Structuring Research Articles

Technological and Dietary Responses to Holocene Climate Events in the Northern Great Basin

ABSTRACT Environmental instability caused by extended periods of drought no doubt impacted past human populations by limiting economic options and driving changes in social and technological organization. Here we examine two sets of Great Basin sites with occupations spanning the middle and late Holocene droughts: one associated with lowland springs and another with upland springs. We use dietary markers retrieved via starch granule analysis to evaluate whether artifact form relates to resources processed, how changes in tool form might be related to past changes in climate, environment, and social organization, and what, if any, differences mark upland vs. lowland resource use. Our data suggest that changes in tool form track with environmental fluctuations and that in both upland and lowland settings diets focused primarily on tubers and high-return seeds and that these profitable and stable food sources likely anchored populations during periods of drought.

Envisioning ecological security through local direct action: community resistance with global resonance

ABSTRACT As climate change becomes a pressing concern for policymakers and citizens around the world, a variety of security discourses have emerged framing the environment as a security issue. While dominant frameworks focus on securing national interests, the international order, or individuals, the ecological security framework presents an alternative discourse. Ecological security requires a refocusing of the security discourse onto the environment itself, vulnerable communities, and future generations, and requires the exploration of alternative, relational forms of social and economic organisation. This framework has often been discounted as an impractical and radical alternative to dominant discourses, however, I argue that ecological security can, and is, being enacted by local communities around the world through radically relational activist methodologies. I suggest that direct action methodology employed by environmental activists can enable the enactment of ecological security by local communities. By investigating the connections and overlaps between blockade-style activism, direct action methodology, and Indigenous resurgence, it is possible to envision a locally-based, radically relational, bottom-up model of ecological security. Through an investigation of the conflict between Wet’suwet’en land defenders and the Coastal GasLink pipeline, this community-activist-ecological security nexus is drawn out and examined as a possible path forward for climate security.

Social and Spatial Structure of Male-Female Interactions in Gopher Tortoises, Gopherus polyphemus

Social and Spatial Structure of Male-Female Interactions in Gopher Tortoises, Gopherus polyphemus

Visual affordances and social interactions at Early Iron Age Khirbat al-Mudayna al-ʽAliya, Jordan

Social archaeology of the early Iron Age southern Levant has tended to work from the top-down, using abstract models of social organization, collective identity and subsistence economies to interpret archaeological remains. In this paper a bottom-up approach that uses the visual affordances of the built environment of Khirbat al-Mudayna al-ʽAliya, an Iron Age IB site on Jordan’s eastern Karak Plateau is proposed. Four different methods of visibility analysis are proposed, including a bespoke hybrid approach developed by one of the authors (Wilson). Analyses suggests that the two largest houses at Khirbat al-Mudayna al-ʽAliya were exempt from the dense inter-visible monitoring afforded by the built environment of the site. Combined with other archaeological evidence, the analysis supports the inference that these two houses were occupied by households whose status differed from their fellow residents by degree, if not kind. It is argued that extending this sort of micro-political analysis to other sites would allow for the construction of more nuanced, bottom-up, narratives of social change in the early Iron Age southern Levant firmly grounded in the archaeological record.

Is it me or is it you? Physiological effects of the honey bee microbiota may instead be due to host maturation.

Microbiota-mediated impacts on host physiology and behavior have been widely reported in honey bees (Apis mellifera). However, most of these studies are conducted in artificial lab settings and fail to take into account, or make incorrect assumptions about, the complex physical and social structures inherent to natural hive conditions. A new study by Liberti et al. (J. Liberti, E. T. Frank, T. Kay, L. Kesner, et al., mBio 15:e01034-24, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1128/mbio.01034-24) identifies one such overlooked aspect-the behavioral maturation from nurses to foragers-that can be a serious confounding factor in bee microbiota experiments. Using cuticular hydrocarbon profiling to discern between the two maturation states, they find that multiple physiological and behavioral differences between age-matched lab bees could potentially be explained by their maturation state instead of the intended treatment conditions, such as microbial inoculation. This study serves as a stark wake-up call on the necessity of careful replication and cross-disciplinary knowledge transfer (e.g., between animal specialists and microbiologists) in order to truly understand complex host-microbe systems.

