THINK PIECE: Reflecting on Medical Anthropology in Aotearoa New Zealand

In considering what makes New Zealand unique for medical anthropological focus, this think piece sets out four themes. These reflect New Zealand’s particular historical, political, social and cultural landscape, and reveal the relevance of local scholarship for wider global debates about health. By tracing the neoliberal reform of state healthcare, indigenous approaches to wellbeing, local cultural practices of health, and the complex ethics involved in health and illness, this paper spotlights the opportunities that New Zealand medical anthropology affords us for addressing the important health and wellbeing challenges that we face today

Paradoxes of Human Nature

Our psychobiological nature is characterized paradoxically by our limitedly having and not having free will — our having this will and being subject to causes understood scientifically. Both characteristics are necessary for an intelligible ethics, politics, and political science. In particular, political science as a science must admit of our behavior being partially caused and of political rights and responsibilities in virtue of our limited free will. Admitting of either only this will or only the determinism is a central error of modern totalitarian ideology

The VLT-FLAMES Survey of Massive Stars: Observations centered on the Magellanic Cloud clusters NGC 330, NGC 346, NGC 2004, and the N11 region

We present new observations of 470 stars using the Fibre Large Array Multi-Element Spectrograph (FLAMES) instrument in fields centered on the clusters NGC 330 and NGC 346 in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), and NGC 2004 and the N11 region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). A further 14 stars were observed in the N11 and NGC 330 fields using the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) for a separate programme. Spectral classifications and stellar radial velocities are given for each target, with careful attention to checks for binarity. In particular we have investigated previously unexplored regions around the central LH9/LH10 complex of N11, finding ~25 new O-type stars from our spectroscopy. We have observed a relatively large number of Be-type stars that display permitted Fe II emission lines. These are primarily not in the cluster cores and appear to be associated with classical Be-type stars, rather than pre main-sequence objects. The presence of the Fe II emission, as compared to the equivalent width of H$\alpha$, is not obviously dependent on metallicity. We have also explored the relative fraction of Be- to normal B-type stars in the field-regions near to NGC 330 and NGC 2004, finding no strong evidence of a trend with metallicity when compared to Galactic results. A consequence of service observations is that we have reasonable time-sampling in three of our FLAMES fields. We find lower limits to the binary fraction of O- and early B-type stars of 23 to 36%. One of our targets (NGC346-013) is especially interesting with a massive, apparently hotter, less luminous secondary component.Comment: 35 pages, 17 figures (some reduced in size). Replacement copy, includes an erratum on the final page. A copy with full res. & embedded figures is at http://www.roe.ac.uk/~cje/flamesMC.ps.g

UV Spectroscopy of Metal-Poor Massive Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud

The Hubble Space Telescope has provided the first clear evidence for weaker winds of metal-poor massive stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud, confirming theoretical predictions of the metallicity dependence of mass-loss rates and wind terminal velocities. For lower luminosity O-type stars however, derived mass-loss rates are orders of magnitude lower than predicted, and are at present unexplained.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. To appear in 'The Impact of HST on European Astronomy', Eds., G. De Marchi & F.D. Macchetto, Astrophysics & Space Science, Springe