“You’re a trickster”: mockery, egalitarianism, and uncertainty in Northeastern Namibia

The trickster has held a prominent place in the study of folklore, as much as it has been central to anthropological understandings of egalitarianism. In both, the trickster embodies an insoluble tension between the repressed, amoral desires of the individual and the moral demands of social life. This tension, so it goes, is visible in the ambiguity of the figure—a protean indeterminate being, neither good nor bad. Among the Jú|’hoànsi of northeastern Namibia, the trickster is similarly ambiguous. The figure conveys not a clash of values, but rather the doubt and uncertainty people feel toward those with whom they share resources, or about different ways of sharing and how they might relate to one another. This article approaches such uncertainty through a focus on the mocking phrase “you’re a trickster” and the moral discourses that accompany it

All things being equal: uncertainty, ambivalence and trust in a Namibian conservancy

This thesis is about how experiences of uncertainty shape the way people share with one another. It is an ethnographic study of a rural conservancy in north-eastern Namibia, the Nyae Nyae Conservancy, and the urban town at its centre, Tsumkwe—between which people “roam in order to live”. The people at the centre of this study are the Ju|’hoansi (meaning “true people” or “people of proper custom”), known to anthropology both as hunter-gatherers and as a famously “egalitarian society”. In Namibia, they are a “traditional community” with ancestral rights to a communal land region that they now manage largely as a commercial enterprise. In doing so, they aim to perform the complementary work of conserving their ancestral way of life and the diverse fauna and flora they share it with, and enticing tourists, entrepreneurs, and trophy-hunters to provide the cash now necessary to do so. This work only goes so far in making people self-sufficient, however, giving rise to a regular push and pull between their territories and town. These movements reflect broader shifts towards informality, precariousness, and rising inequality across southern Africa, but they are also extensions of a much longer history of “roaming” that has been the subject of extensive writing within the discipline on hunter-gatherers and their fiercely egalitarian values. This writing sees roaming as a practice circumscribed by the assumption that those who have more than they can immediately use or consume will give in to the demands of roaming others without expecting repayment. In its contemporary guise, however, roaming necessitates encounters not with “true people”, like themselves, whom they expect will share without hesitation, but with “other people” who “want to refuse you”, “want to ruin you”, or who “cannot be trusted”. This thesis takes this nexus—between the values ordinarily associated with egalitarianism and the contemporary social context—as a productive space within which to explore the way that people go about sharing in the face of uncertainty and negotiating the ambivalence that emerges in the process. This thesis is based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in the Nyae Nyae conservancy between October 2014 – December 2015. It contributes to current debates within the anthropology of value on redistributive regimes and within the anthropology of ethics on experiences of moral ambivalence, and to broader fields of research on the relationship between state processes and informal economies in southern Africa

Enhanced Blood Pressure Acquisition

Blood pressure is considered a primary vital sign that is regularly monitored in a healthcare setting. Current blood pressure measurement equipment lacks reproducible measurements which leads to questionable accuracy. Therefore, there is a need for an accurate and reproducible blood pressure measurement device that can take remote measurements. This project will be designed in The University of Akron\u27s biomedical engineering capstone course. The goal of this senior design project is to design and fabricate a blood pressure measuring device that meets the customer requirements and engineering requirements identified by the team

Factors influencing participation in a vascular disease prevention lifestyle program among participants in a cluster randomized trial

