THE SCORPION'S STING: YOUTH, MARRIAGE AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL MATURITY IN NIGER

Through a focus on the problems associated with bridewealth and wedding expenses in Dogondoutchi, a predominantly Muslim town of some 38,000 Hausa speakers in rural Niger, I discuss the predicament of young Mawri men who, in the double pursuit of marriage and maturity, often struggle to satisfy contradictory sets of moral and financial requirements. I trace the distinctive and divergent ways in which Mawri men and women of different generations participate in interpenetrating debates about wealth, domesticity, and sexuality to highlight how the experience of social reproduction is shaped by distinctly local dynamics of gender and generation. In contemporary Niger, the combined effects of neo-liberal economics and reformist Islam have massively transformed the terms and meaning of marriage. What emerges most conspicuously from this exploration of the ways in which processes of identity formation are played out in the controversial arena of marriage is the palpable sense of declining opportunities that young men experience as they delay marriage.     

Sung Adornment: Changing Masculinities at Lake Kopiago,Papua New Guinea

In the space of 50 years, ideals of masculinity in the western end of the Southern Highlands have been radically transformed. Gone, for instance, is the bachelor cult where young boys were grown into men. Drawing upon ethnographic research undertaken over the past decade, in the Lake Kopiago sub‐district in the far north‐western corner of Southern Highlands Province, this paper seeks to document these changing masculinities and explore their portrayal by juxtaposing ‘traditional’ and contemporary growth enhancing spells and courting songs—particularly those composed and sung by men. In doing so, this paper also seeks to explore how guns, marijuana, discos and pornographic movies have come to figure centrally in contemporary notions of masculinity. It will also document how the proliferation of marijuana and small arms has transformed young men with otherwise very little standing in the community into self‐promoted leaders who have taken it upon themselves to publicly police the sexuality of women in increasingly violent ways.     

基于GIS的广州市中心城区城市森林可达性分析

城市森林是城市中主要的生态功能景观,已经成为城市生态环境建设的主体。基于居民方便获取城市森林服务的要求,根据大型城市森林斑块、道路网和街区单元数据,利用ArcGIS9.2的Network Analyst工具,分析了广州市中心城区在2km步行距离内街区单元到达城市森林斑块的可达性以及城市森林斑块的承载力,并结合航片解译的树冠覆盖数据对具有不同可达性的街区单元进行了分析。分析结果表明：广州中心城区的外环高速以内的区域范围,分别有73%、46%和18%的的街区单元在步行2km、1km和0.5km距离内能够到达大型城市森林绿地斑块。从街区单元的行政归属看,以越秀区的街区可达性最好,而海珠区和原芳村区的街区可达性较差。研究范围内,0.5km内不能到达大型城市森林斑块且树冠覆盖超过30%的街区类型中,以公共管理单位类型为主,单位绿化对于树冠覆盖的贡献率大;而绝大多数以住宅类型为主的街区单元的树冠覆盖率低于10%,其中64%的街区树冠覆盖率低于5%。以街区单元为基本对象进行可达性度量,分析城市森林斑块现状分布和服务状况,并结合其树冠覆盖特征,可以明确需要重点关注区域的空间分布,可为广州市在较小尺度上的城市森林空间布局优化提供参考。     

Shame,reputation and Egypt's lovers: A controversy over the nation's image

This paper addresses aspects of contemporary Egyptian nationalism by focusing on reactions within Egypt to a BBC‐produced documentary dealing with the life of a lower class Cairene woman. In particular, it explores how the notions of honor, shame and reputation are central to the construction and expression of this nationalistic voice, and how the concern over “Egypt's image” involves a contest over who is to represent the nation. This article argues that the contemporary nationalistic voice, championed by the urban middle classes, expresses an ambivalent attitude to both “the West” and “the Egyptian people”, and that it necessarily involves the hiding and undermining of subordinate social groups.     

