Governing Anti-conservation Sentiments: Forest Politics in Laos

In many developing countries, conservation is regarded in a negative manner and this supports critical framings of conservation as a form of government or imperialism. This article examines debates about conservation and forests in Laos, and in particular, at the site of the World Bank supported Nam Theun 2 hydropower project that has featured prominently in international and national critiques of conservation. In Laos, foreign-driven conservation initiatives have at times challenged nationwide aspirations for development. But a fuller understanding of Lao concerns requires attention not only to international interventions, but also to perspectives of forests and management of these resources by the Lao state. Most significantly, a widely shared idea of foreign conservation as opposed to Lao development is used to elide the emergent competition between the state and rural villagers over forest resources. Anti-conservation sentiments, like their converse, can thus be used as strategies of government.     

Reform or Revolution in Heaven? Funerals among Upland Tai

An examination of funeral ritual among upland Tai and Black Tai in particular, in northern Southeast Asia looks at the way it has articulated social and ethnic relations historically and in the present. It looks at how ritual and cosmology has shifted in response to social change and considers how this either weakens or strengthens ethnic boundaries between upland Tai and the surrounding dominant civilizations of Laos, Vietnam and China.     

Domestication, cultivation and utilization of two small millets, brachiaria ramosa and Setaria glauca (Poaceae), in South India

Brachiaria ramosa is cultivated in pure stands. Its grains are used in preparing at least nine traditional foods in South India. Setaria glauca is cultivated in mixed stands along with little millet (Panicum sumatrense). In Orissa state and in Southern India the grains are used to make at least six traditional foods as a supplementary ingredient. The weedy forms of these were found growing with upland rice and some millets in diverse agro-ecological niches, and are identified by various vernacular names by local farmers. Explorations were conducted to gather information on the evolutionary trends, domestication and ethnobotany of these minor food crops. These findings substantiate the belief that domestication process may have passed through three distinct phases: (i) an associated mimic weed with upland rice and some millets; (ii) a secondary crop mixed with little millet or kodo millet; and (iii) as an independent crop. Also, this process has been promoted as a means of imparting adaptation to an arid climate and in turn related to the diversification of the agriculture basic complex.     

Adivasis,Communists, and the rise of indigenism in Kerala

Although the notion of the ‘adivasi’ has come under academic scrutiny and the ‘dark side’ of indigeneity discourses is increasingly criticized, there has been relatively little attention to the question of why, under adverse circumstances, activists have nevertheless started articulating their political program in the language of adivasi-ness while surpassing the particularistic politics of earlier tribal movements. Explaining the emergence of indigenist politics as a new democratic force is all the more pertinent for the case of Kerala since this state has the Communist movement as an obvious alternative for the articulation of such a transformative political agenda. This article therefore seeks to explore the forces that gave rise to the politics of indigenism. It begins with a discussion of shifts in the structural power context shaping subaltern activism in Kerala—particularly the impact of neoliberal restructuring and the new ideological environment created with the demise of the Communist block. The paper then moves to consider the political dynamics operating within this structural context that led indigenist activists to form a separate political movement. It looks particularly at the sense of both ideological and material disillusionment these activists feel toward the Communist party in Kerala.     

Austro-boreal disjunctions: a remarkable biogeographical pattern illustrated by Nan Ao Island, Guangdong, China

Aim To document disjunct, insular populations of animals separated from similar conspecifics distributed to the north, inland and upland, and compare this pattern with that historically described for northern Florida and the Florida Keys islands. Location Nan Ao Island is on the Tropic of Cancer 117° E in the South China Sea, eastern Guangdong Province, China. There are archipelagos of islets extending south‐east, and several coastal islets around Nan Ao. Methods Five field surveys were made in 1999–2001. Voucher specimens were tagged, catalogued, and deposited in major museum collections. The comparable Floridian disjunct pattern was researched and described in overview. Results Five species – a toad, two lizards and two snakes – collected on Nan Ao and three satellite islands were added to the two previously documented species – a lizard and a snake – that fit the austro‐boreal disjunct pattern. One lizard and one snake are minor range extensions of a hundred or few km. One snake's Nan Ao population is disjunct by about 450 km and one lizard's by about 550 km. The small, semi‐fossorial, short‐legged toad is the most notable, separated from the main area of its range by about 800 km. This is similar to the greatest distance between north Floridian and Keys disjunct populations. Main conclusions (1) Seven Nan Ao species of terrestrial vertebrates are isolated and disjunct from conspecifics found to the north, upland and inland; this compares to five species showing a similar north Florida to Florida Keys pattern. (2) The Nan Ao species have no conspecifics known from the intervening area whereas four of the five Floridian species have conspecific, but dissimilar, populations in the gap. (3) Nan Ao and its satellite islets were high points on a large coastal plain at glacial maximum. (4) Holocene sea level rise and concomitant global warming may have isolated the Nan Ao relicts that had continuous distributions at glacial maximum. (5) The intervening mainland conspecific populations may have been replaced by tropical species that moved north along the mainland but failed to colonize the islands. (6) If so, significant adaptation to a warmer climate must have occurred to enable survival of the Nan Ao relicts to the present.     

