bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Describing the Findings: Descriptive Epidemiology
Authors: Fontaine Robert E. , Goodman Richard A.
Published: September 2009

This chapter discusses descriptive epidemiology. Field epidemiologists will either collect, or be presented with data from outbreak investigations, surveillance systems, vital statistics, or other sources of information for appropriate analysis. One of the fundamental tasks will be to orient and organize these data to construct useful and relevant presentations and interpretations. This task is called descriptive epidemiology. Descriptive epidemiology includes both numbers and rates to document how much of a health condition is present or occurring in a population. It also includes the three critical dimensions for describing health conditions: time, place, and person. Time refers to acute changes in disease occurrence, such as an epidemic, and changes over longer time periods, such as seasonal patterns and secular trends. Place refers to geopolitical boundaries, topography, or locations of rooms, buildings, and other structures. Person refers to demographic and other personal characteristics of the populations under study. When done well, descriptive epidemiology can characterize the health problem in the community; provide clues that can be turned into testable hypotheses; and promote effective communication with scientific, policymaking, and lay audiences alike.
Developing Interventions
Authors: Goodman Richard A. , Fontaine Robert E. , Hadler James L. , Vugia Duc J.
Published: September 2009

This chapter discusses decision-making regarding the implementation of interventions during the course of epidemiologic field investigations. It first outlines principles that public health officials should take into account when considering interventions. It examines key determinants often involved in making such decisions about interventions, including the severity of the problem being investigated and the extent to which causation has been established. It then presents a spectrum of intervention options from which public health officials can select as a function of multiple factors involving the field investigation, and briefly discusses selected issues and evolving approaches in interventions. The chapter concludes with a summary listing of actions relating to interventions that should be considered at each stage of the field investigation.
Dealing with the Public and the Media
Authors: Dan Bruce B.
Published: September 2009

This chapter provides helpful guidelines in dealing with an investigation under the spotlight of the news media. The American public now gets most of its medical information from the media: newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and the Internet. Field epidemiologists may be asked by the media to report and comment on their findings either during an investigation or afterward. Although their mission is to protect and maintain public health, the primary mission of the media is to sell their product or their time. Despite these somewhat opposite objectives, the media can and should be an ally. Field epidemiologists should learn how the media operate and cultivate some simple practices of interviewing to communicate effectively with the public.
Legal Considerations in Surveillance and Field Epidemiology
Authors: Neslund Verla S. , Goodman Richard A. , Hadler James L. , Hodge, Jr. James G.
Published: September 2009

This chapter provides an overview of the legal issues relating to public health surveillance and field epidemiology. It discusses the general legal authorities for surveillance and public health investigations provided by the U.S. Constitution and by state laws; outbreak investigations and disease control in the United States; and legal issues related to the collection, analysis, and dissemination of surveillance data. It also presents information about new surveillance challenges beyond traditional infectious disease models, including the influence of bioterrorism preparedness on surveillance activities.
Investigations in Out-of-Home Child Care Settings
Authors: Cordell Ralph L. , Kotch Jonathan , Vernon Michael
Published: September 2009

This chapter focuses on the detection, response, and control of outbreaks in out-of-home child care facilities. Outbreaks share a number of common aspects, and planning and preparation can make significant differences in the quality of investigations. The establishment and revision as needed of written protocols will help refine the investigative process and avoid many of the problems that arise when working in an emotional climate such as a child care facility in the midst of an outbreak of serious illness. A framework for protocol development is presented.
Epidemiologic Practices in Low-Income Countries
Authors: Foster Stanley O.
Published: September 2009

This chapter covers three broad areas of consideration: (1) factors that are influencing the practice of epidemiology in low-income countries; (2) examples of how some countries have used field epidemiology; and (3) practical tips and advice to help epidemiologists prepare for and perform in this unique field setting. It shows that in low-income countries where epidemiologic capacity is being strengthened, obtaining needed data requires a selection of most appropriate methods based on: need for data; population at risk; choice of methodology that is epidemiologically appropriate, logistically feasible, and affordable; and presentation of data in a format that promotes appropriate action.
Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response for the Field Epidemiologist
Authors: Sosin Daniel M. , Besser Richard E.
Published: September 2009

This chapter attempts to prepare epidemiologists for their role in terrorism preparedness and the associated activities of emergency response. It covers an all-hazards approach to preparedness and not strictly a focus on bioterrorism. “All-hazards” means that multi-use strategies take precedence. A thorough understanding of and experience with principles of surveillance, epidemiologic investigation, joint law-enforcement investigation, incident management, transportation and delivery of mass countermeasures, professional and public communications, and evaluation will serve well for most emergency response scenarios, even though the particulars will vary among incidents.
Historical Foundations
Authors: Coughlin Steven S.
Published: September 2009

