Origines et étapes

Ancienne colonie anglaise connue sous le nom de Ceylan, la République socialiste démocratique de Sri Lanka est depuis longtemps un carrefour migratoire. Dès la fin des années cinquante, l’île a vu migrer des travailleurs tamouls vers l’Inde et ses élites anglophones vers les pays du Commonwealth, puis des populations cinghalaises en direction du Moyen-Orient. Avec les conflits internes qui ont ravagé Sri Lanka depuis les années quatre-vingt, l’émigration s’est densifiée. Elle concerne surtout la minorité tamoule. Aujourd’hui, on estime la diaspora sri lankaise à environ un million de personnes

BARTHOLOMEUSZ (Tessa J), DE SILVA (Chandra R.), eds., Buddhist Fundamentalism and Minority Identities in Sri Lanka

Cet important ouvrage rassemble une dizaine de contributions abordant sous un angle théorique nouveau un sujet déjà largement défriché par K. Malalgoda (Buddhism in Sinhalese Society, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1976), G. Obeyesekere (avec R. Gombrich, Buddhism Transformed : Religious Change in Sri Lanka, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1988), S.J. Tambiah (Buddhism Betrayed ? Religion, Politics and Violence in Sri Lanka, Chicago, Chicago University Press, 1992 [cf. Arch...

H. L. Seneviratne, The Work of Kings. The New Buddhism in Sri Lanka

Dans le contexte culturel indien en général, et bouddhique en particulier, l’action (politique et sociale) est l’affaire des rois, non des religieux. Cet axiome dumontien est exprimé naturellement et avec force par des villageois à la face d’un moine sri-lankais engagé dans l’action sociale, venu solliciter leur assistance dans la lutte contre une épidémie de malaria, en 1935 : à quoi ce moine moderniste rétorque qu’en l’absence de roi, le moine est prince. Tel est le thème qui donne son titr..

BARTHOLOMEUSZ (Tessa J), DE SILVA (Chandra R.), eds., Buddhist Fundamentalism and Minority Identities in Sri Lanka

Cet important ouvrage rassemble une dizaine de contributions abordant sous un angle théorique nouveau un sujet déjà largement défriché par K. Malalgoda (Buddhism in Sinhalese Society, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1976), G. Obeyesekere (avec R. Gombrich, Buddhism Transformed : Religious Change in Sri Lanka, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1988), S.J. Tambiah (Buddhism Betrayed ? Religion, Politics and Violence in Sri Lanka, Chicago, Chicago University Press, 1992 [cf. Arch...

Fuzzy-TLX: using fuzzy integrals for evaluating human mental workload with NASA-Task Load indeX in laboratory and field studies

International audienceThe aim of this study was to assess mental workload in which various load sources must be integrated to derive reliable workload estimates. We report a new algorithm for computing weights from qualitative fuzzy integrals and apply it to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration -Task Load indeX (NASA-TLX) subscales in order to replace the standard pair-wise weighting technique (PWT). In this paper, two empirical studies were reported: (1) In a laboratory experiment, age- and task-related variables were investigated in 53 male volunteers and (2) In a field study, task- and job-related variables were studied on aircrews during 48 commercial flights. The results found in this study were as follows: (i) in the experimental setting, fuzzy estimates were highly correlated with classical (using PWT) estimates; (ii) in real work conditions, replacing PWT by automated fuzzy treatments simplified the NASA-TLX completion; (iii) the algorithm for computing fuzzy estimates provides a new classification procedure sensitive to various variables of work environments and (iv) subjective and objective measures can be used for the fuzzy aggregation of NASA-TLX subscales

Le rôle des équipements médiatiques dans l’esthétisation des souffrances et des professionnalités

