bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Genome-wide mapping of Polycomb target genes unravels their roles in cell fate transitions
Authors: Bracken Adrian P. , Dietrich Nikolaj , Pasini Diego , Hansen Klaus H. , Helin Kristian
Published: April 2006

The Polycomb group (PcG) proteins form chromatin-modifying complexes that are essential for embryonic development and stem cell renewal and are commonly deregulated in cancer. Here, we identify their target genes using genome-wide location analysis in human embryonic fibroblasts. We find that Polycomb-Repressive Complex 1 (PRC1), PRC2, and tri-methylated histone H3K27 co-occupy >1000 silenced genes with a strong functional bias for embryonic development and cell fate decisions. We functionally identify 40 genes derepressed in human embryonic fibroblasts depleted of the PRC2 components (EZH2, EED, SUZ12) and the PRC1 component, BMI-1. Interestingly, several markers of osteogenesis, adipogenesis, and chrondrogenesis are among these genes, consistent with the mesenchymal origin of fibroblasts. Using a neuronal model of differentiation, we delineate two different mechanisms for regulating PcG target genes. For genes activated during differentiation, PcGs are displaced. However, for genes repressed during differentiation, we paradoxically find that they are already bound by the PcGs in nondifferentiated cells despite being actively transcribed. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that PcGs are part of a preprogrammed memory system established during embryogenesis marking certain key genes for repressive signals during subsequent developmental and differentiation processes.
A national survey of epidural use and management in elderly patients undergoing elective and emergency laparotomy
Authors: Walton B. , Farrow C. , Cook T. M.
Published: April 2006

A postal questionnaire was sent to anaesthetic clinical tutors in the United Kingdom describing two hypothetical 75‐year‐old patients requiring abdominal surgery. Patient 1 (ASA 2) required elective anterior resection and patient 2 (ASA 3–4) required emergency laparotomy. There was a 65% response rate. For patient 1, 98.5% of respondents would insert an epidural, 93% inserting this awake and 50% placing it in the high‐mid thoracic region. All respondents would use local anaesthesia (concentration varied four‐fold) and 62% would use opioids. All respondents would place the epidural pre‐operatively; although 36% would administer the epidural block pre‐operatively and 3% postoperatively. For patient 2, 70% of respondents would insert an epidural (p < 0.0001), drug administration would be more frequently delayed until postoperatively (13%); p = 0.0005) and epidural opioid use decreased (57%); p = n/s. Epidural insertion influenced the postoperative destination in 42% of departments. Use of a critical care facility was anticipated for more than half of these patients; 60% reported difficulty accessing critical care beds.
A randomised, crossover study of the Dorges, McCoy and Macintosh laryngoscope blades in a simulated difficult intubation scenario
Authors: Sethuraman D. , Darshane S. , Guha A. , Charters P.
Published: April 2006

The use of alternative adult laryngoscope blades in an unexpected difficult intubation was evaluated with a human patient simulator manikin. Twenty anaesthetists of varying experience attempted to intubate the trachea of a high fidelity simulator in both its normal and difficult intubation settings using Macintosh, Dorges and McCoy laryngoscopes in a randomised order. The time taken to intubate, Cormack and Lehane scores, percentage of glottic opening visible, failure rate, number of attempts and subjective ease of use were recorded. The Dorges and McCoy blades did not perform any better than the standard Macintosh blade in either the easy or difficult tracheal intubation settings. Guidelines recommending the use of an alternative blade in an unexpected difficult intubation scenario have limited supporting evidence. This study does not support this recommendation.
Use of preferred music to decrease agitated behaviours in older people with dementia: a review of the literature
Authors: Sung Huei‐chuan , Chang Anne M
Published: April 2006

Aims and objectives.  This paper reviews study findings of preferred music on agitated behaviours for older people with dementia and provides implications for future research and practice.

Background.  Music has been suggested as a feasible and less costly intervention to manage agitated behaviours in older people with dementia. However, no review of the literature focusing on study findings of preferred music on agitated behaviours in older people with dementia had been reported.

Methods.  A review was undertaken using electronic databases with specified search terms for the period of 1993–2005. The references listed in the publications selected were also searched for additional studies.

Results.  Eight research‐based articles met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. The preferred music intervention demonstrated positive outcomes in reducing the occurrence of some types of agitated behaviours in older people with dementia. The findings from these studies were relatively consistent in finding improvement in agitated behaviours although the findings in one study did not reach statistical significance. The small sample sizes and some variations in the application of the preferred music intervention mean that caution is needed in drawing conclusions from these studies.

Conclusions.  This review highlights that preferred music has positive effects on decreasing agitated behaviours in older people with dementia; however, the methodological limitations indicate the need for further research.

