Social organization of the Tajiks of Andarab Valley, Afghanistan

The thesis is a description of the social organization of the Persian-speaking peasantry and part-pastoralists of a highland district in the central Hindu Kush of Afghanistan. Andarab district, with an estimated population of 33,000 souls, constitutes a geographical as well as governmental entity, and, as the people are orthodox Muslims, it is also a small segment of the cosmopolitan Islamic fraternity. The thesis falls into two parts, which are separated by a statement of the methods of fieldwork (Chapter III) employed in the prevailing political and local circumstances. The first part (Chapter II) attempts a comprehensive report of Adarab. After an account of the geographical, ecological and demographic background, it describes the division of the population into individual autocephalous households, either simple or polygynous, and grouped into village communities on the basis of patrilocal domicile. The factors of socio-economic stratification are specified. An examination of the boundaries of the four "electoral wards" into which Andarab is divided, suggests that a system of competitive oppositions is the main theme in political activity. The second part of the thesis presents exploratory material on the local community, the Afghan state, and Islam. Chapter IV suggests that, in the absence of corporate estates and succession by descent, the dynamic of the individual's life-career in his local community derives from the cycle of domestic development and his position vis-a-vis his coparceners as well as other kin relations. The Koranic rules of marriage and inheritance are given, and followed by an examination of their characteristic patterns among clusters of close collateral agnates, which are the only factional groups within the local community. An illustrative case of a matrilateral cross-cousin marriage within one village, shows that competitive opposition comes to a head over questions of marriage bestowal and bridewealth. Chapter V describes the system of local government; and the careers in Andarab of two successive deputy commissioners, with reference to their policies in dealing with the departmental personnel within the district secretariat, and also the circle of native intermediaries through whom the business of administration must be carried on. Chapter VI deals briefly with the rites through which the local community is integrated in to cosmopolitan Islam. The main element in these rites of Muslimhood is the congregational one, and the seclusion of women rigidly excludes them from participation in it. It is suggested that the function of purdah is to define the particularist side of local citizenship, while the communal and universalist side is enjoined on the men by the periodic congregational rites

Anisotropic clustering of inertial particles in homogeneous shear flow

Recently, clustering of inertial particles in turbulence has been thoroughly analyzed for statistically homogeneous isotropic flows. Phenomenologically, spatial homogeneity of particles configurations is broken by the advection of a range of eddies determined by the Stokes relaxation time of the particles which results in a multi-scale distribution of local concentrations and voids. Much less is known concerning anisotropic flows. Here, by addressing direct numerical simulations (DNS) of a statistically steady particle-laden homogeneous shear flow, we provide evidence that the mean shear preferentially orients particle patterns. By imprinting anisotropy on large scales velocity fluctuations, the shear indirectly affects the geometry of the clusters. Quantitative evaluation is provided by a purposely designed tool, the angular distribution function of particle pairs (ADF), which allows to address the anisotropy content of particles aggregates on a scale by scale basis. The data provide evidence that, depending on the Stokes relaxation time of the particles, anisotropic clustering may occur even in the range of scales where the carrier phase velocity field is already recovering isotropy. The strength of the singularity in the anisotropic component of the ADF quantifies the level of fine scale anisotropy, which may even reach values of more than 30% direction-dependent variation in the probability to find two close-by particles at viscous scale separation.Comment: To appear in Journal Fluid Mechanics 200

The 'Parekh Report' - national identities with nations and nationalism

‘Multiculturalists’ often advocate national identities. Yet few study the ways in which ‘multiculturalists’ do so and in this article I will help to fill this gap. I will show that the Commission for Multi-Ethnic Britain’s report reflects a previously unnoticed way of thinking about the nature and worth of national identities that the Commission’s chair, and prominent political theorist, Bhikhu Parekh, had been developing since the 1970s. This way of thinking will be shown to avoid the questionable ways in which conservative and liberal nationalists discuss the nature and worth of national identities while offering an alternative way to do so. I will thus show that a report that was once criticised for the way it discussed national identities reflects how ‘multiculturalists’ think about national identities in a distinct and valuable way that has gone unrecognised

Right procedure, wrong organ, an unusual case report of aortic trauma in a multiple injured patient