Making the Global City: Urban Citizenship at the Margins of Delhi

There is a growing scholarly interest in the spatialisation of class relations in post-industrial cities. Gentrified suburbs exclude the poor and re-work notions of public property and urban citizenship to the advantage of the rich. My study moves beyond the sanitised places of the inner city and shows how the cleaning mission affects life in the new spaces of deprivation. I analyse home making in a resettlement colony of Delhi. After being removed from the hubs of the labour market and with little state support, resettled slum dwellers struggle under harsh conditions for survival. Those who can afford this expensive venture embrace home ownership at high personal risks und by exploiting the channels of the informal economy, hoping that possessing a legal dwelling will root them more firmly in the city. In practice, the new status is an often uneasy fusion of a formal and informal status and thus remains essentially precarious in an environment that criminalises informality.     

Ageing,the Urban-Rural Gap and Disability Trends: 19 Years of Experience in China - 1987 to 2006

Background

As the age of a population increases, so too does the rate of disability. In addition, disability is likely to be more common in rural compared with urban areas. The present study aimed to examine the influence of rapid population changes in terms of age and rural/urban residence on the prevalence of disability.

Methods

Data from the 1987 and 2006 China Sampling Surveys on Disability were used to estimate the impacts of rapid ageing and the widening urban-rural gap on the prevalence of disability. Stratum specific rates of disability were estimated by 5-year age-group and type of residence. The decomposition of rates method was used to calculate the rate difference for each stratum between the two surveys.

Results

The crude disability rate increased from 4.89% in 1987 to 6.39% in 2006, a 1.5% increase over the 19 year period. However, after the compositional effects from the overall rates of changing age-structure in 1987 and 2006 were eliminated by standardization, the disability rate in 1987 was 6.13%, which is higher than that in 2006 (5.91%). While in 1987 the excess due to rural residence compared with urban was <1.0%, this difference increased to >1.5% by 2006, suggesting a widening disparity by type of residence. When rates were decomposed, the bulk of the disability could be attributed to ageing, and very little to rural residence. However, a wider gap in prevalence between rural and urban areas could be observed in some age groups by 2006.

Conclusion

The increasing number of elderly disabled persons in China and the widening discrepancy of disability prevalence between urban and rural areas may indicate that the most important priorities for disability prevention in China are to reinforce health promotion in older adults and improve health services in rural communities.     

Chewing over the Future: Khat Consumption, Anxiety, Depression, and Time Among Young Men in Jimma, Ethiopia

This article draws on qualitative and quantitative research to examine the relationship between the consumption of khat, symptoms of depression and anxiety and the experience of time among young men in urban Ethiopia. Young men claim that khat, a mild stimulant, both causes and alleviates symptoms of depression and anxiety. However, our quantitative data indicate that there is not a direct relationship between khat and symptoms of depression and anxiety. We analyze this apparent contradiction in terms of young men’s experiences of time. Long-term ethnographic research indicates that khat consumption and mental distress have a close relationship with young men’s temporal problems. In a context of high urban unemployment, young men struggle to negotiate overabundant amounts of unstructured time in the present and place themselves within a narrative in which they are progressing toward future aspirations. These temporal struggles generate symptoms of depression and anxiety. For young men, khat consumption functions to reposition them in relation to time, both in the present and the future. Ultimately, we argue that the relationship between khat and time has implications for the economic issues that underlie young people’s symptoms of depression and anxiety.     

Governing Dementia: A Historical Investigation of the Power of States and Professionals in the Conceptualization of Dementia in China

This study intends to understand how Chinese states and healthcare professionals interact with each other in adopting biomedical concepts within the context of globalization of mental health. The conceptualization of dementia as a stigmatized mental disorder in China serves as a salient case to examine interactions between states and professionals as well as the interrelationships between different healthcare professionals in producing knowledge. By engaging the biopolitical approach, this project explores the historically-contingent conceptualizations of dementia, namely dementia as a vague and stigmatized condition in imperial China, dementia as biosocial deviance in Republican China, dementia as a product of capitalism during Mao-era China, and dementia as a stigmatized mental illness in contemporary China. These dynamics indicate that Chinese professionals have been largely influenced by state ideologies in assimilating biomedical concepts. Through the historical analysis of state-professional interactions in conceptualizing dementia, this study provides an avenue to understand how biomedical concepts transfer within the global context can be read as a site of power struggle between ethnomedicine and biomedicine, between various competing forms of healthcare professionals, and between indigenous sovereignty and governmentality. Moreover, the study of conceptualizing dementia in China sheds light on the larger sociopolitical processes of governmentality in China.     

