bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sexual dimorphism in the permeability response of coronary microvessels to adenosine
Authors: Huxley Virginia H. , Wang JianJie , Whitt Stevan P.
Published: November 2004

Gender influences volume regulation via several mechanisms; whether these include microvascular exchange, especially in the heart, is not known. In response to adenosine (Ado), permeability ( Ps) to protein of coronary arterioles of female pigs decreases acutely. Whether Ado induces similar Ps changes in arterioles from males or whether equivalent responses occur in coronary venules of either sex has not been determined. Hypotheses that 1) basal Ps properties and 2) Ps responses to vasoactive stimuli are sex independent were evaluated from measures of Ps to two hydrophilic proteins, α-lactalbumin and porcine serum albumin (PSA), in arterioles and venules isolated from hearts of adult male and female pigs. Consistent with hypothesis 1, basal Ps values of both microvessel types were independent of sex. Contrary to hypothesis 2, Ps responses to Ado varied with sex, protein, and vessel type. Confirming earlier studies, Ado induced a ∼20% decrease in Ps to both proteins in coronary arterioles from females. In arterioles from males, Ado did not change Ps for α-lactalbumin ([Formula: see text], 3 ± 13%), whereas Ps for PSA ([Formula: see text]) decreased by 27 ± 8% ( P < 0.005). In venules from females, Ado elevated [Formula: see text] by 44 ± 20% ( P < 0.05), whereas in those from males, Ado reduced [Formula: see text] by 24 ± 5% ( P < 0.05). The variety of outcomes is consistent with transvascular protein and protein-carried solute flux being regulated by multiple sex-dependent mechanisms in the heart and provides evidence of differences in exchange homeostasis of males and females in health and, likely, disease.
Fluid queues driven by a birth and death process with alternating flow rates
Authors: Parthasarathy P. R. , Vijayashree K. V. , Lenin R. B.
Published: November 2004

Fluid queue driven by a birth and death process (BDP) with only
one negative effective input rate has been considered in the
literature. As an alternative, here we consider a fluid queue in
which the input is characterized by a BDP with alternating
positive and negative flow rates on a finite state space. Also,
the BDP has two alternating arrival rates and two alternating
service rates. Explicit expression for the distribution function
of the buffer occupancy is obtained. The case where the state
space is infinite is also discussed. Graphs are presented to
visualize the buffer content distribution.
Volterra equations with fractional stochastic integrals
Authors: El-Borai Mahmoud M. , El-Nadi Khairia El-Said , Mostafa Osama L. , Ahmed Hamdy M.
Published: November 2004

Some fractional stochastic systems of integral equations are
studied. The fractional stochastic Skorohod integrals are also
studied. The existence and uniquness of the considered stochastic
fractional systems are established. An application of the
fractional Black‐Scholes is considered.
Asymptotic‐group analysis of algebraic equations
Authors: Shamrovskii A. D. , Andrianov I. V. , Awrejcewicz J.
Published: November 2004

Both the method of asymptotic analysis and the theory of extension group
are applied to study the Descates equation. The proposed
algorithm allows to obtain various variants of simplification and
can be easily generalized to their algebraic and differential
equations.
Inflecting Gender: Zhan Kai/Siqi Zhai's 'New Novels' and Courtesan Sketches
Authors: Widmer Ellen
Published: November 2004

This essay introduces Zhan Kai/Siqi Zhai, a little known writer of the late Qing. It focuses on his two "new novels" (Zhongguo xin nühao and Nüzi quan, both of 1907) which it presents in the context of his sketches of courtesans, a genre with which he was more at home. The two genres configure gender in different ways. Whether it be the intended reader, central characters, or narrator, the gender composition shifts when Zhan moves to his new style. I hypothesize that these changes stem from his attempts to reach gentlewomen, an audience newly drawn to novels at that time.
Corruption and Integration – Does the Expansion of the European Union Represent a Risk Factor?
Authors: Hetzer Wolfgang
Published: November 2004

The imminent entry of ten countries into the European Union is one of the greatest success stories in the contemporary history of the continent. Following the devastation of the Second World War and the political and economic paralysis during the ‘Cold War’ period the future holds promise of development opportunities of historical significance for twenty-five Member States. It must not be overlooked, however, that, due to the still prevalent differences in living standards, in income ratios and in administrative structures, the process of economic approximation is also not without risks. Among these is the tendency towards corruption. The expansion of the European Union can only succeed economically and politically if the dangers associated with corruption are minimized by far-sighted legislation and consistent implementation measures throughout Europe. This is true not only with respect to the new Member States.
Hostile Enterprise Takeovers: Russia's Economy in 1998–2002
Authors: Volkov Vadim
Published: November 2004

The period following the change of presidency in Russia in 1999–2000 featured multiple corporate confl icts and enterprise takeovers. This resulted in the largest redistribution of major assets of the Russian economy after the 1993–1994 privatization. This redistribution was exercised through extensive use of bankruptcy law enforced by state coercive organizations in the interests of powerful corporate raiders and privileged business groups. This article examines the origins, logic, methods, and outcomes of enterprise takeovers in Putin's Russia. It focuses on the uses of legislation and its selective enforcement by the state, which—to date—remains one of the major complications of the transitional period.
An ab initio study of the relative stabilities and equations of state of Fe3S polymorphs
Authors: Martin P. , Vočadlo L. , Alfè D. , Price G. D.
Published: November 2004