The sacrificed lives of the caring class: crises of social reproduction, unequal Europe, and modern forms of slavery

AbstractThere have been plenty of interpretations regarding the meaning and function of sacrifice within the discipline of anthropology. Going beyond sacrifice as a ritual and exploring a wide range of its manifestations and functions as contemporary cultural practices, discourses, and underlying logics, we reveal its role in the social organization of social care provision within the framework of neoliberal capitalism. Our analysis supports the theory that sacrifice can have the function of social control, and of preserving hierarchies. The forgoing of a minority of migrant domestic workers to provide intensive social care becomes the (no) solution to the ongoing care crisis. It thus becomes the way to hide structural violence and dilute responsibilities for society, which benefits from the servile conditions under which the labour is performed. The ethnographic material (observations, informal conversations, and interviews) that is part of our analysis originated from fieldwork in Castellón de la Plana, Spain (2018/19). This analysis, however, goes beyond that case, being valid for reflecting on the position of care for elderly and dependent people in our societies, care in general, the current global trend in social care provision, and the new social reproduction regime in which sacrificial logics play an increasing role.

Adaptive Stakeholder Management in Social Startups

This research examines the implementation and outcomes of stakeholder relationship management (SRM) strategies in social startups, focusing on Indonesia's Social Organization Matchmaking program. Conducting by a qualitative approach, this study explores how the Outreach Campaign team designed and implemented SRM strategies to engage diverse Organizations within a resource-constrained, emerging market context. The findings highlight a multifaceted SRM approach encompassing strategic communication, personalized engagement, value co-creation, and digital interaction. This adaptive strategy significantly enhanced program outcomes, including a higher success rate in matching Organizations with sponsors, increased retention, and overall satisfaction. Key factors contributing to effective SRM were identified, such as fostering trust through transparent communication, cultivating commitment through shared value creation, and balancing digital and traditional engagement methods. Contextual factors, including cultural norms, economic realities, technological infrastructure, and regulatory environment, shaped SRM strategies.

Extended education and well-being of children: A case study of Iceland

This article explores the emergent trend of global educational policy which focuses on educational values such as well-being and holistic skills. It makes connections between the emergent trend of “education-as-flourishing” and current developments of extended education, using a specific case for illustration, i.e. school-age educare in Iceland. The author argues that there is an internal tension in the current educational global policy which emphasizes holistic skills and well-being in education but eventually produces a policy framework that overlooks the educational pathways of learners through extended education spaces. The case study shows that the manifold learning outcomes of extended education are largely overlooked in policy and practice. There are external and internal challenges at play that feed this tension, specifically a lack of agency of stakeholders and a supportive social structure. A new Act on Well-being of Children in Iceland encourages municipalities and professionals to align resources from diverse sectors, such as education, health, and social services. This study indicates a primary need for policy makers to work strategically with educators from all sectors to develop innovate educational practices within and outside of school to support the education and well-being of children and youth.

Examination of Turkish Culture and Customs before Islam: Outcomes and Implications

This article first investigates the activities, life, and significant role of Turkish peoples in the history of Central Asia and the Middle East before the arrival of Islam. Initially, Turks were introduced as one of the major influential groups in the Central Asian region, living a nomadic and pastoral lifestyle in the plain areas. The article secondly, explores various pre-Islamic religious beliefs and practices of the Turks, including Tengri or Tengrism (worship of natural forces), Buddhism, Manichaeism, Shamanism, and Zoroastrianism. In addition, the paper describes the Turks' strategic location with the key trade routes, Turkish customs such as the celebration of Nowruz, the nomadic lifestyle, and the wide range of handicrafts including metalwork, pottery, and weaving. The paper also slightly covers the different ethnic and historical origins of Turkish people, such as the Oghuz, Seljuks, Kipchaks, and Ottomans. Eventually, the article explains the tribal social structure of the Turks, the role of khans and traditional leaders in their societies, and the dominant feudal system before Islam.