Relevance to clinical practice.  Findings from the review highlight the beneficial outcomes of preferred music in reducing agitated behaviours for older people with dementia. The incorporation of preferred music has the potential to provide a therapeutic approach to the care of older people with dementia.
Evaluating the evidence from clinical trials in chronic hepatitis C
Authors: Brown R. S.
Published: April 2006

Summary.  A number of studies are being published on investigational agents for the treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C. Before incorporating new medications into therapy or electing to postpone therapy until an investigational agent receives regulatory approval, it is important to evaluate the following specific features of the published evidence: quality of the evidence, precision of the treatment effect, magnitude of the treatment effect, magnitude of the hazards, and other factors such as risk‐benefit analysis and cost, including cost‐effectiveness. Previous studies of treatment of patients with the disease allow us to establish some benchmarks and provide structure to evaluate the evidence of the efficacy and safety of these newer drugs.
Guided tactile probing: A modified blind orotracheal intubation technique for the problem‐oriented difficult airway
Authors: Dutta A. , Kumra V. P. , Sood J. , Swaroop A.
Published: April 2006

We present ‘tactile probing’, a guided approach to blind orotracheal intubation to secure a problem‐oriented anticipated difficult airway in a 55‐year‐old male patient scheduled for elective surgical tracheostomy for a postradiotherapy translaryngeal carcinoma. Standard techniques to gain the airway were inapplicable in this case and awake flexible fiberoscopy‐aided intubation had already failed.
MAKING AN IMPRESSION: REPLICATION AND THE ONTOLOGY OF THE GRAECO‐ROMAN SEAL STONE
Authors: PLATT VERITY
Published: April 2006

The debate on replication in ancient art has traditionally concentrated upon Roman ‘copies’ of famous Greek sculptures and paintings. This article explores a different, but no less significant, kind of replication – the use of intaglio gems as seals to create wax impressions. The mechanical transmission of a glyptic image from one medium to another played an important role in Graeco‐Roman society, conferring authority upon the seal as an individual or state signature employed in legal, political and personal exchange. The direct relationship between seal and impression was also appropriated by Greek philosophers as a metaphor for unmediated sense perception – the ‘impressions’ made by material objects upon the soul. However, as a comparison with the ontological issues surrounding the modern photograph shows, the seemingly unproblematic relationship between image and impression is more complex than may initially seem: the seal's philosophical appeal lay ultimately more in its social significance – as a guarantor of authenticity and marker of the self – than in its true ontological status.
REPRESENTATION, REPLICATION AND COLLECTING IN CHARLES TOWNLEY'S LATE EIGHTEENTH‐CENTURY LIBRARY
Authors: COLTMAN VICCY
Published: April 2006

This article deals with the reception of antiquity in the second half of the eighteenth century. It engages with issues of replication by focusing on the collecting from Rome and exhibition in London of Charles Townley's ancient marble sculptures. Zoffany's famous painting of Townley's library forms a locus from which to investigate replication as artistic practice in the late eighteenth century and as cultural dynamic for the workings of the classical tradition. A close reading of Zoffany's painting reveals various modes of artistic reproduction at work between the collection and its painted portrait, between Zoffany's unique canvas and its proposed engraved series and life and art. Discussion of the copying conventions around Zoffany's painting leads on to a discussion of the cultural paradigms that Townley's collection invokes – shown to be as much (if not more) indebted to the Renaissance and the early modern period as to fifthcentury bce Greece or imperial Rome. The paper thus devises a conceptual framework for the classical tradition in which replication embodies the dialectic between continuity and discontinuity, confluence and divergence and sameness and difference.
Erratum: Correction to Description of Analytic Method
Authors: Van Lier Pol A. C. , Vitaro Frank , Wanner Brigitte , Vuijk Patricia , Crijnen Alfons A. M.
Published: April 2006

Erratum. Child Development 76, 841‐855. Online publication date: 14‐Jul‐2005.
Characterisation of potato isolates of Dickeya chrysanthemi in Spain by a microtitre system for biovar determination
Authors: Palacio‐Bielsa A. , Cambra M.A. , López M.M.
Published: April 2006

Thirteen Spanish potato isolates of Dickeya chrysanthemi obtained from different cultivars, regions and years have been characterised by biochemical, physiological, serological, molecular and pathogenicity tests. Isolates studied have been classified into biovars 1, 3, 5 and 6 by a microtitre system that correlates with the conventional tests in tubes. This is the first description of the characteristics of D. chrysanthemi isolated from potato in Spain and of the development of a microtitre system for biovar determination.
Biochemical Bases of Type IV Chromatic Adaptation in Marine
Synechococcus
spp
Authors: Everroad Craig , Six Christophe , Partensky Frédéric , Thomas Jean-Claude , Holtzendorff Julia , Wood A. Michelle
Published: April 2006