BackgroundPrevious research suggests that lifestyle intervention for the prevention of diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) are effective, however little is known about factors affecting participation in such programs. This study aims to explore factors influencing levels of participation in a lifestyle modification program conducted as part of a cluster randomized controlled trial of CVD prevention in primary care.MethodsThis concurrent mixed methods study used data from the intervention arm of a cluster RCT which recruited 30 practices through two rural and three urban primary care organizations. Practices were randomly allocated to intervention (n = 16) and control (n = 14) groups. In each practice up to 160 eligible patients aged between 40 and 64 years old, were invited to participate. Intervention practice staff were trained in lifestyle assessment and counseling and referred high risk patients to a lifestyle modification program (LMP) consisting of two individual and six group sessions over a nine month period. Data included a patient survey, clinical audit, practice survey on capacity for preventive care, referral and attendance records at the LMP and qualitative interviews with Intervention Officers facilitating the LMP. Multi-level logistic regression modelling was used to examine independent predictors of attendance at the LMP, supplemented with qualitative data from interviews with Intervention Officers facilitating the program.ResultsA total of 197 individuals were referred to the LMP (63% of those eligible). Over a third of patients (36.5%) referred to the LMP did not attend any sessions, with 59.4% attending at least half of the planned sessions. The only independent predictors of attendance at the program were employment status - not working (OR: 2.39 95% CI 1.15-4.94) and having high psychological distress (OR: 2.17 95% CI: 1.10-4.30). Qualitative data revealed that physical access to the program was a barrier, while GP/practice endorsement of the program and flexibility in program delivery facilitated attendance.ConclusionBarriers to attendance at a LMP for CVD prevention related mainly to external factors including work commitments and poor physical access to the programs rather than an individuals’ health risk profile or readiness to change. Improving physical access and offering flexibility in program delivery may enhance future attendance. Finally, associations between psychological distress and attendance rates warrant further investigation

Living in bubbles during the coronavirus pandemic: insights from New Zealand

This report presents initial research findings on the ‘social bubbles’ policy that the New Zealand government adopted as part of its strategy for curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The concept of ‘the bubble’ proved effective at conveying the necessity of exclusive containment, while foregrounding the importance of mutual care and support that might stretch beyond a single household or home. It allowed New Zealanders who were isolated, vulnerable, or struggling to receive the care and support they needed. This success partly resulted from the strong emphasis placed on ‘being kind’ within the New Zealand government’s public narrative of the lockdown. Bubbles were expanded when it would keep people ‘safe and well’. There was high compliance with the mandate to keep bubbles exclusive, and the concept of exclusivity within an expanded bubble was generally – if not always – well understood. Adaptation to ‘the bubble’ as a new social form was not always straightforward, however, and bubble relationships could be strained by divergent risk perceptions, or differing interpretations of ambiguous guidelines. Moreover, some groups systematically found it harder to enjoy the full benefits of living in a bubble: people living in flatshare arrangements, co-parents living apart, recently arrived migrants and people who were active in the workplace. Once infection rates are sufficiently low and appropriate contact tracing infrastructures are in place, a social bubbles policy could be very effective in other countries, especially if concrete steps are taken to pre-empt some of the difficulties and inequalities that were evident in New Zealand

Developing cellulosic waste products as platform chemicals: protecting group chemistry of α-glucoisosaccharinic acid

Alpha and beta-glucoisosaccharinic acids ((2S,4S)-2,4,5-trihydroxy-2-(hydroxymethyl)pentanoic acid and (2R,4S)-2,4,5-trihydroxy-2-(hydroxymethyl)pentanoic acid) which are produced when cellulosic materials are treated with aqueous alkali are potentially valuable platform chemicals. Their highly functionalised carbon skeleton, with fixed chirality at C-2 and C-4, makes them ideal starting materials for use in synthesis. In order to assess the potential of these saccharinic acids as platform chemicals we have explored the protecting group chemistry of the lactone form of alpha-glucoisosaccharinic acid (α-GISAL). We report here the use of single and multiple step reaction pathways leading to the regioselective protection of the three different hydroxyl groups of α-GISAL. We report strategies for protecting the three different hydroxyl groups individually or in pairs. We also report the synthesis of a range of tri-O-protected α-GISAL derivatives where a number of the products contain orthogonal protecting groups

‘It has totally changed how I think about the police’: COVID-19 and the mis/trust of pandemic policing in Aotearoa New Zealand

