scholarly journals The origins of cannabis smoking: Chemical residue evidence from the first millennium BCE in the Pamirs

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. eaaw1391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meng Ren ◽  
Zihua Tang ◽  
Xinhua Wu ◽  
Robert Spengler ◽  
Hongen Jiang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Western China ◽  
Cultivated Plants ◽  
Phytochemical Analysis ◽  
Psychoactive Drugs ◽  
Religious Activities ◽  
The World ◽  
Chemical Residue ◽  
First Millennium ◽  
Cannabis Smoking

Cannabis is one of the oldest cultivated plants in East Asia, grown for grain and fiber as well as for recreational, medical, and ritual purposes. It is one of the most widely used psychoactive drugs in the world today, but little is known about its early psychoactive use or when plants under cultivation evolved the phenotypical trait of increased specialized compound production. The archaeological evidence for ritualized consumption of cannabis is limited and contentious. Here, we present some of the earliest directly dated and scientifically verified evidence for ritual cannabis smoking. This phytochemical analysis indicates that cannabis plants were burned in wooden braziers during mortuary ceremonies at the Jirzankal Cemetery (ca. 500 BCE) in the eastern Pamirs region. This suggests cannabis was smoked as part of ritual and/or religious activities in western China by at least 2500 years ago and that the cannabis plants produced high levels of psychoactive compounds.

East Asian Exceptionalism to Western Populism and Migration Crisis

2018 ◽  
pp. 196-210
Author(s):  
John Lie
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
East Asia ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Northeast Asia ◽  
Historical Account ◽  
World War ◽  
Post World War Ii ◽  
The World ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
And Migration

In the 2010s, the world is seemingly awash with waves of populism and anti-immigration movements. Yet virtually all discussions, owing to the prevailing Eurocentric perspective, bypass East Asia (more accurately, Northeast Asia) and the absence of strong populist or anti-immigration discourses or politics. This chapter presents a comparative and historical account of East Asian exceptionalism in the matter of migration crisis, especially given the West’s embrace of an insider-outsider dichotomy superseding the class- and nation-based divisions of the post–World War II era. The chapter also discusses some nascent articulations of Western-style populist discourses in Northeast Asia, and concludes with the potential for migration crisis in the region.

The river fans out: Chinese fiction since the late 1970s

2003 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
HENRY Y. H. ZHAO
Keyword(s):  
Western China ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Religious Consciousness ◽  
Chinese Fiction ◽  
The World ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
Art For Art's Sake ◽  
Artistic Quality ◽  
Scholarly Attention ◽  
Mao Era

The 25 years of the post-Mao era of Chinese fiction is divided into two distinct stages: the pre-1989 period, and the post-1989 period. If this division is true about almost everything else in China, it is especially true with literature. This is because literature had been used as a lethal weapon for political struggle by Mao before and during his regime, and this tradition, though strongly challenged in the post-Mao era, still lingers, though in very different forms now and much watered down. Even the recent trends of art for art's sake, or for the sake of entertainment, or for the sake of religious consciousness, could also be read as political gestures, and are indeed treated as such by Chinese literary officialdom, and also by Western China experts. Despite the fact that Chinese fiction has been highly politicized, this paper will examine, as much as possible, the development of fiction as an art. Only the artistic quality can support my argument that recent novels from China deserve not only more scholarly attention but also more reader appreciation than they have hitherto received around the world.

La storiografia subalterna in prospettiva globale

2012 ◽  
pp. 39-54
Author(s):  
Marianna Scarfone
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Subaltern Studies ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
European Universities ◽  
The World ◽  
Thematic Transformation ◽  
Theory Of History ◽  
Full Immersion ◽  
Cultural Turn

After briefly considering the influence of Gramsci's thought on the founders of Subaltern Studies in India, the author outlines the theoretical and thematic transformation which the approach went through since the mid eighties, under the inspiration of the "cultural turn". In the second part of her essay Scarfone traces the spread of Subaltern Studies to other parts of the world, such as East Asia, Latin America and Europe, thanks also to the multiplier function of American and European universities. Whereas its influence on post-colonial and cultural studies is sizable, Subaltern Studies never became a widely recognized model to the practice of historiography, partly because of its later full immersion in postmodern waters. However, its contribution to the theory of history as a discipline and as practice should not be underestimated.

