La “Religion Invisible” En Belgique: Questions De Visibilité

"Visible religion" in Belgium takes the form it takes in many other Western European countries: classic forms of practices, beliefs, and identifications can be distinguished, but the gap between these and traditional religious forms is increasing. However, this gap does not keep the "visible religion" from seeking fundamental meaning, or producing and celebrating the same. Quite the contrary, as concerns practices and beliefs relative to death, for example, older forms do not simply disappear, but are replaced by new arrangements. These new arrangements are self-produced and self-maintained, but they do not give rise to an increase in individualization in a context of dissolution of forms. It may be that still newer forms will rise upon the ashes of these forms. Should they not be described as "religious"? And in order to transcend their relative "invisibility", must the sociology of religion not also break with its history of colonization by prior forms

Bricolages religieux ou transactions symboliques? Quelques elements a partir de la recomposition des croyances relatives a l'apres-mort dans un Occident dechristianise

Dans un contexte ou` nombre de sujets e´chappent aux encadrements religieux classiques, les recompositions de sens qu’ils engagent peuvent-elles se re´duire a` des connotations de´favorablement banalise´es du mot ‘‘bricolage’’? Ne serions-nous pas plutoˆt devant des transactions symboliques aux convergences et implications plus profondes et qui de´bordent cette autre limite qu’annonce le compose´ restrictif ‘‘bricolages religieux’’

The AMMA-CATCH experiment in the cultivated Sahelian area of south-west Niger - Investigating water cycle response to a fluctuating climate and changing environment

Among the three sites distributed along the West African latitudinal gradient in the AMMA-CATCH observation system, the experimental setup in the Niamey area of south-west Niger samples the cultivated Sahel environment, for hydrological, vegetation and land surface processes. The objective is to investigate relationships between climate, land cover, and the water cycle, in a rapidly changing semiarid environment. This paper first presents the main characteristics of the area, where previous research, including the EPSAT and HAPEX-Sahel experiments, had evidenced a widespread decadal increase in water resources, concurrently with severe drought conditions. The specifics of AMMA-CATCH research and data acquisition at this site, over the long-term (∼2001-2010) and enhanced (∼2005-2008) observation periods, are introduced. Objectives and observation strategy are explained, and the main characteristics of instrument deployment are detailed. A very large number of parameters - covering rainfall, vegetation ecophysiology, phenology and production, surface fluxes of energy, water vapour and CO2, runoff and sediment, pond water, soil moisture, and groundwater - were monitored at local to meso scales in a nested structure of sites. The current state of knowledge is summarized, connecting processes and patterns of variation for rainfall, vegetation/land cover, and the terrestrial hydrologic cycle. The central role of land use and of its spectacular change in recent decades is highlighted. This paper provides substantial background information that sets the context for papers relating to the south-west Niger site in this AMMA-CATCH special issue. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

The role of GHR and IGF1 genes in the genetic determination of African pygmies’ short stature

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