Hasil untuk "Asian. Oriental"

Maximilian Hartmuth

Once ubiquitous, the fact that Muslim merchants were overshadowed by their non-Muslim counterparts in the later Ottoman Empire helped engender the misconception of an antagonism between Islam and enterprise. Based on a document in the Austrian State Archives, my paper presents evidence of a small ‘colony’ of Ottoman Muslim merchants in mid-eighteenth-century Vienna. It provides insights into the workings of a community, the motives of those involved, and the dynamics of entrepreneurship and trans-regional networking.

Sara Shneiderman

What does change look, sound, and feel like? After Nepal’s 2015 earthquakes, everything is remade in tin. Walking through this newly reflective landscape, we see how things are transformed in both material and political terms, as post-disaster reconstruction proceeds in tandem with the process of post-conflict federal restructuring. This short piece of flash ethnography takes us beyond the immediate destruction and trauma into the sensory world of the post-earthquake ‘tin state’, offering a view into how people experience the long-term shifts in sensibility that both environmental and social change provoke.

Feder, Yitzhaq

This paper applies an embodied, biologically-grounded approach to analyze exclusionary practices related to notions of impurity in ancient Mesopotamia. It argues that these behaviors derive from innate cognitive responses designed to protect against environmental threats like disease, which were then culturally elaborated to serve additional social functions. Evidence is examined for the avoidance of infectious diseases, the stigmatization of menstruating women and parturients, and the enigmatic ‘gate of the unclean’ at the city of Nippur. The analysis highlights the continuity between biologically-prepared tendencies and their cultural articulations, showing how an embodied perspective can shed new light on long-standing issues in the humanities by grounding abstract concepts in the shared experiences of the body.

Kudakaev R.F., Mokretskiy A.Ch., Kostyrkin A.V.

With the formation of a new technological paradigm and global competition for leadership in the digital space, the attention of experts is shifting towards the growth of political, economic and R&D influence of Eastern countries, which imposes new demands on research methods and tools. The article summarizes the experience of enhancing the academic research process through involving young IT professionals in the Oriental studies in competitive mode. During two weeks of the “Hackathon” contest organized by Yandex Cloud, Napoleon IT and AI Talent Hub in collaboration with the experts from the Institute on Oriental Studies and the Institute of China and Contemporary Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences, contestants were challenged to develop a chat bot employing generative models and machine translation to analyze news flows of East Asian countries, primarily China and Japan. A review of the winners’ approaches and solutions proves overall feasibility of the idea and shows that many specific linguistic and engineering tasks that were relevant only recently have already been successfully solved. Therefore, when planning and developing next-generation digital tools, it is necessary to operate at functionally and semantically higher levels of generalization closer to human reasoning.

Sienna R Craig

What do high Himalayan villages feel like as they shift in form and character through patterns of outmigration and the effects of climate change? How do people wrestle with enduring connections to place, through the pain and uncertainty that accompanies social and ecological change? What does it mean to steward a landscape and attend to sacred geography as well as history through these transitions? These questions are explored in this flash ethnography, set in the village of Samdzong, upper Mustang, Nepal.

Erkki Huhtamo

Screenology, or Media Archaeology of the Screen, has occupied me for over twenty years. I am more and more convinced that its investigations must be taken far back in time and also beyond the Western world. Media screens can be understood as dedicated artifacts that are distinct from the forms and contents that keep appearing on them. In brief, they are interfaces that connect the close and the remote, the present and the absent, the material and the discursive. To understand their genealogy from extended spatiotemporal perspectives, it is important to pay attention to “screen-like” things that may not even have been called “screens”, “écrans” or “Leinwands” by their creators and users. One example of such screen-like objects that commands attention are the “screens” produced in East-Asian cultures like Japan and China since times immemorial. They have specific histories, interconnections, forms, iconographies and uses. Although such objects do not seem to match the later Western idea of media screens (their decorations and the pictures they carry are permanent), they deserve attention from a screenological perspective not only as what they are, but also because they became integrated into the cultural, political and economic processes that brought different parts of the world together. We can talk about “traffic in screens”, which has become an extensive phenomenon. Oriental “screens” were transported to different parts of the world, including Europe and Latin America. They became submitted to cultural trends and were given signification by the receiving cultures. Obvious examples are the Western trends Chinoiserie and Japonisme, which saw these “screens” in very different ways compared with those who had conceived and produced them. Western “Orientalist” (E. Said) interpretations influenced how these objects were seen in the environments where they had been produced. In this paper, I will suggest that making sense of such cross-cultural exchanges will add important insights to our efforts to understand the formative developments of media screens from perspectives that go beyond Western views and ideological formations.

