Tourism, Transnationality and Ethnolinguistic Vitality: The Welsh in the Chubut Province, Argentina

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Ian

2010-01-01

This article aims to develop the concept of ethnolinguistic vitality by adopting a qualitative approach to vitality rather than the statistical approach traditionally used. Ten small-size focus group style interviews were held with members of the Welsh-Argentinean community in the Chubut Province in the south of Argentina in order to explore…

Language Use and Ethnolinguistic Vitality of Turkish Compared with the Dutch in the Netherlands

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yagmur, Kutlay

2009-01-01

The focus of this paper is on the relationships between Turkish speakers' ethnolinguistic vitality (EV) perceptions and their language maintenance (LM), language use, and choice patterns. The theoretical framework of the study is based on Giles, Bourhis, and Taylor's (1977) EV theory. In line with the model, a subjective EV vitality questionnaire,…

The Effect of Ethnolinguistic Differences on Proximity between Cantonese and Mandarin Speaking Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leung, Lanna Oi-Ling; Lewis, George F.

1999-01-01

Examined effects of ethnolinguistic differences on social proximity between Cantonese- and Mandarin-speaking Chinese children in a day care center. Found that each group of children was more likely to be in closer proximity to children speaking their own language than to children speaking the other language during free choice floor- and group-time…

Perceived Institutional Support among Young Indigenous and Mestizo Students from Chiapas (México): A Group Vitality Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Esteban-Guitart, Moisès; Viladot, Maria Àngels; Giles, Howard

2015-01-01

Ethnolinguistic Vitality Theory (EVT) asserts that status, demographic and institutional support (IS) factors make up the vitality of ethnolinguistic groups within intergroup relations. Specifically, IS factor refers to the extent to which a language group enjoys representation in the various institutions of a society, in particular, mass media,…

Design and Implementation Issues in Surveying the Views of Young Children in Ethnolinguistically Diverse Developing Country Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Hilary A.; Haslett, Stephen J.

2016-01-01

This paper discusses issues in the development of a methodology appropriate for eliciting sound quantitative data from primary school children in the complex contexts of ethnolinguistically diverse developing countries. Although these issues often occur in field-based surveys, the large extent and compound effects of their occurrence in…

"More than Being in a Class": Adolescents' Ethnolinguistic Insights in a Two-Way Dual-Language Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kibler, Amanda; Salerno, April; Hardigree, Christine

2014-01-01

Much of the debate regarding outcomes of various types of dual-language programs has focused on linguistic and academic results, and with good reason: improving the educational outcomes of language minorities and supporting societal multilingualism are vital goals. More rarely explored, however, are these programs' ethnolinguistic outcomes: the…

Appropriating Scientific Vocabulary in Chemistry Laboratories: A Multiple Case Study of Four Community College Students with Diverse Ethno-Linguistic Backgrounds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cink, Ruth B.; Song, Youngjin

2016-01-01

This multiple case study investigated how college students with diverse ethno-linguistic backgrounds used chemistry vocabulary as a way to look at their discursive identities and cultural border crossings during first semester general chemistry laboratories. The data were collected in two major forms: video-taped laboratory observations and…

Population structure and cultural geography of a folktale in Europe

PubMed Central

Ross, Robert M.; Greenhill, Simon J.; Atkinson, Quentin D.

2013-01-01

Despite a burgeoning science of cultural evolution, relatively little work has focused on the population structure of human cultural variation. By contrast, studies in human population genetics use a suite of tools to quantify and analyse spatial and temporal patterns of genetic variation within and between populations. Human genetic diversity can be explained largely as a result of migration and drift giving rise to gradual genetic clines, together with some discontinuities arising from geographical and cultural barriers to gene flow. Here, we adapt theory and methods from population genetics to quantify the influence of geography and ethnolinguistic boundaries on the distribution of 700 variants of a folktale in 31 European ethnolinguistic populations. We find that geographical distance and ethnolinguistic affiliation exert significant independent effects on folktale diversity and that variation between populations supports a clustering concordant with European geography. This pattern of geographical clines and clusters parallels the pattern of human genetic diversity in Europe, although the effects of geographical distance and ethnolinguistic boundaries are stronger for folktales than genes. Our findings highlight the importance of geography and population boundaries in models of human cultural variation and point to key similarities and differences between evolutionary processes operating on human genes and culture. PMID:23390109

