Anthropological Perspective Research Articles

Acculturation of Islamic Law and Local Culture in Marriage Customs of the Buol People: An Anthropological Perspective

The objective of this study is to examine acculturation of Islamic Law and Local culture in the Marriage Customs of the Buol People: This study examined two problems. First, how is the process of acculturation? Second, what acculturation occurs between Islamic law and local culture in the marriage customs of the Buol people?. This study used qualitative method with an empirical sociological legal research analysis approach. Data was gathered through in-depth interviews, direct observation, and participant observation, and physical equipment. The results of the study show that the process of acculturation occurs through power or politics, through trade, education, or da'wah and the arts, as well as through marriage and migration. Acculturation also occurs at every stage of the implementation of marriage customs among the Buol people, including through Mongolyokap, Molyako nikah or marraige proposal, Motanduan moposakis or determination and witnesses, Mopake bolre or decorating the bride's house, Mogundud nikah or delivering the requested property, Moponika or reading of Ijab Qabul (Islamic marriage contract), Monobvuwunggag or invalidating wudhu, Mongoliayondigi, Mopoalyom/Mogolya mongaano or wedding reception, Mosalyamat or small post-wedding party, and Mogolya mopolyong or sleeping at the groom's house. The forms of acculturation are substitution or addition of cultural elements, syncretism or an amalgamation of cultural factors, addition or combination of cultural elements, and deculturation or replacement of cultural aspects.

„Natürliches Wachstum“ in einer bedrohlichen Welt – der Monte Verità als Inkubationsraum eines neuen Erzieherbildes

In the early years of the 20th century a small community or colony on Monte Verità near Ascona at the Lago Maggiore became refuge and encounter for different representatives of the Lebensreform. Main issues culminated here, and here the representatives conflicted with each other. Controversial response proposals uncovered the fundamental divergencies of a naturalistic world view. Thus, Monte Verità spotlights pedagogical problems in the context of Lebensreform and Reformpädagogik. Based on the writings of the respective protagonists and their environment, and referring to repeated visits to the Monte Verità, we propose a reflection of its development and central motives and deconstruct critically the understanding of the child and the new conception of the educator on the ‘Mount of Truth’. Ida Hofmann, as one of the main founders, individualist, and naturalist Gusto Gräser and the psychoanalyst and anarchist Otto Gross shaped essentially Monte Verità and formulated the motives that still nowadays keep floating like a will-o’-the-wisp in the models of Reformpädagogik. Education is always tempted to ‘tame’ contingent structures, to anticipate an uncertain future and to define clearly the role of the educator. Frequently teleological suppositions sneak into the educational praxis and confer the present action an image of validity and offer the educator tranquilizing certainties. Monte Verità represents a clear example for this. To understand pedagogical thinking as focusing on growth with open results, therefore guided by an anthropological perspective, requires a clear decision for continued questioning of subtle basic presuppositions. Instead of mental certainties, the search for always new, concrete, child-centered educational action, in short, an education that parts “from the Child”.

An anthropological perspective on hand grip strength as a marker of health, disease and fitness

Handgrip strength is a quick way to assess overall muscle strength. Low handgrip strength is an indicator of poor health. While handgrip strength is related with mortality and morbidity, for some parameters, handgrip strength is even a stronger predictor of health than chronological age alone. Handgrip strength is highly sexually dimorphic and has a high heritability. It is thought that this is an outcome of sexual selection and intrasexual competition in our evolutionary history. Some anthropological studies confirm this view, and it is claimed that there are relationships between grip strength and aggression, athletic performance and attractiveness, especially in men. The aim of this study is to review the relationship of diseases with handgrip strength in anthropological perspective and examine the idea that handgrip strength being a marker of biological fitness.