Fishing for a Career: Alternative Livelihoods and the Hardheaded Art of Academic Failure

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-167
Author(s):  
Deb Cleland
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Academic Failure ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Alternative Livelihoods ◽  
Alternative Livelihood ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

Charting the course: The world of alternative livelihood research brings a heavy history of paternalistic colonial intervention and moralising. In particular, subsistence fishers in South East Asia are cyclical attractors of project funding to help them exit poverty and not ‘further degrade the marine ecosystem’ (Cinner et al. 2011), through leaving their boats behind and embarking on non-oceanic careers. What happens, then, when we turn an autoethnographic eye on the livelihood of the alternative livelihood researcher? What lexicons of lack and luck may we borrow from the fishers in order to ‘render articulate and more systematic those feelings of dissatisfaction’ (Young 2002) of an academic’s life’s work and our work-life? What might we learn from comparing small-scale fishers to small-scale scholars about how to successfully ‘navigate’ the casualised waters of the modern university? Does this unlikely course bring any ideas of ‘possibilities glimmering’ (Young 2002) for ‘exiting’ poverty in Academia?

scholarly journals Application and Evaluation of the China Meteorological Assimilation Driving Datasets for the SWAT Model (CMADS) in Poorly Gauged Regions in Western China

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 2171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xianyong Meng ◽  
Xuesong Zhang ◽  
Mingxiang Yang ◽  
Hao Wang ◽  
Ji Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Swat Model ◽  
Spatial Differentiation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Western China ◽  
Surface Processes ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Heihe River ◽  
Observation Data

The temporal and spatial differentiation of the underlying surface in East Asia is complex. Due to a lack of meteorological observation data, human cognition and understanding of the surface processes (runoff, snowmelt, soil moisture, water production, etc.) in the area have been greatly limited. With the Heihe River Basin, a poorly gauged region in the cold region of Western China, selected as the study area, three meteorological datasets are evaluated for their suitability to drive the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT): China Meteorological Assimilation Driving Datasets for the SWAT model (CMADS), Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR), and Traditional Weather Station (TWS). Resultingly, (1) the runoff output of CMADS + SWAT mode is generally better than that of the other two modes (CFSR + SWAT and TWS + SWAT) and the monthly and daily Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency ranges of the CMADS + SWAT mode are 0.75–0.95 and 0.58–0.77, respectively; (2) the CMADS + SWAT and TWS + SWAT results were fairly similar to the actual data (especially for precipitation and evaporation), with the results produced by CMADS + SWAT lower than those produced by TWS + SWAT; (3) the CMADS + SWAT mode has a greater ability to reproduce water balance than the other two modes. Overestimation of CFSR precipitation results in greater error impact on the uncertainty output of the model, whereas the performances of CMADS and TWS are more similar. This study addresses the gap in the study of surface processes by CMADS users in Western China and provides an important scientific basis for analyzing poorly gauged regions in East Asia.

scholarly journals The Rise of Container Tonnage and Port Developments in East Asia

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariner Wang
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
International Trade ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Container Terminals ◽  
The World ◽  
Substantial Investment ◽  
Huge Impact

1990’s saw the robust expansion of international trade in East Asia generating a remarkable record high and sustained economic growth unmatched by any other region in the world. In line with this, container tonnage in the region has been ever increased annually. In light of this, the governments in the main ports of the region have plunged substantial investment in expanding and developing new container terminals to cope with the ever increased cargoes out/to the region. Though Lehman Shock in 2008 has given a huge impact on the container volumes in Asia, ports in the East Asia are seen to continue to handle the lion’s share of global container business. In 2013, the container throughput of East Asia accounted for 51.2 per cent out of that of the world, becoming the world container center.

scholarly journals Antitoxic, Antifungal and Phytochemical Analysis of Medicinal Compounds of Guiera senegalensis Leaves

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-152
Author(s):  
Z.M. Anka ◽  
Vijender Singh ◽  
S.N. Gimba ◽  
Gunjan Singh
Keyword(s):  
Antifungal Activity ◽  
Phytochemical Analysis ◽  
Desert Area ◽  
Plant Metabolites ◽  
Secondary Plant Metabolites ◽  
Chemical Substances ◽  
Western Africa ◽  
Traditional Medicinal Plants ◽  
The World ◽  
Guiera Senegalensis

Millions of people in the world depend on traditional medicinal plants for treatment of many diseases.  They have curative properties due to presence of various complex chemical substances of different composition, which are found as secondary plant metabolites in one or more parts of these plants. These plant metabolites according to their composition are grouped as flavonoids, tannins, alkaloids, saponins etc. Guiera senegalensis(Gs), which grows in abundance in semi-desert area of Western Africa such as Nigeria, has been used for treating specific diseases and wounds. The study is carried out to investigate the phytochemical analysis, toxicity, and the antifungal activity of Gs leaves extract. Keywords: Guiera senegalensis, Antifungal activity, Brine shrimp, toxicity, phytochemical analysis;

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