An investigation of the relative stabilities and equations of state of possible Fe3S polymorphs was conducted using first-principles pseudopotential calculations. These calculations were based on density functional theory and performed using ultrasoft Vanderbilt pseudopotentials within the generalized gradient approximation. In accord with experiment, we found that the tetragonal Fe3P-type polymorph is the only stable phase along the 0 K isotherm as a function of pressure. Fe3S exhibits permanent magnetism at ambient conditions (Fei et al., 2000), but magnetism is suppressed by pressure and temperature, and therefore non-magnetic data are appropriate ones to use for modelling planetary interiors. For this reason, and because the Fe3P-type polymorph of Fe3S contains 32 atoms per unit cell it was impractical to incorporate magnetic properties into the simulations of this phase, we studied the behaviour of the non-magnetic phase. We obtained values of 250 GPa for the bulk modulus, K0, and 4.61 for its first derivative withrespect to pressure, K0′, by fitting a 3rd order Birch-Murnaghan equation of state to the calculated internal energy as a function of volume for the non-magnetic Fe3P-type Fe3S. This suggests that a pressure far greater than that expected in the Martian interior would be needed to achieve a density comparable to that of the Martian core. We therefore conclude that it is unlikely that the core of Mars contains significant amounts of solid Fe3S.
Protein 4.1R regulates interphase microtubule organization at the centrosome
Authors: Pérez-Ferreiro Carmen M. , Vernos Isabelle , Correas Isabel
Published: November 2004

In human red blood cells, protein 4.1 (4.1R) stabilizes the spectrin-actin network and anchors it to the plasma membrane. To contribute to the characterization of functional roles of 4.1R in nonerythroid cells, we analysed the effect of ectopic expression of 4.1R isoforms on interphase microtubules in fibroblastic cells. We found that specific 4.1R isoforms disturbed the microtubule architecture but not the actin cytoskeleton. Biochemical sedimentation and/or confocal microscopy analyses showed that the pericentriolar components γ-tubulin and pericentrin remained at centrosomes, whereas the distributions of proteins p150Glued and the dynein intermediate chain were altered. Remarkably, 4.1R was displaced from the centrosome. In microtubule depolymerizing-repolymerizing assays, 4.1R-transfected cells showed an ability to depolymerize and nucleate microtubules that was similar to that of untransfected cells; however, microtubules became disorganized soon after regrowth. In microtubule-depolymerized transfected cells and during the initial steps of microtubule regrowth, centrosomal 4.1R localized with γ-tubulin but did not when microtubules became disorganized.

To learn more about centrosomal 4.1R function, isolated centrosomes were examined by confocal microscopy, western blot and in vitro microtubule aster-assembly assays. The experiments showed that 4.1R was present in isolated centrosome preparations, that it remained in the center of in-vitro-assembled microtubule asters and that more asters were assembled by the addition of protein 4.1R fused to glutathione-S-transferase. Together, these results indicate that 4.1R plays a key role at the centrosome, contributing to the maintenance of a radial microtubule organization.
Increased expression ofDrosophilaSu(var)3-7 triggers Su(var)3-9-dependent heterochromatin formation
Authors: Delattre Marion , Spierer Anne , Jaquet Yannis , Spierer Pierre
Published: November 2004

The Su(var)3-7 protein is essential for fly viability, and several lines of evidence support its key importance in heterochromatin formation: it binds to pericentric heterochromatin, it potently suppresses variegation and it interacts with HP1. However, the mode of action of Su(var)3-7 is poorly understood. Here we investigate in vivo the consequences of increased Su(var)3-7 expression on fly viability and chromatin structure. A large excess of Su(var)3-7 induces lethality, whereas lower doses permit survival and cause spectacular changes in the morphology of polytene chromosomes in males, and to a lesser extent in females. The male X is always the most affected chromosome: it becomes highly condensed and shortened, and its characteristic banding pattern is modified. In addition, Su(var)3-7 was found over the complete length of all chromosomes. This event coincides with the appearance of heterochromatin markers such as histone H3K9 dimethylation and HP1 at many sites on autosomes and, more strikingly, on the male X chromosome. These two features are strictly dependent on the histone-methyltransferase Su(var)3-9, whereas the generalised localisation of Su(var)3-7 is not. These data provide evidence for a dose-dependent regulatory role of Su(var)3-7 in chromosome morphology and heterochromatin formation. Moreover they show that Su(var)3-7 expression is sufficient to induce Su(var)3-9-dependent ectopic heterochromatinisation and suggest a functional link between Su(var)3-7 and the histone-methyltransferase Su(var)3-9.
TNFα induces sequential activation of Cdc42- and p38/p53-dependent pathways that antagonistically regulate filopodia formation
Authors: Gadea Gilles , Roger Lauréline , Anguille Christelle , de Toledo Marion , Gire Véronique , Roux Pierre
Published: November 2004

