bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The factors determining knowledge sharing intention among information professionals in Nigeria
Authors: Tella Adeyinka
Published: November 2024

Rationale of Study -Several studies have considered the factors determining the knowledge sharing intention among employees. However, studies focusing on information professionals and factors determining their knowledge sharing intention through a path model are either limited or been ignored.
Methodology - In this study, the researcher developed and tested a path model that explains the factors that determine the intention of information professionals in Nigeria to share knowledge with their colleagues through a survey design.
Findings -The results revealed that a correlation exists between the overall knowledge sharing intention score and the other knowledge sharing intention factors. The results demonstrate that citizenship behaviour had the highest correlation with knowledge sharing intention (r = 0.852). This is followed by creativity and innovation (r=0.704), and interaction frequency (r = 0.558). The results of the regression of knowledge sharing intention on the ten related factors show an adjusted R-square value of 0.661, and an F-ratio of 105.37; the latter of which is significant at 0.05 level (0.000 < 0.05). These indicate that the ten independent variables jointly (as indicated by the R-square value) explained 76.5% of the variations in the knowledge sharing intention by the information professionals.
Implications -The research findings have a big bearing on policy formulation and decision making in information and knowledgeorganisations, the public and private information sector players, professional associations and information and knowledge training institutions.
Originality -This research has a great value in the sense that it is one of the pioneer studies on information sharing in the context of information research in Nigeria.
Staff turnover and knowledge loss: a case study of the University of Nairobi Library
Authors: Anyango Nyambok Grace , Ogada Hongo Henry
Published: November 2024

Rationale of Study – Staff turnover affects an organisation’s ability to maintain knowledge continuity. This paper investigates staff turnover as a potential threat to knowledge loss at the University of Nairobi Library.Methodology – Questionnaires were used to collect data which identified the factors within the University of Nairobi Library that determine staff exit. Correlation and regression were used to examine the verifiability of these parameters.Findings – From the study, it was found out that the main determinants of staff turnover are inadequate training and development programmes for staff; job satisfaction depending on the favourability of the job; poor pay and lack of benefit conditions; as well as work climate or environment and leadership style. Staff turnover leads to reduced organisational output and productivity; loss of organisational or institutional memory; creation of gaps in service delivery and organisational structure; high cost of training and recruitment of new staff; low level of commitment since the teams are shaken by the loss of a team member; low organisational integration resulting from broken team; loss of library users; and increased work load amongst the remaining staff.Implications – The authors recommend that the University of Nairobi Library should carefully look into the factors making the staff to migrate to other organisations. The library should also institute the necessary measures to reduce the staff turnover and enhance staff retention in order to reduce the knowledge loss.Originality – The study is original to the University of Nairobi Library. The findings, however, may be applied to other academic libraries in Kenya and beyond.
Towards a Conceptual Framework for the Ontology of Fake News Genres in Traditional Media in Kenya
Authors: Ombui Bosire Julius
Published: November 2024

Rationale of Study – Fake news has become a catchphrase in public discourse worldwide. Media are awash with information deemed fake. Verification and counter-verification of information shared through legacy and social media have been witnessed, causing confusion among consumers. The essence of media is to give credible and truthful information for consumers to make informed choices in a democratic society. The ongoing debate over truths and fakes of news acts as a springboard for this paper informing on genres of fake news in Kenya. This paper explores the literature on fake news in relation to the theory of propaganda and Marshall McLuhan's technological determinism theory.Methodology – This study utilized a qualitative research approach, employing interviews as a data collection method. The units of analysis were purposefully picked from policymakers and media practitioners, both traditional media and social media – advertising and public relations.Findings – Findings show that fake news originates in individuals who derive pleasure primarily from misinformation and the thrill of having people consume misleading information. In most cases, the purpose of disseminating fake news is to develop and sustain an angle to an issue to suit the interests of those pursuing the course through self-indulgence, hiring people, or generally paying for the service. Respondents reported that the Internet had become the greatest purveyor of fake news due to its nature of accessibility and affordability.Implications – The findings of this study may be used to develop standards and policies to protect mass media audiences from sources of information who advertently and maliciously supply them with fake information for their publications or broadcasts.Originality – This paper investigated the genres of fake news, the spread of fake news in conventional media, and the mechanisms media use to counter the pilferage of fake news through their organizations.
Nature-based Solutions for addressing climate risks and fostering biodiversity in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia
Authors: Chhor Auston , Ruggles Jessica , Walters Kristen
Published: November 2024