Innovative Social Groups in the Institutional Changes of the Russian Countryside

The article considers the formation of innovative social groups in the social structure of the Russian countryside, broadcasting the managerial style of thinking and lifestyle of an active subject of agricultural labor. The current model of the agricultural market was formed under the powerful institutional pressure of market reforms. These objective social processes transformed the mentality of rural residents, gave rise to various labor practices, including employment in the informal sector, from which innovative market models of behavior in the agricultural labor market emerged. Using the example of farms and rural entrepreneurs, innovative layers in the labor market are shown, the criteria for which are an increase in agricultural land, production growth using new technologies and digital equipment, access to export markets. The information base consists of data from large-scale panel studies of Rosstat 2011–2022 and the All-Russian agricultural censuses of 2006, 2016, 2021. Institutional changes in the agricultural labor market have been identified, within the framework of which innovative groups are being formed. The development of innovative technologies used in agriculture requires the involvement of highly qualified labor. However, there is an acute shortage of personnel in the agricultural labor market. The wages of a significant segment of jobs in the rural market do not ensure economic stability. The survival strategy remains the main factor in the socio-economic behavior of rural residents, which determines the employment of most of them in non-agricultural sectors in the agricultural labor market. The crisis of agricultural organizations and the arrival of high-tech capitalist forms of production in agriculture cause the migration of the rural population to cities. Despite significant government support for agriculture, there is a shortage of engineering specialties and skilled workers. All these processes hinder the emergence and development of new innovative groups in rural areas. The foreign experience of the functioning of an institutionalized system of information networks and consulting for farmers and small businesses in agriculture is also presented.

No thanks: How an ideology of sharing, not reciprocating, ensures abundance in the forests of south‐eastern Cameroon

Abstract Reciprocity and relationality are themes which frequently emerge with respect to human–nature associations in Indigenous groups around the world. But many hunter‐gatherers have been shown to reject systems of reciprocity, instead favouring unconditional sharing both between each other and their environment through egalitarian social structures. Investigations of human–nature reciprocity in Central African hunter‐gatherers has been neglected. In this article, we investigate how Baka‐forest relationships intersect with concepts of reciprocity and what the implications are for forest managers. The work is the result of a collaboration between local knowledge holders and an anthropologist who carried out extensive ethnographic fieldwork in a Baka village in south‐eastern Cameroon. Through the examples of three phenomena—origin stories, human–animal shapeshifting, and forest and ancestral spirits—we show that the Baka hold a complex and deeply rooted relational connection with the forest, whereby the two are closely tied. The common notion of direct human–nature reciprocity whereby ‘giving back’ or ‘giving thanks’ that appears in such a diversity of contexts is not present in the case of the Baka. Rather, the focus is on celebrating the abundance of the forest experienced, expressed through sharing properly with others. There is no expectation that this will lead to getting something in return, but instead is known as the ultimate way to achieve joy. As the Baka consider themselves as part of the forest, ensuring their own well‐being is ensuring the well‐being of the forest, an ideology dependent on close relational ties. Extractive industries and mainstream conservation practices in south‐eastern Cameroon are often based on inappropriate approaches which may cause harm to forest communities and jeopardise the state of the forest in the long term. The social‐ecological philosophy we describe, which insists on caring for forest people as the primary means for caring for the forest, provides guidance for forest managers in the tropics and more widely in how to secure a sustainable future for both forests and people. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Utopian Science Fiction and Ethnic Future Imagination in Chinese Contemporary Science Fiction

Utopian science fiction, as a fusion of science fiction literature and utopian literature, integrates the construction of imagined interactions between people, technology, society, and the environment in future narratives. In doing so, it deepens the aesthetic value and social significance of science fiction literature. Chinese science fiction utopian future narratives use technological imagination to construct three models of expression. First, they re-examine the symbiotic patterns of technology, humanity, and time within the multiple dimensions of human subjectivity. Second, within the transformation of social structures, they reassess the subject and emotions, recognizing that the acceleration of social change has transformed human nostalgia into a series of rehearsals seeking future possibilities in the past. Third, within the dissolution of cultural politics, they reconsider space and the environment, reconstructing planetary existence through a model of deterritorialization. The imagined technological developments constitute the internal logic of Chinese science fiction utopian future narratives, suggesting that the future is an uncertain movement entangled with technology, time, space, and human nature. The confluence of technology, time, and humanity gives rise to people’s expectations and yearnings for eternal life. However, these three modes of narrating the future also lead us to return to Earth as the central theme, highlighting the planetary nature and reflecting on the meaning of existence.