This chapter considers the history of the rise of ethical concerns in the public health movement and epidemiology, which is the study of the distribution and determinants of disease in human populations. It offers an overview of early developments in public health and ethics and discusses more recent developments, including the origins of bioethics, regulatory safeguards for human subjects research, and contemporary epidemiologic ethics.
Moral Foundations
Authors: Beauchamp Tom L.
Published: September 2009

This chapter seeks to provide an understanding of philosophical ethics sufficient for reading other chapters and for appreciating the relevance of philosophical investigations for epidemiologic ethics. Some central concepts and methods of biomedical ethics are explained. In the section on Social Morality and Professional Morality, several questions about the nature of morality and moral responsibility are discussed. In the Section on Problems and Methods in Moral Philosophy, several problems and methods in moral philosophy are discussed, and, in the final section, some ethical theories of importance for biomedical ethics are investigated.
Ethical Issues in the Design and Conduct of Community-Based Intervention Studies
Authors: Glanz Karen , Kegler Michelle C. , Rimer Barbara K.
Published: September 2009

This chapter examines the scientific, methodological, and practical foundations of community-based intervention research that bear on ethical concerns. It begins with a discussion of the role of partnerships in community research, including partnership models and related ethical challenges, special considerations in working with vulnerable or disadvantaged communities, and suggestions for reconciling multiple agendas. It then discusses ethics related to methodologic issues in community-based intervention research, including intervention strategies, data collection, and study design. It also discusses ethical issues related to research participants, interdisciplinary and professional relationships, and relationships of science to society. The chapter concludes with a brief overview of ethical issues in conducting research with Internet communities or collecting data using the Internet and in community-based research in international settings.
Ethical Issues in the Interaction with Research Subjects and the Disclosure of Results
Authors: Smith Andrea , Schulte Paul A.
Published: September 2009

Developments in epidemiologic methods such as large-scale cohort studies and the increased use of molecular and genomic samples have created new challenges in disclosure. Since epidemiology is focused on populations, disclosure should be motivated by population-level bioethics, public health ethics, and clinical bioethics. This chapter reviews various aspects of epidemiologic studies that affect the reporting of results: (1) subject recruitment and informed consent, (2) privacy and confidentiality, (3) interpretation of test and study results, (4) communication of individualized test results, and (5) communication of study results.
Good Conduct and Integrity in Epidemiologic Research
Authors: Soskolne Colin L. , Abbrecht Peter H. , Davidian Nancy M. , Price Alan R.
Published: September 2009

This chapter addresses the scope of scientific misconduct, including integrity in science. It examines how vested interests can undermine the course of science. It presents some recent analytical work from the United States' Office of Research Integrity to demonstrate the nature of both the harms and costs associated with misconduct. The need to protect the public interest over any other interest is emphasized through mechanisms for ensuring accountability and professional self-regulation.
Stories from the Second World
Authors: Hall Timothy McCajor
Published: September 2009

This chapter examines how three cohorts of Czech men who have sex with men represent their experiences through narrative. One cohort, born in the 1930s and 1940s, lived through the show trials of the 1950s, and the liberalization and then repression following the Prague Spring in 1968. Another set, born in the 1950s, came of age during the period of socialist “normalization” in the 1970s. A third set, now young adults, were children or teens at the time of the Velvet Revolution in 1989 and have lived most of their lives in a relatively democratic capitalist society open to the exchange of goods and ideas with the West.
(My) Stories of Lesbian Friendship
Authors: Weinstock Jacqueline S.
Published: September 2009

This chapter reflects upon the author's changing experiences and understandings of lesbian friendship in relation to the prevailing story lines evident in the literature on lesbians' friendships. It begins by examining select early childhood and adolescent experiences that informed her initial views about the nature and power of friendship. From there, it examines select young adulthood experiences, through college, graduate school, and postdoctoral years, with a focus on her coming out as a lesbian, connecting with lesbian and feminist communities, and making her initial decision to direct her scholarly attention to lesbian friendships. The chapter briefly reviews her published writings in this area, and the connections between these works and her own experiences, beliefs, and questions about friendship. Finally, it identifies and explores several emerging side plots, evident throughout her friendship experiences and writings, but now transforming the story and challenging the validity of the friendship narrative she has told to date.
Emergence of a Poz Sexual Culture
Authors: Adam Barry D.
Published: September 2009

This chapter examines the history of the difficult relationship that gay and bisexual men have had with HIV and its prevention as they have sought pleasure and intimacy in an era marked by a life-threatening disease. It looks at converging sets of social, psychological, and physiological factors that created the conditions for the beginnings of a bareback microculture and identity. In doing so, it is important to keep in mind that in the first decade of the 21st century, barebacking remains an emergent, inchoate, and contested term and identity. Some men whose sexual practices might appear to an outside observer to fit the category reject the term. Others employ bareback language and participate in bareback circuits and scenes but limit their unprotected sex to particular partners and situations and often express a willingness to accept protected sex with partners who initiate condom use.
Connectedness, Communication, and Reciprocity in Lesbian Relationships
Authors: Perz Janette , Ussher Jane M.
Published: September 2009

