Changes In Cultural Practices Research Articles

Isotopic Evidence for Changes in Cereal Production Strategies in Iron Age and Roman Britain

ABSTRACT Following the Roman conquest, agricultural production in Britain faced increasing demand from large urban and military populations. While it has long been thought that this necessitated an increase in agricultural production, direct archaeological evidence for changes in cultivation practices has been scarce. Using a model that conceptualises cereal farming strategies in terms of intensive or extensive practices, this paper is the first study to address this question using carbon and nitrogen stable isotope data of crop remains. We report δ15N and δ13C values from 41 samples of spelt, emmer and barley from Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman Stanwick (Northants., UK), in order to assess the intensiveness of arable farming and investigate shifts in cultivation practices in prehistoric and Roman Britain. The results demonstrate a decline in δ15N in the Roman period, suggesting that farming practices moved to lower levels of manuring and, by implication, became more extensive. δ13C values are comparable in all periods, supporting the suggestion that changes observed in human stable isotope data between the Iron Age and Roman period are best explained by dietary change rather than a shift towards higher δ13C values in plants at the base of the food chain.

5,200-year-old cereal grains from the eastern Altai Mountains redate the trans-Eurasian crop exchange.

Wheat and barley evolved from large-seeded annual grasses in the arid, low latitudes of Asia; their spread into higher elevations and northern latitudes involved corresponding evolutionary adaptations in these plants, including traits for frost tolerance and shifts in photoperiod sensitivity. The adaptation of farming populations to these northern latitudes was also a complex and poorly understood process that included changes in cultivation practices and the varieties of crops grown. In this article, we push back the earliest dates for the spread of wheat and barley into northern regions of Asia as well as providing earlier cultural links between East and West Asia. The archaeobotanical, palynological and anthracological data we present come from the Tongtian Cave site in the Altai Mountains, with a punctuated occupation dating between 5,200 and 3,200 calibrated years BP, coinciding with global cooling of the middle-late Holocene transition. These early low-investment agropastoral populations in the north steppe area played a major role in the prehistoric trans-Eurasian exchange.

Food Security and Sustainability of Agricultural Production: An Economic Appraisal in Indian Context

Food security is interlinked with agricultural production. Enhancement in farm productivity and providing diversified demand of food due to growth in per capita income, urbanization and changes in food habit is the major challenges. Study is based on secondary data collected from different published sources for the period from 1988-89 to 2017-18 i.e. for 30 years. Simple tabular analysis and compound growth rates were calculated to draw meaningful conclusion. The findings revealed that growth rate of net sown area for overall period was found negative (-0.05%). In case of gross cropped area, growth rates were found positive for all periods under investigation. The growth was due to more use of land to fulfill the growing demands of food and other agricultural commodities due to rise in population as reflected by growth trend of population. Growth rates for area and production of food grains indicated that area under food grains remained almost stagnant (0.001%) during the period under investigation. But in the last decade production growth was assessed positive (0.41%). Production growth may be attributed to technological change in cultivation practices like use of improved varieties of seeds and use of fertilizers etc. Growth rates of area under cereals were computed to be negative. The reason may be erratic weather condition or may be less remunerative crops or farmers would have shifted cultivated area to high value crops. Due to technological intervention, the productivity was recorded positive. Decrease in area under cereals is of great concern as a study commissioned by the Agriculture Ministry emphasized that given the current rates of population and income growth, India will have to push a growth of 4.2% per annum in cereal production till 2020, instead of the less than 2% as it was achieved in the previous decade.

