From Racing to Rugby: All Work and No Play for Gogodala Men of Western Province,Papua New Guinea

In this article, I analyse how Gogodala men in Western Province approach the sport of rugby league football as an extension of the practice of canoe racing. Despite colonial changes and mission attempts to redeem canoe racing by labelling them ‘cultural games’, canoe races continue to embody clan relations and demonstrate inner masculine strength, collective clan power and a local work ethic. Although there has been a general lack of attention given to studies of sport in Papua New Guinea, a discourse has emerged that analyses sports competitions as either a modern form of play and a replacement for past ritual activities or as a contemporary exemplar of warfare and other eradicated practices. As the Gogodala have not practised headhunting or warfare for over one hundred years, I want to contribute to this discussion by exploring how contemporary canoe racing and rugby league form an integral part of conceptualisations of work and dala ela gi, or ‘the male way of life’.     

Racialization: a defense of the concept

This paper defends the concept of racialization against its critics. As the concept has become increasingly popular, questions about its meaning and value have been raised, and a backlash against its use has occurred. I argue that when “racialization” is properly understood, criticisms of the concept are unsuccessful. I defend a definition of racialization and identify its companion concept, “racialized group.” Racialization is often used as a synonym for “racial formation.” I argue that this is a mistake. Racial formation theory is committed to racial ontology, but racialization is best understood as the process through which racialized – rather than racial – groups are formed. “Racialization” plays a unique role in the conceptual landscape, and it is a key concept for race eliminativists and anti-realists about race.     

The Evil Eye (għajn) in Malta: Grappling with Skinner’s pigeons and rehabilitating lame ducks1

In this paper, I construct a plea for superstition and examine the ways in which contemporary scholars use the term to denote irrational belief. ‘Superstition’ has, throughout history, been used as a derogatory term denoting inferior and dangerous beliefs. Examining the process whereby people continue to believe that which they deem irrational, I adopt a reflexive and phenomenological approach. Focussing on the evil eye (g?ajn) in Malta and the Mediterranean, I redefine ‘superstition’ as the product of an intrasubjective antinomy between orthodoxy and its subversion.     

Inheritance, ecology and the evolution of the canoes of east Oceania

We consider patterns in the evolution of canoe technology in the eastern Pacific relative to three general processes: movement of canoe traits along the Polynesian settlement sequence, adaptations to local island environment, and post-settlement interaction between island groups. Using model selection methods on the distributions of canoe technology, we show that social and ecological covariates together consistently outperform each considered individually, though knowledge of island area and post-settlement trading spheres does not add explanatory power. In particular, decorative canoe traits are not effectively explained by either our ecological or transmission models. We also estimate negative effects from both settlement sequence and island geomorphology, consistent with the die-off of particular canoe designs on resource-rich high island groups such as Hawaii and New Zealand. This decline in measured traits may be owing to the lifting of ecological constraints on population size or building materials.     

Autopoiesis 40 years Later. A Review and a Reformulation

The concept of autopoiesis was proposed 40 years ago as a definition of a living being, with the aim of providing a unifying concept for biology. The concept has also been extended to the theory of knowledge and to different areas of the social and behavioral sciences. Given some ambiguities of the original definitions of autopoiesis, the concept has been criticized and has been interpreted in diverse and even contradictory ways, which has prevented its integration into the biological sciences where it originated. Here I present a critical review and conceptual analysis of the definition of autopoiesis, and propose a new definition that is more precise, clear, and concise than the original ones. I argue that the difficulty in understanding the term lies in its refined conceptual subtlety and not, as has been claimed by some authors, because it is a vacuous, trivial or very complex concept. I also relate the concept of autopoiesis to the concepts of closed systems, boundaries, homeostasis, self-reproduction, causal circularity, organization and multicellularity. I show that under my proposed definition the concept of a molecular autopoietic system is a good demarcation criterion of a living being, allowing its general integration into the biological sciences and enhancing its interdisciplinary use.     

Disciplined to diversity: learning the language of multiculturalism

This study shows that contemporary multiculturalism is a cultural referent used in the construction of modern and socially-acceptable selves. By analysing the practices of diversity training, I consider one of the ways in which multiculturalism moves from abstract philosophical idea and fodder for policy formation to adoption as a cultural and moral framework that individuals use in establishing their identities, discerning meaning and engaging others. Demonstrating that people must acquire competence in the use of a particular multicultural vocabulary and rules of interaction, I challenge the perspective that both bigotry and acceptance are organic to individuals. Properly multicultural selves are not merely the natural extension of interior individual qualities. Instead, people produce modern identities vis-à-vis diversity through the use of language and the negotiation of its meaning.     

