Surgical care in the village

The care of people suffering from surgical disease or injury is unique in requiring, even at its simplest level, a certain degree of psychomotor skill and technological support. This cannot be achieved and maintained in isolation with any consistency. Villages must therefore be interdependent and related to supervision from the district hospital. The responsibility for village care rests with the district physician. He must be adequately trained for this purpose and provided with the simple facilities that are required. He extends his reach into the villages through the auxiliary health workers, who must be taught the skills necessary for simple surgical procedures and be trained to stabilize those patients that they cannot treat for transport to the district hospital. Although the skills and facilities required must be determined locally, there is a need to define the broad principles of training and to develop simple and adequate technology at village and district levels.     

The ecological indication content of Central European village floras

The paper is aimed at detecting the main factors determining the composition of Central European village floras and their ecological uniqueness by exploitation of the condensed ecological information of quasi-complete datasets of their spontaneous (and subspontaneous) vascular plants. Data were gained in two districts each in Germany (Pomerania; Thuringia) and the Czech Republic (Bohemia; Moravia) at a N–S gradient of 700 km and altitudes of 0 – 775 m a.s.l. In each district two regions were selected and seven villages sampled in each. The lists of plant taxa of each village resulted in a matrix of 56 villages and 1008 taxa. These presence / absence data were used as input for multivariate analyses: NMDS, cluster analysis and CCA. Ten variables related to climate, position, geology, population and phytodiversity were employed to evaluate their effect on structuring the village floras.NMDS and cluster analysis revealed possibilities of forming of village groups very close to the reality using similarity relations between their distinct, sufficiently heterogeneous village floras and inherent specific ecological information; in both cases the Jaccard-index was preferred. CCA with the eight significant variables explained 18.3 % of the variance of species data and 76.7 % of the variance of species–environment relation, both referred to the first four axes and a sum of canonical eigenvalues of .768. Climatic variables proved to be most important, with July, January and mean annual temperatures, “thermic continentality”, annual precipitation and altitude having strong effects. Of the two variables related to geology, only the base presence in subsoils was included. Hence, natural factors determine the composition of Central European village floras despite all human influence in a scale-dependent way: the larger the study area, the more important are biogeographic parameters; the smaller its extent, the more relevant become landscape-ecological determinants.At the over-regional international scale of the present study the patterns found are distinct and plausible, since they fit in general phytogeographic principles. Therefore, quasi-complete datasets of spontaneous village floras are considered to be solid and multi-purpose ecological indicators, and this novel method is recommended for further testing.     

Economic aspects of village health

Given the poor quantity and quality of medical care in most villages in the developing countries, the economic determinants of village health are the supply of labour, the cash flow associated with that labour and the availability of land. The paper examines these in the three classical 'time periods', arguing that inability to meet labour peaks is of great significance in explaining seasonal shortage of food and chronic shortage of cash. It also explains community indifference to upkeep of social overhead capital. Substitution of capital goods for labour is socially differentiated, not least by labour availability, and leads inevitably to a regressive distribution of land and the creation or enlargement of a class of landless labourers. Under certain limited conditions this class may enjoy a rising real income with associated health-promotive expenditures. The more normal case, however, is extreme poverty, whether rural or urban, with all that that implies for the undermining of health. Land reform therefore becomes a necessary precondition of health promotion.     

不同地区村落系统的生态分布特征

本文应用地图作业和调查方法,分析和比较了不同地区影响村落系统分布的因素。结果表明,山麓平原村落呈均匀分布,低平原呈随机分布,滨海平原呈集聚分布。山区丘陵村落集聚分布在谷底、山脚、山麓边缘以及丘岗地带。村落规模因不同地形而异。自然资源、水系、农田生产力以及社会经济条件综合影响村落系统分布。河北村落系统分布可划分为8个类型区。     

Subsistence hunting and conservation issues in the game reserve of Gile, Mozambique