Images of the Body and Corporeality of Indigenous Australians at the Dawn of the 21st Century (Based on Bruce Chatwin’s Perspective and Selected Films)

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The research objective of this article is to examine what image of Indigenous Australians emerges from Bruce Chatwin’s well-known novel The Songlines (1987/2008) and selected films produced at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries also dealing with Australian Aboriginal culture.
 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The analysis of the literary and cinematic work will be carried out here from an anthropological and postcolonial perspective, and is also part of a broadly defined somapoetics.
 THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: In the first part, the author focuses on the way female and male characters are portrayed. In the second part, he analyses more complex portraits, those of artists, hunters, ‘actors’ and strong personalities, before concluding with the theme of death.
 RESEARCH RESULTS: When analysed, Chatwin’s novel appears to be a text with many omissions, presenting a selective image, marked by the author’s ethnocentrism and his insufficiently insightful approach to cultural differences. Earlier films also fail to portray these in a credible way. Later films, however, not only deepen the understanding of historical and contemporary conditions, but also give the floor to representatives of this oldest culture in the world.
 CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The conclusions of the analysis of the material studied encourage a more critical reading of Chatwin’s novel. They also point to films depicting Indigenous Australians in a way that is free of postcolonial context, their different sensibilities and corporeality.

Conceptual Foundations of Sustainability.

Threats to the health of our environment are numerous. Much research in science and engineering is devoted to documenting, understanding, and attempting to mitigate the harm itself. The root challenge for sustainability, however, is human behavior. As such, changes to human behaviors and the internal processes that drive them are also essential. Critical to understanding sustainability-related behaviors is the individual's conceptualization of the natural world and its components and processes. The papers in this topiCS issue address these conceptualizations by drawing from anthropological, linguistic, educational, philosophical, and social cognitive perspectives as well as traditional psychological approaches to the study of concepts and their development in children. They engage with many domains bearing on environmental sustainability including climate change, biodiversity, land and water conservation, resource use, and design of the built environment. They coalesce around four broad themes: (a) What people know (or believe) about nature broadly and about specific aspects of nature, and how they acquire and use this knowledge; (b) how knowledge is expressed and shared via language; (c) how knowledge and beliefs interact with affective, social, and motivational influences to yield attitudes and behaviors; and (d) how members of different cultures and speakers of different languages differ in these ways. The papers also point to lessons for advancing sustainability via public policy and public messaging, education, conservation and nature management, and design of the built environment.

The influence of footwear on the human gait

The development of individual gait and running patterns is influenced by internal (anatomical, anthropometric) and external (activity-related, environmental) factors. The predominantly used rearfoot running style is mainly attributed to the use of cushioned shoes, although from an anthropological perspective running barefoot, and thus running forefoot, is considered to be more natural. Numerous studies have shown along-term influence of habitual footwear use on foot morphology, running biomechanics and basic motor skills. It has further been shown that an acute change in footwear, e.g. by running barefoot, immediately changes kinematics and vertical load parameters. However, to date, there is no strong evidence for an influence of habitual footwear use or footstrike patterns on the prevalence of injuries or physical complaints.

TÜRKİYE’DE AKDENİZ BÖLGESİNDE EĞİTİM GÖREN TIP ÖĞRENCİLERİNDE METİLFENİDATIN TIBBİ OLMAYAN KULLANIMI: NİTEL BİR ARAŞTIRMA

Objective
 he misuse of methylphenidate is an important issue
 in the relevant literature. The abuse of these drugs
 for success, especially by high school and university
 students, is quite common at the international level.
 Young people consider these drugs as a savior in
 order to be successful in the exams and to sustain
 with their social life. It is possible that medical
 education is very hard and stressful for students in
 the world. The students feel too much pressure to
 succeed. So, this situation directs students towards
 alternatives that will reduce the pressure, stay awake
 and focus more. This study aims to understand the
 process and usage habits that direct medical students
 to methylphenidate.
 Material and Method
 The study was designed as a qualitative research
 method with an anthropological perspective. Medical
 students' experiences, thoughts, and observations
 on the illicit use of methylphenidate were collected
 by researcher, using the in-depth interviews. The
 study started with face-to-face interviews at the
 end of 2019. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the
 negotiations were completed in February 2022, after
 a long break. The opinions of 17 volunteer students
 who participated in the study were evaluated with a
 descriptive approach.
 Results
 According to our research findings, medical
 students are positive about the non-medical use of
 methylphenidate to save the day, despite its side
 effects. The use of the drug increases especially
 during exam periods. It is seen that drugs are as
 an easy alternative for students. The medicines are
 mostly provided from other friends who still use them.
 In addition, the drug is also used for weight loss. It is
 a fact that its effects are exaggerated and advertised
 among non-prescription users. The results of our
 research are similar with international ones.
 Conclusion
 There are very few studies on the illicit use of
 psychomotor stimulants in our country. The findings
 prove that medical students need healthy and
 sustainable alternatives to cope with the stress and
 pressure on them. It is thought that this study will be
 a basis for determining the long-term negative effects
 of misuse of the drugs and taking precautions. The
 research is a preliminary assessment to explore the
 current situation. It is clear that there is a need for
 more information, quantitative and qualitative data in
 the field.

