Unfamiliar Landscapes Research Articles

Keeping the Faith: Divine Protection and Flood Prevention in Modern Buddhist Ladakh

In August 2010 the Himalayan Region of Ladakh, Northwest India, experienced severe flash-flooding and mudslides, causing widespread death and destruction. The causes cited were climate change, karmic retribution, and the wrath of an agentive sentient landscape. Ladakhis construct, order and maintain the physical and moral universe through religious engagement with this landscape. The Buddhist monastic incumbents—the traditional mediators between the human world and the sentient landscape—explain supernatural retribution as the result of karmic demerit that requires ritual intervention. Social, economic, and material transformations have distorted the proper order, generating a physically and morally unfamiliar landscape. As a result, the mountain deities that act as guardians and protectors of the land below are confused and angry, sending destructive water to show their displeasure. Thus, the locally-contextualized response demonstrates the agency of the mountain gods in establishing a moral universe whereby water can give life and destroy it.

The technology of Stone Age colonization: an empirical, regional-scale examination of Clovis unifacial stone tool reduction, allometry, and edge angle from the North American Lower Great Lakes region

There is now broad consensus that the appearance of Clovis in Northeastern North America (Great Lakes, New England) represents a colonization pulse into recently deglaciated landscapes. Due to the increased resource uncertainty that comes with colonizing unfamiliar landscapes, it was hypothesized that the majority tool component of Clovis assemblages, unifacial stone tools, should have been knapped on tool blanks possessing the design properties of longevity and functional flexibility to facilitate exploration mobility and guard against the absence of toolstone sources in the new landscape. These properties are optimized by large, flat flakes, possessing large surface area relative to flake thickness. Since discarded and, at times, exhausted unifacial stone tools do not preserve the original dimensions of the blank upon which they were created – necessary items for a true test of blank morphology selection – this study presents a set of predictions for inferring whether Clovis unifacial stone tool blanks were selected for the properties of longevity and functional flexibility based on evidence that Clovis people actually capitalized on those properties. Due to the nature of Clovis unifacial stone tools, tool size was of necessity used as a proxy for tool reduction, on the grounds that smaller tools are more likely to have been resharpened than larger tools, at least in the case of unifacial flake tools. The results showed that less resharpened tools possessed flatter, less spherical shapes than the more resharpened tools, which possessed more globular, spherical shapes, suggesting Clovis foragers exploited the retouch potential afforded by the larger, flatter blanks. Edge angles showed no relationship with tool reduction, suggesting that Clovis foragers exploited the functional flexibility afforded by flatter blanks by adjusting the edge angle to be either higher or lower as needed. These results are consistent with the notion that human colonizers, who did not know the abundance or location of stone outcrops prior to settling an unfamiliar territory, not only “geared up” before leaving a stone source, but geared up as efficiently as possible by carefully selecting the blanks they chose to carry. Broader implications for such careful unifacial stone tool blank selection are discussed.

Buffel Grass: An Augmented Landscape

This article examines, in part, the spread of an introduced grass species, Buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris), in central Australia. It is also about immersing oneself in an unfamiliar landscape and environment, and exploring the kind of writing that can emerge from that process. It is informed by James Clifford's proposition in 'Fort Ross Meditation' that history occurs on diverse and overlapping temporal registers such as weather, dust, faultlines, human histories, animal histories and histories of seeds, among others. While the article does not explicitly discuss Clifford’s argument, it is an attempt to explore similarly diverse histories including those generated by arid zone scientists, Albert Namatjira’s efforts to gain a grazing licence, environmental impact of settlement (including erosion, dust storms and species extinction), along with personal narratives impelled by engagement with place. The article does not aim to theorise its content, rather to elaborate knowledge of landscape along with that elusive quality, a ‘sense of place’, through connecting disparate things.

Coding of saliency by ensemble bursting in the amygdala of primates

Salient parts of a visual scene attract longer and earlier fixations of the eyes. Saliency is driven by bottom-up (image dependent) factors and top-down factors such as behavioral relevance, goals, and expertise. It is currently assumed that a saliency map defining eye fixation priorities is stored in neural structures that remain to be determined. Lesion studies support a role for the amygdala in detecting saliency. Here we show that neurons in the amygdala of primates fire differentially when the eyes approach to or fixate behaviorally relevant parts of visual scenes. Ensemble bursting in the amygdala accurately predicts main fixations during the free-viewing of natural images. However, fixation prediction is significantly better for faces—where a bottom-up computational saliency model fails—compared to unfamiliar objects and landscapes. On this basis we propose the amygdala as a locus for a saliency map and ensemble bursting as a saliency coding mechanism.