MIGRAÇÃO DA MULHER INDÍGENA PARA A CIDADE DE BOA VISTA-RR

O processo de migração de mulheres indígenas roraimenses para a cidade de Boa Vista tem ocasionado mudanças em suas práticas culturais. Esse deslocamento tem provocado um distanciamento da cultura, dos costumes, das crenças e dos valores adquiridos no núcleo familiar, já que essas mulheres passam por experiências que rompem com as relações pessoais e sociais, levando-as à construção de novas identidades. A discussão aqui delineada dá-se no sentido de compreendermos quais são os motivos que levam as mulheres indígenas a se deslocarem para a capital, e porque suas práticas culturais são modificadas com o contato com o não indígena. Além disso, observamos que não tem sido tarefa fácil para a mulher indígena assumir sua identidade perante o não índio em função do preconceito, do uso da língua, da crença ou das práticas culturais. Nesse sentido, para alcançarmos nossos objetivos, a metodologia adotada foi a história oral, que busca mostrar, através dos relatos dessas mulheres, que as relações étnico-culturais ainda são bastante desiguais em Roraima e no Brasil, porque há um despreparo de parte da sociedade para se lidar com as diferenças no tocante às práticas culturais específicas.

Teaching Online Graduate Nursing Students Cultural Diversity From an Ethnic and Nonethnic Perspective.

Introduction: Nursing programs requiring a short-term cultural diversity immersion experience can impose financial, family, and work schedule hardships for graduate students. This study aimed to measure changes in cultural practice, awareness, sensitivity, and behaviors before and after completing an online cultural diversity course without travel. Methodology: A quasi-experimental pretest/posttest design collected data from a convenience sample of graduate nursing students (n = 37) enrolled in a 16-week online course using the Cultural Competency Assessment (CAS/CCB), Culturally Congruent Care for Advanced Nursing Course Objectives (CCCAN-CLO) and Teaching/Assignment Inventory tools. Results: There was a statistically significant increase in graduate nursing students' cultural competency postcourse scores: CAS, t(36) = -5.16, p < .001; CCB, t(36) = -5.42, p < .001; CCCAN-CLO, t(36) = -6.21, p < .001. Students identified conducting cultural interviews and online discussions as the most effective teaching strategies and assignments for learning cultural diversity content. Conclusion: Effective approaches for teaching graduate nursing students' cultural diversity for practice are available for online learners.

Climate change, cultural adaptations, and lower coastal plain occupations of Georgia and Florida from the early to middle Holocene: Extrapolating spatial trends into the offshore

Predictive modeling for high probability zones for detection of submerged prehistoric sites remains an integral part of this subdiscipline. It typically relies on a combination of physiographic parameters detectable in offshore zones and known archaeological trends, most of which lie onshore, not offshore. These models are not always temporally and spatially scaled to account for changes in cultural practices and/or baseline ecological conditions associated with climate changes, however. To account better for these potential variations, we used a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) based spatial statistical analysis method. Our study seeks evidence of variation in site correlations to environmental patterns to detect spatial and temporal variation in site locations, and for where site patterns depart from robust quantitative correlations to ecological conditions. Our results support a hypothesis that sites do tend to correlate to certain ecological parameters, but these effects vary across the study area and through time. We also found that some site groups did not correlate well to any particular set of hypothetically favorable ecological conditions, suggesting that other undetected variables played significant roles in those site locations. These may be undetected/untested ecological variables or may represent culturally-based decision making with non-linear relationships with ecological conditions.

The Interface Between Entrepreneurship as a Climate Change Mitigation Strategy and Improved Rural Household Food Security and Food Systems Sustainability in South Africa

The worst and most direct impacts of climate change will fall disproportionately on livelihood systems and vulnerable populations that are already poor and food insecure. The highly vulnerable are communities dominated by farming, with limited livelihood diversification and adaptive capacity at household level. During the past three years, rural enterprises were established in six provinces of South Africa to increase access to food and to create income streams for farming communities in rural areas as part of the broader rural development strategy. This study sought to determine the impact of smallholder agricultural entrepreneurship through sweet potato and indigenous vegetable production on improved access to food, income generation and job creation. Return on Investment and Logistic regression analysis were used to analyse the data collected from 186 project beneficiaries. The results of the study indicated that enterprise development intervention impacted positively on household income, job creation and formal market access. The logistic regression model showed a significant relationship between productivity and access to formal markets (P &amp;lt; 0.001), educational level (P &amp;lt; 0.0001) and access to training (P &amp;lt; 0.002) at the 1% significance level. Sustainable establishment of these enterprises must be ensured through infrastructure support, capacity building and adapting to changes in cultivation practices intended to cope with climate change.