Climate change and habitat loss are two intersecting issues facing communities and ecosystems in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland. In response to increasingly severe weather, municipalities have invested heavily in engineered defences like floodgates, dikes, and breakwalls, resulting in a profound loss of aquatic and riparian habitat. These lost ecosystems were once critical to local wildlife and provided water management services like flood mitigation and water filtration. Nature-based Solutions offer a unique opportunity to simultaneously address heightened climate risks and habitat loss by using a framework that values the benefits that intact ecosystems provide to human society. Our report highlights the services that Nature-based Solutions can provide, namely, flood mitigation, stormwater management, and carbon sequestration, while discussing successes and challenges associated with their implementation across the Lower Mainland. First, we introduce Surrey’s living dike in Boundary Bay, part of the city’s broader Coastal Flooding Adaptation Strategy. The living dike aims to address heightened coastal flood risk by incorporating components of a natural salt marsh into its design. This design will provide quality estuarine and riparian habitat for migratory birds and salmon in addition to creating a more climate resilient shoreline. Second, we highlight the City of Vancouver’s St. George Rainway project. Located in the heart of the Mt. Pleasant neighbourhood in Vancouver, the project will restore a buried creek along St. George Street. The restored creek will create urban stream habitat, filter pollutants from runoff, and improve rainwater management. This process, known colloquially as “daylighting,” is a new approach to urban rainwater management that values the ecological, economic, and social benefits of urban green space. Lastly, we place a spotlight on the protection of Burns Bog, a Nature-based Solution that foregoes active restoration. By protecting the bog in its current state, carbon remains locked in its soils and plants, actively mitigating climate change. Burns Bog is also an internationally significant stopover site for migratory birds, and contains a myriad of unique plant species found nowhere else in the Lower Mainland. Nearby communities also benefit from the water filtering services it provides, as well as its ability to mitigate flooding.
Archiving Alterity: Queer and Racialised Knowledge Creation Against, With/In and Beyond The University
Authors:   , Acharya Maya
Published: November 2024

This project focuses on queer and racially minoritised students in London and how they engage in carving out spaces of antiracist resistance within and beyond the university. My curiosity is led by how students collaboratively envision and practice knowledge creation and the possibilities of these practices in striving for more socially just worlds. I explore this through the lens of (an)archiving. Learning from decolonial, feminist, queer-of-colour and abolitionist thinkers, organisers and scholars, including those participating in this project, I reflect on the methodological and theoretical possibilities of collaborative and arts-based approaches to reconfigure antiracist resistance beyond opposition and towards what I call alterity. In doing so, I also describe the journey, content and writing of this thesis as entangled with questions of knowledge and power, and my attempt to disrupt what Eve Tuck refers to as “damage-centred models of research” (2009) through enactions of epistemic opacity. The thesis consists of three articles that look into collective archiving practices in different ways. The first is a co-authored piece with Gabriella Muasya and describes the making of an audiovisual archive as well as our concept of sensible ruptures which is rooted in affective, sensory and embodied ways of knowing. The other two are based on creative, arts-based workshops with queer and racially minoritised students/collectives in London, and explore practices of knowledge and space-making through the concepts of mess (Manalansan 2014) and radical care (Kawehipuaakahaopulani Hobart & Kneese 2020) respectively. These three anchors – rupture, mess and care – are ways of envisioning and broadening understandings of resistance as not limited to outward activism, tangible outcomes or (only) opposition to the oppressions of higher education but encompassing affective, relational and processual modalities of creative expression. This ethnographic study contributes to the field of higher education by placing the experiences and resistances of minoritised individuals at the forefront. In doing so, I approach the university as connected to movements and struggles beyond its physical bounds, and resistance to its oppressions through transient, everyday and affective moments of mutual affirmation that arise in doing and desiring collectively. Thinking through the epistemic potential of zine-making and DIY practices, this study is especially inspired by creative and speculative approaches to knowledge creation (Crawley 2018, Hartman 2019, Olufemi 2021, Gopinath 2018) in its argument for the desiring, decolonial possibilities of these practices as ways of both expanding notions of the archive and disrupting dominant knowledge paradigms in academia. Alteric archival practices, I suggest, are oriented to social change beyond colonial systems and logics; they constitute the unwieldy and creative work of envisioning life-affirming worlds; of accumulating possibility through gestures, relations and practices.
Doing Virtual Companionship with Alexa
Authors: Hall Lauren , Albert Saul , Peel Elizabeth
Published: November 2024

Technologists often claim that virtual assistants, e.g., smart speakers, can offer 'smart companionship for independent older people'. However, the concept of companionship manifested by such technologies is rarely explained further. Studies of virtual assistants as assistive technologies have tended to conceptualise companionship as a 'special form of friendship' or as a way of strengthening 'psychological wellbeing' and 'emotional resilience'. While these abstractions can be measured using psychological indices or self-report, they are not necessarily informative about how 'virtual companionship' may be performed in everyday interaction. This case study focuses on how a virtual assistant is used by a person living with dementia and asks to what extent it takes on a role recognizable, from interactional studies, as 'doing companionship'. We draw on naturalistic video data featuring a person living with dementia in her own home using a smart speaker. Our results show how actions such as complaints about and blamings directed towards the device are achieved through shifts of ‘footing’ between turns that are ostensibly ‘talk to oneself’ and turns designed to occasion a response. Our findings have implications for the design, feasibility, and ethics of virtual assistants as companions, and for our understanding of the embedded ontological assumptions, interactive participation frameworks, and conversational roles involved in doing companionship with machines.
The Speed of the Land: An Interview with Karen Jamieson
Authors: Gerecke Alana
Published: November 2024

