Forensic and genetic characterizations of diverse southern Thai populations based on 15 autosomal STRs

Southern Thailand is home to various populations; the Moklen, Moken and Urak Lawoi’ sea nomads and Maniq negrito are the minority, while the southern Thai groups (Buddhist and Muslim) are the majority. Although previous studies have generated forensic STR dataset for major groups, such data of the southern Thai minority have not been included; here we generated a regional forensic database of southern Thailand. We newly genotyped common 15 autosomal STRs in 184 unrelated southern Thais, including all minorities and majorities. When combined with previously published data of major southern Thais, this provides a total of 334 southern Thai samples. The forensic parameter results show appropriate values for personal identification and paternity testing; the probability of excluding paternity is 0.99999622, and the combined discrimination power is 0.999999999999999. Probably driven by genetic drift and/or isolation with small census size, we found genetic distinction of the Maniq and sea nomads from the major groups, which were closer to the Malay and central Thais than the other Thai groups. The allelic frequency results can strength the regional forensic database in southern Thailand and also provide useful information for anthropological perspective.

Development of the Pre-Professional Identity of Vocational Students during Their Training through a Program Based on OER-Enabled Pedagogy and an Online Community of Practice

Online professional communities based on sharing under open licenses have become a new way of building knowledge, learning and professional development of the participants who build and expand their professional identity in the new global space. These new dynamics of cyberculture are not being sufficiently explored in the training of vocational students. However, open pedagogy models can foster pre-professional identity, influence academic success and self-perception, as well as contribute to the commons. In this study, we have investigated from the anthropological perspective, the impact of a training program based on an open pedagogy model. Specifically, we have investigated the effect on the pre-professional identity and the academic results of vocational students, as well as on the development of the commons of their profession. Methodologically, we have combined the bibliographic review with the empirical, quantitative, and qualitative data, collected in the ethnographic fieldwork carried out during two academic years on 77 students of “Microcomputer Systems and Networks”, in a vocational center located in the Community of Valencia (Spain). The results indicate that this methodology promotes, among students, the development of pre-professional identity, a better understanding of copyright and open licenses, appreciation of the documentation processes of their tasks, and the value of their works for society.

Security in an Anthropological Perspective [review]

Review of: Stanisław Jarmoszko, Za kulisami przetrwania. Diachroniczna perspektywa antropologii bezpieczeństwa, Siedlce, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Przyrodniczo Humanistycznego w Siedlach, 2019.

When Students Do Not Aspire To Become Professional Anthropologists

Studies in anthropology have been influential in Greece in the recent decades. Anthropological concepts and analysis have prompted a critical assessment of Greek culture and brought this academic discipline close to history and folklore studies. Furthermore, today in Greek universities one finds several courses that teach this subject, plus some whose approaches are influenced by ethnography and the anthropological perspective. Given that only a small percentage of the students learning anthropology in Greek universities will eventually become professional anthropologists, my teaching experience leads me to the position that their acquaintance with anthropology should include a correlation of knowledge received during their studies to aspects of their daily life. Consequently, this article examines how teaching may encourage a fragmentary use of ethnography and a strong reflexive attitude from the students’ side, leading the latter to the exploration and evaluation, in a heuristic way, of their personal worldview and ethos.

La dimensione gnomica dell’uomo nel pensiero di Massimo il Confessore. Gli scritti dal 628-640

The Gnomic Dimension of Human Being in the Conception of Maxim the Confessor. Writings between 628-640. It is certain that any of the patristic researches regarding the thought of St. Maximus the Confessor must explore the philosophical, biblical and patristic roots of the Maximian Corpus. This is the main purposes of the present article: to explore the theological thinking of Maximus, throughout his writings, which were drafted between 628-640. It is useful for our research to highlight the historical process of the development of his anthropological perspective, in order to better understand the concept of gnome (γνώμη). Keywords: will, gnome, anthropology, Maximus Confessor, philosophy, patristic theology.

“I Urge Young People not to Rush to Leave for the Great Europe” : On Entrepreneurship in Organic Production in Serbia from an Anthropological Perspective

Our research is based on the assumption that in the period after 2008, designated as the “mature stage” of the second transition, decision-makers and experts in the phenomenon of organic production discursively shaped a common, though fundamentally ambivalent system of cognitive ideas and notions relating to this issue and its various aspects, which is designated in this paper as the concept of entrepreneurship in organic production in Serbia. For the purposes of our research, this concept is understood as a mythical notion, as it were, in accordance with the definition of the concept of the myth put forward by the French semiotician Roland Barthes, for whom the myth is a form of speech, a certain discursive formation, and everything that is discourse-related can be a myth. Through an analysis of structural and semantic aspects of the concept of entrepreneurship in organic production in Serbia, the paper looks at both the mechanism of articulation of this concept within expert and public discourse and at its implications, the way in which it is linked to the concrete entrepreneurial ventures of two migrants-returnees, whose entrepreneurial stories have a significant explanatory value in terms of the topic of this paper. The paper aims to highlight the contradictions involved in the concept of entrepreneurship in Serbian organic production and draw attention to the possibility of their creative resolution on the plane of individual ways of thinking and acting in this sphere of entrepreneurship, and also to point to the relationship between two categories that from an anthropological point of view are mutually permeable, namely, the categories of “myth” and “reality”.

The Process of Wellbeing

The Process of Wellbeing develops an anthropological perspective on wellbeing as an intersubjective process that can be approached through the prism of three complementary conceptual framings: conviviality; care; and creativity. Drawing on ethnographic discussions of these themes in a range of cultural contexts around the world, it shows how anthropological research can help to enlarge and refine understandings of wellbeing, through dialogue with different perspectives and understandings of what it means to live well with others and the skills required to do so. Rather than a state or achievement, wellbeing comes into view here as an ongoing process that involves human and nonhuman others. It does not pertain to the individual alone, but plays out within the relations of care that constitute people, moving and thriving in circulation through affective environments.

COLOR NOMENCLATURES IN BALINESE LANGUAGE WITHIN LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

<p class="p2">Balinese language has some unique color nomenclatures. How those colors are categorized into different nomenclatures becomes the first concern of this study. Then, why those nomenclatures are linguistically unique and exist culturally in different ways is the second question. NSM (Natural Semantic Metalanguage) is used both in theory and method. Since some Balinese terms are inexplicable through semantic primes of the NSM, linguistic relativity theory is used to dig descriptive meanings and concepts of those color nomenclatures in Balinese cultural linguistic realm. The study finds that there are four color nomenclatures in Balinese language, and those nomenclatures are different mainly because of religious and historical backgrounds.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>

Methylmercury and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Mediterranean Seafood: A Molecular Anthropological Perspective

Eating seafood has numerous health benefits; however, it constitutes one of the main sources of exposure to several harmful environmental pollutants, both of anthropogenic and natural origin. Among these, methylmercury and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons give rise to concerns related to their possible effects on human biology. In the present review, we summarize the results of epidemiological investigations on the genetic component of individual susceptibility to methylmercury and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons exposure in humans, and on the effects that these two pollutants have on human epigenetic profiles (DNA methylation). Then, we provide evidence that Mediterranean coastal communities represent an informative case study to investigate the potential impact of methylmercury and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on the human genome and epigenome, since they are characterized by a traditionally high local seafood consumption, and given the characteristics that render the Mediterranean Sea particularly polluted. Finally, we discuss the challenges of a molecular anthropological approach to this topic.