Religion as Identity, the Changing Face of Paiwan Spirituality

The Paiwan are an indigenous group living in Taiwan. Traditionally, they identify themselves as the descendants of a marriage between a human woman and a serpent. This first husband has been deified, and it is believed that after death, spirits join it on a holy mountain. In the past, the majority of villages sacrificed a portion of their intake of food stuffs to both gods and spirits in a quintennial celebration. Other stories and domains of the religion dealt with a parallel spiritual realm, responsible for most ailments, and cured by witches and priests.Cultural and religious practices of the Paiwan have survived occupation by the Chinese Qing Dynasty, the Japanese, and the post-World War II move of the Republic of China to the island, though not without adapting and changing major elements. Some of the practices have also been adjusted to fit in with mass conversions to Christianity. Yet the religious ceremonies of the Paiwan are being practiced by fewer and fewer people in the modern era as the populations lose their younger generations to the opportunities of the larger cities. Modernization within the group has been dictated by foreign pressures, and drives to unify Taiwan as a single cultural entity. This has led to the reidentification of the Paiwanese religion as a uniquely Taiwanese tourist draw. Today it seems as if disappearing ceremonies, such as the Maleveq (Five Year Ceremony), have been revived through tourism. The desire by Taiwan to identify itself separately from mainland China has led to renewed interest to identify and encourage indigenous development. This has generated new interest in the preservation of religious practices for the Paiwan, specifically. Yet as religion is made spectacle, it is also simplified. Defining cultural elements are often lost in translation, while cultural motifs can be preserved in image only as they are made available for sale on art objects. In the end, tourism can be seen as a means of preserving dying religious practices, and a new step in the evolution of a spirituality

On the Low Energy Decrease in Galactic Cosmic Ray Secondary/Primary Ratios

Galactic cosmic ray (GCR) secondary/primary ratios such as B/C and (Sc+Ti+V)/Fe are commonly used to determine the mean amount of interstellar material through which cosmic rays travel before escaping from the Galaxy (Λ_(esc)). These ratios are observed to be energy-dependent, with a relative maximum at ~1 GeV/nucleon, implying a corresponding peak in Λ_(esc). The decrease in Λ_(esc) at energies above 1 GeV/nucleon is commonly taken to indicate that higher energy cosmic rays escape more easily from the Galaxy. The decrease in Λ_(esc) at energies <1 GeV/nuc is more controversial; suggested possibilities include the effects of a galactic wind or the effects of distributed acceleration of cosmic rays as they pass through the interstellar medium. We consider two possible explanations for the low energy decrease in Λ_(esc) and attempt to fit the combined, high-resolution measurements of secondary/primary ratios from ~0.1 to 35 GeV/nuc made with the CRIS instrument on ACE and the C2 experiment on HEAO-3. The first possibility, which hypothesizes an additional, local component of low-energy cosmic rays that has passed through very little material, is found to have difficulty simultaneously accounting for the abundance of both B and the Fe-secondaries. The second possibility, suggested by Soutoul and Ptuskin, involves a new form for Λ_(esc) motivated by their diffusion-convection model of cosmic rays in the Galaxy. Their suggested form for Λ_(esc)(E) is found to provide an excellent fit to the combined ACE and HEAO data sets

GCR Neon Isotopic Abundances: Comparison with Wolf-Rayet Star Models and Meteoritic Abundances

Measurements of the neon isotopic abundances from the ACE-CRIS experiment are presented. These abundances have been obtained in seven energy intervals over the energy range of ~80≤E≤280 MeV/nucleon. The ^(22)Ne/^(20)Ne source ratio is derived using the measured ^(21)Ne/^(20)Ne abundance as a "tracer" of secondary production of the neon isotopes. We find that the ^(22)Ne/^(20)Ne abundance ratio at the cosmic-ray source is a factor of 5.0±0.2 greater than in the solar wind. The GCR ^(22)Ne/^(20)Ne ratio is also shown to be considerably larger than that found in anomalous cosmic rays, solar energetic particles, most meteoritic samples of matter, and interplanetary dust particles. Recent two-component Wolf-Rayet models provide predictions for the ^(22)Ne/^(20)Ne ratio and other isotope ratios. Comparison of the CRIS neon, iron, and nickel isotopic source abundance ratios with predictions indicate possible enhanced abundances of some neutron-rich nuclides that are expected to accompany the ^(22)Ne excess

The Phosphorus/Sulfur Abundance Ratio as a Test of Galactic Cosmic-Ray Source Models

Galactic cosmic-ray (GCR) elemental abundances display a fractionation compared to solar-system values that appears ordered by atomic properties such as the first ionization potential (FIP) or condensation temperature (volatility). Determining which parameter controls the observed fractionation is crucial to distinguish between GCR origin models. The Cosmic-Ray Isotope Spectrometer (CRIS) instrument on board NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft can measure the abundances of several elements that break the general correlation between FIP and volatility (e.g., Na, P, K, Cu, Zn, Ga, and Ge). Phosphorus is a particularly interesting case as it is a refractory (high condensation temperature) element with a FIP value nearly identical to that of its semi-volatile neighbor, sulfur. Using a leaky-box galactic propagation model we find that the P/S and Na/Mg ratios in the GCR source favor volatility as the controlling parameter

