Foraging in tropical rain forests: The case of the penan of Sarawak,East Malaysia (Borneo)

Bailey et al. (1989) and Headland (1987) have recently proposed hypotheses stating that human foragers are unable to live in undisturbed tropical rain forests without some reliance on cultivated foods. The present discussion considers these hypotheses, as well as some of the evidence by which they have been tested. Four conceptual problems in the way these hypotheses have been formulated are identified: (1) assumptions about the relationship between key features of tropical forest ecosystems and human subsistence potential, (2) in-consistencies in the definition of pure foraging, (3) adherence to a dichotomy between foraging and agriculture, the result being that conscious and unconscious effects of exploitation on the demographic parameters of key resources is ignored, and (4) problems in defining the significance of ecotones. I consider the case of Penan hunter-gatherers of Borneo, a population which, by virtue of their reliance on the sago palm Eugeissona utilis, contradicts the conclusions of Bailey et al. and Headland. I consider salient aspects of Penan reliance on Eugeissona, and describe how Penan exploitation of this resource may positively effect its availability. This case is seen to provide a challenge to the hypotheses of Bailey et al. and Headland, not only in the extent to which it contradicts their conclusions but, more significantly, in what it reveals about the assumptions upon which their hypotheses are based. This points to the need for greater precision in the definition of future hypotheses about foraging in tropical forests.     

Hiding in the dark: Local ecological knowledge about slow loris in Sarawak sheds light on relationships between human populations and wild animals

Local ecological knowledge (LEK) increases understanding of certain species and the threats they face, especially little-studied taxa for which data on distribution and conservation are often lacking. We conducted 111 semi-structured interviews in Sarawak, Malaysia, to collect local knowledge about the behavior and distribution of the Philippine slow loris (Nycticebus menagensis) from two ethnic groups, the Iban and the Penan. Our study revealed that male Penan respondents, generally hunters, who frequently go into the forest were better at identifying animals from pictures. Overall, the Penan have a more detailed knowledge of slow loris behaviors, habitat, and distribution than the Iban. The two ethnic groups have different attitudes towards slow loris as the Penan hunt, eat, or keep them as pets while the Iban consider them sacred and signifiers of good luck. We advocate the use of LEK for providing complementary information to scientific methods in the study of cryptic animals.     

Social Relations and the Green Critique of Capitalism in Melanesia

ABSTRACT  In this article, I explore what a critical environmental perspective would look like in Melanesia, where the distinction between nature and culture, and the expectation that science interprets the former in terms of the latter, may not apply. I consider changes in scientific knowledge production and the shift from cultural ecology to political ecology in Melanesian anthropology, including the argument that Melanesians are neither conservationists nor environmentalists. In contrast, I show how people exposed to pollution from the Ok Tedi copper and gold mine in Papua New Guinea mobilize their understandings of difference in a green critique of capitalism. I examine a strategy session of local activists, a public meeting about their campaign against the mine, and a sorcery tribunal. Finally, I suggest that Melanesian ideas about social relations provide a useful ethnographic analogy for thinking about the mobility and short temporal horizons of contemporary capitalism.     

A rite of reverse passage: the construction of youth migration in the US asylum process

Drawing on ethnographic research at a legal aid organization, I analyse the legal brokerage of youths’ asylum applications. As youths increasingly seek asylum alone, the US has adopted policy changes allowing them more favourable access to the asylum process than adults. Despite this opening, I argue that mediating youths’ asylum claims remains challenging. First, youths have more difficulty sharing their stories than adults, and I identify three youth-specific interviewing strategies that legal intermediaries employ to elicit their accounts of forced migration. Second, I analyse how intermediaries edit these accounts to satisfy the asylum system’s expectations about childhood, as well as forced migration, constructing narratives that distance youths from criminalized adult identities and depict them as innocent child-refugees, which configures the asylum process as a victimizing and infantilizing rite of reverse passage.     

