bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Totem and Transaction: the Objectification of ‘Tradition’ Among North Mekeo
Authors: Mosko Mark S. 
Published: February 2015

ABSTRACTMost recent treatments of Melanesian post‐contact change have presumed that objectifications of ‘culture’ and ‘tradition’ have intensified and proliferated in response to the forces of colonialism and the penetration of the nation‐state. Harrison (2000) has recently argued, however, that in pre‐colonial times too Melanesians characteristically objectified their cultural practices and identities as ‘possessions’ that could be readily exchanged or transacted. Supposedly, the key difference between the two eras has accorded with different formulations of ‘property’: ‘private property’ and the logic of ‘possessive individualism’ in the post‐contact era; and ‘trading and gift‐exchange systems’ or ‘prestige economies’ in pre‐contact times. In this article I examine Harrison's portrayal of Melanesian cultural practices as ‘possessions’ and the notions of ‘property’ that he sees as key to the cultural objectification in both pre‐ and post‐colonial settings with reference to ethnographic and historical information regarding the North Mekeo peoples of Papua New Guinea. I argue from the perspective of the New Melanesian Ethnography that Harrison's view of pre‐contact prestige economies and trade and gift exchange systems retains several misleading a priori assumptions about ‘commodity exchange’ and, illustrating the potential of the New Melanesian Ethnography for historical applications, that he overemphasizes the extent to which post‐contact changes in cultural objectification have involved individualised and commodified forms of property. Consequently, in the case of North Mekeo, both the continuities and the changes between pre‐ and post‐contact cultural objectifications may have proceeded differently from the ways Harrison has outlined for Melanesia generally.
Leading Lights in the ‘Mother of Darkness’: Perspectives on Leadership and Value in North Ambrym, Vanuatu
Authors: Patterson Mary 
Published: February 2015

ABSTRACTIn comparative political theory in Anthropology, Pacific leadership has had a prominent place, with a long history of debate about typologies and forms. In this paper I eschew such approaches in favour of a demonstration of the complexity of interactions fostered in local communities by interpretations of a protean ‘tradition’, refracted by a history of encounters with modernity and its social imaginary at a particular historical moment. The narratives of three local leaders in Vanuatu's recent history, provide a context for evaluating the relative merits of such typologies when the grounds of leadership itself are contested.
Note on the Reincarnation Beliefs of the Gumini People of the Simbu Province of Papua New Guinea
Authors: Johnstone Joan D. 
Published: February 2015

ABSTRACTThis note describes the traditional reincarnation belief system of the Guminis, a small group of people living in the south‐east of the Simbu Province of the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. This system embraces the belief that the spirit of some humans is, after death, reincarnated within the body of another living person of similar age and probably of the same sex as the deceased. This person, a stranger, then represents the continuation of the life of the person who died in terms of his/her social and kinship relationships. It is demonstrated that this belief system was functional in traditional Gumini society but may not continue to be so in future due to rapid changes in rural and urban life currently affecting the people of Papua New Guinea.
Politicized Ecology: Local Responses to Mining in Papua New Guinea
Authors: Macintyre Martha , Foale Simon 
Published: February 2015

ABSTRACTOur paper draws on research in two sites where large goldmining projects are located — Misima and Lihir islands in Papua New Guinea. We examine the socio‐economic context in which criticisms of environmental degradation arise. We discuss the social and political meanings embedded in local demands for compensation for environmental damage, drawing attention to the disparities between local Melanesian conceptions of the environment and global, Western ideas that inform international environmentalist criticisms of mining. We dispute the ‘romantic primitivism’ of some environmentalist discourse, using the work of ethno‐ecologists and case studies of specific incidents on these islands, contesting the view that there is a natural conservationist ethic in Melanesia. The image of the ‘noble primitive ecologist’ that some environmentalists appeal to, would in most circumstances be rejected by Melanesians as racist and paternalistic, but is embraced as a strategy in conflicts with mining companies and when making legal claims for compensation. Alliances formed between landowners, environmentalists and western lawyers against mining companies such as BHP and Rio Tinto are based more on shared political ends than on the epistemological consistency of their perceptions of environmental damage from mining. Local Melanesian communities claim sovereignty over all resources and their compensation claims for environmental degradation constitute a new form of resource rent.
The Politico‐Historical construction of the Pintupi Luritja and the Concept of Tribe
Authors: Holcombe Sarah 
Published: February 2015

