Opening the Gift: Social Inclusion, Professional Codes and Gift-Giving in Long-Term Mental Healthcare

Deinstitutionalisation has not only made the social inclusion of clients a key objective in long-term mental healthcare, it may also affect the role of the care professional. This article investigates whether the social inclusion objective clashes with other long-standing professional values, specifically when clients give gifts to care professionals. In making a typology of gifts, we compare the literature on gift-giving with professional codes for gifts and relate both to the objective of social inclusion of clients. Our typology draws on an analysis of ethnographic fieldwork carried out in 2007/2008 at a Dutch mental healthcare centre. We identify four types of gifts for professionals in long-term mental healthcare, each relating individually to professional codes and the objective of social inclusion of clients. Only the ‘personal gift’ directly supports social inclusion, by fostering personal relationships between professionals and clients. Acceptance of this type of gift is advocated only for long-term care professionals. We suggest that professional codes need to consider this typology of gifts, and we advocate promoting reflexivity as a means of accounting for professional behaviour in deinstitutionalised care settings.     

Cosmologies of freedom and Buddhist self‐transformation in the Mongolian gold rush

This article examines how Mongolian Buddhist monks view the freedom they have experienced since the fall of Soviet socialism in 1990. Whereas the anthropological literature on postsocialism tends to focus on political and economic transformations, I argue that contemporary Mongolian politics points to the coexistence and interdependence of human and nonhuman agents. The article highlights how, in the context of the country's current mining boom, postsocialist politics requires attention to contemporary religious practices and spiritual beings beyond the ‘secular’. Considering emerging forms of Buddhist environmentalism, I describe how the freedom projects of Mongolian monks crystallize the intersection of Soviet socialist materialism, neoliberal individualism, and a Buddhist ethics of self‐transformation.     

Cash, Color, and Colonialism: The Politics of Tribal Acknowledgement

Cash, Color, and Colonialism: The Politics of Tribal Acknowledgement. Reneé Ann Cramer. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2005. 234 pp.     

The Question of ‘Corruption’ in Nepal

Drawing on ethnographic material about a set of Nepalese cultural practices known as ‘nutabad —ciypabad’, ‘favouritism’, the paper attempts; first, to chart the meaning favouritism has for Nepalis in their everyday encounters with central administration and the forms these interactions take and their cultural significations; second, to examine the way the idea of favouritism is constructed by the Westernized intellectuals to mean corruption and their reasons for so doing. The key sociological concept utilized for this analysis is ‘power’, specifically its operation in the field of political ethics centring on a conflict between two opposing ideologies; one advocated by the Westernized intellectuals who are pressing for the adoption of the principle of ‘impartiality’ in government; the other being that which is inherent in the Hindu traditional mode of statecraft wherein the institution of ‘the favour’ and therefore ‘partiality’ as a value is paramount and is in accord with Hindu cultural values, generally.     

Identity and Development: Tongan Culture, Agriculture, and the Perenniality of the Gift

Identity and Development: Tongan Culture, Agriculture, and the Perenniality of the Gift . Paul van der Grijp. Leiden: KITLV Press, 2004. 227 pp.     

The Gift of Life: Female Spirituality and Healing in Northern Peru

The Gift of Life: Female Spirituality and Healing in Northern Peru. Bonnie Glass-Coffin. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998. 256 pp.     

Distribution of two congeneric charrs in streams of Hokkaido Island,Japan: considering multiple factors across scales

Salvelinus leucomaenis (white-spotted charr) and S. malma (Dolly Varden) are distributed throughout Hokkaido Island, Japan, but sites where they occur in sympatry are rare. In general, S. malma inhabit upstream reaches and S. leucomaenis extend downstream to the ocean. Factors influencing their distribution were analyzed at four spatial scales ranging from the whole island to individual stream pools. At the island scale, S. leucomaenis were found in the warmer south-west region and at lower altitudes elsewhere, whereas S. malma were found in the colder north-east and at higher altitudes. At a regional scale, the downstream limit of S. malma and upstream limit of S. leucomaenis shifted to lower altitude from south-west to north-east across the island, coincident with the decrease in temperature. Further analysis showed that transition points from S. leucomaenis or sympatry to S. malma in individual watersheds were closely related to an index of cumulative mean monthly temperatures exceeding 5°C. However, at the scale of a single watershed, the transition occurred at different altitudes, gradients, and temperatures in two tributaries, apparently because stream discharge, habitat, and disturbances from floods interacted with these abiotic factors to limit distribution. The two charr species developed interspecific dominance hierarchies in individual pools, and there was strong complementary density compensation among stream pools that could be explained by interspecific competition but not by differences in habitat. However, patterns at watershed and regional scales suggested that interspecific competition interacts with temperature in complex ways. We conclude that the importance of various abiotic and biotic factors in shaping Hokkaido charr distributions depends on the scale at which they are viewed.     

Anchoring Revisited: The Role of the Comparative Question

When people estimate a numeric value after judging whether it is larger or smaller than a high or low anchor value (comparative question), estimates are biased in the direction of the anchor. One explanation for this anchoring effect is that people selectively access knowledge consistent with the anchor value as part of a positive test strategy. Two studies (total N = 184) supported the alternative explanation that people access knowledge consistent with their own answer to the comparative question. Specifically, anchoring effects emerged when the answer to the comparative question was unexpected (lower than the low anchor or higher than the high anchor). For expected answers (lower than the high anchor or higher than the low anchor), however, anchoring effects were attenuated or reversed. The anchor value itself was almost never reported as an absolute estimate.     

远古的馈赠：近现代人类基因溯源突破性进展写在2022年诺贝尔生理学或医学奖颁布之际

2022年诺贝尔生理学或医学奖授予瑞典生物学家斯万特·帕博（Svante P??bo）,以表彰他在古人类基因组学和人类起源方面做出的决定性贡献。关于人类起源,存在各种学说,目前主流的观点是“走出非洲学说”。斯万特·帕博在开创一门新的学科——古人类基因组学的同时,一直在不断完善“走出非洲学说”。他借助各种生物学技术,从基因组学的角度去深入探究人类起源,发现我们身体内保留着一些来自古人类的基因印迹。这项研究意味着在研究某些疾病的时候可以追根溯源,而不是将眼光局限于基因本身,探究某个基因从哪里来将会是研究疾病的全新思路。本文总结了他在研究过程中对相关生物技术的革新、基于线粒体和核基因组对古人类的探究以及相关成果,并介绍了一些源自古人类的基因及其有关信息。     

Function of the Hemolymph Nuptial Gift in the Ground Cricket,Allonemobius socius

Nuptial feeding, although common in the insect world, varies greatly in its form and function. Here, we test the function of the hemolymph nuptial gift in the southern ground cricket, Allonemobius socius, and attempt to determine if it functions as parental investment or mating effort. We manipulated the number of gifts a female received during courtship (one vs. none). We also recorded other aspect of courtship, such as feeding duration and spermatophore attachment duration. Female fecundity was measured for 7 d post‐mating. Our results indicate that female egg laying is significantly higher when a gift is provided, but the increase in egg laying is not related to gift size. In addition, the lack of a gift does not affect the male's ability to transfer a spermatophore. Together, these data suggest that the nuptial gift acts as parental investment and not as mating effort.     

Tribal Epistemologies: Essays in the Philosophy of Anthropology

Tribal Epistemologies: Essays in the Philosophy of Anthropology. Helmut Wautischer. ed. Andershot, England: Ashgate Publishing Ltd., 1998. 240 pp.