A polyethnic London carnival as a contested cultural performance*

This article argues that the theoretical problem of the new racism thesis, as originally formulated in the 1980s, was the account of the discursive change it proposed and the role and significance of Powellism in this process. In offering a modification of the thesis I highlight the significance of the use of anecdotal accounts of the plight of ordinary English people in areas of black settlement as central to the re-articulation of racialized common sense in Powellism. I go on to argue that the particular discursive form of the racialized anecdote is one that is developed within Parliamentary debates from at least the mid-1950s onwards and that Enoch Powell is not the author but the elite beneficiary of this ideological work. I suggest that this Commons' sense informs and makes possible the success of the campaign for exclusion of black Commonwealth migrants prior to Powellism, and that Powell fashions his own elite/populist version of such narratives in 1968. Offering an account of racism as a discursive fiction, I argue that the anecdotal form of political racism in post-war Britain is a political and ideological response to the public prohibition on 'race' talk in public space. In offering a tentative theory of post-'race' signification which is consistent with empirical evidence, I argue that the 'moment' of re-articulation of racism in post-war politics is one consistent with the evacuated space of the prohibited notion of 'old' racism.     

Tainted Blood and Vengeful Spirits: The Legacy of Japan’s Yakugai Eizu (AIDS) Trial

Medical anthropologists often point to the importance of “illness narratives” as emergent or incipient forms in which patients attempt to make sense of the moral dimensions of illness and suffering (Kleinman 1988; Mattingly 1998). In this article I draw upon published accounts, newspapers, and legal documents, supplemented by ethnographic interviews carried out from 1999 to 2001, to show how plaintiffs in the yakugai AIDS trials brought by HIV-infected hemophiliacs against the Japanese government and the pharmaceutical industries that sold them tainted blood products appropriated powerful cultural themes in producing narrative accounts of their suffering. These narratives resonate with themes of lost trust, filial piety, and the desire for a “good death.” In contrast, I show how the neat and tidy narrative that emerged in the course of the yakugai AIDS trial served to impose meaning upon the plaintiffs’ unruly experiences such that, when it was over, the Japanese public was convinced that the “AIDS problem” had been “solved.”     

Resettled and unsettled: Syrian refugees and the intersection of race and legal status in the United States

ABSTRACT

In this article, I examine how the intersection of legal status and racialization shapes immigrant’s sense of security; or of legal and interpersonal safety. I draw on an ethnography of Syrian refugees who hold a permanent legal status, and who entered the United States in 2015, as Donald Trump was launching his campaign, amplifying anti-Muslim and anti-refugee sentiment. Following refugee experiences from their arrival, through the issuance of the first executive order banning travel in January 2017, I show how this group, racialized as Muslim and Arab, was categorized as a threat to national security. I also capture the uneven way they came to recognize their racialization. While a permanent legal status is likely a necessary condition for feeling a sense of security in the United States, I argue that it is an insufficient one. I show that Syrian refugees’ racialization attenuated their sense of security despite their legal status.     

Status of a Relocated Population of Endangered Iguana pinguis on Guana Island, British Virgin Islands

Eight individual rock iguanas (Iguana pinguis) from Anegada Island were relocated to Guana Island by Lazell, 1984–1987, in order to establish a second population reservoir for this endangered species. The species may have originally occupied the entire Puerto Rico Bank. The relocation has been successful and, in the area currently providing the best habitat, we estimate a density of 9 or 12 animals of various age classes per 19 ha. The optimal area contains a sheep exclosure with relatively dense understory vegetation and numerous exotic as well as native species of plants. Iguana activity is concentrated on east facing slopes and ridge-tops that get morning sun. Outside the exclosure most edible ground cover and shrubs have been eaten by sheep, leaving toxic or noxious species, such as Croton or Lantana, in the understory where I. pinguis adults generally forage. Removal of sheep may be critical to continued population growth of these reptiles. Views on relocation or repatriation of other endangered Antillean Iguana species are advanced, with some ideas on minimum viable population sizes and a possible explanation for the extirpation of I. pinguis from much of its former range.     

