscape: circular shrines in the ancient Maya lowlands

In this study, I develop a theory of landscape archaeology that incorporates the concept of “animism” as a cognitive approach. Current trends in anthropology are placing greater emphasis on indigenous perspectives, and in recent decades animism has seen a resurgence in anthropological theory. As a means of relating in (not to) one's world, animism is a mode of thought that has direct bearing on landscape archaeology. Yet, Americanist archaeologists have been slow to incorporate this concept as a component of landscape theory. I consider animism and Nurit Bird-David's (1999) theory of “relatedness” and how such perspectives might be expressed archaeologically in Mesoamerica. I examine the distribution of marine shells and cave formations that appear incorporated as architectural elements on ancient Maya circular shrine architecture. More than just “symbols” of sacred geography, I suggest these materials represent living entities that animate shrines through their ongoing relationships with human and other-than-human agents in the world.     

A preliminary assessment of landscape features and cultural practices of sacred fresh water swamps in the central Western Ghats,India

Sacred areas are the oldest form of habitat protection, and many of these areas contribute to biodiversity conservation. While sacred groves have received considerable scholarly attention, little is known about fresh water swamps in the Western Ghats, India and sacred swamps have largely been ignored. This paper provides a first overview testing the conjecture that sacred swamps have physical features that distinguish them from non-sacred swamps. We assessed 110 fresh water swamps in the district of Uttara Kannada, Central Western Ghats, India, through extensive field surveys. Out of them 11 swamps are ‘sacred’ according to local testimony. Swamps are found in wet evergreen and evergreen forest types, but sacred swamps occur only in the wet evergreen forests. Sacred swamps differ significantly from non-sacred swamps with respect to size and shape, distance to the nearest road, human settlement, and commercial orchard, and population density within a radius of 500 m. This shows that preferentially swamps close to settlements, orchards and roads have been declared as sacred, probably to regulate the continuing provision of relevant ecosystem services. While we find a variety of deities associated with these sacred swamps, the practices associated with sacred swamp status and management are essentially the same across belief groups. However, the conservation practice is at risk due to migration dynamics.     

From Sprinkling to Immersion: Conversion and Baptism in Dutch Evangelicalism

Why do recent converts in new evangelical churches desire to be re-baptized by immersion despite their previous infant baptism in mainline churches? This article addresses this question through a discussion of the observed shift in baptism practices from that of ‘sprinkling’ infants (in Protestant mainline churches) to full bodily immersion of adults (in new evangelical churches) in the Netherlands. Based on an ethnographic comparison of these two baptism practices, I demonstrate the performative effect of rituals as well as the importance of connections between material forms, embodiment and doctrines. The call for different baptism practices, I suggest, illustrates a broader shift in Dutch Protestantism from a didactic to an experiential form of Christianity in which the encounter with the sacred is increasingly located in the body. At the same time, it demonstrates how religious authority has moved from institutions to individual believers.     

Comparative analysis of genetic diversity in sacred lotus (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Nelumbo nucifera</Emphasis> Gaertn.) using AFLP and SSR markers

The sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.) is an aquatic plant of economic and ornamental importance in China. In this study, we developed twenty novel sacred lotus SSR markers, and used AFLP and SSR markers to investigate the genetic diversity and genetic relationships among 58 accessions of N. nucifera including 15 seed lotus, 12 rhizome lotus, 24 flower lotus and 7 wild lotus. Our results showed that sacred lotus exhibited a low level of genetic diversity, which may attribute to asexual reproduction and long-term artificial selection. A dendrogram based on both AFLP and SSR clustering data showed that: (1) the seed lotus accessions and rhizome lotus accessions were distinctly clustered into different groups, which indicated the significant genetic differentiation between them. This may be attributed to the two modes of reproduction and lack of genetic exchange; (2) the accessions of Thailand wild lotus were separated from other wild lotus accessions. This implied that the Thailand lotus might be genetically differentiated from other wild lotuses. In addition, Mantel test conducted gave highly significant correlation between AFLP-SSR data and each of the AFLP and SSR ones, with the values of r = 0.941 and r = 0.879, respectively, indicating the higher efficiency of the combination of these techniques (AFLP and SSR) in estimation and validation of the genetic diversity among the accession of sacred lotus. This knowledge of the genetic diversity and genetic relatedness of N. nucifera is potentially useful to improve the current strategies in breeding and germplasm conservation to enhance the ornamental and economic value of sacred lotus.     

Consequences of floral complexity for bumblebee-mediated geitonogamous self-pollination in Salvia nipponica Miq. (Labiatae)

Abstract.— I address how floral complexity influences geitonogamous self-pollination through manipulation of pollinator behavior in Salvia nipponica . The pivoting stamens of S. nipponica hinder nectar-collecting bumblebees from crawling into flowers, increasing the probing time per flower. I predicted that longer probing times would reduce the relative cost of moving between plants, causing bees to leave plants earlier. To test this prediction, I simplified S. nipponica flowers by removing the stamens from all open flowers within a 75-m² quadrat. Bumblebees probed these flowers more quickly than intact flowers, but the stamen removal affected neither the frequency of flower revisitation nor the flight distance between plants. In response to the decrease in the probing time per flower, bees probed more flowers on these plants. Therefore, in S. nipponica , floral complexity reduces the opportunity for geitonogamous self-pollination. Stamen removal also increased bee visitation per flower, suggesting that this sort of complexity deters visitation. To keep complex flowers attractive, therefore, selection might increase floral rewards or longevity. Floral complexity might evolve in an integrative manner with the rest of the floral phenotype.     