Chromatic adaptation (CA) in cyanobacteria has provided a model system for the study of the environmental control of photophysiology for several decades. All forms of CA that have been examined so far (types II and III) involve changes in the relative contents of phycoerythrin (PE) and/or phycocyanin when cells are shifted from red to green light and vice versa. However, the chromophore compositions of these polypeptides are not altered. Some marine
Synechococcus
species strains, which possess two PE forms (PEI and PEII), carry out another type of CA (type IV), occurring during shifts from blue to green or white light. Two chromatically adapting strains of marine
Synechococcus
recently isolated from the Gulf of Mexico were utilized to elucidate the mechanism of type IV CA. During this process, no change in the relative contents of PEI and PEII was observed. Instead, the ratio of the two chromophores bound to PEII, phycourobilin and phycoerythrobilin, is high under blue light and low under white light. Mass spectroscopy analyses of isolated PEII α- and β-subunits show that there is a single PEII protein type under all light climates. The CA process seems to specifically affect the chromophorylation of the PEII (and possibly PEI) α chain. We propose a likely process for type IV CA, which involves the enzymatic activity of one or several phycobilin lyases and/or lyase-isomerases differentially controlled by the ambient light quality. Phylogenetic analyses based on the 16S rRNA gene confirm that type IV CA is not limited to a single clade of marine
Synechococcus
.
Study of Failure Pattern Among High-Risk Breast Cancer Patients With or Without Postmastectomy Radiotherapy in Addition to Adjuvant Systemic Therapy: Long-Term Results From the Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group DBCG 82 b and c Randomized Studies
Authors: Nielsen Hanne M. , Overgaard Marie , Grau Cai , Jensen Anni R. , Overgaard Jens
Published: April 2006

Purpose

Postmastectomy radiotherapy (RT) in high-risk breast cancer patients can reduce locoregional recurrences (LRRs) and improve disease-free and overall survival. The aim of this analysis was to examine the overall disease recurrence pattern among patients randomly assigned to receive treatment with or without RT.

Patients and Methods

A long-term follow-up was performed among the 3,083 patients from the Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group 82 b and c trials, except in those already recorded with distant metastases (DM) or contralateral breast cancer (CBC). The end points were LRR, DM, and CBC, and the follow-up continued until DM, CBC, emigration, or death. Information was selected from medical records, general practitioners, and the National Causes of Death Registry. The median potential follow-up time was 18 years.

Results

The 18-year probability of any first breast cancer event was 73% and 59% (P < .001) after no RT and RT, respectively (relative risk [RR], 0.68; 95% CI, 0.63 to 0.75). The 18-year probability of LRR (with or without DM) was 49% and 14% (P < .001) after no RT and RT, respectively (RR, 0.23; 95% CI, 0.19 to 0.27). The 18-year probability of DM subsequent to LRR was 35% and 6% (P < .001) after no RT and RT, respectively (RR, 0.15; 95% CI, 0.11 to 0.20), whereas the probability of any DM was 64% and 53% (P < .001) after no RT versus RT, respectively (RR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.71 to 0.86).

Conclusion

Postmastectomy RT changes the disease recurrence pattern in high-risk breast cancer patients; fewer patients have LRR as first site of recurrence, and overall fewer patients have DM.
The role of visual cues in directed aerial descent of Cephalotes atratus workers (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)
Authors: Yanoviak S. P. , Dudley R.
Published: April 2006

Animals often depend on properties of reflected light (e.g. color,brightness) to locate resources. We compared reflectance properties of tree trunks with surrounding vegetation, and examined how differences in reflectance profiles of surrogate tree trunks (red, yellow, green, blue,black, gray, dark gray and white sheets) affected the directed aerial descent of worker Cephalotes atratus (L.) ants. Across the visual spectrum,tree trunk reflectance was 2–10 times higher than the surrounding foliage and differed among trees. In two separate experiments, one with colored sheets and one with black, white and gray sheets, nearly half (42% and 47%, respectively) of falling ants directed their descent to a bright white sheet when given a choice of target colors or shades of gray. When colored and gray sheets were presented individually, landing frequencies were lower than expected for all except white sheets. Glide performance was highly variable,but there was a tendency for higher glide indices to be associated with the white sheet relative to the green sheet. We conclude that visually mediated aerial behavior in falling canopy ants is strongly influenced by reflectance properties of the target object, specifically brightness, and correlates with preferred natural targets of tree trunks.
Euler Integration and Euler Multiplication
Authors: Bröcker Ludwig
Published: April 2006

By Euler integration we mean the integration of definable functions on IR
n
against the Euler characteristic. We investigate the structure of the ring of all definable functions (with compact support respectively), the multiplication being defined by the convolution with respect to the Euler integration.
Vitamin C and aberrant electrolyte results
Authors: Meng Qing H. , Irwin William C. , Visvanathan Kishore
Published: April 2006

Vitamin C interferes with assays involving the redox-reaction. However, the interference of Vitamin C with electrolytes has not been reported. In the present case, we describe a 61-year-old lady with severe electrolyte abnormalities after administration of high doses of vitamin C. This patient, who had terminal colon cancer, presented to hospital with anuria. Her electrolytes were extremely abnormal (determined on the Beckman Synchron LX20): serum sodium 200mmol/L, potassium 7.0mmol/L, and chloride 50mmol/L. Repeated measurements showed similar abnormalities. However, these critical abnormalities did not fit her clinical picture, as she was alert with normal vital signs. One of the specimens was also run on both the ABL700 and the Bayer644 analyzers, and the electrolytes appeared normal. Pooled serum from healthy individuals to which various amounts of vitamin C was added then was analyzed on Beckman Synchron LX20 for electrolytes, demonstrating the interference of vitamin C consistent with the initial finding. Thus, we eventually figured out that the aberrant results were due to the vitamin C caused analytical interference.
Unusually high alkaline phosphatase due to intestinal isoenzyme in a healthy adult
Authors: Cho Sung R. , Lim Young A. , Lee Wee G.
Published: April 2006

