The Dead with No Wake, Grieving with No Closure: Illness and Death in the Days of Coronavirus in Spain

[EN] The pandemic caused by the spread of Covid-19 is giving rise to an exceptional social situation because of the great speed of propagation of the illness and the high level of mortality it has occasioned in a very short time. Moreover, the lockdown measures decreed in Spain prohibit the holding of wakes to avoid contagion, and limit funerals to three people plus the ofciant. Thus, coronavirus is robbing people of the opportunity of a fnal farewell, stripping the dead of their dignity and worsening the grief of the living. This article investigates the situation and the social and cultural impact it has provoked. The method used takes the line of critical dialogue analysis (CDA) applied to information contained in the mass media, employing qualitative material from a related small-scale study. The results show that in countries like Spain where there is a strong Roman Catholic tradition the importance of these rituals is unquestionable. Although the country has become laicized over recent years, many traditions around death are still maintained. Hence, the impossibility of holding funerals is triggering a large number of social and personal conficts. Furthermore, they indicate that lockdown, and the lack of rituals and of accompaniment constitute some of the most crucial stressors in the epidemic. Grief in solitude has become widespread and all the more fundamental in a society that values social support from close friends and family members. The conclusions show that the social distancing imposed by the epidemic is especially hard to bear when relatives are passing into death.S

Cultural Tourism, Religion and Religious Heritage in Castile and León, Spain

Tourism is a driving force of the economy for many countries around the world. The large number of architectural and intangible World Heritage Sites have consolidated those countries in their strong positions as cultural tourism destinations. Within cultural tourism, religious tourism is particularly prominent. This work focuses on Spain and specifically on some of its regions which lack beaches but possess a wealth of religious cultural heritage, such as Castile and León, which have viewed such heritage as an asset to attract a different kind of tourist. The objectives of this study are to highlight the value of religious heritage as a tourist attraction, analyse the potential of religious heritage for religious and non-religious tourism, and observe religious tourism as an asset in depressed areas. The criterion that governs the study is to determine the profile of these tourists and their relationship with the destination. Methodologically, this work is an analysis, assessment and reflection of different processes, practices and events from a social anthropology perspective. The results identify a type of tourist more aware of sustainability and more respectful of the environment and culture, and therefore, more in tune with religion and religious heritage

Key considerations in the analysis of the development of social anthropology in Spain

[EN] The objective of this article is to present a brief overview of the long history of anthropology in Spain. Of primary importance is positioning this history both within Spain’s wider social and political contexts, and also against the development of scientifc research throughout the country. Methodologically, this study is based on extensive existing literature concerning the history of the discipline, from the start of the twentieth century to contemporary times, which informed the decision to structure this writing in four sections, segmenting the period of history covered. The frst section considers the primary or formative development of a regionalist Spanish ethnography at the beginning of the twentieth century. Following this, in the second section, we explore the Francoist era when the twentieth century was well underway; this was a period marked by the strong infuence of foreign research on the establishment of teaching methods and practical approaches to anthropology. In the third section, we observe how, as Spain transitioned from a dictatorship to a strong democratic state formed of autonomous regions, a uniquely Spanish anthro‑ pology emerged and, as we discuss in the fourth section, the country entered a time of consolidation and institutionalisation throughout the wider feld of Spanish sci‑ entifc endeavour. In this way, we examine Spanish anthropology from the context of intellectual development not dissimilar to that taking place on a global scale.S

Religious Heritage: Reconciliation between Spirituality and Cultural Concerns

[EN] Religious heritage has a dual cultural and religious meaning and importance in society. It has a cultural value because it symbolises the history and art of a community, and a religious value because it represents a spiritual hub and home for a community of believers. This article analyses the challenges posed by this association between religious heritage —as both an economic and tourism resource— and cultural heritage. Methodologically, an observation, reflection and analysis of the challenges that are faced are proposed. The results reveal various initiatives for development, protection and enhancement. The discussion revolves around the importance of community involvement and the benefits this brings to various sectors, including economic activity, from the perspective of religious tourism as an aspect of tourism per se, in which a faith and its believers are elements that merit heritage conservation.S

Disorderly freedom: Changes in family relations in rural China

[EN] The period of reform and opening-up that occurred between 1978 and 1991 revolutionised what had been the economic structure of the People’s Republic of China since its foundation, changing the traditional social structure that had endured for thousands of years in rural settings. This change had a significant impact on rural mobility in contemporary China; it brought about a shift in the rural population’s values and led directly to the largest migrant mobility in China’s history. This article analyses these changes in terms of family and marriage and their consequences for rural families. The method employed was ethnographic fieldwork carried out in Sichuan Province. 7 men and 14 women, aged between 25 and 64 took part in the research and were both members of different families, as well as teachers involved in the education of their children. The information obtained from these 21 people was supplemented with data from other sources, including references in the literature and statistics. The results show that the changes taking place in Chinese family and rural society are of such magnitude that traditional values are being replaced by others associated with economic activity and a new individualism. Additionally, the effects of the phenomenon of left behind children are shown.S

La presión sociocultural percibida sobre el autoconcepto físico : naturaleza, medida y variabilidad

334 p.El principal propósito de esta tesis es precisar en cuántas y cuáles categorías se agrupan los distintos influjos socioculturales percibidos sobre el autoconcepto físico

Homotopy continuation for vector space interference alignment in MIMO X networks

In this paper we propose an algorithm to design interference alignment (IA) precoding and decoding matrices for MIMO X networks (XN). The proposed algorithm is rooted in the homotopy continuation techniques commonly used to solve systems of nonlinear equations. Homotopy methods find the solution of a target system by smoothly deforming the known solutions of a start system which can be trivially solved. The key observation leading to a simple start system is realizing that the inverse IA problem, i.e., finding the channels that satisfy the IA conditions given a set of precoders and decoders, is linear and, therefore, a convenient trivial system. Once the start system has been solved, standard prediction and correction techniques are applied to track the solution all the way to the target system. Our results show that the proposed algorithm is able to consistently find solutions achieving the maximum number of degrees of freedom (DoF) whereas alternating minimization techniques, which typically work well for the interference channel (IC), repeatedly fail for the XN. Further, the algorithm provides insights into the feasibility of alignment in MIMO X networks for which theoretical results are scarce.This work was supported by the Spanish Government, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN), under project COSIMA (TEC2010-19545-C04-03), project COMONSENS (CSD2008-00010, CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010 Program) and FPU grant AP2009-1105

Non-standard and constitutive boundary conditions in nonlocal strain gradient elasticity

Zaera et al. (Int J Eng Sci 138:65-81, 2019) recently showed that the nonlocal strain gradient theory (NSGT) is not consistent when it is applied to finite solids, since all boundary conditions associated to the corresponding problems cannot be simultaneously satisfied. Given the large number of works using the NSGT being currently published in the field of generalized continuum mechanics, it is pertinent to evince the shortcomings of the application of this theory. Some authors solved the problem omitting the constitutive boundary conditions. In the current paper we show that, in this case, the equilibrium fields are not compatible with the constitutive equation of the material. Other authors solved it omitting the non-standard boundary conditions. Here we show that, in this case, the solution does not fulfil conservation of energy. In conclusion, the inconsistency of the NSGT is corroborated, and its application must be prevented in the analysis of the mechanical behaviour of nanostructures.The authors are indebted to the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación de España (Projects DPI-2014-57989-P, PGC2018-098218-B-I00, and BES-2015-073720) for the financial support