Labanotation and the Study of Human Movement in Anthropology

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 59-67
Author(s):  
Kate Grim-Feinberg ◽  
Monica F. A. W. Santos

This paper discusses the ways in which Labanotation contributes to the analysis of human movement in anthropology. It is based on the experience of the authors, who, as graduate students in anthropology, were involved in research projects where they used Labanotation for the collection and analysis of data. We argue that the ability of Labanotation to accurately represent body movements and gestures, as well as the spatial relationships between moving agents, makes it useful for analyzing different dimensions of social life as enacted by moving bodies. It also records action from the moving person's point of view, which conforms to the ethnographic practice of taking into account local meanings attached to particular kinds of social action. As such, it can be used at different stages of ethnographic research and for different analytical purposes. To illustrate, we present topically diverse ethnographic projects where Labanotation was used: (1) documentation of the New Year ritual of the Lahu Na Shehleh from Northern Thailand for the purpose of preserving the dance and teaching it to younger members of the community, (2) understanding local meanings of ballet dancing in the Philippines, and (3) identifying tacit learning of social norms among children in Ayacucho, Peru.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ol'ga Tihomirova

The science and practice of management are presented from a completely new, original author's point of view — as a social action of managers who implement given social roles. In existing theories over the past 100 years, management has been considered as a set of functions, as a process, as a talent, but not as a social action that is carried out by a specific person representing a specific social stratum — managers. Sometimes the theory is too boring and difficult to understand and implement them in practice in the management of specific companies. In this book, the author presents the theory of management as an exciting game that is played not only by managers, but also by staff, consumers, and competitors… In each section, the reader is offered training tasks aimed at developing practical management skills. It will be of interest to entrepreneurs, managers, managers, undergraduate and graduate students studying in the field of "Management", "Economics", "innovation", as well as a wide range of readers interested in management and personal development.



wisdom ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 205-211
Author(s):  
Sergei BYSTRIANTSEV ◽  
Elmira BAGANDOVA ◽  
Syuzanna YEGHIAZARYAN ◽  
Peresvet BYSTRIANTSEV ◽  
Evgeny PLESHKOV ◽  
...  

Russian social philosophers developed ideas and disputed them with the European philosophers and social thinkers of the XIX century. The main characteristics of Russian philosophy were the natural synthesis of religious, philosophical and scientific knowledge about the society. That is why any phenomenon of social life had to be analyzed from the point of view of ideal start, theoretical example, to which the practice of social action should correspond.



2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-164
Author(s):  
Michelle J. Moran-Taylor

Understanding the return aspect of international migration is vital because returnees replete with new ideas, perceptions on life, and monies affect every dimension of social life in migrants’ places of origin.  Yet, return migration remains uneven and an understudied aspect of migratory flows because migration scholars have privileged why individuals migrate, the underlying motivations for their moves abroad, and how migrants assimilate and succeed in their destinations abroad. Drawing on ethnographic research, this article addresses the migratory flows of Ladino and Mayan Guatemalans:  those who go North, but in particular, those who come South. And in doing so, it highlights their similar and divergent responses towards migration processes.



2010 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernd Dollinger

Der Beitrag geht von Versuchen aus, integrative Perspektiven einer überaus heterogenen Graffitiforschung zu bestimmen. In Auseinandersetzung insbesondere mit Bruno Latours Ansatz des »Iconoclash« wird eine kulturtheoretische Referenz bestimmt, die Graffiti als Version identifiziert, d. h. als semiotisch orientierte Veränderung räumlich situierter Ordnungs- und Regulierungspraxen. Ihnen kann, wenn auch nicht zwingend, eine subversive Qualität zukommen. Durch die Ausrichtung am Konzept einer Version wird beansprucht, Forderungen einer normativ weitgehend abstinenten, nicht-essentialistischen und für komplexe Fragen der Identitäts- und Raumpolitik offenen Forschungspraxis einzulösen.<br><br>The contribution attempts to integrate multiple perspectives of current largely heterogeneous graffiti scholarship. Referring to Bruno Latour’s concept »iconoclash«, we discuss graffiti from a cultural-theoretical point of view as a »version«. It appears as a semiotically oriented modification of spatially situated practices that regulate social life. Often, but not necessarily, these practices involve subversive qualities. The concept of »version« facilitates a non-normative and non-essentialist strategy of research. This enables an explorative research practice in which the complex matters of identity and space politics that are associated with graffiti can be addressed.