A growing body of research reports that lesbian relationships are experienced as more satisfying than heterosexual relationships, with predictors of this satisfaction being greater emotional companionship, cohesion, and flexibility as well as intimacy, equity, and autonomy. This chapter considers this counternarrative to the positioning of lesbian relationships as either unhealthily fused or identical to heterosexual relationships and therefore “normal”. Taking the issue of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) as a case example, the chapter argues that the aspects of lesbian relationships that have been reported to differ from heterosexual relationships—connectedness, egalitarianism, and positive communication—are of key relevance in terms of the construction and experience of women's premenstrual distress and coping.
Postcards from the Edge
Authors: Ridge Damien , Wright Rebecca
Published: September 2009

This chapter explores some of the complex challenges that are part of the lives of gay men in the early 21st century. It considers two potential experiences in the gay male life course that remain poorly understood. First it considers the challenges facing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive gay men in preventing the forward transmission of HIV and establishing positive sex lives. Second, it looks at the experience of relationship dissolution for gay men. The chapter seeks to gain a deeper and more nuanced understanding of these potential experiences of the gay male life course through the use of narrative methods. Finally, it presents inferences about gay narratives, identity, and the life course in the current century.
In the Beginning
Authors: Cohler Bertram J.
Published: September 2009

This chapter discusses the impact of the American “boy code” from the boy books of the 19th century to the present time on the current representations of boyhood in the accounts of men self-identifying as gay. These men represent four postwar generation-cohorts: (1) men who came of age in the 1960s, a time of nascent activism; (2) men who came of age in the 1970s with the emergence of the gay rights movement; (3) men who came of age in the 1980s with the appearance of the AIDS pandemic; and (4) men who came of age in the 1990s, when same-sex desire had become a recognized lifeway among urban men.
Focus on the Family
Authors: deBoer David
Published: September 2009

This chapter considers existing narrative accounts and family research, together with the author's own experience (socially located as a White, upper-middle class gay man) of adopting an infant girl with his partner in 2004. In providing and reviewing such first-person narrative experience and observations, the chapter seeks to return to a focus on the family life experiences of gay men who choose to become fathers. The first section reviews internal and external obstacles that gay men may face as they make the decision to become parents. The second section describes the vicissitudes of adjustment to parenthood under the hegemonic shadow of American culture's master narrative that equates parenthood with heterosexuality. The third section addresses changes in gay fathers' relationship to their gay male social context and their own evolving gay identity.
Generativity and Time in Gay Men's Life Stories
Authors: Hostetler Andrew J.
Published: September 2009

Drawing on life-story interviews with forty-two gay men representing roughly four different historical cohorts, this chapter explores the meaning and experience of gay generativity through intersecting narratives of personal-developmental and collective-historical time. These narratives reveal both cohort-specific shifts in gay men's time orientation and a more continuous pattern of historical change, with corresponding transformations in opportunities for making a generative contribution. The narratives also suggest a more dynamic intertwining of developmental and historical processes in the construction of the generative self. It is argued that that the men are engaged in an intergenerational “multilogue”—with members of the research team and, by proxy, with each other—that is rewriting the individual experience and collective meaning of generativity. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the future prospects for building a generative society and the potential contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people to such a project.
Introduction
Authors: Bornstein Brian H. , Miller Monica K.
Published: September 2009

The United States has recently seen a religious resurgence. Americans are attending church in larger numbers than ever before, and mass media and popular entertainment are saturated with religious references. Importantly, religion is prominent in legal contexts as well, whether it involves the Ten Commandments in the courthouse, priests on trial for sexual abuse, jurors excused from jury service because of their religion, or judges sentencing criminal defendants to attend church. This chapter provides a thumbnail sketch of the place of religion in American life, explains why we should care about religion's role at trial, comments briefly on empirical issues in researching religion in legal contexts, and gives an overview of the remainder of the book. It also introduces a central theme in the book, namely, the normative and descriptive approaches to the issue. The normative question asks, “To what extent and in what ways should religion matter at trial?” The descriptive question asks “In what ways does religion matter at trial?”
Religion and the Jury’s Composition
Authors: Bornstein Brian H. , Miller Monica K.
Published: September 2009