Ethnozoological research was conducted to gather information on the hunting activities and their relevance for the subsistence of local people in 8 villages around the game reserve of Gile, Mozambique. Two series of data were gathered by questionnaires to: (a) 510 householders from eight villages located in the outskirts of the Reserve; (b) 10 hunters from the village of Gile, the main centre of the study area. Several hunting techniques were recorded: spears, nets, traps (including gin-traps) and wildfires, while the use of guns did not appear relevant. The importance of subsistence hunting for local people was underlined by the high percentage of respondents who declared that they usually conduct this activity and sell bushmeat. The proportion of hunters per village was related to the village size but not to its geographical location of villages and the household composition. A positive relationship existed between the proportion of hunters, crop production and fishing activities, indicating that hunting is part of an integrated system of subsistence activities. Most animals harvested were mammals (89.5%, of which 46.7% were ungulates) and most were captured within the Reserve (96%). A higher percentage of animals was sold (56%), representing a relevant income source for the villagers. Small animals were mainly captured by traps during solitary hunting, medium-sized animals in collective net hunting; larger prey were captured by gin-traps adopted by both solitary and collective hunting. In the diet of the local people wild animals represented a higher protein source than domestic animals.     

Sustainable development at the village level in Bali,Indonesia

Using a stress-capability framework, the problems and opportunities for sustainable development at the village level in Bali are examined. Balinese culture incorporates a traditional form of local government which emphasizes cooperation, consensus building, and balance. These aspects provide a strong foundation for sustainable development initiatives. At the same time, many decisions are being taken external to the villages, and even to Bali, which may lead to problems for development initiatives.     

Close relatives and outsiders: village people in the city of Yakutsk, Siberia

The paper presents a snapshot of the city-village connections in the city of Yakutsk and an anthropological account of the dynamics of the relationship between the city and villages around it. Demographic changes that started in the 1980s, prompted by a decline in agriculture, initiated an exodus of the rural population from the countryside into the city of Yakutsk. This paper explores the migration dynamics of the rural population to the city. Two conflicting aspects of the relationship between the city and village are the focus of this paper: treating village people as close kin and as outsiders. I examine the image of ulusnik [a villager] and consider rationales behind the stigma attached to it and a social role of the Other which is imposed on the people from the countryside.     

The Plastic Cassowary: Problematic ‘Pets’ in West Papua

This article explores the ambivalent relations of indigenous Marind to domesticated animals in Merauke District, West Papua. Marind pity village animals because they lose their ‘wildness’ and behave like human settlers, whom Marind consider alien because of their ‘modern’ lifestyle and non-Papuan origins. These transformations evoke to Marind their own experiences of political oppression and ethnic domination as coerced subjects of the Indonesian state. However, domesticates also appear to enjoy living in the village and refuse to return to the wild. Similarly, many Marind are drawn by the promises of modernity and have given up hope for political freedom. Furthermore, Marind themselves replicate the oppressive role of the state over their lives by subjecting animals to human control. In this light, domesticates as ‘matter out of place’ in the village environment provoke pity and anxiety because they offer an all too faithful reflection of the ambiguous condition of their keepers.     

An analysis of temporal homogenisation and differentiation in Central European village floras

Agriculture and urbanisation shape biodiversity through extirpation of species and facilitation of species introductions. These processes include changes in the functional composition of species assemblages and can result in taxonomic and functional homogenisation. Especially the spread of non-native species has been discussed as a driver of homogenisation. However, no consensus has been reached so far; instead, both homogenisation and differentiation by non-native species have been shown. This inconsistency can partly be attributed to the lack of temporal data: Most homogenisation studies rely on purely spatial analyses, while homogenisation develops over time. We studied vascular plant species occurrences in 59 villages in the West of Germany in the 1980s and twenty years later. Within this period, the villages experienced changes in agriculture and trends towards urbanisation. We asked whether the villages’ floras became more similar to each other within the study period, and whether this process differed between selected plant groups. We based plant groups on leaf traits, life form, species native/non-native status, and mode of introduction. This enabled us to discuss changes in the flora in the context of land-use changes. We used Simpson's index of dissimilarity as a measure of β-diversity among villages and calculated species turnover and homogenisation in time. Overall, village floras became more similar to each other within the study period. However, neophytes became less similar to each other across villages. Turnover between sampling periods was largest for species promoted by horticulture and for species with helomorphic leaves (suggesting an effect of habitat loss on turnover). Neophytes will likely continue to differentiate floras on regional scales due to on-going and various introductions.     