Effect of herbicides on feeding, survival and development of Haltica cyanea, a biocontrol agent of dicot weed, Ammania baccifera L. in rice ecosystem

Ammania baccifera L. (Fam: Lathyraceae) is one of the predominant weeds in paddy fields. In nature, the adults and grubs of Haltica cyanea (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) feed varaciously on the leaves of this weed leading to drying of the plants. In recent times with the gradual change in cultivation practices and increase in labour shortage the use of weedicides in rice ecosystem has increased tremendously. In an endeavour to explore the possibility of the use of these beetles as biocontrol agents, laboratory studies were carried out at ICAR-IIRR to compare the efficacy of H. cyanea as a biocontrol agent in comparison with the two recommended herbicides and also study the effect of these herbicides on the biology of the beetle. The two recommended herbicides, 2,4-D Na salt 80% (for broadleaved weeds) @800g a.i/ha and Metsulfuron methyl 10% + chlorimuron ethyl 10% WP (for broadleaved and sedges) @4ga.i/ha were tested against A. baccifera and the larval stages of H. cyanea . The effect of these herbicides on survival, feeding, longevity and biology of the bioagent was studied through leaf dip and pot spray method. It was observed that there was 21.67% reduction in shoot weight in beetle released plants as compared to herbicide treatment wherein 38.5-49.3% reduction in shoot weight was observed within 48h. Both the herbicides affected the biology of the insect and between the two herbicides, 2,4-D Na salt was more toxic to the grubs as compared to Metsulfuron methyl + chlorimuron ethyl.

Translating the Sacred in the Age of Design: New Typographic Experiments

The debate of Orientalism notwithstanding, there is resurgence in the translation of sacred Indian texts, of late. If the arrival of new media writing, digital printing, computer graphics and multiplying e-resources has enabled the modern-day translator to maneuver the textual space in unprecedented ways, the change in cultural practices has encouraged him to experiment afresh with the so-called originary sacred. The eclipse of ideology and a conspicuous disneyfication of life, cumulatively speaking, produce an altogether exciting culture of design for the translators to re-script the sacred literature. The new age poet-translator, taking advantage of the bold manifestations of the three-dimensional culture, tries to maximize the textual space of the translated text. In an attempt to explore the unheard and unseen nuances of the so-called original texts, he exploits the space of the text, casting away its granted linearity, sequential progression and flat spatial arrangement. Each translated text, as it appears on the printed page, begins to acquire its own animate design, spatial spread and visual geometry.

Changing Cultural Practices, Self-Identifications and Gender Roles of Kurdish and Turkish Catering and Retail Business Owners in London

This paper focuses on the changing cultural practices, self-identifications, and gender roles of Kurdish and Turkish (KT) communities in London. It explores the research question of how the occupational shift from industrial waged labour to self-employment affects the cultural practices, gender roles and identity construction processes of Kurdish and Turkish business owners in catering and retail sectors in London. Depending on a field study consisting of 40 in-depth interviews, this paper draws the conclusions that identification of shared interests and interest alignment in Britain promote bonds of solidarity, new forms of ethnic attachment, which are not salient in the home country and may be helpful to overcome various problems of the KT communities in London.

The role of cultural tools and motive objects in early childhood teachers’ curriculum decision-making about digital and popular culture play

ABSTRACTCultural–historical perspectives on human activity argue that changes in cultural practices, such as teaching in early childhood education, can be fostered by introducing new conceptual resources, a process known as re-mediation. We report from an ongoing study that aims to change early childhood teachers’ curricular practices in response to children’s everyday experiences of the convergence between popular culture and digital play. To date, convergence has only marginally influenced contemporary early childhood curriculum. Seventeen teachers were interviewed after implementing a new cultural tool called ‘web-mapping’ that mobilises the concept of convergence to foster digital and popular culture play in preschools. This paper theorises the re-mediation of teachers’ curriculum decision-making by examining the dynamic relationship between cultural tools and the object motives identified in interviews with the teachers. It concludes by reflecting on the implications for future professional development initiatives that aim to change curricular practices in early childhood education through the introduction of new cultural tools.

