a body writing

This article is a meditation on how the body fights to write about experiences of gendered risk and discomfort in anthropology. It details the sensorium of trauma and risk in fieldwork and how writing is central to processing traumas and but also curating future methodological directions. Responding to the demands placed on knowledge production in the discipline, anthropologists are often trained to seal up and bury these kinds of vulnerable writings. However, feminist writing praxes of disobedience and survival encourage anthropologists to do fieldwork and write not to survive a "trial by fire" or preserve an anthropology tested and known but to treat the body and writing as mutual sites of re-visioning more ethical engagements in their fields of work

Bargaining in a Labor Regime: Plantation Life and the Politics of Development in Sri Lanka

This dissertation is an ethnographic study of migrant labor, development, and gender among Malaiyaha ("Hill Country") Tamil tea plantation residents in contemporary Sri Lanka. It draws on one year of field research (2008-2009) conducted during state emergency rule in Sri Lanka amongst Malaiyaha Tamil plantation residents, migrant laborers, and community members responding to histories of dislocation and ethnic marginalization. Based on ethnographic observations, detailed life histories, and collaborative dialogue, it explores how Malaiyaha Tamils reconstitute what it means to be a political minority in an insecure Sri Lankan economy and state by 1) employing dignity-enabling strategies of survival through ritual practices and storytelling; 2) abandoning income-generating options on the plantations to ensure financial security; and 3) seeking radical alternatives to traditional development through employment of rights-based ideologies and networks of solidarity in and beyond Sri Lanka. Attending to these three spheres of collective practice--plantation life, migrant labor experience, and human development--this dissertation examines how Malaiyaha Tamils actively challenge historical representations of bonded labor and political voicelessness in order to rewrite their representative canon in Sri Lanka. At the center of each pragmatic site is the Malaiyaha Tamil woman. Focusing particularly on the female worker, I present emerging gender relations and experiences in group life, transnational labor mobilization, and development work that pose radical and deliberate alternatives to economic marginalization and capitalist plantation production in Sri Lanka. Negotiating their place within patriarchal structures on the plantation and in civil society, Malaiyaha Tamil women present themselves in ways that sharply contrast the expert narratives of their experiences, which are composed for public recognition and consumption. Interceding this transmission of knowledge, their stories actively transform plantation development discourses in Sri Lanka and resituate their practices within the more enabling frame of transnational feminism and solidarity. Addressing lacunas in South Asian, social science, and humanities literature on Malaiyaha Tamil women, this dissertation contributes lived content on previously unrecorded women's experiences and complicates former accounts of the woman worker in Sri Lanka. Informing this project is the relationship among community, vulnerability, and reproduction. How are forms of Malaiyaha Tamil development and membership, when increasingly opened up to the realm of the political, made at once vulnerable and generative in their attempts to gain a sense of security and belonging in Sri Lanka? What do practices of cultural reconfiguration and solidarity-building reveal about the persistence of community as an affective term and the woman worker's position in global movements of transnational feminism and migrant labor? Each chapter focuses on this relationship in the context of the final months and aftermath of civil war in Sri Lanka, and I engage the work of political theorists, Sri Lankan historians, and development scholars to argue for a more productive way of thinking about communities in crisis. I argue that community is the continual mental exercise of self-refinement and a mode in which Malaiyaha Tamils address insecurities of a closed past with intentional practices of fixing belief in an open present. This enabling perspective allows us to account for the realities of social investment, movement, and network-building that Malaiyaha Tamils experience in Sri Lanka. By analyzing the contradictions and legacy of seizing Malaiyaha Tamil plantation experience in Sri Lankan history and scholarship, this dissertation seeks to envision the Sri Lankan woman worker as a global subject with transformative possibilities for her community and nation and contribute to the anthropologies of development, labor, and gender in South Asia

A Comparative Study of Selected Motor Abilities of Intercollegiate Male Football and Handball Players

The main Objective of the study to compare the selected motor abilities of intercollegiate male Football and handball players. Methodology: To achieve the purpose of study 20 male players each for Football and Handball were selected Bangalore university Inter Collegiate tournament. The age group of subjects was ranging between 18-25 years. Test by Johnson and Nelson (1982) was used to measure motor fitness components. To find out the difference between means of the Football and Handball Groups ‘t’ test was applied. Results: The study revealed that the There is no significant difference in the speed variable of Football and Handball players. Differences were observed on arm power, leg- power and agility variables between Football and Handball players but these were insignificant. It was found that Football players are better in speed, leg power and agility whereas Handball players are superior to Football player on arm power

Nosocomial Infections in Patients Admitted in Intensive Care Unit of a Tertiary Health Center, India

Background: Patients in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) are a significant subgroup of all hospitalized patients, accounting for about a quarter of all hospital infections.Aim: The aim was to study, the current status of nosocomial infection, rate of infection and distribution of infection among patients admitted in Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) of a District Hospital. Subjects and Methods: Data were collected retrospectively from 130 patientfs records presented with symptoms of nosocomial infection in MICU of a Tertiary Health Center, Tumkur from August 2012 to May 2013. Descriptive statistics using percentage was calculated.Results: Incidence of nosocomial infections in MICU patients was 17.7% (23/130). Of which 34.8% (8/130) was urinary tract infection (UTI) being the most frequent; followed by pneumonia 21.7% (5/130), 17.4% (4/130) surgical site infection, 13.0% (3/130) gastroenteritis, 13.0% (3/130) blood stream infection and meningitis. The nosocomial infection was seen morein the 40-60 year of age. The male were more prone to nosocomial infections than the female.Conclusion: The most frequent nosocomial infections (urinary, respiratory, and surgical site) were common in geriatric patients in the MICU setting and are associated with the use of invasive device. Large-scale studies are needed to be carried out in Indian population to plan long-term strategies for prevention and management of nosocomial infections.Keywords: Medical Intensive Care Unit, Nosocomial infections, Tertiary health centr

A comparative study of fluoride release from two different sealants

Objectives: The introduction of fluoride releasing sealants and glass ionomer cements as fissure sealants adds another dimension to prevention of pit and fissure caries. The ability of resin sealants and glass ionomer cements to release fluoride on a long term basis to the sealed enamel and the adjacent unsealed pit and fissure and cuspal in - cline enamel may allow for further reduction in pit and fissure caries experience for children. Hence, the study was conducted to compare the amount of fluoride release in the plaque after placing fluoride releasing pit and fissure sealants and glass ionomer fissure sealants used in Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART) approach. To compare the fluoride release of both the materials at the different time intervals. Material and Methods: A total of 60 school going children were included in this study. Before application of the sealants, baseline plaque fluoride levels were estimated from all the study subjects. After application of sealants again the same was estimated at an interval of 24 hour, 9 days, 2 weeks and 4 weeks. Results: The peak plaque fluoride levels were achieved at 24 hours after application of fissure sealants in all the groups. Conclusions: Within the limitation of the study, the present study indicated that fluoride releasing fissure sealants may act as a source of fluoride in plaque which will help in preventing pit and fissure and smooth surface caries in the tooth sealed with fissure sealants