Brain POU-er

Developmental coordination is vital in the temporally coordinated appearance of cell types within the precise spatial architecture of the vertebrate brain and this, combined with the rich interplay between the developing brain and its target organs, is a biological problem of monumental complexity. An example is the genesis and subsequent integration of the neuroendocrine hypothalamus and the pituitary. Two recent papers^(1,2) use the developing hypothalamo-pituitary axis in order to gather a deeper understanding of these integrative mechanisms. In addition, they show that a sub-family of homeodomain factors, the POU-domain proteins, play a critical role in coordinating the respective ontogenies of the hypothalamus and the pituitary.     

The stele – a developmental perspective on the diversity and evolution of primary vascular architecture

The stele concept is one of the oldest enduring concepts in plant biology. Here, I review the history of the concept and build an argument for an updated view of steles and their evolution. Studies of stelar organization have generated a widely ranging array of definitions that determine the way we classify steles and construct scenarios about the evolution of stelar architecture. Because at the organismal level biological evolution proceeds by changes in development, concepts of structure need to be grounded in development to be relevant in an evolutionary perspective. For the stele, most traditional definitions that incorporate development have viewed it as the totality of tissues that either originate from procambium – currently the prevailing view – or are bordered by a boundary layer (e.g. endodermis). Consensus between these two perspectives can be reached by recasting the stele as a structural entity of dual nature. Following a brief review of the history of the stele concept, basic terminology related to stelar organization, and traditional classifications of the steles, I revisit boundary layers from the perspective of histogenesis as a dynamic mosaic of developmental domains. I review anatomical and molecular data to explore and reaffirm the importance of boundary layers for stelar organization. Drawing on information from comparative anatomy, developmental regulation, and the fossil record, I propose a stele concept that integrates both the boundary layer and the procambial perspectives, consistent with a dual nature of the stele. This dual stele model posits that stelar architecture is determined at the apical meristem by two major cell fate specification events: a first one that specifies a provascular domain and its boundaries, and a second event that specifies a procambial domain (which will mature into conducting tissues) from cell subpopulations of the provascular domain. If the position and extent of the developmental domains defined by the two events are determined by different concentrations of the same morphogen (most likely auxin), then the distribution of this organizer factor in the shoot apical meristem, as modulated by changes in axis size and the effect of lateral organs, can explain the different stelar configurations documented among tracheophytes. This model provides working hypotheses that incorporate assumptions and generate implications that can be tested empirically. The model also offers criteria for an updated classification of steles in line with current understanding of plant development. In this classification, steles fall into two major categories determined by the configuration of boundary layers: boundary protosteles and boundary siphonosteles, each with subtypes defined by the architecture of the vascular tissues. Validation of the dual stele model and, more generally, in-depth understanding of the regulation of stelar architecture, will necessitate targeted efforts in two areas: (i) the regulation of procambium, vascular tissue, and boundary layer specification in all extant vascular plants, considering that most of the diversity in stelar architecture is hosted by seed-free plants, which are the least explored in terms of developmental regulation; (ii) the configuration of vascular tissues and, especially, boundary layers, in as many extinct lineages as possible.     

Memes and Metaculture: The Politics of Discourse Circulation in Fiji

To address the question of what makes cultural products circulate successfully or unsuccessfully, I use the analytical tools supplied by two emerging disciplines, memetics and the study of metaculture. The case that I examine is the widespread circulation of the phrase ‘failed businessman’ to describe the leader of Fiji's coup d'état in 2000. In analysing the ways that the phrase circulated globally in international news accounts (and the pages of this journal as well), but did not circulate well within Fiji itself, I argue that the concept of ‘metaculture’ gives us more sophisticated analytical tools and a fuller, richer sense of the dynamics of cultural circulation than memetics does.     

What is culture? Systems of people,places, and practices

Abstract

Culture is a fuzzy concept without fixed boundaries, meaning different things according to situations. To address this issue, I introduce a p-model to understand culture as a system of people, places, and practices, for a purpose such as enacting, justifying, or resisting power. People refers to population dynamics, social relations, and culture in groups. Places refers to ecological dynamics, institutional influences, and culture in contexts. Practices refers to participatory dynamics, community engagement, and culture in action. Power refers to forcing others into compliance (power-over people), controlling access to spaces (power in places), and behaving as desired (power-to practice). I use racism to illustrate the p-model and suggest applications in theory, research, and practice in developmental sciences.     