Situation Wanted: Using Workforce Characteristics to Understand the Cultural Landscape of New Orleans

Most assume New Orleans is defined by the tourist industry's French Creole cultural icons, but underneath this veneer, the city's landscape history is far more complex. Using research methodologies of cultural geographers, this paper looks at seemingly unremarkable information about eighteenth- and nineteenth-century life in order to gain a better understanding of the evolution of this city's cultural landscape. Investigating immigrant and local garden workers reveals strata about the community's landscape heritage heretofore ignored: French settlers encountered an unfamiliar landscape but envisioned ornate gardens; Native Americans, Germans and Africans provided horticultural expertise the French lacked; Irish immigrants built urban infrastructure; Italians supplied fruits and vegetables, and Germans provided horticultural expertise through commercial nurseries. Horticultural commerce provided vehicles through which local residents participated in cross-cultural associations, thereby creating distinctive landscapes. Beneath today's tourist-oriented icons are remnants of these engagements; examining them gives a more nuanced understanding of this city's landscape.

Travel as communication: a consideration of overland journeys in Anglo-Saxon England

This paper considers the relationship between the act of travel and perceptions of landscape drawing upon case studies from Anglo-Saxon England. Two perspectives are offered. First, we address the issue of large-scale mental mapping of journeys and the degree to which moving from one place to another can be reconstructed using the landscape as a document. Second, we examine how local territories, regions and their boundary markers reveal a folkloric or ‘story-telling’ mythologizing of landscape as an early medieval practice, and the impact that this may have had on the experience of travel. We argue that a distinction can be drawn between what we term ‘direct’ and ‘associative’ experience of landscape and that local experience inspired emotive reactions to unfamiliar landscapes. We promote the necessity of an interdisciplinary approach and our case studies draw upon archaeological, written and toponymic evidence.

Learning the lithic landscape: using raw material sources to investigate Pleistocene colonisation in the Ivane Valley, Papua New Guinea

ABSTRACT Recent research in the Ivane Valley has shown that it was first occupied during the late Pleistocene between 43–49,000 years cal. BP, making this area one of the earliest colonised in Papua New Guinea. At an altitude of 2000 metres above sea level, occupation also marks the first time that modern humans pushed into the high altitude montane regions within Sahul. Part of the process of familiarisation with a landscape involves the identification of lithic sources. The importance of lithic sources for the landscape learning process is that, unlike plant foods and animals, it can be assumed that the colonisers had little a priori knowledge of their location before arriving in a particular landscape. If lithic sources are available, then their successful use would require a process of learning the locations and properties of the different raw material sources, thus creating an intimate level of knowledge of a landscape. By examining how modern humans familiarised themselves with the Ivane landscape through the use of lithic sources, we may be able to understand further the processes of colonisation and adaptation to particular landscapes.

'Light in my Life': A Tale of Travel through the Unfamiliar Landscape of a Group Relations Conference in Israel

The author of this paper is an artist and the business development manager of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations; one could think of her role as that of a curator. This paper presents her reflections on attending a group relations conference for the first time, and visiting Israel - the location of the conference - also for the first time. It includes visual images that provide another access point to these two unfamiliar landscapes - the conference and the country. The visual images she brings into the paper provide a unique access point to the Group Relations landscape within its Israeli context and reflect the author's work in bridging the world of fine arts with social dynamics. Drawing on literary, film, and artistic references, key themes of the paper are: (i) the outsider's experience and observance of being a women in Israel - women colluding with men; the female need for protection; men being disparaging of the female voice; (ii) the visual and the creative and how artistic works provide metaphor for the experiences of the conference, referencing the work of Michelangelo, especially his late drawings of the crucifixion; (iii) the emergence of story and meaning from the group experience; the told and the untold.

