scholarly journals The Potter’s Wheel in the Chilean Central Valley: A Long-Term and Contextual Perspective on Technological Change

2021 ◽  
Vol XII (2) ◽  
pp. 267-279
Author(s):  
Jaume García Rosselló ◽  

In this article the social and technological dynamics detected in the transition from hand-made pottery to wheel-thrown ware in a modern context is considered. The many different sources supplemented by fieldwork provide a long-term perspective and a depiction of its present consequences. It is specifically explained, how an indigenous, hand-made, domestic and female pottery-production system has turned into an essentially male, wheel-thrown and workshop activity. After a series of significant events, the Indian village of Pomaire gained a reputation as a potter’s village. The several changes underwent by its population as regards to pottery production makes it an interesting example to analyse the origin and development of a process of technological change which ended up with the displacement of women from pottery-making and the introduction of the means for mechanised production during the 1980s. Thus, the social and technical transformations which have taken place since colonial times (beginning of the 16th century), for the potters of Pomaire are explained, enlarged on their history in order to contribute to a general reflection.

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Dyson

This paper uses long-term research in an Indian village to develop Karl Mannheim’s notion of each generation’s ‘fresh contact’ with their inherited social and environmental setting. I examine how a generation of young people re-apprehend their local environment following a period of migration. I argue that young people aged between 25 and 34 who have lived outside their locality re-appraise their village economically and spiritually when they return home. I point to the social nature of this ‘fresh contact’, its spatial character, and the high degree of reflexivity that young men display in discussing their own agency as a generation – a point that emerged especially clearly in their discussion of the term ‘ mahaul,’ a Hindi word meaning ‘atmosphere’. The paper contributes to geographical and anthropological work on youth agency by highlighting the utility of notions of fresh contact in specific social conjunctures, such as the migration of a particular cohort. At the same time, it suggests the importance of placing alongside Mannheim’s work an explicit focus on the spatial nature of fresh contact, the sociality that constitutes cohorts as generations, and young people’s reflexive capacity to theorise their generational agency.


2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 327-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Federman

Mass atrocity requires the participation of numerous individuals and groups, yet only a few find themselves held accountable. How are these few selected? This article offers a framework that is useful for understanding how the condemned often embody attributes that keep them in the spotlight. Because norms used to identify perpetrators can set the context for future violence, long-term security requires interrupting both the actions of perpetrators and the discourses about them. A form of praxis, this study of the contemporary conflict over the French National Railways’ (SNCF) amends-making for its World War II transport of deportees towards death camps considers how certain perpetrators come to stand for the many. The SNCF remains in the spotlight not because of greater culpability or an unwillingness to make amends but because it embodies attributes of an ‘ideal’ perpetrator: it is (1) strong, (2) abstractable, (3) representative of the nature of the crime, and (4) has a champion-opponent who focuses attention on the perpetrator. Understanding the labeling process makes visible who and what we ignore at our own peril.


2021 ◽  
pp. 65-80
Author(s):  
Sandro Galea

This chapter examines the foundational forces that shape health. Even without a pandemic, the United States is faced with public health threats that are shaped by foundational forces. From the political and economic roots of the obesity epidemic, to the social stigma that informs the opioid crisis, to the many structural drivers of climate change, the social, economic, political, and demographic foundations of health are central to the challenges that must be addressed, nationally and globally, in the years to come. Engaging with these forces helped inform the response to COVID-19; they can help in addressing these other challenges as well. And just as a virus can have long-term effects on the body, the pandemic reshaped the societal foundations, with lasting implications for the economy, culture, attitudes towards core issues like race, politics, and more. Whether the experience of the pandemic leads to significant long-term benefits will depend on whether Americans retain the hard lessons of that moment and apply them to foundational forces.


Geographies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-78
Author(s):  
Sarah Little ◽  
Art Rice

The movement to reconnect children to nature touts the many benefits associated with exposure to nature and encourages designers and planners of the physical environment to incorporate more nature into the daily lives of children. However, connecting children with nature may not be as simple as designing more nature into the physical environment. Variables beyond convenient availability of natural environments affect children’s engagement with nature. Of particular interest is the influence of the social environment. The research seeks to build a model to understand the influence of caregivers and peers on a child’s direct engagement with nature. An initial model of social influences was constructed from existing literature and refined from findings from an original research study, a qualitative investigation exploring the highly imaginative and social experience of a group of boys who played in a neighborhood creek (n = 3, boys, n = 2, parents). The most meaningful social influence on the boys’ direct engagement with nature was the level of autonomy granted by caregivers; however, the physical environment supported the autonomy as well. The autonomy afforded an opportunity to navigate risks, forge long-term friendships, and support higher-order cognitive play behavior.


