Recent anthropology_ucb_oapdeposits items

Turning gold to stone: A case study in exchange value and cultural alloys

Wed, 6 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In 1933, monuments from the Classic Maya site of Piedras Negras, Guatemala, were loaned to the Penn Museum for a temporary period. Twelve years later, the agreement was revisited at the request of the Guatemalan government, which sought to incorporate the monuments into its National Museum. In order for the Penn Museum to retain two monuments for longer, the two parties agreed upon a deal: a longer loan extension for two Piedras Negras monuments in exchange for a disparate assemblage of Central and South American gold pieces from the Penn Museum’s storage collections. I argue that in facilitating this agreement, archaeologists, government officials, and museum professionals layered monetary value onto disparate archaeological cultures. In trying to create a fair exchange, this valuation process also involved a balancing act, in which objects of Maya heritage were weighed against objects united only by their material: gold. I refer to this skewing of objects from Panamá, Colombia,...

Low-cost seismic geophysical methods for the detection of karez: A case study on the Erbil Plain (Kurdistan Region of Iraq)

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Underground gravity-flow channels (karez; also qanat) have been an important technology for accessing subterranean water resources and supplying the water needs of (esp. agricultural) communities throughout the Middle East and North Africa and elsewhere for many centuries, but in the past several decades have suffered the effects of groundwater mining and mechanized agriculture. Study and conservation of these hydraulic systems typically depends on the persistence of surface traces of the buried components (e.g., preserved maintenance shaft openings). These traces are easily erased by intensive agriculture, so that many of the regions where karez have been important but which are heavily cultivated today have a major barrier to detection, biasing archaeological research to karez landscapes under a narrow range of taphonomic conditions and limiting prospects for the revitalization of these hydraulic systems by local communities. We demonstrate here a user-friendly technique for...

Hěde oḱo hedem ḱaw ya-paǐ-to něs: this day this land/place/time we talk

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Catastrophic fire behavior in the Sierra Nevada range is increasing in tandem with worsening forest conditions related to non-Native approaches to fire ecology and climate change. Among the myriad negative human and community effects linked to thistrend, lesser understood are the relationships between differing forest management strategies and impacts to Ancestral Places or 'Esak 'Tima (Maidu and Nisenan for “places to learn”) which are living locations and traces of Ancestral practices that are integral to the health of Native Californian communities. Tribal Historic Preservation Offices, TEK specialists, and Tribal Leadership are on the front lines of government-to-government negotiations of sovereignty, especially with respect to their communities' living relationships with Ancestral Places. These are sometimes located in places managed by other institutions, agencies, and land occupiers and are most often far more than just dots on a map, but rather complex interconnected...

The genomics of the domestication syndrome in a songbird model species

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Many domesticated animals share a syndromic phenotype marked by a suite of traits that include more variable patterns of coloration, reduced stress, aggression, and altered risk-taking and exploratory behaviors relative to their wild counterparts. Roughly 150 years after Darwin’s pioneering insight into this phenomenon, reasonable progress has been made in understanding the evolutionary and biological basis of the so-called domesticated phenotype in mammals. However, the extent to which these processes are paralleled in non-mammalian domesticates is scant. Here, we address this knowledge gap by investigating the genetic basis of the domesticated phenotype in the Bengalese finch, a songbird frequently found in pet shops and a popular animal model in the study of learned vocal behaviors. Using whole-genome sequencing and population genomic approaches, we identify strain-specific selection signals in the Bengalee finch and its wild munia ancestor. Our findings suggest that, like...

Community Perceptions and Experiences of the South African Government's Response to the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Wed, 11 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments in low- and middle-income countries largely followed the strategy of national lockdowns adopted by high-income countries. The South African government imposed some the most restrictive policies in the world. In this article, we examine the perceptions and lived experiences of South Africans in Johannesburg in relation to this initial response to the pandemic. In-depth interviews were conducted with a diverse group of 38 South African adults in Johannesburg, South Africa. The analysis followed an inductive approach. The data revealed that the majority of participants had a positive view of the strong response to the first wave of the pandemic by the South African government, including the restrictive lockdown measures. However, concerns regarding the government's response included worries about the economy and livelihoods of poor people under lockdown, divisions in compliance between townships and wealthier communities, poor funding...