Some attorneys rely on “folklore” or personal hunches when selecting a jury, while others use a more scientific route, taking advice from trial advocacy and jury selection books that provide information on selecting a favorable jury. Either method could result in the selection of a jury based on potential jurors' demographic characteristics, including religious characteristics. Additionally, legislative acts have affected the religious makeup of juries throughout U.S. history. Laws or legal procedures make it unlikely or impossible for members of some minority religions to be selected. In recent decades, legislation has been established which makes it unconstitutional to exclude individuals from jury duty based on their religion. Other laws allow some citizens to opt out of jury service on the basis of their religion. As a whole, this chapter highlights the legal debate surrounding procedures that affect the religious make up of the jury.
The Relationship Between Jurors’ Religious Characteristics and Their Legal Attitudes and Decisions
Authors: Bornstein Brian H. , Miller Monica K.
Published: September 2009

“Religiosity” is more than just a person's religious affiliation; it is a complex construct that has been conceptualized in a variety of different ways in different studies. This chapter reviews empirical research on the extent to which individuals' degree of observance (e.g., frequency of church attendance), specific religious beliefs or attitudes, and other measures of religiosity affect their legal attitudes and decision-making. Specifically, such characteristics include evangelism, evangelicalism, fundamentalism, literal interpretism, and devotionalism. The chapter also presents a discussion of other less studied characteristics and beliefs (e.g., belief in a harsh God) in order to give a more complete picture of how individuals' religious characteristics and beliefs might relate to their legal attitudes.
Religion in Jury Deliberation
Authors: Bornstein Brian H. , Miller Monica K.
Published: September 2009

The research discussed in earlier chapters indicates that religious affiliation and a variety of religious beliefs can affect legal attitudes and behavior, such as juror decision making. It is possible, however, that the group discussion process may neutralize the effects of any particular juror's beliefs, such that religious beliefs influence a juror's individual judgment, but not the jury's final verdict. Nevertheless, there is concern that religion will alter the deliberation process. For instance, jurors may mention their religious beliefs, cite scripture during deliberation, pray, or consult with pastors. Courts are divided about whether it is appropriate for jurors to do these religious activities and whether such jury behavior constitutes misconduct that necessitates a new trial. This chapter considers the role of jurors'religion in their deliberations, an issue that has been raised in numerous recent cases.
Judges’ Religion
Authors: Bornstein Brian H. , Miller Monica K.
Published: September 2009

This chapter reviews social scientific research on the relationship between judges' religion and their decisions. It begins with a historical perspective on the role of religion in judicial selection (e.g., Catholic and Jewish seats on the U.S. Supreme Court). Next it reviews research on the relationship between judges' religious beliefs and their decisions, in both trial and appellate courts, and describes cases in which judges have explicitly invoked religion in sentencing. Judges have done this, for example, in sentencing defendants to attend religious services or in quoting religious texts to justify a particular sentence.
Attorneys’ Religion
Authors: Bornstein Brian H. , Miller Monica K.
Published: September 2009

This chapter considers the role that religion plays in routine legal practice. This matter raises a host of related questions, such as: How religiously diverse is the legal profession in the United States? Does religion have a place in legal education, in either secular or religious law schools? How do religious lawyers reconcile their faith with the sometimes competing demands of their profession (e.g., representing clients who have committed unscrupulous or even evil acts)? A growing “Religious Lawyering Movement” has addressed many of these issues, and the chapter draws on that literature here.
Attorneys’ Use of Biblical Appeals
Authors: Bornstein Brian H. , Miller Monica K.
Published: September 2009

Recently, religion has found its way into trial through the arguments that some lawyers have offered in their closing statements. Specifically, prosecutors have used Biblical appeals, such as the “eye for an eye” doctrine to convince jurors to give the death penalty. In contrast, defense attorneys have urged jurors to show mercy, for instance by encouraging them to forgive, as Jesus did when he said to “turn the other cheek.” Courts are inconsistent in their stance on the admissibility of such arguments, and the reasons offered for disallowing religious arguments are varied. In essence, courts that forbid Biblical appeals are concerned about their impact on jury decision making. Empirical research on the question has yielded somewhat conflicting findings. This chapter discusses the use of Biblical appeals, highlighting the court opinions, legal analyses, and research findings.
Religious Figures and Institutions As Litigants
Authors: Bornstein Brian H. , Miller Monica K.
Published: September 2009

Litigants' religion is central to some cases, such as those making a free exercise claim; a substantial factor in others, such as clergy charged with sexual abuse, defendants who introduce their religious conversion to mitigate sentencing, or those who use religion as a defense (e.g., a parent who refused to seek medical treatment for a child on religious grounds); and a peripheral factor in most routine cases. Although a litigant's religion is not relevant in these routine cases, it might nonetheless come up if the person has a religious occupation, and it could also be inferred from a person's surname or dress. This chapter addresses the role of litigants' religion.
Conclusion
Authors: Bornstein Brian H. , Miller Monica K.
Published: September 2009