Influence of Ethnolinguistic Diversity on the Sorghum Genetic Patterns in Subsistence Farming Systems in Eastern Kenya

PubMed Central

Labeyrie, Vanesse; Deu, Monique; Barnaud, Adeline; Calatayud, Caroline; Buiron, Marylène; Wambugu, Peterson; Manel, Stéphanie; Glaszmann, Jean-Christophe; Leclerc, Christian

2014-01-01

Understanding the effects of actions undertaken by human societies on crop evolution processes is a major challenge for the conservation of genetic resources. This study investigated the mechanisms whereby social boundaries associated with patterns of ethnolinguistic diversity have influenced the on-farm distribution of sorghum diversity. Social boundaries limit the diffusion of planting material, practices and knowledge, thus shaping crop diversity in situ. To assess the effect of social boundaries, this study was conducted in the contact zone between the Chuka, Mbeere and Tharaka ethnolinguistic groups in eastern Kenya. Sorghum varieties were inventoried and samples collected in 130 households. In all, 297 individual plants derived from seeds collected under sixteen variety names were characterized using a set of 18 SSR molecular markers and 15 morphological descriptors. The genetic structure was investigated using both a Bayesian assignment method and distance-based clustering. Principal Coordinates Analysis was used to describe the structure of the morphological diversity of the panicles. The distribution of the varieties and the main genetic clusters across ethnolinguistic groups was described using a non-parametric MANOVA and pairwise Fisher tests. The spatial distribution of landrace names and the overall genetic spatial patterns were significantly correlated with ethnolinguistic partition. However, the genetic structure inferred from molecular makers did not discriminate the short-cycle landraces despite their morphological distinctness. The cases of two improved varieties highlighted possible fates of improved materials. The most recent one was often given the name of local landraces. The second one, that was introduced a dozen years ago, displays traces of admixture with local landraces with differential intensity among ethnic groups. The patterns of congruence or discordance between the nomenclature of farmers’ varieties and the structure of both genetic and morphological diversity highlight the effects of the social organization of communities on the diffusion of seed, practices, and variety nomenclature. PMID:24637745

The Origins of Ethnolinguistic Diversity

PubMed Central

Michalopoulos, Stelios

2013-01-01

This study explores the determinants of ethnolinguistic diversity within as well as across countries shedding light on its geographic origins. The empirical analysis conducted across countries, virtual countries and pairs of contiguous regions establishes that geographic variability, captured by variation in regional land quality and elevation, is a fundamental determinant of contemporary linguistic diversity. The findings are consistent with the proposed hypothesis that differences in land endowments gave rise to location-specific human capital, leading to the formation of localized ethnicities. PMID:25258434

African genetic diversity provides novel insights into evolutionary history and local adaptations.

PubMed

Choudhury, Ananyo; Aron, Shaun; Sengupta, Dhriti; Hazelhurst, Scott; Ramsay, Michèle

2018-05-08

Genetic variation and susceptibility to disease are shaped by human demographic history. We can now study the genomes of extant Africans and uncover traces of population migration, admixture, assimilation and selection by applying sophisticated computational algorithms. There are four major ethnolinguistic divisions among present day Africans: Hunter-gatherer populations in southern and central Africa; Nilo-Saharan speakers from north and northeast Africa; Afro-Asiatic speakers from east Africa; and Niger-Congo speakers who are the predominant ethnolinguistic group spread across most of sub-Saharan Africa. The enormous ethnolinguistic diversity in sub-Saharan African populations is largely paralleled by extensive genetic diversity and until a decade ago, little was known about the origins and divergence of these groups. Results from large-scale population genetic studies, and more recently whole genome sequence data, are unraveling the critical role of events like migration and admixture and environment factors including diet, infectious diseases and climatic conditions in shaping current population diversity. It is now possible to start providing quantitative estimates of divergence times, population size and dynamic processes that have affected populations and their genetic risk for disease. Finally, the availability of ancient genomes from Africa is providing historical insights of unprecedented depth. In this review, we highlight some key interpretations that have emerged from recent African genome studies.