Coping mechanisms during the COVID‐19 pandemic and lockdown in metropolitan Johannesburg, South Africa: A qualitative study

Sat, 7 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused prolonged stress on numerous fronts. While the acute health impacts of psychosocial stress due to the pandemic are well-documented, less is known about the resources and mechanisms utilized to cope in response to stresses during the pandemic and lockdown. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to identify and describe the coping mechanisms adults utilized in response to the stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic during the 2020 South African lockdown. METHODS: This study included adults (n = 47: 32 female; 14 male; 1 non-binary) from the greater Johannesburg region in South Africa. Interviews with both closed and open-ended questions were administered to query topics regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were coded and thematically analyzed to identify coping mechanisms and experiences. RESULTS: Adults engaged in a variety of strategies to cope with the pandemic and the ensued lockdown. The ability to access or engage in multiple coping mechanisms...

Childhood adversity during the post‐apartheid transition and COVID‐19 stress independently predict adult PTSD risk in urban South Africa: A biocultural analysis of the stress sensitization hypothesis

Sat, 7 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

OBJECTIVES: The COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa introduced new societal adversities and mental health threats in a country where one in three individuals are expected to develop a psychiatric condition sometime in their life. Scientists have suggested that psychosocial stress and trauma during childhood may increase one's vulnerability to the mental health consequences of future stressors-a process known as stress sensitization. This prospective analysis assessed whether childhood adversity experienced among South African children across the first 18 years of life, coinciding with the post-apartheid transition, exacerbates the mental health impacts of psychosocial stress experienced during the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic (ca. 2020-2021). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data came from 88 adults who participated in a follow-up study of a longitudinal birth cohort study in Soweto, South Africa. Childhood adversity and COVID-19 psychosocial stress were assessed as primary predictors...

Maternal adverse childhood experiences, child mental health, and the mediating effect of maternal depression: A cross‐sectional, population‐based study in rural, southwestern Uganda

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to examine the intergenerational effects of maternal adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and child mental health outcomes in rural Uganda, as well as the potentially mediating role of maternal depression in this pathway. Additionally, we sought to test the extent to which maternal social group membership attenuated the mediating effect of maternal depression on child mental health. METHODS: Data come from a population-based cohort of families living in the Nyakabare Parish, a rural district in southwestern Uganda. Between 2016 and 2018, mothers completed surveys about childhood adversity, depressive symptoms, social group membership, and their children's mental health. Survey data were analyzed using causal mediation and moderated-mediation analysis. RESULTS: Among 218 mother-child pairs, 61 mothers (28%) and 47 children (22%) showed symptoms meeting cutoffs for clinically significant psychological distress. In multivariable linear regression models,...

Clovis points and foreshafts under braced weapon compression: Modeling Pleistocene megafauna encounters with a lithic pike

Wed, 11 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Historical and ethnographic sources depict use of portable braced shaft weapons, or pikes, in megafauna hunting and defense during Late Holocene millennia in North and South America, Africa, Eurasia and Southeast Asia. Given the predominance of megafauna in Late Pleistocene North America during the centuries when Clovis points appeared and spread across much of the continent (13,050-12,650 cal BP), braced weapons may have been used in hunting of megaherbivores and defense against megacarnivores. Drawing from historical examples of pike use against lions, jaguars, boars, grizzlies, carabao and warhorses we consider the possibility of a fluted lithic pike. Associated osseous rods have been problematic as Clovis foreshafts due to the bevel angle and the apparent weakness of the splint haft when great strength is needed for deep penetration in megafauna hunting. However our review of Late Holocene pike use in megafauna encounters indicates the sharp tip becomes less important after...

The bioethics of skeletal anatomy collections from India

Mon, 8 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Millions of skeletal remains from South Asia were exported in red markets (the underground economy of human tissues/organs) to educational institutions globally for over a century. It is time to recognize the personhood of the people who were systematically made into anatomical objects and acknowledge the scientific racism in creating and continuing to use them.

