Healing the Individual, Healing the Community Shamanic Rituals and Funerals of the Wana People of Morowali

This thesis offers an intricate analysis of three Wana rituals developed over a period of five years’ research reflection, focusing in depth on two of the rituals, the momago (healing ceremony) and kayori (funeral). It posits that Wana shamanism provides opportunities for creating ‘a sense of community’ (kasintuwu) at the same time that it can address individual ills, by bringing people together on ritual occasions. This idea is developed into a concept of 'density', with rituals cast as 'rites of densification' that temporarily recreate the primordial unity of the community. These concepts are then related to a conceptualisation of space-time in which the Wana remain at the origin and centre of the world, while those who have been dispersed (including to the West) have thrived at the physical periphery. Scalici also describes a concept of power in which local and visible people are powerless while those who have dispersed and are invisible, including spirits, are more powerful: this also maps on to a gender division in which women remain at home while men, and especially shamans, wander. Music is interpreted as being essential to the rituals because of its ability to connect people to the invisible realm and enable the wandering of shamans, as well as to control emotions

the ritual music of wana people

Very ancient practice, shamanism is usually found in the nomadic or semi- nomadic cultures. Given the dependence on the hunt for these populations, one of the fundamental roles of the shaman was to mediate between man and nature, especially between men and the lords of the animals that make possible the success of a hunting expedition. Shamanism has, however, shown a great ability to adapt to historical events, managing to keep up to us maintaining its uniqueness. Threatened by the arrival of progress and the world religions, has been able to respond actively and to influence the Western culture, as evidenced by the New Age movement and the presence of shamans in many movies, books and videogames. These fascinating, complex and archaic belief has always attracted the interest of the West, evidenced by historical, literary and academic publications, and it seems that still shamanism still has not exhausted what has to offer the world. In this article I am going to describe which the situation of the Wana religion to the present day is and which the rituals of this culture are. The Wana have two shamanic rituals - the momagu and the molawo ‒that face the disease with music, showing us the central role of music in the ritual life of this community, affirming - once again‒ the importance of music not just to Wana but also to humankind, and its relationship with the hidden world

Necronym: the effects of bearing a dead little sibling’s name

This study analyses the emotional experiences of people who bear the necronym of a deceased sibling in order to describe the 5 possible psychological implications of this experience. Using the grounded theory approach in interviews with 22 Italian participants and qualitative analysis of resulting texts, we found that some of the main themes that emerged confirmed the figure of the ‘replacement child’ described by previous literature. The three 10 fundamental themes were: ‘complicated grief, removal and fear of death’; ‘identity problems related to the necronym’; and ‘sad gratitude’. The study highlights some existential difficulties that spring from this experience and, after reviewing these themes in detail, we present a brief discussion on whether to dissuade 15 bereaved parents from naming a new child with the necronym of a deceased child

Performance of the first reverse electrodialysis pilot plant for power production from saline waters and concentrated brines

This work reports experimental data collected for the first time on a full-scale RED pilot plant operated with natural streams in a real environment. The plant - located in the South of Italy - represents the final accomplishment of the REAPower project (www.reapower.eu). A RED unit equipped with almost 50m2 of IEMs (125 cell pairs, 44x44cm2) was tested, using both artificial and natural feed solutions, these latter corresponding to brackish water (≈0.03M NaClequivalent) and saturated brine (4-5M NaClequivalent). A power output up to around 40W (i.e. 1.6W/m2 of cell pair) was reached using natural solutions, while an increase of 60% was observed when testing the system with artificial NaCl solutions, reaching up to ≈65W (2.7W/m2 of cell pair). The unit performance was monitored over a period of five months under, and no significant performance losses were observed due to scaling, fouling or ageing phenomena. Such results are of paramount importance to assess the potential of the technology, towards the successful development on the industrial scale. A scale-up of the pilot plant is planned through the installation of two additional RED modules, with an expected power output in the order of 1 kW

Euryhaline Aliens Invading Italian Inland Waters: The Case of the Atlantic Blue Crab Callinectes sapidus Rathbun, 1896

none6Alien invasive species represent a major threat in Italian freshwaters. Despite national and European regulations aimed at the control and prevention of new invasive species, the number of allochthonous species is increasing and so is the rate of spread. One of the most widespread invasive animals in coastal areas of the Mediterranean Sea is the blue crab Callinectes sapidus, a native of the Western Atlantic from Nova Scotia to Argentina. The species is euryhaline, and besides coastal waters, it is also commonly recorded in upper estuaries and lower reaches of rivers. Considering its fast adaptability and invasiveness, the main purpose of this work is to assess whether its biological plasticity and invasive capability may represent, in addition to marine and coastal habitats, also a potential threat for inland waters. Samples were collected in seven sites distributed between Southern and Central Italy. The new records are herein presented, starting from the original introduction by ballast waters and the actual westward migration in inland waters of Latium and Tuscany. In addition, the threat to biodiversity is also discussed, considering the blue crab aggressiveness toward both vertebrates and invertebrates, which may limit the distribution of native freshwater fish and macrofauna.Massimiliano Scalici, Stefania Chiesa , Giorgio Mancinelli, Pietro Maria Rontani, Andrea Voccia, Francesco Nonnis MarzanoScalici, Massimiliano; Chiesa, Stefania; Mancinelli, Giorgio; Maria Rontani, Pietro; Voccia, Andrea; Nonnis Marzano, Francesc