The meaning of difference: A response to Michael Banton

The role of the state in Africa in terms of resource allocation is generally linked to class politics and demands. Policy processes are shaped by powerful class factors, usually urban, which lead to a biased allocation of economic goods. Ethnicity and regional factors are not totally ignored but are often treated as epiphenomenal to the overall dynamics that determine who gets what, when and how. This study adopts a different reasoning. It suggests that the state in the Ivory Coast has attempted to manage ethno‐regional demands and conflicts by linking them directly to the policy process. The large‐scale economic projects undertaken by African governments are a reflection of this effort. In the case of the Ivory Coast, the construction of several costly sugar complexes in the northern region of the country is analysed within the context of state and ethnic politics in contemporary Africa.     

Age,pattern of consultation,and functional disability in elderly patients in one general practice.

OBJECTIVE--To examine how functional disability varies with sex, age, and other variables in patients aged 75 and over living in the community and to ascertain whether a statistical model derived from the variables in this population usefully predicted functional disability in another of similar age. DESIGN--Retrospective study of data collected by interview and by examination of medical records. SETTING--An urban general practice with five partners and a list of 15,000 patients, very few of whom belonged to ethnic minorities. PATIENTS--775 Patients (252 men, 523 women) aged 75 and over living in the community between September 1985 and August 1986; 13 other patients considered to be unsuitable and 14 who declined an interview were excluded. Also 94 patients who became 75 or joined the practice after August 1986. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE--The proportions of fit, partially disabled, and severely disabled (housebound) patients. RESULTS--90 Men (35.7%) and 128 women (24.5%) were fit, and 27 men (10.7%) and 116 women (22.2%) were housebound; in all age groups women were significantly more likely to be disabled than men. A significant trend towards greater disability was shown with increasing age and, more noticeably, with pattern of consultation when patients were divided into three categories based on the number of times they had attended the surgery and been visited at home over about two years. Statistical models gave the forecast percentage of fit and severely disabled patients for each sex, age group, and pattern of consultation, and a simple scheme was derived to identify from information wholly contained in medical records most of those patients most prone to severe disability. The scheme was verified applying it to a population of 94 elderly patients in 1988-9. CONCLUSION--Sex, age, and pattern of consultation together provide a quick indication of elderly patients'' tendency to severe disability, which can help in screening and in day to day consultations.     

Gifting as Governance: NGO Service Projects and Disciplinary Power in Rural Migrant Settlements in China

ABSTRACT

In contemporary China, migrant workers have gathered in urban villages and formed communities of their own. The regulative power of the state has not fully penetrated these enclaves, thus creating opportunities for NGOs to shoulder many of the ongoing welfare responsibilities. The primary goal of this study was to explore how NGO service projects can generate a new type of disciplinary power through give-and-take practices. I argue that service projects allow the givers to transform their economic power and social resources into political power, through which social inequality is obscured, legitimised, and translated into the delivery of ‘love’, ‘caring’ and ‘compassion’. Such political power also delivers middle-class values and lifestyles to rural migrants, who feel obligated to transform their subjectivities in order to reciprocate.     

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’.     

Physiological and psychological responses of young males during spring-time walks in urban parks

Background

It is widely believed that contact with the natural environment can improve physical and mental health. Urban green spaces may provide city residents with these benefits; however, there is a lack of empirical field research on the health benefits of urban parks.

Methods

This field experiment was performed in May. Seventeen males aged 21.2 ± 1.7 years (mean ± standard deviation) were instructed to walk predetermined 15-minute courses in an urban park and a nearby city area (control). Heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) were measured to assess physiological responses. The semantic differential (SD) method, Profile of Mood States (POMS), and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) were used to measure psychological responses.

Results

Heart rate was significantly lower while walking in the urban park than while walking in the city street. Furthermore, the urban park walk led to higher parasympathetic nervous activity and lower sympathetic nervous activity compared with the walk through the city street. Subjective evaluations were generally in accordance with physiological reactions, and significantly higher scores were observed for the ‘comfortable’, ‘natural’, and ‘relaxed’ parameters following the urban park walk. After the urban park walk, the score for the ‘vigor’ subscale of the POMS was significantly higher, whereas that for negative feelings such as ‘tension-anxiety’ and ‘fatigue’ was significantly lower. The score for the anxiety dimension of the STAI was also significantly lower after the urban park walk.