Kyeongnam Kim, Dongbin Kim, Tae Hyung Kwon et al.

<i>Trialeurodes vaporariorum</i> (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae), commonly known as greenhouse whitefly, is one of the main insect pests of Oriental melon (<i>Cucumis melo</i> var L.) in South Korea. <i>T. vaporariorum</i> is of concern as a quarantine pest for the exportation of <i>C. melo</i> in Southeast Asian countries. Due to future restrictions on the use of methyl bromide (MB) during quarantine, ethyl formate (EF) represents a potential alternative. In this study, we evaluated EF for its efficacy (probit-9 values) in enabling the export of Oriental melons. The probit-9 value of EF for controlling <i>T. vaporariorum</i> was 3.02 g·h/m³ after 2 h of fumigation. We also assessed the phytotoxicity of EF on melons when using modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) under low-temperature conditions, which is required for export and trade, to extend shelf-life. In scaled-up trials, we found 8 g/m³ EF for 2 h at 5 °C to be suitable as a new phytosanitary treatment against greenhouse whitefly for exported Oriental melons when using MAP. No phytotoxic damage was found 28 d after fumigation at 5 °C in terms of five quality parameters (firmness, sugar content, mass loss, color change, and external damage).

Aya Zamoto-Niikura, Akiko Saigo, Masahiko Sato et al.

ABSTRACTRishiri Island, towering toward the Sea of Japan, has been volcanically dormant for approximately 8,000 years. This small inhabited island is free of middle- to large-sized wildlife and a crucial stopover for wild birds migrating along various routes of the East Asian Flyway. A 5-year survey was conducted to explore the biogeography of ticks and tick-borne microorganisms. By flagging vegetation, Ixodes pavlovskyi (Pomerantzev, 1948), distributed in limited spots in the Far East, was predominantly collected (60%–80% collection) throughout the survey period. The I. pavlovskyi consisted of two haplogroups, Asahikawa-type and Rishiri-type, with the prevalence and nucleotide diversity of Rishiri-type being over 90% and 0.068, respectively. A survey of wild animals revealed that red-backed voles and wild birds, including Oriental greenfinches and black-faced buntings, are their hosts for blood feeding. Furthermore, the red-backed voles were infected with tick-borne Candidatus Ehrlichia khabarensis (5/21, 24%). Till date, microorganisms with identical gene sequences have only been reported from Khabarovsk and Vancouver. Ca. E. khabarensis gene has also been detected in host-seeking adult I. pavlovskyi. These results indicated that Rishiri Island is a refuge for both I. pavlovskyi and I. pavlovskyi–borne microorganisms. Additionally, the Babesia microti US lineage, which is vectored by Ixodes persulcatus in the Far East, appears to be maintained between I. pavlovskyi and wild rodents. Various factors have influenced the unique ecosystem of the island. The historical and ecological biogeography of Rishiri Island helps us understand the origin, evolution, and expansion of ticks and associated microorganisms.IMPORTANCEUnderstanding the ecology of ticks and tick-borne microorganisms is important to assess the risk of emerging tick-borne diseases. Despite the fact that the Ixodes pavlovskyi tick bites humans, we lack information including population genetics and the reason for the inadequate distribution in Japan. A 5-year survey revealed that Rishiri Island, the main stopover in the East Asian Flyway of wild birds in the northern Sea of Japan, was a refuge of I. pavlovskyi. The I. pavlovskyi included two haplogroups, which were supposed to diverge a long time before the island separated from the continent and Hokkaido mainland. The detection of microorganisms from wildlife revealed that wild birds and rodents play a role in diffusion and settlement, respectively, of not only I. pavlovskyi but also I. pavlovskyi–borne microorganisms including Candidatus Ehrlichia khabarensis and Babesia microti US lineage. Various island-specific factors control I. pavlovskyi dominance and tick-borne pathogen maintenance. The results may enable us to explain how tick-borne infectious microorganisms are transported.