Coping strategies employed by public psychiatric healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in southern Gauteng, South Africa

Sat, 2 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Within the context of the novel coronavirus pandemic and new challenges to a resource-constrained public healthcare system, many healthcare workers in South Africa have faced numerous stressors that have compromised their mental health. While the current literature on COVID-19 in South Africa highlights the widespread psychosocial stress experienced by healthcare workers during the pandemic, little is known about the coping strategies utilized to continue service delivery and maintain one's mental health and well-being during this ongoing public health emergency. In this study, we sought to explore the coping strategies used by healthcare workers employed in the public psychiatric care system in southern Gauteng, South Africa during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Psychiatric healthcare workers (n = 55) employed in three tertiary public hospitals and two specialized psychiatric facilities participated in in-depth interviews between July 2020 and March 2021. We found...

A thermodynamic basis for teleological causality

Wed, 19 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We show how distinct terminally disposed self-organizing processes can be linked together so that they collectively suppress each other's self-undermining tendency despite also potentiating it to occur in a restricted way. In this way, each process produces the supportive and limiting boundary conditions for the other. The production of boundary conditions requires dynamical processes that decrease local entropy and increase local constraints. Only the far-from-equilibrium dissipative dynamics of self-organized processes produce these effects. When two such complementary self-organizing processes are linked by a shared substrate-the waste product of one that is the necessary ingredient for the other-the co-dependent structure that results develops toward a self-sustaining target state that avoids the termination of the whole, and any of its component processes. The result is a perfectly naturalized model of teleological causation that both escapes the threat of backward influences...

Cognition is entangled with metabolism: relevance for resting-state EEG-fMRI

Sat, 15 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The brain is a living organ with distinct metabolic constraints. However, these constraints are typically considered as secondary or supportive of information processing which is primarily performed by neurons. The default operational definition of neural information processing is that (1) it is ultimately encoded as a change in individual neuronal firing rate as this correlates with the presentation of a peripheral stimulus, motor action or cognitive task. Two additional assumptions are associated with this default interpretation: (2) that the incessant background firing activity against which changes in activity are measured plays no role in assigning significance to the extrinsically evoked change in neural firing, and (3) that the metabolic energy that sustains this background activity and which correlates with differences in neuronal firing rate is merely a response to an evoked change in neuronal activity. These assumptions underlie the design, implementation, and interpretation...

Long-term trends in human body size track regional variation in subsistence transitions and growth acceleration linked to dairying

Fri, 14 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Evidence for a reduction in stature between Mesolithic foragers and Neolithic farmers has been interpreted as reflective of declines in health, however, our current understanding of this trend fails to account for the complexity of cultural and dietary transitions or the possible causes of phenotypic change. The agricultural transition was extended in primary centers of domestication and abrupt in regions characterized by demic diffusion. In regions such as Northern Europe where foreign domesticates were difficult to establish, there is strong evidence for natural selection for lactase persistence in relation to dairying. We employ broad-scale analyses of diachronic variation in stature and body mass in the Levant, Europe, the Nile Valley, South Asia, and China, to test three hypotheses about the timing of subsistence shifts and human body size, that: 1) the adoption of agriculture led to a decrease in stature, 2) there were different trajectories in regions of in situ domestication...

Quinoa, potatoes, and llamas fueled emergent social complexity in the Lake Titicaca Basin of the Andes

Mon, 3 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The Lake Titicaca basin was one of the major centers for cultural development in the ancient world. This lacustrine environment is unique in the high, dry Andean altiplano, and its aquatic and terrestrial resources are thought to have contributed to the florescence of complex societies in this region. Nevertheless, it remains unclear to what extent local aquatic resources, particularly fish, and the introduced crop, maize, which can be grown in regions along the lakeshores, contributed to facilitating sustained food production and population growth, which underpinned increasing social political complexity starting in the Formative Period (1400 BCE to 500 CE) and culminating with the Tiwanaku state (500 to 1100 CE). Here, we present direct dietary evidence from stable isotope analysis of human skeletal remains spanning over two millennia, together with faunal and floral reference materials, to reconstruct foodways and ecological interactions in southern Lake Titicaca over...