Effective Solutions for Howler Conservation

All species of howlers are at risk due to habitat destruction. I review the three most serious threats to howler survival—agricultural disturbance, logging disturbance, and hunting—both in a general context and in species accounts. Withal, the adaptability of howlers has allowed them to be a widespread genus throughout Central and South America. Alouatta is especially adaptable due to its generalized folivorous diet. I discuss how this adaptability relates to survival in situations of habitat destruction. In addition, I examine howler preference for riverine habitats and their ability to capitalize on secondary forests and secondary growth. I take a practical approach, suggesting some solutions for species survival, which include habitat management and reintroductions. Successful conservation models highlighted are the Community Baboon Sanctuary in Belize, in which villagers manage their lands for the benefit of the black howler and for their own economic benefit from ecotourism, and a village-sustainable logging system in Quintana Roo, Mexico, which has reduced levels of deforestation while benefiting both villagers and howlers, as well as other wildlife. A successful translocation of black howlers in Belize in order to reestablish a viable population is also described. The paper concludes with further suggestions to encourage howler conservation.     

The Lack of Favorable Responses of an Endangered Pitcher Plant to Habitat Restoration

Restoring habitat structure that existed before active and inadvertent fire suppression is thought to be critical to maintaining populations of some rare plants in fire‐suppressed habitats. Nevertheless, the impacts of habitat restoration on most endangered plants are poorly understood. Current theory predicts and empirical studies have shown that the reduction of shade or competition (frequently a goal of many habitat restoration projects in degraded fire‐dependent ecosystems) benefits plants adapted to nutrient‐poor soils by increasing the benefit‐to‐cost ratio of adaptations for enhanced nutrient capture. Here, I examined how experimental reduction of neighboring plants in a wet longleaf pine community dominated in the ground cover by shrubs and stump sprouts influenced the growth, the reproduction, the carnivorous effort, and the benefits of carnivory in a U.S. federally endangered species, Sarracenia rubra ssp. alabamensis. Two years of data showed no significant effects of neighbor reduction or prey exclusion on any of several indicators of plant performance, nor was there any evidence of a hypothesized morphological trade‐off between shade avoidance and prey capture. These results were unexpected. Inadequate replication and atypical precipitation patterns were ruled out as possible explanations. The population studied here (unlike that of a different, but morphologically similar, species growing in a fire‐maintained pine grass–sedge savanna) did not exhibit the ability to respond to variation in competition from neighboring plants.     

Managing the Effects of Introduced Predators on Hawaiian Endangered Seabirds

Introduced predators are one of the greatest threats facing seabirds worldwide. We investigated the effects of multiple introduced predators on 2 endangered seabirds, the Newell's shearwater (Puffinus newelli) and the Hawaiian petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis), on the island of Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi, USA. Between 2011 and 2017, we recorded 309 depredations of which 35.6% were by feral cats, 50.2% by black rats (Rattus rattus), 10.4% by pigs (Sus scrofa; feral pigs), and 3.9% by barn owls (Tyto alba). Cats were the most destructive of the predators because they killed more breeding adults than chicks, which had repercussions on breeding probability in following years. Cats and rats were also the most prevalent of all the predators, depredating birds at all of the sites under consideration regardless of how remote or inaccessible. We also considered the effectiveness of predator control over the study period. Reproductive success at all sites increased once predator control operations were in place and depredations by all species except barn owls decreased. Furthermore, we modeled population trajectories for all sites with and without predator control. Without predator control, population trajectories at all sites declined rapidly over 50 years. With predator control operations in place, populations at all sites increased; thus, controlling introduced predators at endangered seabird colonies is important for their management. © 2020 The Wildlife Society.     