Determinants of homing in nest-guarding females: balancing risks while travelling through unfamiliar landscapes

Determining the context in which animals move through unfamiliar landscapes helps elucidate the risks associated with returning to known resources and the factors that outweigh those risks. For example, females that become separated from their nests can return to protect their offspring from predation, thereby increasing fitness, but also risking having the nest preyed upon or being preyed upon themselves. We predicted that after being displaced, long-tailed skinks, Eutropis longicaudata, guarding eggs would adjust their homing behaviour to minimize these risks. Nest-guarding females reduced the likelihood of encountering predators by homing at night, when lizard predators were inactive. Homing success rates decreased with increasing displacement distance (50–300 m), probably because homing took longer from further away, which may increase the chances of nest predation during the female’s absence. However, large clutches were associated with successful homing at distances over 50 m, suggesting that increased fitness benefits provided by having more eggs outweighed the risks of returning. Females were more likely to return to a nest with freshly laid eggs, possibly because fresh eggs are easier for predators to locate, and thus more susceptible to predation. Finally, when females were exposed to an egg predator prior to displacement, they homed almost 50% faster, reflecting the ability to adjust homing behaviour according to the risk of nest predation. As predicted, nest-guarding mothers adjusted their homing behaviour so that the fitness benefits of returning to protect a nest outweighed the risks associated with becoming preyed upon or returning to an empty nest.

<em>Ceremony Earth</em>: Digitizing Silko's Novel for Students of the Twenty-first Century

Ceremony EarthDigitizing Silko’s Novel for Students of the Twenty-first Century Rick Mott (bio) You pointed out a very important dimension of the land and the Pueblo people’s relation to the land when you said it was as if the land was telling the stories in the novel. That is it exactly, but it is so difficult to convey this relationship without sounding like Margaret Fuller or some other Transcendentalist. When I was writing Ceremony I was so terribly devastated by being away from the Laguna country that the writing was my way of re-making the place, the Laguna country, for myself. Leslie Marmon Silko, The Delicacy and Strength of Lace Many students I have taught, especially those who are non-Native, get frustrated when they read Leslie Silko’s canonical Native American novel, Ceremony. Not only do they struggle with Silko’s disruptions of linear temporality and her collapsing of binary oppositions, but they also struggle with the novel’s geographic and cultural location, which is wholly unfamiliar to most of them; because the novel takes place on the Laguna Pueblo in west-central New Mexico, students have trouble understanding the unfamiliar landscape, cosmology, and social conventions integral to the narrative. To help students better understand the novel, I offer them a variety of multimedia artifacts, including video, audio, static images, 360-degree panoramas, and traditional texts. Because Ceremony is so integrally connected with landscape and location, I use Keyhole Markup Language (KML) to attach these artifacts to specific geographic locations—using [End Page 25] longitude and latitude—that correspond to places and events in Ceremony. Students open these files—which I have collectively called Ceremony Earth—in any geobrowser, the most popular of which is Google Earth.1 Students then either follow a predefined tour or navigate to a specific geographic point, open the digital contextual material located there, and read, watch, listen to, experience, and interpret the background information designed to help them better understand the whole of Silko’s story. In this essay I will provide background and context for this location-based multimedia project, including reasons why digital literary artifacts attached to specific geographic points on geobrowsers are so appropriate for teaching Ceremony. In doing so, I will investigate the Puebloan webs of meaning inherent in Ceremony’s spatial organization, all of which originate in the location-based discourse of Laguna cultural conventions. I will try to always stay aware of my position as a non-Native academic with largely northern European roots, and the inevitable concomitant postcolonial exigencies that go with my positionality. Treating digital pedagogy as a mash-up (a mix of different elements), I will also discuss students’ development of a secondary literacy as they learn about the protagonist, Tayo—a returning World War II POW who painfully survived the Bataan Death March and suffers from what we now call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)—and his reconnection with the landscape, which plays an essential role in his process of healing. After describing the purpose and function of geobrowsers in general and Google Earth in particular, I will lay down some of the structural building blocks upon which Ceremony Earth has been designed and constructed, including an overview of KML. Finally, in order to give readers an idea of how Google Earth can be used as a pedagogical tool for a literature class, I will provide an overview of the materials available on Ceremony Earth. Webs of Connection Beyond the fact that Ceremony is a difficult novel set in an unfamiliar culture, why should we choose it as the subject of a critically constructed, [End Page 26] multimedia set of pedagogical materials? After all, students and scholars read many difficult, unfamiliar novels. Why is this one more important? As it turns out, Ceremony lends itself well to Internet application because of the structure and style of Silko’s writing. From her use of prose, poetry, and photography in Storyteller (1981)—in which the arrangement of the photographs suggests the circular design of oral tradition (Hirsch 2)—to her nonlinear construction of temporality and characterization in Ceremony (Bell 47), Silko constantly tries to transgress the limitations of paper-based...