Introduction to topiCS Volume 15, Issue 3.

My dad was a forester in the service of a German federal state. A major part of his job was to assess the current condition of forests, plan and monitor their management, and ensure their long-term sustainability. During school holidays, I often accompanied him on his field trips where I learned a lot about the forest ecosystem; he taught me what “sustainability” means in theory and how to implement it in practice. When my father graduated from university, the concept of sustainability had been firmly rooted in Germany's forest management for more than two centuries, as an economic principle intended to secure both the usage and preservation of a vital resource (von Carlowitz, 1713). Put simply: for every tree felled, a new one had to be planted. While I grew up, the term began to gain international recognition and turned into a key principle of environmental concern and politics, based on writings such as the Club-of-Rome report on The limits to growth (Meadows, Meadows, Randers, & Behrens, 1972) and the Brundtland Report (WCED, 1987). Against this background, my own Master's and PhD theses explored culturally shaped cognitive concepts and behavior that could foster sustainable resource use, but my work was impaired by the shortage of research focusing on the cognitive dimension of sustainability back then—a shortage that to some extent persists to this day. A major exception was the research program led by cognitive psychologist Doug Medin and anthropologist Scott Atran. Their team combined exceptional rigor with an unprecedented cross-cultural approach to investigate how different cognitive beliefs, framework theories, and epistemic orientations influence people's reasoning about nature and shape their resource-use strategies. Several of their publications are still among my all-time favorites (e.g., Atran & Medin, 2008; Bang, Medin, & Atran, 2007; Medin & Atran, 2004). A fine selection of more recent work along those lines is compiled in the current topic that I have had the honor and pleasure to see through, from its emergence as a symposium at the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society in 2021 to its publication in this issue of our journal. Edited by Barbara C. Malt (Lehigh University, US) and Asifa Majid (University of Oxford, UK), this topic is remarkable in many ways. It covers a broad scope of domains, from the design of the built environment, resource use, and land and water conservation to more fundamental aspects of biodiversity and climate change. It straddles a wide range of disciplines in drawing on anthropological, developmental, educational, linguistic, philosophical, psychological, and social-cognitive perspectives. And it was extraordinarily swift, with some of the shortest turnarounds between conception and completion, commensurate with the urgency of its subject. Each of the 11 contributions to this topic is a rich source of information and insights on one or more of an interrelated set of questions linked to how nature is conceptualized by individuals, in different languages, and across cultures, such as what we know or believe about nature, how this knowledge is acquired, used, and communicated, and how it is shaped by our attitudes and emotions and in turn informs reasoning and decision-making. The editors’ introduction (Malt & Majid, this issue) does a marvelous job in integrating the different parts of the topic, elaborating on distinct, yet shared themes, and weaving them into a well-ordered and nicely patterned scholarly overview of why all of this is not only scientifically intriguing, but also important in a truly elementary way. topiCS encourages letters and commentaries on all topics, as well as proposals for new topics. Letters are not longer than two published pages (ca. 400–1000 words). Commentaries (between 1000 and 2000 words) are often solicited by Topic Editors prior to the publication of their topic, but they may also be considered after publication. Letters and commentaries typically come without abstract and with few references, if any. The Executive Editor and the Senior Editorial Board (SEB) are constantly searching for new and exciting topics for topiCS. Feel free to open communications with a short note to the Executive Editor ([email protected]) or a member of the SEB (for a list, see the publisher's homepage for topiCS: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1756-8765/homepage/EditorialBoard.html).