Public health response to an anthrax attack: an evaluation of vaccination policy options

A discrete-time, deterministic, compartmental model was developed and analyzed to provide insight into how the use of anthrax vaccine before or after a large-scale attack can reduce casualties. The model accounts for important response and protection factors such as antibiotic and vaccine efficacy, the protective effects of buildings, the timing of emergency response, and antibiotic adherence and vaccine coverage in the population prior to the attack. The relative benefit of pre- versus post-exposure vaccination is influenced by the timing of the post-exposure antibiotic distribution campaign as well as assumptions of antibiotic adherence. The results indicate that, regardless of which vaccination policy is adopted, a rapid and effective post-attack medical response has a large impact on the number of lives that can be saved by a post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) campaign. A sensitivity analysis of the model indicates that uncertainty in medical efficacy and the time to initiate a PEP campaign are the model parameters that have the greatest impact on the number of predicted deaths. It is shown that for each day that a mass prophylaxis campaign is delayed, more casualties and deaths result than for each day that the completion of the campaign is delayed.     

Crab antics: the moral and political economy of greed accusations in the submerging Sundarbans delta of India

The livelihood of crab collecting, practised for generations in the Sundarbans forest of India, has undergone a radical moral makeover in recent years. Largely landless crab fishers are now the subject of frequent public denunciations by local authorities for their supposed greed and reckless endangerment of the entire ecosystem. While greed and its related category of need emerge from a local moral ecology of the region, internationally funded conservation campaigns and recent disruptions in the global crab supply chain reveal how accusations are activated and the means through which they play out amidst pre-existing village hierarchies. This article accounts for the political, economic, and moral shifts that underpin these accusations. In counterpoint, I present the defences of the accused, and explore crab collectors’ notions of a sufficient life and the rich moral distinctions they themselves make between greed (lobh), need (aubhav), desire (chahida), and habit (swabhav). I then step back to show the broader political contours that shape the discourse of ‘greedy’ crab collectors. I argue that both the conservation movement and allied state actors have distorted the material and moral resources intended to combat climate change and other environmental threats by scapegoating the politically disenfranchised: local fishers. Powerful stakeholders, as a result of their own political impotency, are deployed in a game of crab antics that fails to address the underlying environmental catastrophe while displacing the psychic burden of greed onto the poor.     

Probing ecosystem health: a multi-disciplinary and multi-trophic assay strategy

The ecosystem health of stressed environments in the Great Lakes has been evaluated simultaneously by means of a battery of structural and functional tests based on current technology and involving various trophic levels. These tests attempt to assess ecosystem health at the organism level and simultaneously focus on water-borne and sediment-bound toxicities. The use of structural indicators has been successfully demonstrated. Similarly, functional tests were selectively chosen across various trophic levels and included size-fractionated primary productivity (filtered versus unfiltered assays), and Colpidium, Daphnia, Hyalella, and Pontoporeia assays. Some of the emerging techniques such as in situ plankton cages (I.P.C.), microcomputer-based chlorophyll fluorescence (Video Analysis System), and other assays are discussed. The multi-trophic and multi-disciplinary battery of tests followed in our laboratory adopts a field-to-laboratory approach. The availability of diverse bioassays have placed toxicologists and environmentalists in a position where they are now better equipped to probe the complexities of ecosystem health and its management.Dedicated to the memory of my mother who was a great teacher, guide and an incredible source of inspiration.     

