scholarly journals Rethinking sociality and health through transfiguration

Author(s):  
Bernhard Hadolt ◽  
Brigit Obrist ◽  
Dominik Mattes

In this introductory article to the Special Section, we intend to literally bring sociality to (bodily) life and ask what medical anthropology might gain by using the lens of sociality for a better understanding of the phenomena it is concerned with. Conversely, we probe how the field of health and illness – including themes concerning embodiment, vulnerability, suffering, and death – might help to further spell out the notion of sociality both conceptually and methodologically. Drawing on the contributors’ ethnographic enquiries into contemporary health phenomena in East Africa, South America, and Western Europe, we do so by bringing sociality into conversation with transfiguration. By this we refer to: (1) the constantly unfolding processes of particular extended figurations encountering, affecting, and becoming enmeshed in each other; as well as (2) the (temporarily) stabilized figurational arrangements emerging from these enmeshments. It is our hope that this notion of transfiguration will help render visible the modalities through which human engagements with each other and the world form diverse arrangements. Moreover, we aim to better understand the processes by which these arrangements – which we term ‘extended figurations’ – interact with each other, change over time, and possibly vanish and make way for others. A detailed appreciation of the workings of these extended figurations, we believe, can significantly enhance our comprehension of the particular processes of change that stand at the center of our ethnographic interest. In this sense, the concept of transfiguration constitutes one possible way of structuring the messiness and complexity of sociality for analytical purposes.

1985 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-166
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Jordan

The nineteenth century saw the beginning of large-scale migration of population from western Europe to various countries of the world. North and South America had proven hospitable in previous centuries and the southern tip of Africa presented an equable climate as well as strategic location. The islands of the southern seas reached by Cook and Van Diemen proved equally attractive if more remote. In retrospect it seems inevitable that, with the exception of South America, they were bound to be English-speaking. Even South America had its British farming colonists at one stage. In 1826 just under two hundred Highland Scots embarked for Topo in the highlands of Colombia (United Kingdom, 1827). Significantly, one hundred and two of them were under fourteen years of age.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 758-807
Author(s):  
Alexander Godulla ◽  
Daniel Seibert ◽  
Rosanna Planer

Initially founded in 1955 as a platform for Dutch photojournalists to increase international exposure, the World Press Photo competition has grown into the most prestigious contest of photojournalism worldwide, making it an important arena for journalism research. Using qualitative and quantitative content analyses, this study examines all photos shown in the competitions from 1960 to 2020 (N = 11,789) considering the origin of jury members (N = 686), participants (N = 132,800), placements (N = 2347) and the Human Development Index (HDI) of the countries. The topics displayed on the photos, their degree of negativity, and potential power structures in the photos are analysed over time both in terms of continental and HDI-related differences. Significant results show that Africa, Asia, and South America are more frequently depicted by the topic conflict and characterised by negative images than continents with industrialised nations (Australia/Oceania, Europe, North America). Participating European countries have a significantly higher average number of jury members, participants, and placements than participating countries from Africa, Asia, and South America, which seems to account for a dominant Eurocentric view. Implications and critical discussions are summarized in three interim conclusions at the end of this extended paper.


Seminar.net ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett Bligh ◽  
Rolf Wiesemes ◽  
Roger Murphy

Higher education throughout the world is undergoing various processes of change, pressurised by demands to provide education for greater numbers of students and to do so using a variety of models of increasing number and diversity. Among these changes, the use of new technologies to support learning is attracting significant amounts of attention as university teachers and students seek to make the best use of the opportunities which they provide to both modernise learning methods and make learning and teaching more effective.


2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 831-838 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ekaterina R Rashkova ◽  
Sam Van Der Staak

Abstract Living in a globalised world, with its inherent easier movement of people between nations, imposes new challenges for representative democracy and for party politics specifically. Political parties have traditionally operated at a domestic level, yet, with the large number of people moving around the globe, this is now changing. This special section, deriving from a workshop on the topic, is one of the first attempts to systematically address this issue. It offers a theoretical framework and five empirical studies on the party abroad. The collection provides evidence of varied levels of existence of the party abroad in different contexts. It illustrates that the party abroad as a new modus operandi for parties that exist in all corners of the world; yet, it is most distinctly developed where the electoral stimuli and the type and size of the diaspora group give strategic incentive to political parties to do so.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 119-138
Author(s):  
Silvina Vigliani

Not all societies identify themselves and the others in the same way nor do so invariably over time. At the same time, not all of them conceptualize the same notion of being and relating, nor do we have to expect that different social collectives in time and space understand objects, animals, stars, rocks, dead or places in the same way we do. Therefore, the main interest of this work is not so much discovering the function or meaning of the archaeological remains we study but trying to understand them in their own ontological parameters.Based on that, we propose starting our study from 1) the critical review of our categories in order to deconstruct their sen-ses, and 2) the reading of ethnographic information which introduce us to other forms of Being-in-the-world. From this point, we can propose and apply methodological tools in order to analyze the information from a closer ontological position to that of the groups we study. In this case, I will analyze the way in which certain images painted on the rock would have affected the transformation of the body and the identity of those who painted them. This analysis will be addressed from the relational approach through the landscape archaeology and the agency theory as analytical tools.