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the history of the emergence of Pintupi Luritja as the dominant language in the Central Australian community of Amunturrngu (Mt Liebig), traced from the people's first encounters with settlement in the 1940s at Haasts Bluff, through to the present. It is a political history, as movement toward settlement demanded a re‐structuring of social relations within a newly settled polity. To elaborate on this polity I examine the concept of a language community through the construction of Pintupi Luritja as a ‘communilect’. The development of this communilect as a lingua franca in these early settlements signals the value of the original term ‘Luritja’ as a trope. The meaning of this original Indigenous term is not only indicative of the regional history, but also of the flexible potential in group formation. The pattern of contact and settlement in this Pintupi Luritja region has compelled a socio‐linguistic re‐configuration, lending a currency to the label Pintupi Luritja that suggests a modern, firmed up, ‘tribe’. This tribe is a ‘secondary phenomenon’ formed through the manipulation of relatively unstructured populations — stateless societies — by the colonial State (Fried 1975). At issue here is the inter‐cultural aspect of this language formation that is the elemental process in the creation of this ‘new’ social formation.
Western Arrernte Pmere Kwetethe Spirits
Authors: Kenny Anna 
Published: February 2015

ABSTRACTThis article explores the difference between the meaning and use of TGH Strehlow's term pmara kutata (his spelling) and of pmere kwetethe (modern spelling) in contemporary Western Arrernte society. The expression pmara kutata features prominently in TGH Strehlow's oeuvre. He defined pmara kutata, as the ‘centre of a local totemic clan’, ‘sacred site’ and the ‘everlasting home’ where an important local totemic ancestor originated and /or passed to his last rest. Interestingly enough the term pmara kutata or pmere kwetethe seems to have undergone a semantic shift. In contemporary Western Arrernte society pmere kwetethe is used to denote a range of spirit beings with different characters that dwell on and in the landscape. In English the expression pmere kwetethe is sometimes glossed as ‘the spirits of the land’ or ‘the invisible people‘.
Maori Tribalism and Post‐settler Nationhood in New Zealand
Authors: Sissons Jeffrey 
Published: February 2015

ABSTRACTIn this article I begin by sketching the main events in a recent dispute over the allocation of fishing quota among Maori. I seek to shed some light on the ideological grounding of this dispute in the simultaneous individualisation and tribalisation of Maori society since the late 19th century. Because the New Zealand nation is now imagined as an essentially binary one (bicultural, or treaty‐based) there is no secure place for urban indigeneity which constitutes a third voice. The inability of urban Maori Authorities to gain a share of the fishing quota is a reflection of this binarism.
Feeding Relationship: Uncovering Cosmology in Christian Women's Fellowship in Papua New Guinea
Authors: Heekeren Deborah Van 
Published: February 2015

ABSTRACTWhile the Christian doctrine to which Hula villagers of the south east coast of Papua New Guinea today subscribe claims that community is achieved contractually through membership in the Church, this paper suggests that, in practice, Hula sociality is shaped by other exigencies. As part of their program the members of the Iru‐ale United Church Women's Fellowship undertake the incorporation of certain outsiders (in this case the ethnographer) through the ceremonial presentation of food and the act of feeding. A phenomenology of this imperative reveals important connections to pre‐Christian mythology and cosmology. Incorporation seen in this context situates the ‘feeding relationship’ at the core of a Hula ontology in which body and food are consubstantial. The manipulation of food as body is shown to play a determining role in the constitution of various modes of existence; human and non‐human, male and female, the living and the non‐living. The feeding relationship thus facilitates continuity between past and present practices and suggests that the Hula have assimilated the introduced religion into their lifeworld largely on their own terms.
Drinking to Mana and Ethnicity: Trajectories of Yaqona Practice and Symbolism in Eastern Fiji
Authors: Abramson Allen 
Published: February 2015

ABSTRACTThis paper sets out a transformational history of yaqona use in Fiji from first contact with Europeans to present times. Trying to transcend the familiar history/structure dichotomy, two relatively separate trajectories of Fijian practice are identified, both incorporating enduring cultural premises, both logically and historically transformative. In the older of these trajectories, yaqona drinking is transformed ritually to promote or block the circulation of mana in embodied Fijian ‘lands’. In the younger pathway, by contrast, secular variants of yaqona ceremonial are invented to ethnic effect as one particular transformation of a modern structure that, against the grain of ritual practice, tends to detach ethnic Fijians from ancestral powers. It is suggested that, whilst, in appropriate spaces, contemporary ethnic objectifications of yaqona are formulated in opposition to other ethnic presences as expressions of ‘authentic’ Fijian‐ness, the underlying ritual transformations of yaqona produce a range of Fijian states that exceed this authenticity and challenge the otherwise hegemonic claims of ethnicity.
Marijuana, Guns, Crocodiles and Submarines: Economies of Desire in the Purari Delta
Authors: Bell Joshua A. 
Published: February 2015