Settler scholar and artist Alana Gerecke interviews settler choreographer Karen Jamieson about her decades-long career making site-based and community-engaged dances. In particular, Jamieson reflects on what she has learned about the complexities of orienting dance practice toward deepening connection with land, and of working with Indigenous collaborators in a respectful and non-extractive way.
Leer con el oído. Interpretar el territorio con la imaginación sonora
Authors: Moya Coco
Published: November 2024

En este texto se presenta «Tríptico tropos», la conferencia performativa que sirvió de defensa para el trabajo de investigación de tesis titulado De Geomancia, el paisaje como partitura (2023) donde se plantea el sonido y sus tecnologías como herramientas de conocimiento y creación de mundo. Se parte de la filosofía especulativa y el materialismo vital, así como de la arqueoacústica, para explorar las intervenciones sonoras site-specific de todas las épocas en relación con el paisaje. Así vemos que la cultura posalfabética y posinternet se refleja en las culturas indígenas y prehistóricas cuando debe enfrentarse al problema de lo natural. Cambian las tecnologías, pero hay una misma necesidad de conexión e interconexión y surge de nuevo ese pensamiento en red o pensamiento acústico. Lo aural, como herramienta metafórica del pensamiento, nos permite entrelazarnos con el mundo en términos de participación y de integración. En conclusión, la imaginación del oído y lo musical especulativo, son una manera de comunicarse y de extenderse hacia las cosas de manera empática. Nos sirve como una forma de interpretación del contexto de crisis ecosocial, proporcionando una lectura geomántica, es decir, que apunta a imaginar futuros. Una práctica cosmológica que convierte el territorio en una partitura que podemos volver a tocar.
Akkermansia muciniphila identified as key strain to alleviate gut barrier injury through Wnt signaling pathway
Authors: Ma Xin , Meng Li , Zhang Yuanyuan , Xu Tingting , Zhou Xinchen , Qian Mengqi , Yang Zhiren , Han Xinyan
Published: November 2024

As the largest mucosal surface, the gut has built a physical, chemical, microbial and immune barrier to protect the body against pathogen invasion. The disturbance of gut microbiota aggravates pathogenic bacteria invasion and gut barrier injury. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is a promising treatment for microbiome-related disorders, where beneficial strain engraftment is a significant factor influencing FMT outcomes. The aim of this research was to explore the effect of FMT on antibiotic-induced microbiome-disordered (AIMD) model infected with enterotoxigenic
Escherichia coli
(ETEC). We used piglet, mouse and intestinal organoid models to explore the protective effects and mechanisms of FMT on ETEC infection. The results showed that FMT regulated gut microbiota and enhanced the protection of AIMD piglets against ETEC K88 challenge, as demonstrated by reduced intestinal pathogen colonization and alleviated gut barrier injury.
Akkermansia muciniphila
(
A. muciniphila
) and
Bacteroides fragilis
(
B. fragilis
) were identified as two strains that may play key roles in FMT. We further investigated the alleviatory effects of these two strains on ETEC infection in AIMD mice model, which revealed that
A. muciniphila
and
B. fragilis
relieved ETEC-induced intestinal inflammation by maintaining the proportion of Treg/Th17 cells and epithelial damage by moderately activating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, while the effect of
A. muciniphila
was better than
B. fragilis
. We therefore identified whether
A. muciniphila
protected against ETEC infection using basal-out and apical-out intestinal organoid models.
A. muciniphila
did protect the intestinal stem cells and stimulate proliferation and differentiation of intestinal epithelium, and the protective effects of
A. muciniphila
was reversed by Wnt inhibitor. FMT alleviated ETEC-induced gut barrier injury and intestinal inflammation in AIMD model.
A. muciniph
ila was identified as key strain in FMT to promote proliferation and differentiation of intestinal stem cells by mediating the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.
Comparative analysis of deep learning algorithms for dental caries detection and prediction from radiographic images: a comprehensive umbrella review
Authors: Dashti Mahmood , Londono Jimmy , Ghasemi Shohreh , Zare Niusha , Samman Meyassara , Ashi Heba , Amirzade-Iranaq Mohammad Hosein , Khosraviani Farshad , Sabeti Mohammad , Khurshid Zohaib
Published: November 2024

Background

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning (DL) have made a considerable impact in dentistry, specifically in advancing image processing algorithms for detecting caries from radiographical images. Despite this progress, there is still a lack of data on the effectiveness of these algorithms in accurately identifying caries. This study provides an overview aimed at evaluating and comparing reviews that focus on the detection of dental caries (DC) using DL algorithms from 2D radiographs.