Phenotypic and allelic distribution of the ABO and Rhesus (D) blood groups in the Cameroonian population.

PubMed

Ndoula, S T; Noubiap, J J N; Nansseu, J R N; Wonkam, A

2014-06-01

Data on blood group phenotypes are important for blood transfusion programs, for disease association and population genetics studies. This study aimed at reporting the phenotypic and allelic distribution of ABO and Rhesus (Rh) groups in various ethnolinguistic groups in the Cameroonians. We obtained ABO and Rhesus blood groups and self-identified ethnicity from 14,546 Cameroonian students. Ethnicity was classified in seven major ethnolinguistic groups: Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Kordofanian/West Atlantic, Niger-Kordofanian/Adamawa-Ubangui, Niger-Kordofanian/Benue-Congo/Bantu/Grassfield, Niger-Kordofanian/Benue-Congo/Bantu/Mbam and Niger-Kordofanian/Benue-Congo/Bantu/Equatorial. ABO allelic frequencies were determined using the Bernstein method. Differences in phenotypic distribution of blood groups were assessed using the chi-square test; a P value <0.05 being considered as statistically significant. The frequencies of the antigens of blood groups O, A, B and AB were 48.62%, 25.07%, 21.86% and 4.45%, respectively. Rhesus-positive was 96.32%. The allelic frequencies of O, A and B genes were 0.6978, 0.1605 and 0.1416, respectively. Phenotypic frequencies of the blood groups in the general study population and in the different ethnolinguistic groups were in agreement with Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium expectations (P > 0.05). The frequencies of O, A, and B blood phenotypes were significantly lower, respectively, in the Nilo-Saharan group (P = 0.009), the Niger-Kordofanian/Benue-Congo/Bantu groups (P = 0.021) and the Niger-Kordofanian/West-Atlantic group. AB blood group was most frequent in the Niger-Kordofanian/Adamawa-Ubangui group (P = 0.024). Our study provides the first data on ethnic distribution of ABO and Rhesus blood groups in the Cameroonian population and suggests that its general profile is similar to those of several sub-Saharan African populations. We found some significant differences in phenotypic distribution amongst major ethnolinguistic groups. These data may be important for blood donor recruitment policy and blood transfusion service in Cameroon. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Readiness: Ethno-linguistic and gender differences in high-school course selection patterns

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adamuti-Trache, Maria; Sweet, Robert

2014-03-01

The study examines science-related course choices of high-school students in the culturally diverse schools of the province of British Columbia, Canada. The analysis employs K-12 provincial data and includes over 44,000 students born in 1990 who graduated from high school by 2009. The research sample reflects the presence of about 27% of students for whom English is not a first language. We construct an empirical model that examines ethno-linguistic and gender differences in Grade 12 course choices while accounting for personal and situational differences among students. The study employs a course selection typology that emphasizes readiness for science, technology, engineering and math fields of study. Findings indicate that math- and science-related course selection patterns are strongly associated with ethnicity, qualified not only by gender and prior math and science achievement but also by the individual's grade level at entry to the system and enrollment in English as a Second Language program. Students who are more likely to engage in math and science courses belong to Asian ethno-linguistic groups and entered the provincial school system during the senior high-school years. We suggest that ethnic diversity and broader academic exposure may play a crucial role in changing the gender composition of science classrooms, university fields of study and science-related occupations.

Schools in Ethnolinguistic Minorities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Byram, Michael

1986-01-01

Discusses the school's contribution to the transmission of cultural heritage, focusing on curriculum content rather than on language issues. The kind of conceptual framework within which overt and hidden curriculum analysis might be carried out is suggested. (SED)

Civil war and child health: regional and ethnic dimensions of child immunization and malnutrition in Angola.