Under the Smokescreen of Horizontality: Gendered Leading Tasks within the Yellow Vest Movement

There is little scholarship on how gender impacts the construction of leadership in supposedly leaderless, horizontal social movements. In this study, I expand the concept of leading tasks, to get at the ways in which gender intersects with the critical organizing work of maintaining horizontal movements. Drawing on comparative data from 7 months of fieldwork conducted with two grassroots groups in the French Yellow Vest movement, I argue that horizontal organizing in the Yellow Vests (YVM) functions as a gendered structure which opens possibilities for women to take on important leading tasks: caring management, attentive listening, and superintendence. These analytically constructed, gendered leading tasks point to a tension inherent in horizontality: It creates leeway for women’s participation, while also functioning as a smokescreen for a process where group members reproduce traditional gendered expectations of women to do a “third shift” in organizing, characterized by nurturing and caring for participants and activist spaces. The study documents how women can be disadvantaged by this mode of organization. Thus, the concept of gendered leading tasks contributes to investigating how leadership is a gendered construct shaped by those who enact it, and the social structure that surrounds it.

The Sociological Perspective on Maghi Festival as the New Year of the Tharu Community

The Tharu are an indigenous community living in the Terai and inner Terai regions of Nepal, which is known for its diverse caste, ethnicity, language, social structures, culture, and religions. Maghi is the main festival of the Tharu community. The present research paper clarifies the relevance of Maghi festivals. In this paper customs, procedures and celebration of Maghi are examined. The present study uses a combination of exploratory and descriptive research designs and is based on interviews with elders, ritual performers, and educated members of the Tharu community. Tharu people celebrate Maghi as the New Year, marked by the government has declared holidays. The festival, lasting seven days, involves cleaning, refurbishing houses, and cultural activities. Rituals include holy baths, prayers for children, and offering to deities. It fosters community bonds, while its culinary traditions highlight cultural significance. Economic, social, and cultural factors have contributed to the dynamic nature of Maghi practices, A sociological study by concentrating on the Maghi festival as Tharu new year of study area Birendranagar Municipality-9, Patalganga village, Surkhet. It offers particular insights into Maghi festival's importance, practices and gradually changing to reflect qualities that are inconsistent with modern morals.

Participación política de la mujer en los Andes

The women of the Andes serve as a testament to resilience and fortitude in the face of constraints imposed by social structures and stereotypes. The objective of this study is to analyze the narratives employed by women leaders regarding women’s political participation in the Andes. A qualitative methodology based on a hermeneutic-dialogical foundation was employed, whereby eight women of andean altiplano origin were interviewed using an in-depth interview guide. The questions addressed the following categories: the right to be elected, the role of women in political participation, and the obstacles faced by women in the political environment. As a result, a number of emerging subcategories were identified, including gender participatory democracy, the evolution of female political principles, the characteristics of a female leader, the socio-political aspects of women, the marginalization of women, the transition to female management, gender-related obstacles, and female vindication. These subcategories provide insight into the challenges faced by women in the struggle against sexual harassment, gender-based violence, and all forms of discrimination. They highlight the need for the development of inclusive and ethical systems that promote the rights of the gender in question.

A Comparative Study of Government Hospital & Private Hospital Staff & Patient Relationship With Special Reference to Navi Mumbai.

The sociology of healthcare is the focus of this study, which looks at the interactions between employees and patients at Navi Mumbai's public and private hospitals. It investigates how social structures, cultural practices, and organizational designs influence these interactions within healthcare settings. The study begins with a sociological overview of health, then delves into the evolving concepts of health, highlighting the critical role of hospital organization and management. It discusses the structural and functional differences between hospitals, emphasizing their importance within the healthcare framework. The main focus over here is a comparative study of government and private hospitals, with a particular emphasis on the staff-patient interactions. The research observes how these relationships differ between the two hospital types and considers the impact on patient care, staff morale, and overall hospital performance. The study aims to discover the strengths and weaknesses of each system, ultimately providing suggestions to enhance staff-patient relationships and improve the quality of healthcare services in Navi Mumbai.