Cell migration is an essential function in various physiological processes, including tissue repair and tumour invasion. Repair of tissue damage requires the recruitment of fibroblasts to sites of tissue injury, which is mediated in part by the cytokine tumour necrosis factor α (TNFα). As dynamic rearrangements of actin cytoskeleton control cell locomotion, this implicates that TNFα is a potent coordinator of cellular actin changes. We have investigated the role of TNFα in regulating the cortical actin-containing structures essential for cell locomotion called filopodia. Kinetic analysis of TNFα-treated mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) revealed a dual effect on filopodia formation: a rapid and transient induction mediated by Cdc42 GTPase that is then counteracted by a subsequent sustained inhibition requiring activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase p38 but not Cdc42 activity. This inhibition also involves the tumour suppressor p53, given that it is activated in response to TNFα following the same time course as the decrease of filopodia formation. This functional activation of p53, measured by transcription induction of its target p21WAF1(p21), is also associated with p38 kinase-dependent phosphorylation of p53 at serine 18. Furthermore, TNFα did not inhibit filopodia formation in MEFs treated with the transcription inhibitor actinomycin D, in p53-deficient MEFs, or MEFs expressing p53 mutants H273 or H175, which supports a role for the transcriptional activity of p53 in mediating TNFα-dependent filopodia inhibition. Our data delineate a novel inhibitory pathway in which TNFα prevents filopodia formation and cell migration through the activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) p38, which in turn activates p53. This shows that TNFα on its own initiates antagonistic signals that modulate events linked to cell migration.
Oxidation of Aldehydes on TiO2 Photocatalysts Modified with Alkylsilyl Group
Authors: Ohno Teruhisa , Tsubota Toshiki , Kakiuchi Kosuke , Sayama Kazuhiro
Published: November 2004

Surfaces of SiO2-covered TiO2 photocatalysts were modified with alkylsilyl groups. Oxidation of hexanal on surface-modified TiO2 proceeded more efficiently than that on photocatalysts without surface modification. The improvement of the photocatalytic activities of surface-modified TiO2 photocatalysts is due to the hydrophobic interaction between hexanal and alkylsilyl groups modified on TiO2 photocatalysts.
Validation of the Calcineurin Phosphatase Assay
Authors: Koefoed-Nielsen Pernille B , Karamperis Nikolaos , Jørgensen Kaj Anker
Published: November 2004

Background: The calcineurin inhibitors cyclosporine and tacrolimus are used as primary immunosuppressive drugs in transplant patients. Measuring calcineurin phosphatase (CaN) activity is a proposed pharmacodynamic approach to optimize dosing of these drugs.

Methods: Whole blood samples were obtained from 10 patients treated with calcineurin inhibitors and 20 healthy volunteers and frozen at −80 °C. CaN activity was measured by its ability to dephosphorylate a 19-amino acid peptide previously phosphorylated with [γ-32P]ATP. Radioactivity was quantified by liquid scintillation, and results were converted from cpm to U of CaN. Validation of the assay included enzyme kinetics, linearity, precision (at low and normal CaN activities), analytical recovery, and limit of detection.

Results: The enzyme followed simple Michaelis-Menten-type kinetics: Vmax was estimated as 240 nmol 32P · L−1 · min−1 and Km as 70 μmol/L. The assay was linear within the concentration range examined. Analytical recovery varied from 68% to 72%. The total analytical SD was 0.059 and 0.053 U of CaN for high and low CaN activity, respectively. The within-day SD for high and low activity was 0.032 and 0.039 U of CaN, respectively. The limit of detection was 0.04 U of CaN, which is far below the values measured in patients treated with CaN inhibitors.

Conclusions: In addition to the pharmacokinetic monitoring applied today, the CaN assay can be used to monitor patients treated with calcineurin inhibitors, hopefully leading to prolonged graft survival.
Interactions between GABAergic and Cholinergic Processes in the Nucleus Pontis Oralis: Neuronal Mechanisms Controlling Active (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep and Wakefulness
Authors: Xi Ming-Chu , Morales Francisco R. , Chase Michael H.
Published: November 2004

The cholinergic system within the nucleus pontis oralis (NPO) of the pontine tegmentum is critically involved in the generation of active (rapid eye movement) sleep. Previously, we demonstrated that a GABAergic system in the NPO also plays an important role in the control of the behavioral states of wakefulness as well as active sleep. The present study examined interactions between these two neuronal systems vis-à-vis the occurrence of these behavioral states. Accordingly, cholinergic and GABAergic agonists and antagonists were injected into the NPO, and their combined effects on sleep and waking states of chronic, unanesthetized cats were examined. Microinjections of carbachol into the NPO elicited active sleep with a short latency. However, a preinjection of muscimol (a GABAAagonist) completely blocked the active sleep-inducing effects of carbachol. The induction of active sleep by carbachol was also suppressed by a subsequent injection of muscimol. On the other hand, the microinjection of scopolamine (a muscarinic receptor antagonist) did not block the induction of active sleep by bicuculline (a GABAAantagonist). We conclude that the excitatory cholinergic control of NPO neurons that are involved in the generation of active sleep is gated by a pontine GABAergic system that exerts its effects postsynaptically by inhibiting NPO neurons, resulting in the suppression of active sleep and the generation of wakefulness. In the absence of the activation of this GABAergic gating mechanism, active sleep occurs. These results reveal that specific interactions between cholinergic and GABAergic processes in the NPO play a critical role in the generation of active sleep and wakefulness.
Personality Predicts Brain Responses to Cognitive Demands
Authors: Kumari Veena , ffytche Dominic H. , Williams Steven C. R. , Gray Jeffrey A.
Published: November 2004