Intestinal alkaline phosphatase (ALP) is more prevalent in individuals of blood group O or B, and increases after a meal, especially on a high-fat diet. We did not realize that clinicians could underestimate the importance of fasting for ALP measurement until one healthy adult showed a huge difference in ALP levels before and after a meal. We report a case of transient hyperphosphatasemia resulting in unnecessary workup due to intestinal ALP in a healthy adult of blood group O.
Joking cultures: Humor themes as social regulation in group life
Authors: Fine Gary Alan , Soucey Michaela de
Published: April 2006

Every interacting social group develops, over time, a joking culture: a set of humorous references that are known to members of the group to which members can refer and that serve as the basis of further interaction. Joking, thus, has a historical, retrospective, and reflexive character. We argue that group joking is embedded, interactive, and referential, and these features give it power within the group context. Elements of the joking culture serve to
Medical merriment in the works of Enrique Jardiel Poncela
Authors: Seaver Paul
Published: April 2006

Enrique Jardiel Poncela, a twentieth-century Spanish comic writer principally of novels and plays, developed a personal approach to creating humor that involved a novel vision of humor’s literary potential (for his time). Beginning in 1926, he undertook the renovation of humor in creative writing in Spain based on his new objectives. In his peculiar jardielist style in which art for art’s sake is his predominant motive, he pursued a distinctive mode of writing characterized by inverosimilitude, incongruity, wild inventiveness and hyperbole. As one of his comic resources, he made abundant use of doctors, medicines, therapies, diseases, medical terminology and ignorance of medicine by the public in general for his literary purposes. To date, study of this important aspect of his work has been largely neglected. This study proposes to fill that lacuna by examining his use of deformation of language, character and situation and the comic techniques he utilized for purposes of satire and parody in his novels and plays.
Development and Implications of Patent Law
Authors: European Commission
Published: April 2006

Introduction

This is the second report pursuant to Article 16c of the Directive 98/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 1998 on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions and bears the title “Developments and implications of patent law in the field of biotechnology and genetic engineering” (hereinafter the “second 16c Report”).

Its purpose is to set out the key events which have occurred since publication of the first 16c Report, and to comment on two issues identified in the latter: the scope of patents on sequences or partial sequences of genes which have been isolated from the human body; and the patentability of human stem cells and cell lines obtained from them. The Commission’s analysis is based on the Commission staff working paper SEC(2005)943.
Biotechnological Potential of Marine Sponges and their Associated Bacteria as Producers of New Pharmaceuticals (Part I)
Authors: Thoms Carsten , Schupp Peter
Published: April 2006

Throughout human history natural products have provided the basis for medicinal treatment. About 60 years ago the advent of SCUBA diving techniques granted access to a thitherto untapped source of pharmacologically highly active natural products: the marine environment. In the oceans not plants but sessile animals, particularly sponges, have proven to be the most fruitful organisms in this context. Sponges have evolved a vast arsenal of chemical weapons to defend themselves against various threats from their environment. These molecules remarkably often show potent activities in pharmaceutical assays. Several sponge-derived compounds are already in clinical trials as agents against cancer, microbial infections, inflammation and other diseases. However, in many cases drug development is severely hampered by the limited supply of the respective compounds, as they are often present only in minute amounts in the sponge tissue. Big hope to circumvent this obstacle lies on the supposition that sponge-associated bacteria and not the sponges themselves are in many cases the true producers of the pharmaceutically relevant agents. Once these microorganisms are determined and cultivated outside the sponge tissue, they could be fermented for large-scale compound production. This in future could substantially increase the number of powerful sponge-derived drugs on the market.
British Policy in Nigeria
Authors: Lugard
Published: April 2006

Miss perham brings to her task of reviewing Native Administration in Nigeria not only the experience gained by similar research in East Africa and in the Pacific, but also the skill in marshalling the salient events from the earliest times up to the present day which we expect from a trained historian. Nor has she anything to fear from the ‘peculiarly savage’ criticisms in which the professional anthropologists are, it is said, wont to indulge.
The Arochuku Dialect of Ibo. Phonetic Analysis and Suggested Orthography
Authors: Adams R. F. G. , Ward Ida C.
Published: April 2006

Tucked away in a salient on the eastern borders of Iboland lies a small portion of land, the home of those who, for many centuries, were the acknowledged leaders of the tribe, to whose oracle litigants resorted as to a final Court of Appeal, and who, by their organizing genius and trading ability, obtained charge of all the important trade routes, and of the greater portion of the middleman's profits accruing from the barter of European goods, and, one must add, from slave traffic. Not thirty years have yet passed since the British expedition of 1901–2, by its destruction of the Aro Long Juju, dealt the blow which has led to a great loss of Arochukuan prestige.
Le Tσílúbà, Langue à Intonation
Authors: Burssens Amaat
Published: April 2006