ABSTRACTTraded down the Purari River by male youth through a network of friends, kuku dipi, as marijuana is known in the Purari Delta, is consumed locally, and traded for guns it is rumoured that the American Mafia bring in submarines. The movement of kuku dipi is part of a constellation of informal trade that has emerged alongside the large‐scale logging and oil projects in the Gulf Province. These networks involve the exchange of alcohol, pornography and radios by logging ship crews for live birds, crocodile skins and other local flora and fauna. Numerous sets of speculations have arisen about the seen and unseen transactions that these exchanges are felt to entail. Focusing on aspects of kuku dipi's use and movement in the Delta, I examine some of the explanations and anxieties around this illicit commodity. Doing so provides insight into kuku dipi's social impact and illuminates how the Purari's engagement in this trade is an attempt to transcend and cope with the economic and political disparities caused by the current resource extraction projects.
Drug Bodies: Relations with Substance in the Wau Bulolo Valley
Authors: Halvaksz Jamon 
Published: February 2015

ABSTRACTOver the past decade, marijuana has become a significant element in the lives of Papua New Guinean youth. While placing them in conflict with community leaders, young men find meaning in marijuana. Used to affect agency, differentiated according to strength and color, and compared to plants once used by their ancestors, the drug is attributed with properties that do in fact change the substance of the body. Contrary to Strathern (1987), marijuana is now seen as transforming the bodies of its users, giving the power to overcome shame, understand ancestral stories, and work without tiring. Non‐users' discourses against use likewise evoke changes in substance, drying the blood of men who smoke it and oversee its circulation. Offspring of such men are characterized by their weak bones and they often die as infants. In this paper, I will examine these competing discourses of marijuana as they emerge in the communities around Wau (Morobe Province, PNG). I examine the way in which this new commodity begins to take on locals meanings and emerges as a powerful substance in the lives of young men and women.
Contemporary Histories of the Conflict in Solomon Islands
Authors: Allen Matthew 
Published: February 2015

Happy Isles in Crisis. The historical causes for a failing state in Solomon Islands 1998–2004. Australian National University, Canberra: Asia Pacific Press 2004. Pp: xi + 265. By Clive Moore. Price A$35The Manipulation of Custom. From Uprising to Intervention in the Solomon Islands Australian National University, Canberra: Pandanus Books RSPAS 2004. Pp: 262. By Jon Fraenkel. Price: $34.95
Enhancing the biological activity of chitosan and controlling the degradation by nanoscale interaction with bioglass
Authors: Ravarian Roya , Craft Michaela , Dehghani Fariba 
Published: February 2015

AbstractA nonuniform degradation of physical mixture of organic–inorganic biomaterials increases their risk of failure. In this study a chemical bonding between chitosan and bioglass was used as an alternative product to address this issue. To prepare a homogenous composite, chitosan was functionalized with γ‐glycidoxypropyl trimethoxysilane and chemically bonded with bioglass during sol–gel method. The gelation time of these hybrids samples was optimized by varying parameters such as composition of chitosan and temperature. It was shown that gelation time was reduced from 7 days for pure bioglass at 25°C to less than six minutes at 70°C for chitosan 40 vol % bioglass hybrid. Furthermore, the enzymatic degradation after 4 weeks was decreased from 80% mass loss for pure chitosan to 32% for chitosan 40 vol % bioglass hybrid. The results of in vitro study demonstrated that the presence of nanoscale interaction enhanced the bioactivity of chitosan. Additionally, hybrid scaffolds were fabricated with pore sizes in the range of 200–400 µm. These scaffolds were prepared by the addition of sodium bicarbonate during sol–gel method as a gas foaming agent and a neutralizer that resulted in decreasing the gelation time of hybrids to less than three minutes. The hybrids fabricated in this study possessed superior characteristics compared to chitosan, also physical mixture of chitosan–bioglass and are promising alternatives for bone tissue engineering applications. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 103A: 2898–2908, 2015.
Effect of nano‐hydroxyapatite‐coated magnetic nanoparticles on axonal guidance growth of rat dorsal root ganglion neurons
Authors: Liu Meili , Zhou Gang , Hou Yongzhao , Kuang Gang , Jia Zhengtai , Li Ping , Fan Yubo 
Published: February 2015

AbstractProper extracellular substrate can stimulate neural regeneration in nerve tissue engineering, including magnetic nanoparticles (iron oxide nanoparticles, Fe3O4), but they are always neurotoxic, with low saturation magnetization and so on. These nanomaterials cannot be used to stimulate the growth and elongation of axons. Therefore, this work attempts to overcome these deficiencies. Nano‐hydroxyapatite (n‐HA) coated magnetic nanoparticles were using an ultrasound‐assisted co‐precipitation method. X‐ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy were used to characterize the structure and chemical composition of the produced samples. These synthesized nanomaterials were added into the primary cultured dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons; our results showed that n‐HA‐coated magnetic nanoparticles (Fe3O4+n‐HA) can effectively increase cell viability and promote axonal elongation, which enhanced saturation magnetization. In addition, we demonstrated that axonal guidance cues Netrin‐1 increase significantly after n‐HA‐coated magnetic nanoparticles treatment by Western blots assay. n‐HA‐coated magnetic particles maybe applied to enhance or accelerate nerve regeneration, and it may provide guidance for regenerating axons in future. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 103A: 3066–3071, 2015.
Design and characterization of a conductive nanostructured polypyrrole‐polycaprolactone coated magnesium/PLGA composite for tissue engineering scaffolds
Authors: Liu Haixia , Wang Ran , Chu Henry K. , Sun Dong 
Published: February 2015