Mona Bieling

British colonial understanding of arid Mediterranean environments was characterised by the idea of degradation: these environments were seen as an aberration from the ‘norm’ of the lush and fertile British forests and grasslands. The struggle against desertification was central to British efforts to model the people and environments of their colonies according to their own ideals. The goat played an important role in the British understanding of arid landscapes as degraded, desertified and generally ‘lacking’, as it became the ultimate symbol for destruction. Nomadic goat-herding, a practice with hundreds of years of history, was singled out as the most destructive form of land use. Connected to the negative image of the goat was the stereotypical image of its owner: nomadic and semi-nomadic lifestyles were deemed not only unproductive but outright reckless. Sedentarisation of the nomad was one of the main goals of British colonisers as a form of population control and maintenance of colonial power. This article examines the British colonial belief in Ruined Landscape Theory as applied to arid Mediterranean environments and tries to uncover the goat’s role in British environmental orientalism, focusing on Palestine during the British Mandate period, ca. 1917-1948.

Patacharin Lapanun

Studies of transnational intimacies and marriages thus far reveal how these intimate relationships are simulated and constrained by global and local circumstances, cultures, ideas, and practices relating to gender, marriage, and family as well as class and ethnicity. This paper provides insights into the other side of the global process by exploring how these intimate relations generate tensions and challenge cultural ideas and practices regarding gender and social class at the ‘local end’ of the transnational connections. Drawn on three ethnographic studies in two northeastern Thai villages, my research argues that these marital relationships present a form of women’s agency and bring new challenges to masculine identities and subjectivities, placing local men in vulnerable positions. Women with Western partners also constitute a new class determined by both their consumption and their lifestyle – which set them apart from other villagers – and their increased ownership of both farm and residential land. Thus, these women form a new class in both Bourdieusian and Marxist senses, although land in this case has less to do with production but rather wellbeing, security, and prosperity. In this light, transnational marriages/intimacies induce the reconfiguring of gender and class in women’s natal villages.

Rinan Shah

Darjeeling lies in the Eastern Himalayan Region, one of the highest rainfall receiving regions in India. But, the communities have been facing water scarcity for decades perpetuating extreme inequalities in the form of water injustice; realities of these everyday sources of harassment and crisis are obscured within ‘larger political questions.’ The Darjeeling Himalaya has historically been a site of multiple political disruptions over the demands of creating Gorkhaland, a separate State from the State of West Bengal, within India. In this paper, I examine the informal nature of water supply as an outcome of insufficient developmental processes and malgovernance furthered by the marginal condition of the region. The extensive presence of informal systems and their intertwining with the formal, the pseudo-municipality systems, and the over-dependence on community organizations spell out the inability or unwillingness of the state towards alleviating the water scarcity. This also highlights the ingenuity of the local suppliers and communities as the chance taken by for profit or as forms of survival. Among households, everyday marginalization is visible through activities of water acquisition from a plethora of water suppliers and disconnections from the state supplies due to legality of residence and being, and social and spatial differentiation—both underpinned by their social and political status. With the Darjeeling Municipality being my ‘site’ of study, I lay bare its waterscapes to highlight the determinants of informal water vendors. Adding to existing rich literature on the region, this paper explores marginalization foregrounding issues of everyday practices of malgovernance, corruption, and red-tapism that defines the political spaces of the Hills.  In doing so, it is my purpose to argue that economic, underdevelopment, and governance are not separate from but are an integral part of the ‘identity crisis’ that defines the socio-political and historical realities of the Darjeeling Hills.

Emily Amburgey, Yungdrung Tsewang Gurung

This paper explores transnational migration in and from Mustang, Nepal, a high-altitude region of the Himalayas, to understand how people who migrate and return reconstruct a sense of belonging to their birthplace. Narrative ethnography forms the core of this paper as we discuss the stories of four individuals from Mustang to explore the complex decision making around migration and the act of returning, permanently and cyclically. We build on theories of ‘transnationalism’ and ‘belonging,’ and emphasize the circular nature of migration, to argue that migratory journeys involve a continued evaluation of the social and economic realities of contemporary life at ‘home’—highlighting intergenerational tensions, ideas around cultural preservation, and a dynamic understanding of belonging in the context of a transnational community. Although financial need continues to be a primary driving force behind migration trends in Mustang, this paper acknowledges other factors that shape migration such as, family pressure and intergenerational tensions, and the infrastructural and technological developments that have made travel and communication easier and more reliable. Despite the widespread depopulation of Nepal’s highlands, we argue that many Mustangis who migrate remain committed to Mustang’s socioeconomic future, and nurture a connection to their ancestral homeland even as their transnational aspirations pull them away.