This concluding chapter summarizes the major findings, identifies some of the key themes running through the book, and discusses future research directions. It also revisits the questions raised in earlier chapter of why religion at trial matters, whether it should matter, and the extent to which it does matter.
Chapter 2 Women and Kandyan Dance
Authors: Reed Susan A.
Published: September 2009

Women and girl dancers are ubiquitous in Sri Lanka, performing in a variety of sites, from school concerts and government ceremonials to religious processions and Buddhist temples. This chapter examines how the ideal of Sinhala feminine respectability, which emphasizes modesty and domesticity, has shaped women's Kandyan dance practices. Because Kandyan dance derives from the Kohomba kankariya, an all-male religious ritual, dancers and choreographers have been challenged to feminize the dance while retaining its aesthetic integrity. In the process, transmission practices and the aesthetic concepts of lasya and tandava, employed throughout South Asia, have been altered and redefined. The chapter concludes by exploring new directions in women and girls' dancing, such as the sexualization of dance, and the use of dance for fitness and the marriage market.
Chapter 4 Local Practice, Global Network
Authors: Clayton Martin
Published: September 2009

This chapter discusses the ways the guitar—particularly as employed for “Western” genres such as rock and jazz—is theorized at a local level in India. The text includes extensive quotation from interviews with Indian guitarists carried out between 1998 and 2001, discussed under the following headings: “Origins and Identities” is concerned with the ways in which musicians theorize the origins of the instrument and its associations with regional, religious and other identities; “Networks” outlines the implication of the guitar in national and international systems allowing the mobility of musicians, repertory, and equipment; and finally “Music” discusses ways in which the guitar's repertory is theorized that cut across the Indian/Western division. The chapter argues that more studies of local theory are necessary even—perhaps especially—where mass-mediated global styles such as rock and jazz are involved.
Chapter 5 Constructing the Local
Authors: Booth Gregory D.
Published: September 2009

This chapter examines spatial mappings of the commercial brass band tradition in India that reflect changes to traditional socioprofessional organization in the processional music trade after 1947. Caste identities engender relationships among bandsmen and sometimes between bandsmen and band owners that encourage the development of network structures. The bandsmen who participate in these networks provide a view of the “life of music in north India” that contrasts with that of Hindustani classical musicians.
Chapter 6 The Princess of the Musicians
Authors: Chaudhuri Shubha
Published: September 2009

The tale of princess Rāni Bhañiyāõi's suicide and subsequent appearance as a spirit has served as a foundational narrative for the practices of local, Muslim, mānganiār musicians, Hindu patrons, and Bhopa priests in Rajasthan. This chapter examines social practices surrounding drummers, the song genres associated with Rāni Bhañiyāõi, and the variants of her story that have significant local implications.
Chapter 8 Disciple and Preceptor/Performer in Kerala
Authors: Groesbeck Rolf
Published: September 2009

Studies of pedagogical relationships in India have often focused on imitation and embodiment of the preceptor's knowledge; this chapter, however, discusses the centrality of peer-group immersion. With regards to Kathakaëi (dance-drama) centa (cylindrical stick drum) training at the Kerala Kalamandalam, a state arts institution, a two-stage learning model is proposed, in which students learn fixed compositions from a primary preceptor, then progress to advanced improvisational methods, absorbed through “legitimate peripheral participation” in a group rehearsal studio. In the latter arena, the role of the primary teacher is minimal, so that students acquire their skills largely from interaction with their peers. The chapter further suggests that indigenous perspectives on stylistic development in centa performance may be explained partly in terms of this importance of horizontal transmission.
Chapter 9 Sīna ba Sīna or “From Father to Son”
Authors: Qureshi Regula Burckhardt
Published: September 2009

Discipleship is examined as a relational, multileveled, and highly contextual process of enculturation through the chapter's observations and experiences with hereditary bowed lute (sārangī) players and their biradaris. The chapter contends that discipleship has contributed to a counter-colonial ethnomusicology that has relevance beyond Hindustani music studies.
Chapter 10 Handmade in Nepal
Authors: Henderson David
Published: September 2009

This chapter alternates between a study of drumming lessons in the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal and a consideration of studies of bodily knowledge, or what is sometimes called procedural knowledge, by three different kinds of scholars: the neurologist Antonio Damasio, the philosopher David Sudnow, and the anthropologist Michael Herzfeld. On one hand, it is an analysis, written ethnographically and phenomenologically, of how drumming becomes lodged in memory and in the body, and, on the other hand, it is a rumination, prompted partly by Herzfeld's work, on the place of outmoded artisan and artistic work in the modern nation-state.
Chapter 12 Zahīrok
Authors: Badalkhan Sabir
Published: September 2009