金佛山濒危药用植物资源及其评价体系的建立

为弄清金佛山的濒危野生药用植物资源,经过5年的野外调查、标本采集与鉴定,建立了以蕴藏系数、濒危系数、遗传价值系数等6项指标在内的金佛山濒危药用植物评价体系。结果表明,金佛山有73科113属149种野生药用植物(含变种、变型)的生存受到较为严重的威胁,其中急需重点保护的物种有74种,需要采取保护措施的有65种,需要采取一般保护措施的有10种。根据各物种的优先保护值和资源利用情况,列出了149种濒危药用植物的建议保护等级,其中建议列为Ⅰ级保护的53种,列为Ⅱ、Ⅲ级保护的各48种。     

Race Research and the Ethics of Belief

On most accounts, beliefs are supposed to fit the world rather than change it. But believing can have social consequences, since the beliefs we form underwrite our actions and impact our character. Because our beliefs affect how we live our lives and how we treat other people, it is surprising how little attention is usually given to the moral status of believing apart from its epistemic justification. In what follows, I develop a version of the harm principle that applies to beliefs as well as actions. In doing so, I challenge the often exaggerated distinction between forming beliefs and acting on them.¹ After developing this view, I consider what it might imply about controversial research the goal of which is to yield true beliefs but the outcome of which might include negative social consequences. In particular, I focus on the implications of research into biological differences between racial groups.     

云贵水韭雌配子体发育及其濒危机制的研究

为了解云贵水韭(Isoetes yunguiensis)的生殖过程和濒危原因,采用人工培养获得其雌配子体,用半薄切片法观察雌配子体发育过程。结果表明,云贵水韭的大孢子萌发率约为26%;雌配子体异养,终生都在大孢子细胞壁内发育;颈卵器发育只有2枚颈沟细胞而无腹沟细胞。雌配子体发育停止在游离核时期、颈壁细胞数量偏少或排列紊乱、颈沟细胞异常、卵细胞凋亡等可能是导致生殖濒危的原因。同时,游离核是水韭生殖生物学研究和系统学研究的重要环节之一;缺失腹沟细胞可能是水韭类简化性进化的特征之一。     

Characteristics of the breeding habitat of Endangered Kirtland's Warblers on a Canadian Military Installation

Kirtland's Warblers (Setophaga kirtlandii) are an endangered species with specialized habitat requirements, and the only documented nesting location in Canada is an Army installation. From 2007 to 2010, I compared habitat characteristics of sites occupied and not occupied by Kirtland's Warblers at Garrison Petawawa located ～200 km northwest of Ottawa, Ontario. Sites occupied by Kirtland's Warblers (N = 11) had greater percent cover of low sweet blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium; 31.2%), coral lichen (Cladina stellaris; 0.4%), reindeer lichen (Cladonia rangiferina; 8.3%), and wavy‐leaved moss (Dicranum polysetum; 4.3%) than unoccupied sites (N = 6). I found no difference in tree species composition between sites, with jack pine (Pinus banksiana), white pine (Pinus strobus), red pine (Pinus resinosa), poplar (Populus tremuloides), and red maple (Acer rubra) present in both used and unused sites. Forest stands occupied by Kirtland's Warblers were significantly younger (< 20 yr old) than unoccupied sites, and most occupied sites were within former fire zones and sites where jack pines had been planted. Thus, breeding habitat of Kirtland's Warblers in Canada consisted of young pine trees, with more red pine than in their breeding habitat in Michigan, and ground cover including blueberry, lichens, and mosses. These results suggest that Kirtland's Warblers may be less selective in their habitat requirements than previously thought, and should provide guidance for recovery groups and regulatory agencies in accurately delineating suitable habitat for these warblers in Canada.     

Founders,ancestors, and enemies: memory,family, time,and space in the Pernambuco sertão

This article concerns the use of narrative and genealogical frameworks among sertanejos, the inhabitants of the hinterlands (sertão) of Pernambuco in the Northeast of Brazil, in the process of grouping and differentiating families. It explores how accounts produced by different people are linked by shared memories of past conflicts – such as cangaço and questões de família (lit. ‘family issues’). Through conceived and lived relationships among relatives and the correlated concepts of ‘blood’ and ‘race’ current in this social formation, I look to identify the different meanings attributed to time and space, inscribed in the collective memory, and implicated in the moving configurations of ‘family’ in a cognatic universe.