Medicin, rationalitet og erfaring. En antropologisk synsvinkel

Viden udgør såvel indenfor antropologien som medicinen et centralt grundlag for, hvad vi tænker om menneskers forestillinger og om det, mennesker tror. I den videnskabeligeforståelse kan forholdet mellem viden og tro beskrives som hierarkisk, i den forstand at tro synes at skulle omvendes til viden. Ved en kritisk gennemgang af antropologien, hvor klassiske studier indenfor rationalitetsdebaBen sæBes under lup, vises tydeligt, hvordan den normative og empiristiske anvendelse af be-grebet tro også i medicinsk antropologi ganske automatisk involverer dets modsætning: viden. Tro og tilsyneladende irrationelle forestillinger har derfor på et epistemologisk plan indflydelse på tilgangen til teori og empiri. Artiklen påpeger, at der i den medicinske antropologi ligger andre tilgange til forståelser af tro og viden i relation til sygdom og sundhed, end dem der bygger på en rationalistisk og positivistisk arv fra oplysningstide

Au mode subjonctif. La construction narrative des crises d'épilepsie en Turquie

Au mode subjonctifLa construction narrative des crises d'épilepsie en TurquieCet article présente une analyse culturelle des crises en Turquie, à l'aide d'entrevues individuelles et familiales auprès d'un échantillon constitué de personnes diagnostiquées comme souffrant d'épilepsie ou de crises psychogènes. L'article brosse une brève critique des stratégies d'analyse qui juxtaposent « croyances » culturelles et « connaissance » médicale à propos d'une condition biologique et développe une façon spécifique de comprendre la construction narrative de la maladie et de son expérience. L'article s'inspire plus particulièrement des theories de la narrativité et de la réponse du lecteur (Iser, Ricoeur, Bruner) pour analyser les « tactiques de subjonctivisation » présentes dans les récits de maladie.In the Subjunctive ModeThe Narrative Construction of Seizures in TurkeyThis paper provides a cultural analysis of seizures in Turkey, based on individual and family interviews with a community sample of persons diagnosed as suffering epilepsy or psy-chogenic seizures. It outlines a brief critique of analytic stratégies that juxtapose cultural « beliefs » to médical « knowledge » of a biological condition, and develops an alternative understanding of the narrative construction of illness and ils expérience. In particular, it draws on récent theories of narrativity and reader response (Iser, Ricoeur, Bruner) to analyze the « subjunctivizing tactics » présent in illness narratives

The streamwater microbiome encodes hydrologic data across scales

Many fundamental questions in hydrology remain unanswered due to the limited information that can be extracted from existing data sources. Microbial communities constitute a novel type of environmental data, as they are comprised of many thousands of taxonomically and functionally diverse groups known to respond to both biotic and abiotic environmental factors. As such, these microscale communities reflect a range of macroscale conditions and characteristics, some of which also drive hydrologic regimes. Here, we assess the extent to which streamwater microbial communities (as characterized by 16S gene amplicon sequence abundance) encode information about catchment hydrology across scales. We analyzed 64 summer streamwater DNA samples collected from subcatchments within the Willamette, Deschutes, and John Day river basins in Oregon, USA, which range 0.03–29,000 km2 in area and 343–2334 mm/year of precipitation. We applied information theory to quantify the breadth and depth of information about common hydrologic metrics encoded within microbial taxa. Of the 256 microbial taxa that spanned all three watersheds, we found 9.6 % (24.5/256) of taxa, on average, shared information with a given hydrologic metric, with a median 15.6 % (range = 12.4–49.2 %) reduction in uncertainty of that metric based on knowledge of the microbial biogeography. All of the hydrologic metrics we assessed, including daily discharge at different time lags, mean monthly discharge, and seasonal high and low flow durations were encoded within the microbial community. Summer microbial taxa shared the most information with winter mean flows. Our study demonstrates quantifiable relationships between streamwater microbial taxa and hydrologic metrics at different scales, likely resulting from the integration of multiple overlapping drivers of each. Streamwater microbial communities are rich sources of information that may contribute fresh insight to unresolved hydrologic questions

Empowerment and the Transition to Housing for Homeless Mentally Ill People: An Anthropological Perspective

