Comment on Lansing/de Vet’s paper

# The Author(s) 2012. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Lansing/de Vet’s article tries to substantiate the conclusion Lansing has presented in all his publications since “Priests and Programmers”, namely that the irrigation management was exclusively performed by water temples and their com-moner priests. These water temples accomplished a synchro-nization of irrigation agriculture that was a means to achieve the sharing of water (up-stream/down-stream) and pest control. Furthermore, he suggested that subak (irrigation associations) have been democratic organizations run exclusively by farm-ers; no lords or rulers were involved in the management of irrigation agriculture. Lansing’s theoretical approach consti-tutes a grid which has been applied to the colonial literature in a deductive way and to data collection during fieldwork. The submitted article documents this perspective too

Swiss pension funds: funding ratio, discount rate, and asset allocation

The funding ratio is a financial indicator to measure the viability of pension funds. The paper analyzes how Swiss occupational pension funds' technical discount rate and asset allocation are related to the funding ratio. The paper shows that funds with weaker funding ratios apply higher rates to discount future pension liabilities what points toward euphemistic discounting. Further, weaker funded pension funds invest less in equities-with the exception of pension funds below the regulatory minimum threshold. The latter invest more in equities than funds above the threshold, which points to gambling for resurrection. The findings question the funding ratio as a transparent measure for pensions' sustainability and unfold the regulatory environment's disincentives

Winter habitat selection and conservation of Hazel Grouse ( Bonasa bonasia ) in mountain forests

The Hazel Grouse (Bonasa bonasia) has suffered from habitat loss due to changes in forestry practices in many regions of Europe. The widespread conversion of structurally heterogeneous to uniform, single-layered stands has caused many of its populations to decline. The trend in multi-functional forestry towards more dynamic processes and natural rejuvenation offers a unique opportunity to restore many habitats of Hazel Grouse in core areas of its actual distribution. As the Alps represent a stronghold of Hazel Grouse distribution in Central Europe, we aimed to determine the species-habitat relationship in mountain forests. We assessed the distribution and characteristics of Hazel Grouse habitat in a forest reserve of the Swiss Alps. Abiotic, structural and vegetation characteristics were investigated at the small scale, and abiotic and forest inventory data at the large scale. We compared the habitat characteristics of used and unused forest stands with a raster system consisting of bird presence and absence cells by applying a logistic regression. Hazel Grouse preferred stands with high proportions of tall rowans, forest edges, and a dense shrub layer at the small scale. Rowans had the strongest influence on Hazel Grouse occurrence. At the large scale, Hazel Grouse preferred forests with large proportions of alder and a diverse mosaic of canopy closure and stand structure. For 44% of the study area, the large-scale model predicted a probability of Hazel Grouse occurrence of more than 0.5. Our data supports the recommendation that the availability of suitable habitat for Hazel Grouse can be increased by natural reforestation of tree-fall gaps and stands with bark beetle infestation, as well as by enhancing the proportion of old-growth stands. Both measures will augment the shrub cover and number of rowan trees, two essential habitat and food resources for Hazel Grouse in mountain forest

Payment Fintechs and Debt Enforcement

Fintech payment companies acting as lenders possess a potential solution to weak debt enforcement. Their location in the payment chain yields them a senior position in the revenue stream of the borrowing merchant, as the payment company can deduct part of the merchant's sales it processes to amortize the loan. Our analysis of the transactions processed through a fintech company offering such sales-linked loans suggests that some borrowers discontinuously reduce sales processed through the company immediately after the loan disbursal to strategically default. We find that competition from other lenders and cash limits the effectiveness of this enforcement technology

Adat and Indigeneity in Indonesia - Culture and Entitlements between Heteronomy and Self-Ascription

A number of UN conventions and declarations (on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions and the World Heritage Conventions) can be understood as instruments of international governance to promote democracy and social justice worldwide. In Indonesia (as in many other countries), these international agreements have encouraged the self-assertion of communities that had been oppressed and deprived of their land, especially during the New Order regime (1966-1998). More than 2,000 communities in Indonesia who define themselves as masyarakat adat or “indigenous peoples” had already joined the Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance of the Archipelago” (AMAN) by 2013. In their efforts to gain recognition and selfdetermination, these communities are supported by international donors and international as well as national NGOs by means of development programmes. In the definition of masyarakat adat, “culture” or adat plays an important role in the communities’ self-definition. Based on particular characteristics of their adat, the asset of their culture, they try to distinguish themselves from others in order to substantiate their claims for the restitution of their traditional rights and property (namely land and other natural resources) from the state. The authors of this volume investigate how differently structured communities - socially, politically and religiously - and associations reposition themselves vis-à-vis others, especially the state, not only by drawing on adat for achieving particular goals, but also dignity and a better future