Optoelectronic system for mobile robot navigation

In densely populated cities or indoor environments, limited accessibility to satellites and severe multipath effects significantly decrease the accuracy and reliability of satellite-based positioning systems. To meet the needs of “seamless navigation” in these challenging environments, an advanced terrestrial positioning system is under development. A new principle of mobile robot navigation capable of working in a complex unknown landscape (another planet or just on a cross-country terrain) is proposed. The optoelectrical method proposed has a good spatial domain resolution and immunity to multipath, as well as new optical means for “technical vision” realization. Two related problems are solved: creation of a technical vision system for recognition of images of an unfamiliar landscape and determination of the direction to the initial point of the movement trajectory of the mobile transport robot. Issues of principle design and also of functioning and interaction of system units and elements are described. A mathematical apparatus for processing digital information inside the system and for determining the distances and angle measurements in the system proposed is developed. Some important parameters are analytically determined: expected accuracy, functioning speed, range of action, power issues, etc.

A Computational Model for Rule-Based Microtonal Music Theories and Composition

A Computational Model for Rule-Based Microtonal Music Theories and Composition Torsten Anders and Eduardo r. Miranda Motivation Microtonal music is an influential facet of twentieth and 21st cen tury music composition. Composers that contributed significantly to microtonal music include characters as diverse as Julián Carrillo, Ben Johnston, Harry Partch, Horatiu Rädulescu, Karlheinz Stock hausen, James Tenney, Ivan Wyschnegradsky and La Monte Young (in alphabetical order). As microtonal music opens wide areas of uncharted musical territory, computational support can be very helpful for navigating this 48 Perspectives of New Music unfamiliar landscape. For example, various software plays back microtonal music, which allows for listening to the music during the composition process. Most sound synthesis programming systems allow for microtonal sound generation (e.g., Csound (Boulanger 2000); SuperCollider (McCartney 2002); Max/MSP (Miller Puckette 2002) and PureData (M. Puckette 1996)). Other systems assist in the development and analysis of microtonal scales, such as Scala by Manuel Op de Coul; CSE by Aaron Hunt; and L'il Miss' Scale Oven by Jeff Scott. These programs can also help to retune various MIDI synthesizers and samplers. In this paper, however, we are interested in computational support for the composition process itself, a field commonly called computer aided composition (or algorithmic composition). For example, consider a composer who wants to create a progression of microtonal chords that follows some rules on harmony. Some of her rules are inspired by conventional harmony. For example, a relatively simple rule states that consecutive chords should often share common tones. She conceives other rules for a specific piece or section she is working on (e.g., certain chords should contain specific microtonal intervals). The composer plans to use different textures in her piece. For instance, some sections consist of a melody with accompaniment; other sections are contrapuntal. These textures should always express an underlying microtonal harmony progression. The rules on harmony are complemented by rules on the individual parts. For example, non harmonic tones may be allowed for more smooth melodic lines, but these are restricted by specific rules in order to make the harmony still recognizable (e.g., passing tones may be allowed). Other rules restrict simultaneous notes (e.g., she may want to avoid unisons and octaves). The composer may also want that each part consists of certain motifs. Many existing computer-aided composition systems support microtonal pitches, including often-used systems such as Max/MSP & PureData; OpenMusic & PWGL (Assayag et al. 1999; Laurson, Kuuskankare, and Norilo 2009); SuperCollider; JMSL (Larry Polansky, Phil Burk, and Rosenboom 1990; Didkovsky and Philip L. Burk 2001); Common Music (Taube 1997); and Fractal Tune Smithy by Robert Walker. However, complex music theories like the microtonal theories of harmony or counterpoint sketched above are difficult to model with these systems. Music theories such as harmony or counterpoint are traditionally stated in a modular way by a set of rules, where musical parameters (e.g., a single pitch) are often affected by multiple rules at the same time. This approach allows for a formal description of a complex A Computational Model for Rule-Based Microtonal Music 49 network of interval relations in music, which is necessary for theories of harmony or counterpoint. Important interval examples are the sequence of intervals in a melody, the intervals between melodic peaks, the set of intervals between simultaneously sounding notes, the set of intervals that form an implied harmony (which may last longer than individual notes), the intervals between chord roots, the intervals that form an underlying scale (mode), how scales/modes are transposed in modulations and so forth. The systems mentioned above only partly embrace this complexity. These systems make it very hard to describe a network of interval relations, because they make it hard to affect parameters (e.g., pitches) by more than a single rule at a time. For example, typically either only the horizontal (melodic) or only the vertical (harmonic) dimension is controlled. This restriction is caused by the underlying programming model of these systems, which efficiently map sets of known values to sets of values to compute (as in a function). Complex music theories that describe a network of interval relations are far more easily formalized using a programming model...