Materials and Methods

This comprehensive umbrella review adhered to the “Reporting guideline for overviews of reviews of healthcare interventions” (PRIOR). Specific keywords were generated to assess the accuracy of AI and DL algorithms in detecting DC from radiographical images. To ensure the highest quality of research, thorough searches were performed on PubMed/Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, and Embase. Additionally, bias in the selected articles was rigorously assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) tool.

Results

In this umbrella review, seven systematic reviews (SRs) were assessed from a total of 77 studies included. Various DL algorithms were used across these studies, with conventional neural networks and other techniques being the predominant methods for detecting DC. The SRs included in the study examined 24 original articles that used 2D radiographical images for caries detection. Accuracy rates varied between 0.733 and 0.986 across datasets ranging in size from 15 to 2,500 images.

Conclusion

The advancement of DL algorithms in detecting and predicting DC through radiographic imaging is a significant breakthrough. These algorithms excel in extracting subtle features from radiographic images and applying machine learning techniques to achieve highly accurate predictions, often outperforming human experts. This advancement holds immense potential to transform diagnostic processes in dentistry, promising to considerably improve patient outcomes.
A Review of Rheological Properties of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete
Authors: Wang Lin
Published: November 2024

The rheological properties of steel fiber reinforced concrete have a significant impact on engineering quality, and experimental characterization of the rheological properties of steel fiber reinforced concrete has significant engineering significance and scientific research value. By reviewing relevant literature both domestically and internationally, the article compares and analyzes the construction characteristics and applicable scope of commonly used concrete rheometers, and analyzes the influence of factors such as water cement ratio, mineral admixtures, aggregate properties, steel fiber properties, and additives on the rheological performance test results. The results show that there are significant differences in the test results using different rheometers, and the degree of influence of different factors on the rheological properties of steel fiber reinforced concrete is also different. This can provide reference for the selection of rheological performance testing methods and parameter control of steel fiber reinforced concrete.
Assessing the Link between Vitamin D Levels and Miscarriage Risk in Women
Authors: Habeeb Zeyad Tareq
Published: November 2024

Background: The issue of miscarriage, sometimes known as missed abortion, is a contemporary concern in the field of obstetrics and gynecology. This condition is characterized by a cluster of clinical symptoms, one of which is the inability of the embryo to survive. Through the process of its metabolism of 1.25(OH) vitamin D, vitamin D has a significant role in promoting the reproductive health of women.
Aim of the Study: This study aims to investigate the correlation between Vitamin D deficiency and idiopathic miscarriage in women.
Materials and Methods: There were 180 miscarriage survivors who took part in this study.; and only forty-three women with idiopathic miscarriage included in this study. They were attended to private clinics in Karbala Province from the period of May-August/ 2024, and their ages range between (17- 43) years. The confident diagnosis was confirmed according to examination by gynaecologists.
Results: The female patients with miscarriage were evaluated to exclude all other potential reasons of miscarriage, including age, body mass index, hypertension, endometrial abnormalities, and smoking. Out of 180 women who experienced miscarriage, only 43 were included in the current study. The study assessed infectious agents and other autoimmune disorders in all participating women to eliminate those with Toxoplasma gondii, Rubella, Chlamydia, Herpes (TORCH), and autoimmune diseases. The findings revealed that only 43 women experienced idiopathic miscarriage, and no women exhibited a significant correlation or positive outcomes for any of the aforementioned characteristics. The study revealed a strong association between the trimester of pregnancy and miscarriage among the patients, indicating notable fetal losses In the first and second trimesters, a substantial association was identified; however, no such relationship was evident in the third trimester. The findings indicated that Vitamin D insufficiency was substantially correlated with miscarriage in all women experiencing miscarriage in the research.
In conclusion: The role of Vitamin D deficiency significantly affected the losses of pregnancy in women with idiopathic miscarriage.
Study of the Dissolution of Tahoua Natural Phosphate by Mineral Acids: Hydrochloric Acid and Sulfuric Acid
Authors: Bassirou INOUSSA Halidou , Zaneidou YAHOUZA , Abdoulaye AMADOU HAMIDOU , Adamou ZANGUINA
Published: November 2024

The transformation of natural phosphorus into plant nutrient phosphorus, natural phosphates from Tahoua were dissolved in mineral acids, hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid. Dissolution was effected at various concentrations (0.01M; 0.1M and 1M) and stirring times (1 hour, 3 hours and 5 hours).  The results show that for all two acids (2), the dissolution rate is greater in concentrated acid solutions (1M) and for the 5-hour attack time. These rates are 38.37% and 34.87% respectively for sulfuric and hydrochloric acid solutions. Dissolution of Tahoua natural phosphate depends on the concentration of etching solutions and the etching time. With mineral acids (sulfuric and hydrochloric acid), for example, it increases with concentration. This dissolution offers interesting visions for perfecting phosphate fertilizers.
Evaluating Growth Performance and Economic Efficiency of Indian Major Carps in Integrated Fish-duck Farming Systems
Authors: Paulpandi S. , Sathya S. , Velmurugan K.
Published: November 2024