This chapter investigates the texts, contexts, and performance characteristics associated with zahīrok in Karachi, Pakistan, and the Makran area of Pakistan and Iran. Zahīrok refers to a musical genre as well as a set of melody types and a category of emotion. Baloch understand the zahīrok to be at the very foundation of their music; it is an important basis for local Baluch musical theorizing.
Paris Before Genovefa
Authors: Bitel Lisa M.
Published: September 2009

This chapter sets up the book’s main argument by explaining how people in ancient Europe interpreted their landscapes and holy places. Fifth-century Parisians understood their city in several different ways: as a moderately important military and imperial administrative center, as one point in a larger economic network, and as a collection of sacral sites. These three ways of looking at Paris would become important to the story of Gauls’ christianization and Saint Genovefa’s part in it.
Sacral Paris
Authors: Bitel Lisa M.
Published: September 2009

This chapter explains how landscape and its history influenced the location of pagan and Christian religious places in late antique Paris (4th through 5th centuries). Considerations of ethnicity, gender, and class guided the location, creation, and use of religious architecture along with the availability of sites and materials and formal doctrines. Christian missionaries exploited Paris’s Roman past to locate and build new kinds of religious places attractive to natives.
Paris after Genovefa
Authors: Bitel Lisa M.
Published: September 2009

This chapter recounts the history of Genovefa’s cult after her death, as told through her written biographies, the churches built in her honor, and devotional practices of Parisian Christians. It shows how her importance as patroness of Frankish rulers diminished when later Merovingian kings chose to favor Saint Denis and his cult north of Paris. Both gender and political changes help explain this shift in allegiance. Nonetheless, Genovefa and her church remained important presences in Paris.
Crossings and Conversions
Authors: Bitel Lisa M.
Published: September 2009

This chapter begins the comparison of the cults of Genovefa and Brigit of Kildare. It describes the three phases of Ireland’s christianization during the 4th through 5th centuries. Because the Romans had never invaded Ireland, the Irish had a different relationship with the empire and its religions than other Europeans. In the first phase of conversion, the island’s inhabitants sought trade in Roman goods via Britain. In the second phase, romanized Christians such as Saint Patrick used this trade network to bring new religious ideas to Ireland. In the third phase, Christian leaders in Ireland began to organize the politically fragmented rural landscape and its ancient pagan sites into recognizably Christian, Roman-style places.
Ekphrasis at Kildare
Authors: Bitel Lisa M.
Published: September 2009

This chapter recounts the life of Saint Brigit (ca. 452–524) as told by her 7th-century hagiographer, Cogitosus of Kildare. Cogitosus interpreted Brigit as a traveling holy woman whose authority equaled that of missionaries and bishops, and whose legacy was a Roman-style basilica set in a major ecclesiastical center and political landscape that she had organized. Cogitosus’s text was read by later generations of Irish Christians as a pilgrimage guide to Brigit’s city and church at Kildare.
Brigit Goes to Ground
Authors: Bitel Lisa M.
Published: September 2009

This chapter examines Brigit’s cult after the 7th century, as portrayed in 8th- and 9th-century biographies of the saint and other documents. Brigit’s church at Kildare became at once a historical monument to conversion, a power center on the changing political landscape of medieval Ireland, and a gendered symbol of religious practice. The limits and meanings of Brigit’s cult shifted constantly in relation to these material and political environments. Like Genovefa’s cult, Brigit’s lost importance in relation to the cults of male saints, particularly that of Patrick at Armagh.
2 A Matter of Demolition?
Authors: Cohen Joshua
Published: September 2009

This chapter discusses three central preoccupations in Okin's writing: the relationship between feminism and traditional political theory, the relationship between the family and women's position in society, and the public/private distinction. Okin thought that much traditional political theory was rendered implausible once women were taken into account; she believed that principles of justice must be applied to the family itself; and she accepted—to some extent—a public/private distinction. This chapter critically explores each of these ideas.
7 On the Tension between Sex Equality and Religious Freedom
Authors: Sunstein Cass
Published: September 2009

This chapter discusses the challenge that religious liberty poses to gender equality, a challenge that was central to Okin's rejection of a blanket endorsement for multiculturalism. This chapter argues that conflicts between sex equality and religious institutions are pervasive and create severe tensions in a liberal social order. The chapter attempts to show that neither liberal ideals nor the Constitution should be taken to absolutely forbid government from banning sex discrimination by religious institutions.
The Leading Article
Authors: Rubery Matthew
Published: September 2009