Jonathan Dickstein

Elio Martín-Gutiérrez, Javier Gualis-Cardona, Pasquale Maiorano et al.

Resumen: El hematoma intramural agudo tipo A (HIM-A) constituye una entidad de elevada letalidad, subsidiaria de intervención quirúrgica emergente. No obstante, casos seleccionados (estabilidad clínica/hemodinámica, diámetro < 50 mm, espesor < 11 mm) pueden presentar mejor pronóstico, proponiéndose el manejo conservador como alternativa en estudios asiáticos. Por ello, planteamos realizar un metaanálisis comparando la mortalidad hospitalaria del manejo conservador vs. quirúrgico del HIM-A, así como tendencias temporales y diferencias geográficas. Realizamos una búsqueda en Medline® por palabras clave: «aortic intramural hematoma». Se incluyeron estudios comparativos de ambas alternativas terapéuticas con resultados de mortalidad hospitalaria de pacientes con HIM-A. Se valoró el tamaño del efecto, expresado como riesgo relativo (RR), mediante el test de Mantel-Haenszel y un modelo de efectos fijos o aleatorios según el nivel de heterogeneidad I2 < o ≥ 25%, respectivamente. Se incluyeron 46 estudios con 890 pacientes para manejo conservador y 1.071 para quirúrgico. Globalmente, el tratamiento quirúrgico fue superior (RR = 0,65, p = 0,04), y también lo fue en estudios occidentales (RR = 0,57, p = 0,02). Cuando se excluyeron los estudios que asignaron el tratamiento conservador a enfermos rechazados para cirugía, ambas estrategias terapéuticas fueron equivalentes, globalmente (RR = 1,31, p = 0,11) y en el medio occidental (RR = 1,06, p = 0,78), siendo el tratamiento conservador superior en estudios orientales (RR = 2,00, p = 0,03). El análisis de tendencias temporales mostró una progresiva superioridad del manejo conservador electivo, independientemente del medio considerado. Podemos concluir que, aunque el tratamiento de primera elección del HIM-A en nuestro medio es quirúrgico, determinados grupos de pacientes pueden beneficiarse de una estrategia conservadora como puente a una intervención quirúrgica diferida, e incluso como terapia definitiva. Abstract: Type A intramural hematoma (IMH-A) is a highly lethal entity where emergent surgical intervention is usually indicated. However, selected cases (clinical/hemodynamic stability, diameter < 50 mm, thickness < 11 mm) may have a better prognosis, and a conservative management as an alternative has been suggested in Asian studies. Thus, we sought to perform a meta-analysis study comparing the hospital mortality of conservative vs. surgical management of HIM-A as well as temporal and geographical trends. We searched studies in Medline® by keywords: “aortic intramural hematoma”. Comparative studies of both therapeutic alternatives that reported hospital mortality of IMH-A patients were included. The effect size, expressed as relative risk (RR), was assessed using the Mantel-Haenszel test using a fixed or random effects model according to the level of heterogeneity I2 < or ≥ 25%, respectively. Forty-six studies comprising 890 patients for conservative management and 1,071 for surgery were included. The surgical treatment was superior in the global series (RR = 0.65, P = .04), as well as in western studies (RR = 0.57, P = .02). When the studies that assigned conservative treatment to patients rejected for surgery were excluded, both therapeutic strategies were equivalent, globally (RR = 1.31, P = .11) and in the western environment (RR = 1.06, P = .78). Conversely, conservative treatment was superior in oriental studies (RR = 2.00, P = .03). Temporal trends analysis showed a progressive superiority of elective conservative management regardless of its geographical origin. We can conclude that, although the surgical treatment of IMH-A is the first treatment choice in our environment, selected groups of patients can benefit from a conservative strategy as a bridge to a delayed surgical intervention or even as definitive therapy.

Soumaya Louhichi

Muzaffar Namdar, Javad Nazarimoghaddam

Many of the research works on the Iranian history and culture, while embracing the theory of Oriental Despotism, regard despotism as a feature of Iranian society, and they believe that during the history of Iran, the shadow of tyranny has always been widespread in all social areas of the Iranian community. This discourse has considered a decisive role for the government and the institution of politics in the Iranian history and believes that despotism in Iran has prevented the formation of civil and guild organizations. This article tries to criticize this discourse with a descriptive-analytical approach with the library method as well as the study of non-Iranian writings. According to the research findings, the structure of the market institutions, religious institutions, social strata and tribal status in the Iranian society show that the Iranian despotism theory is rooted in the meta-narratives or the great theory of Oriental Despotism and Asian Production which does not correspond to the historical facts of Iran.