Les phénomènes liés à la maltraitance des enfants sont aujourd'hui largement co-construits par des représentations modelées et transmises par les médias dominants. Mais toutes les maltraitances ne bénéficient pas du même traitement médiatique et la souffrance n'est pas toujours “exposée” et “évaluée” de la même façon dans notre société. À partir d'un travail d'observation participante et de recueil de données journalistiques, cet article propose une analyse sociologique d'une situation de maltraitance, de ses couvertures médiatiques et de certains effets de la mise en scène et en cause de la professionnalité des travailleurs sociaux. Face à ce que nous appelons une esthétisation de la souffrance dans les médias, ces derniers doivent de plus en plus manifester leurs compétences et communiquer sur leurs pratiques dans l'espace public.The role of the media in the aestheticism of suffering and professional behaviour. Phenomena linked to the mistreatment of children are today extensively co-constructed by representations modelled and transmitted by the dominant media. But not every type of mistreatment benefits from the saure media treatment and suffering is not always exposed and assessed in the saure way in our society. Based on participatory observation work and the collection of journalistic data, this article suggests a sociological analysis of a mistreatment situation, media coverage and certain effects of the presentation and challenging of the professionalism of social workers. Faced with what we terra "aestheticism" of suffering in the media, social workers are increasingly called on to demonstrate their skill and provide information on their working methods in the public arena

Introduction

Who is a Hindu? was the famous subtitle chosen by Savarkar for his nationalist pamphlet founding the Hindutva ideology in 19231. We know about the legal difficulties faced by the British (among others) to define Hindus and Hinduism, and the resulting solution, which defined being Hindu by default: being Hindu meant not being Muslim, nor Christian, nor Sikh, nor Buddhist, nor anything else. This is a rather extreme example of the necessity to define the Other when it comes to defining oneself (Mohammad-Arid & Ripert 2014). Following a workshop held in Paris in 20152, the purpose of this special issue is to start from the Sri Lankan case to study how Hinduism and Hindus define others and interact with them, and what these interactions reveal about Hinduism in general and about Sri Lankan Hinduism in particular, especially regarding religious, social, political and territorial issues. By addressing relations to the Other from the Hindu point of view, the issue proposes more broadly to develop a critical conception of Hinduism that considers this religion as a point of contact between various social and religious groups. Indeed, we argue that questioning the importance of these multiple realities of contact, whether they are recognised or denied, also helps to renew the debate about the challenges of defining Hinduism, articulated by both Hindus and scholars

Rebirth of a nation or 'The incomparable toothbrush': the origin story and narrative regeneration in Sri Lanka

I examine the post-Independence role of Sri Lanka’s origin story, revealing the ways in which the foundational myth of the Mahavamsa functions as a conflicted site of cultural ‘encompassment’ (Kapferer) in literary and political discourse. Through an analysis of the fiction of Tissa Abeysekara, Carl Muller and the assassinated president Ranasinghe Premadasa, I show how the scripting of this myth in fiction reveals a shift from the celebratory drives of nationalism to a critique of patriotism in a way that both reflects and anticipates a broader paradigmatic shift in the construction of belonging and the outsider found in post-war Sri Lanka

A conserved lysine residue of plant Whirly proteins is necessary for higher order protein assembly and protection against DNA damage

All organisms have evolved specialized DNA repair mechanisms in order to protect their genome against detrimental lesions such as DNA double-strand breaks. In plant organelles, these damages are repaired either through recombination or through a microhomology-mediated break-induced replication pathway. Whirly proteins are modulators of this second pathway in both chloroplasts and mitochondria. In this precise pathway, tetrameric Whirly proteins are believed to bind single-stranded DNA and prevent spurious annealing of resected DNA molecules with other regions in the genome. In this study, we add a new layer of complexity to this model by showing through atomic force microscopy that tetramers of the potato Whirly protein WHY2 further assemble into hexamers of tetramers, or 24-mers, upon binding long DNA molecules. This process depends on tetramer–tetramer interactions mediated by K67, a highly conserved residue among plant Whirly proteins. Mutation of this residue abolishes the formation of 24-mers without affecting the protein structure or the binding to short DNA molecules. Importantly, we show that an Arabidopsis Whirly protein mutated for this lysine is unable to rescue the sensitivity of a Whirly-less mutant plant to a DNA double-strand break inducing agent