A social-demographic,isonymic and genetic investigation on an isolated Calabrian village

The unlikely high frequency of G6PD deficiency which we found in a mountain village (San Giovanni in Fiore: province of Cosenza — Calabria, Southern Italy), with respect to the mean frequency of the other mountain villages in the same province, led us to carry out some investigations on the population of this village to understand this difference. The historical analysis, together with the social-demographic, endogamic and isonymyc study revealed the isolation of this village; while, the analysis of the allele frequencies of AK, ADA, 6PGD, PGM1, ABO and Rh markers revealed no significant differences if compared to the rest of the province. But the AK^*5 variant which we found in ten unrelated subjects with a frequency of 0.0104, allows us to hypothesise together with the high G6PD frequency a random genetic drift effect on this village.     

Predation by domestic cats in an English village

We studied predation by approximately 70 domestic cats ( Felis catus L.) in the Bedfordshire village of Felmersham over a one-year period. All the prey items brought home by virtually all the cats in the village were recorded and, where possible, identified. A total of 1090 prey items (535 mammals, 297 birds and 258 unidentified animals) were taken, an average of about 14 per cat per year. Twenty two species of birds and 15 species of mammals were identified. The most important items were woodmice (17%), house sparrows (16%) and bank voles (14%).
Old cats of both sexes caught fewer prey over the year than young cats. Female cats on the edge of the village also caught more prey than female cats in intermediate or central areas of the village; male cats showed no such effect. The type of prey caught also varied with position in the village; 'core' cats caught proportionately more birds than 'edge' cats. There was some indication in the data that cats caught fewer prey in areas where cat density was highest, but this effect was impossible to disentangle from position in the village. Weather apparently influenced hunting success. Temperature had no direct influence, but fewer prey were caught in winter; cats also caught less on wet days and windy days.
Estimates of the number of house sparrows in the village at the start of the breeding season, and the number of sparrows known to have been caught by the cats, suggest that at least 30% of the sparrow deaths in the village were due to cats. Domestic cats would appear to be major predators in this typical English village.     

Rural Livelihoods and Burning Practices in Savanna Landscapes of Nusa Tenggara Timur,Eastern Indonesia

Substantial attention has been given in recent years to forest and peatland degradation, transboundary haze, and biodiversity and economic impacts associated with major fire events in perhumid western Indonesia. Conversely, little information is available concerning underpinning conditions associated with burning practices and resultant fire patterns in other parts of the Indonesian archipelago, especially in markedly seasonally dry regions. As part of a broader study examining the patterning and drivers of burning in the monsoonal province of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT), the paper explores cultural, socioeconomic, biophysical, and, in discussion, political dimensions associated with landscape-scale patterns of burning at each of two village locations on the islands of Sumba and Flores. Assembled data illustrate that: (1) study villages are reliant on a range of subsistence agricultural activities, particularly annual food crops, livestock (especially pigs), and forest products; (2) while villages encompass mostly extensive areas of grassland savanna, proportionately most income/products are derived from limited areas of arable agricultural and very diminished forested lands; (3) despite this, considerable economic potential exists for developing certain tree products especially in agro-forestry settings, and more intensive livestock management; (4) these patterns are representative generally of surrounding regional agricultural landscapes. While burning is used as an essential agricultural management tool in defined seasonal contexts in all study villages, the reality is that today much burning is unmanaged and uncontrolled, with attendant significant economic impacts. As for western Indonesia, underlying drivers of such behavior are multiple and complex, but pointedly include: rapid societal change; conflicts within and between villages, and between villages and regulatory authorities (especially the Forestry Department), over access to land and resources; and continued nonrecognition in national and provincial fire policy frameworks of the practical necessity for using fire (wisely and safely) in many agricultural contexts. It is axiomatic that, without effective fire management and a supportive policy environment, sustainable livelihoods development will continue to be elusive in fire-prone savanna landscapes of eastern Indonesia.     

