Natural Mummification as a Non-Normative Mortuary Custom of Modern Period Sicily (1600–1800)

Author(s):  
Dario Piombino-Mascali ◽  
Kenneth C. Nystrom

The island of Sicily is home to a large number of spontaneously mummified remains, dating from the 16th to 19th centuries CE, most of which are located in the renowned Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, where the oldest mummy is buried (Brother Silvestro da Gubbio, who died in 1599). These remains represent unique evidence of deviant practices within the South of Italy, as the large majority of remains was interred in communal graves, cemeteries, or burials within religious buildings. Only a selection of the local population, mainly formed by members of the aristocracy, middle class citizens, and the clergy, underwent a complex treatment that included dehydration of the corpses, cleaning, and filling of the cavities with either animal or vegetal matter, and eventually clothing and exposure in either a wall niche or a coffin. Since 2007, the Sicily Mummy Project has aimed to scientifically investigate this important biocultural heritage and understand local mummification practices. This study sheds new light on mortuary customs and funeral variability in the region and contextualizes and interprets this treatment of the dead through comparisons with the anthropological and sociological literature.

Agrotek ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Yaku

Taro beetles, Papuana spp., (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) are pests of taro (Colozasia esculenta) and a number of other plants in the South Pacific regions including Papua. The pest have become serious threat for taro farmers because it damage corm resulting in the loss of production. To control the taro beetle, 104 taro cultivars were evaluated for their natural resistance. The experiment was conducted in the Unipa Farm located in East Amban. Results of research shows that there are three cultivars being highly resistance and 36 cultivars being only resistance. The taro with white colour of corm flesh seems to be a non-preference factor that alter insect behavior, resulting in the selection of alternate taro cultivars.


1959 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonard Moss ◽  
Walter Thomson

The Italian family has long served as a classic example of familial solidarity in the sociological literature. Actually, however, most citations in American sociology refer more often to the Italo-American family than to the Italian family in its original culture setting. With but few exceptions, these studies were completed before World War II and little has been added to the literature since those crucial years.


2017 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohd Noorizhar Ismail ◽  
Abdul Razak Sapian ◽  
Peter Scriver ◽  
Mizanur Rashid

Social Citizenship is a concept that is used to represent acceptance and identity by the local community. This is a manifestation expressed in the form of space, monument or buildings. Buildings such as mosques and other religious buildings are a form of manifestation to such expression left for other generations to see and study. This manifestation of citizenship through religious buildings can be an expression of struggle, establishment, sense of belonging and local acceptance towards achieving social citizenship. The understanding of this concept implicitly shows that these elements are the driving forces behind the architecture that is erected in order to find approval from the local population. This paper reviews the employed research designs, methods and procedures in the process of understanding the translation of social citizenship to architecture expressed by mosques. The methods adopted were aimed toward obtaining archival/historical evidence that can elicit proof of the concept. The methods also involved the process of inquiry that would be the basis for discussion and to draw a conclusion to the relationship between social citizenship and architecture. This paper also highlights the strengths and limitations of the methodological techniques besides spelling out the variables needed to prove the relationship.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Ghada M. Chehimi

This is a study of high school students’ attitudes toward the English language in Lebanon. The purpose of this research is to assess the extent of use of English inside and outside the schools taking into consideration the attitude towards the language. Two schools were selected, one upper middle class and one lower middle class. This selection of different social classes aims at finding whether a student’s socio- economical background affects his/ her attitude toward the English language. The sample of respondents returned 52 questionnaires from the two schools. Although this sample was a modest one, it highlighted the differences in attitudes towards the English language, but these attitudes did not relate much to the socioeconomic class as much as personal preferences. However, what was salient in this research is how students from the lower middle class were more inclined to use English to raise their social status and both groups agreed that English is essential to their progress in life.


Author(s):  
N.M. Redina ◽  
L.O. Adamchuk ◽  
N.V. Nikolaieva ◽  
J. Brindza

The purpose of this work was to research the morphological characteristics of monofloral bee pollen obtained from Brassica napus L. The formulated goals were: determine the period of bee pollen receiving; implement the selection of bee pollen samples during blooming period of species; establish the monoflorality ratio of the total pollen collection; explore the morphometric indicators of bee pollen by the parameters of pollen lump, shaping level and weight. Bee pollen collection was carried out in Skvyra district of Kyiv region from local population of Apis mellifera L. families. Morphometric measurements were performed in the Institute of Biodiversity Conservation and Biosafety, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra. Here were determined the amount of bee pollen per one day brought by one family: from  27.04 to 03.05.16 is 50.8 ± 2.25 g; from 04.05 to 06.05.16 – 100.0 ± 3.33 g; from 07.05 to 17.05.16 – 270.7 ± 11.79 g; from 18.05 to 22.05.16 – 100.5 ± 3.028 g; from 23.05 – 25.05.16 – 39.8 ± 2.74 g. Here were defined the morphological parameters of bee pollen lump from B. napus: length is in the range from 3.40 ± 0.061 mm to 3.66 ± 0.048 mm; width is in the range from 2.88 ± 0.059 mm to 3.26 ± 0.067 mm; weight is in the range from 8.65 ± 0.317 mg to 11.31 ± 0.241 mg; shaping level of bee pollen is in the range 4.62 – 4.96 points. The total monoflorality ratio constitutes from 79.94 ± 0.619 % to 98.00 ± 0.202 %. The obtained results confirmed that the activity of bee flying depends on the blooming period and intensity of the nectar secretion, on the collection of protein feed from B. napus. Pollen lumps from Brassica napus L. bee pollen were large, dense, regular shape without splits, which specified the possibility of its use for the producing on a commercial scale.  