Eysenck (1981) proposed that the personality dimension of introversion- extraversion (E) reflects individual differences in a cortical arousal system modulated by reticulothalamic- cortical pathways: it is chronically more active in introverts relative to extraverts and influences cognitive performance in interaction with task parameters. A circuit with connections to this system, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior cingulate (AC) cortex, has been identified in studies applying functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to a broad range of cognitive tasks. We examined the influence of E, assessed with the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1991), in fMRI activity during an “n-back” task involving four memory loads (0-, 1-, 2-, and 3-back) and a rest condition in healthy men. To confirm the specificity of E effects, we also examined the effects of neuroticism and psychoticism (P) scores. We observed that, as predicted by Eysenck's model, the higher the E score, the greater the change in fMRI signal from rest to the 3-back condition in the DLPFC and AC. In addition, E scores were negatively associated with resting fMRI signals in the thalamus and Broca's area extending to Wernicke's area, supporting the hypothesized (negative) relationship between E and resting arousal. P scores negatively correlated with resting fMRI signal in the globus pallidus-putamen, extending previous findings of a negative relationship of schizotypy to striatal activity seen with older neuroimaging modalities to fMRI. These observations suggest that individual differences affect brain responses during cognitive activity and at rest and provide evidence for the hypothesized neurobiological basis of personality.
Ein bordautonomes Verfahren zur Echtzeitschätzung von Bahn und Lage eines Satelliten mithilfe von Bildbewegungsverfolgung (Autonomous Estimation of Satellite Position and Attitude in Real Time Using Image Motion Tracking)
Authors: Dyblenko Serguei , Janschek Klaus
Published: November 2004

Der vorliegende Beitrag präsentiert ein neuartiges Konzept zur autonomen Navigation von Satelliten. Das Verfahren basiert auf der Analyse von Bewegungsvektoren in der Bildebene einer Bordkamera durch Auswerten von Sequenzen der Kamerabilder. Dies ermöglicht eine Reduzierung von benötigten A-priori-Daten im Vergleich zu bekannten Landmarkenverfahren. Das vorgeschlagene Navigationsverfahren ermöglicht sowohl die Ermittlung der Bahnparameter als auch der Lage des Satelliten. Das Konzept bildet somit die Basis für einen autonomen Satellitenbetrieb und ist speziell geeignet für Missionen zu anderen Planeten. Im Beitrag werden die methodischen Grundlagen des Verfahrens vorgestellt, sowie die erreichbaren Leistungen für einige Planeten sowie konzeptbedingte Einschränkungen präsentiert.
Red Yankees: Narragansett conversion in the Great Awakening
Authors: SIMMONS WILLIAM S.
Published: November 2004

During the Great Awakening (1740–45), the Narragansett and a number of other New England Indian groups converted to the “New Light” of this first American revival. In their conversion they brought together under new moral authority several disparate aspects of their complex identity as a colonized, struggling Indian people. In converting to a religion of the oppressed, they both identified with elements of the wider society and set themselves apart from that society. [Indians, New England, social change, ethnohistory, religion, conversion]
ethnicity: an analysis of its dynamism and variability focusing on the Mexican/Anglo/Mexican American interface
Authors: MELVILLE MARGARITA B.
Published: November 2004

This paper focuses on the dynamism inherent in interethnic relationships and proposes an explanatory taxonomy. Three sets of binary variables are utilized: ingroup/outgroup ethnic ascription, symmetric/asymmetric power relations, and same/different specialized environments. Four types of interethnic relationships result: complementary, competitive, conflicting, and colonial. This scheme is then used to analyze the variability of the Mexican/Anglo/Mexican American interface from a historical perspective. [ethnicity, colonialism, Mexican Americans, conflict‐theory, acculturation]
Segmentation among the Tiv: a reappraisal
Authors: VERDON MICHEL
Published: November 2004

Theoretical assumptions greatly influence our perception of reality. The representation of the Tiv as a “segmentary lineage system” can be questioned from this perspective. With a different conceptual framework I argue that the Tiv did not have any lineages and, a fortiori, any segmentary lineages. One can picture Tiv society as a social formation poised between a chiefly polity and a polity organized around lineages. One ought further to dismantle the very category of “segmentary lineages” because it is predicated on a definition of descent groups that leads to contradiction and to the inclusion, within the same category, of vastly divergent polities. [politics, segmentary societies, kinship, epistemology]
on interpreting gender in Bugis society
Authors: MILLAR SUSAN BOLYARD
Published: November 2004

This paper considers gender behavior in terms of the social and symbolic dynamics of Bugis society. The Bugis possess a gender system that is formally elaborated but does not comprise a primary organizational principle of their culture. Instead, women and men are absorbed equally in a preoccupation with social location. For both sexes hierarchical distinctions are differentiated in the same social continuum on the basis of what appears to be individual ascription and achievement. Patterns of gender differentiation merely comprise general paths–different for men, women, and calabai (male transvestites) – that individuals follow in their respective quests to know their social locations, [marriage customs, gender systems, South Sulawesi, interpretive anthropology]
Reviews
Authors: CRISSMAN LAWRENCE W.
Published: November 2004

Book reviewed in this article:

Chinese Ritual and Politics. EMILY MARTIN AHERN.

