scholarly journals Of African Descent? Blackness and the Concept of Origins in Cultural Perspective

Genealogy ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Abel

Over the past decade, the DNA ancestry-testing industry—based largely in the United States—has experienced a huge upsurge in popularity, thanks partly to rapidly developing technologies and the falling prices of products. Meanwhile, the notion of “genetic genealogy” has been strongly endorsed by popular television documentary shows in the US, particularly vis-à-vis African-American roots-seekers—for whom these products are offered as a means to discover one’s ancestral “ethnic” origins, thereby “reversing the Middle Passage.” Yet personalized DNA ancestry tests have not had the same reception among people of African descent in other societies that were historically affected by slavery. This paper outlines and contextualizes these divergent responses by examining and comparing the cultural and political meanings that are attached to notions of origin, as well as the way that Blackness has been defined and articulated, in three different settings: the United States, France and Brazil.

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauricio Tenorio-Trillo

By identifying two general issues in recent history textbook controversies worldwide (oblivion and inclusion), this article examines understandings of the United States in Mexico's history textbooks (especially those of 1992) as a means to test the limits of historical imagining between U. S. and Mexican historiographies. Drawing lessons from recent European and Indian historiographical debates, the article argues that many of the historical clashes between the nationalist historiographies of Mexico and the United States could be taught as series of unsolved enigmas, ironies, and contradictions in the midst of a central enigma: the persistence of two nationalist historiographies incapable of contemplating their common ground. The article maintains that lo mexicano has been a constant part of the past and present of the US, and lo gringo an intrinsic component of Mexico's history. The di erences in their historical tracks have been made into monumental ontological oppositions, which are in fact two tracks—often overlapping—of the same and shared con ictual and complex experience.


Plant Disease ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 99 (5) ◽  
pp. 659-666 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Saville ◽  
Kim Graham ◽  
Niklaus J. Grünwald ◽  
Kevin Myers ◽  
William E. Fry ◽  
...  

Phytophthora infestans causes potato late blight, an important and costly disease of potato and tomato crops. Seven clonal lineages of P. infestans identified recently in the United States were tested for baseline sensitivity to six oomycete-targeted fungicides. A subset of the dominant lineages (n = 45) collected between 2004 and 2012 was tested in vitro on media amended with a range of concentrations of either azoxystrobin, cyazofamid, cymoxanil, fluopicolide, mandipropamid, or mefenoxam. Dose-response curves and values for the effective concentration at which 50% of growth was suppressed were calculated for each isolate. The US-8 and US-11 clonal lineages were insensitive to mefenoxam while the US-20, US-21, US-22, US-23, and US-24 clonal lineages were sensitive to mefenoxam. Insensitivity to azoxystrobin, cyazofamid, cymoxanil, fluopicolide, or mandipropamid was not detected within any lineage. Thus, current U.S. populations of P. infestans remained sensitive to mefenoxam during the displacement of the US-22 lineage by US-23 over the past 5 years.


Author(s):  
Rickie Solinger

What is the state of population growth in the United States today, and how is it affected by immigration? According to the 2010 census, the US population has grown 9.7 percent (adding about 27 million people, including about 13 million immigrants) during the past...


2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Fang ◽  
Cara McDaniel

AbstractUsing data from the Multinational Time Use Study, this paper documents the trend and level of time allocation, with a focus on home hours, for the US and European countries. Three patterns emerge. First, home hours per person have declined in both the US and European countries over the past 50 years. Second, female time allocation contributes more to the difference in time allocation per person between the US and European countries than does male time allocation. Third, the time allocation between the US and European countries is more similar for prime-age individuals than for young and old individuals.


Circulation ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 103 (suppl_1) ◽  
pp. 1362-1362
Author(s):  
Paul Muntner ◽  
Michael J Klag ◽  
Josef Coresh