Author(s):  
Svitlana Voitenko ◽  
Olena Sydorenko

The stated results of using outbreeding and inbreeding in a selection of cattle of the Ukrainian Whitehead breed, which belongs to the local population and is preserved only in one breeding herd. It was revealed that animals obtained from related breeding are characterized by a sufficiently high level of productivity and normal reproductive qualities. Although outbred and inbred heifers in the process of growth from birth to 18 months of age differed somewhat from each other in live weight, the difference was not statistically significant. In different periods of growth, both outbred and inbred animals had an advantage, indicating the possibility of improving the trait by purebred breeding methods. The absolute increase in live weight of experimental heifers on rearing was: Group I – 295 kg, II – 289 kg, III – 298 kg, IV – 308 kg and V – 293 kg without a statistically significant difference between the groups, which made it possible to conclude that there was no inbred depression when breeding cattle of a given herd through a related selection of parental pairs. It is recognized that the selection of calves to increase their live weight at birth will not have a positive effect on the trait during the growth of animals, as evidenced by the correlation between them. As a result of the study of reproductive ability, the expediency of obtaining and using inbred cattle in a herd, which was inseminated almost a month earlier than outbred, was proved. Between outbred and inbred cows, a significant differentiation of milk yield for the first – third lactation was found, without a significant advantage of animals obtained by one or another method of purebred breeding. According to the first lactation, the highest milk yield was observed in cows of the close inbreeding group (group V) – 4501 kg, which exceeded the outbred ones by 150 kg and the lower inbred ones (groups II-IV) by 191 – 633 kg. Inbred cattle with distant, moderate and close degrees of inbreeding at the second lactation had from 4629 kg to 4719 kg of milk, with the highest rate in cows of a moderate degree of inbreeding, while outbred cows produced only 4582 kg. Cows of a moderate degree of inbreeding had the highest milk yield in the third lactation – 5204 kg and the lowest – 3897 kg of the group of a close degree of inbreeding. Outbred cows for this trait were superior only to individuals of the group of close inbreeding. The results of a comparative analysis of economically useful traits of outbred and inbred cows and heifers of the Ukrainian Whitehead breed indicate the possibility of using a related selection of parental pairs in a herd to increase the efficiency of interbreeding selection, replicate the hereditary traits of the ancestor and preserve the disappearing domestic breed of cattle.


Transport ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 250-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Woxenius

The trade-off between flexibility and specialisation implies delicate tasks for transport system designers and marketing managers. The outcome of their efforts ranges from highly specialised solutions for a restricted number of users and types of cargoes to very open systems for common use adapted to accommodate a wide variety of transport demands. The purpose of this article is to adapt theories on openness and trade-offs, characterise a selection of flexible and specialised European short sea shipping concepts and analyse how substantial changes in the future character of the competition with road and rail can affect the development of ro-ro shipping in the South Baltic Sea. A matrix with commercial openness and technological openness on the axes is used for categorising sub-segments in the empirical context of the South Baltic Sea. Foreseeable changes in key cost and competition parameters until 2020 are taken into account in discussing potential scenarios. A plausible outcome for the ferry/ro-ro shipping segment is that a branch with slow services for unaccompanied freight will be diverted from the current homogenous market offerings. During the study, the Swedish Orient Line launched a service with these characteristics, which is analysed in a case study.


Sexualities ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136346072110374
Author(s):  
Letitia Smuts

This article explores sexual agency and pleasure among heterosexual women in South Africa. By focussing on Tupperware-style sex-toy parties, this article offers a glimpse into a ‘hidden’ world of white, middle-class women living in Johannesburg. What is revealed in this ethnographic account is that these gatherings promise women new ways of enjoying sex, while remaining within the boundaries of heteronormative notions of (hetero)sex. I use the term ‘decently transgressing’ to capture the ways in which the women in this study make sense of their (hetero)sexual selves and how they negotiate their (hetero)sexual agencies, particularly in relation to past and present heteronormative discourses within the South African context. The findings show that there are tensions between women wanting to embrace their own sexual agency and desires, yet at the same time being limited by certain heteronormative norms.


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