黄土高原典型区水土保持技术评估与需求分析——以安塞为例

黄土高原是我国乃至全球水土流失治理的重点地区,经过40多年的治理,积累了种类多样的水土保持技术,对遏制和缓解水土流失和生态退化起到了良好作用。目前由于缺乏对具体治理需求的考量,从而影响水土保持技术效果的发挥,故技术评估和需求分析是选择适宜可行生态治理技术的重要环节。选择安塞纸坊沟流域和南沟流域的4个自然村为研究区,通过实地调研、利益相关者问卷调查和地理空间分析,旨在辨识并评估现有水土保持技术,识别技术需求,构建指标体系分析其立地适宜性和社会-经济可行性。研究结果表明,农户主要应用3类12项技术,工程类和生物类技术应用居多,生物类中地埂植物带和农业类技术应用较少;目前应用的水土保持技术整体效果较好,专家认为12项技术中工程类的梯田和淤地坝、生物类的地埂植物带综合表现最好,农户对梯田和水平沟、鱼鳞坑整地等坡面治理技术的效果评分高于专家,对淤地坝、谷坊等沟道治理技术以及集雨水窖和保护性耕作技术的效果评分低于专家,农户更关注技术的经济效益;技术存在的问题表现在梯田和治沟造地配套措施不完善,淤地坝、谷坊和水窖缺少修缮维护;识别出的技术需求分为3类,即新技术、改良技术和配套技术;纸坊沟流域的两个村立地条件更适宜人工造林种草,南沟流域的两个村更适宜天然封育,由社会-经济可行性分析可知,峙崾崄农户需要更多梯田种植果树及其配套技术,纸坊沟需要更多梯田种植作物或大棚蔬菜瓜果,大南沟需要造地后的配套技术,杏树窑需要造地种植作物及道路等配套基础设施。该研究是对黄土高原水土保持技术进行评估和需求分析的重要尝试,为生态治理决策提供参考。     

Changing Ethnobotanical Knowledge of the Roviana People,Solomon Islands: Quantitative Approaches to its Correlation with Modernization

This study examines the acculturation of ethnobotanical knowledge in association with modernization by analyzing similarities and differences within a language group, the Roviana people of the Solomon Islands. Cultural consensus analysis and evaluation of either village-level or individual-level modernity were performed for seven villages. In one modernized and one less modernized village, detailed socioeconomic data at the individual level were collected. Intervillage variation of knowledge correlated with modernity only when the villages were referenced to the less modernized villages, while there was no correlation when the most modernized village was used as the base knowledge. An informant’s knowledge in the less modernized village was affected by socioeconomic factors, but this was not observed in the modernized village. From these results, I suggest that modern knowledge is easily integrated into the ethnobotanical knowledge system but is not directly related to the loss of indigenous botanical knowledge.     

Efficiency of selection for body weight in a cooperative village breeding program of Menz sheep under smallholder farming system

We evaluated the efficiency of selection for body weight in a cooperative village breeding program for Menz sheep of Ethiopia under smallholder farming system. The design of the program involved organizing villagers in a cooperative breeding group to implement selective breeding of their sheep. The program was jump-started through a one-time provision of elite rams from a central nucleus flock, but subsequent replacement rams were selected from within the village flocks. We also evaluated body weight trends in a village where cooperative breeding was not implemented and individual farmers managed their flocks under traditional breeding practices. Under traditional breeding practices, genetic progress over 8 years either stagnated or declined in all the weights recorded. In the cooperative villages, selection differentials of 2.44 and 2.45 kg were achieved in 2010 and 2011 selection seasons, respectively. Birth weight, 3-month weight and 6-month weight increased, respectively, by 0.49, 2.29 and 2.46 kg in the third-generation lambs over the base generation. Improved rams supplied from the central nucleus flock gave an initial genetic lift of 14.4% in the 6-month weight. This was higher than the gain achieved from selection in the village flocks, which was 5.2%. Our results showed that village-based genetic improvement in body weights under smallholder conditions could be feasible if appropriate designs are adopted and that commencing with elite central nucleus rams help jump-start village-based programs.     

Hunting among Moka Bubis in Bioko: dynamics of faunal exploitation at the village level

Hunting by Bubi villages around Moka, Bioko, and their impact on the local prey fauna was studied during July–August, 1992. Questionnaires were sent to 45 known hunters in the region in order to find out their techniques and hunting procedures. Hunting trips were also followed (a total of 204 km covered) and counts of animals brought to the villages from 103 recorded trips were also made. There were two main hunting methods employed: trapping and shooting. Most commonly used was snare trapping. At least five different types were used during the study. Guns were less commonly employed. Both techniques are efficient and productive but prey caught by each method differed. Most animals caught by snares were large rodents (Atherurus africanus, Cricetomys emini) and small antelopes (Cephalophus monticola) whereas those shot were usually antelopes (C. monticola and C. ogilbyi), monkeys (Cercopithecus spp.) and, when accompanied by dogs, drills (Mandrillus leucophaeus). The effects of hunting in the region is acute especially since they incur upon the proclaimed protected areas in the south of the island. Hunting trips are gradually being lengthened and areas which were originally unaffected by this activity are now part of the villages' hunting zones.     