Materiality and Global Spiritual Networks: Old and new sacred places and objects

In this article, I am interested in how belief and religious materiality—sacred objects, places, infrastructures and digital media—are entangled in globalisation processes. Drawing on a case study of the John of God spiritual movement, I analyse the ways in which places and objects that have recently acquired sacred status enter into older, more established global spiritual networks, and by doing so are able to travel and ‘settle’ elsewhere. I argue that if we want to make sense of the place of religion in the world today, we need to link two fields of research on religion which have mostly developed separately: the fields of Material Religion and Globalisation of Religion. Furthermore, I contend that it is precisely because of its (mostly mobile) materiality that the John of God movement was able to survive somewhat after its charismatic leader was sentenced and jailed for sexual crimes in 2019.     

Sunday Lunch in Fiji: Continuity and Transformation in Ideas of the Household

In this article, I compare drawings of "Sunday lunch" produced by Fijian village children in 1990 and 2005 and their responses to prepared drawings in 1982, which show remarkable continuity over time. I suggest this continuity is largely attributable to the ritualization of eating practices. At the same time, the children's data indicate that a substantive, if subtle, change is occurring in ideas of the inclusiveness of the household; I suggest that this change may be a function of an intensification of commodity exchange in day-to-day village life. As the children's data demonstrate, continuity as well as transformation in ideas over time may be understood as a function of the self-same ontogenetic process through which we make sense of our relations with others in the lived world. I argue that such ethnographic studies of ontogeny enable us both to appreciate the material validity of our informants' ideas and to render them analytical.     

INFLORESCENCE SIZE: TEST OF THE MALE FUNCTION HYPOTHESIS

One explanation for low fruit sets in plants with hermaphroditic flowers is that total flower production by a plant is controlled primarily by selection through male function. This male function hypothesis presupposes that success in pollen donation increases more strongly with flower number than does seed set. I tested this prediction by measuring male and female components of reproductive success as functions of flower number in natural populations of the self-incompatible, perfect flowered plant, Ipomopsis aggregata. Fruit set in this hummingbird-pollinated plant averaged 4.9 to 40.3% across the 4 years of study. Both the total amount of pollen donated and the total amount received, as estimated by movement of fluorescent powdered dyes, increased linearly with number of flowers on a plant. Total seed production, however, increased disproportionately quickly because plants with larger floral displays were more likely to set at least one fruit. An estimate of the functional femaleness of a plant, based on pollen donation and seed production, increased with flower number. These results do not support the male function hypothesis.     

Increased oxidative stress,lipid peroxidation and protein degradation trigger senescence in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Iris versicolor</Emphasis> L. flowers

Dynamics in various physiological and biochemical aspects were studied during various stages (I—tight bud stage to VI—senescent stage) of flower development in Iris versicolor. Floral diameter, fresh & dry mass and water content increased during flower opening and decreased towards senescence. Senescence was found to be related to the increased lipid peroxidation which was reflected in the decreased membrane stability index towards senescence. This increase in the lipid peroxidation was probably initiated by increased lipoxygenase activity which shot up just prior to the increase in lipid peroxidation. Soluble protein content showed a marginal decrease towards senescence with a corresponding increase in specific protease activity. Sugar fractions and α-amino acids showed a significant decrease towards senescence. Superoxide dismutase and ascorbate peroxidase activity increased as the flowers opened and thereafter a significant decrease was registered towards senescence. Catalase activity improved as the flower matures, but decreased prior to flower opening through senescence. The protein patterns from the tepal tissues resolved through electrophoresis showed a consistency in proteins upto the flower opening but a marginal decrease was registered in both high and low molecular weight proteins towards senescence. However, a protein of molecular weight 76.5 kDa showed up during senescent stages which may have a role in flower senescence.     

A model for seed size variation among plants

Summary I developed a model for seed size variation among plants assuming that the pollen captured per flower depends on both the allocation to pollen capture mechanisms per flower and the number of flowers on each plant. I showed that the optimal seed size increases with (1) the total resource allocation to reproduction, (2) decreasing outcross pollen availability, (3) decreasing probability of seedling establishment and (4) decreasing selfing rate. However, optimal seed size does not depend on the total resource allocation if the total number of pollen grains captured by a plant increases linearly with its flower number. In addition, the optimal seed size is not always positively correlated with the optimal resource allocation to pollen capture mechanisms per flower. I discussed implications of the results for seasonal decline in seed size and seed size variations among populations, such as alutitudinal variation.     