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Culture and Biology: The Foundation of Pathways of Development

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Culture and Biology: The Foundation of Pathways of Development

Clinical Risk and Judicial Reasoning: Editorial Comment

Medical malpractice is a subject which most physicians, at least in the United States, will have to deal with at least once in their career. In this issue of Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, several authors present their perspectives on the subject of medical malpractice litigation. Such litigation is a pervasive phenomenon, both in the United States and overseas. Once a lawsuit is filed, the defendant physician must negotiate an unfamiliar landscape that can appear hostile and adversarial, and in which the familiar rules and standards of the medical profession no longer apply. Information is a key resource in dealing with the unknown; to that end, this symposium presents the foundations of how medical malpractice claims are adjudicated, along with the perspectives of several physician and lawyer authors concerning evolving issues that continue to impact and shape medical malpractice litigation in the United States and overseas. The symposium editors hope the eclectic mix of articles and divergent perspectives presented here provide the reader with an insight to the legal system charged with handling medical malpractice claims. The opening article in this symposium is an introduction and overview of the medical malpractice system in the United States; specifically, how allegations of medical malpractice are adjudicated by the law. Many unique characteristics make the American judicial system different from those of other countries. Among these is the reliance on extensive discovery of underlying facts in the litigation by respective counsel, who adopt an adversarial stance on behalf of the represented parties. In contrast to the judicial systems of many other countries, the role of judges in the American system is minimal when compared to the important function of jurors in evaluating the evidence presented and reaching a verdict. Also, importantly, and unlike some other nations, medical malpractice in the United States is litigated under civil liability laws rather than criminal statutes. Practically, this means that remedies are usually limited to monetary damages and related disciplinary sanctions, rather than a jail sentence for the doctor. There is concern that the number of medical malpractice claims in the United States has grown, thereby creating a serious burden on health care delivery. Reforms have been attempted at the state legislature level, and there have been efforts to legislate reforms at the federal level. Some physicians claim there is a medical liability crisis in the United States, driven in part by fear of disproportionately large jury awards that make obtaining medical malpractice insurance prohibitively expensive, compelling physicians to relocate their practices to other states. The concern among health care professionals is that lay jurors may not be effective in adjudicating medical malpractice litigation; specifically, that jurors untrained in medical science may reach erroneous verdicts. Several studies address these concerns in the symposium; from an examination of the medical malpractice crisis, to a study about the outcomes of malpractice litigation, and an assessment of jury verdicts in medical malpractice court trials. Related to the subject of jurors in medical malpractice litigation is the role of the expert witness in litigation concerning professional negligence. American law specifies that in cases alleging professional negligence, such as medical malpractice, an expert from the profession must educate and inform jurors about the applicable standard of care in the case. In recent years, there have been serious concerns that some self-proclaimed medical experts may be willing to deliver misleading and erroneous testimony during litigation, in return for monetary reward. In response, state medical boards and professional medical associations have instituted guidelines for expert witnesses, and begun monitoring expert testimony delivered by their member physicians. Physicians who deliver false testimony under oath may be subject to serious professional sanctions, and even lawsuits, filed by the party injured by the defective testimony. This emerging area of law is explored in the symposium as well. The subject of medical malpractice as experienced in specific orthopaedic specialties, such as adult reconstruction and sports medicine, is presented along with strategies to reduce the risk of a negligence claim. Among these strategies are proposals to have patients sign contracts as a defense to medical malpractice; timely apology for adverse events; examination of the relationship between surgeon age and malpractice risk, and institution of an alternative no-fault system to resolve negligence claims. The guest editors hope you find this symposium informative, controversial, and thought-provoking; the subject addressed is a complex one that involves many stakeholders with competing interests, and one that defies any easy answers.