The experiment was conducted in three villages in Namakkal district to evaluate the effects of an integrated fish-duck farming system on the physico-chemical and biological parameters of pond ecosystems, as well as on overall fish production. This eight-month trial took place from July 2016 to February 2017. Ponds were stocked with fingerlings at a density of 6,000 per hectare, using Indian major carps like Catla (Catla catla), Rohu (Labeo rohita), and Mrigala (Cirrhinus mrigala) in a 4:3:3 ratio to maximize energy utilization through polyculture. Indian Runner ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) were included in the system to provide meat and naturally fertilize the ponds through excreta while grazing freely. In this village-based cultural practice, fish were not given supplementary feed. Instead, the ducks were fed with household food scraps and agricultural by-products, such as broken cereal grains and rice bran, which are readily available in rural areas. The study revealed that water quality parameters such as pH, dissolved oxygen, and alkalinity were significantly higher in the integrated ponds compared to control ponds (without ducks). Additionally, plankton levels (both phytoplankton and zooplankton) improved markedly in the integrated ponds. The Indian major carps in the integrated ponds also achieved better body weight than those in the control ponds. This improved growth rate contributed to a yield of 8,928 kg/ha/year in the integrated system, compared to 5,145 kg/ha/year in the control ponds. These results demonstrate that integrated fish-duck farming is more profitable than non-integrated systems (control) under rural conditions in Tamil Nadu, as it yields higher fish production without additional inputs.
Prediction of Lead Molecule Esculetin of Tridax procumbens against Zika Virus Envelope Protein
Authors: Ebenezer King Solomon , Manivanan Rekha
Published: November 2024

In the existing field of science, it is necessary for Siddha, Ayurveda therapists, to understand the interactions and to treat the target regions of the human system effectively. One of the most significant nightmares for scientists and medical professionals has been the Zika virus. Since the bite of the Aedes mosquito species has infected people worldwide with the Zika virus (Flavivirus). The human mechanism and infection control interactions of the Zika virus are still unclear.  In addition, some herbal products may give a pathway to the treat the zika virus. Many herbs aim to regulate various diseases, but the herb Tridax procumbens has a key collection of pharmacological values for diseases. Traditional health practitioners have struggled to grasp the precise mechanism of linking existence and how to treat the disease, so the current Ayurinformatics approach and the evolving field are an idea of a modern medical science system. Here we examine the interaction of flavonoids procumbenetin and esculetin of Tridax procumbens with zika virus in silico docking and molecular simulation and ADME and toxicity profile for the drug candidate. Hereby we conclude that these two compounds have the property to suppress the ZIKA virus and are stable and active with ZIKA virus. Molecular docking of Esculetin and Procumbenetin with ZIKV 5JHM, they bind with each other on active site pockets ASP98, ARG99, GLY100, TRP101, GLY102, ASN103, GLY104, CYS105, GLY106, LEU107, PHE108, GLY109.
The Role of Digital Technologies in the Development of Legal Empowerment Services in United State of America
Authors: Akpobome Omena
Published: November 2024

This study seeks to examine the convergence of legal empowerment and new tools to improve legal services in the United States of America, focusing specifically on the impact of digital technology on the legal environment. The study adopts a qualitative way to integrate analysis to analyze the present condition of legal services and evaluate the influence of digital technologies for legal service provision, justice, and innovation of legal. The results underscore the potential advantages and obstacles linked to using and integrating digital technologies within several aspects of the legal profession in the United States of America, including case management, legal research, client communication, and document automation. The discussion examines how these results may affect legal services nationwide. The report helps for stakeholders use digital innovation for effectiveness. It stresses the necessity for technological advances to fulfill legal service users' shifting needs. This study expands on previous research by examining how digital technology might revolutionize US legal services. The report offers ideas on leveraging innovation to improve the legal system, benefiting providers and receivers
M
c
L
ennan,
J
ohn
F
erguson (1827–81)
Authors: Rivière Peter
Published: September 2018

This entry looks at the life of John Ferguson McLennan, a mid‐nineteenth‐century British anthropologist who proposed an evolutionary schema whereby societies moved through stages defined by forms of marriage and modes of descent. He introduced into the discipline several topics which are still of importance today and is notable for his sociological methodology.
Children and Childhood, Anthropological Study of
Authors: Montgomery Heather
Published: September 2018