AbstractA novel biodegradable and conductive composite consisting of magnesium (Mg), polypyrrole‐block‐ploycaprolactone (PPy‐PCL), and poly(lactic‐co‐glycolic acid) (PLGA) is synthesized in a core‐shell‐skeleton manner for tissue engineering applications. Mg particles in the composite are first coated with a conductive nanostructured PPy‐PCL layer for corrosion resistance via the UV‐induced photopolymerization method. PLGA matrix is then added to tailor the biodegradability of the resultant composite. Composites with different composition ratios are examined through experiments, and their material properties are characterized. The in vitro experiments on culture of 293FT‐GFP cells show that the composites are suitable for cell growth and culture. Biodegradability of the composite is also evaluated. By adding PLGA matrix to the composite, the degrading time of the composite can last for more than eight weeks, hence providing a longer period for tissue formation as compared to Mg composites or alloys. The findings of this research will offer a new opportunity to utilize a conductive, nanostructured‐coated Mg/PLGA composite as the scaffold material for implants and tissue regeneration. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 103A: 2966–2973, 2015.
Understanding the Effects of Faith: A Comparison of Religious and Secular HIV Prevention NGOS in Kenya
Authors: Hershey Megan 
Published: February 2015

AbstractReligious non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) are active in development efforts, yet the role faith plays in these organizations—and its effects on programs—remains unclear. Drawing on evidence from a study of Kenyan NGOs, I find that faith rarely emerges in the programs of Christian religious NGOs. I argue that both secular and religious NGOs are constrained by donor restrictions and a need for legitimacy that simultaneously remove religious elements from religious NGOs and promote minimal religious practices within secular organizations. The second half of the article discusses the nuanced ways in which faith does manifest within the organizational characteristics and practices of NGOs. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Silicon biofortification of leafy vegetables and its bioaccessibility in the edible parts
Authors: D'Imperio Massimiliano , Renna Massimiliano , Cardinali Angela , Buttaro Donato , Santamaria Pietro , Serio Francesco 
Published: February 2015

AbstractBACKGROUNDThe mineral silicon (Si) is an essential element for humans and a general component of the diet found mainly in plant‐based foods. The aim of this study was to obtain Si biofortificated leafy vegetables (tatsoi, mizuna, purslane, basil, Swiss chard, and chicory) to use for the fresh‐cut products (ready to use). For the production of biofortified plants, a floating system with 0, 50 and 100 mg L−1 of Si in nutrient solution, was used. In addition, the assessment of bioaccessibility of biofortified plants, by in vitro gastro‐digestion process, was performed.RESULTSThe added silicon in nutrient solution did not influence yield and colour of vegetables but a species‐related accumulation of Si (expressed as SiO2) was found: from 18 to 69 mg kg−1 fresh weight (FW) in tatsoi, from 19 to 106 mg kg−1 FW in mizuna, from 15 to 93 mg kg−1 FW in purslane, from 41 to 294 mg kg−1 FW in basil, from 17 to 76 mg kg−1 FW in Swiss chard, and from 23 to 76 mg kg−1 FW in chicory. The Si became bioaccessible in all species considered in a range from 23% (basil) to 64% (chicory).CONCLUSIONThe application of Si to the nutrient solution in the range of 50–100 mg L−1 allows biofortification of leafy vegetables. In addition, the biofortified vegetables showed, on average, more bioaccessible Si, with respect to unbiofortified vegetables. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry
Fast approximate inversion of a block triangular Toeplitz matrix with applications to fractional sub‐diffusion equations
Authors: Lu Xin , Pang Hong‐Kui , Sun Hai‐Wei 
Published: February 2015

SummaryA fast approximate inversion method is proposed for the block lower triangular Toeplitz with tri‐diagonal blocks (BL3TB) matrix. The BL3TB matrix is approximated by a block ϵ‐circulant matrix, which can be efficiently inverted using the fast Fourier transforms. The error estimation is given to show the high accuracy of the approximation. In applications, the proposed method is employed to solve the fractional sub‐diffusion equation whose discretized matrix by a finite difference method is a BL3TB matrix. Numerical experiments are carried out to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.