小峰熊蜂访花偏爱性

传粉昆虫在访花时,通常会表现出对某一类型花的偏爱性。本研究利用人工制作的大小、颜色、形态和气味不同的9种类型的花来研究小峰熊蜂Bombus hypocrita的访花偏爱性。结果表明：当增加花的大小、形态、气味等附加特征数时,小峰熊蜂的偏爱性程度与花朵附加特征数有显著相关性（P<0.01）。当花朵颜色由2种增加到4种,熊蜂对紫色花的偏爱性程度降低,但花朵颜色的种类与小峰熊蜂的访花偏爱性没有相关性（P>0.05）,花颜色的种类对熊蜂访紫色花的偏爱性影响不大。大小为5 cm的紫花被访次数（108±9次）明显高于大小为3 cm的紫花被访次数（40±4次）（P<0.01）,说明熊蜂明显喜欢访大花瓣的紫花。完全盛开的紫花被访次数（129±13次）显著高于刚绽放的花被访次数（26±3次）（P<0.01）,说明熊蜂喜欢访盛开的紫花。柠檬味的紫花被访次数（63±8次）明显低于草莓味的紫色花被访次数（88±2次）（P<0.05）,说明熊蜂喜欢访草莓味的花朵。     

Floral nectaries, nectar production dynamics and chemical composition in six ipomoea species (convolvulaceae) in relation to pollinators

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Floral nectaries and nectar features were compared between six Argentinian Ipomoea species with differences in their pollinator guilds: I. alba, I. rubriflora, I. cairica, I. hieronymi var. hieronymi, I. indica, and I. purpurea. METHODS: Pollinators were recorded in natural populations. The morpho-anatomical study was carried out through scanning electron and light microscopy. Nectar sugars were identified via gas chromatography. Nectar production and the effect of its removal on total nectar sugar amount were determined by using sets of bagged flowers. KEY RESULTS: Hymenopterans were visitors of most species, while hummingbirds visited I. rubriflora and sphingids I. alba. All the species had a vascularized discoidal nectary surrounding the ovary base with numerous open stomata with a species-specific distribution. All nectar samples contained amino acids and sugars. Most species had sucrose-dominant nectars. Flowers lasted a few hours. Mean nectar sugar concentration throughout the lifetime of the flower ranged from 34.28 to 39.42 %, except for I. cairica (49.25 %) and I. rubriflora (25.18 %). Ipomoea alba had the highest nectar volume secreted per flower (50.12 microL), while in the other taxa it ranged from 2.42 to 12.00 microL. Nectar secretion began as soon as the flowers opened and lasted for a few hours (in I. purpurea, I. rubriflora) or it was continuous during the lifetime of the flower (in the remaining species). There was an increase of total sugar production after removals in I. cairica, I. indica and I. purpurea, whereas in I. alba and I. rubriflora removals had no effect, and in I. hieronymi there was a decrease in total sugar production. CONCLUSIONS: The chemical composition, production dynamics and removal effects of nectar could not be related to the pollinator guild of these species. Flower length was correlated with nectary size and total volume of nectar secreted, suggesting that structural constraints may play a major role in the determination of nectar traits of these species.     

A theory for inflorescence development and flower formation based on morphological and biophysical analysis in Echeveria

Floral development is generally viewed as involving interactions between recently made organs and generative activity on the apical dome; one set of floral organs is thought to induce the next. To investigate such interactions, flowering in Echeveria derenbergii (J. Purpus) was studied at two levels of structure. At the larger, morphological, level the inflorescence apex is shown to have simple cyclic development. Seen from above, it elongates horizontally, then forms a transverse cleft to demarcate a flower primordium in one of two rows. The meristem then elongates at 90° to its previous axis, also horizontally, and demarcates a flower in the other row. Activity on the apical surface correlates well with the nature and activity of adjacent sub-apical organs. For example, the 90° shifts in elongation of the meristem correlate with that tissue's being attached, laterally, to successive large growing bracts whose bases lie at 90°. Also, on the flower primordium, the five sepals arise in a spiral sequence which correlates with one of increasing age, since formation by the cleft, of the edges of the primordium.The second level of study was to test whether the developmental correlations could have a biophysical explanation. By biophysical theory, organs arise where the dome surface is structurally predisposed to bulge. This is a function of the cellulose reinforcement pattern in the surface. Successive patterns of cellulose reinforcement in isolated surface layers from floral organs were determined using polarized light. This was done for the cyclic activity of the inflorescence meristem and the development of the flower. The results indicate that patterns of cellulose reinforcement on the apical dome surface could lead to the production of organs, through local promotion of bulging of the tunica. Subsequent growth of the base of each organ stretches the adjacent dome tissue in a directional fashion. Cytoskeletal responses of these stretched cells lead to new cellulose alignments on the dome which generate the reinforcement pattern for the next round of organs.Abbreviations F floral meristem tissue which will directly produce a flower, starting with sepals - I inflorescence meristem tissue, generally oval in top view and bounded by two bracts, that produces both floral tissue (F) and additional I meristem tissue - I-max the maximal size of I tissue before it bifurcates into F tissue and I tissue (I-min) - I-min the minimal size of I tissue just after it has bifurcated to produce F tissue and I tissue