In the initial phase of COVID-19, Aotearoa New Zealand was internationally praised for its pandemic response that included lockdowns to control the spread and work towards elimination. Community compliance with control measures was thus essential when pursuing elimination as a policy. Using a mixed-methods approach, we sought to explore whether New Zealand Police (NZP) were trusted to police the lockdown rules at Levels 4 and 3. We analyzed 1,020 survey responses comparing trust among respondents who had been stopped by NZP over the lockdown rules (contacts) with those who had not (non-contacts). We found that both contacts and non-contacts expressed greater trust in NZP to enforce the Level 4 than the Level 3 rules; contacts expressed less trust in NZP to enforce the lockdown rules than non-contacts; contacts perceived NZP more heavy-handed than non-contacts; contacts perceived NZP as only somewhat procedurally just and feeling somewhat encouraged to comply with the lockdown rules and; that unexpected high-profile policing-related events during the survey only affected contacts’ trust significantly. We offer two explanations: (1) NZP were perceived as procedurally unjust or inconsistent in applying the lockdown rules, (2) members of the public and NZP learned the lockdown rules simultaneously. We caution that the unfamiliar character of pandemic policing may jeopardize trust in NZP even among segments of the population that typically express high levels of trust in NZP, i.e., people of European descent. We conclude that community compliance with pandemic control measures is no matter to be dealt with by the criminal legal system

The most difficult time of my life or ‘COVID’s gift to me’? Differential experiences of COVID-19 funerary restrictions in Aotearoa New Zealand

In 2020, the government of Aotearoa New Zealand imposed some of the most stringent funerary restrictions in the world as part of its efforts to eliminate COVID-19. This article explores how people experienced this situation, asking why restrictions that some described as precipitating ‘the most difficult time of their lives’ were described by others as a ‘relief’, ‘blessing’, or ‘gift’. Much existing literature frames funerary restrictions as a distressing assault upon established ways of grieving to which mourners must try to adapt–and in Aotearoa, both the stringency of the restrictions and the means by which they had been imposed did lead to many people finding them challenging. However, for those with ambivalent pre-existing feelings regarding their funerary traditions–such as many in the Samoan diaspora–COVID-19 restrictions afforded both a reprieve from burdensome practices and a much-welcomed opportunity to reimagine their traditions. Funerary restrictions, though disruptive, are thereby shown to have generative potential

Lockdown Ibuism: experiences of Indonesian migrant mothers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Aotearoa New Zealand

Lockdowns imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19 have been widely shown to heighten care burdens within households and ‘bubbles.’ Responsibility for meeting such burdens often falls disproportionately upon women. It is nevertheless important for research on gendered inequalities during COVID-19 to attend to the particularities of how such care work was experienced by differently positioned women. In Aotearoa New Zealand, Indonesian migrant mothers’ experiences of lockdown were mediated by the disadvantages they faced as ‘non-native’ speakers of English, as well as by the ideology of Ibuism (‘motherism’) they were socialised into during their lives in Indonesia. This socialisation led many to find life under lockdown life both rewarding and stressful in ways distinct from other women and mothers in Aotearoa New Zealand who were confronting similar demands. We thus argue for the importance of a qualitative and intersectional approach

Good and ‘bad’ deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic: insights from a rapid qualitative study

Dealing with excess death in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the question of a good or bad death' into sharp relief as countries across the globe have grappled with multiple peaks of cases and mortality; and communities mourn those lost. In the UK, these challenges have included the fact that mortality has adversely affected minority communities. Corpse disposal and social distancing guidelines do not allow a process of mourning in which families and communities can be involved in the dying process. This study aimed to examine the main concerns of faith and non-faith communities across the UK in relation to death in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The research team used rapid ethnographic methods to examine the adaptations to the dying process prior to hospital admission, during admission, during the disposal and release of the body, during funerals and mourning. The study revealed that communities were experiencing collective loss, were making necessary adaptations to rituals that surrounded death, dying and mourning and would benefit from clear and compassionate communication and consultation with authorities