Psychological legacies of intergenerational trauma under South African apartheid: Prenatal stress predicts greater vulnerability to the psychological impacts of future stress exposure during late adolescence and early adulthood in Soweto, South Africa

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: South Africa's rates of psychiatric morbidity are among the highest in sub-Saharan Africa and are foregrounded by the country's long history of political violence during apartheid. Growing evidence suggests that in utero stress exposure is a potent developmental risk factor for future mental illness risk, yet the extent to which the psychiatric effects of prenatal stress impact the next generation are unknown. We evaluate the intergenerational effects of prenatal stress experienced during apartheid on psychiatric morbidity among children at ages 17-18 and also assess the moderating effects of maternal age, social support, and past household adversity. METHODS: Participants come from Birth-to-Twenty, a longitudinal birth cohort study in Soweto-Johannesburg, South Africa's largest peri-urban township which was the epicentre of violent repression and resistance during the final years of the apartheid regime. Pregnant women were prospectively enrolled in 1990 and completed...

Early life stress and HPA axis function independently predict adult depressive symptoms in metropolitan Cebu, Philippines

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

OBJECTIVES: Alterations in adult hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity have increasingly been linked with early life stress and adult depression, but a limited number of studies have used longitudinal data to explore HPA axis dysregulation as an underlying mechanism driving the long-term depressive impacts of early stressors. Here we address potential long-term impacts of early life, family-based stress on depressive symptoms among young adults in a longitudinal birth cohort study begun in 1983 in the Philippines. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We relate a composite measure of family-based stressors experienced between birth and adolescence to circadian dynamics in adult salivary cortisol and depressive risk measured at 21-22 years of age. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between early life stress levels and risk of adult depressive symptoms, as well as the role of adult diurnal cortisol activity in this relationship. RESULTS: Greater...

Parental incarceration and child physical health outcomes from infancy to adulthood: A critical review and multilevel model of potential pathways

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: There are currently 2.2 million people incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails, representing a 500% increase over the past 40 years. An emerging literature suggests the impact of mass incarceration extends beyond the prison, jail, or detention center to the families of incarcerated individuals. Less scholarship has considered consequences of parental incarceration for their children's physical health. METHODS: We conduct a critical review of the literature investigating an association between parental incarceration and children's physical health outcomes from infancy to adulthood. RESULTS: Studies varied substantially in study design, sample composition, and methodological approach. Most studies suggest an association between parental incarceration and adverse physical health outcomes. Evidence is more consistent for outcomes such as infant and child mortality, lower healthcare access, and negative health behaviors and more mixed for measures such as self-reported/general...

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and Psychiatric Sequelae in South Africa: Anxiety and Beyond

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: The 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges to the health sector nationwide and internationally. Across all disciplines, unique and novel modes of presentation with substantial morbidity and mortality are being encountered, and growing evidence suggests that psychiatric comorbidity is likely among COVID-19 patients. OBJECTIVE: This article aims to broaden the current discussion on the psychiatric sequalae of COVID-19, which has largely focused on anxiety, and examine the recently documented psychiatric sequelae of COVID-19 infection, the secondary effects of the pandemic on public mental health, and future psychiatric conditions that may arise due to COVID-19. METHODS: We conducted an in-depth review of the current global psychiatric literature and describe the wide range of psychopathological presentations reported among past COVID-19 patients worldwide and those that are expected to emerge. RESULTS: Current discussions in the psychiatric...

Idioms of resilience among cancer patients in urban South Africa: An anthropological heuristic for the study of culture and resilience

Tue, 30 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Despite the large body of research on idioms of distress in anthropology and transcultural psychiatry, few scholars have examined the concepts that people use to describe social and psychological resilience. The experience of social and psychological resilience is embedded in and shaped by social, political, and economic contexts-much like the factors that shape idioms of distress. As resilience literature more broadly has adopted a socio-ecological rather than trait-based approach, anthropology has much to contribute. This article investigates what idioms of resilience and cultural scripts emerge among low-income patients with cancer residing in Soweto, a peri-urban neighborhood in Johannesburg, South Africa. We conducted 80 life history interviews to better understand what social and psychological factors led some people to thrive more than others despite extraordinary adversity. We describe one idiom of resilience, acceptance (ukwamukela in isiZulu), and three broader...