The Politics of Marriage in Contemporary China. ELISABETH CROLL.
do life‐forms evolve or do uses for life? some doubts about Brown's universale hypotheses
Authors: RANDALL ROBERT A. , HUNN EUGENE S.
Published: November 2004

Standard hypotheses regarding folk biological life‐form evolution are not confirmed by data from Sinama, Sahaptin, and Tzeltal. This is probably because such hypotheses have been developed from highly inadequate data. Empirical determination of the focus, range, and defining features of highly inclusive categories shows that such categories are not universal, as has been claimed. Frequently, such categories class what is useful or useless, and therefore reflect a closer correspondence between biological categories and socioeconomic factors than current theory admits. [cognitive anthropology, ethnobiology, folk classification, language universals, category exemplars]
social equality and ritual hierarchy: the Arawakan Wakuénai of Venezuela
Authors: HILL JONATHAN D.
Published: November 2004

The social organization of Eastern Tukanoan peoples in the Northwest Amazon region shows a dual tendency toward egalitarian and hierarchical relationships. This paper provides new data on the neighboring Northern Arawakan peoples of the Isana and Guainía rivers. It explores the equality‐versus‐hierarchy contrast as a pair of distinct, yet interconnected, modes of structuring that create adaptive flexibility in response to extreme seasonal fluctuations of basic riverine resources.
bandits, beggars, and ghosts: the failure of state control over religious interpretation in Taiwan
Authors: WELLER ROBERT P.
Published: November 2004

Throughout the last century, local temples in Taiwan propitiated socially marginal ghosts in the Pudu (Universal Salvation Festival). The traditional state manipulated the ghost cult in an attempt to enhance its control; the current state is making similar, but less systematic efforts. These efforts largely failed, however, because of the nature of popular interpretation. Popular interpretations of the ceremony experienced several transformations within a basic symbolic framework that defined ghosts as socially marginal beings: ghosts were dangerous outsiders in the commercializing frontier of the 1880s, but they have become the powerless old with the changing family structure of modern Taiwan. Official and elite attempts at ideological control were unsuccessful because the state had no institution that could challenge the symbolic definition of ghostly marginality, or that could channel people's flexible reinterpretations of ghosts. [ideology, interpretation, ritual, Taiwan]
the unmaking of an ethnic collectivity: Transylvania's Germans
Authors: VERDERY KATHERINE
Published: November 2004

This paper considers why Germans in Romania exhibit so much less corporate ethnic identity than they have exhibited in the past or than another of Romania's ethnic minorities, Hungarians, exhibits in the present. Specifically socialist policies do not adequately explain the decline in German ethnicity, which is more fully accounted for — as is the contrasting Hungarian example — by (1) the groups' historical positions, which influenced their present situations and self‐conceptions, and (2) an international context that differentially affects the form and reproduction of their identities, [ethnicity, Eastern Europe, social structure, history, social change]
“we must follow the Fore”: pig husbandry intensification and ritual diffusion among the Irakia Awa, Papua New Guinea
Authors: BOYD DAVID J.
Published: November 2004

Pig husbandry intensification is part of the Irakia Awa response to problems engendered not by population growth, but by changes in the regional political economy under colonialism. Restructured political relations and expansion of the market economy have led to an acceleration of intergroup exchange activities and increased demands by affines and exchange partners for transactions in money and pigs, changes that threaten the prestige and economic well‐being of Irakians. After careful consideration of possible remedial actions, Irakian clan members decided to adopt the more intensive pig husbandry and ritual practices of neighboring Fore peoples and to compete with each other in an effort to raise more pigs for exchange. Initial results show that while the village herd size was increased by 29 percent in 12 months, the several Irakian clans experienced varied degrees of success. Also, expansion of the village herd created new social problems that required additional adjustments in the community life‐style. The responses of the Irakia Awa illustrate the complex social processes involved in the intensification of local production systems. [pig husbandry, production intensification, social change, Papua New Guinea]
text and context: Buddhist sex roles/culture of gender revisited
Authors: KIRSCH A. THOMAS
Published: November 2004