水与村落关系的生态学思考

村落是地表突出且普遍的景观。从生态学角度而言 ,村落系以农村人群为中心 ,伴生生物为主要生物群落 ,建筑设施为重要栖息环境的人工生态系统。村落具有景观、分布、结构、功能、生命过程、新陈代谢和分类区划等生态学特征。从生态学角度对村落生态系统进行研究 ,形成具有特色的生态学分支村落生态学 (ｖｉｌｌａｇｅｅｃｏｌｏｇｙ) ,村落生态学具有确定性定义和研究内容[1 ] 。我国是一个农业大国 ,目前全国分布有 5 0 0多万个村落 ,6万多个集镇 ,市镇人口约占 30 % ,农村人口约占 70 % ,是农村生态系统的重要组成部分。我国 5 5个少数民…     

Epidemiology and prophylaxis of endemic goitre in the Bwa village of Sirao (Mali)

A study was conducted in Mali, in some villages exposed to iodine deficiency disorders (IDD). To treat and, above all, prevent endemic goitre, Lipiodol UF was dispensed in two ways: by intra-muscular injection (475 mg I) or by oral administration (48 mg I to 240 mg I). In two cases, hormone levels regained normal values and thyroid hypertrophies regressed significantly. Nevertheless, the impact of the treatment on the size of the goitres seems to be in favour of injections; which is probably due to the fact that in the village which received Lipiodol UF per os, many goitres were nodular.     

Spatial differentiation of traditional villages using ArcGIS and GeoDa: A case study of Southwest China

In order to explore the role of environmental factors of traditional villages in the large-scale space category and promote the integral protection of traditional village culture, 1767 traditional villages in Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan Province in Southwest China were selected as the objects. With the support of spatial analysis tools such as ArcGIS and GeoDa, the spatial differentiation characteristics of traditional villages and their related factors were analyzed. It was found that the distribution of traditional villages in Southwest China is uneven, and in the overall distribution pattern, there are six spatial agglomeration areas in the east of Guizhou and the central and western regions of Yunnan, as well as large discrete distribution areas in other traditional villages. Traditional villages are influenced by natural factors such as topography, elevation, etc. in terms of spatial differentiation, as well as human, economic and social development environment factors such as population, ethnic composition, regional economic development level, central town, road traffic, etc., and show certain regular characteristics. From the perspective of integrity protection of large-scale traditional village culture, we should make the protection plan for traditional village cultural ecological areas, implement flexible and differentiated traditional village protection strategies, enhance the connectivity level of various development elements of traditional villages in regional scope, and promote the development of global tourism based on traditional villages.     

Density, survival and dispersal of Anopheles gambiae complex mosquitoes in a West African Sudan savanna village

Abstract. To obtain information on adult populations of Afrotropical malaria vector mosquitoes, mark-release-recapture experiments were performed with Anopheles females collected from indoor resting-sites in a savanna area near Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, during September 1991 and 1992. Results were used to estimate the absolute population densities, daily survival rates, and dispersal parameters of malaria vectors in that area.
In 1991 a total of 7260 female Anopheles were marked and released, of which 106 were recaptured in the release village and 6 in the neighbouring villages, a total recapture rate of 1.5%. The following year 13, 854 female Anopheles were released and 116 recaptured in Goundri and 8 in the neighbouring villages, a total recapture rate of 0.9%. Recaptures were found in three of eight villages near Goundri. Nearly all of the recaptured mosquitoes were An.gambiae s.l. Of these, molecular determination revealed that An.gambiae s.s. and An.arabiensis were present in a ratio of -2:3.
Two simple random models of dispersal were simulated and the parameters of the models determined by searching for the least-squared fit between simulated and observed distributions. The mean distance moved by individual mosquitoes, estimated in this way, ranged 350–650 m day^-1, depending on die model and the year considered. Population densities were estimated using the Lincoln Index, Fisher-Ford and Jolly's methods. The estimates of population size had high standard errors and were not particularly consistent. A 'consensus' value of 150,000–350,000 mosquitoes is believed to apply for ht An.gambiae s.l. female population. Survival was estimated to be 80–88% per day.