Factors related to traditionalism among Navajo students

Strong communal identities and institutions have survived in the Mexican state of Oaxaca in spite of over 150 years of central state efforts to eliminate them. This article examines why this is so, focusing on the liberal reform period of 1856 to 1911, when state officials mandated the privatization of communal land held under corporate title by Mexico's indigenous communities. In contrast to much of the literature on nations and nationalism, in which local and national identities are held to be in opposition, the article argues that local identities and institutions survived in Oaxaca precisely because villagers employed national identities, discourses, and institutions in their defence. More generally, the article contends that we need to rethink the conventional contrast between local and national identities, in order to better comprehend the politics of nation-building and state formation: local identities (communal, ethnic, regional, religious) can only be understood in terms of how they relate and respond to national identities and state institutions; national identities and state institutions, in turn, are in part constructed by subordinate groups whose understanding of the nation is informed by their own local identities, cultures and histories of political conflict.     

Moral Agency,Identity Crisis and Mental Health: An Anthropologist’s Plight and His Hmong Ritual Healing

During anthropological fieldwork, the author had a serious accident on the outskirts of a Hmong village in the highland of Laos. However, this dramatic incident turned out to be the occasion of his ritual initiation into the local village community. An analysis of narratives of the incident reveals Hmong conceptions of the anthropologist’s physical, mental and moral affliction, its causative concomitants and his ritual healing. Hmong mental health and identity are situated in a moral space of exchange relationships to significant others, challenging basic assumptions of concepts of the person widely held in psychiatry and beyond. The healing ritual transformed the author’s being from indeterminate “other,” in a life-threatening state of identity crisis, to a wholesome Hmong “self,” in a state of health and moral agency. This exemplary rite de passage highlights the affinity of ritual healing and constitution of self in a moral space. The underlying relational concept of the person is in sharp contrast to psychiatry’s concepts of the person, which are deeply shaped by values of individualism. Psychiatric services must accommodate substantial differences in the concepts of the person when treating Hmong migrants from Laos.     

Genetic resources of primitive upland rice in Laos

Primitive upland cultivars (Oryza sativa L.) were collected in northern Laos. One-hundred-thirty-two cultivars were collected in upland fields at 27 sites. Morphological and physiological traits were recorded. The materials were classified intoindica and japonica types based on isozyme genotypes. We classified 106japonica, 16indica, two intermediate, and eight heterozygous cultivars. Thejaponica cultivars were characterized by glabrous hulls and sticky grains. Only two out of 16indica cultivars were glabrous. The heterozygotes were estimated to be generated by out-crosses betweenjaponica andindica cultivars in upland fields. The intermediate type would be the progeny of such heterozygotes. Higher polymorphism was found at two isozyme loci—Amp1 andEst2—among thejaponica cultivars. Genotypic frequencies differed between populations collected from upland fields along roads and along a branch of the Mekong river. Such differences would be caused by different origins of these two populations. In this report, isozymes were indicated as valuable markers to recognize the cultivars to be of independent stock.     

Reconstruction of Late Cretaceous coastal paleotemperature from halite deposits of the Late Cretaceous Nongbok Formation (Khorat Plateau,Laos)

Cretaceous evaporites of the Maha Sarakhan Formation in Thailand (e.g., the Nongbok Formation, Laos) have been studied for almost a century as the huge potash deposits in the world. The consistently high local paleotemperatures should lead to huge salt deposits during the evaporation process. Primary fluid inclusions in halite can provide surface brine water temperatures directly and quantitatively. Until now, there have been no data published from paleotemperature of primary fluid inclusions of Cretaceous halite. The non-marine halite from the Cretaceous Nongbok Formation (Laos) precipitated from shallow brine waters with temperatures of 17.7–42.3 °C.     

