IS POST‐MORTEM HARM POSSIBLE? UNDERSTANDING DEATH HARM AND GRIEF

The purpose of this article is not to affirm or deny particular philosophical positions, but to explore the limits of intelligibility about what post-mortem harm means, especially in the light of improper post-mortem procedures at Bristol and Alder Hey hospitals in the late 1990s. The parental claims of post-mortem harm to dead children at Alder Hey Hospital are reviewed from five different philosophical perspectives, eventually settling on a crucial difference of perspective about how we understand harm to the dead. On the one hand there is the broadly 'analytical' tradition ¹ of thinking that predicates the notion of harm on the basis of an existing subject. Since the dead are non-existent persons, it makes little sense to view the dead as being harmed. On the other hand, there is a phenomenological perspective, where the dead, in respect to the experience of grief, are existentially absent. This forms the basis that it is possible to harm grieving parent's experiences of how their dead are treated. The article ends with a short examination of what harming the dead implies for traditional bioethical concerns, namely, obtaining informed consent from significant others when planning medical research on the newly dead.     

‘Cats give funerals to rats’: making the dead modern with lament

This article compares funeral laments in a Tibeto‐Burman‐speaking community in Yunnan, China, from two periods: the early 1990s, after ritual revitalization was thoroughly underway, and 2011, after this community had come into more intimate contact with the modernity‐obsessed cultures of urban and semi‐urban China. Laments fashion grief in a public setting by conceptualizing the dead and their relations with the living in vivid poetic language. Laments from the early 1990s described these relations as a circuit of suffering, in which children returned a debt of suffering they owed their parents after the latter's deaths. By 2011, innovative lamenters had reorientated their understanding of suffering to be personal, internal, and intimate. The dead became more ‘modern’, allowing the living, defined largely by their relations with the dead, to participate in ‘modernized’ forms of authentic, sincere emotional expression.     

Three days for weeping: dreams,emotions, and death in the Peruvian Amazon

Funeral customs and beliefs about the dead among the Matsigenka of Peru reflect great anxiety over the contagion of death and the power of the dead over the living. In this article, these beliefs and practices are interpreted in light of a native theory about emotion. For the Matsigenka, excessive displays of emotion, especially grief, anger, and aggressive sexuality, cause a vicious cycle of unhappiness, social disruption, illness, and death. Moving beyond a culturally particular, symbolic-interpretive perspective, the author also draws on personal experiences both in the field and at home to reflect on the phenomenology of grief across cultures.     

Foraminifera in a New Zealand salt marsh and their suitability as sea-level indicators

Vertical distributions of live and dead foraminiferal abundances are investigated in a salt marsh at Pounawea in southeastern New Zealand for potential use in Holocene sea-level reconstructions. Statistical analyses are conducted to determine whether dead foraminiferal abundances can be utilised as a proxy for elevation in southeastern New Zealand. It is concluded that dead salt-marsh foraminifera, which can predict elevations to within ± 5 cm or better, are precise sea-level proxies. Holocene sea-level reconstructions along the tectonically stable Catlins Coast based on fossil salt-marsh foraminifera can therefore serve as a potential baseline tool to estimate relative vertical tectonic displacement along tectonically active coasts in New Zealand.     

Māori Culture on Stage: Authenticity and Identity in Tourist Interactions1

Cultural tourism is often described as inciting visited populations to adapt elements of their culture to the visitors' tastes instead of displaying their real way of life or identity. Even when researchers adopt a constructivist approach to authenticity, they often assume that it is defined according to the criteria or expectations of the tourists. In this paper, I analyse three Māori cultural shows in New Zealand, and explore the way cultural authenticity is defined in tourist interactions. I review the arguments in favour of rejecting the opposition between ‘inauthentic’ staged culture and ‘authentic’ daily life. My study tends to indicate that if authenticity is better described as a social construction, the host society might be more active in this process than visitors.     

The utopian promise of government

Today academic debate and public discourse about the Pacific often focuses on the collapse of government – on failed nation-states. Yet ever since Self-Government and Independence, Melanesians have experimented with developing their own alternative forms of local government, which have often embraced but also side-tracked official governmental schemes, structures, and practices. Using the Pomio Kivung movement in East New Britain, this article explores how government, together with its projects and promises of sovereignty, civilization, and development, is displaced and re-mediated through the world of the dead. The customary shamanic worlds of dreams and possession are redeployed and merged with the pastoral practices and disciplinary schemes of civilizing projects originally belonging to Western churches and governments.     

Accidental importation of a Japanese bat into New Zealand

Abstract

A juvenile female Japanese pipistrelle (Pipistrellus javanicus abramus) wap found dead on 9 December 1981 in Hamilton, New Zealand, in a package of car parts from Japan. This is apparently the first accidental importation of an exotic bat to New Zealand.     