Restructuring of nutrient flows in island ecosystems following human colonization evidenced by isotopic analysis of commensal rats

Sat, 20 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The role of humans in shaping local ecosystems is an increasing focus of archaeological research, yet researchers often lack an appropriate means of measuring past anthropogenic effects on local food webs and nutrient cycling. Stable isotope analysis of commensal animals provides an effective proxy for local human environments because these species are closely associated with human activities without being under direct human management. Such species are thus central to nutrient flows across a range of socionatural environments and can provide insight into how they intersected and transformed over time. Here we measure and compare stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data from Pacific rat (Rattus exulans) skeletal remains across three Polynesian island systems [Mangareva, Ua Huka (Marquesas), and the Polynesian Outlier of Tikopia] during one of the most significant cases of human migration and commensal introduction in prehistory. The results demonstrate widespread δ¹⁵N...

Cook Island artifact geochemistry demonstrates spatial and temporal extent of pre-European interarchipelago voyaging in East Polynesia

Thu, 4 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The Cook Islands are considered the "gateway" for human colonization of East Polynesia, the final chapter of Oceanic settlement and the last major region occupied on Earth. Indeed, East Polynesia witnessed the culmination of the greatest maritime migration in human history. Perennial debates have critiqued whether Oceanic settlement was purposeful or accidental, the timing and pathways of colonization, and the nature and extent of postcolonization voyaging-essential for small founding groups securing a lifeline between parent and daughter communities. Centering on the well-dated Tangatatau rockshelter, Mangaia, Southern Cook Islands, we charted the temporal duration and geographic spread of exotic stone adze materials-essential woodworking tools found throughout Polynesia- imported for more than 300 y beginning in the early AD 1300s. Using a technique requiring only 200 mg of sample for the geochemical analysis of trace elements and isotopes of fine-grained basalt adzes, we assigned...

Dynamics of change in multiethnic societies: An archaeological perspective from colonial North America

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This Perspective presents an overview of the archaeology of pluralistic colonies (approximately late 1500s-1800s) in North America. It complements the other special feature papers in this issue on ancient societies in Mesoamerica, the Near East, the Armenian Highlands, Peru, and China by presenting another body of literature for examining the dynamics of change in multiethnic societies from a different time and place. In synthesizing archaeological investigations of mercantile, plantation, and missionary colonies, this Perspective shows how this research is relevant to the study of pluralism in both historic and ancient societies in three ways. (i) It enhances our understanding of interethnic relationships that took place in complex societies with imposing political hierarchies and labor structures. (ii) It helps us to refine the methods used by archaeologists to define and analyze multiethnic communities that were spatially delimited by ethnic neighborhoods. Finally, (iii) it...

A degenerative process underlying hierarchic transitions in evolution

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This paper describes an evolutionary process likely involved in hierarchic transitions in biological evolution at many levels, from genetics to social organization. It is related to the evolutionary process described as contingent neutral evolution (CNE). It involves a sequence of stages initiated by the spontaneous appearance of functional redundancy. This redundancy can be the result of gene duplication, symbiosis, cell-cell interactions, environmental supports, etc. The availability of redundant sources of biological functionality relaxes purifying selection and allows degenerative changes to accumulate in one or more of the duplicates, potentially degrading or otherwise fractionating its function. This degeneration will be effectively neutral so long as another maintains functional integrity. Sexual recombination can potentially sample different combinations of these sub functional alternatives, with the result that favorable synergistic interactions between independently...

Holism and associationism in neuropsychology: An anatomical synthesis

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Holism and associationism in neuropsychology: An anatomical synthesis

Making Markets for Mesoamerican Antiquities

Fri, 2 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Making Markets for Mesoamerican Antiquities

Interpreting ancient food practices: stable isotope and molecular analyses of visible and absorbed residues from a year-long cooking experiment

Mon, 8 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Chemical analyses of carbonized and absorbed organic residues from archaeological ceramic cooking vessels can provide a unique window into the culinary cultures of ancient people, resource use, and environmental effects by identifying ingredients used in ancient meals. However, it remains uncertain whether recovered organic residues represent only the final foodstuffs prepared or are the accumulation of various cooking events within the same vessel. To assess this, we cooked seven mixtures of C3 and C4 foodstuffs in unglazed pots once per week for one year, then changed recipes between pots for the final cooking events. We conducted bulk stable-isotope analysis and lipid residue analysis on the charred food macro-remains, carbonized thin layer organic patina residues and absorbed lipids over the course of the experiment. Our results indicate that: (1) the composition of charred macro-remains represent the final foodstuffs cooked within vessels, (2) thin-layer patina residues represent...

