Alcance y límites del uso antropológico de algunos conceptos de la filosofía de Wittgenstein. Plantas sagradas, magia y el culto de San Simon en Guatemala y México

Ante todo, mi objetivo era aclarar los aspectos múltiples y superpuestos del lenguaje religioso, y el debate que se ha desarrollado primero entre Wittgens-tein y Frazer, y luego con otros autores posteriores. En segundo lugar, quería para mostrar cómo los conceptos wittgensteinianos sobre el lenguaje religioso pueden encontrar una aplicación en el campo antropológico - con la idea de verificar la fiabilidad de las herramientas metodológicas e intelectuales suge-ridas por el filósofo vienés en el análisis de rituales mágico-religiosos - he aplicado sus ideas a tres estudios de caso en el campo de la antropología social en el ámbito mesoamericano: el culto a San Simon de Guatemala, los rituales mágico-curativos con plantas sagradas de la Sierra Mazateca y los rituales cu-rativos de la Sierra Tarahumara. Mis consideraciones se presentan más como un complemento que como una crítica de sus reflexiones. Como he argumentado, el análisis wittgensteiniano en el campo del lenguaje religioso de los pueblos llamados "primitivos" en su tiempo, no debe verse como una teoría que explica la naturaleza de todos los rituales. En primer lugar, Wittgenstein no habría considerado todos los tipos de rituales. Enfatiza solo algunos de ellos porque encajan con su crítica de Frazer. Segundo, Wittgenstein siempre se limita a hacer un esbozo del tema, pero sin profundizar en el. Tercero, Wittgenstein nunca tuvo la intención de definir todos los rituales para discernir su esencia, más bien se limitó a ver en-tre ellos un parecido de familia. Cuarto, Wittgenstein está 'fuera' del lenguaje mágico. Él ve el aspecto simbólico donde un creyente ve un aspecto literal. Para gestionar la complejidad del trabajo, elegí desarrollarlo de acuerdo con una doble línea de investigación: antropológica y filosófica; y también divi-diéndolo en tres partes: la teórica-filosófica, la histórica-social y la parte pro-piamente etnológica. En la primera he presentado conceptos y debates wittgensteinianos por autores contemporáneos y post-Wittgenstein. Algunos conceptos, útiles para la com-prensión de los fenómenos sociales observados, no fueron explorados por Wittgenstein. Salieron a la luz gracias a autores como P. Winch y B. R. Clack. En la segunda parte, me centré en algunos conceptos "vecinos", pero no mar-ginales. El choque entre las ideas propuestas por las nuevas teologías y las que provienen de un pensamiento antiguo, pueden ayudarnos a enmarcar cier-tos aspectos de la vida. En la tercera parte, he relatado mis experiencias con-cretas adquiridas en el campo durante la investigación, dedicando un espacio especial a las diferentes dimensiones existenciales que me he enfrentado y con las que he tenido que lidiar.Above all, it was my objective to clarify the multiple and overlapping aspects of religious language, and the debate that has developed first between Wittgenstein and Frazer, and then with other later authors. Secondly, I wanted to show how Wittgensteinian concepts on religious language can find an application in the anthropological field and - with the idea of verifying the reliability of the methodological and intellectual tools suggested by the Viennese philosopher in the analysis of magical-religious rituals - I have ap-plied his ideas to three case studies in the field of social anthropology: the cult of San Simon of Guatemala, the magical-healing rituals with sacred plants of the Sierra Mazateca and the healing rituals of the Sierra Tarahumara. My considerations are presented more as a complement than as a critique of his reflections. As I have argued, the Wittgensteinian analysis in the field of the religious language of the peoples called "primitive" in their time, has cer-tain limits that we must not lose sight of if we want to avoid the error of seeing the reflections of the Viennese philosopher as a theory that explains the nature of all rituals. In the first place, Wittgenstein would not have considered all types of rituals. He emphasizes only a few of them because they fit his criticism of Frazer. Second, Wittgenstein always limits himself to making an outline of the subject, but without delving into it. Third, Wittgenstein never intended to define all rituals by bringing out their essence, rather he limited himself to seeing among them - the family resemblance. Fourth, Wittgenstein is 'outside' magical language. He sees the symbolic aspect where a believer sees a literal aspect. To manage the complexity of the work, I chose to develop it according to a double line of research: anthropological and philosophical; and also by divid-ing it into three parts: the theoretical-philosophical, the historical-social, and the properly anthropological part. In the first, I have presented Wittgensteinian concepts and debates wielded by contemporary and post-Wittgenstein authors. Some concepts, useful for understanding observed social phenomena, were not explored by Wittgenstein. They came to light thanks to authors like P. Winch and B. R. Clack. In the second part, I concentrated on some "neighboring" concepts, but not marginal ones. The clash between the ideas proposed by the new theologies and those that come from an older thought, can help us frame certain aspects of a condi-tion of life. In the third, I have related my concrete experiences acquired in the field during the investigation, dedicating a special space to the different exis-tential dimensions that I have crossed and with which I have had to deal

How to Tailor My Process‐Based Hydrological Model? Dynamic Identifiability Analysis of Flexible Model Structures