The study of children within anthropology has a long history, but this study has been patchy and anthropologists have often used children as a means of investigating other topics rather than focusing directly on them. Studies of socialization, gender, or initiation have all implicitly discussed children's experiences but rarely foregrounded them. The new social studies of childhood, in which anthropologists have played a major role, has attempted to reclaim the study of childhood, emphasizing children's agency, their usefulness as informants, and their own expertise. It has emphasized that childhood is a valuable stage of life in its own right and not simply as a time of imminence and preparation for adult life.
Gender and Law
Authors: Monson Rebecca
Published: September 2018

The study of gender and law from an anthropological perspective emerged during the 1970s. It was associated with an increased emphasis on examining power relations and the emergence of processualism within legal anthropology, as well as with the development of feminist scholarship in other fields. Scholars studying gender and law from an anthropological perspective are diverse in both their theoretical and their methodological orientations. However, they are united by a view that legal systems cannot be understood in isolation from the wider social contexts in which they are embedded. They also tend to focus on people's lived experiences of the law rather than on textual and doctrinal analyses of the law. Scholars working at the intersection of anthropology, law, and gender have examined a broad range of topics, including the impact of colonization on gender relations, the operation of transnational legal institutions, and women's property and labor rights.
D
esai,
A
kshay
R
amanlal (1915–94)
Authors: Patel Sujata
Published: September 2018

A. R. Desai was an Indian Marxist and a sociologist. His life work was to interpret Marxism in context with Indian conditions. Desai published more than fourteen books and edited a twenty‐four‐volume source book on the labor movement in India. His publications can be divided into two parts: those that analyzed the relationship between classes and the growth of Indian nationalism and those that analyzed working‐class and peasant struggles and movements in the context of postindependent state‐oriented capitalist growth. His work defined Marxist social science in its initial formulations in India.
Levirate
Authors: Malbrancke Anne‐Sylvie
Published: September 2018

The levirate is a practice consisting of the marriage between a widow and the brother of her dead husband. In the “true” levirate system, any children born to the new union will be raised in the name of the deceased to ensure his legacy, the brother being regarded as a replacement or proxy. Where the levirate exists today, it aims at providing male security to the widow, and any children that may be born subsequently are considered the descendants of the new husband. The symmetrical practice called
sororate
means that the husband of a dead or barren woman marries her sister, and sometimes the children born to that union are counted as those of the childless wife. Some societies explicitly forbid these practices.
A
lienation
Authors: Carrier James G.
Published: September 2018

Alienation is used commonly in anthropology to describe the relationship between people and entities of different sorts. That relationship can be of ownership, of control, of use, or it can exist in common understandings that associate particular people with entities. Alienation occurs when the relationship is broken for whatever reason. Alienation is common in societies with market systems, where people routinely buy and sell things, but appears to be less common elsewhere.
R
amos,
A
rthur (1903–49)
Authors: Duarte Luiz Fernando Dias
Published: September 2018

Arthur Ramos was a Brazilian psychiatrist who became a specialist in Afro‐Brazilian religion and culture in the interwar period. He was one of the leaders of a generation of anthropologists who refused deterministic views of race and adopted a positive attitude toward African heritage in the Americas. He relied heavily on Lévy‐Bruhl's theories about prelogical thought and resorted to psychoanalysis as a way of accessing the mental conditions of children and the black population. These influences were related to his keen interest in education, as a path to higher levels of civilization. He founded the first Brazilian anthropological association in 1941 and in 1949 became the first head of the Social Sciences Department of UNESCO.
Tristes Tropiques
Authors: Tremlett Paul‐François
Published: September 2018

This entry delineates the significance of
Tristes Tropiques
in terms of its importance not only to understanding the range of intellectual influences that converged in Lévi‐Strauss's work but also, at the same time, to the history of anthropology, as it has come to terms with its implication in mission and colonialism and essentialisms of race and culture.
H
ermitte,
E
sther (1921–90)
Authors: Guber Rosana
Published: September 2018

Esther Hermitte was the first Argentine scholar who graduated in social anthropology. Her MA and PhD at the University of Chicago (1962, 1964) resulted from her research on social control through nahualism and sorcery in the Tzeltal Chiapas highlands. After her return to Argentina, she focused on social inequality both in cooperative organizations of small poncho weavers and paprika producers in the Argentine northwest and also in the subaltern integration of Chaco Aborigines in the Northeast.
Cultural Relativism
Authors: Kozaitis Kathryn A.
Published: September 2018

Anthropologists have observed that populations in different regions of the world vary phenotypically, socially, behaviorally, and morally. In contrast to social evolutionists who view societies in progressive stages of development from savagery to civilization, ethnographers demonstrate empirically that cultural groups operate according to particular historical, environmental, and political–economic circumstances. Cultural relativism is the principle that cultures are valid and meaningful human adaptations. Cultural relativists hold that behavioral variation is culturally determined and that cultural practices must be judged by the structural conditions of the society in which they are found. Codes of morality and ethics must also be understood as products of enculturation. However, anthropologists agree that understanding cultural differences does not imply acceptance of all human practices. Cultural practices such as female circumcision may be explained within the context and morality of a given society but are judged by international standards of human, civil, and cultural rights.
Modernity
Authors: Wilf Eitan
Published: September 2018