The 19th century witnessed the rise of the journalist as both professional and fictional persona. Use of the anonymous editorial “We” to convey the authority of the publication instead of the individual was criticized by a number of writers distressed by the growing influence of the leading article throughout the 19th century. The premier newspaper's reputation as “the Thunderer” at mid-century offers just one indication of the force as well as the sheer volume of its editorial opinions. This chapter examines how Trollope's Palliser series, from Can You Forgive Her? to The Duke's Children, challenged the impersonal authority of the newspaper by representing the journalist in propria persona, or by showing the speaker behind the anonymous voice of the leading article. Trollope's novels ensured that publicity was applied to the one group otherwise safe from it: the journalists themselves.
The Foreign Correspondence
Authors: Rubery Matthew
Published: September 2009

This chapter investigates the deep kinship between Conrad's Heart of Darkness and foreign correspondent Henry Stanley's dispatches describing the search for Dr. Livingstone in the New York Herald and the London Daily Telegraph. Stanley's correspondence about Africa led Conrad to distrust the newspaper as a mode of discourse and to ask how accurately readers can know events when not present, like Marlow, as a witness. The relevance of the press to this fictional narrative is evident in a 1902 letter from Conrad describing Heart of Darkness as a ”wild story of a journalist who becomes manager of a station in the interior and makes himself worshipped by a tribe of savages.” This context gives new meaning to the fact that Kurtz writes about his “moral ideas” in the newspapers. Hence Conrad's “wild story of a journalist” is as concerned with the media through which Kurtz represents his experience in the Belgian Congo as with that experience itself, for it is the newspaper that brings Kurtz's voice out of Africa.
Introduction
Authors: Roberts Marc J. , Hsiao William , Berman Peter , Reich Michael R.
Published: September 2009

This introductory chapter discusses health sector reform. It argues that economic, social, and political forces, both inside and outside the health-care system, are causing widespread pressures to spend more on health care. New technologies (including new drugs) as well as changes in population structure and disease patterns are continuing to push up per capita health-care costs. The evolving international economic system often limits the capacity of governments and the private sector to meet these higher costs, especially in poor countries, because of short-term crises and longer-term competitive pressures. Broad shifts in intellectual beliefs about the state and the market have led to widespread promotion of market competition and privatization as solutions for all economic problems, including policies for the health sector.
Judging Health-Sector Performance: Ethical Theory
Authors: Roberts Marc J. , Hsiao William , Berman Peter , Reich Michael R.
Published: September 2009

This chapter introduces three major ethical perspectives as a basis for making judgments on health sector performance: utilitarianism, liberalism, and communitarianism. These three ethical theories are discussed in detail and their implications for health-sector reform are examined. Some of the variations in points of view within each of these broad approaches are also considered.
Political Analysis and Strategies
Authors: Roberts Marc J. , Hsiao William , Berman Peter , Reich Michael R.
Published: September 2009

This chapter addresses the question of how health reformers should develop and carry out political strategies in order to improve the chances that their plan will be adopted and put into action. It begins by examining how the agenda is set for public policy in general and for health-sector reform in particular. It then discusses how to manage this process of agenda-setting, through the use of stakeholder analysis. It presents four basic political strategies for improving the chances that a policy reform will be adopted, concluding with lessons from negotiation theory about how to build a winning political coalition. Finally, it discusses some of the ethical dimensions of political strategizing, including the personal decisions faced by health reformers.
Goals for Evaluating Health Systems
Authors: Roberts Marc J. , Hsiao William , Berman Peter , Reich Michael R.
Published: September 2009

This chapter presents the case for judging a health sector's performance in terms of three performance goals: (1) the health status of the population; (2) the satisfaction citizens derive from the system; and (3) the degree to which citizens are protected from the financial risks of ill health. It discusses how these goals can be measured and how a nation's performance can be evaluated. It also explores how the connections between the health sector and the rest of the society influence performance judgments. It is argued that cost considerations and social values and political processes both do and should play a role in setting the agenda for health-sector reform.
Assessing Health-System Performance
Authors: Roberts Marc J. , Hsiao William , Berman Peter , Reich Michael R.
Published: September 2009

Certain aspects of the health system often play an important role in unsatisfactory health sector reform outcomes. These features of the system are not in themselves either the root causes of performance difficulties or the manifestations of those difficulties at the level of ultimate outcomes. However, a reformer will generally be very interested in analyzing features of the system because they are critical links in the chains that connect root causes to ultimate performance goals. Data about these system characteristics are referred to as intermediate performance measures. This chapter identifies three widely discussed intermediate performance measures that should be singled out for special attention: efficiency, access, and quality.
Financing
Authors: Roberts Marc J. , Hsiao William , Berman Peter , Reich Michael R.
Published: September 2009