In the field of hydrological modeling, many alternative representations of natural processes exist. Choosing specific process formulations when building a hydrological model is therefore associated with a high degree of ambiguity and subjectivity. In addition, the numerical integration of the underlying differential equations and parametrization of model structures influence model performance. Identifiability analysis may provide guidance by constraining the a priori range of alternatives based on observations. In this work, a flexible simulation environment is used to build an ensemble of semidistributed, process-based hydrological model configurations with alternative process representations, numerical integration schemes, and model parametrizations in an integrated manner. The flexible simulation environment is coupled with an approach for dynamic identifiability analysis. The objective is to investigate the applicability of the framework to identify the most adequate model. While an optimal model configuration could not be clearly distinguished, interesting results were obtained when relating model identifiability with hydro-meteorological boundary conditions. For instance, we tested the Penman-Monteith and Shuttleworth & Wallace evapotranspiration models and found that the former performs better under wet and the latter under dry conditions. Parametrization of model structures plays a dominant role as it can compensate for inadequate process representations and poor numerical solvers. Therefore, it was found that numerical solvers of high order of accuracy do often, though not necessarily, lead to better model performance. The proposed coupled framework proved to be a straightforward diagnostic tool for model building and hypotheses testing and shows potential for more in-depth analysis of process implementations and catchment functioning

Cross-Scale Vulnerability Assessment for Smallholder Farming: A Case Study from the Northeast of Brazil

Climate change heavily impacts smallholder farming worldwide. Cross-scale vulnerability assessment has a high potential to identify nested measures for reducing vulnerability of smallholder farmers. Despite their high practical value, there are currently only limited examples of cross-scale assessments. The presented study aims at assessing the vulnerability of smallholder farmers in the Northeast of Brazil across three scales: regional, farm and field scale. In doing so, it builds on existing vulnerability indices and compares results between indices at the same scale and across scales. In total, six independent indices are tested, two at each scale. The calculated indices include social, economic and ecological indicators, based on municipal statistics, meteorological data, farm interviews and soil analyses. Subsequently, indices and overlapping indicators are normalized for intra- and cross-scale comparison. The results show considerable differences between indices across and within scales. They indicate different activities to reduce vulnerability of smallholder farmers. Major shortcomings arise from the conceptual differences between the indices. We therefore recommend the development of hierarchical indices, which are adapted to local conditions and contain more overlapping indicators for a better understanding of the nested vulnerabilities of smallholder farmers

A profile shape correction to reduce the vertical sensitivity of cosmic-ray neutron sensing of soil moisture

n recent years, cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) has shown a large potential among proximal sensing techniques to monitor soil moisture noninvasively, with high frequency and a large support volume (radius up to 240 m and sensing depth up to 80 cm). This signal is, however, more sensitive to closer distances and shallower depths. Inherently, CRNS-derived soil moisture is a spatially weighted value, different from an average soil moisture as retrieved by a sensor network. In this study, we systematically test a new profile shape correction on CRNS-derived soil moisture, based on additional soil moisture profile measurements and vertical unweighting, which is especially relevant during pronounced wetting or drying fronts. The analyses are conducted with data collected at four contrasting field sites, each equipped with a CRNS probe and a distributed soil moisture sensor network. After applying the profile shape correction on CRNS-derived soil moisture, it is compared with the sensor network average. Results show that the influence of the vertical sensitivity of CRNS on integral soil moisture values is successfully reduced. One to three properly located profile measurements within the CRNS support volume improve the performance. For the four investigated field sites, the RMSE decreased 11–53% when only one profile location was considered. We therefore recommend to install along with a CRNS at least one soil moisture profile in a radial distanceProfile-shape-corrected, CRNS-derived soil moisture is an unweighted integral soil moisture over the support volume, which is easier to interpret and easier to use for further applications

Cool Farm Tool Water : A global on-line tool to assess water use in crop production

© 2018 The Authors.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

CHARACTERISTICS OF INTERNET USE AMONGST ITALIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Background: Problematic Internet use (PIU), that may be defined as the inability to control one’s use of Internet with negative consequences in daily life, is an emerging problem involving primarily, but not only young generations. Different studies have shown that students are particularly vulnerable to PIU. Given the paucity of information on PIU in our country, the aim of this paper was at investigating the characteristics of PIU amongst Italian University students. Subjects and methods: A self-assessment questionnaire, referred by the acronym QUNT (“Questionario sull’Utilizzo delle Nuove Tecnologie”), composed by 101 items grouped together to identify a series of factors, was developed and sent through e-mail invitation to several students from three Italian Universities. Results: The returned questionnaires were 3324, out of a total of 51,304 sent, with no difference between the two sexes. On the contrary, the distribution of the QUNT factors was different in the two sexes, in people living alone and in overweight subjects. Men resulted to be more involved in online recreational activities, whereas women seemed more attracted to instant messaging and generally to social networks. PIU was significantly more present in men than women. The comparisons of QUNT factor scores in the four BMI categories showed that the greater the BMI the greater the score of some factors. Conclusions: The findings of the present study indicate that the use of Internet through new technologies may exceed its real utility amongst Italian university student, with some sex-related differences. Men seem more prone to use Internet for passing time and women for social relationships. Men are also at risk of developing PIU. Again, Internet use might be a basic vulnerability factor of increasing weight gain and obesity amongst young people

Comment on ‘Examining the variation of soil moisture from cosmic‑ray neutron probes footprint: experimental results from a COSMOS‑UK site’ by Howells, O.D., Petropoulos, G.P., et al., Environ Earth Sci 82, 41 (2023)

The published article by Howells et al. (2023) attempts to empirically derive the lateral footprint for a single cosmic-ray neutron sensor (CRNS), which is part of the COSMOS-UK network (Evans et al. 2016). The main result is the “true” footprint to be 50 m in radius, substantially smaller than previously published estimates. Their conclusion contradicts more than 15 peer-reviewed studies and more than a decade of research on the subject conducted by various international research groups, and thus, it would be considered as a ground-breaking finding if the methods were scientifically sound. However, the methods and arguments presented by the authors have major errors and the presented conclusions are consequently wrong