Egress and Regress: Pentecostal Precursors and Parallels in Northern Mozambique

Based on fieldwork among the Makhuwa of northern Mozambique, this essay explores how non-Pentecostal models of transformation shape a people's manner of relating to Pentecostalism. Radical change has long been constitutive of Makhuwa history and subjectivity. Yet Makhuwa patterns of change, commonly conceived in terms of movement, entail regress as much as egress – circular mobilities that disrupt linear teleologies. State administrators and Pentecostal missionaries attempt to reform local inhabitants by, respectively, ‘sedentarising’ and ‘converting’ them. Deploying their historical proclivity towards mobility, those among whom I worked appear simultaneously eager to partake in resettlement schemes and reluctant to remain settled by them. I argue that their ambivalence towards Pentecostal churches and teachings, in particular, challenges two prevailing assumptions within anthropological studies of Christianity: that discontinuity is definitive, and that it is exceptional to Pentecostalism.     

Coherent activity between auditory and visual modalities during the induction of peacefulness

Multisensory integration involves combining information from different senses to create a perception. The diverse characteristics of different sensory systems make it interesting to determine how cooperation and competition contribute to emotional experiences. Therefore, the aim of this study were to estimate the bias from the match attributes of the auditory and visual modalities and to depict specific brain activity frequency (theta, alpha, beta, and gamma) patterns related to a peaceful mood by using magnetoencephalography. The present study provides evidence of auditory domination in perceptual bias during multimodality processing of peaceful consciousness. Coherence analysis suggested that the theta oscillations are a transmitter of emotion signals, with the left and right brains being active in peaceful and fearful moods, respectively. Notably, hemispheric lateralization was also apparent in the alpha and beta oscillations, which might govern simple or pure information (e.g. from single modality) in the right brain but complex or mixed information (e.g. from multiple modalities) in the left brain.     

Soaking in tapes: the haptic voice of global Pentecostal pedagogy in Ghana

Can a voice touch? This possibility is indeed what underlies ‘soaking in tapes’, a devotional practice performed in Anagkazo Bible and Ministry Training Center, a Pentecostal seminary based in Accra, Ghana. Soaking in tapes is a form of impartation, or grace transmission, homologous to the biblical method of laying on of hands. In this article, I explore the conditions of possibility of this transposition of touch into speaking and hearing, arguing that the haptic voice of soaking in tapes is predicated upon a cultivated receptivity and a specific bond connecting addresser and addressee. I situate the practice in the school's broader pedagogical apparatus, where it operates simultaneously as a spiritual exercise, a method of discipleship, and a technology of church government. I conclude by showing how soaking in tapes gives a pedagogical inflection to the general tactility and flow‐orientated materiality of global Pentecostal power.     

Decision making: the virtue of patience in primates

Marmoset monkeys devalue rewards requiring travel to acquire, but tamarin monkeys do not, despite the greater patience of marmosets when rewards are delayed in time. Such preference reversals, not predicted by standard economic theory, may reflect behavioral mechanisms adaptively specialized for different spatial and temporal patterns of foraging.     

Wellness as virtue: Morality and the pursuit of health

The interest and participation in health promotion and wellness activities has expanded greatly in the past two decades. The wellness revolution, especially in terms of diet and exercise, has been affected by both scientific findings and cultural changes. The paper examines how a particular aspect of culture, the moral meanings of health-promoting activities, contribute to the pursuit of wellness. Based on interviews with 54 self-identified wellness participants at a major university, we examine how health can be a moral discourse and the body a site for moral action. The paper suggests that wellness seekers engage in a profoundly moral discourse around health promotion, constructing a moral world of goods, bads and shoulds. Although there are some gender differences in particular wellness goals, engaging in wellness activities, independent of results, becomes seen as a good in itself. Thus, even apart from any health outcomes, the pursuit of virtue and a moral lifeis fundamentally an aspect of the pursuit of wellness.     

Light reception: discovering the clock-eye in mammals

Light is the most reliable environmental signal for adjusting biological clocks to the 24-hour day. Mammals receive this signal exclusively through the eyes, but not just via rods and cones. New evidence has been uncovered for a novel photoreceptor that may be responsible for more than just adjusting the clock.     

Desire Work: Producing Heterosexuality in South African Pentecostal Gay Men

Gay men in Cape Town, South Africa joined a Pentecostal ministry in an attempt to produce what they understood as ‘natural’ heterosexual attraction. In this article, I explore how these gay men try to form new selves through what I call ‘desire work’, or physical and emotional micropractices and discipline. Desire is not ‘natural’, but it is produced through a multitude of engagements with cultural norms, public life, political economies, and social forces. New selves are built through concerted bodily changes and comportment [Mahmood, Saba. 2005. Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press], and although gay Pentecostal men shared this process, their success was limited. I understand desire work as a response to a larger context in which many Pentecostals are disaffected with the post-apartheid government and withdraw from politics as a result. Their fears of the uncertainties of democracy pushed them to engage in optimistic fantasies of heterosexual lives, which were not often realised [Berlant, Lauren Gail. 2011. Cruel Optimism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press].     