Heritage in Diaspora-Forming Processes: Encounters of Local Ukrainians and Migrants from Ukraine in Poland

This article offers a reflection on heritage in the context of diaspora-forming processes examined from an anthropological perspective. Ethnographic fieldwork has been conducted since 2021 in the Ukrainian communities in two Polish cities, where the encounters of autochthonous Ukrainians (Ukrainian national minority members) and migrants from Ukraine have been traced yet before the recent arrivals of war refugees. Basing on the individual in-depth interviews with different Ukrainian communities’ leaders and activists, and on long-lasting participatory observation, the authors argue that for the autochthonous Ukrainians, the heritage has been a set of practices, non-reducible to tangible and intangible legacy. Therefore, they propose broadening of the meaning of heritage in migration studies towards a set of diasporic practices such as diasporic lifestyles, practices of positioning, and lived diasporic experiences stimulated by encounters with migrants. This approach allows going beyond common-sensical statement of alleged “old diaspora” conservativeness or “immersion in history” comparing with migrants’ different stances and practices. The next step is to propose considering heritage one of the diaspora-forming processes. Such a perspective localizes diaspora in the sphere of social beliefs, imaginings, and cultural practices. To mobilize people as a diaspora, they need to be shared and treated as common, but some of them mobilize only partially, i.e., particular communities, while being contested by others. The authors show that going below the superficial agreement on “common identity” among “the same” people, i.e., co-ethnics, may reveal deep processes of othering and bonding in forming a diaspora that would be hidden otherwise.

The Role of Anthropology in Global Social Governance: Collaboration With the World Bank in China

Anthropology now plays a crucial role in the Global Social Governance. This article traces the development of cooperation between anthropology and international organizations from the perspective of anthropology's participation in the operation of international organizations' projects. It presents the status and role of anthropology in global governance, and briefly describes the operation mode of anthropology in international organizations and the practice status in China by taking the cooperation with the World Bank as an example.

A Cultural Study of Malo Community in the Novel a River Called Titash

Culture designates the shared social behaviour of a community that encompasses social habits, language, belief, food, cloths, music, arts and crafts that shape their identity. Cultural materialism is the anthropological perspective that undertakes to incorporate the idea of the human societies with its rich fund of cultural heritage and the impact of the material world upon it. Among the unceasing list of river-centered narratives from Bengal, A River Called Titash is a remarkable novel that brings forth the idea of human civilization. The rivers such as the Rhine, the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Indus and the Nile fostered numerous civilizations on their banks and provided livelihood to multiple communities of the world. Similarly, a community with its rich cultural legacy also evolved along the banks of river Titash. As a member of the Malo fishing community, Adwaita Mallabarman has deftly sketched the cultural vista of the society through his keen insight. The novel exquisitely deals with the multifarious cultural lifestyle like folk-language, folk-songs, festivals, religious stories and their livelihood in minute detail. Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of carnival has been used in the context of festivals of the rural people of Bengal. In addition to it, the novel also depicts grinding poverty and the survival of the Malo people. The present research paper focuses on Adwaita Mallabarman’s novel A River Called Titash to examine the cultural identity of the Malo community who have been segregated from the mainstream Bengali society since ages on account of their lower caste identity. The paper further highlights as to how the cultural identity of a Bengali marginalized community is gradually dismantled under the domination of so-called Bhadralok civilized society on the bank of the river Titash.

Hiroshima als Hindernis und Anstoß

Abstract Hiroshima as Obstacle and Stimulus. War, Attitudes, and Everyday Cosmopolitanisms The article queries the theoretical foundations of cosmopolitan attitudes from the perspective of anthropology and educational philosophy. In a first step, a cosmopolitan attitude is defined as an expression of inner structures of the self towards the ›world‹. In a second step, ›world‹ is differentiated using sociology and anthropology into ›the world of everyday life‹ and ›the world as a totality‹. To bridge the gap between these two conceptions, ›everyday cosmopolitanisms‹ are introduced. The potentials and limits of everyday cosmopolitanisms are discussed in a final step on the example of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial.