Modernity was long associated with a set of normative ideals and practices that were heavily indebted to the Enlightenment tradition, which posited an inevitable historical trajectory of humanity's gradual progress and perfectibility through the advancement of science and reason. The culmination of this progress was supposed to be the modern West. Whereas anthropologists reproduced this master narrative in the early days of the discipline, today they have a greater appreciation for the ways in which cultural orders across the world creatively engage with Western modernity to produce alternative or multiple modernities.
Indicators, Politics of
Authors: Conley John M.
Published: September 2018

Anthropologists define indicators broadly, as statistical measures that consolidate and represent complex data. Indicators are not synonymous with quantification but are a fundamental component of quantification, which is in turn a critical component of the much‐discussed “audit culture.” Anthropologists have focused on indicators as a political technology and on the uses of that technology by agents of governance, control, advocacy, and reform. The anthropological view is that indicators, far from being neutral representations of objective truth, instead both reflect and constitute power relations between and among the counters and the counted.
Health, Promotion of
Authors: Robillard Chantal
Published: September 2018

Advocating for health as a basic human right, health promotion focuses on sustaining health and wellbeing rather than on the prevention of risk and disease. In the 1970s it offered a potential response to growing public health concerns about increasing health disparities and, later on, to inequities in access to health care. Anthropology, more precisely ethnomedicine and medical anthropology, contributes to health promotion through the study of medical pluralism, power differentials between health systems, and the institutionalization of health inequities. Anthropologists continue to support health promotion by investigating the social determinants of health, coping and resilience strategies, and the potential of technology to reduce health inequities.
Genre
Authors: Reiff Mary Jo
Published: September 2018

Reconceptualizations of genre as social action—and the recognition of how formal features are connected to social purposes—have led to investigations of texts in their social contexts. Research focused on the discursive interactions of professional and academic communities has examined how genre knowledge is socially situated and how genres enable access to cultures and coordinate social actions, with recent research focusing on how genre intervenes in public and virtual spaces.
Ethnography, Intersubjective
Authors: Pels Peter
Published: September 2018

Intersubjective interaction has always provided the epistemological foundation for ethnographic knowledge. However, this has developed across three historical phases. First, before professional academic anthropology, intersubjective interaction in the “field” was subjected to the hierarchies of natural history collecting centered on the metropoles. Second, around 1910, it became a sine qua non of “intensive fieldwork” as a hallmark of academic anthropological expertise. Third, from the 1970s onward, it has been redefined to also allow for a critical questioning of the anthropologist's own classifications and categories.
Ethnoscience
Authors: Ellen Roy
Published: September 2018

The term “ethnoscience” describes a methodology and a field of substantive investigation. As a methodology, ethnoscience refers to research protocols that developed within
US
ethnosemantics of the 1960s, in which the objective was to use strict elicitation techniques to produce a “cultural grammar.” In its second sense, ethnoscience refers to the study of those folk cultural domains that approximate the various exact sciences, particularly with respect to environmental knowledge (e.g., ethnobotany). It has been at the forefront of debates about the relevance of “indigenous knowledge” for development.
L
ienhardt,
G
odfrey (1921–93)
Authors: Johnson Douglas H.
Published: September 2018

Godfrey Lienhardt, a long‐term colleague of E. E. Evans‐Pritchard, was best known for his seminal work on the Dinka of Sudan and particularly for his first book,
Divinity and Experience: The Religion of the Dinka
(1961). An astute observer of how people behaved, and with a sensitivity to language influenced by his undergraduate tutor F. R. Leavis, he paid particular attention to what people said about themselves. In analyzing subtle shifts in meaning in indigenous concepts exposed to foreign concepts such as Christianity, he introduced the idea of linguistic parallax, displacement caused by a change in the point of observation.
Hospitality
Authors: Friese Heidrun
Published: September 2018

Anthropologists and fieldworkers have to trust in receiving a hospitable welcome, and practices of hospitality allow communities to deal with those who are considered as foreigners and potential enemies. Classical anthropological concern has addressed hospitality and its tensions with regard to exchange and reciprocity, law, custom, religion, values, social structure, and function. Drawing on the philosophical account of Jacques Derrida, hospitality and its limits have more recently been analyzed in the context of migration, tourism, mobility, postcolonial relations, cosmopolitan practices, global justice, and the sovereignty of the nation‐state.
O
ka,
M
asao (1898–1982)
Authors: Shimizu Akitoshi
Published: September 2018