PubMed

Agadjanian, Victor; Prata, Ndola

2003-06-01

This study arises from a general proposition that different levels and types of exposure to war are crucial in shaping health outcomes in a population under war-induced duress. We analyze civil war-related regional and ethnolinguistic differentials in age-adequate immunization (complete vaccination for age) and levels of malnutrition in Angola. Our analysis is based on data from a nationally representative survey conducted in 1996, some 2 years after the end of one of the most destructive periods of hostilities in the history of Angolan civil war. The data show that despite Angola's unique mineral wealth, the nation's levels of child age-adequate immunization is lower and malnutrition rates are higher than in most of sub-Saharan Africa. To examine age-adequate immunization and chronic malnutrition we fit logistic regression models that include the regional degree of war impact and ethnolinguistic group, in addition to rural-urban differences and other conventional sociodemographic characteristics. The tests reveal a significant disadvantage of rural children relative to urban children in both immunization and chronic malnutrition. Net of the rural-urban differences, we also detect a significant disadvantage of children residing in parts of the country that had been most affected by the fighting. The tests also point to a lower level of immunization and higher level of chronic malnutrition among children from the ethnolinguistic group commonly identified with the opposition. These associations tend to be stronger among children who were born and/or grew up during war than among children who were born after peace was re-established.

Decolonizing Researcher Authenticity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Daza, Stephanie Lynn

2008-01-01

This article examines the ways in which researcher authenticity is negotiated along three axes of difference, ethno-linguistic affiliation, sexual orientation and race/skin color. Ultimately, it analyzes how researcher authenticity is produced and played out within research, via interactions between participants, researchers and others who…

Comparative Analysis of Language Minorities: A Sociopolitical Framework.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, A. B.

1990-01-01

Synthesizes theoretical typologies in the fields of ethnic relations, ethnonationalism, and sociolinguistics into a sociopolitical framework for analyzing various types of ethnolinguistic minority situations. Particular reference is made to minority situations in Europe, North America, and developing countries. (35 references) (Author/CB)

Birth order and mortality in two ethno-linguistic groups: Register-based evidence from Finland.

PubMed

Saarela, Jan; Cederström, Agneta; Rostila, Mikael

2016-06-01

Previous research has documented an association between birth order and suicide, although no study has examined whether it depends on the cultural context. Our aim was to study the association between birth order and cause-specific mortality in Finland, and whether it varies by ethno-linguistic affiliation. We used data from the Finnish population register, representing a 5% random sample of all Finnish speakers and a 20% random sample of Swedish speakers, who lived in Finland in any year 1987-2011. For each person, there was a link to all children who were alive in 1987. In total, there were 254,059 siblings in 96,387 sibling groups, and 9797 deaths. We used Cox regressions stratified by each siblings group and estimated all-cause and cause-specific mortality risks during the period 1987-2011. In line with previous research from Sweden, deaths from suicide were significantly associated with birth order. As compared to first-born, second-born had a suicide risk of 1.27, third-born of 1.35, and fourth- or higher-born of 1.72, while other causes of death did not display an evident and consistent birth-order pattern. Results for the Finnish-speaking siblings groups were almost identical to those based on both ethno-linguistic groups. In the Swedish-speaking siblings groups, there was no increase in the suicide risk by birth order, but a statistically not significant tendency towards an association with other external causes of death and deaths from cardiovascular diseases. Our findings provided evidence for an association between birth order and suicide among Finnish speakers in Finland, while no such association was found for Swedish speakers, suggesting that the birth order effect might depend on the cultural context. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Race, Power, and Language Criticism: The Case of Hawai'i

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marlow, Mikaela Loyola

2009-01-01

Ethnolinguistic vitality, communication accommodation, and markedness model frameworks guided research assessing language ideologies, practices, and criticism among multi-ethnic Locals in the Hawaiian Islands. Results from Study 1 indicated that respondents draw from widespread ideologies that influence them to employ Standard English in…

A Post-Monolingual Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soto, Lourdes Diaz; Kharem, Haroon

2006-01-01

In this article, the authors draw attention to the need for ethnolinguistic democracy at a time when linguistic and cultural issues are significantly impacting how schools, educators, students, and curriculum are perceived. The authors delineate the manifold acts of imperialism associated with the colonizing of young minds and bodies as culture…

Middle East Economics and Development, Spring 2008 - Project 08-02

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-05-01

a Proportional Representation Electoral System .................................. 145 Table 10: Iran’s Macroeconomic Indicators ( Source : CIA World...Fact Book) ........................... 165 Table 11: Iran’s Trading Partners ( Source : CIA World Fact Book... Sources of Electricity in Afghanistan – 2007................................................................ 29 Figure 3: Ethno-linguistic Groups in