Financing has an extremely important impact on the performance of a health system. It determines how much money is available, who bears the financial burden, who controls the funds, how risks are pooled, and whether health-care costs can be controlled. These factors, in turn, help determine who has access to care, who is protected against impoverishment from catastrophic medical expenses, and the health status of the population. All the money raised through any financing method (except for foreign contributions) comes, directly or indirectly, from citizens. Each nation has to decide is what sources to use, and to what extent. This chapter addresses these questions. It lays out the key criteria to be used when a nation considers which combination of financing methods may be best suited to it. It argues that the mixture does and should depend greatly on social values and politics. It then describes the different methods of financing and discusses their advantages and disadvantages. It considers the question of how to allocate the funds that the financing system generates. The chapter concludes with some conditional advice about which financing schemes are feasible for countries at different stages of socioeconomic development.
Payment
Authors: Roberts Marc J. , Hsiao William , Berman Peter , Reich Michael R.
Published: September 2009

This chapter looks at the incentives that payment schemes create for both buyers and sellers and how these incentives can be adjusted to further the goals of health-sector reform. It begins with a brief explanation of how financial incentives affect health-system performance. It then discusses the four key factors to be considered when designing a payment system. It describes and analyzes the principal payment methods. Finally, it presents some conditional guidance for reformers about which payment methods to use.
Four On Text and Historical Understanding
Authors: Kurt T Lash
Published: September 2009

This chapter addresses just how the federalist vision of the Ninth Amendment presented in Chapters 2 and 3 fits with the actual text of the amendment and how the amendment fits alongside the Tenth Amendment. Doing so requires both a deeper and a broader look at the amendment. Deeper, because it requires revisiting some earlier points about the final language of the text; broader, because it expands our vision beyond the Ninth Amendment and considers aspects of the original Tenth Amendment that also may have been forgotten or lost.
Six Federalism and Liberty, 1794–1803
Authors: Kurt T Lash
Published: September 2009

This chapter focuses on the Alien and Sedition Acts. The present chapter and the previous chapter on the Eleventh Amendment illustrate something generally missed—or misrepresented—about republican constitutional theory in the early republic. The so-called compact theory of the Constitution, the idea that the Constitution represents a compact between the states and the national government, is often presented as having emerged out of the proslavery ideology of the 1830s and viewed in opposition to the (entirely) more reasonable theories of Chief Justice John Marshall. This school of constitutional history places the initial seeds of southern secessionist theory in the naive hands of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, who embraced the inflammatory language of states' rights and interposition in their Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. According to this view, compact theory is a post hoc political invention that departs from the original understanding of the Constitution and that arose years after the founding as part of a political effort to displace the Federalist Party in the election of 1800.
Eleven Guarding the Retained Rights of the People
Authors: Kurt T Lash
Published: September 2009

Assuming that an accurate understanding of U.S. constitutional history can assist us in our effort to understand and apply our Constitution today, this chapter addresses the question of whether restoring the lost history of the Ninth Amendment would make any difference to this fundamental task of citizenship. It argues that the Ninth Amendment's future as an enforceable provision in the Bill of Rights depends on our national commitment to maintaining a Madisonian balance between state and national power.
The Anthropology of Childhood Malaria in Tanzania
Authors: Kamat Vinay R.
Published: September 2009

Drawing on an ethnographic study, this chapter examines why mothers in Tanzania delay in seeking early diagnosis and treatment at health facilities for their febrile children. It highlights how mothers often exaggerate the symptoms of their sick children to health care personnel in order to obtain the best available treatment. Contextualized stories illustrate how health care seeking for childhood malaria is often mediated by cultural meanings associated with certain illnesses, perceived severity and past experience with an illness, structural disadvantages affecting women's access to societal resources, and the patterns of communication between mothers and health care providers. Case studies illustrate the pragmatic considerations that inform mothers' negotiation of appropriate therapy for their febrile children in a medically pluralistic setting.
Male Infertility and Consanguinity in Lebanon: The Power of Ethnographic Epidemiology
Authors: Inhorn Marcia C. , Kobeissi Loulou , Abu-Musa Antoine A. , Awwad Johnny , Fakih Michael H. , Hammoud Najwa , Hannoun Antoine B. , Lakkis Da’ad , Nassar Zaher
Published: September 2009

Male infertility is a neglected reproductive health problem, yet it contributes to at least half of all cases of subfertility worldwide. Consanguinity, or the intermarriage of two individuals who have at least one ancestor in common, may increase the risk for recessively inherited disorders, including genetic forms of male infertility. This chapter investigates the influence of consanguineous marriage on male infertility in Lebanon, where rates of consanguineous marriage remain high (26.9% among Muslims, 16.5% among Christians). Using a mixed-methods, ethnographic-epidemiological, and case-study design, it demonstrates a significant association between consanguinity and family clustering of male infertility cases, suggesting a strong genetic component to this reproductive health problem in Lebanon. Because consanguineous marriage is a socially supported institution throughout the Muslim world, culturally sensitive public health education programs, which support genetic counseling and risk management without condemning consanguineous marriage practices per se, are highly recommended.