Often lacking in scholarly and policy-oriented discussions of homelessness are contextualized understandings of the problems faced, and the values held, by homeless mentally ill people. This article, using an anthropological perspective, examines issues that arise for homeless mentally ill individuals in making the transition from shelter living to permanent residences. The transition occurs as part of a housing initiative driven by the philosophy of consumer empowerment. Project participants are placed in independent apartments or evolving consumer households (ECH) — shared, staffed residences designed to transform themselves into consumer-directed living situations over time. The effects of an empowerment paradigm on the organization of space, the nature of social relations, and the management of economic resources in the ECHs are discussed to show that consumers and staff sometimes have contrasting views of what empowerment entails. It is suggested that anthropological research can help to illuminate the issues at stake in determining policy for homeless people with major mental illness

River Microbiome Composition Reflects Macroscale Climatic and Geomorphic Differences in Headwater Streams

Maintaining the quality and quantity of water resources in light of complex changes in climate, human land use, and ecosystem composition requires detailed understanding of ecohydrologic function within catchments, yet monitoring relevant upstream characteristics can be challenging. In this study, we investigate how variability in riverine microbial communities can be used to monitor the climate, geomorphology, land-cover, and human development of watersheds. We collected streamwater DNA fragments and used 16S rRNA sequencing to profile microbiomes from headwaters to outlets of the Willamette and Deschutes basins, two large watersheds prototypical of the U.S. Pacific Northwest region. In the temperate, north-south oriented Willamette basin, microbial community composition correlated most strongly with geomorphic characteristics (mean Mantel test statistic r = 0.19). Percentage of forest and shrublands (r = 0.34) and latitude (r = 0.41) were among the strongest correlates with microbial community composition. In the arid Deschutes basin, however, climatic characteristics were the most strongly correlated to microbial community composition (e.g., r = 0.11). In headwater sub-catchments of both watersheds, microbial community assemblages correlated with catchment-scale climate, geomorphology, and land-cover (r = 0.46, 0.38, and 0.28, respectively), but these relationships were weaker downstream. Development-related characteristics were not correlated with microbial community composition in either watershed or in small or large sub-catchments. Our results build on previous work relating streamwater microbiomes to hydrologic regime and demonstrate that microbial DNA in headwater streams additionally reflects the structural configuration of landscapes as well as other natural and anthropogenic processes upstream. Our results offer an encouraging indication that streamwater microbiomes not only carry information about microbial ecology, but also can be useful tools for monitoring multiple upstream watershed characteristics

Embodied Action, Enacted Bodies. The Example of Hypoglycaemia.

We all know that we have and are our bodies. But might it be possible to leave this common place? In the present article we try to do this by attending to the way we do our bodies. The site where we look for such action is that of handling the hypoglycaemias that sometimes happen to people with diabetes. In this site it appears that the body, active in measuring, feeling and countering hypoglycaemias is not a bounded whole: its boundaries leak. Bits and pieces of the outside get incorporated within the active body; while the centre of some bodily activities is beyond the skin. The body thus enacted is not self-evidently coherent either. There are tensions between the body¿s organs; between the control under which we put our bodies and the erratic character of their behaviour; and between the various needs and desires single bodies somehow try to combine. Thus to say that a body is a whole, or so we conclude, skips over a lot of work. One does not hang together as a matter of course: keeping oneself together is something the embodied person needs to do. The person who fails to do so dies

The effect of artificial selection on phenotypic plasticity in maize

Remarkable productivity has been achieved in crop species through artificial selection and adaptation to modern agronomic practices. Whether intensive selection has changed the ability of improved cultivars to maintain high productivity across variable environments is unknown. Understanding the genetic control of phenotypic plasticity and genotype by environment (G × E) interaction will enhance crop performance predictions across diverse environments. Here we use data generated from the Genomes to Fields (G2F) Maize G × E project to assess the effect of selection on G × E variation and characterize polymorphisms associated with plasticity. Genomic regions putatively selected during modern temperate maize breeding explain less variability for yield G × E than unselected regions, indicating that improvement by breeding may have reduced G × E of modern temperate cultivars. Trends in genomic position of variants associated with stability reveal fewer genic associations and enrichment of variants 0–5000 base pairs upstream of genes, hypothetically due to control of plasticity by short-range regulatory elements