Information Gatekeepers in California's Ethnic Communities. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Metoyer-Duran, Cheryl

This study examined the information seeking behavior of gatekeepers in five ethnolinguistic communities: American Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Latino. Personal interviews were conducted with 129 gatekeepers and a conceptual information model was used to generate an analytical framework for presenting and discussing the data. The major…

Patterns of Inter-Cultural Communication in Melbourne Factories: Some Research in Progress.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clyne, Michael

1991-01-01

This paper reports on research conducted in the Language and Society Centre of the National Languages Institute of Australia, Monash University, into interaction in English between non-native speakers from different ethnolinguistic backgrounds. The project emphasizes two aspects of verbal interaction where language-specific rules are closely…

Adolescent Ethnolinguistic Stability and Change: A Longitudinal Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kohn, Mary Elizabeth

2013-01-01

Most sociolinguistic studies rely on apparent time, cross-sectional methods to analyze language change. On the basis of apparent time data, sociolinguists have hypothesized that cultural processes of lifespan change create predictable cycles of linguistic behavior in which adolescents lead in the use of vernacular variants and advance sound change…

Ecolinguistic Biographies: Social Networks in a Nursery School.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thompson, Linda

A British ethnolinguistic study described the language behavior of 12 preschool children during their first experience in a formal educational setting where they constituted a linguistic minority. All were third-generation, British-born children of Moslem parents of ethnic Pakistani background; their home language was a vernacular Panjabi. Data…

Ethnicity, Language and Intergroup Relations in Malaysia and Singapore: A Social Psychological Analysis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ward, C.; Hewstone, M.

1985-01-01

Presents a review of literature and a historical and sociopolitical overview of ethnic relations and intergroup processes in Malaysia and Singapore. The paper reviews data on intergroup relations and ethnolinguistics in these countries from a social-psychological perspective, and in terms of assimilation and integration. (SED)

Ethnolinguistic Identification and Adaptation of Repatriates in Polycultural Kazakhstan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bokayev, Baurzhan; Zharkynbekova, Sholpan; Nurseitova, Khalida; Bokayeva, Ainash; Akzhigitova, Assel; Nurgalieva, Saniya

2012-01-01

The issues of social, cultural, and language adjustment and the integration of repatriates into the Kazakhstani society are crucial factors in maintaining a stable society. The complicated process of self-identification of ethnic Kazakhs is a major aspect of their sociolinguistic "penetration" into Kazakh society. In this work we…

Additive Bilingualism, Schooling, and Special Education: A Minority Group Perspective.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Landry, R.

1987-01-01

The effect of schooling on the acquisition of an additive type of bilingualism is examined, focusing on additive bilingualism's relation to the ethnolinguistic vitality of linguistic groups and contributions of individual networks of linguistic contacts. A special and regular education merger without domination by a single cultural perspective is…

Roles for SOF in a Staggering Nigeria

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-04-01

languages and approximately 350 ethno-linguistic groups, Nigeria can indubitably be dubbed a cultural patchwork. Three dominant groups, the Ibo, Yoruba ...critical factors ................................................................................................................ 4 A cultural patchwork...continue to be the U.S. military force of choice for operations and exercises within Africa.”10 Culturally attuned, experienced in working with

Comparative Analysis of Language and Education Policies for Indigenous Minorities in Australia and Malaysia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Renganathan, Sumathi; Kral, Inge

2018-01-01

This paper examines the implication of language and education policies for the indigenous minority populations in two contrasting multicultural and multilingual post-colonial nations, Australia and Malaysia. By comparing and contrasting ethnolinguistic and educational policies in these two diverse nations, this paper explores how indigenous…

Mapping the Linguistic Landscape of a Commercial Neighbourhood in Central Phnom Penh

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kasanga, Luanga Adrien

2012-01-01

This article examines the distributional pattern of signs in the linguistic landscape of a neighbourhood in the commercial district of Phonm Penh, Cambodia. Informed by the frameworks of ethnolinguistic vitality and ethnocultural stereotypes, it discusses the developing multilingualism from socio-economic and historical perspectives. An analysis…