P58 Mortality from stroke in the United States (US) has declined since 1900. Primary prevention was credited for much of this decline through the 1970s; however, observational studies have indicated that stroke incidence did not decline during the 1980s. In contrast, improvement in stroke survival has been noted in the 1970s and 1980s. The effect of these secular trends on the prevalence and number of stroke survivors in the US has not been determined. The prevalence and number of non-institutionalized stroke survivors in the US was estimated through self-report for three time periods, 1971-1975, 1976-1980, and 1988-1994, using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) I, II, and III, respectively. Prevalence and number of stroke survivors were analyzed for the overall US population and by age (25-59, 60-74), race (White and African-American), and sex. Estimates were limited to the US population age 25-74 years old because NHANES I and II did not interview persons 75 years of age and older. The age, race, and sex adjusted prevalence of stroke increased from 1.41 to1.69 to 1.87; an average increase of 7.5% (95% confidence interval, CI: -2%, 18%) for each 5-year period between NHANES I, II, and III. Additionally, the number of stroke survivors increased from 1.5 to 2.4 million across this same time period. The prevalence of stroke among the US population age 60-74 years of age increased from 4.2% to 5.0% to 5.2% from NHANES I to III; an average increase of 6.4% for each 5 years (95% CI: -3%, +17%) during the period analyzed. In contrast, among persons age 25-59 the prevalence of stroke was less than 1% in all three-time periods and a secular trend was not present. Although stroke prevalence increased 28% for each 5-year period among African-American females (95% CI: +3%, +56%) and +12% among White males (95% CI: -2%, +29%) it did not change among African-American males or White females. In contrast, the number of stroke survivors increased among all age, race and sex sub-groups. Despite the absence of strong trends in stroke prevalence, the number of non-institutionalized stroke survivors under age 75 years of age increased substantially.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-56
Author(s):  
Sai Polineni

President Obama's and President Xi Jinping's visits to Tanzania — and the associated jubliation and fanfare accompanying them — seem to validate much of what has been written in the past few years of the supposed competition between the United States and China for influence and resources in Africa, with many authors proclaiming that the U.S. was losing this competition. Aside from propagating the idea that Africa is some sort of homogenous collection of people, ideas, and cultures, many of these authors view the role of Africa as primarily an economic battleground in which the U.S and China must battle to determine control while ignoring the fact that the differing strengths and focuses of the American and Chinese economies do not lend themselves to any sort of outright competition in Africa. 


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Radoslav Yordanov

This paper offers a broad historical overview of US economic sanctions against Cuba, starting with the imposition of the partial trade embargo on 19 October 1960, taking the story up to the present day. Additionally, it develops a comprehensive survey of the numerous scholarly and policy debates which closely follow the changes in United States’ post-Cold War attitudes and actions towards its southern neighbor and which demonstrate the thinking behind centers of power in Washington and Miami related to US’ Cuba policies. The paper also glances over the latest developments under Cuba’s new President Miguel Díaz-Canel and the notable return to the harsh Cold War rhetoric, which transcends the boundaries of the localized Washington-Miami-Havana axis of the past thirty years. Referring to historic patterns, the paper concludes that the conjecture between the recent complication in the US-Cuba relations and Moscow’s ambition to reinstate its erstwhile position as an unavoidable international factor would afford Havana with the opportunity to reclaim once again the dubious honor of becoming one of the focal points in the renewed competitive coexistence between the United States and Russia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-275
Author(s):  
Jonathon L. Wiggins ◽  
Mary L. Gautier ◽  
Thomas P. Gaunt

The official, parish-identified, Catholic population in the United States over the past forty years (1980 to 2019) has grown 40 percent, from about 48 million to over 67 million. Such a hearty rate of growth might lead one to assume that the Catholic population is increasing across all parts of the country. This growth, however, has been anything but uniform. From 1980 to the present, the Catholic population in some US Census regions—mostly in the South and in the West of the country—has experienced a boom, while in others—mostly in the Northeast and Midwest—it has experienced a bust. In this article, the growth or decline in the number of Catholics in each of the four US Census regions is explored, using data from the 2020 Faith Communities Today survey as well as data submitted by Catholic dioceses. These analyses give a more nuanced portrait of the Catholic Church in the United States, shedding light on both the challenges and opportunities the US Catholic Church is experiencing in 2021.


Author(s):  
John A. Bonin

This chapter discusses how the US Army since 11 September 2001 has had to face the harsh reality that the complexities of the employment of landpower in modern warfare, especially with allies, require large staffs in its headquarters. However, the leaders of the Department of Defense and the Army are often at odds with that reality, as the United States frequently seeks to focus on combat units at the expense of "unnecessary overhead," especially in its theater army headquarters. In addition, the Army found itself wholly unpreparedforthese headquarters to provide contractors for the unprecedented level and complexity of support utilized in recent military operations. As the Army continues adapting to the current environment, it must heed insights from the past sixteen years of conflict. The Army must ensure that it is not exacerbating the problem of employing landpower by eliminating the brains of an army, its essential land component command headquarters capabilities.


2021 ◽  
pp. jrheum.210082
Author(s):  
Grace C. Wright

Population shifts in the workforce have been noted for the past few decades. In the United States, the number of people aged 65 and older is expected to double, reaching almost a quarter of the population.1 By 2045, the US is expected to experience a demographic shift, with an increase in the percentage of minority populations to greater than 50%.


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