Travel as Interaction: Encountering Place and Others

This article examines ‘encounters’, or interactions between tourists. The focus is on how social life is established and maintained, specifically the meaning of inter-tourist social interactions in the remote regions of Australia. The ways in which perceptions of the landscape frame these interactions are also considered. The meaning and significance of these interactions was found to be filtered through the prism of the tourists' occupation of a physically demanding, sometimes threatening and culturally unfamiliar landscape. Because of the rigours of the travel environment, tourists were keen to be in the company of others, but in encounters or relationships free of the obligation of ongoing attachment, without specific function, content or outcome. Their interactions with other tourists and the local populations enriched their understanding of the social and physical environment. Those interactions offered comfort and companionship in what they perceived to be a hostile and alien environment.

Travel as Interaction: Encountering Place and Others

This article examines ‘encounters’, or interactions between tourists. The focus is on how social life is established and maintained, specifically the meaning of inter-tourist social interactions in the remote regions of Australia. The ways in which perceptions of the landscape frame these interactions are also considered. The meaning and significance of these interactions was found to be filtered through the prism of the tourists' occupation of a physically demanding, sometimes threatening and culturally unfamiliar landscape. Because of the rigours of the travel environment, tourists were keen to be in the company of others, but in encounters or relationships free of the obligation of ongoing attachment, without specific function, content or outcome. Their interactions with other tourists and the local populations enriched their understanding of the social and physical environment. Those interactions offered comfort and companionship in what they perceived to be a hostile and alien environment.

Reforestation, Landscape Conservation, and the Anxieties of Empire in French Colonial Algeria

ways in which colonial relationships insinuated themselves into European metropolitan life has abounded in recent years. Some of this renewed interest, which can be observed among Anglo-American scholars and historians of European colonialism, has focused on how non-European landscapes were construed, conserved, and transformed by both European travelers and colonizers from the sixteenth century to the end of colonial rule in the twentieth century. In a pathbreaking study of these questions, Richard H. Grove traces the beginnings of modern Western environmentalism to the European encounter with the non-European tropical island Edens in the Indian Ocean at the end of the seventeenth century. Diana K. Davis has recently examined European narratives of environmental decline in North Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, while David Arnold and Paul Carter have assessed European responses to unfamiliar landscapes and how such landscapes became objects of desire, fear, and mastery in India and Australia respectively. To a lesser extent, historians have also addressed indigenous responses to these European initiatives and perceptions.' The multiple ideological underpinnings of forest conservation in colonial Algeria

Travel as Interaction: Encountering Place and Others

This article examines ‘encounters’, or interactions between tourists. The focus is on how social life is established and maintained, specifically the meaning of inter-tourist social interactions in the remote regions of Australia. The ways in which perceptions of the landscape frame these interactions are also considered. The meaning and significance of these interactions was found to be filtered through the prism of the tourists' occupation of a physically demanding, sometimes threatening and culturally unfamiliar landscape. Because of the rigours of the travel environment, tourists were keen to be in the company of others, but in encounters or relationships free of the obligation of ongoing attachment, without specific function, content or outcome. Their interactions with other tourists and the local populations enriched their understanding of the social and physical environment. Those interactions offered comfort and companionship in what they perceived to be a hostile and alien environment.

Colonization of unfamiliar landscapes: the archaeology of adaptation edited by Rockman, Marcy and James Steele

Colonization of unfamiliar landscapes: the archaeology of adaptation edited by Rockman, Marcy and James Steele

Staying Safe and Guilty Pleasures

Staying Safe and Guilty Pleasures