Symbolic ethnicity and symbolic religiosity: Towards a comparison of ethnic and religious acculturation

This article begins with a brief section updating my 1979 Ethnic and Racial Studies article ‘Symbolic ethnicity: the future of ethnic groups and cultures in America’. However, its main aim is to describe and develop the somewhat parallel concept of symbolic religiosity, which I conceive as the consumption of religious symbols apart from regular participation in a religious culture or in religious organizations, for the purpose of expressing feelings of religiosity and religious identification. Since I assume that symbolic religiosity develops mainly among the acculturating descendants of immigrants, I also explore the possibility of separating and then comparing ethnic and religious acculturation. I assume further that among religio‐ethnic groups like the Jews, and ethno‐religious groups such as Russian, Greek and other Orthodox Catholics, ethnic and religious acculturation proceed in divergent ways. This raises a number of interesting empirical questions about the differences between and similarities of ethnicity and religion among these groups and in general. The article concludes with speculations about what might happen to ethnicity and religiosity in the future. Most of my illustrative data in this article are drawn from studies and observations about American Jewry.     

Portage connectivity does not predict establishment success of canoe-mediated dispersal for crustacean zooplankton

Although community structure may be largely determined by local abiotic and biotic conditions under moderate levels of dispersal, anthropogenic activities can enhance dispersal rates far beyond what would otherwise occur in natural systems. We investigated the potential impact of recreational canoeing on crustacean zooplankton community structure in Killarney Provincial Park, Canada, where canoes that are transported between lakes via portage routes may enhance zooplankton community connectivity by providing a dispersal “short-cut.” We conducted a study to (1) quantify zooplankton attachment to canoe hulls after paddling through a lake and assess the importance of canoes to overall seasonal dispersal within a lake relative to other means of dispersal, (2) test the prediction that zooplankton survivorship is negatively correlated with portage duration using a mesocosm experiment, and (3) test whether variation in lake community composition was better explained by models based on reduced portage-corrected distances or true edge-to-edge distances between lakes along popular canoe routes. Here, we report the findings that canoes have the potential to act as frequent dispersal vectors, but appear to have little impact on community structure in portage-connected lakes. Substantial numbers of adult zooplankton became attached to canoe hulls and were able to establish viable populations even after exposure to portage conditions for 30 min. However, canoe-mediated dispersal only accounted for a very small proportion (<1% in this case) of overall seasonal dispersal. Moreover, environmental variables explained the greatest amount of variation in community composition among park lakes. Nevertheless, this study indicates that canoe dispersal could be more effective for specific species such as Sida crystallina than is evident by analysis of entire communities and could facilitate the spread of invasive species amenable to attaching to boat hulls. Thus, the debate about whether community composition is more strongly influenced by local environmental conditions or regional dispersal may vary depending on the scale of consideration (i.e., individual species vs. whole community).     

Effects of Off-Highway Vehicle Use on the American Marten

Abstract Motorized recreation in North American wildlands is increasing, and technological developments in the power and range of vehicles has increased access to high-elevation habitats. The American marten (Martes americana) is vulnerable to this disturbance because martens, like other residents of high-elevation forests, are associated with remote wilderness conditions where the presence of motorized vehicles is a recent phenomenon. We evaluated the effects of vehicles at 2 study sites in California, USA, by comparing marten occupancy rates and probabilities of detection in areas where recreational vehicle use is legal and encouraged (use areas) with wilderness areas where vehicles are prohibited (non-use areas). We sampled vehicle occurrence in nearby use and non-use areas using sound level meters and determined marten occurrence using track and camera stations. We also included 2 secondary measures of potential effects of vehicles on martens: sex ratio and circadian pattern of activity. Martens were ubiquitous in use and non-use areas in both study sites, and there was no effect of vehicle use on marten occupancy or probability of detection. We predicted that females might be less common and martens more nocturnal in use than in non-use areas, but neither occurred. Martens were exposed to low levels of disturbance in our study sites. We estimated that a marten might be exposed to 0.5 vehicle passes/hour and that this exposure had the greatest effect on <20% of a typical home range area. Furthermore, vehicle use usually occurred when martens were inactive. We did not measure behavioral, physiological, or demographic responses, so it is possible that vehicles may have effects, alone or in concert with other threats (e.g., timber harvest), that we did not quantify. We encourage additional studies to determine whether other montane species that are year-round residents demonstrate the same response to motorized vehicles.     

