The social organization of the Azande of the Bahr-el-Ghazal province of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan

This thesis represents part of my Ethnological research carries out in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in the years 1926 and 1927. After having worked for three months in the area between the White and Blue Niles, mainly amongst the Ingassana People of the Tabi Hills, and later for some seven weeks on the West Bank of the Nule, amongst the Moro Peoples, I arrived in that part of the Bahr-el-Ghazal Province which is inhabited by the Azande towards the end of March 1927. I left for England at the end of August, thus completing a residence of five months amongst the Azande. The Thesis is arranged in two books. The first book is a condensed analysis of the structure of Zande society. In the second book I have taken native customer or institutions, divination, magic, dancing and obscene songs, and I have en-deavoured to interpret them by showing their contexts, associa-tions and functions. It is by the method exemplified in the second book of this thesis that I hope to explain one by one the institutions of the Azande. In the parts on magic and obscenity I have used the comparative method of analysis. It is this method which must eventually be applied to all institu-tions if Social Anthropology is to put forward general state-ments, or laws, and so take its place in the ranks of other inductive sciences

Genetic analysis of a major international collection of cultivated apple varieties reveals previously unknown historic heteroploid and inbred relationships

Domesticated apple (Malus x domestica Borkh.) is a major global crop and the genetic diversity held within the pool of cultivated varieties is important for the development of future cultivars. The aim of this study was to investigate the diversity held within the domesticated form, through the analysis of a major international germplasm collection of cultivated varieties, the UK National Fruit Collection, consisting of over 2,000 selections of named cultivars and seedling varieties. We utilised Diversity Array Technology (DArT) markers to assess the genetic diversity within the collection. Clustering attempts, using the software STRUCTURE revealed that the accessions formed a complex and historically admixed group for which clear clustering was challenging. Comparison of accessions using the Jaccard similarity coefficient allowed us to identify clonal and duplicate material as well as revealing pairs and groups that appeared more closely related than a standard parent-offspring or full-sibling relations. From further investigation, we were able to propose a number of new pedigrees, which revealed that some historically important cultivars were more closely related than previously documented and that some of them were partially inbred. We were also able to elucidate a number of parent-offspring relationships that had resulted in a number of important polyploid cultivars. This included reuniting polyploid cultivars that in some cases dated as far back as the 18th century, with diploid parents that potentially date back as far as the 13th century

Translation: The relative native

Translation by Julia Sauma and Martin Holbraad of: Viveiros de Castro, Eduardo (2002) "O Nativo Relativo." Mana, vol. 8, no. 1, p. 113-14

RITUAL, TIME, AND ENTERNITY

It is argued here that the construction of time and eternity are among ritual's entailments. In dividing continuous duration into distinct periods ritual distinguishes two temporal conditions: (1) that prevailing in mundane periods and (2) that prevailing during the intervals between them. Differences in the frequency, length, and relationship among the rituals constituting different liturgical orders are considered, as are differences between mundane periods and ritual's intervals with respect to social relations, cognitive modes, meaningfulness, and typical interactive frequencies. Periods, it is observed, relate to intervals as everchanging to never-changing, and close relationships of never changing to eternity, eternity to sanctity, and sanctity to truth are proposed. In the argument that ritual's “times out of time” really are outside mundane time, similarities to the operations of digital computers and Herbert Simon's discussion of interaction frequencies in the organization of matter are noted.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72989/1/j.1467-9744.1992.tb00996.x.pd

The Dualism of Contemporary Traditional Governance and the State

In many parts of the world, people live in “dual polities”: they are governed by the state and organize collective decision making within their ethnic community according to traditional rules. We examine the substantial body of works on the traditional–state dualism, focusing on the internal organization of traditional polities, their interaction with the state, and the political consequences of the dualism. We find the descriptions of the internal organization of traditional polities scattered and lacking comparative perspective. The literature on the interaction provides a good starting point for theorizing the strategic role of traditional leaders as intermediaries, but large potentials for inference remain underexploited. Studies on the consequences of “dual polities” for democracy, conflict, and development are promising in their explanatory endeavor, but they do not yet allow for robust conclusions. We therefore propose an institutionalist research agenda addressing the need for theory and for systematic data collection and explanatory approaches