New Trends on Intellectual Assessment in Peru

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blumen, Sheyla

2016-01-01

The history of intellectual assessment with children and youth in Peru is presented from the foundation of scientific psychology in Peru until now. Current practices are affected by the multicultural ethnolinguistic diversity of the country, the quality of the different training programs, as well as by Peruvian regulations for becoming an academic…

Missing from the "Minority Mainstream": Pahari-Speaking Diaspora in Britain

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hussain, Serena

2015-01-01

Pahari speakers form one of the largest ethnic non-European diasporas in Britain. Despite their size and over 60 years of settlement on British shores, the diaspora is shrouded by confusion regarding official and unofficial categorisations, remaining largely misunderstood as a collective with a shared ethnolinguistic memory. This has had…

Linguistic Landscape in Singapore: What Shop Names Reveal about Singapore's Multilingualism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shang, Guowen; Guo, Libo

2017-01-01

The visibility and salience of specific languages in public spaces are important parameters of their ethnolinguistic vitality in a society. Drawing upon data from first-hand fieldwork, this paper explores the display of multiple languages in shop names presented in Singapore's neighbourhood centres in order to reveal how local shop owners address…

The Construction of Deaf Children as Marginal Bilinguals in the Mainstream

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mckee, Rachel Locker

2008-01-01

The political discourse of Deaf ethnolinguistic identity has empowered Deaf people in recent decades to deconstruct a pathological model of deafness and the deficit pedagogy that centres on acquisition of speech and social assimilation. The engagement of Deaf community members in consultation and employment in the New Zealand (NZ) education system…

"La Biblioteca Es Importante": A Case Study of an Emergent Bilingual Public Library in the Nuevo U.S. South

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alvarez, Steven; Alvarez, Sara P.

2016-01-01

Research examining ethnolinguistic community schools (García, Zakharia, & Otcu, 2013) proposes that local spaces not directly affiliated with schools sustain bilingualism and identity. Though researchers often theorize about how community schools sustain home language literacies, less research examines how local public spaces sustain…

L'identificazione etnico-linguistica in comunita infantili plurinazionali (Ethnolinguistic Identification in a Multinational Children's Community).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Franchi, Annalisa

1988-01-01

Analyzes the results of a study undertaken in Switzerland, which was designed to determine the degree of integration of non-Italian children in Italian-language nursery schools in the German part of Switzerland. Attempts to synthesize the ethnic and lingusitic elements of the study are made. (CFM)

English in Kerala: Plus ca Change?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nayar, P. Bhaskaran

2008-01-01

This article overviews the status, ecology, use, and the teaching/learning of English in the southern Indian state of Kerala. It does so along two overlapping dimensions. A socio-demographic dimension situates the ecology of English in Kerala in the general Indian context, and relates it to the ethno-linguistic identity of Kerala. A second applied…

Reversing Language Shift: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations of Assistance to Threatened Languages. Multilingual Matters Series: 76.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fishman, Joshua A.

The theory and practice of assistance to speech communities whose native languages are threatened are examined. The discussion focuses on why most efforts to reverse language shift are unsuccessful or even harmful, diagnosing difficulties and prescribing alternatives based on a combination of ethnolinguistic, sociocultural, and econotechnical…

Punishment sustains large-scale cooperation in prestate warfare

PubMed Central

Mathew, Sarah; Boyd, Robert

2011-01-01

Understanding cooperation and punishment in small-scale societies is crucial for explaining the origins of human cooperation. We studied warfare among the Turkana, a politically uncentralized, egalitarian, nomadic pastoral society in East Africa. Based on a representative sample of 88 recent raids, we show that the Turkana sustain costly cooperation in combat at a remarkably large scale, at least in part, through punishment of free-riders. Raiding parties comprised several hundred warriors and participants are not kin or day-to-day interactants. Warriors incur substantial risk of death and produce collective benefits. Cowardice and desertions occur, and are punished by community-imposed sanctions, including collective corporal punishment and fines. Furthermore, Turkana norms governing warfare benefit the ethnolinguistic group, a population of a half-million people, at the expense of smaller social groupings. These results challenge current views that punishment is unimportant in small-scale societies and that human cooperation evolved in small groups of kin and familiar individuals. Instead, these results suggest that cooperation at the larger scale of ethnolinguistic units enforced by third-party sanctions could have a deep evolutionary history in the human species. PMID:21670285