Drawing on interpretations of popular Buddhist “texts,” a recent analysis of Thai Buddhist conceptions of female gender has questioned the contemporary relevance of a long‐standing sexual division of labor in Thai society based in a view that, in Buddhist terms, women are deemed to be more “attached” to worldly objects than are men. This paper argues that the available evidence supports rather than impugns the view of a Thai sexual division of labor in which men specialize in Buddhist monastic roles and political‐bureaucratic occupations while women specialize in economic‐entrepreneurial activities. Further, it argues that the textual interpretation offered as an alternative to the view of women as relatively “attached” is misleading in that it does not sufficiently address the religious, social, and historical contexts in which the popular texts are found. Viewing the texts in their relevant contexts supports the view that both Buddhist conceptions and the actual situation of women in traditional Thai society is one of relative “attachment” compared to the conceptions and situation of men. Recent changes in Thai society could be seen as having “liberated” women from some traditional limitations and influenced the manner in which women's “attachedness” is manifested in contemporary Thailand. [division of labor, sex roles, textual interpretation, social and cultural change, Buddhism, Thailand]
“the saint has been stolen”: sanctity and social change in a tribe of eastern Morocco
Authors: MARCUS MICHAEL A.
Published: November 2004

A religious dispute between Moroccan tribespeople is examined in detail, illustrating the relationship of competing types of belief to social changes that have redefined the boundaries of community within a rural society. Traditionally symbolizing the unity of peaceably coexisting tribal segments, a Muslim saint today provides the means by which a polemic is established between competing groups. The disenfranchisement of one “holy” lineage from sharing in the revenues produced by the saint's cult is related to (a) its members' involvement in extratribal networks of political and economic activity, and (b) the contesting of its leadership status by members of rival descent groups, who remain more closely bound to purely local concerns. Its meaning renewed but altered, the cult plays a key role in legitimating exclusive resource allocation at the local level. [popular religion, regional cults, Moroccan Islam, Muslim saints, North African tribes]
“a law unto themselves”: legal innovation in Ambae, Vanuatu
Authors: RODMAN WILLIAM L.
Published: November 2004

There are few accounts in anthropological literature of radical legal innovation in small‐scale societies. This paper discusses a South Pacific society in which, following the end of colonial rule, people reorganized their villages, codified their laws, and established a court system well able to resolve most disputes. The case of Ambae, Vanuatu, raises the question: Why, in a world area well known for economic, religious, and political innovation, has legal innovation been reported so rarely? It is suggested that the centralist perspective that prevails in legal scholarship concerning the Pacific has led to an overemphasis on the coercive nature of the state and a devaluation of Pacific islanders' capacity for legal innovation. [law, innovation, colonialism, Melanesia, Vanuatu]
hierarchies of choice: the social construction of rank in Jane Austen
Authors: HANDLER RICHARD , SEGAL DANIEL A.
Published: November 2004

This analysis of hierarchy in the world interpreted by Jane Austen focuses on cultural principles and actors' pragmatic use of them. Austen's most highly ranked individuals are those “naturally” most “independent”: the male heads of landed families, who can make choices without deference to others. However, those who are independent have dependents—and depend on them to be able to express their own high status. Austen's novels exploit the irony of a hierarchy grounded in a concept (independence) that contains its own negation—since completely independent persons could have no connections to others. Moreover, the native understanding of rank as based on the unchanging, natural facts of birth and blood is belied by Austen's depiction of the performance of rank. Austen shows that relative status is not natural but is continually recreated through symbolic interactions. By focusing on the ongoing negotiation of status, Austen's novels suggest the ability of fictional narratives to illuminate political and social debates by exploring rather than ignoring cultural ambiguity and diversity. [ethnography and literature, social hierarchy, cultural pragmatics, exchange theory, 19th‐century England]
of kings and contexts: ethnohistorical interpretations of Miskito political structure and function
Authors: HELMS MARY W.
Published: November 2004

Recent articles dealing with the Miskito “kings” and Miskito “kingdom” of eastern Nicaragua are reassessed and their conclusions reconsidered. Using the same data, the existence of a Miskito “kingdom” is questioned and the nature of the “kingship” and of the roles filled by Miskito kings and other regional leaders is reinterpreted. The influence both of the English and of traditional councils of elders is emphasized, and the kings' activities seen as those of traditional Big Men writ large.
the importance of nighttime observations in time allocation studies
Authors: SCAGLION RICHARD
Published: November 2004

Most time allocation studies have been conducted during daylight hours alone. However, an exploratory study of time allocation among the Samukundi Abelam, a horticultural group of Papua New Guinea, revealed that significant activities take place after dark. Furthermore, the nature and duration of these activities differ from those observed during daylight hours. Results suggest that time allocation studies confined to daylight hours alone may contain selective biases. By extension, comparative economic analyses utilizing such studies may also be biased. A sampling strategy employing limited, differentially weighted nighttime observations is suggested.
performing passions: aesthetics and politics in an occasionally egalitarian community
Authors: BRENNEIS DONALD
Published: November 2004

This article examines nondiscursive features of a range of performance genres in Bhatgaon, a rural Fiji Indian village. These genres are located within a local social aesthetics, one combining aesthetic, ethnopsychological, and social notions and underlying verbal and musical performances alike. Considering such events in terms of their formal features as defined and evaluated by local people makes possible an audience‐focused view of performance and its efficacy. [ethnography of speaking, ethnomusicology, aesthetics, ethnopsychology, overseas Indians]
the significance of meetings in an American mental health center
Authors: SCHWARTZMAN HELEN B.
Published: November 2004