A mixed-methods, population-based study of a syndemic in Soweto, South Africa

Fri, 22 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A syndemic has been theorized as a cluster of epidemics driven by harmful social and structural conditions wherein the interactions between the constitutive epidemics drive excess morbidity and mortality. We conducted a mixed-methods study to investigate a syndemic in Soweto, South Africa, consisting of a population-based quantitative survey (N = 783) and in-depth, qualitative interviews (N = 88). We used ethnographic methods to design a locally relevant measure of stress. Here we show that multimorbidity and stress interacted with each other to reduce quality of life. The paired qualitative analysis further explored how the quality-of-life impacts of multimorbidity were conditioned by study participants’ illness experiences. Together, these findings underscore the importance of recognizing the social and structural drivers of stress and how they affect the experience of chronic illness and well-being.

Perceptions, risk and understandings of the COVID-19 pandemic in urban South Africa

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: How people perceive the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and understand their risk can influence their health, behaviours and overall livelihood. The disease's novelty and severity have elicited a range of attitudes and perspectives countrywide, which consequently influence the public's adherence to public health prevention and treatment guidelines. AIM: To investigate perceptions, experiences and knowledge on COVID-19 in a community-based cohort study. SETTING: Adults living in Soweto in South Africa's Gauteng province during the first six weeks of the national lockdown regulations (i.e. Alert Level 5 lockdown from end of March to beginning of May 2020). METHODS: Participants completed a series of surveys and answered open-ended questions through telephonic interviews (n = 391). We queried their perceptions of the origins of COVID-19, understandings of the disease, personal and communal risks and its relations with the existing disease burden. RESULTS:...

Pulse wave velocity in South African women and children: comparison between the Mobil-O-Graph and SphygmoCor XCEL devices

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) is the gold-standard noninvasive measure of arterial stiffness. Data comparing tonometry-based devices such as the SphygmoCor XCEL to simpler brachial-cuff-based estimates of PWV, such as from the Mobil-O-Graph in African populations are sparse. We therefore aimed to compare PWV measured by the Mobil-O-Graph and the SphygmoCor XCEL device in a sample of South African women and children. METHODS: Women (n = 85) 29 years [interquartile range (IQR): 29-69] and their children/grandchildren (n = 27) 7 years (IQR: 4-11) were recruited for PWV measurement with Mobil-O-Graph and SphygmoCor XCEL on the same day. Wilcoxon signed-rank test, regression analysis, spearman correlation and Bland-Altman plots were used for PWV comparison between devices. RESULTS: For adults, the SphygmoCor XCEL device had a significantly higher PWV (7.3 m/s, IQR: 6.4-8.5) compared with the Mobil-O-Graph (5.9 m/s, IQR: 5.0-8.1, P = 0.001) with a correlation...

Impact of prenatal stress on offspring glucocorticoid levels: A phylogenetic meta-analysis across 14 vertebrate species

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Prenatal exposure to maternal stress is commonly associated with variation in Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal (HPA)-axis functioning in offspring. However, the strength or consistency of this response has never been empirically evaluated across vertebrate species. Here we meta-analyzed 114 results from 39 studies across 14 vertebrate species using Bayesian phylogenetic mixed-effects models. We found a positive overall effect of prenatal stress on offspring glucocorticoids (d’ = 0.43) though the 95% Highest Posterior Density Interval overlapped with 0 (−0.16–0.95). Meta-regressions of potential moderators highlighted that phylogeny and life history variables predicted relatively little variation in effect size. Experimental studies (d’ = 0.64) produced stronger effects than observational ones (d’ = −0.01), while prenatal stress affected glucocorticoid recovery following offspring stress exposure more strongly (d’ = 0.75) than baseline levels (d’ = 0.48) or glucocorticoid peak response...