Reconsidering Compulsory English in Developing Countries in Asia: English in a Community of Northeast Thailand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Draper, John

2012-01-01

This article reviews the issue of compulsory English in the Asia-Pacific region and examines the English component of a single-site exploratory study of multilingualism in a disadvantaged ethnic minority (DEM) community of Northeast Thailand. The concept of ethnolinguistic vitality was used as a framework for an analysis of community language…

Coyote Papers: The University of Arizona Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 11. Special Volume on Native American Languages.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weinberg, Jessica P., Ed.; O'Bryan, Erin L., Ed.; Moll, Laura A., Ed.; Haugan, Jason D., Ed.

The five papers included in this volume approach the study of American Indian languages from a diverse array of methodological and theoretical approaches to linguistics. Two papers focus on approaches that come from the applied linguistics tradition, emphasizing ethnolinguistics and discourse analysis: Sonya Bird's paper "A Cross Cultural…

Meaning in Cross-Cultural Situations: An Application of Vygotsky's Unit of Analysis to Ethnolinguistics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cadart-Ricard, Odette

The problem of meaning in cross-cultural situations, resulting from differing patterns of thought, requires comprehension of the basic rules or patterns of these thought systems. This comprehension can be sought through Vygotsky's unit of analysis, a unit being a product of analysis which, unlike elements, retains all the basic properties of the…

Assessing Forty Years of Language Planning on the Vitality of the Francophone and Anglophone Communities of Quebec

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bourhis, Richard Y.; Sioufi, Rana

2017-01-01

This article analyses how language laws favouring French improved the vitality of the Francophone majority relative to the declining Anglophone minority of Quebec. Part one provides a review of Canadian Government efforts to provide federal bilingual services to Francophones and Anglophones across Canada. Using the ethnolinguistic vitality…

Sub-Saharan Africa and the United States. United States Department of State Discussion Paper.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cook, Philip R., Jr.

Intended to provide background for study and discussion, this publication gives updated information on development in sub-Saharan Africa and provides a basis for understanding U.S. policy toward this vital region. The strengths, problems, politics, natural resources, and language and ethnolinguistic groups of this area of the world and the…

Dynamics of Language Contact in China: Ethnolinguistic Diversity and Variation in Yunnan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gao, Katie B.

2017-01-01

The study of language contact epitomizes the dynamics of language as a system of human communication. The competing linguistic forces at work when speakers of different language varieties come into contact can be narrowed down to two basic concepts--convergence and divergence. Looking at linguistic areas using a macro approach, languages in…

Toward a Context-Specific Language Policy for Developing Countries with an Emphasis on Language-in-Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chandler, Martin Trent

A discussion of language policy and planning in developing nations with diverse student populations focuses on the role of language in education. Through review of the literature, history, and case studies, the relationship between language policy and the integration of ethnolinguistic minorities is examined. The first chapter surveys…

Annual Conference Journal NABE '90-'91. Proceedings of the National Association for Bilingual Education Conferences (Tucson, Arizona, 1990; Washington, D.C., 1991).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Malave, Lilliam M., Ed.

Papers from the 1990 and 1991 conferences of the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) are presented, including: "Beyond Socially Naive Bilingual Education: The Effects of Schooling and Ethnolinguistic Vitality of the Community on Additive and Subtractive Bilingualism" (Rodriguez Landry, Real Allard); "Descubriendo la…

Social Context, Parental Exogamy and Hakka Language Retention in Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jan, Jie-Sheng; Kuan, Ping-Yin; Lomeli, Arlett

2016-01-01

The Hakka people, the largest ethno-linguistic minority group in Taiwan, have found their ethnic language retention diminishing. Using the data collected by the Taiwan Education Panel Survey and Beyond in 2010, we are the first to study its reason for decrease. Results indicate that out-marriage amongst Hakka people and losing ethnic concentration…

Diversity and Contested Social Identities in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts of the University of the Western Cape, South Africa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Banda, Felix; Peck, Amiena

