Crafting masculine selves: culture, war and psychodynamics among Afghan Pashtuns

Based on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Afghanistan from 2009 until 2013 within a majority Pashtun ethnic community in the city Jalalabad and outlying rural districts of Nangarhar province, this dissertation examines concepts of masculinity in a socio-cultural environment that is patrilineal, patrilocal and strongly androcentric, with a firm tradition of female segregation (parda). Because only individuals of opposite sex who are closely related by blood or marriage can have social relations, the research focused entirely on men. Given this context, cultural idioms about masculinity acquire extraordinary social and psychological importance. To be considered respectable and honorable, Pashtun men are expected to live up to the demanding standards of a cultural environment that requires displays of fearlessness, courage, aggressiveness and self-assertiveness. This includes a willingness to engage in violence when that is deemed necessary. The dissertation focuses on the psychological dynamics and subjectivity produced by these strict and demanding cultural norms in a sample set of individual Pashtun males as they matured into adulthood. The findings presented here were derived from multiple psychodynamic and one-on-one interviews with four select informants, which are supplemented with an analysis of more extensive data gleaned from participant observation in the Pashtun community. This methodological approach was designed to elicit material pertaining to these men’s deep emotional states, inner thought processes, conscious and unconscious attitudes and self-concepts that were related to their interpretations and enactments of the cultural mandated norms of masculinity, as well as their resistance to them. Notable findings include striking evidence for well-established patterns of inner psychological conflict, contradiction and suffering that the men I interviewed underwent as they coped with internalizing the uncompromising standards of behavior and attitude that constituted "being a real Pashtun man." These standards are not static, and the analysis of the data reveals a striking shift toward the legitimization of unprecedentedly violent behaviors that stem from thirty-five years of nearly constant conflict in Afghanistan.2017-11-04T00:00:00

Alpine ethnobotany in Italy: traditional knowledge of gastronomic and medicinal plants among the Occitans of the upper Varaita valley, Piedmont

A gastronomic and medical ethnobotanical study was conducted among the Occitan communities living in Blins/Bellino and Chianale, in the upper Val Varaita, in the Piedmontese Alps, North-Western Italy, and the traditional uses of 88 botanical taxa were recorded. Comparisons with and analysis of other ethnobotanical studies previously carried out in other Piemontese and surrounding areas, show that approximately one fourth of the botanical taxa quoted in this survey are also known in other surrounding Occitan valleys. It is also evident that traditional knowledge in the Varaita valley has been heavily eroded. This study also examined the local legal framework for the gathering of botanical taxa, and the potential utilization of the most quoted medicinal and food wild herbs in the local market, and suggests that the continuing widespread local collection from the wild of the aerial parts of Alpine wormwood for preparing liqueurs (Artemisia genipi, A. glacialis, and A. umbelliformis) should be seriously reconsidered in terms of sustainability, given the limited availability of these species, even though their collection is culturally salient in the entire study area

Low level of knowledge regarding diagnosis and treatment among inpatients with schizophrenia in Shanghai

Objective: The study was designed to measure the level of knowledge of the diagnosis of illness and its treatment among patients with schizophrenia in China, and to examine the association between the capacity to provide informed consent and participation in treatment. Participants and methods A cross-sectional study was conducted at three clinical inpatient sites in Shanghai, China, during 2015. Patients’ knowledge of the illness, as well as the knowledge of the patients’ families and psychiatrists, was determined. Logistic regression was used to determine the factors associated with patients’ knowledge of schizophrenia. Results: Out of 109 enrolled schizophrenic inpatients (mean age 42.46±1.29 years), 60.6% were aware of their diagnosis and 67.0% knew details of their treatment plan. The group with unimpaired capacity for giving informed consent had a greater knowledge of their diagnosis (χ2=5.002, p=0.038) and of their treatment plan (χ2=11.196, p<0.01) in comparison with patients who were regarded to be impaired. Using logistic regression analysis, it was found that patients’ capacity to give informed consent to treatment was associated with the level of knowledge surrounding the diagnosis (odds ratio =3.230, p<0.05) and the level of knowledge of treatment (odds ratio =4.962, p<0.01). Conclusion: The level of knowledge reported by inpatients with schizophrenia was low with respect to the diagnosis of schizophrenia and of the treatment associated with this illness. An association between patients’ capacities for giving informed consent and knowledge of their illness was confirmed in the present study. The results suggest that, in clinical practice, the informed consent process should be strengthened to protect the interests of patients with schizophrenia