L'auteur a récemment terminé une mission linguistique (avril-nov. 1937) chez les Uálúvà du Katanga et chez les Bálúbà et Bέ·ná Lúlúvà du Kasai (Congo Belge). Le but de cette mission était avant tout de rechercher l'existence des tons musicaux dans la langue luba, d'en déterminer la valeur sémantique et grammaticale, de définir l'influence réciproque des tons syllabiques, pour reconstruire tout le système tonologique du luba.
L'Alimentation des Autochtones dans les Possessions Tropicales
Authors: Labouret Henri
Published: April 2006

Diverses études, publiées dans Africa au cours des dernières années, ont signalé combien la nourriture des populations vivant sous les tropiques était parfois insuffisante, irrégulière, peu variée, mal équilibrée, et quelles conséquences graves en résultaient pour celles qui sont soumises à un semblable régime. Cet article a pour but de résumer les principales mesures qui ont été prises par les États colonisateurs dans leurs diverses possessions afin de combattre un pareil état de choses.
Native Education at the Cross-Roads in South Africa
Authors: Hoernlé R. F. Alfred
Published: April 2006

Opening Paragraph

Native Education in the Union is in an unhealthy state. Three years ago, the doctors were called in to diagnose and prescribe a cure. The result was the Report of the Interdepartmental Committee on Native Education, 1935-1936. Some of its recommendations displeased another set of doctors, viz. the Native Affairs Commission, who, on their own initiative, offered their view of the case, agreeing on the symptoms of sickness, but prescribing, in the Report of the Native Affairs Commission for the Year 1936, quite a different mode of treatment.
Evil and Witchcraft among the Ndogo Group of Tribes
Authors: Santandrea Fr. S.
Published: April 2006

Opening Paragraph

In the native mind evil, and especially any sort of disease as well as death is due either to beings out of a man's reach (spiritual beings) or to human beings endowed with extraordinary power (witches, sorcerers, operators of black magic).

There are a few cases in which the natives accept the evidence of facts: perhaps the only one in which almost all of them agree is in the case of murder. Should a man be deliberately killed, suspicions of witchcraft are not entertained. But should he be killed by a wild beast while hunting, inquiries may be made as to the indirect cause of his death. It will be asked: who advised him to go hunting? who brought that bad beast on to his path? who caused the hunter to miss it?
La Numération chez les Nègres
Authors: Delafosse Maurice
Published: April 2006

On a coutume de dire que certaines langues nègres possédent la numération décimale et d'autres la numération quinaire. C'est exprimer assez mal un fait qui n'a souvent qu'une existence apparente. On veut dire par là que dans certaines langues il y a un mot spécial pour chacun des dix premiers nombres, et que, dans d'autres, chacun des cinq premiers nombres seulement et le nombre dix sont représentés par un terme propre, six se disant ‘cinq plus un’, sept ‘cinq plus deux’, etc.
Spécimens du Folklore de la Tribu des Batchopi
Authors: Junod Ph. H.
Published: April 2006

La petite tribu des Batchopi (phon: Bat∫opi) occupe le territoire de l'Afrique orientale portugaise compris entre le 34e et le 35e degrés de longitude est (Greenwich) et le 24e et 25e degrés de latitude sud. Autrefois beaucoup plus nombreuse, établie sur un beaucoup plus vaste pays, cette tribu a été décimée par les guerres d'extermination que les potentats Bangoni, Mouzila et Goungounyana entreprirent contre elle. En outre, les Batchopi se sont peu à peu différenciés des Vatonga (sans ‘h’) d'Inhambane ou Vakoka, leurs frères par le sang et la langue. La proche parenté de ces deux groupes, on peut même dire leur commune origine, est facile à prouver: en effet, ils possèdent maintenant encore un grand nombre de noms de famille communs (Nyamu∫we, Nyaphosi, Nkome, Nkumbe, etc.), et le vocabulaire des deux langages respectifs montre un fond commun considérable (je ne note ici qu'un fait particulier: le mot ‘pierre’ se trouve être le même, en tchopi t∫iwindi, en gitonga giwindi, et ce mot est tout à fait différent de celui que l'on rencontre dans les autres langues bantoues).
Tradition and Prestige among the Ngoni
Authors: Read Margaret
Published: April 2006

Opening Paragraph

I. The Ngoni People. Before I made my first camp in an Ngoni village, many Europeans had said to me, ‘There are practically no Ngoni left to-day. They are all hopelessly mixed with other tribes. None of them keep to the Ngoni customs any longer. Their chiefs are no good.’ From the doorway of my hut I saw people coming all day long to the Paramount Chief, behaving towards him with profound respect, bringing him presents, working for him. His children formed a special group in the village, easily recognizable by their bearing and their manners. Old indunas came to instruct me, as they had instructed chiefs in their day, on the duties of a ruler, and the code of Ngoni laws. Old warriors in war dress came and danced by the cattle kraal and sang praise songs. Courts were held with scrupulous regard for order and justice. Other chiefs came visiting from distant parts with their retinues, and were received ceremonially. It soon became apparent that here was the centre of a political state, whose head was invested with prestige and authority over a wide area, and where behaviour to the Paramount and to every one else was strictly regulated by custom, and as strictly observed. These were Ngoni, and they and their fellow Ngoni in other areas for the next ten months introduced me to the Ngoni people. The European assertion, that they no longer existed as a people, they laughed at, and proceeded to demonstrate that the contrary was true.
The Dance
Authors: Evans-Pritchard E. E.
Published: April 2006