A DIC-based study of flexural behaviour of roving/mat/roving pultruded composites

This paper reports a study of the flexural behaviour and resultant failure modes in E-glass/polyester pultruded composites. The digital image correlation (DIC) method is used to estimate the effect of fibre orientation on failure behaviour in thick beams, taking into account the presence of continuous filament mat layer (CFM) in the stacking sequence. In particular, the tests were carried out for specimens with off-axis angle of 0\ub0, 7.5\ub0, 15\ub0, 30\ub0, 45\ub0 and 90\ub0.The crack initiation and the failure mechanisms depend on the mutual interaction between the stiffness properties of different areas in the stacking sequence. An influence index (I) was introduced to evaluate the magnitude of these phenomena.For small orientation angle (i.e. less than 7.5\ub0), the failure mechanism is not influenced by the central mat layer and the crack starts from the tension region. For angles between 15\ub0 and 45\ub0, the influence of the central mat layer is predominant and delamination occurs at the interface between the mat layer and the adjacent one. For 90\ub0 angles, the CFM layer does not influence the typical fracture mechanism and transverse matrix cracking occurs

Premature Ejaculation: Comparison of treatment. Pharmacotherapy vs Pharmacotherapy in association with group psychotherapy vs group psychotherapy

Introduction & Objectives: The aim of our study was to compare and analyse the effectiveness of pharmacological treatment and the psychotherapy alone or in association in terms of increase of Quality of Life (QoL) measured through Premature Ejaculation Diagnostic Tool (PEDT) and increase of intravaginal eiaculation latency time (IELT) in patients affected by primitive premature ejaculation(PE). Material & Methods: Between January and December 2012, in our department underwent to medical examination 540 patients complaining PE. Criteria for enrollment were primitive PE with IELT ≤ 2 minutes, PEDT > 9 and absence of psychiatric disease, severe chronic disease, drugs and alcool abuse. Out of 540 patients, 270 were elegible and were enrolled for the study. This patients were randomly divided in 3 group, A,B and C. Patients in Group A were treated with Dapoxetine, mean age 49,8 years(range 20-68). Patients in Group B were treated with Dapoxetine in association with Psycological counselling and group therapy, mean age 49,2 years. Patients in Group C were treated with psycologycal counselling and group therapy alone, mean age 36,9(range 20-56). In the Group A and B was precribed Dapoxetine 30 mg 1 cps 1h before the intercourse with increase in dose to 60mg in case of ineffectiveness. In group B and C after a first psycological counselling one by one patients entered in group therapy with 20 weekly scheduled meetings. All patients were followed for 20 weeks, with 4 schedueld visit during this period. The PEDT was administred before treatment and one month after the end of the therapy. Data were recorded and analysed trought a multivariated analysis. Results: Out of 270 patients enrolled, 120 (44,4%) were compliant to therapy and weren’t evaluable. GROUP A. Out of 90 patients enrolled 60 were compliant to the study. Mean IELT pre-treatment 79,75 sec (range 15 sec–120 sec) and mean PEDT score 15,95 (severe PE). Mean IELT post-treatment 203 sec and mean PEDT 8,26 (moderate PE). Thirteen patients(21,6%) showed an improvement of clinical with mean PEDT score ≤ 8 and IELT ≥ 2 ( p ≤ 0,001). GROUP B. Out of 90 patients enrolled 60 completed the scheduled therapy. Mean IELT pre-treatment 74,83 sec (range 15 sec–120 sec) and mean PEDT score 16 (sever PE). Mean IELT post-treatment 600 sec and mean PEDT 3,3 (absence PE/ light PE) (p ≤ 0,001). In all patients of Group B was detected a reduction of PE. GROUP C. Out of 90 patients enrolled only 30 patients completed the scheduled therapy. Mean IELT pre-treatment 75 sec (range 15 sec–120 sec) and mean PEDT score 15,7. Mean IELT post-treatment 323 sec and mean PEDT 4,03(absence PE/ light PE). Fifteen patients (50%)showed a reduction of PE.All the results analyzed by multivariate analysis were statically significative. Conclusions: Comparing the result obtained in our three groups: in the Group B (Pharmacotherapy plus Psycotherapy) all patients showed an improvement of IELT and PEDT, while in the group A (only Pharmacotherapy)and C (only Psycotherapy) the percentage of patients that reported an improvement of IELT and PEDT were respectively 21,6% and 50%. Our study demonstrate that the psyclogical counselling have a significative role in the treatment of PE. In particulary in association with the pharmacological therapy the psycological group therapy could increase the IELT and ameliorate QoL of patients affected by primitive PE as showed by the decrease of PEDT score