Medicating slavery: Motherhood, health care, and cultural practices in the African diaspora

A sophisticated exploration of the intricacies of motherhood and health care practices of people of African descent, especially the enslaved population of Virginia, can shed light on their notions of a well-lived life and the factors preventing or contributing to these principles. I situate my dissertation within this ideal as I examine how the health and well-being of enslaved people were linked to broader issues of economic exploitation, domination, resistance, accommodation, and cultural interactions. Historical and archaeological studies have shown that the living and working conditions of enslaved people were detrimental to their health. Building on these findings, I explore how aware were blacks of these impediments to their well-being and the pursuit of a wholesome life, and what means these populations employed to change the negative tangibles and intangibles of slave societies. These questions are best studied from a multi-disciplinary perspective and by using a variety of evidence.;Therefore, I collate and wed diverse selections of documentary evidence---a complex assortment of texts covering history, oral tradition, and narratives---with material cultural evidence, mainly from archaeological excavations and historic landscapes, to show the complex web of objects, beliefs, and practices that constituted this arena of well-being and autonomy. I discuss how issues of well-being intertwined with gender and race relations and how these were played out in many acts of motherhood and child care, struggles over foods and health care, other verbal and physical fights, and how the landscape and objects were implicated in social relations. I focus on Virginia but use examples from other slave societies for comparative purposes.;Blacks juxtaposed their cultural ways with those of whites and, at times, found the latter below black standards for a wholesome life. Therefore, while being open-minded toward some practices and beliefs from whites, blacks continued to maintain separate activities. This dissertation presents and interprets the ideals and practices of enslaved blacks and their descendants and shows how they created and reinforced their identity as a people capable of caring not only for themselves, but for whites as well

Determining ‘Wether’ Social Behaviour or Pasture Quality Drives Sheep Grazing Patterns using Random Forest Modelling

Monitoring livestock provides valuable insights into the spatial distribution, foraging patterns, and animal behaviour, which may lead to the improved management of livestock. This objective of study was to understand what variables were significant in determining where sheep spent the most time in paddocks of native (dominated by Poa spp., Stipa spp., and Hordeum leporinum), and improved (Phalaris aquatica, Festuca spp., and Trifolium subterraneum) pastures (~24 ha-1 in size). Castrated male sheep, wethers, were tracked using GPS collars on a property located in the Monaro region of Southern New South Wales, Australia. Trials were performed over four six-day periods in April, July, and November of 2014, and March in 2015. Thirty collars were randomly placed on 15 sheep in each pasture types. The GPS collars continuously recorded movements over the duration of each trial and were programmed to take five positional fixes over a minute. Data was analysed all together to understand various trends that may have occurred across the year, using random forest models (RFMs). Models were created for improved (IP) and native (NP) paddocks, producing R2 values of 0.97 and 0.94. Regardless of the pasture type, near distance to water (NW) was important in predicting where animals were located within paddocks, despite its statistical insignificance. Sheep spent more time further away from water troughs (at least ~600 m). Additionally, NDVI was another important variable in predicting sheep location for IP and NP (p \u3c 0.01). The data suggests that RFMs are able to predict where animals will likely spend time on a paddock at a large scale, with water troughs and pasture quality being two key drivers

Feature: Found Poems

Gandy Dancer’s mission has always been about connection. As the literary journal of the SUNY system, we feature art and writing from all over the state, from Fredonia to Plattsburgh, from Suffolk County Community College to Brockport. Our goal is to bring together readers and writers and artists. For a special section in this issue, we reach farther, beyond the state borders, even. We are delighted to bring you six poems by young writers, students at Friendship Collegiate Academy in Washington, DC. In their language arts class with teacher Donna Lewis Johnson, herself a writer, these students wrote the following “found” poems; that is, they composed poems drawing language from a newspaper article reporting a recent shooting. We encountered these poems and Lewis Johnson’s article about them in The Washington Post (“D.C. students’ ‘found’ poems reveal their weariness with gun violence, January 31, 2023.”) While they are not SUNY students, we want to publish their work and honor it, as it says so much about gun violence, an epidemic that threatens us all. These poems don’t look away from what is difficult or upsetting, and they don’t let us look away, either. With understatement and grace, they demand accountability, action, response. The poems in this section are Gunfire, Pow Pow, A Wounded Community, Bloody Violence, End Gun Violence, and No Violence Needed

Of meat and ritual: Consumptive and religious uses of pangolins in Mali

First paragraph: In many parts of Africa, wildlife is locally consumed for meat (Ingram et al., 2021). Hunting and consuming wild animals for meat is common in rural areas across the continent, and their bodies are openly sold in markets, along roadsides, and in restaurants or ‘chopbars’ (Eniang et al., 2008; Gonodelé Bi et al., 2017; Ingram et al., 2018). In some places, animal body parts are also used in traditional remedies purported to treat a variety of afflictions or bring good fortune (Bakarr et al., 2001; De Surgy, 1993; Imperato, 1977; Kedzierska & Jouvelet, 2006; Marshall, 1998; Sale, 1981). Wildlife is a fundamental component of ritual practices for some communities, both for consumptive ceremonial uses and as part of remedies (e.g. powders to mix with water and drink or bath with, scrubs, ointments) and/or ritual objects such as power objects or fetishes1 . Thus, it comes as no surprise that the body parts of wild animals are also sold in traditional ‘medicine’ or ‘fetish’ markets in several West African countries (Bassett, 2003; Hellweg, 2011; Nikolaus, 2011). Wildlife is still openly sold in traditional ‘medicine’ and/or fetish markets in Mali (Kedzierska & Jouvelet, 2006), Côte d'Ivoire (Bassett, 2003), Togo (D’Cruze et al., 2020), Benin (Djagoun et al., 2013), Ghana (Gbogbo & Daniels, 2019) and Nigeria (Nikolaus, 2011).Output Status: Forthcoming/Available Onlin

Hungry for change: the Sydney Food Fairness Alliance

The Sydney Food Fairness Alliance is one of a growing number of nascent food movements in Australia to have emerged out of concern for the country’s food future, as well as the deleterious effect the present food system is having on its citizens’ health and the continent’s fragile environment. The Alliance’s structure and activities clearly position it as a new social movement (NSM) engaged in collective action on a specific issue, in this instance, food security/justice, and operating outside the political sphere while aiming to influence and affect societal change. Food security as a human right lies at the heart of the Alliance’s philosophy, and equitable, sustainable food policies for New South Wales are a core focus of its advocacy work. The authors argue that the Alliance is a distinctive food movement in that it positions itself as an \u27umbrella\u27 organization representing a wide range of stakeholders in the food system. This chapter reflects on the values, achievements, issues of concern, strengths and weaknesses, and future of the Sydney Food Fairness Alliance. This resource is Chapter 8 in \u27Food Security in Australia: Challenges and Prospects for the Future\u27 published by Springer in 2013