Learning the Indonesian Language through Fictional Text Based on Ecological Literacy (Malay-Langkat) as an Effort to Realize Literate Generation

Education is a place where humans are formed to find and collect various information that will certainly be useful for shaping and developing human cognitive intelligence about many things, one of which is about ecology (environment / nature). In studying Indonesian, ecological discourse material (text) is one strategy to integrate environmental education and social interaction, as well as cultural customs of the community, especially Malay-Langkat which aims to form and develop mindsets and patterns of action, as well as healthy behavior both physically and mentally in everyday life. Through literary learning, educators are required to be more creative and sensitive in choosing interesting and suitable materials to be delivered instead of just fixating on the targets to be delivered and existing lesson plans, without thinking further about other things that can be used as a source of learning. But the availability of local ecology-based texts is still very little. This research aims to produce a Malay- Langkat literacy-based fiction text material that is feasible and effectively used at the high school level. So this research will focus more on developing a literacy culture to produce a literate generation, a generation that understands what is read and does something based on its understanding of the content of the reading. The literate generation is a generation that is intelligent, capable, characterful, and competitive. This research is a development research that adapts the 4-D Development model. Research and development steps are carried out using modifications and the Thiagarajan development model that is 4-D. This development model uses 4 stages consisting of define, design, development and dissemination.

Maternal Investment in Adolescent Daughters and Sons

This chapter reflects on maternal investment in adolescent daughters and sons. The focus of maternal investment necessarily changes as a function of the ontological maturity of adolescent sons and daughters. As most sexually mature youth continue to live with parents, mothers’ investments channel youth toward adaptive trajectories given the opportunities and constraints of the local ecology. The nature of childrearing shifts to a greater emphasis on preparing daughters and sons for socio-competitive success; that is, providing resources, particularly those that increase adult knowledge and skills, and protecting offspring from their own adventurousness while learning occurs. Through this focus, mothers facilitate the reproductive success of offspring.

Transporting Jade

This chapter examines jade shipments relating to the Gao-pu case to reconstruct the complex process of transporting from Xinjiang to Beijing in the late eighteenth century. The relay stations in Xinjiang and post stations in northern China served the palace as crucial links to this new territory. Focusing on the route within Xinjiang, this chapter argues that Xinjiang officials’ management of jade delivery was developed closely around local ecology: they worked with animal and human resources of the local communities which were familiar with the landscape and knowledgeable about various ecological and environmental elements. Constructing transport infrastructure, therefore, provided a mechanism through which court officials localized and inculcated Qing ruling power into the material and natural world of Xinjiang.

The Belt and Road Initiative and Myanmar: Challenges for Responsible Investment

Chinese grand infrastructure projects in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) program are instrumental for Myanmar to bridge the voluminous bottlenecks in transportation and energy infrastructure essential for economic development. However, the high project costs as well as the project design and execution have raised skepticism over their benefits for Myanmar, in particular the economic viability and disruptive impacts for the local ecology and culture. The military coup in February 2021 in Myanmar deepened the skepticism to the Chinese and even outright hostilities to some projects. This paper reviews the broader context of the local receptions to the Chinese investment, drawing upon in-depth fieldwork in Myanmar, and suggests the potentials of leveraging Hong Kong’s managerial and professional experience in enhancing responsible investment in the BRI.

Concern about salient pathogen threats increases sensitivity to disgust

Individuals vary substantially in their sensitivity to disgust—differences that have implications for intergroup attitudes, political ideology, and beyond. However, the source of this variability in disgust sensitivity remains a subject of debate. In this work, we test the hypothesis that sensitivity to disgust is "calibrated" by an individual's concern about disease threats in their local ecology. Leveraging the COVID-19 pandemic, we obtain strong support for this hypothesis, finding that disgust sensitivity increased following the COVID-19 outbreak and that the degree of this increase was moderated by an individual's subjective concern about contracting the disease. This work fills a longstanding theoretical gap regarding the sources of variability in disgust sensitivity, while challenging the view that disgust sensitivity is an immutable individual difference. Given the role of disgust in motivating intergroup prejudice and right-wing ideologies, we anticipate that these increases in disgust sensitivity are likely to have important downstream societal implications.