Voices of the forests. Eviction, control, and the birth of the ‘Parish Lapp’ system in early modern Sweden

ABSTRACT This paper examines the birth of the exploitative sockenlappssystemet (the ‘Parish Lapp’ system) in central Sweden during the early eighteenth century. Based on a foundation of control and eviction instituted in earlier laws, the 1720s saw a forceful rise in royal concern over the existence of nomadic Sámi in central Sweden. His Majesty King Fredrik I specifically expressed fear of damage to the resources of the forests through Sámi hunting, especially bird hunting. The period between 1720 and 1730 saw King Fredrik corresponding with the Royal Council, the county governors, and some groups of Sámi agents. The council sought to evict the Sámi and move them or have them move to the lappmarker. The Sámi agents claimed birth right and asserted that Sámi in central Sweden had no relationship to either the land or the Sámi in the northern part of the realm. This paper uses a historical anthropological perspective, based on a wide set of sources, including historical archaeology, history, and ethnography, in order to paint a bigger picture of the conflicted situation that led to the founding of the unique system of forced indenture: the so-called Parish Lapp system.

Christian Hope as Seen by J. Ratzinger/Benedict XVI

One of the most pressing issues today is the need to rediscover hope, which can give meaning to life and history and enables people to walk together. After all, it is that spiritual force that does not allow a person to stop or be satisfied with what they already have and who they are. It provides an opening to the future and paves new paths for human freedom. It gives meaning to human life on earth. Christianity has an important role in this regard, as it is an event that was born out of hope and entered history as a living and profound experience of hope. In doing so, it touched some particularly tender place in the human being, which is precisely hope, without which the human being cannot live. The purpose of this article is to show the magnitude and meaningfulness of Christian hope based on the analysis of selected works of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. To answer the question: what, according to him, is Christian hope, what is its basis and what is its specificity? What could it offer to the modern world? It is also an explanation of the thesis put forward by the author, which states that without God and without Christ there is no real hope, i.e. one that corresponds both to who man is and to the aspirations and desires arising from his ontic dignity. The first section addresses the reasoning behind hope from the perspective of anthropology. The second one presents and discusses the theological basis of Christian hope. Meanwhile, in the third section, the originality and specificity of Christian hope is shown.

Anthropological perspectives on CKDnt in Mexico: time for a paradigm shift on the social determinants of health.

In Mexico, the kidneys of individuals in poor and marginalized communities are failing with little warning and no explanation. Commonly referred to as chronic kidney disease of non-traditional origin (CKDnt), this new variant of kidney disease cannot be accounted for by conventional or discrete etiological explanations, but is instead understood to be a consequence of economic development, environmental degradation and precarious working and living conditions. Drawing on two interconnected ethnographic studies, and the intertwining problems of causation and care, this paper will (1) document the social conditions of disease emergence around Lake Chapala, Central Mexico, and (2) follow the haphazard routes kidney patients take to access resource-intensive biotechnical treatments. Its aim is to both challenge and reconceptualize social determinants as social relations in order to fully account for the profoundly contextual, temporal, and dynamic character of this condition, and to rethink opportunities for care and intervention.

Pearls before swine flu: Crisis and the politics of resilience in Cabo Pulmo, BCS, Mexico

AbstractThis article employs a long‐term historical and anthropological perspective to examine questions of resilience through a case study of Cabo Pulmo, BCS, Mexico. Using the recent COVID‐19 crisis as a starting point, this article discusses the crises, shocks, booms, and busts that have affected and shaped the people, landscapes, and ecologies of the coastline that now includes Cabo Pulmo. While the community of Cabo Pulmo has been able to withstand several crises and disruptions, and could be considered “resilient” in many senses, I argue that this resilience is ongoing and conditional. Furthermore, the production of this resilience in Cabo Pulmo is highly contingent upon a strategic politics, enacted by the local community, that establishes, protects, and maintains claims to both land and place. Resilience, I argue, can be seen as an ongoing politics and strategic positionality, rooted in historical relations and connections to place, that people seek to create, maintain, and deploy at various scales to mediate and resist periodic shocks, threats, and disruptions.