Eğitim Yönetimi Süreçlerinde Eleştirel Düşünmenin Gelişimini Etkileyen Faktörlerin İncelenmesi

The sine qua non of educational management processes is critical thinking. It is natural that the primary effort of those engaged in educational management should be on critical thinking. Some problems may occur from time to time in front of critical thinking in educational management. In general, it is possible to group them as hereditary and environmental factors. The hereditary dimension is the effect of a person's cognitive, emotional and spiritual characteristics on critical thinking skills. Within the scope of environmental factors; family, society and school are seen as effective. Family attitudes that do not trust their child and do not recognize and support opportunities in an intellectual sense negatively affect thinking development. At the social level, which is another factor, a social structure containing prejudicial, religious, sexual and political prohibitions hinders the development of critical individuals. In addition, it is known that students who have not received critical thinking teaching during the initial years of education experience difficulties in transitioning from existing learning structures to teaching critical thinking. It is expected that teachers will be at an adequate level in teaching critical thinking. The fact that good planning has not been done also makes it difficult to teach critical thinking. Key Words: Educational Management, Critical Thinking, Teacher, Student

The dramaturgy of listening

AbstractThe literature on listening and daily discourse often describes an overly romanticized conception of listening, meaning what it should be in its ideal form. However, at most, this ideal is realized through the ‘masks’ that listeners ‘carry’ during their performance of listening. The ideal version that is being projected through the performance of listening is not cognruent with what actually happens behind the mask and performance. Individuals do not have the cognitive capacities to realize this unrealistic and unattainable ideal, but they have the capacity to act as if they do. Using Goffman’s (1959) dramaturgical account this paper reveals the psychological and social world that hides behind the mask and performance of listening in order to ground the theorizing of listening in a more realistic perspective. This account gives rise to novel and indispensable listening concepts: the definition of the situation, the sincere and cynical listener, undercurrent listening, and misrepresentations of listening. These concepts demonstrate that the study of interpersonal listening cannot be isolated from the dramaturgy of listening as (expressed) manners of listening are intricately and inherently embedded in social structure. This account also strongly contests the psychocentric and simplistic definition of listening as proposed by Kluger, A. N., & Mizrahi, M. (2023). Defining Listening: Can We Get Rid of the Adjectives? Current Opinion in Psychology, 101639.).

Agro-Pastoral Youth Participation in Livelihood Activities, Development Programs and Interventions in East and West Hararghe Zones of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

This study was conducted to identify the status and determinants of male and female youth participation in selected livelihood activities, development programs and interventions in agro-pastoral areas of Oromia regional state, Ethiopia. A cross-sectional research design and mixed methods research approach were employed. A multi-stage random sampling strategy was followed to select four agro-pastoral Woredas (A ‘Woreda’ is an administrative unit equivalent to a District), 12 Kebeles (A ‘Kebele’ is the smallest administrative unit in Ethiopia. A Woreda/District consists of several Kebeles) and 398 youth aged 15–29 years for a face-to-face interview. Data were analysed through descriptive and inferential statistics and an econometric model (Logistic regression) estimation. We found that whereas male youth had better access to land, participation in extension/advisory services and Farmers’ Training Centers (FTCs), agricultural training, and NGOs, female youth had better participation in non-/off-farm livelihood activities and Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP). Our findings indicated that lack of access to financial resources, limited access to land, poor extension and rural advisory services, limited skills development programs and mentorship were key factors affecting youth participation. Other factors include: targeting criteria, discrimination (e.g. on the basis of gender, social structure), cumbersome organizational procedures and requirements, limited availability and capacity of supporting organizations, poor infrastructural developments, mismatch between needs and services provided, conflict, and climate-induced shocks and uncertainties. To overcome these challenges, local and regional governments and their development partners operating in the area should implement a multi-stakeholder, participatory, co-design and development of programs, projects and interventions to enhance collaboration, youth engagement and benefit. Investments in capacity-building and alternative income-generating activities, entrepreneurship education and business skills training are also important.

Training on the Making of Fried Shallots (Allium ascalonicum L.) Products in Sigi District to Implementing the Recovery Concept of Agriculture and Food Security Impacted

The concept of community empowerment in the socio-cultural field is an effort to strengthen small people through improving, strengthening, and upholding values, ideas, and norms, and encouraging the realization of social organizations that are able to provide control over political and economic treatments that are far from morality. Service activities are carried out in several stages such as socialization, FGD, training, and designing fried shallot business innovation tools. Socialization of fried onion product processing is carried out by providing training and FGDs in the form of slicing onions, frying and packing shallots. Furthermore, 3 fried shallot business innovation tools were designed in the form of slicing machines, spinner machines and shallot frying machines. Training activities for village youth cadres run smoothly and in accordance with the expected target, namely increasing community awareness about the function and role of village youth cadres in terms of seeking community agricultural products, especially in processing shallots in packaging so that these expectations can be achieved well.