Masao Oka was a Japanese ethnologist who maintained a leading position in Japanese ethnology (or sociocultural anthropology) throughout his academic life. He studied Austrian diffusionist ethnology at Vienna University under Wilhelm Schmidt, the advocate of the
Kulturkreislehre
(culture circle theory). He obtained his PhD with a thesis entitled “Kulturschichten in Alt‐Japan” (Cultural Strata in Ancient Japan, 1933). During the war years of the 1940s, Oka tried to transform ethnology into “ethnic research,” a practical science capable of contributing to the state's war effort. In the postwar years, he led the rehabilitation of ethnology out of the wartime devastation. He presented an ethnological theory of multiple formations of Japanese culture and suggested its close ethnohistorical connections with ethnic cultures in Northeast, East, and Southeast Asia or the Western Pacific.
Milk, Breast
Authors: Fortier Corinne
Published: September 2018

Milk is a substance endowed with a strong symbolic value, which is linked to its vital nourishing function and its color. In pastoral societies, animal milk, the essential food of herders, is a sign of wealth and hospitality. In the Moorish society of Mauritania and Tuareg societies, milk was used up to the 1960s to force‐feed girls so that they would gain weight, allowing them to marry earlier. Human breast milk has especial significance. The milk of the first three days after birth, or colostrum, has different values across different times and societies. Breast milk is often thought to transmit the moral values of the nurse and also, in Muslim societies, kinship, following the Quran. In Islam, milk derives from the sperm of the husband of the nurse and not from the mother's blood, as is the case in many societies.
T
ylor,
E
dward (1832–1917)
Authors: Collins Peter J.
Published: September 2018

Edward Burnett Tylor, thought by many to be a founding figure of anthropology, is representative of the school of cultural evolutionism. His major works,
Primitive Culture
and
Anthropology
, helped to define the context of the scientific study of anthropology, based on the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin and Charles Lyell. He believed that there was a universal, functional basis for the development of society and religion. Tylor's scholarly works helped to build the discipline of anthropology in the nineteenth century. His Quaker upbringing influenced his scholarly endeavors, leaving him convinced that a better understanding of the history and prehistory of humankind could contribute to the improvement of contemporary British society.
Bride Service
Authors: Dean Bartholomew
Published: September 2018

Bride service denotes the service rendered to a bride's family by the bridegroom to validate a marriage. It has often been conceptualized in the extant literature as a type of bride‐price. Such services are typically provided to the groom's father‐in‐law, though the groom may also be compelled to serve other affines, such as his mother‐in‐law or brothers‐in‐law. Bride service consists of a period of months or years before or after marriage during which the husband performs labor for his wife's parents. The classical compensatory interpretation of bride service contends that men serve their in‐laws to establish rights to prospective wives. Rather than seeing affinity in terms of a compensation model whereby individuals are exchanged as objects, other scholars have emphasized the agentive capacities of differentially situated subjects in the arrangement and maintenance of matrimony.
Homegardens
Authors: Heckler S. L.
Published: September 2018

Homegardens are in or immediately surround the home, and they differ from other agricultural sites in species composition, ecological structure, and use. They provide food, medicines, plants of symbolic significance, and small‐scale income. Some studies have demonstrated that they fulfill a wide range of human needs, including social, aesthetic, emotional, and spiritual. They can be gendered spaces and are sites of sociality, conviviality, and identity construction. There is considerable scope to further develop the anthropological study of homegardens.
Ritual and Fictive Kinship
Authors: Leyton Cristian Alvarado
Published: September 2018

Kinship relationships beyond descent and affinity are commonly defined as ritual and fictive kinship. In a context of general empirical and theoretical neglect, the importance of ritual and fictive kinship for the study of society and power has been shown in research on its classical examples of godparenthood, fosterage, adoption, milk kinship, and blood brotherhood next to locally specific forms. Besides the function of establishing alliances even across class, ethnic, or religious boundaries, and an astonishing flexibility in adapting to specific interests and cultural contexts, the potential to render power for fictive and ritual kin became evident. Schneider's critique of the anthropology of kinship leads the way both to study fictive and ritual kinship in its own right and to chance a unified analysis of kinship that recognizes the significance that the people themselves attribute to such ties.
F
reud,
S
igmund (1856–1939)
Authors: Littlewood Roland
Published: September 2018

Anthropological responses to psychoanalysis have largely been to Freud's suggestion of the universality of the Oedipus complex in his book
Totem and Taboo
, but theories of cultural origins and childhood experience and of the incest taboo have not been able to ignore psychoanalytical theories of early life. The first anthropologists to use psychoanalysis systematically were the Americans, who generally referred to as the culture and personality school (Abram Kardiner, Ralph Linton, Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, Geoffrey Gorer, and Clyde Kluckhohn), which has now been largely superseded by individual scholars working under the rubric of anthropology and psychology or medical anthropology.