Anthropologists are increasingly turning their attention to the study of complex organizations. This paper uses the study of an American mental health center to examine a previously taken‐for‐granted social form in these settings, the meeting. In this way, the organization is used as a context for examining the significance of meetings in American life, and at the same time meetings are used as a context for understanding events within a specific organization. [complex organizations, alternative organizations, meetings, symbolic analysis, decision contexts, urban America]
the exchange of men in 19th‐century Negeri Sembilan (Malaya)
Authors: PELETZ MICHAEL G.
Published: November 2004

The exchange of women (or rights over them) is a much‐noted feature of systems of marriage and affinity, and is often regarded as a universal within the domain of affinal alliance. It is becoming increasingly apparent, however, that certain systems of marriage and affinity do not revolve around exchanges of women, but focus instead on exchanges of men and transactions over their labor power and productivity in particular. This paper elaborates on the latter position and discusses a 19th‐century society of Malay Muslims who traced their descent from the Sumatran Minangkabau and resided in the state of Negeri Sembilan, Malaya. My analyses of property relations, marriage ceremonies, and funerary rituals highlight the structure and dynamics of the system as well as its theoretical significance [marriage and affinity, exchange, property relations, Negeri Sembilan, Malaya].
egalitarian structures in Iberian social systems: the contexts of turn‐taking in town and country
Authors: FREEMAN SUSAN TAX
Published: November 2004

Corporately organized, egalitarian systems of turn‐taking and cost‐sharing in local economic, administrative, and ceremonial life are found in Iberian communities of different sizes. Here their occurrence in the countryside is reviewed and analyzed together with new material, historical and modern, on the Spanish city of Soria, which gives perspective on the integration of egalitarian structures into the hierarchical wider society. Ideological aspects of the turn‐taking systems are explored and the position of the “rotative community” vis‐à‐vis the wider social system, with their contrasting styles of interpersonal relations, is assessed, [social organization, economic institutions, ritual organization, urban social structure, urban history, Spain, Iberia]
cultural efflorescence and political evolution on the Sepik River
Authors: HARRISON SIMON
Published: November 2004

This paper argues that the precolonial political system of the Manambu, a people of the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea, was in a process of evolving institutions of rank, and that these patterns of hereditary stratification were emerging into existence from a religious ideology based in the male initiatory system. What made ritual an important motive force of political evolution in this society, was that prestigious ritual forms had exchange value in the regional system of intertribal trade. [Manambu, Sepik, Melanesia, political evolution, ritual, trade]
procreation stories: reproduction, nurturance, and procreation in life narratives of abortion activists
Authors: GINSBURG FAYE
Published: November 2004

Since the late 1960s, abortion has become a contested domain in American culture, one in which control over the relationships between reproduction, nurturance, sex, and gender is the object of struggle. Life stories of grassroots pro‐choice and pro‐life women reveal their activism, in part, as a process of creating new collective narrative forms for interpreting female life‐cycle transitions. This activity is marked by distinctive generational experiences of different cohorts of women, revealing how different historical conditions make certain reproductive decisions dissonant with the available cultural models for marking them both cognitively and socially. Activism gives shape and meaning to “life scripts” through which women both manage and attempt to change structural contradictions between motherhood and work, which shape the lives of most American women. [American culture, gender, reproduction, life histories, symbolic anthropology]
codeswitching and consciousness in the European periphery
Authors: GAL SUSAN
Published: November 2004

This paper argues that the linguistic practices of bilingual ethnic groups reveal diverse forms of consciousness: they are symbolic responses to the ways in which the ethnic communities are differentially situated within regions of the world capitalist system. The analysis of codeswitching patterns in three European minorities (Italians in West Germany, Hungarians in Austria, and Germans in Romania) builds on current models of universals in language use, then goes on to develop another comparative strategy. It interprets the differences in codeswitching practices as diverse forms of resistance to symbolic domination within a historical and political‐economic context. [sociolinguistics, political economy, codeswitching, Europe]
conjugated oppression: class and ethnicity among Guaymi and Kuna banana workers
Authors: BOURGOIS PHILIPPE
Published: November 2004

This paper discusses the relationship between class and ethnicity—and more broadly between ideology and material reality—by comparing the integration of the Kuna and Guaymi Amerindians into the labor force of a United Fruit Company banana plantation in Central America. Both the occupational/class hierarchy and the ethnic hierarchy of plantation society are analyzed. The most dramatic difference between the two Amerindian peoples in the plantation context is their location in the ethnic hierarchy. The Kuna have mobilized and adapted their “traditional” ethnic and corporate structures to mediate their economic exploitation on the plantation and to exert leverage for superior ethnic status. In contrast, ethnic discrimination and public humiliation suffered by the Guaymi constitute a form of ideological domination that combines or “conjugates” with their economic marginalization and results in a dynamic of institutionalized oppression.
toward a critical anthropology
Authors: WHITTEN NORMAN E.
Published: November 2004

Anthropology as Cultural Critique. GEORGE E. MARCUS and MICHAEL M. J. FISCHER.