In ethnological accounts the dance is usually given a place quite unworthy of its social importance. It is often viewed as an independent activity and is described without reference to its contextual setting in native life. Such treatment leaves out many problems as to composition and organization of the dance and hides from view its sociological function.
La ‘Librairie’ des Écoles indigènes en Afrique
Authors: Hardy Georges
Published: April 2006

Un grand effort a été tenté, au cours de ces dernières années, pour adapter aussi exactement que possible les programmes scolaires des colonies françaises aux besoins et à l'esprit du milieu. Il se trouve encore, assurément, de mauvaises langues pour prétendre qu'on fait réciter aux petits noirs des leçons d'histoire qui commencent par la formule fameuse: ‘Nos ancêtres les Gaulois’; mais ce sont là des calomnies et les instructions officielles attestent amplement que notre enseignement colonial s'est résolument proposé de faire table rase des routines métropolitaines, d'étudier son champ d'action et d'y tracer des voies à sa convenance. Que l'œuvre soit imparfaite, c'est bien certain; car les gens qui ne sont pas du métier n'imaginent pas à quel point une pareille tâche est difficile; il n'en reste pas moins que I'élan est donné et que ce principe est désormais ancré dans l'esprit de tous les éducateurs coloniaux dignes de ce nom: ce qui convient aux petits européens ne convient pas nécessairement aux petits indigènes d'Afrique ou d'Asie, et il est indispensable de se demander à la fois ce qu'on doit enseigner et comment on doit l'enseigner.
L'Évolution du Mariage Coutumier chez les Musulmans du Sénégal
Authors: Robin J.
Published: April 2006

Opening Paragraph

Ce n'est pas sans angoisse qu'un jeune citadin du Sénégal envisage aujourd'hui de se marier. La littérature sénégalaise de langue française en témoigne: de plus, il n'est guère de numéro du journal dakarois Réveil qui ne reflète cette préoccupation. Elle est si caractéristique de la vie sociale de ce qu'on appelle ‘les escales’ dans la terminologie sénégalaise, qu'un envoyé de la presse métropolitaine n'a pas craint de donner pour titre à son reportage sur cette question: ‘le marché noir des noires’.
Religious Affiliation in Freetown, Sierra Leone
Authors: Porter Arthur T.
Published: April 2006

Opening Paragraph

An attempt will be made in this paper to examine religious affiliation in Freetown (the capital town of Sierra Leone) at the formation of the Colony, and its later developments, from an historical viewpoint, with a view to assessing its contribution to the social evolution of the community. Freetown is rich in missionary records and journals and these, though they deal mainly with the evangelistic aspect of church activity, provide sufficient data to justify some tentative generalizations on the relationship between religious affiliation and the social stratification and growth of the community.

Freetown is an assembly of African peoples of different ethnic origins who became integrated into a community around norms and patterns of behaviour which were not African but western. The main agents in this cultural transformation were the Negro Nova Scotian and Maroon settlers. But the transformation was aided by the patronage and favour which the settlers received from the European administration, and, more important, by the missionary and evangelical activities of the Protestant churches. The Christian religion in Freetown was thus from the outset a positive, cohesive influence rather than a disintegrating force as it has been in some other parts of Africa.
Conservatism and Modern Adaptation in Luvale Female Puberty Ritual
Authors: White C. M. N.
Published: April 2006

Opening Paragraph

The present account of Luvale female puberty rites has a twofold object. Firstly to provide a short factual description of the ritual, on which existing information is scanty. Data from the Luvale provide the basis of the present notes, but occasional reference is made to the allied tribes. Secondly an attempt is made to estimate how far the rites have been affected by present-day influences.
Les Phonèmes du Ganda et du Bantou Commun
Authors: Meeussen A. E. , Tucker A. N.
Published: April 2006

Opening Paragraph

La nouvelle édition du dictionnaire de Kitching et Blackledge par Mulira et Ndawula fournit une base solide à l'étude comparative du Ganda. L'objet du présent article est d'exposer les règles de correspondance qui résultent de la comparaison du Ganda avec les formules du bantou commun posées par Meinhof, Homburger, Bourquin, et d'autres, et surtout de dormer des listes provisoires d'irrégularités réelles ou apparentes (voir la partie D). Celles-ci permettront à ceux qui étudient d'autres langues bantoues de rectifier certaines reconstructions, d'établir de nouvelles variantes, et de faire meilleure part aux emprunts et autres faits dus à des facteurs d'ordre géographique.
Anomie in Ashanti?
Authors: Goody Jack
Published: April 2006