Women in Kararau - Gendered Lives, Works, and Knowledge in a Middle Sepik Village, Papua New Guinea

The book offers a glimpse back in time to a Middle Sepik society, the Iatmul, first investigated by the anthropologist Gregory Bateson in the late 1920s while the feminist anthropologist Margaret Mead worked on sex roles among the neighbouring Tchambuli (Chambri) people. The author lived in the Iatmul village of Kararau in 1972/3 where she studied women’s lives, works, and knowledge in detail. She revisited the Sepik in 2015 and 2017. The book, the translation of a 1977 publication in German, is complemented by two chapters dealing with the life of the Iatmul in the 2010s. It presents rich quantitative and qualitative data on subsistence economy, marriage, and women’s knowledge concerning myths and rituals. Besides, life histories and in-depth interviews convey deep insights into women’s experiences and feelings, especially regarding their varied relationships with men in the early 1970s. Since then, Iatmul culture has changed in many respects, especially as far as the economy, religion, knowledge, and the relationship between men and women are concerned. In her afterword, the anthropologist Christiane Falck highlights some of the major topics raised in the book from a 2018 perspective, based on her own fieldwork which she commenced in 2012. Thus, the book provides the reader with detailed information about gendered lives in this riverine village of the 1970s and an understanding of the cultural processes and dynamics that have taken place since

Land Donations and the Gift of Water. On Temple Landlordism and Irrigation Agriculture in Pre-Colonial Bali

The Batur Temple (Pura Ulun Danu Batur) in Kintamani is located at the geographic apex of a so-called ritual water hierarchy and has conventionally been described as a purely religious institution responsible for the coordination and distribution of the irrigation water. However, an analysis of historical palm leaf manuscripts reveals that the temple had a firm economic base with corresponding interests and that it was one of the most important land-owners in late pre-colonial Bali. The article therefore explores from a socio-political and economic perspective the implications of this form of temple landlordism and its combination with ritual water control, particularly for the peasants and the portion of their annual surplus that they were obliged to deliver to this temple

Surface damage in TEM thick α-Fe samples by implantation with 150 keV Fe ions

We have performed molecular dynamics simulations of implantation of 150 keV Fe ions in pure bcc Fe. The thickness of the simulation box is of the same order of those used in in situ TEM analysis of irradiated materials. We assess the effect of the implantation angle and the presence of front and back surfaces. The number and type of defects, ion range, cluster distribution and primary damage morphology are studied. Results indicate that, for the very thin samples used in in situ TEM irradiation experiments the presence of surfaces affect dramatically the damage produced. At this particular energy, the ion has sufficient energy to damage both the top and the back surfaces and still leave the sample through the bottom. This provides new insights on the study of radiation damage using TEM in situ.This work was supported by the European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA), the VII EC framework through the GETMAT and MATISSE projects, and the Generalitat Valenciana PROMETEO2012/011

Transcultural journeys: The disembedding and re-embedding of Sepik art

Artefacts have always been part of inter- and transcultural journeys in the Sepik. People and artefacts had been continuously moving throughout the area in pre-colonial New Guinea due to migrations, exchange and plundering. However, the scope and the quality of these journeys changed fundamentally when the process of disembedding of artefacts started with the collecting activities of explorers in the colonial area. Against the backdrop of the transmaritime journeys of textiles from India to the Southeast Asian archipelago in pre-colonial times, this article highlights the special features of the Sepik case. The dislocation of predominantly old and “authentic” Sepik artefacts to places in the western world resulted in their transformation and re-embedding in new settings. A proliferation of transformations and reinterpretations of Sepik art began with the transcultural journeys of artefacts to multiple destinations since the intensification of globalisation, resulting in stories about the artefacts with conflicting interpretations and consequences.Dans le Sepik, les artefacts ont toujours voyagé entre cultures. À l’époque précoloniale, suite aux migrations, aux échanges et aux pillages, les populations et les objets ont toujours migré entre les régions. Cependant le périmètre et la qualité de ces voyages transculturels changèrent considérablement quand le processus de délocalisation des objets commença avec les collectes des explorateurs à l’époque coloniale. En s’appuyant sur l’exemple de l’échange par voies maritimes des textiles entre l’Inde et l’archipel de l’Asie du Sud-Est à l’époque précoloniale, cet article éclaire les formes particulières de l’échange dans le Sepik. La dispersion des objets anciens et « authentiques » du Sepik dans différents lieux du monde occidental a eu pour effet de les transformer en les intégrant dans un nouvel environnement. La prolifération des transformations et des réinterprétations de l’art du Sepik commença lors des voyages d’objets dans des directions diverses, nationales et internationales. Il en naquit des histoires d’objets avec des interprétations contradictoires et leurs conséquences