“They Burn Brightly,But Only for a Short Time”: The Role of Social Workers in Companion Animal Grief and Loss

The human–animal bond is a relational theory which describes the dynamic between humans and nonhuman animals that satisfies needs in each for companionship and emotional support, framing companion animals as valued family members. Social workers have historically ignored the central role companion animals play in the lives of their clients, adopting an anthropocentric view underpinned by human rights and social justice. However, the need for companion animal-inclusive practice features in recent social work literature. As companion animals are intricately woven into the lives of their guardians, it follows that their inevitable death brings a profound sense of loss and thus an opportunity for social work intervention. The aim of this research was to see if there was a role for social work practitioners to support grieving animal companion guardians. Qualitative thematic analysis was performed on 218 candid online responses to an article on the topic of losing a companion animal, from which four major themes were identified: strength of the bond, anthropocentrically disenfranchised grief, anticipatory grief in the context of euthanasia, and the need for professional support. This analysis demonstrates the strength of the human– animal bond, illustrates how the dominant anthropocentric hegemony disenfranchises this variety of grief and loss, describes the experience of anticipatory grief in the context of euthanasia, and identifies the need for professional support. Implications for social work practice are identified, with opportunities for social workers to exchange their anthropocentric approach for a biocentric view, provide support to veterinarians and other professionals, and to work toward challenging the social constructs, which disenfranchise companion animal loss.     

Māori Research Collaborations,Mātauranga Māori Science and the Appropriation of Water in New Zealand

This article is an exploratory piece which introduces an argument that a new Māori-science discourse for freshwater has emerged in New Zealand. At the heart of the discourse is the Māori word mātauranga. Drawing on my attendance at a recent Māori water symposium, this work will track the shifting power relationships and fluid boundaries of groups of people with interests in science and claims to freshwater resources. With a focus on the words and language used by Ngai Tahu tribal leaders and natural scientists attending the symposium, this work asks what role the politics of language and discourse plays in transforming identities, power relations and sociopolitical hierarchies. A major focus of this article is the shifting relationships between identity, knowledge and power. Its thesis is that subtle shifts in discourse reflect wider social and symbolic struggles.     

Relative abundances of living and dead molluscs in two Californian lagoons

Assemblages of living benthic invertebrates (predominantly bivalve molluscs) from the sand-channel habitat of two Southern California (U.S.A.) lagoons were sampled on ten occasions over a 37-month period. A one-time sampling of the corresponding assemblages of accumulating dead remains made possible a contrast of living and dead assemblages designed to assess the biasing effects of post-mortem transportation, shell dissolution, and time-averaging. Species-by-species comparisons of the living and dead molluscs found together in the same samples strongly suggested that post-mortem transportation is insignificant within this high-energy habitat. A similar conclusion arose from contrasting the pattern of spatial heterogeneity of the living community with that of the dead assemblage. Species presence-and-absence comparisons were generally more reliable than comparisons of relative abundances. Adjustments for experimentally determined rates of post-mortem shell dissolution proved significant and further decreased the correspondence in relative abundances between living and dead assemblages. Greater temporal variability of living populations at Mugu Lagoon, probably caused by a more harsh physical environment, increased the differences in composition between living and dead assemblages, which suggests that correspondence in relative abundances between living and dead assemblages generally should be expected to decrease as the life environment becomes more harsh.     

The New Zealand falcon and wind farms: a risk assessment framework

Abstract

Internationally, birds of prey are often reported as being relatively prone to collision with wind turbines in comparison to other groups of birds. However, as yet it is unclear to what extent New Zealand's only endemic bird of prey, the New Zealand falcon (Falco novaeseelandiae), is at risk. In this paper we summarise the potential for wind farms to impact New Zealand falcon, evaluate the efficacy of a range of risk assessment and post-consent monitoring practices, and present options for mitigating and/or offsetting any residual effects. We conclude that the lack of knowledge on the effects of wind farms on New Zealand falcon is the result of inconsistency in the assessment methods thus far employed and the absence of a coordinated approach to monitoring methods and the dissemination of results. To remedy this we present a risk assessment framework that, if adopted, will provide the information necessary to ensure alternative energy targets can be met without compromising the conservation of this threatened species.     

Best practices for authenticating cell lines

Experiments using cell cultures are only valid to the extent that the cell culture is a true model system for the biological system being investigated. To assure that a cell line is and remains an appropriate biological model, its identity, purity, ploidy, and phenotype must be maintained. These characteristics comprise and determine the authenticity of a cell line. Routine monitoring of the cell line through microscopic examination of morphology can help to determine authenticity, as can the determination of phenotypic status. Assays designed to confirm cell identity and ploidy and freedom from cross-contaminating cell types may need to be performed at certain times, as such information may not be obtained through morphologic and phenotypic examinations alone. The best practices associated with establishing cell line authenticity are described in this article.     