2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 76-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Farrer

Abstract Every city has built environments that are largely regarded as eyesores, for aesthetic, social, or moral reasons. Urban nightlife streets are examples of such ‘grimy heritage’. Not only shabby and disorderly, they harbour forms of commercial sex, drinking cultures, and ephemeral nightlife cultures that many city residents and government officials consider undesirable. Sometimes their built forms are regarded as the enemy of genuine heritage architecture, since they obscure more solid, carefully designed structures around them. However, in many cities, organic nightlife streets—developing in such spaces precisely because they were derelict or poorly regulated—serve important social functions as spaces of creativity and community formation. This paper examines the ways that such ‘grimy heritage’ has developed in Shanghai and Tokyo, using examples from ethnographic research and historical sources, and addressing the question of the contribution of the ‘grimy heritage’ to authentic, urban social life.



2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Micaela Porta ◽  
Massimiliano Pau ◽  
Bruno Leban ◽  
Michela Deidda ◽  
Marco Sorrentino ◽  
...  

Among the functional limitations associated with hip osteoarthritis (OA), the alteration of gait capabilities represents one of the most invalidating as it may seriously compromise the quality of life of the affected individual. The use of quantitative techniques for human movement analysis has been found valuable in providing accurate and objective measures of kinematics and kinetics of gait in individuals with hip OA, but few studies have reported in-depth analyses of lower limb joint kinematics during gait and, in particular, there is a scarcity of data on interlimb symmetry. Such aspects were investigated in the present study which tested 11 individuals with hip OA (mean age 68.3 years) and 11 healthy controls age- and sex-matched, using 3D computerized gait analysis to perform point-by-point comparisons of the joint angle trends of hip, knee, and ankle. Angle-angle diagrams (cyclograms) were also built to compute several parameters (i.e., cyclogram area and orientation and Trend Symmetry) from which to assess the degree of interlimb symmetry. The results show that individuals with hip OA exhibit peculiar gait patterns characterized by severe modifications of the physiologic trend at hip level even in the unaffected limb (especially during the stance phase), as well as minor (although significant) alterations at knee and ankle level. The symmetry analysis also revealed that the effect of the disease in terms of interlimb coordination is present at knee joint as well as hip, while the ankle joint appears relatively preserved from specific negative effects from this point of view. The availability of data on such kinematic adaptations may be useful in supporting the design of specific rehabilitative strategies during both preoperative and postoperative periods.



2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2472
Author(s):  
Teodora Stillitano ◽  
Emanuele Spada ◽  
Nathalie Iofrida ◽  
Giacomo Falcone ◽  
Anna Irene De Luca

This study aims at providing a systematic and critical review on the state of the art of life cycle applications from the circular economy point of view. In particular, the main objective is to understand how researchers adopt life cycle approaches for the measurement of the empirical circular pathways of agri-food systems along with the overall lifespan. To perform the literature review, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol was considered to conduct a review by qualitative synthesis. Specifically, an evaluation matrix has been set up to gather and synthesize research evidence, by classifying papers according to several integrated criteria. The literature search was carried out employing scientific databases. The findings highlight that 52 case studies out of 84 (62% of the total) use stand-alone life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate the benefits/impacts of circular economy (CE) strategies. In contrast, only eight studies (9.5%) deal with the life cycle costing (LCC) approach combined with other analyses while no paper deals with the social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) methodology. Global warming potential, eutrophication (for marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems), human toxicity, and ecotoxicity results are the most common LCA indicators applied. Only a few articles deal with the CE assessment through specific indicators. We argue that experts in life cycle methodologies must strive to adopt some key elements to ensure that the results obtained fit perfectly with the measurements of circularity and that these can even be largely based on a common basis.



