South African Museums and the Creation of a New National Identity

Museums are important sites of national cultural production, collective memory making, and the construction of national narratives. Contemporary South Africa is a particularly interesting place to study these processes. With the demise of apartheid, South Africa faces the difficult challenge of creating a new national identity that incorporates an examination of past oppression yet leaves the way open for building a national identity that incorporates all its diverse groups. The museums reviewed below, the Robben Island Prison Museum, the District Six Museum in Capetown, and the Kwa Muhle local history museum in Durban all make important contributions to this process.     

Archaeological Analysis Does Not Support Intentionality in the Production of Brushed Ends on Chimpanzee Termiting Tools

Some chimpanzees use 2 types of tools to extract underground termites for consumption. Chimpanzees insert thin, flexible probes into tunnels or holes in termite mounds (fishing), and sometimes use stouter, rigid sticks to first puncture the holes and also possibly to fish. Many puncturing sticks have distinctive “brushed” ends. Researchers have hypothesized that chimpanzees create the brushed ends intentionally to increase their affixibility to biting termites (Sugiyama, 1985). The results of our archaeological analysis of a large collection of puncturing sticks used by Central African chimpanzees falsifies this hypothesis, and instead agrees with the recent behavioral observations of Sanz et al. (2004; cf. Bermejo and Illera, 1999) that brushing is a coincidental result of procuring sticks from vegetation sources. The results highlight the positive contribution of an archaeological approach to problems in chimpanzee material culture and emphasize to primatologists the value of curating artifacts.     

On Graphical and Numerical Representation of Protein Sequences

Abstract

A new approach using a 3-D Cartesian coordinate system to represent protein sequences has been derived. By the 3-D Graphical representation we make a comparison of sequences belonging to nine different proteins.     

Representation in the genome and in other inheritance systems

There is ongoing controversy as to whether the genome is a representing system (Sterelny K., Smith K.C. and Dickson M. 1996. Biol. Philos. 11: 377–403; Griffiths P.E. 2001. Philos. Sci. 68: 394–412). Although it is widely recognised that DNA carries information, both correlating with and coding for various outcomes, neither of these implies that the genome has semantic properties like correctness or satisfaction conditions (Godfrey-Smith P. 2002. In: Wolenski J. and Kajania-Placek K. (eds), In the Scope of Logic, Methodology, and the Philosophy of Sciences, Vol. II. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp. 387–400). Here a modified version of teleosemantics is applied to the genome to show that it does indeed have semantic properties – there is representation in the genome. The account differs in three respects from previous attempts to apply teleosemantics to genes. It emphasises the role of the consumer of representations (in addition to their mode of production). It rejects the standard assumption that genetic representation can be used to explain the course of an organism’s development. And it identifies the explanatory role played by representational properties of the genome. A striking consequence of this account is that other inheritance systems could also be representational. Thus, a version of the parity thesis is accepted (Griffiths P.E. 2001. Philos. Sci. 68: 394–412). However, the criteria for being an inheritance system are demanding, so semantic properties are not ubiquitous.     

Varieties of Representation in Evolved and Embodied Neural Networks

In this paper I discuss one of the key issuesin the philosophy of neuroscience:neurosemantics. The project of neurosemanticsinvolves explaining what it means for states ofneurons and neural systems to haverepresentational contents. Neurosemantics thusinvolves issues of common concern between thephilosophy of neuroscience and philosophy ofmind. I discuss a problem that arises foraccounts of representational content that Icall ``the economy problem': the problem ofshowing that a candidate theory of mentalrepresentation can bear the work requiredwithin in the causal economy of a mind and anorganism. My approach in the current paper isto explore this and other key themes inneurosemantics through the use of computermodels of neural networks embodied and evolvedin virtual organisms. The models allow for thelaying bare of the causal economies of entireyet simple artificial organisms so that therelations between the neural bases of, forinstance, representation in perception andmemory can be regarded in the context of anentire organism. On the basis of thesesimulations, I argue for an account ofneurosemantics adequate for the solution of theeconomy problem.     

