Pardos’ Triumph

On September 13, 1745, the pardo (mixed-race Afro-Brazilian) brotherhood (lay Catholic association) of Nossa Senhora do Livramento (Our Lady of Emancipation) of Recife, Pernambuco, in collaboration with the pardo brotherhood of Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe) in neighboring Olinda, enthralled Pernambuco’s largest city with a great festival in honor of Blessed Gonçalo Garcia (1556–97). Like many colonial festivals, the festivities included fireworks, artillery salvos, five triumphal carts, seventeen allegorical floats, five different dance performances, and jousting. Yet never before had such an extravagant display of material wealth been made by an Afro-Brazilian brotherhood. The pardo irmãos (brotherhood members) had two important issues they wanted to settle once and for all with this festival. One was the question of Blessed Gonçalo’s pardoness, since the would-be-saint was the son of a Portuguese man and an East Indian woman, and pardoness in Brazil had been defined as the result of white–black miscegenation. The other issue was the popular notion that mixed-race Afro-Brazilians constituted colonial Brazil’s most deviant and unruly socioracial group. In this article, I analyze how mixed-race Afro-Brazilians used the material culture of early modern festivals to publicly articulate claims about their sacro-social prestige and socio-symbolic status. I contend that material culture played a central role in the pardo irmãos’ articulation of their devotion to Blessed Gonçalo and claims of sacro-social and socio-symbolic belonging, and that they used this material culture to challenge colonial notions about their ethnic group.

Extending Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan in the 21st Century

This chapter traces the actualities and possibilities of representing social justice and social equity concerns in LIS via extending Ranganathan's five laws of librarianship within today's contemporary neoliberal and geopolitical realities. Blinders in librarianship are identified in its resistance to intentional, systematic, action-oriented, community-engaged, and impact-driven strategies of social justice and real change owing to its White-IST (white + elitist) roots. These are speculated in relation to the profession's undervaluing of Ranganathan's contributions because of his South Asian (i.e., East Indian) origins as a result of the pedestalizing of its Anglo/Eurocentric components within the legacies of a colonized and imperialistic world order. A manifesto of social justice laws of librarianship is proposed to address past and recent lapses in LIS.

Anterior teeth selection in edentulous patients and its relationship with interhamular distance, maxillary arch width and maxillary central incisors: A study in North East Indian Population

: In prosthodontics, esthetics a combination of the art and science. Patients requiring complete dentures usually expect comfort first, followed by harmonious appearance, and lastly efficiency. Therefore, the correct selection of the artificial teeth is essential for achieving a pleasant esthetic outcome. A number of soft tissue landmarks have been purported as useful for anterior tooth selection; but these are easily affected by several factors such as aging and the weight and build of the person. In the present study hard tissue landmarks like pterygomaxillary notches and maxillary arch width was presented as alternative anatomical landmark for anterior teeth selection. The aim of the study was to evaluate the hamular width and inter maxillary arch width which could be the guide for the selection ofartificial teeth for complete maxillary denture in the North-East Indian population.The study was conducted on 100 dentate individuals from the North Eastern Indian population, between the age group of 18- 30 years. All measurements were done with digital calliper on cast obtained after impression with irreversible hydrocolloid impression material.Pearson correlation analysis showed, statistically significant correlation between maxillary archwidth and central incisor width. The result was significant at p<0.05 but not high enough to be practically used. Correlation between hamular width and central incisor width was found to be insignificant. The value of R was 0.05435. The result was significant at p < 0.05. The maxillary arch width was in direct proportion to the maxillary central incisor width which meant that the increase of maxillary arch width,there was a corresponding increase of maxillary central incisor width. Significant correlation was found between maxillary arch width and central incisor width with p value=0132. The result was significant at p<0.05 but not high enough to be practically used. But In this study statistically insignificant correlation was found between hamular width and central incisor width.