Locating the post-national activist: migration rights,civil society and the practice of post-nationalism

Theorists of post-nationalism examine the (re)configuration of national identity, membership and rights. Yet while normative scholarship has conceptualized post-nationalism as an ongoing practice of discursive contestation over the role of national group membership in liberal democratic societies, more empirical studies have tended to overlook these features to predominantly focus instead on top-down legal and political institution-building as evidence of post-nationalism. In this article I argue in favour of an empirical conceptualization of post-nationalism which more effectively captures micro-level practices of discursive contestation. Specifically I posit that post-national activists, or actors engaging in post-national practices of contestation from within the state, are a key focus of analysis for scholars of post-nationalism. I develop this claim through the analysis of data collected with individuals working on civil society campaigns for migration rights in Europe, Australia and the USA who – I demonstrate – embody many of the characteristics of the post-national activist.     

Current state and prospects of biotechnology in Central and Eastern European countries. Part I: Visegrad countries (CZ,H, PL,SK)

Innovation is a key determinant of sustainable growth. Biotechnology (BT) is one such industry that has witnessed a revolution in innovative ideas leading to the founding of many new companies based on providing products, solutions and services, stretching from the food industry to environmental remediation, and new medicines. BT holds much promise for the development of national and local economies, however, this requires a strategic approach involving actors within government, industry, and academia working in concert to maximize this potential. This first article reviews the current “state of play” in the field of BT within the Central Eastern European (CEE) countries. For the purposes of this article, CEE refers to the countries of Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia (the so-called Visegrad – V4 countries). We examine the components that support the creation and development of a BT sector in CEE and also highlight the barriers to these objectives. Clearly setting priorities for the countries’ policy agenda, as well as the alignment of Smart Specialization Strategy will help to focus efforts. Recent investments in R&D infrastructure within CEE have been substantial, but conditions will need to be optimized to harness these largely European investments for effective use towards SME high-tech development.     

Building the State, Making the Nation: The Bases and Limits of State Centralization in "Modern" Peru

Most contemporary discussions of the nature of the state, state-building, and national consciousness formation are based on an oppositional model of state-society relations. In such models, state-building is depicted as a process in which the state must impose its central institutions and cultural/moral values on the recalcitrant local populations found within its territorial boundaries who, in resisting the state, cling to a myriad of local, oppositional identities. The present article critiques the oppositional model, proposes an alternative conceptualization that encompasses dimensions of cooperation and conflict in state-society relations, and thus points toward the forces that underlie the fragmentation and consolidation of states and national cultures.     

Upslope development of a tidal marsh as a function of upland land use

To thrive in a time of rapid sea‐level rise, tidal marshes will need to migrate upslope into adjacent uplands. Yet little is known about the mechanics of this process, especially in urbanized estuaries, where the adjacent upland is likely to be a mowed lawn rather than a wooded natural area. We studied marsh migration in a Long Island Sound salt marsh using detailed hydrologic, edaphic, and biotic sampling along marsh‐to‐upland transects in both wooded and lawn environments. We found that the overall pace of marsh development was largely unaffected by whether the upland being invaded was lawn or wooded, but the marsh‐edge plant communities that developed in these two environments were quite different, and some indicators (soil salinity, foraminifera) appeared to migrate more easily into lawns. In addition, we found that different aspects of marsh structure and function migrated at different rates: Wetland vegetation appeared to be a leading indicator of marsh migration, while soil characteristics such as redox potential and surface salinity developed later in the process. We defined a ‘hydrologic migration zone’, consisting of elevations that experience tidal inundation with frequencies ranging from 20% to 0.5% of high tides. This hydrologically defined zone – which extended to an elevation higher than the highest astronomical tide datum – captured the biotic and edaphic marsh‐upland ecotone. Tidal inundation at the upper border of this migration zone is highly variable over time and may be rising more rapidly than mean sea level. Our results indicate that land management practices at the upland periphery of tidal marshes can facilitate or impede ecosystem migration in response to rising sea level. These findings are applicable to large areas of tidal marsh along the U.S. Atlantic coast and in other urbanized coastal settings.     

Autonomy,productiveness, and community: the rise of inequality in an Amazonian society

In Amazonian societies, autonomy is said to be a core value motivating egalitarian politics. This article shows how the quest for autonomy and productiveness presently sets in motion processes that encroach upon these very values. Among the Shuar of Amazonian Ecuador, the realization of autonomy and productiveness increasingly depends on the capture of state resources. Shuar interact with the local state as members of relatively recent sedentary communities and through the mediation of elected leaders. In these processes, ‘community’ itself is transformed: being a channel to regenerate domestic livelihoods, it also becomes an end in itself, giving rise to new economistic attitudes while legitimizing inequalities between commoners and leaders. The article suggests that the pursuit of autonomy and productiveness within a process of village formation is central to the transformation of egalitarianism that occurs when small-scale Amazonian polities engage with nation-state politics.     