Conclusions

Physiological and psychological results from this field experiment provide evidence for the physiological and psychological benefits of urban green spaces. A brief spring-time walk in an urban park shifted sympathetic/parasympathetic balance and improved mood state.     

Measuring biological aging in humans: A quest

The global population of individuals over the age of 65 is growing at an unprecedented rate and is expected to reach 1.6 billion by 2050. Most older individuals are affected by multiple chronic diseases, leading to complex drug treatments and increased risk of physical and cognitive disability. Improving or preserving the health and quality of life of these individuals is challenging due to a lack of well‐established clinical guidelines. Physicians are often forced to engage in cycles of “trial and error” that are centered on palliative treatment of symptoms rather than the root cause, often resulting in dubious outcomes. Recently, geroscience challenged this view, proposing that the underlying biological mechanisms of aging are central to the global increase in susceptibility to disease and disability that occurs with aging. In fact, strong correlations have recently been revealed between health dimensions and phenotypes that are typical of aging, especially with autophagy, mitochondrial function, cellular senescence, and DNA methylation. Current research focuses on measuring the pace of aging to identify individuals who are “aging faster” to test and develop interventions that could prevent or delay the progression of multimorbidity and disability with aging. Understanding how the underlying biological mechanisms of aging connect to and impact longitudinal changes in health trajectories offers a unique opportunity to identify resilience mechanisms, their dynamic changes, and their impact on stress responses. Harnessing how to evoke and control resilience mechanisms in individuals with successful aging could lead to writing a new chapter in human medicine.     

Night life in southern urban Mali: being a Muslim maquisard in Bougouni

Alcohol has been part of local culture in southwest Mali since precolonial times. In the last century, when Islam spread into the region, it became a ‘haram’ (forbidden) substance; therefore its consumption moved to the margins of society. Based on an ethnography of night life in discreet bars called ‘maquis’ where power, wealth, and alcohol become juxtaposed during the night in the small town of Bougouni, this article explores how Muslims handle their participation in forbidden activities from within a local Muslim community. Analysing the social significance of the darkness of the night in relation to a public Islam based on sight, it illustrates how forbidden activities are handled through strategies of diurnal conformity and nocturnal discretion in urban Mali. Exploring the fact that a Muslim can at the same time be known as a respectable member of the local community and a suspected drinker during the night, this analysis aims to demonstrate that the interplay between display and secrecy is an important component of morality in urban Mali, while the wealth and power of m?g?baw (big men) often work as veils that cover their forbidden activities. Besides studying the ways Muslims strive to be pious, this article finally stresses the need to explore also the field of haram as an integral part of a Muslim life so as to develop a humanly wider and more complete understanding of Islam's relationship to contemporary Muslim societies.     

The Role of Walkers’ Needs and Expectations in Supporting Maintenance of Attendance at Walking Groups: A Longitudinal Multi-Perspective Study of Walkers and Walk Group Leaders

Background

There is good evidence that when people’s needs and expectations regarding behaviour change are met, they are satisfied with that change, and maintain those changes. Despite this, there is a dearth of research on needs and expectations of walkers when initially attending walking groups and whether and how these needs and expectations have been satisfied after a period of attendance. Equally, there is an absence of research on how people who lead these groups understand walkers’ needs and walk leaders’ actions to address them. The present study was aimed at addressing both of these gaps in the research.

Methods

Two preliminary thematic analyses were conducted on face-to-face interviews with (a) eight walkers when they joined walking groups, five of whom were interviewed three months later, and (b) eight walk leaders. A multi-perspective analysis building upon these preliminary analyses identified similarities and differences within the themes that emerged from the interviews with walkers and walk leaders.

Results

Walkers indicated that their main needs and expectations when joining walking groups were achieving long-term social and health benefits. At the follow up interviews, walkers indicated that satisfaction with meeting similar others within the groups was the main reason for continued attendance. Their main source of dissatisfaction was not feeling integrated in the existing walking groups. Walk leaders often acknowledged the same reasons for walkers joining and maintaining attendance at walking. However, they tended to attribute dissatisfaction and drop out to uncontrollable environmental factors and/or walkers’ personalities. Walk leaders reported a lack of efficacy to effectively address walkers’ needs.