Fossil Horses, Orthogenesis, and Communicating Evolution in Museums

The 55-million-year fossil record of horses (Family Equidae) has been frequently cited as a prime example of long-term macroevolution. In the second half of the nineteenth century, natural history museum exhibits characteristically depicted fossil horses to be a single, straight-line (orthogenetic) progression from ancestor to descendent. By the beginning of the twentieth century, however, paleontologists realized that, rather than representing orthogenesis, the evolutionary pattern of fossil horses was more correctly characterized by a complexly branching phylogenetic tree. We conducted a systematic survey of 20 fossil horse exhibits from natural history museums in the United States. Our resulting data indicate that more than half (55%) of natural history museums today still depict horse evolution as orthogenetic, despite the fact that paleontologists have known for a century that the actual evolutionary pattern of the Family Equidae is branching. Depicting outmoded evolutionary patterns and concepts via museum exhibits, such as fossils horses exemplifying orthogenesis, not only communicates outmoded knowledge but also likely contributes to general misconceptions about evolution for natural history museum visitors.     

Information in the Neuronal Representation of Individual Stimuli in the Primate Temporal Visual Cortex

To analyze the information provided about individual visual stimuliin the responses of single neurons in the primate temporal lobevisual cortex, neuronal responses to a set of 65 visual stimuli wererecorded in macaques performing a visual fixation task and analyzedusing information theoretical measures. The population of neuronsanalyzed responded primarily to faces. The stimuli included 23 facesand 42 nonface images of real-world scenes, so that the function ofthis brain region could be analyzed when it was processing relativelynatural scenes.It was found that for the majority of the neurons significantamounts of information were reflected about which of several of the23 faces had been seen. Thus the representation was not local, forin a local representation almost all the information available canbe obtained when the single stimulus to which the neuron respondsbest is shown. It is shown that the information available about anyone stimulus depended on how different (for example, how manystandard deviations) the response to that stimulus was from theaverage response to all stimuli. This was the case for responsesbelow the average response as well as above.It is shown that the fraction of information carried by the lowfiring rates of a cell was large—much larger than that carried bythe high firing rates. Part of the reason for this is that theprobability distribution of different firing rates is biased towardlow values (though with fewer very low values than would bepredicted by an exponential distribution). Another factor is thatthe variability of the response is large at intermediate and highfiring rates.Another finding is that at short sampling intervals (such as 20 ms)the neurons code information efficiently, by effectively acting asbinary variables and behaving less noisily than would be expectedof a Poisson process.     

Social Theory,Ecology and Epistemology: Theoretical Issues in Australian Prehistory

Analysis of certain discussions in Tasmanian prehistory reveals a tacit but strong environmental determinism. This approach, which centres on the notion of cultural adaptation, dominates current research in Australian prehistory. Recent theoretical discussions have, however, shown that the ecological approach is untenable; it is suggested that neo-marxist economic anthropology, emphasizing social rather than ecological relations, provides an alternative. The interpretation of archaeological data in social terms is a problem, but it should be dealt with rather than ignored. A further difficulty arises from the epistemological framework within which most archaeological work has operated: this is simplistic and empiricist. Greater consideration needs to be given to the role of theory in, and the social context of knowledge.     

香港壕涌遗址孢粉、植硅石组合及其环境考古

香港壕涌遗址孢粉、植硅石组合表明：自新石器时期以来该遗址周围植被以热带-亚热带蕨类植物为主;草本植物以禾本科、莎草、藜科等主为;在遗址附近的高地及山坡上生长了常绿阔叶林,其成分包括：阿丁枫香属（Altingia）、栲属（Castanopsis ）、常绿栎（evergrenn Quercus）、棕榈（Palmae）等;植被面貌是人类活动干扰的结果。新石期时期,遗址受海水影响,人类活动以采集、捕捞为主;唐宋时期,禾本科花粉及典型水稻硅酸体的大量出现,反映了稻作农业的发展及人类生存方式的改变。     

初级视皮层神经元集群对拓扑特征响应的可视化表征

神经元集群响应的高维特性是脑机制研究面临的主要困难之一.拓扑特征是图像的基本特征之一,为了有效表征高维的神经元集群响应的拓扑特征特性,提出了一种基于三维自组织映射网络采用RGB颜色特征表征神经元集群响应的动态可视化方法,分析多通道微电极阵列采集的大鼠初级视觉皮层(V1区)神经元集群信号,进而研究了V1区神经元集群对图形拓扑特征的响应特性.通过与主成分分析(PCA)方法进行对比发现:该方法能够有效表征V1区神经元集群对拓扑结构的时序动态响应特征,表征方式形象直观,具有一定的优越性.     