CONTOURS OF AN ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE CHINESE STATE: POLITICAL STRUCTURE, AGENCY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN RURAL CHINA

Anthropologists have long been inclined to view China from the perspective of a state-society dichotomy. In this model, the inevitable consequence of economic reform is that – especially at the local level – the state must yield more and more of its power to entrepreneurs, foreign investors, non-state organizations, and local communities. Not only does this approach distort the role of the state in society, but by placing the state above and outside society it also excludes it from the anthropological gaze. This article proposes an anthropology of the Chinese state which does not merely view the state in society, but also investigates the state itself as society. Drawing on fieldwork in northeastern Yunnan province, I illustrate this general point by investigating the changing role of the local state in economic development. This agenda for an anthropology of the Chinese state resonates both with the recent 'reinvention' of the subfield of political anthropology with its focus on governmentality, policy, and rights, and with recent calls by political scientists for the development of an interdisciplinary anthropology of the developmental state.     

Matrix remodeling by MMPs during wound repair

Repair following injury involves a range of processes – such as re-epithelialization, scar formation, angiogenesis, inflammation, and more – that function, often together, to restore tissue architecture. MMPs carry out diverse roles in all of these activities. In this article, we discuss how specific MMPs act on ECM during two critical repair processes: re-epithelialization and resolution of scar tissue. For wound closure, we discuss how two MMPs – MMP1 in human epidermis and MMP7 in mucosal epithelia – facilitate re-epithelialization by cleaving different ECM or ECM-associated proteins to affect similar integrin:matrix adhesion. In scars and fibrotic tissues, we discuss that a variety of MMPs carry out a diverse range of activities that can either promote or limit ECM deposition. However, few of these MMP-driven activities have been demonstrated to be due a direct action on ECM.     

Kombinowanie: agency,informality, and the poetics of self in Highland Poland

This article asks what role local models of agency and subjectivity play in the structure and interpretation of informal economic practices, and how this influences the ways in which people narrate their behaviour to others. Exploring the use of a common Polish idiom for informal activities – kombinowanie – amongst villagers in the Carpathian Highlands, it argues that the term acts as a ‘master‐trope’ for local identity, providing villagers with a narrative model for asserting and broadcasting their social agency to peers. Furthermore, it shows how in this particular ethnographic context, the retelling of instances of informal or illegal activity as kombinowanie can be seen as part of a Highlander ‘poetics of self’, in that each manifestation of the term carries with it a series of implicit sociohistorical and normative meanings that relate to notions of ‘typical’ Górale (Highland) behaviour. By characterizing kombinowanie as a type of tactics, I open up the term for comparative analysis with other local conceptions of agency which value insubordination.     

Water,power, and refusal: confronting evasive accountability in a Palestinian village

This article interprets the meanings and motivations of refusal to pay water bills within a context of fragmented sovereignty. Residents of a village in the occupied Palestinian West Bank call for solutions to water shortages and failed infrastructure, but do so amidst capricious power, where would-be sovereigns evade accountability. Lacking avenues for direct engagement with authorities, residents speak in generalized ethical terms of their legitimate water claims, and they resort to bill refusal. Setting villagers’ bill refusals within the broader set of interactions between would-be sovereigns and subjects, this article contributes to anthropological scholarship on refusal by demonstrating how it can be a way of not only dismantling state power, but also summoning a responsible sovereign. Furthermore, it highlights how common dilemmas faced by refusers – dismissal and co-optation – can be exacerbated by the same evasive accountability against which they protest.     

Mid- to late-Holocene vegetation history of Greater Exmoor,UK: estimating the spatial extent of human-induced vegetation change

This paper presents the results from three pollen profiles from a group of small spring mire sites on the southern edge of Exmoor in south west England. The size and topography of these sites allow detailed local landscape histories around each site to be reconstructed which broadly cover the mid- to late-Holocene. Comparison of the individual local landscape histories demonstrates the scale of spatial variation in vegetation around the upland edge, and facilitates understanding of human-landscape interactions from the early Neolithic onward. In the early Neolithic significant short-term woodland disturbance is recorded around the upland fringe, including clearance of oak-hazel-elm woodland, suggesting that the shift from Mesolithic to Neolithic is not marked by a gradual environmental transition. Following this, there is clear evidence of Neolithic management of upland heath using fire, presumably for the management of upland grazing. Woodland clearances are recorded throughout the later Prehistoric period; however, the use of multiple profiling suggests that woodland clearance is spatially discrete, even within an area of 4 km². Pastoral land use is dominant around the uplands until around 900–1,000 a.d., and there is no discernible Roman or post-Roman period impact in the vegetation, suggesting cultural stability from the late Iron Age to the early Medieval period. By 1,100 a.d., there is a shift to mixed arable-pastoral farming which appears to continue well into the post-Medieval period.