Two faces of representation: on the neuroscience of folk psychology

Much work in contemporary philosophy of mind and neurophilosophy hinges on the concept of ‘representation,’ but that concept inherits a problematic ambiguity from neuroscience, where scientists may distinguish between cognitive and physiological levels of representation only tacitly. First, I explicate two potentially distinct senses of representation corresponding to these levels. I then argue that ambiguity about the nature of representation in philosophy of mind is problematic for at least one prominent philosophical project that aims to use neuroscientific work on representation to defend the existence or explanatory relevance of intentional mental states, namely Schroeder’s (2004) scientific explication of desire in terms of the neurobiology of reward. I argue that philosophical treatments of the relationship between cognitive and neural architecture must attend more carefully to the ambiguity in the concept of representation. I conclude by outlining a strategy for addressing the gap between levels of representation, one that privileges a local or narrow philosophical approach to interpreting scientific concepts and data over a global or general approach.     

What really is the nature of suffering? Three problems with Eric Cassell’s concept of distress

Eric Cassell famously defined suffering as a person’s severe distress at a threat to their personal integrity. This article draws attention to some problems with the concept of distress in this theory. In particular, I argue that Cassell’s theory turns on distress but does not define it, which, in light of the complexity of distress, problematizes suffering in three ways: first, suffering becomes too equivocal to apply in at least some cases that Cassell nevertheless identifies as suffering; second, Cassell’s account does not explain what sort of experience suffering is, resulting in theoretical and practical difficulties in distinguishing it from other medical conditions; third, there is good reason to believe that, in medical contexts, ‘distress’ just means ‘suffering’ or some cognate concept not yet distinguished from it, rendering Cassell’s theory circular. I consider a rebuttal to my objections and reply, concluding that Cassell’s theory of suffering needs a definition of distress to settle what the nature of suffering really is.     

The use, construction, and importance of canoes among the Maijuna of the Peruvian Amazon

Canoe construction was studied in a Maijuna community to better understand the role and significance of canoes in the life and subsistence strategies of an Amazonian group. In this community the types of canoes constructed and used by the Maijuna have changed considerably over the past 20 years. Twenty-seven species were identified as being specifically employed by the Maijuna to construct the type of dugout canoe currently being made in the community. The scarcity of preferred species used for canoe hulls directly affects the trees chosen for construction and may have been a contributing factor behind the complete switch from making the traditional type of dugout canoe.     

“Whoever decides for you without you,s/he is against you!”: immigrant activism and the role of the Left in political racialization

Much of the migration literature neglects the questions of why and how “native” allies obstruct activism by immigrants and ethnic minorities. Left-wing organizations in particular are often assumed to be supportive of inclusion, and little research exists on the ways they have prevented the migrant population from having a voice in the political arena and from taking part in society as equals. Drawing on the critical theory literature, I introduce the concept of political racialization. This concept refers to mechanisms whereby political actors, in order to legitimize their work on immigration, have partially included immigrants in the political sphere, but in a relationship of “ethnic” or “racial” subordination. Through the analysis of 57 in-depth interviews with immigrant activists, I show how political racialization works within the Italian Left and how it contributes to marginalize the migrant population. I further explain how immigrant activists have challenged political racialization through their activism.     

Elaborate Nests in a Weaverbird: A Role for Female Choice?

Studies on sexual selection have focused on behaviour and morphology, but several groups of animals build elaborate structures associated with acquiring a mate. I investigated female choice for nests built by male baya weavers (Ploceus philippinus). Nest choice by females should be strong, as nests are obvious direct benefits provided by males. I used a field experiment supplemented with correlational information to ask whether females appear to base mate choice decisions on male behaviour, nest architecture, and nest location. When the nests of highly visited males were exchanged with those of poorly visited males, female visits remained highest at the original male and location. I found no relationship between female choice and male display or other behaviour. Correlational analyses show that nest location was a better predictor of female choice than was nest architecture. These data suggest that current female choice is driven more by access to safe nesting sites rather than to well‐built nests, possibly because all males are able to build nests of adequate quality. However, nest architecture is unlikely to be irrelevant to females, and its role deserves further investigation.