‘I Was Attracted to Him Because of His Money’: Changing Forms of Polygyny in Contemporary Papua New Guinea

Substantial economic transition in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is giving rise to increased wealth, rapid social change and changing cultural practices. Polygyny practices in PNG have come under increasing domestic attention in recent years, especially as pertains to reinforcing patriarchy and exacerbating gender inequality. Based on qualitative research with women, we identify a new ‘emerging polygyny’ that is located in women’s and girls’ choices, decisions, experiences and actions, and which contrasts with other research documenting polygyny from men’s perspectives. Narratives from female participants described young women and girls who actively seek polygynous relationships with men who have disposable income and other assets, with the aim of gaining access to economic wealth as co-wives. In the context of public and legal debate about the status of polygyny in PNG, these findings illustrate the need for a more balanced discussion about polygynous relationships, located within an understanding of women’s lived experiences.

Effects of riparian land use changes on soil aggregates and organic carbon

Soil aggregation processes play a crucial role in re-establishing soil structure and function, and protecting soil organic carbon (SOC) to sustain soil fertility and quality. There is a strong interest in preventing soil erosion in the interface of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem. The relationship between soil aggregates and SOC in riparian zones is not as well studied as in terrestrial ecosystems. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of conversion of abandoned lands to cultivated lands on organic carbon (C) and soil structure. Soil samples and plant residues were collected from abandoned lands and cultivated lands which had been converted from abandoned lands over 10 years ago. Results show that SOC content and storage increases by 1.64 times and 6.75 Mg hm−2, respectively, after the land use change. For cultivated lands, 11.94% of macro-aggregates (>2 mm) were broken into micro-aggregates (<2 mm), resulting in the mean weight diameter (MWD) and geometric mean diameter (GMD) decreases of 1.01 and 1.11 mm, respectively, while the fractal dimension (FD) increased by 0.28. The SOC content of micro-aggregates (10.88–15.02 g kg−1) was higher than that of macro-aggregates (10.10–11.63 g kg−1) for both abandoned and cultivated lands. The SOC content of micro-aggregates for cultivated lands (14.46–15.02 g kg−1) was higher than abandoned lands (10.80–11.14 g kg−1). The content of microbial biomass carbon (MBC) increased by 1.52 times due to increases in root biomass and the plant residue returned to soil, which were mainly caused by the changes in cultivation practices and soil water conditions. Our results show that total SOC storage increased by the land use conversion from abandoned to cultivated lands, indicating that planting aquatic plants might be an effective method of preventing C loss from riparian ecosystems. The findings of this study provided insights into the changes in soil aggregates and soil C sequestration following the land use changes in riparian areas.

Pesticide Use in Indian Cardamom Needs Change in Cultivation Practices

Indian cardamom farming in the Cardamom Hill Reserves of Kerala has been considered one of the costliest production systems. Questionnaire survey and interviews with cardamom planters between 2008 and 2013 showed that the pesticides used in cardamom production is paradoxical. The reasons are closely associated with the unscrupulous use of pesticides which wiped out the natural enemies of pests and inefficacies of pesticides that led to dose enhancement. Climatic changes along with forest degradation and removal of shade have played a considerable role for increased pesticide consumption. The current perilous situation needs critical thinking to evolve pesticide reduction strategies.