Evaluating the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic: perceived risk of COVID-19 infection and childhood trauma predict adult depressive symptoms in urban South Africa

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: South Africa's national lockdown introduced serious threats to public mental health in a society where one in three individuals develops a psychiatric disorder during their life. We aimed to evaluate the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic using a mixed-methods design. METHODS: This longitudinal study drew from a preexisting sample of 957 adults living in Soweto, a major township near Johannesburg. Psychological assessments were administered across two waves between August 2019 and March 2020 and during the first 6 weeks of the lockdown (late March-early May 2020). Interviews on COVID-19 experiences were administered in the second wave. Multiple regression models examined relationships between perceived COVID-19 risk and depression. RESULTS: Full data on perceived COVID-19 risk, depression, and covariates were available in 221 adults. In total, 14.5% of adults were at risk for depression. Higher perceived COVID-19 risk predicted greater depressive symptoms...

Adverse childhood experiences and adult cardiometabolic risk factors and disease outcomes: Cross-sectional, population-based study of adults in rural Uganda

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) pose a major threat to public health in sub-Saharan African communities, where the burden of these classes of illnesses is expected to double by 2030. Growing research suggests that past developmental experiences and early life conditions may also elevate CVD risk throughout the life course. Greater childhood stress and adversity are consistently associated with a range of adult CVDs and associated risk factors, yet little research exists on the long-term effects of early life stress on adult physical health outcomes, especially CVD risk, in sub-Saharan African contexts. This study aims to evaluate the associations between adverse childhood experiences and adult cardiometabolic risk factors and health outcomes in a population-based study of adults living in Mbarara, a rural region of southwestern Uganda. METHODS: Data come from an ongoing, whole-population social network cohort study of adults living in the eight villages of Nyakabare...

Social vulnerability, parity and food insecurity in urban South African young women: the healthy life trajectories initiative (HeLTI) study

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Social vulnerability indices (SVI) can predict communities’ vulnerability and resilience to public health threats such as drought, food insecurity or infectious diseases. Parity has yet to be investigated as an indicator of social vulnerability in young women. We adapted an SVI score, previously used by the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC), and calculated SVI for young urban South African women (n = 1584; median age 21.6, IQR 3.6 years). Social vulnerability was more frequently observed in women with children and increased as parity increased. Furthermore, young women classified as socially vulnerable were 2.84 times (95% CI 2.10–3.70; p < 0.001) more likely to report household food insecurity. We collected this information in 2018–2019, prior to the current global COVID-19 pandemic. With South Africa having declared a National State of Disaster in March 2020, early indicators suggest that this group of women have indeed been disproportionally affected, supporting the utility...

Health system experiences of breast cancer survivors in urban South Africa

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the most common cancer globally and among South African women. Women from socioeconomically disadvantaged South African communities more often present later and receive total mastectomy compared to those from more affluent communities who have more breast conserving surgery (which is less invasive but requires mandatory radiation treatment post-operatively). Standard chemotherapy and total mastectomy treatments are known to cause traumatizing side effects and emotional suffering among South African women; moreover, many women face limited communication with physicians and psychological support. OBJECTIVE: This article investigates the experiences of women seeking breast cancer treatment at the largest public hospital in South Africa. METHODS: We interviewed 50 Black women enrolled in the South African Breast Cancer Study to learn more about their health system experiences with detection, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up care for breast cancer. Each...

State and urban space in Brazil: from modernist planning to democratic interventions.

Sun, 14 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

In the last half century, the Brazilian state consolidated and then destroyed a modernist model for the production of urban space. According to this model, best crystallized in the construction of Brasília, the state produces urban space through centralized master plans that are conceived as instruments of social change and economic development. The role of government is both to articulate these plans and to create the means for their realization. During the last two decades, however, a constellation of forces – including main elements of the state, business and industry, popular social movements, political parties, and non-governmental organizations – rejected this centralized conception of state intervention. In its place, they substituted a notion of planning in which the state does not produce space directly, but rather acts as a manager of localized and often private interests in the cityscape. Moreover, whereas the modernist model entails a...