Indigenous Media Gone Global: Strengthening Indigenous Identity On- and Offscreen at the First Nations/First Features Film Showcase

For 12 days in May 2005, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), as well as several other screening venues in Washington, D.C., hosted a group of renowned indigenous filmmakers from around the globe for the groundbreaking film showcase, "First Nations/First Features: A Showcase of World Indigenous Film and Media." This film showcase highlighted the innovative ways in which indigenous filmmakers draw on indigenous storytelling practices to create cinematic visions that honor their long-standing indigenous cultural worlds while reaching local and world audiences. In this essay, I highlight the onscreen impact through an analysis of several films featured in First Nations/First Features, as well as the offscreen impact emphasizing how the indigenous directors used this opportunity to strengthen social networks and share experience in this industry, which may develop into future collaborative film projects.     

Identity,Subjectivity, and Disorders of Self in Psychosis

Alterations in self-experience are increasingly attended to as relevant and important aspects of schizophrenia, and psychosis more broadly, through a burgeoning self-disorders (SD) literature. At the same time, issues of self, subject, and subjectivity within schizophrenia-spectrum illnesses have also gained attention from researchers across the social sciences and humanities, and from ethnographic research especially. This paper examines the subjective experience of disruptions in self-identity within a cohort of first episode psychosis (FEP) service users, critically engaging with the SD literature and bringing it into conversation with social sciences and humanities scholarship on self and schizophrenia. Drawing findings from an ongoing ethnographic study of young peoples’ experiences with psychosis, we explore meanings of mental distress relating to psychotic episodes and attend to issues of self, identity, and subjectivity. We critique the division between “normal” and “pathological” self-experience that is endorsed within the SD literature, arguing against the notion that fragmentation of self-experience in schizophrenia-spectrum illnesses is indicative of psychopathology. We highlight how experiences categorized as psychosis are also important and complete aspects of one’s social world and inner life and explore the ways in which at least some aspects of disruptions of self-identity stem from clinical situations themselves—in particular, from asymmetries of power within the mental health system. Relating our findings to feminist, postcolonial, and disability studies’ approaches to the “self,” we emphasize the complex interplay between interpersonal, cultural, and structural aspects of self-experience within FEP.

     

Genetic susceptibility to prostate, breast, and colorectal cancer among Nordic twins

To investigate the role of genetics in the development of cancer, we developed a new approach to analyze data on prostate, breast, and colorectal cancer from the Swedish, Danish, and Finnish twin registries on monozygotic (MZ) and same-sex dizygotic (DZ) twins. In the spirit of a sensitivity analysis, we modeled genetic inheritance as either an autosomal recessive or dominant cancer susceptibility (CS) genotype that involves either a single gene, many genes with equal allele frequencies, or three genes with a ninefold range of allele frequencies. We also modeled the joint probability of cancer incidence among five age categories, conditional on the presence or absence of the CS genotype. The main assumptions are: (1) The joint distribution of unobserved environmental effects in a twin pair conditional on the presence or absence of the CS genotype is the same for MZ and DZ twins, (2) the probability of cancer conditional on the presence or absence of the CS genotype and the unobserved environmental effects (i.e., the gene-environment interaction) is the same for MZ and DZ twins, and (3) the probability of cancer is independent between twins with the CS genotype. Estimation was maximum likelihood via a search over allele frequency and two levels of EM algorithms. Models had acceptable or good fits. Variability was estimated using a bootstrap approach, but only 50 replications were feasible. The 94th percentile of bootstrap replications for the estimated fraction of cancers with the CS genotype ranged, over the various genetic models, from 0.16 to 0.45 for prostate cancer, 0.12 to 0.30 for breast cancer, and 0.08 to 0.27 for colorectal cancer. We conclude that genetic susceptibility makes only a small to moderate contribution to the incidence of prostate, breast, and colorectal cancer.     

Evaluating Archaeological Evidence for Demographics,Abandonment, and Recovery in Late Antique and Byzantine Anatolia

Archaeological evidence, particularly that deriving from systematic regional surveys, offers great potential for understanding social and demographic change in Anatolia between 300 and 1200 CE. We first consider major factors inherent to regional archaeological data sets that complicate simple synthesis and generalization between projects. We then provide a synthesis focused on longue durée questions relevant to cross-disciplinary examination of the relationship between environmental and societal change and examine potential connections between major changes in settlement patterns observed in the seventh- and eighth- century archaeological data and larger questions of systemic collapse and resilience in the face of climate change. To conclude, we assess current archaeological evidence for the processes of agricultural adaptation at the transition associated with the end of the ancient economy.