New Honorary Member of BSPP

Dr Avice Hall does not consider hers a conventional career, in that she has worked in the same place for over 45 years. Avice was given her first hand lens when she was eight and always had a love of flowers. She obtained her BSc in Botany and Zoology in 1966 from the University of Leicester. The lectures in mycology led her to read That Great Hunger by Cecil Woodham Smith, which covers not only the potato famine in Ireland but also some of the social history surrounding the famine. After obtaining a place to do a PGCE, she went to see her ‘moral’ tutor, Dr Elizabeth Wangerman, and admitted that she really wasn't interested in school teaching. Her tutor opened her desk, took out a small leaflet and said, ‘I think that you would like this’; it was about the MSc in Plant Pathology at the University of Exeter. Avice changed career direction and found this new world of plant pathology fascinating. The Advance of the Fungi by E. C. Large, proved to be even more inspiring than That Great Hunger had been. She obtained her MSc in 1967 and then a PhD in 1971 studying clubroot of crucifers. After a short period of work as a plant pathologist at NAAS at Woodthorne, Wolverhampton, where she collected samples for the first cereal leaf pathogen survey, assessed some of the first field trials for fungicides in wheat as well as assessing an early take-all experiment, she started lecturing in Plant Pathology at Hatfield Polytechnic, where she has stayed as the institution has developed and become the University of Hertfordshire. Her lecturing has covered a wide range of subjects including mycology, mycological ecology, plant pathology and the effect of diseases in semi-natural plant communities. Her phytopathological education continued in a variety of ways. An important moment was the discovery that the motto of the plant pathology department in Wisconsin was ‘Keep one foot in the furrow’, which she realized described a way of life for all plant pathologists: research must always benefit the grower. Alongside the lecturing she has supervised sandwich students at the PBI Cambridge and also at several agrochemical companies, research institutes and NAAS (ADAS). All of these varied industrial contacts helped her to follow the motto. In 1990 she had a sabbatical based in the Plant Pathology Laboratory at Hatching Green, Harpenden where she noted that rhododendron had a developing problem with a powdery mildew. From 1991 to 2001, as well as lecturing at Hatfield, she also lectured in plant pathology to all three levels of the BSc horticulture degrees at Writtle Agricultural College. This gave her a good understanding of the horticultural industry that complemented her understanding of arable agriculture. It was from this time that she became more orientated to diseases of horticultural crops. She has supervised over a dozen PhDs and had grants to work on rhododendron powdery mildew, rose black spot and, since 2003, strawberry powdery mildew. Whilst she still uses the phrase ‘keep one foot in the furrow’, she has coined some other important maxims that her students hear frequently: ‘Lower the initial inoculum’, i.e. attack the pathogen as early as possible in the growing season or prevent it overwintering; and ‘There's danger in the debris’. A further observation is that any change in cultivation practices is likely to cause a change in the diseases occurring on a particular crop. Dr Hall has served twice on the Board of the British Society of Plant Pathology, once as an elected member and then for a 5-year period as Secretary. In 2010 she was awarded the Vice Chancellor's Award for educational engagement with business and the professions and in 2012 she was awarded an MBE for her contribution to higher education at the University of Hertfordshire and the community in St Albans. Since September 2010, Avice has been semi-retired and is pleased to be able to spend time on her research on strawberry powdery mildew, more time with her research students, only giving the lectures that she wants to, as well as refusing to go most departmental meetings! Another perk of semi-retirement has been to fulfil a lifelong ambition to see the spring flowers of the Mediterranean.

Crossing the Crosswalk: How to Make a City Walk the Line

Stopping for pedestrians in the crosswalk is a longstanding mandate by law in Brazil but rarely obeyed or enforced, except in the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, as a result of a campaign planned and developed as a joint effort of government, universities, the midia and non-governmental organizations. An overview of the process tht resulted in large scale change in cultural practices is presented in this paper.

Ethnogenesis of a Brazilian Indigenous Community, A Behavior Analytic Interpretation: Ethnogenesis of the Tapuios do Carretão

Ethnogenesis is a process of historic construction from interethnic interactions that originate new social categories, in other words, that form groups that distinguish from the rest of society. In Brazil, after the Constitution of 1988, different groups used their ethnogenesis to obtain recognition of their indigenous condition. One of these groups is the Tapuios do Carretao, a community in Brazil’s centralwest region inhabited by descendants of indigenous, black, and white people, who speak Portuguese and are recognized by the Brazilian government as an indigenous group. The goal of this paper was to reconstruct an ethnogenesis of the Tapuios indigenous group from a Behavior Analysis perspective, thus improving our comprehension of this group’s cultural practices by analyzing the processes that selected them. Behavior-analytical concepts would allow us to further understand changes in cultural practices that occurred due to colonization. Finally, we discuss the importance of laws in planning and changing cultures. For Brazilian indigenous groups, consequences such as the right to land and other benefits had an important role in encouraging members of indigenous communities to seek recognition of their condition.