2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 548-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Mennell

What is widely known as ‘figurational sociology’, or alternatively ‘process sociology’, is the research tradition stemming from the writings of Norbert Elias. The tradition extends beyond sociology to historians and many other branches of the social sciences. Elias’s Collected Works run to 18 volumes, but the bedrock of his oeuvre is his early study On the Process of Civilisation, in which the interrelation of long-term sociogenetic processes like state-formation and equally long-term psychogenetic processes like conscience- and habitus-formation is first clearly elaborated. Of the many directions in which the theory has been subsequently developed, the most important is Elias’s sociological theory of knowledge and the sciences, which involves a radical rejection of central assumptions of Western philosophy.


2006 ◽  
Vol 05 (02) ◽  
pp. C06
Author(s):  
Massimo Pigliucci

The many facets of fundamentalism. There has been much talk about fundamentalism of late. While most people's thought on the topic go to the 9/11 attacks against the United States, or to the ongoing war in Iraq, fundamentalism is affecting science and its relationship to society in a way that may have dire long-term consequences. Of course, religious fundamentalism has always had a history of antagonism with science, and – before the birth of modern science – with philosophy, the age-old vehicle of the human attempt to exercise critical thinking and rationality to solve problems and pursue knowledge. “Fundamentalism” is defined by the Oxford Dictionary of the Social Sciences1 as “A movement that asserts the primacy of religious values in social and political life and calls for a return to a 'fundamental' or pure form of religion.” In its broadest sense, however, fundamentalism is a form of ideological intransigence which is not limited to religion, but includes political positions as well (for example, in the case of some extreme forms of “environmentalism”).


2007 ◽  
pp. 27-45
Author(s):  
B. Titov ◽  
I. Pilipenko ◽  
A. Danilov-Danilyan

The report considers how the state economic policy contributes to the national economic development in the midterm perspective. It analyzes main current economic problems of the Russian economy, i.e. low effectiveness of the social system, high dependence on export industries and natural resources, high monopolization and underdeveloped free market, as well as barriers that hinder non-recourse-based business development including high tax burden, skilled labor deficit and lack of investment capital. We propose a social-oriented market economy as the Russian economic model to achieve a sustainable economic growth in the long-term perspective. This model is based on people’s prosperity and therefore expanding domestic demand that stimulates the growth of domestic non-resource-based sector which in turn can accelerate annual GDP growth rates to 10-12%. To realize this model "Delovaya Rossiya" proposes a program that consists of a number of directions and key groups of measures covering priority national projects, tax, fiscal, monetary, innovative-industrial, trade and social policies.


Author(s):  
Ricardo Sánchez-Murillo

This study presents a hydrogeochemical analysis of spring responses (2013-2017) in the tropical mountainous region of the Central Valley of Costa Rica. The isotopic distribution of δ18O and δ2H in rainfall resulted in a highly significant meteoric water line: δ2H = 7.93×δ18O + 10.37 (r2=0.97). Rainfall isotope composition exhibited a strong dependent seasonality. The isotopic variation (δ18O) of two springs within the Barva aquifer was simulated using the FlowPC program to determine mean transit times (MTTs). Exponential-piston and dispersion distribution functions provided the best-fit to the observed isotopic composition at Flores and Sacramento springs, respectively. MTTs corresponded to 1.23±0.03 (Sacramento) and 1.42±0.04 (Flores) years. The greater MTT was represented by a homogeneous geochemical composition at Flores, whereas the smaller MTT at Sacramento is reflected in a more variable geochemical response. The results may be used to enhance modelling efforts in central Costa Rica, whereby scarcity of long-term data limits water resources management plans.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 110
Author(s):  
Hava Rexhep

The aging is not only a personal but also a social challenge from several aspects, several dimensions; a challenge aiming to build system approaches and solutions with a long term importance. Aims: the main aim of this research is to investigate the conditions and challenges in the modern living of the old people, primarily in terms of the social care. However, this research is concentrated on a big group of the population and their challenges are the most intensive in the modern living. The investigation of the conditions and challenges in the aging are basis and encouragement in realizing the progressive approaches in order to improve the modern living of the old people. The practical aim of the research is a deep investigation and finding important data, analyzing the basic indicators of the conditions, needs and challenges in order to facilitate the old population to get ready for the new life. Methods and techniques: Taking into consideration the complexity of the research problem, the basic methodological approach is performed dominantly by descriptive-analytical method. The basic instrument for getting data in the research is the questionnaire with leading interview for the old people. Results: The research showed that the old people over 70-79 years old in a bigger percentage manifested difficulties primarily related to the functional dependency, respectively 39,33 % of the participants in this category showed concern about some specific functional dependency from the offered categories. The percentage of the stomach diseases with 38,33 % is important, as well as the kidney diseases with 32,83% related to the total population and the category of the old people over 80. Conclusion: The old people very often accept the life as it is, often finding things fulfilled with tolerance and satisfaction. However the health problems of the old people are characterized with a dominant representation. The chronic diseases and the diseases characteristic for the aging are challenge in organizing adequate protection which addresses to taking appropriate regulations, programs and activities.


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