Ornithological Passions of American Poet Celia Thaxter

American poet Celia Leighton Thaxter (1835 – 1894) was shaped by both environmental beauty and destruction she witnessed in her New England community. As a woman who spent much of her life on a small wind-swept island, she was educated by seasons and migrations that later informed her work. A brief education among Boston’s literary elite launched her creative career, where she focused on her local ecology. At that time, over-hunting and newly fashionable plumed hats and accessories had created a serious possibility of avian decimation. By creating awareness of humans’ culpability for birds’ endangerment, Thaxter’s work evoked public sympathy and contributed to social and political change. This essay applies ecofeminist and cultural analyses to Thaxter’s work written as part of the 19th century bird defense movement, by examining the emotional rhetoric employed and activism implied in her poems and prose about birds, specifically: “The Kittiwakes,” “The Wounded Curlew,” and “The Great Blue Heron: A Warning.” Little attention has been paid to Thaxter’s didactic poems which use birds as subjects to instruct children and adults about the fragility of birdlife and to warn of humans’ destructive behaviors. These works illustrate Thaxter’s ecological sensibility and her use of emotion and reason to communicate an ecological message. Her poetry and prose about birdlife fortified the budding Audubon Society and contributed to the birth of the environmental movement. We can learn from such poetic activism, from attention to nature turned commodity, and the dangers of depleting finite resources. In our global environmental crisis, we recognize the interwoven relationships between birds and humans. Perhaps poems can help stymie our current ecological trajectory.

Social-Ecological Transformation Through Planting Mixed Tree Species on Abandoned Agricultural Land in the Hills of Nepal

A project entitled, “Building village economies through climate farming & forest gardening” (BeChange) was implemented in four municipality areas of the Tanahun and Lamjung districts of Nepal from May 2015. In order to assess changes in the social-ecological system that result from this project targeting abandoned agricultural lands, this case study was conducted using various methods: triad grouping, GPS point surveys, household surveys, focus group discussions (FGDs), field observation and reports. A participatory approach in reforestation on abandoned agricultural land with introduction of carbon credits has become a new livelihood strategy for local communities. It has not only attracted domestic and international tourists, but also helped to conserve biodiversity and local ecology. This activity also united village women and indigenous communities as triad groups for collaborative outcomes. A total of 42,138 seedlings of mixed tree species such as Michelia champaca, Elaeocarpus ganitrus, Bassia butyraceae, Bauhinia purpurea, and Cinnamon tamala were planted by 276 families on abandoned agricultural land between May 2015 and July 2018. However, as of 2020, this range has expanded to include 635 families with plantations of more than 65,000 seedlings. The set-up and maintenance of these forest gardens were financed with advanced payments for the carbon sink services of the planted trees. Farmers who succeeded with tree survival rates above 80% received an additional yearly carbon sink payment. The outcomes of the project show significant improvements in food security and tree biodiversity in the project villages. Of the total sampled households, almost half (45%) were under extreme poverty and had food sufficiency for only 3 months/year before the project. With the project, this percentage dropped to 22%, signals the emergence of seeds for transformative change.

Symbiotic Bonding between Land and Human Beings in Willa Cather’s O Pioneers!

This paper explores the symbiotic bonding between land and human beings in the novel. Writer chooses Carther’sO Pioneers! being ecologically conscious text when it is read against the background of deep Ecology. Writer finds this text that expounds upon the symbiotic bonding between land and human beings to subvert anthropocentric notion and its constraints. Clinging with the ideas why many critics and writers focused this text against the grain of ecocritical perspective, writer here tries to bring the balance in literary components and ethics of the discipline with the perspective of Leopold’s deep ecology and its components. Overall, writer tries to analyse how this text show the eco-consciousness perspectives avoiding the one-dimensional approach that reads culture and nature to revitalize literary study and help address some of the pressing questions concerning our global and local ecology. The characters, setting, and the plot of the novel show the biorhythm with nature. This is argued on basis of various ecocritics; Aldo Leopold’s concept of The Land Ethic, Scott Russell Sanders, John Hannigan, Glotfelty Cheryll, David Pepper and Holmes Rolston III on the interplay between nature and human beings.

Towards the Mid-Late Holocene Environment of Mochena Borago Rock Shelter, Wolayta, South Ethiopia

With the objective of understanding the mid-late Holocene subsistence pattern and the local ecology, archaeobotanical investigation was conducted on soil samples collected from 29 contexts from the rock shelter site of Mochena Borago. The samples were collected by the French Archaeological Mission in 2000 and 2001 field seasons. Flotation was carried out using bucket and 2.0 mm mesh size sieve. Recovered botanical remains were classified based on size and grain morphology. Seed analysis was conducted at 5-20x magnification. A total of 112 seeds and fruit stones were identified which include 55 Sapindaceae cf. Deinbollia type (dune soap-berry), 33 Myrtaceae cf. Syzigium guineense type (sometimes called waterberry), 9 Plectranthus edulis (Wolayta dinich/potato), 7 Euphorbiaceae Croton sp. (rushfoil), 2 Cordia cf. africana (wanza in Amharic), 1 Ebenaceae cf. Diospyros (commonly known as ebony trees), 1 Olea europea ssp. africana (Olive Oil). Plectranthus edulis is an indigenous crop for the study area and Cordia cf. africana and Olea europea ssp. africana are reported for the first time in archaeological context of the whole region of Ethiopia. The study provided data on the ancient economy and ecology of the site in a region where archaeobotanical research is limited.