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Miss Ward, in her paper on Some Observations on Religious Cults in Ashanti, maintains that the spread of ‘new witch-finding cults’ in Ashanti results from an emotional malaise deriving from structural changes in the society. The hypothesis is one which has been put forward on other occasions to account for the reported increase in such activities. The basic propositions appear to be four: firstly, that major changes in the social system increase the overall malaise in a society: secondly, that such increased malaise will be reflected in an increase in witchcraft: thirdly, that an increase in witchcraft will be reflected in an increase in witch-finding cults: fourthly, that there has been such an increase in Ashanti.
The Ingredients of Magic Medicines
Authors: Cory Hans
Published: April 2006

The following article deals with magic medicines as used in Sukumaland, an area in Tanganyika Territory stretching from Lake Victoria approximately 120 miles to the south. The inhabitants, called by the collective name of Basukuma, are by far the biggest tribe in the territory. They are related very closely to the Banyamwezi in language and custom, and together these tribal groups comprise more than one-fifth of the territory's whole population of about 5½ millions. Because of their numerical strength alone, these related tribal groups have greatly influenced the medical and magical pseudo-science in many other areas.
Zulu Literature
Authors: Malcolm D. Mck.
Published: April 2006

The great mass of Zulu literature is still unwritten. It has been handed down by X word of mouth from generation to generation, and is still preserved by the people —an indestructible possession of story, legend, and song.

There are first of all the great national legends; for instance, the legend of the origin of the race. uMvelingqangi, the first man, came out of the reeds as did Moses, and he had a wife with him. These two were the Father and Mother of the race. It is not unlikely that this tradition originated from the fact that the Bantu came from the north, following the Nile to its source at the great lakes, then down the tributaries of the Zambezi, and finally reached this southern part of Africa. Colour is given to this by the tradition which says, Sehla ngesilulu (‘we came down on rafts’), thus indicating how many crossings they had to make.
Testate Succession in Ashanti
Authors: Matson J. N.
Published: April 2006

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Ashanti customary law, in common with the law of other branches of the Akan people, recognizes a form of oral will, or rather a form of inchoate gift that takes effect on death. This is called saman-nse, saman being an ancestral spirit and nse (or nseε) meaning a formal or solemn declaration; di nse, for example, means to take an oath as a witness does in court. This is the derivation accepted in Ashanti and, with all respect to Rattray's great knowledge, he is in error if he suggests the root is sie, to put, preserve, take care of. His contemptuous rejection of phonetic spelling makes it a little uncertain what sound he meant to record, but on linguistic grounds it is clear the word is not sie. The second a of saman is not modified; the use of a final eε instead of e in certain positions in a sentence is common in Ashanti; and the corresponding Fante forms are saman-nsew, dzi nsew, and sie.
Dahomean Marriage: A Revaluation
Authors: Bohannan Laura
Published: April 2006

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We are fortunate in possessing enough good ethnographic material on Dahomey to attempt a reassessment in the light of later theoretical developments of the very interesting types of marriage reported there.

Analysis shows that three criteria are involved in the thirteen ‘types’ of marriage as given by Herskovits's Dahomean informants: (i) the method of arranging the marriage, including courtship and payment of the bride-wealth; (2) the status of the children; and (3) the relationship between man and wife—a constant which is, however, influenced by the distribution of rights and duties in regard to the children. The nature of the social groups concerned in the configuration of rights and duties connected with marriage is a point of great importance which does not appear in connexion with Herskovits's analysis of marriage; he divides these ‘types’ into a matrilineal and a patrilineal class on the basis of the status of the children. The starting-point of the following analysis is the transfer or non-transfer of puissance, or jural authority, through marriage—a criterion emphasized by Le Hérissé.
The Effect of Western Influence on Akan Marriage
Authors: Amoo J. W. A.
Published: April 2006

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The term ‘Akan’ is applied to all the Twi-speaking tribes of Ashanti and the J- Gold Coast, including the Fante, Wassa, Akwapim, Denkera, Agona, Efutu, Ahanta, Sefwi, and other minor tribes. The most vital association in which the Akan lives is the matrilineal clan, the group of people who through the female line is of common descent and therefore is of one soul—ntoro. Succession is matrilineal.

Marriage among the Akans is a contract between two groups, the woman's and the man's clans, and for the security of both parties it is surrounded by definite customs and laws. By marriage one group delivers one of its members to the other for the purpose of the propagation of the group. The individual man or woman remains a member of his or her group, which continues to have an active interest in his or her well-being. Akan marriage does not result from love, its entire foundation lying in the desire for children. Every child has a place in the abusua (clan) even though it may be born out of wedlock, i.e. without the transference of aseda. It is cared for and has legal rights of inheritance. The unmarried mother loses social status, but not the child.
Headmanship and the Ritual of Luapula Villages
Authors: Cunnison Ian
Published: April 2006

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This article is intended primarily as a contribution to the study of the village headman in British Central Africa. While most reports from the area have paid attention to the headmanl's structural position, this has been specifically considered by Gluckman, Barnes, and Mitchell in ‘The Village Headman in British Central Africa’ (Africa, xix, no. 2, 1949) and, more recently, by Mitchell in his forthcoming analysis of The Yao Village. The closely related question of the values attached to village life has received attention notably from Prof. M. Wilson in Good Company.
God, Man, and the Land in a Northern Ibo Village-Group
Authors: Horton W. R. G.
Published: April 2006

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The fact that most of the studies recently carried out on the Ibo have been initiated in response to an urgent political situation, has resulted in an emphasis on those aspects of the culture of most immediate interest to administrators; and although a considerable body of data on religion has been included in the results, this sphere of activity has perhaps received rather less attention than others.