COVID-19, design and social needs: an investigation of emerging issues

The global public health crisis generated by the spread of COVID-19 has revealed – and is still showing – the strong correlation between two apparently disparate fields of research: built environment and health. Although in this time of emergency, the science of architecture could offer a remarkable contribution to rethinking new living and working spaces, the ongoing pandemic has, in terms of people’s well-being, disclosed the weaknesses of a vast number of architectural design choices implemented until now. Hence, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the users’ space fulfilment has been herein explored and analysed through a systematic literature review process for collecting data and exploring gaps and opportunities revealed in this period. The COVID-19 pandemic and especially the quarantine constrictions have revealed a high level of dissatisfaction with the quality of living space as well as the lack of flexibility and adaptability. This study has outlined the main critical aspects to be considered for shaping and re-building new ways of living in a post-COVID-19 society. Thus, rather than focusing on specific future solutions, this study aims to collect the main issues and planning opportunities by showing the need for a valuable transdisciplinary approach that could address people’s demands, especially from a sociological, anthropological, psychological and health perspective.

Spirit-Possession in Fiji: The Pastoral Challenges of Discerning and Healing

Abstract Spirit possession elicits two common responses – rites to exorcise Satan or medical intervention. Drawing on pastoral experiences in the two major cultures of Fiji, this paper examines different types of spirit possession from the perspectives of social anthropology, psychology, and theology, which all play important roles in dealing with cases of spirit possession. Understanding of and communication within the local cosmology is important. Pastoral discernment is emphasized, especially in cases of ancestor possession, which are common in the indigenous Fijian culture. The character of the pastoral worker and relationship with the patient are also of great importance in the healing process. So too is the healing power of religious ritual and symbol, as will be shown in cases of possession within both cultures. To achieve as accurate a diagnosis as possible, a mixture of spirituality, psychology, and socio-cultural analysis may be necessary for healing.

GENDER : MENELAAH KEADILAN DAN KESETARAAN DALAM PERSPEKTIF ANTROPOLOGI

This paper discusses gender discourse, building justice and equality from an anthropological perspective. In critical studies, anthropology views that there are socio-cultural influences in building equality and justice in a multicultural society like in Indonesia. Gender itself is the behavior or division of roles between men and women that has been constructed or formed in the social environment. The anthropological approach views that gender differences are social constructions that are formed through social and cultural processes. In gender studies, researchers examine various social and cultural phenomena related to gender such as the distribution of gender roles, access to resources, and determining gender identity. This study also explores how gender differences impact the rights, opportunities and powers possessed by individuals and groups in society. The aim of gender discourse is to place men and women in a social framework in which they are both important components of that environment, rather than simply trying to understand them independently. Sometimes, considerations of socioeconomic class, ethnic differences, skin color differences, and religious differences contribute to the problem of social injustice in society. However, gradually this problem can be resolved with the birth of the General Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which guarantees many factors related -these factors. Then it is different with differences in sex or gender which are still considered unfinished. Problems regarding these differences do not only occur in underdeveloped and developing countries, but are also still one of the issues that are still being discussed in developed countries.

Concepts of “Counsel” and “Prosecutor” as Perceived by Native Russian Speakers

The relevance of the article is determined by the deep interest of contemporary linguistics in studying language units from an anthropological perspective. Psycholinguistics, being one of such study areas, provides some tools to reveal the process of modern humans thinking and following some thought patterns. We assume that the judicial employees' professional worldview, shaped by a specific field of judiciary, and ordinary consciousness, formed under the influence of everyday life, reflects various linguistic world pictures of Russian speakers, which manifest through the images created while perceiving the same language units. Thus, the psycholinguistic method of free association seems to be the most relevant technique that makes it possible to study how the lexemes counsel and prosecutor find their expression in the linguistic consciousness of native Russian speakers. The article highlights the results of free association that represent the peculiarities of associative perception in professional, judicial and ordinary consciousness for the concepts mentioned above. The participants of the experiment were persons both with a law degree and not. The results of the experiment have shown that the lawyers professional worldview, when digesting the concepts proposed, shifts the focus to the subject area, in the images of a counsel and a prosecutor a lawyer sees their professional activity and competence. For ordinary consciousness, however, these images are connected to respondents' expectations and emotional attitude towards them, which enables to assess the connotations of these lexemes, being formed by ordinary consciousness.