Applications of Abundance Data and Requirements for Cosmochemical Modeling

Understanding the evolution of the universe from Big Bang to its present state requires an understanding of the evolution of the abundances of the elements and isotopes in galaxies, stars, the interstellar medium, the Sun and the heliosphere, planets and meteorites. Processes that change the state of the universe include Big Bang nucleosynthesis, star formation and stellar nucleosynthesis, galactic chemical evolution, propagation of cosmic rays, spallation, ionization and particle transport of interstellar material, formation of the solar system, solar wind emission and its fractionation (FIP/FIT effect), mixing processes in stellar interiors, condensation of material and subsequent geochemical fractionation. Here, we attempt to compile some major issues in cosmochemistry that can be addressed with a better knowledge of the respective element or isotope abundances. Present and future missions such as Genesis, Stardust, Interstellar Pathfinder, and Interstellar Probe, improvements of remote sensing instrumentation and experiments on extraterrestrial material such as meteorites, presolar grains, and lunar or returned planetary or cometary samples will result in an improved database of elemental and isotopic abundances. This includes the primordial abundances of D, ^3He, ^4He, and ^7Li, abundances of the heavier elements in stars and galaxies, the composition of the interstellar medium, solar wind and comets as well as the (highly) volatile elements in the solar system such as helium, nitrogen, oxygen or xenon

Constraints on cosmic-ray acceleration and transport from isotope observations

Observations from the Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer (CRIS) on ACE have been used to derive constraints on the locations, physical conditions, and time scales for cosmic-ray acceleration and transport. The isotopic composition of Fe, Co, and Ni is very similar to that of solar system material, indicating that cosmic rays contain contributions from supernovae of both Type II and Type Ia. The electron-capture primary ^(59)Ni produced in supernovae has decayed, demonstrating that a time ≳10^5 yr elapses before acceleration of the bulk of the cosmic rays and showing that most of the accelerated material is derived from old stellar or interstellar material rather than from fresh supernova ejecta

Measurements of the isotopes of lithium, beryllium, and boron from ACE/CRIS

The isotopes of lithium, beryllium, and boron (LiBeB) are known in nature to be produced primarily by CNO spallation and α-α fusion from interactions between cosmic rays and interstellar nuclei. While the dominant source of LiBeB isotopes in the present epoch is cosmic-ray interactions, other sources are known to exist, including the production of ^(7)Li from big bang nucleosynthesis. Precise observations of galactic cosmic-ray LiBeB in addition to accurate modeling of cosmic-ray transport can help to constrain the relative importance among the different production mechanisms. The Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer (CRIS) on the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) has measured nuclei with 2 ≲ Z ≲ 30 in the energy range ~30–500 MeV/nucleon since 1997 with good statistical accuracy. We present measurements of the isotopic abundances of LiBeB and discuss these observations in the context of previous cosmic-ray measurements and spectroscopic observations

Constraints on the nucleosynthesis of refractory nuclides in galactic cosmic rays

Abundances of the isotopes of the refractory elements Ca, Fe, Co, and Ni in the galactic cosmic-ray source are compared with corresponding abundances in solar-system matter. For the 12 nuclides considered, relative abundances agree to within a factor of 2, and typically within 20–30%. In addition, comparisons of cosmic-ray abundances with model calculations of supernova yields are used to argue that cosmic rays contain contributions from stars with a broad range of masses. Based on these and other results we suggest that cosmic rays probably represent a sample of contemporary interstellar matter, at least for refractory species

Models for Galactic cosmic-ray propagation

A new numerical model of particle propagation in the Galaxy has been developed, which allows the study of cosmic-ray and gamma-ray production and propagation in 2D or 3D, including a full reaction network. This is a further development of the code which has been used for studies of cosmic ray reacceleration, Galactic halo size, antiprotons and positrons in cosmic rays, the interpretation of diffuse continuum gamma rays, and dark matter. In this paper we illustrate recent results focussing on B/C, sub-Fe/Fe, ACE radioactive isotope data, source abundances and antiprotons. From the radioactive nuclei we derive a range of 3-7 kpc for the height of the cosmic-ray halo.Comment: Invited talk at the 33rd COSPAR Scientific Assembly (Warsaw 2000); 10 pages including 10 ps-figures and 2 tables, latex2e, uses cospar.sty. To appear in Advances in Space Research 2001. More details can be found at http://www.gamma.mpe-garching.mpg.de/~aws/aws.htm

The cosmic-ray contribution to galactic abundances of the light elements: Interpretation of GCR LiBeB abundance measurements from ACE/CRIS

Inelastic collisions between the galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) and the interstellar medium (ISM) are responsible for producing essentially all of the light elements Li, Be, and B (LiBeB) observed in the cosmic rays. Previous calculations (e.g., [1]) have shown that GCR fragmentation can explain the bulk of the existing LiBeB abundance in the present day Galaxy. However, elemental abundances of LiBeB in old halo stars indicate inconsistencies with this explanation. We have used a simple leaky-box model to predict the cosmic-ray elemental and isotopic abundances of LiBeB in the present epoch. We conducted a survey of recent scientific literature on fragmentation cross sections and have calculated the amount of uncertainty they introduce into our model. The predicted particle intensities of this model were compared with high energy (E_(ISM) = 200–500 MeV/nucleon) cosmic-ray data from the Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer (CRIS), which indicates fairly good agreement with absolute fluxes for Z ≥ 5 and relative isotopic abundances for all LiBeB species