Grief as social experience: Death and bereavement in Lihir,Papua New Guinea1

This paper explores the nature of grief in Lihir, Papua New Guinea, in light of psychological theories of bereavement and grief. Anthropologists have demonstrated that culture has an impact on both the expression and experience of grief and can offer both a challenge to established theories and new perspectives on the conceptualisations and experiences of the bereaved. Until recently, ‘grief work’ was the foremost model for understanding bereavement as a psychological process and was also used by anthropologists in cross‐cultural work. However, since the 1990s, a number of alternative models of normal grief have emerged, including the dual process coping model and the model that proposes resilience as a central concept. These newer models, particularly the one which incorporates resilience, offer more for understanding grief in Lihir. The article argues that grief in Lihir has a phase of sorrow and worry that is dealt with through the sociality and activity of the mourning period, and then a longer phase of active remembering and forgetting of the deceased. The social and cultural context of bereavement is not adequately captured in current psychological conceptualisations of social support, which need to be broadened to encompass cross‐cultural material.     

‘No Asians working here’: racialized otherness and authenticity in gastronomical Orientalism

Orientalist discourse relies on the relational epistemology in which the authenticity of the self co-emerges with the authenticity of the other. The cultural definition of authentic ethnic cuisine is discursively constructed through the identification of racialized otherness which also implies the ‘de-racialized’ cultural competency of cosmopolitan consumers. A critical discourse analysis of online restaurant reviews in selected US cities reveals that claims to authenticity in the gastronomical experience involving East Asian cuisine are predicated on the deployment of a racialized Orientalist narrative. We examine five themes: (1) racialized authentic otherness, (2) generalized racial temperament, (3) Orientalist destinations, (4) the authenticity of whiteness, and (5) self-Orientalism by the racialized alterity. We conclude that the production of a racial signification of the ‘Oriental other’ is linked to the authenticity of cultural otherness which, in turn, is connected to the authenticity of the consumer experience.     

From Private Performance to the Public Stage: Reconsidering ‘Staged Authenticity’ and ‘Traditional’ Performances at the Pasifika Festival

Over the past 60 years, the phenomenal growth of international tourism has been paralleled by the phenomenal growth in festivals held across the world and the increasing academic attention given to understanding them. Performances of culture in tourist settings are often viewed as inauthentic, staged purely for the benefit of tourists. This article contests this enduring perspective, best known through the notion of ‘staged authenticity’. Drawing on research conducted in the diasporic Pacific festival space in New Zealand, this article focuses on how those from within Pacific communities view their performances. Giving agency to the actors allows them to define performances and festivals from an emic perspective, and this challenges the notion of staged authenticity. Rather than material performed purely for the festival and its cultural tourists, performances instead represent a movement of material from largely homogenous community contexts into the multicultural public sphere. Furthermore, the notion of nonlinear temporal relations shows how these performance traditions function contemporaneously, as an important component of the community repertoires from which they come. This in particular challenges the idea that touristic performances represent ‘staged authenticity’. Rather, traditional musics represent one way in which diasporic Pacific communities authentically stage themselves.     

Is the amount and focus of ecological research in New Zealand sufficient to sustain indigenous biodiversity on private land?

By summarising ecological publications over the last 30 years, this paper provides an assessment of the amount and focus of New Zealand ecological research with respect to land tenure. While the number of published articles that deal with private land has increased over the last 30 years, the majority of New Zealand ecological research publications (65%) still focuses on public conservation lands, despite these only accounting for c. 30% of the land area. Even with the increasing emphasis in ecological research on private land there is still a need to better understand both the distribution of indigenous biodiversity and the interactions that occur between land management and indigenous biodiversity on private land. Such research is essential if we are to sustain indigenous biodiversity in lowland New Zealand.     

Land cover change and management implications for the conservation of a seabird in an urban coastal zone under climate change

Little Penguin (Eudyptula minor) is one of the most ecologically important seabirds in New Zealand and depends strongly on terrestrial ecosystems for nesting, moulting and breeding. Wellington, New Zealand, is one of the world's most important biodiversity hot spots for this species, mostly in confluence with human urban settlements. This species is currently suffering from the local impacts of climate change associated with urbanisation. Two suburbs of Wellington, New Zealand, that are used seasonally by Little Penguin as terrestrial habitat were selected as the study area to address two issues: (i) how local impacts of climate change may affect the population and habitat structure of species in urban coastal zones where land cover change occurs; and (ii) how landscape management practices may help to mitigate the impacts imposed by climate change on the species in such a context. Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Systems techniques were applied to quantify and measure the extent of the prehuman forests and current land cover classes in the study area to reveal the degree to which land cover has changed from predevelopment to the present time. The research shows that land cover change in the study area has been widespread and partly irreversible, particularly in areas covered by the class Built‐up Area. Results reveal that there are still spatial opportunities to safeguard this vulnerable species against the ill effects of climate change through landscape management practices.