Conclusions

Interventions to increase retention of walkers should train walk leaders with the skills to help them modify the underlying psychological factors affecting walkers’ maintenance at walking groups. This should result in greater retention of walkers in walking groups, thereby allowing walkers to receive the long-term social and health benefits of participation in these groups.     

Urbanization-induced site condition changes of peri-urban cultivated land in the black soil region of northeast China

The site condition of cultivated land greatly influences the utilization and management of cultivated land resources and is an element that is disturbed tremendously by urbanization. Since the rejuvenation of the northeast old industrial base strategy in 2003, urbanization in northeast China has progressed rapidly. The excessive urban sprawl has profoundly changed land use structure in the peri-urban area of the black soil region, and the subsequent site condition changes will impede the full utilization of cultivated land resources. This study used the suburb of Changchun Kuancheng District as an empirical case, and employed a patch-scale site assessment system to analyze dynamic changes in cultivated land site conditions at a typical rural-urban interface of the black soil region from 2004 to 2014. Cultivated land loss and land use changes were prominent in the study area and the land conversion rate was shown to be accelerating. Most of the occupied cultivated land was converted to urban areas such as industrial land or urban settlements. However, a part of the occupied cultivated land was left unutilized, which indicates how the urban sprawl is jeopardizing benefits of both urban development and cultivated land protection. Besides direct occupation of cultivated land resources, urbanization has led to a loss of cultivated land with good site conditions and a deterioration of the site conditions of unconverted cultivated land in the peri-urban area. Urbanization has fragmented peri-urban cultivated land, increased farming distance and brought more frequent anthropogenic disturbances. On the other hand, it has also improved transportation conditions and the local ecological environment. As site condition is believed to be closely related to both cultivated land loss and cultivation abandonment, the deterioration will aggravate the loss of cultivated land resources in a disguised form.     

Ethnicity,reception and the growth of American immigration

Deportation has always been a feature of the American political, social and economic discourse. A twin effect of immigration, deportation concerns who is granted the right to stay and who is removed from the country. Amid the growing debate on reform, this essay casts light on the changing nature of deportation law during the last century. Paying attention to the reception which immigrants receive and the perceptions of threat and economic competition which natives often perceive, this work evaluates how policy has shifted in response to the changing face of newcomers. As immigration law becomes intertwined with criminal law, so do the stipulations governing entry and exit. Within a politically charged social space, American immigration is a story punctuated with racialized and criminalized images of immigrants. Bridging ethnic and racial currents, this work seeks to understand how these effects continue to shape contemporary immigration policy.     

‘They Always Seem to be Angry’: The Cronulla Riot and the Civilising Pleasures of the Sun

Contemporary ethnic rivalries often deny participation in racism and instead use the language of nationalism to formulate an etiquette of civility as defining national belonging. In contemporary Australia, world events such as the Bali Bombing, the 9/11 attacks and the Global War on Terror have empowered a civilisational logic, which often becomes localised to provide the moral terms for culturally ranking who has the capacity to participate in the pleasures of a modern enlightened nation. A culture of relaxation built around the beach, around the civilised enjoyment of the outdoors, is used as a point of contrast for a renewed Orientalism. It takes up breaches of everyday etiquette to create a psychological portrait of an uncivilised Arab Other who does not know how to relax and be peaceful.     

城市菌根真菌多样性、变化机制及功能应用

菌根真菌能够与大多数陆生植物的根系形成菌根共生体,具有改善宿主植物矿质营养、增强抗逆性、改良土壤结构等重要生态功能。城市化过程中气候、土壤、植被、土地利用等因素的改变,对菌根真菌的多样性产生了直接或间接的影响。目前城市菌根真菌的研究多侧重对其空间分布及群落组成的简单描述,缺乏针对城市典型生态现象及生态问题系统性的探讨。分别从城市菌根真菌的多样性变化、影响机制及功能应用等3方面进行了综述,全面揭示城市菌根真菌的研究现状及研究的复杂性,发现当前研究存在多样性评估简单化、研究层次单一化、内在机制现象化及功能应用停滞化等问题,认为今后应建立更为系统、综合、标准的研究体系以深刻而准确地认识与理解城市化对菌根真菌多样性的影响,为城市微生物资源的保存及绿地系统维持提供理论依据。