Blunt traumatic injury and acute dissection of thoracic aorta is increasing in incidence in seriously multi-trauma patients, remaining highly lethal. Early identification and repair is the key to a successful outcome. We report an unusual case of a 62-year-old man involved in a motor vehicle accident after subarachnoid hemorrhage due to an intracranial artery aneurysm rupture. The post-traumatic aorta dissection was overlooked during the initial evaluation and was found incidentally later during an attempt for endovascular treatment of the intracranial aneurysm. The pitfalls in the diagnostic approach of this patient are discussed and the paramount importance of the correct interpretation of all the available clinical and investigational findings in multiple injured patients are highlighted

"Oh! What a tangled web we weave": Englishness, communicative leisure, identity work and the cultural web of the English folk morris dance scene

In this paper, we consider the relationship between Englishness and the English folk morris dance scene, considering how the latter draws from and reinforces the former. Englishness is considered within the context of the cultural web; a tool more often applied to business management but linked to a sociological viewpoint here. By doing so, we draw the connections between this structured business model and the cultural identity of Englishness. Then, we use the framework of the cultural web and theories of leisure, culture and identity to understand how morris dancers see their role as dancers and ‘communicative leisure’ agents in consciously defending Englishness, English traditions and inventions, the practices and traditions of folk and morris, and the various symbolic communities they inhabit. We argue that most morris dancers in our research become and maintain their leisured identities as dancers because they are attracted to the idea of tradition – even if that tradition is invented and open to change

(Un)becoming women: Indian factory women's counternarratives of gender

This paper portrays the life stories of five factory workers in Delhi whose life trajectories run counter to normative femininity. As daughters and wives, they are neglected, abandoned or rejected by their families; they live alone, with their parents past the age that is their natal right, with siblings, or with families and men who are not related to them. I explore the circulation of their counternarratives and how their gender transgressions go public through ordinary forms of talk, such as gossip and rumor. I argue that their move out of the normative is not produced by, but produces, their gender politics; that their agency emerges cognitively from the telling of their stories in tandem with their interlocutors' credulity and uptake; and that the site of gender politics for working class Indian women lies in the informal subaltern publics that are formed by the circulation of their stories. Contrary to the notion of a stable unitary subject that precedes the political, these women's counternarratives demonstrate the subject‐in‐process as a political effect. Their alterity does not exist outside the heteronormative gender order but demarcates the boundaries of its historicity, hinting at both the internal contradictions of existing gender relations and their future possibilities.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112196/1/j.1467-954X.2011.02026.x.pd

Equivalences between localisations of categories provided by replacements

We give a characterisation of functors whose induced functor on the level of localisations is an equivalence and where the isomorphism inverse is induced by some kind of replacements such as projective resolutions or cofibrant replacements

No effect of short-term amino acid supplementation on variables related to skeletal muscle damage in 100 km ultra-runners - a randomized controlled trial

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of short-term supplementation of amino acids before and during a 100 km ultra-marathon on variables of skeletal muscle damage and muscle soreness. We hypothesized that the supplementation of amino acids before and during an ultra-marathon would lead to a reduction in the variables of skeletal muscle damage, a decrease in muscle soreness and an improved performance. Methods: Twenty-eight experienced male ultra-runners were divided into two groups, one with amino acid supplementation and the other as a control group. The amino acid group was supplemented a total of 52.5 g of an amino acid concentrate before and during the 100 km ultra-marathon. Pre- and post-race, creatine kinase, urea and myoglobin were determined. At the same time, the athletes were asked for subjective feelings of muscle soreness. Results: Race time was not different between the groups when controlled for personal best time in a 100 km ultra-marathon. The increases in creatine kinase, urea and myoglobin were not different in both groups. Subjective feelings of skeletal muscle soreness were not different between the groups. Conclusions: We concluded that short-term supplementation of amino acids before and during a 100 km ultra-marathon had no effect on variables of skeletal muscle damage and muscle soreness

National identity - A multiculturalist's approach

‘Multiculturalists’ in Britain have advocated the importance of national identity since the 1970s. Yet many claim that multiculturalists do not do this and few study how they do it. We thus do not know why and how multiculturalists in Britain advocate the importance of national identity. In this article I will examine how one of Britain’s most prominent multiculturalists, Bhikhu Parekh, has done so since the 1970s. I will show that Parekh’s way of thinking about national identity is distinct from the ways in which other prominent thinkers discuss such an identity, and valuable, as Parekh has insights into what such an identity is and why we should value it. This article will identify a previously unnoticed, distinct and valuable way of thinking about national identity, which comes from a multiculturalist in Britain