Shamanism, Colonialism, and the Wild Man: A Study In Terror and Healing. MICHAEL TAUSSIG.
ahead of his time? production and reception in the work of Alexander Lesser
Authors: VINCENT JOAN
Published: November 2004

History, Evolution and the Concept of Culture: Selected Papers by Alexander Lesser. SIDNEY W. MINTZ, ed.
Corporate authority, exchange, and personal opposition in Bobo marriages
Authors: SAUL MAHIR
Published: November 2004

This article explores the bases of corporate authority and personal autonomy in marriage decisions among the Bobo, a West African people with a double‐descent system. Elder men and women allocate young women within the uterine descent group, thereby constraining the choices of partners and creating patterns that are consistent with the desire to maintain control over dependents. These practices, however, are continuously challenged by young people who advocate divergent perspectives and whose opposition is facilitated by the support of other types of kin. The emergence of wealth differences and the effect of administration and missionary activity contributed to dissension against the men and women who have positions of authority within lineage segments, at the same time as it reduced the solidarity among them. [kinship, social organization, double descent, rural transformation, West Africa]
Book Review
Authors: CASSON RONALD W.
Published: November 2004

The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, imagination, and Reason. MARK JOHNSON.

Death is the mother of beauty: Mind, metaphor, criticism. MARK TURNER.
discourses of rule and the acknowledgment of the peasantry in Dominica, W.I., 1838–1928
Authors: TROUILLOT MICHEL‐ROLPH
Published: November 2004

Designations used by colonizers to describe colonized populations emerge through a multi‐layered process that is affected by local social relations, by the colonizers' sociocultural outlook, by imperial tensions and by the metropolitan context. This paper describes the emergence of such a designation, the centurylong process by which cultivators in Dominica came to be called “peasants” by British colonists. Proponents and opponents alike saw in the word a metaphor for the acknowledgment of new relations of production that gave cultivators firmer control of the labor process.[Naming, colonialist discourse, British colonialism, peasantry, Dominica, Caribbean]
Book Reviews
Authors: BILBY KENNETH M.
Published: November 2004

Book reviewed in this article:

The Great Father and the Danger: Religious Cults, Material Forces, and Collective Fantasles in the World of the Surinamese Maroons. H.U.E. THODEN VAN VELZEN and W. VAN WETERING

The Maroons of Jamaica 1655–1796: A History of Resistance, Collaboration & Betrayal. MAVIS C. CAMPBELL. Granby, MA.
the shooting at Uitenhage, South Africa, 1985: the context and interpretation of violence
Authors: THORNTON ROBERT J.
Published: November 2004

This article examines the fatal shooting by the South African Police of 20 people among a small crowd in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. It explores some cultural characteristics of violence as a social process and social form. In this incident, the intentions of the actors were not simply confrontational, yet the event had the shape of other “classic” confrontations in South African history. Since direct political chains of command were not functioning at the time, explanation is sought in terms of the actors' cultural representations of “community,” “self,” and “the state,” rather than in terms of instrumental action within a formal political system. Here, social power is presented as the ability to impose an interpretation among competing interpretations after the occurrence of violence, rather than as the ability to cause violence as the instrument of policy or as the intended consequence of intentional social action. [South African politics, violence, explanation in the social sciences, political culture, cultural representations, conflict]
“like a veil to cover them”: women and the Pentecostal movement in La Paz
Authors: GILL LESLEY
Published: November 2004

This article explores the connections between class, gender, and evangelical Christian ideology in the formation of new social relationships, as well as in the masking of inequalities and the implicit affirmation of traditional relations of domination between men and women. It argues that women address gender‐ and class‐based problems by using religious ideology to recast the meaning of past events. Through their ties to other believers, they also promote values and practices that challenge aspects of the dominant society, even though they do not question the hierarchical aspects of Pentecostal ideology.
reciprocity, redistribution, and the transaction of value in the Mesoamerican fiesta
Authors: MONAGHAN JOHN
Published: November 2004

The fiesta system has long been seen as a focus of collective life in native Mesoamerican communities and has been identified as an important device for the circulation of material goods among community members. However, ethnographic reports have tended to focus on only one kind of exchange in the fiesta: the distributions of wealth that sponsors make to participants. Drawing on recent ethnographic work in the Mixteca Alta, this article shows that the fiesta is actually a nexus of three different kinds of exchange, involving the reciprocal exchange of wealth by pairs of fiesta participants and the pooling of wealth at a center, in addition to the distributions made by sponsors to participants. The article goes on to argue that fiesta participants actively use these exchanges to create complex social meanings in each fiesta celebrated.
Writing lesbian and gay culture: what the natives have to say for themselves
Authors: LEWIN ELLEN
Published: November 2004

Walking after Midnight: Gay Men's Life Stories. HALL CARPENTER ARCHIVES/GAY MEN'S ORAL HISTORY GROUP.

Inventing Ourselves: Lesbian Life Stories. HALL CARPENTER ARCHIVES/LESBIAN ORAL HISTORY GROUP.