In this article an attempt is made to sketch some salient features of religious belief in a single Ibo village-group, which, it is hoped, may illuminate some facets of the problem not emphasized in previous work. My investigations were carried out in the Northern Ibo Nike group which lies to the immediate north-east of Enugu, capital of the Eastern Provinces of Nigeria. Rich land and low population density (48 per sq. mile) have here mitigated the usual economic pressures towards education for a life of migrant labour, commerce or clerkship in the towns, with the result that, despite their proximity to a very highly developed urban area, the Nike people tend to take little interest in mission activity. Ibagwa, the senior village of the group, contains some 260 adult males, of whom only a bare half-dozen practise a loose form of Roman Catholicism, so that mission influence is not at all developed. This of course is a distinct advantage for the present study.
On the Survival of the Bushmen: With an Estimate of the Problem Facing Anthropologists
Authors: Tobias Phillip V.
Published: April 2006

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The last decade has seen a considerable revival of interest in the physical anthropology of the Bushman-Hottentot peoples. In the period 1952-5 no fewer than 34 papers with a bearing on this topic have been published, of a total of 46 in the decade 1946-55. This contrasts with 7 works in this category in the four years 1948-51. The subject-matter has been shared fairly evenly between studies on the living and those on skeletal remains. In the former category are studies on Nama Hottentots (Wells), Strandlopers (Dart), Koranas (Grobbelaar, Tobias), Sandawe (Trevor), Lake Chrissie Bushmen (Toerien), Northern Bushmen (Wells, Gusinde, Erikson, Williams, Tobias), River Bushmen (Hurwitz and Harington), Central Bushmen (Tobias), hybrids (Trevor, Wells, Tobias), and on blood groups (Zoutendyck, Kopec and Mourant, Grobbelaar). In the second category are craniological studies by Cosnett, Dart, Drennan, Dreyer and Meiring, Grobbelaar, Hope, Keen, Sauter, Tobias, Toerien, Wells, on a variety of recent, proto-historic, and prehistoric remains. Two thirds of all these studies have been focused primarily upon Bushmen. Furthermore, plans for additional anthropometrical and anthroposcopic surveys of surviving Bushmen are at present being elaborated in the Department of Anatomy of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg—from which Department, under the general direction and inspiration of Professor Raymond A. Dart, more than half the studies referred to have emanated. It is hoped that, in the coming years, a series of expeditions will visit Bushman tribes, more particularly in those areas which have not hitherto been studied from a physical anthropological point of view.
Social Problems and Research in British West Africa
Authors: Firth Raymond
Published: April 2006

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The broad characteristics of the British West African colonies and their main social and economic problems are already fairly familiar from the relevant sections of Lord Hailey's African Survey (1938), and Professor Hancock's Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs (1942). A recent article by Dr. M. Fortes (1945) helps to bring the analysis up to date and makes very clear how great and rapid are the changes taking place in the social and economic structure. In this present contribution, the result of a very brief study, I attempt only to underline some of the salient features as they appear to one new to the West African scene, and to estimate the problems from the point of view of sociological research.
On Swearing. An account of some Judicial Oaths in Northern Nigeria
Authors: Kirk-Greene A. H. M.
Published: April 2006

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One of the Lecturers at the University College of Ibadan recently declared that a vital and often neglected source of information for the would-be anthropologist was the tribal court records. Here, written down with the ingenuous casualness of banality, is a treasure-trove of tribal lore and law, superstitions and suppositions, which can provide the anthropologically minded student with hours of absorbing, and sometimes original, research work. How often do we pause to consider what is entailed in the typical verdict entered in the tribal court book ?
The Culture of Akan
Authors: Danquah J. B.
Published: April 2006

Underlying Eva Meyerowitz's remarkable work, The Sacred State of the Akan, are two assumptions, partly expressed and in part left to be inferred by the reader from the great mass of evidence which her thorough and painstaking research has made available.

The first assumption is that the culture of the Akan today shows a decline from a higher culture which they formerly possessed. The second assumption is that the culture with which the Akan must be identified is the ancient heliolithic culture which once flourished in the Mediterranean and the Ancient East.
Education and the Culture Concept
Authors: Musgrove F.
Published: April 2006

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The culture concept carries many implications for the educationist which have still to be worked out. Perhaps its greatest value will prove to lie in providing a corrective to the intellectualist fallacy to which teachers and educationists are singularly prone. By taking into account the complex and largely non-intellectual processes of acculturation, the teacher in Africa will realize that he is unlikely to effect a direct transference of intellectual propositions and idea-systems; and he may be saved from disappointment when he sees the truths he has dealt in employed to subserve ‘illegitimate’ ends.