Beverley Cherie Millar, David Nelson, Rachel E Moore et al.

Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has now emerged as a global public health crisis. Of particular concern is AMR associated with the genus Mycobacterium, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). Emergence of the NTM, in particular Mycobacterium abscessus, in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) represents both a diagnostic and a treatment dilemma. Such resistance drives the need to investigate novel sources of antimicrobials. Medicinal fungi have a well-documented history of use in traditional oriental therapies. Not only is this an ancient practice, but also still today, medical practice in Japan, China, Korea, and other Asian countries continue to rely on fungal-derived antibiotics. A study was, therefore, undertaken to examine the antimicrobial activity of 23 native macrofungal (mushrooms/toadstools) taxa, collected from woodlands in Northern Ireland against six clinical (CF) isolates of M. abscessus, as well as M. abscessus National Collection of Type Cultures (NCTC) Reference strain (NCTC 13031). Methods: Free-growing saprophytic and mycorrhizal macrofungi (n = 23) belonging to the phylum Basidiomycota were collected and were definitively identified employing Polymerase Chain reaction/ITS DNA sequencing. Macrofungal tissues were freeze-dried and reconstituted before employment in antibiotic susceptibility studies. Results: All macrofungi examined showed varying inhibition of the M. abscessus isolates examined with the exception Russula nigricans. The macrofungi displaying maximum antimycobacterial activity against the clinical isolates were (in descending order) M. giganteus (33.6 mg/ml), Hygrocybe nigrescens (38.5 mg/ml) and Hypholoma fasciculare (25.3 mg/ml). Conclusion: Macrofungi may represent a source of novel antimicrobials against M. abscessus, which have not yet been fully explored nor exploited clinically. This is the first report describing the antimycobacterial properties of extracts of M. giganteus against M. abscessus. Further work is now required to identify the constituents and mode of the inhibitory action of these macrofungi against the M. abscessus. Given the gravity of AMR in the NTMs, particularly M. abscessus and the clinical treatment dilemmas that such AMR present, antibiotic drug discovery efforts should now focus on investigating and developing antibacterial compounds from macrofungi, particularly M. giganteus, where there are no or limited current treatment options.

Wai Jia Tan, Song-Iee Hong, Nan Luo et al.

Background: Early detection of dementia aims to improve treatment outcomes. However, poor perception and understanding of dementia are significant barriers. We aim to investigate the public’s perception of dementia and identify variables associated with the different profiles of public perception. Methods: A custom-designed questionnaire was used to assess laypersons’ knowledge and perception of dementia during a health fair at a public hospital in Singapore, a developed Asian nation. Out of a sample of 370 subjects, 32 declined to participate (response rate = 91.4%). Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify meaningful subgroups of subjects from significant associations with multiple indicators of dementia awareness. Multinomial logistic regression was performed exploring variables associated with each of the subgroups derived from LCA. Results: The majority of the study participants were female (66.9%), 65 years or older (71.1%), and ethnic Chinese (88.1%). LCA classified the study participants into 3 subgroups: Class 1 (good knowledge, good attitude), Class 2 (good knowledge, poor attitude), and Class 3 (poor knowledge, poor attitude), in proportions of 14.28, 63.83, and 21.88%, respectively. Compared to other classes, participants with good knowledge and good attitude towards dementia (Class 1) were more likely to know someone with dementia and understand the effects of the disease, be married, live in private housing, receive higher monthly income, and not profess belief in Buddhism, Taoism, or Hinduism. Conclusion: Our results show that the public in Singapore may not be ready for screening initiatives and early dementia diagnosis. Education efforts should be targeted at lower socioeconomic groups, singles, and those of certain oriental religions.

S. Chelliah, Gwendolyn Hyslop

This volume is the outcome of the workshop on Optional Case Marking in Tibeto- Burman held in conjunction with the Himalayan Languages Symposium at the School of Oriental and Asian Studies (London, September 3rd, 2010). The purpose of the workshop was to discuss agentive case in Tibeto-Burman, focusing on the factors linked to motivation for pragmatic case marking, the terminology used to describe agentive case, and the field and analytic methods used in understanding optional case marking.