She's the boss: signaling in pollen tube reception

In angiosperms, the sperm cells are carried within the pollen tubes (male gametophytes) to the female gametophyte so that double fertilization can occur. The female gametophyte exerts control over the male, with specialized cells known as synergids guiding the pollen tubes and controlling their behavior when they enter the female gametophyte so that the sperm cells can be delivered to the egg and central cell. Upon pollen tube arrival at the ovule, signal transduction cascades mediated by receptor-like kinases are initiated in both the synergid and the tip of the pollen tube, leading to synergid cell death and pollen tube rupture. In this review, we discuss the role of these receptors and of newly discovered members of the pollen tube reception pathway.     

Barriers and challenges in clinical ethics consultations: the experiences of nine clinical ethics committees

Clinical ethics committees have recently been established in nearly all Norwegian hospital trusts. One important task for these committees is clinical ethics consultations. This qualitative study explores significant barriers confronting the ethics committees in providing such consultation services. The interviews with the committees indicate that there is a substantial need for clinical ethics support services and, in general, the committee members expressed a great deal of enthusiasm for the committee work. They also reported, however, that tendencies to evade moral disagreement, conflict, and 'outsiders' are common in the hospitals. Sometimes even the committees comply with some of these tendencies. The committees agree that there is a need to improve their routines and procedures, clarify the committees' profile and field of responsibility, to make the committees well-known, to secure adequate operating conditions, and to develop organizational integration and support. Various strategies to meet these challenges on a local, regional or national level are also explored in this paper.     

Factors associated with the introduction of prelacteal feeds in Nepal: findings from the Nepal Demographic and Health Survey 2011

Background

A prelacteal feed is any food except mother’s milk provided to a newborn before initiating breastfeeding. Prelacteal feeding is a major barrier to exclusive breastfeeding. It is a prevalent practice in Nepal. Little is known about the factors associated with providing prelacteal feeds to the Nepalese newborn. This study explored the factors associated with providing prelacteal feeds to children under three years in Nepal using the Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) 2011.

Methods

This study utilised the NDHS 2011 child dataset which is a nationally representative study. The rates of providing prelacteal feeds were reported as a proportion. Complex Sample Analysis method was used to account for the cluster design and sample weight of the study. Chi-square tests and multiple logistic regression were used to analyse the factors associated with providing prelacteal feeds.

Results

A sample of 3948 mothers were included in the study. A total of 841 [26.5% (95% CI: 23.1%–30.3%)] weighted proportion) of mothers reported of providing prelacteal feeds to their newborn infants. Plain water (n?=?75), sugar/glucose (n?=?35), gripe water (n?=?3), sugar/salt solution (n?=?3), fruit juice (n?=?3), infant formula (n?=?96), tea (n?=?3) and other milk other than breast milk (n?=?556) were some of the types of prelacteal feeds reported. The multiple regression analysis showed that the mothers who had no education, were not working, were from the middle wealth quintile, who had not attended four antenatal care visits, were first time mothers and who were from the Terai/Plain region were more likely to provide prelacteal feeds.

Conclusions

Given that one in four infants were provided with prelacteal feeds, there is a need to implement breastfeeding promotion programs to increase the practice of exclusive breastfeeding and reduce prelacteal feeding practices. Breastfeeding counseling at antenatal clinics and peer support for exclusive breastfeeding should be included as part of breastfeeding promotion programs. Mobilisation of female community health volunteers for peer counseling is also a feasible option for Nepal.

     

Converting the Spirit Spouse: The Violent Transformation of the Pentecostal Female Body in Maputo,Mozambique

This article discusses the forceful transformation of the female body in Brazilian Pentecostalism in urban Mozambique and argues for an understanding of Pentecostal conversion as embodying spiritual warfare. Presenting the case of avenging spirits, such as the spirit spouse, it explores how spirits interfere in women's new socio-economic positions and intimate relationships. Pentecostal women learn to stay in control of their body under guidance of the Holy Spirit and a ‘violent’ war against the spirit spouse unfolds. The prevalence of ‘violence’ implies that we should critically question a perception of conversion as bringing healing and harmony.     

Mechanisms of sound reception and conduction in the dolphin

Morphology of the dolphin’s lower jaw, model and behavioral experiments are discussed with the aim of exploring the mechanisms of sound reception and conduction to the lower jaw canals, taking into account the known concepts of acoustics and the theory of grouped antennas. It is shown that the left and right rows of mental foramens with the respective mandibular canal and tissues of the canals are forming the new external ear and the new external auditory duct whereby sound (in the frequency band of 0.1–160 kHz) is transmitted into the middle ear, in contrast to the dolphin’s nonfunctional outer ear. This new external ear is created by nature as a receiving array of traveling-wave antennas located in the throat of an acoustic horn (the respective mandibular canal). The results give reason to assume the existence of a similar new external ear in Odontoceti.