The misrule of law: land and usurpation in Brazil

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The misrule of law: land and usurpation in Brazil

Autoconstruction in working-class Brazil

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Autoconstruction in working-class Brazil

Legalizando o ilegal: propriedade e usurpação no Brasil

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Legalizando o ilegal: propriedade e usurpação no Brasil

Spaces of insurgent citizenship

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Spaces of insurgent citizenship

Legalizando o ilegal: propriedade e usurpação no Brasil

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Legalizando o ilegal: propriedade e usurpação no Brasil

Generative copies: modernist architecture and urbanism in Brazil

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Generative copies: modernist architecture and urbanism in Brazil

Democracy, law, and violence: disjunctions of Brazilian citizenship

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Democracy, law, and violence: disjunctions of Brazilian citizenship

Art practice and citizenship at Park Lek, Sundbyberg

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Art practice and citizenship at Park Lek, Sundbyberg

Metropolitan rebellions and the politics of commoning the city

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This article analyzes the remarkable wave of metropolitan rebellions that inaugurated the 21st century around the world (2000-2016). It argues that they fuel an emergent politics of city-making in which residents produce the city as a collective social and material product; in effect, a commons. It focuses on the intersection of city-making, city-occupying, and rights-claiming that generates movements for insurgent urban citizenships. It develops a critique of the so-called post-political in anthropological theory, analyzes recent urban uprisings in Brazil and Turkey, distinguishes between protest and insurgent movements, evaluates digital communication technologies as a new means to common the city, and suggests what urban citizenship brings to politics that the national does not.

Democracy, law, and violence: disjunctions of Brazilian citizenship

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Democracy, law, and violence: disjunctions of Brazilian citizenship

Participatory urban planning in Brazil

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This paper focuses on participatory urban planning as a model of urban reform and democratic invention in Brazil. Its case material regards the formulation and implementation of two sets of urban laws of very broad consequence. First, we discuss briefly the chapter on urban policy in the 1988 Citizen Constitution and the federal law that it mandates. The latter is the Estatuto da Cidade, the City Statute, from 2001, which required that 1600 cities (approximately 30%) of Brazilian municipalities either create Master Plans or reformulate existing ones according to its principles and on the basis of popular participation. Second, we focus on Sa˜o Paulo’s Master Plan (2002) and Zoning Law (2004) that fulfill this requirement and on the Plan’s required revision in 2007. By examining this massive constitutionally mandated formulation of urban policy, our aim is to analyse the development of a new paradigm of urban policy that reinvents master planning.

Cities and citizenship

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Cities and citizenship

Alternative modernities: statecraft and religious imagination in the Valley of the Dawn

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Many new religions promote the emblems and institutions of modern nation-states. In this article, I consider an example from Brazil, analyzing the mimetic relations between its modernist capital, Brasília, and a millenarian and ecstatic religion called the Valley of the Dawn located on the city's outskirts. I focus on the project of salvation that each sponsors and on a religious ritual that stages a judicial event associated with the state. Arguing against compensatory explanations, I suggest that both state and religion are performances, mutually critical, of the same paradigm of modernity.

State and urban space in Brazil: from modernist planning to democratic interventions

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

n the last half century, the Brazilian state consolidated and then destroyed a modernist model for the production of urban space. According to this model, best crystallized in the construction of Brasília, the state produces urban space through centralized master plans that are conceived as instruments of social change and economic development. The role of government is both to articulate these plans and to create the means for their realization. During the last two decades, however, a constellation of forces – including main elements of the state, business and industry, popular social movements, political parties, and non-governmental organizations – rejected this centralized conception of state intervention. In its place, they substituted a notion of planning in which the state does not produce space directly, but rather acts as a manager of localized and often private interests in the cityscape. Moreover, whereas the modernist model entails a concept...

Urban citizenship and globalization

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Urban citizenship and globalization

The spirit of Brasília: modernity as experiment and risk

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The spirit of Brasília: modernity as experiment and risk

Democracy and violence in Brazil

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Democracy and violence in Brazil

Participatory urban planning in Brazil