CRISIS OF PEDAGOGICAL CULTURE AND SOME PROBLEMS OF THE MODERN PEDAGOGICAL THOUGHT

The evolution of content and forms of the dominating social relations caused the crisis of education; one of negative consequences of that crisis has become a gradual loss of the spiritual and moral bases of pedagogical culture. The possibilities of formation and realization of standards of behavior and work of teachers are discussed in the present publication based on culturological and axiological approaches to a phenomenon of this type of culture. The aim of the article is to determine the nature of the changes in the pedagogical culture of the teacher, reflected on the content of the theoretical and practical pedagogy. Methodology and research methods. The study is based on the philosophical-cultural analysis of the problems of formation and realization of pedagogical culture of norms in the context of the destabilization of modern axiological standards of professional teaching. We used the methods of theoretical research, including interdisciplinary analysis and synthesis of information from the philosophical, sociological, psychological and educational literature; empirical methods: the study of the experience of professional educational activities in a cultural context, questioning, interview. Results. The pedagogical culture of the teacher is characterized as the anthropomorphous practice which is putting forward a Person as the leading carrier of content of education and the main value. Research thesis on the declared range of problems of the Russian and foreign authors are presented. The changes in cultural practice and discursive formations in education are established; the difference of classical and modern understanding of pedagogical culture is stated. The role and value of pedagogical science in formation of a new view on essence of professional culture of the teacher in the conditions of crisis of the anthropocentric absolutes are considered. The authors set changes in cultural practices and discursive formations that distinguish the classical understanding of pedagogical culture of the modern. The role and importance of science teaching in the formation of a new look at the nature of a professional culture in the conditions of crisis anthropocentric absolutes. Scientific novelty. The concepts affecting the nature and content of modern pedagogical culture are theoretically proved. The primary tasks that face the modern pedagogical science and require operative decision are designated. Practical significance. According to authors of article, active development of the noted directions of a modern pedagogical thought will have a positive impact on the modern pedagogy and pedagogical culture of the teacher.

CAMBIOS SOCIALES Y CULTURALES EN LOS JÓVENES BAYAMESES DERIVADOS DEL USO DE LAS NUEVAS TECNOLOGÍAS

Abstract The paper analyzes the changes introduced by the new Information and Communication Technologies in relation to culture and the forms of communication and exchange between young people from Bayamo due to the current convergence of media against the traditional media conception and consumer practices in correspondence with the new technological proposals. At this point it must be assumed that the new, emerging, is the product of a previous history that leaves traces and that marks the different technological innovations. The vertiginous change produced by changes in cultural practices bring with them correlative alterations in the ways in which people relate not only to others, but also to knowledge and culture. Keywords: New Technologies, Youth Cultures, Digital Culture.

“Cyclic” time in the history of Russian

This article offers a diachronic analysis of the concept of “cyclic” time in Russian, more specifically of temporal adverbials such asutrom‘in the morning’ andvesnoj‘in the spring’ that refer to the diurnal and annual temporal cycles in nature. It is argued that evidence from diachrony bears on important theoretical questions: Is the sensitivity to “cyclic” time in language due to cultural factors? How does the external factor of culture interact with language internal factors in the formation of temporal concepts? The proposed analysis indicates that the linguistic development in Russian does not mirror changes in cultural practices and values. Instead, the main burden of explanation is placed on a language internal factor, namely the general drift towards more analytic constructions in Russian, which I argue paved the way for the concept of “cyclic” time as reflected in the grammar of the Russian language today.