2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S563-S563
Author(s):  
Kenneth A Valles ◽  
Lewis R Roberts

Abstract Background Infection by hepatitis B and C viruses causes inflammation of the liver and can lead to cirrhosis, liver failure, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The WHO’s ambition to eliminate viral hepatitis by 2030 requires strategies specific to the dynamic disease profiles each nation faces. Large-scale human movement from high-prevalence nations to the United States and Canada have altered the disease landscape, likely warranting adjustments to present elimination approaches. However, the nature and magnitude of the new disease burden remains unknown. This study aims to generate a modeled estimate of recent HBV and HCV prevalence changes to the United States and Canada due to migration. Methods Total migrant populations from 2010-2019 were obtained from United Nations Migrant Stock database. Country-of-origin HBV and HCV prevalences were obtained for the select 40 country-of-origin nations from the Polaris Observatory and systematic reviews. A standard pivot table was used to evaluate the disease contribution from and to each nation. Disease progression estimates were generated using the American Association for the Study of the Liver guidelines and outcome data. Results Between 2010 and 2019, 7,676,937 documented migrants arrived in US and Canada from the selected high-volume nations. Primary migrant source regions were East Asia and Latin America. Combined, an estimated 878,995 migrants were HBV positive, and 226,428 HCV positive. The majority of both migrants (6,477,506) and new viral hepatitis cases (HBV=840,315 and HCV=215,359) were found in the United States. The largest source of HBV cases stemmed from the Philippines, and HCV cases from El Salvador. Conclusion Massive human movement has significantly changed HBV and HCV disease burdens in both the US and Canada over the past decade and the long-term outcomes of cirrhosis and HCC are also expected to increase. These increases are likely to disproportionally impact individuals of the migrant and refugee communities and screening and treatment programs must be strategically adjusted in order to reduce morbidity, mortality, and healthcare expenses. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures



2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malgorzata Szabla ◽  
Jan Blommaert

Abstract‘Context collapse’ (CC) refers to the phenomenon widely debated in social media research, where various audiences convene around single communicative acts in new networked publics, causing confusion and anxiety among social media users. The notion of CC is a key one in the reimagination of social life as a consequence of the mediation technologies we associate with the Web 2.0. CC is undertheorized, and in this paper we intend not to rebuke it but to explore its limits. We do so by shifting the analytical focus from “online communication” in general to specific forms of social action performed, not by predefined “group” members, but by actors engaging in emerging kinds of sharedness based on existing norms of interaction. This approach is a radical choice for action rather than actor, reaching back to symbolic interactionism and beyond to Mead, Strauss and other interactionist sociologists, and inspired by contemporary linguistic ethnography and interactional sociolinguistics, notably the work of Rampton and the Goodwins. We apply this approach to an extraordinarily complex Facebook discussion among Polish people residing in The Netherlands – a set of data that could instantly be selected as a likely site for context collapse. We shall analyze fragments in detail, showing how, in spite of the complications intrinsic to such online, profoundly mediated and oddly ‘placed’ interaction events, participants appear capable of ‘normal’ modes of interaction and participant selection. In fact, the ‘networked publics’ rarely seem to occur in practice, and contexts do not collapse but expand continuously without causing major issues for contextualization. The analysis will offer a vocabulary and methodology for addressing the complexities of the largest new social space on earth: the space of online culture.



Author(s):  
TETIANA PETRUSHYNA

The article is devoted to the sociological understanding of the poverty analysis methodological aspects as a topical social problem of today. Despite the defining poverty eradication as the number one goal in the Millennium Declaration and the priority task of sustainable world development by 2030, numerous scientific/political discussions and practical recommendations for overcoming poverty, it remains one of the most acute socio-economic and moral-ethical problems of humankind. The manifestation of multiple poverty factors — situational, socio-demographic, socio-economic, socio-political, socio-cultural, institutional — only increases the need for a clear understanding of the root causes of the existence and reproduction of this phenomenon. Within capitalism, they consist of abandoning the principles of Keynesianism and the welfare state and the transition to the principles of neoliberalism, which determine the socio-economic essence of the society in today’s globalized world. It is no coincidence that analysts of all the most influential international organizations directly or indirectly recognize that the ineffectiveness of the fight against poverty is a consequence of the existing rules of modern social life. Poverty is an integral part of capitalism, one of the most acute and widespread forms of inequality and injustice inherent in this social order. The multifaceted nature of poverty phenomenon and the variety of approaches to its assessment led to the emergence of a giant thesaurus on these issues (absolute, relative, social, multidimensional poverty etc.). Identifying and assessing poverty, adequately to the complex realities of life, are essential points not only from a cognitive-analytical point of view but also for the elaboration of effective measures to overcome it.



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