2003 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-283
Author(s):  
JOHN DUNN

REVOLUTION entered modern politics in the form of a bold and ambitious political judgment, aimed both at grasping something momentous, which was unmistakably happening, and at gauging its limited susceptibility to intentional control. From the outset that judgment, and the term in which it was precariously embodied, picked out one key image: the necessitated and ineluctably hazardous resolution of a profound crisis within a particular society, which must and would transform through intense political and social struggle its forms of government and social organization, and very possibly also of economic life. Over time every element in that judgment has proved as vulnerable as it was always bound to be contentious. But for all its manifest exposure and inevitable provocation, for almost two centuries, it went a long way towards setting the agenda for modern politics the world over. The two most inflammatory elements in the judgment were clear from quite early on in the French Revolution. One was the sense of crisis as the working through of a clearly intelligible fatality. The other was the fond hope that, once compelled to begin, that crisis must in due course issue in a resolution of the acute strains which had occasioned it in the first place. Jeff Goodwin's title does not explicitly affirm either element; but it contrives to evoke both, and do so in their most politically insinuating form.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-47
Author(s):  
Farhana Begum

This article delineates the lay perceptions of COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. More specifically, it discusses how people interpret the origin and transmission of COVID-19. Like the other countries of the world, this virus appeared as a new phenomenon in Bangladesh and is now known as coronarog. The transmission of this virus added new terms such as lockdown, quarantine, isolation, et cetera, to the popular discourse and produced a new experience. The high rates of infection and death caused by the virus have percolated fear and anxiety among people. Excessive fear about the disease has led to the stigmatisation of the disease and the infected. Drawing on observation, media reports and qualitative interviews, this article argues that laypeople use either a personalistic or a naturalistic explanation to make sense of the disease. Their explanations are associated with their access to different types of capital. This article contributes to medical anthropology literature on health and illness by explaining the cultural model of illness classification related to COVID-19.


2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross Tucker ◽  
Vincent O. Onywera ◽  
Jordan Santos-Concejero

Purpose:To investigate the ethnicity of Kenya’s most successful international runners, tracking their evolution over the period of their international emergence and current dominance.Methods:The authors analyzed male track distance events from 800m upwards from all the major global athletics championships from 1964 to 2013, and the annual Top-25 world marathon performances since 1990.Results:The percentage of top-25 marathon performances and medals won by Kenyan and Kalenjin runners have increased over time with Nandi subtribe outperforming the rest of the world outside Africa (r > .70, large effect). However, Europe, North America, Oceania, Asia, and South America decreased over time in top marathon performances and track medals won (r > .70, large effect). The tribe and subtribe distribution was different in the marathon than in the track: Maasais were more likely to feature in medals won in shorter track events than in the top 25 of the world marathon rankings (risk ratio [RR] = 9.67, very large effect). This was also the case for Marakwets (RR = 6.44, very large effect) and Pokots (RR = 4.83, large effect). On the other hand, Keiyos, Kikuyus, Kipsigis, Sabaots, and Tugens were more likely to succeed in the marathon than in shorter track events (RR > 2.0, moderate effect).Conclusion:These data emphasize that the previously documented emergence of African distance runners is primarily a Kenyan phenomenon, driven by the Kalenjin tribe and in particular the Nandi subtribe. This supports the complex interaction between genotype, phenotype, and socioeconomic factors driving the remarkable dominance of Kenyan distance runners.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathias Christina ◽  
Fawziah Limbada ◽  
Anne Atlan

Abstract Aims Invasive species, which recently expanded, may help understand how climatic niche can shift at the time scale of the current global change. Here, we address the climatic niche shift of an invasive shrub (common gorse, Ulex europaeus) at the world and regional scales to assess how it could contribute to increasing invasibility. Methods Based on a 28 187 occurrences database, we used a combination of 9 species distribution models (SDM) to assess regional climatic niche from both the native range (Western Europe) and the introduced range in different parts of the world (North-West America, South America, North Europe, Australia and New Zealand). Important Findings Despite being restricted to annual mean temperature between 4°C and 22°C, as well as annual precipitation higher than 300 mm/year, the range of bioclimatic conditions suitable for gorse was very large. Based on a native versus introduced SDM comparison, we highlighted a niche expansion in North-West America, South America and to a lesser degree in Australia, while a niche displacement was assessed in North Europe. These niche changes induced an increase in potential occupied areas by gorse by 49, 111, 202 and 283% in Australia, North Europe, North-West America and South America, respectively. On the contrary, we found no evidence of niche change in New Zealand, which presents similar climatic condition to the native environment (Western Europe). This study highlights how niche expansion and displacement of gorse might increase invasibility at regional scale. The change in gorse niche toward new climatic conditions may result from adaptive plasticity or genetic evolution and may explain why it has such a high level of invasibility. Taking into account the possibility of a niche shift is crucial to improve invasive plants management and control.


Diversity ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Burton Lim ◽  
Thomas Lee

The Guiana Shield of South America contains savannas within one of the largest contiguous expanses of pristine tropical rainforest remaining in the world, but biodiversity in the grasslands is poorly known. In lowland Neotropical areas, bats typically comprise the most species-rich group of mammals. We compare the bat faunal community and phylogeography in the savanna habitats of the Llanos in Venezuela, Rupununi in Guyana, and Sipaliwini in Suriname. Measures of species diversity and relative abundance from standardized field survey methodology enable comparison among these three grassland regions. Genetic variation is summarized by DNA barcoding to examine biogeographic patterns across larger forest–savanna landscapes. A total of 76 species of bats is documented, of which 18 species are reported from all 3 savannas and 30 species are reported from only 1 of the savannas. Endemism is low with 5 taxa restricted primarily to dry, open habitats. However, 7 other species have divergent phylogeographic lineages associated with savanna populations. Although bat species are usually distributed over wide regions of the Neotropics, the habitat mosaics of the Guiana Shield have different faunal assemblages. Going back into the Miocene, the contractions and expansions of forest–savanna paleoenvironments over time have contributed to speciation and the current high levels of biodiversity in South America.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document