2016-01-01

We draw on Rampton's "Crossing: Language and Ethnicity Among Adolescents" (2014. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge) notion of "crossing" to explore contestations in ethnolinguistic, cultural and racial affiliations at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), a university built for "Coloureds" in apartheid South Africa, but…

Vitality and Ethnolinguistic Attitudes of Acadians, Franco-Ontarians and Francophone Quebecers: Two or Three Solitudes in Canada's Bilingual Belt?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sioufi, Rana; Bourhis, Richard Y.; Allard, Réal

2016-01-01

Do French-Canadian (FC) minorities in New Brunswick and Ontario remain as committed as majority Francophone Quebecers in developing their vitality within Canada's bilingual belt? FCs constitute host communities for interprovincial migrants of FC and English-Canadian (EC) background who can bolster or weaken the vitality of FCs. How FCs and ECs…

Blood Circulation Laboratory Investigations with Video Are Less Investigative than Instructional Blood Circulation Laboratories with Live Organisms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoover, Mildred A.; Pelaez, Nancy J.

2008-01-01

Live organisms versus digital video of the organisms were used to challenge students' naive ideas and misconceptions about blood, the heart, and circulatory patterns. Three faculty members taught 259 grade 10 biology students in a California high school with students from diverse ethnolinguistic groups who were divided into 5 classes using…

Evaluating the Efficacy of the High Point Curriculum in the Coastline Unified School District Using CST, CAHSEE, and CELDT Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peralta, Aaron A.

2012-01-01

The academic achievement gap between ethno-linguistic minority students and other students, as represented by test scores, dropout rates, and college admissions and completion rates, is the most persistent and pressing challenge facing public schools nationwide. The existing achievement gap indicates that many of our students are not receiving the…

Transformation of the System of Bilingual Education in the Republic of Tatarstan: Crossover Ethnolinguistic Controversies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maximova, Olga; Belyaev, Vladimir; Laukart-Gorbacheva, Olga

2017-01-01

The relevance of the problem range addressed in the study is conditioned by the system of education functioning under multiculturalism in modern polyethnic societies and their social stability much depending on the balanced use of languages of ethnoses that reside in the region as well as on the respectful attitude to their representatives in…

Nobody Said It Would Be Easy: Ethnolinguistic Group Challenges to Bilingual and Multicultural Education in New York City

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kleyn, Tatyana; Reyes, Sharon Adelman

2011-01-01

New York City sets itself apart from many locations in the USA due to its citizens' unparalleled diversity. The degree to which schools either build upon or suppress the backgrounds of their linguistically and culturally diverse students is dependent on the degree to which they can provide an education that is both bilingual and multicultural.…

Repositioned Lives: Language, Ethnicity, and Narrative Identity among Chinese-Vietnamese Community College Students in Los Angeles' San Gabriel Valley.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frank, Russell Alan

Chinese speakers from Vietnam are a distinctive but hidden ethnolinguistic minority group in the San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles. Many variables present barriers to their full participation in society from both the values and norms of dominant American society and non-Chinese co-nationals from Vietnam as well as higher status co-ethnics…

Signalling L2 Centrality, Maintaining L1 Dominance: Teacher Language Choice in an Ethnic Minority Primary Classroom in the Lao PDR

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cincotta-Segi, Angela Rose

2011-01-01

Although the Lao People's Democratic Republic has speakers of up to 230 different languages belonging to four ethnolinguistic families, the Lao Government's policy as stated in its Education Law is that Lao is the official language of education at all levels. This creates a challenging situation for teachers in ethnic minority villages throughout…

Studies in Southwestern Ethnolinguistics; Meaning and History in the Languages of the American Southwest.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hymes, Dell H., Ed.; Bittle, William E., Ed.

The present festschrift honoring Harry Hoijer is prefaced by the editor, Dell Hymes, and introduced by Stanley Newman. Papers are grouped according to the following content areas and authors: (1) "Meaning in Cultural Forms": D.F. Aberle, F. Eggan, R.A. Black, and D.L. Olmsted; (2) "Meaning in Lexical Systems": S. Ervin-Tripp, H. Landar, O. Werner,…

Registering the Human Terrain: A Valuation of Cadastre

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-01-01

which is also an intelligence topic of increasing salience. Ethno-linguistic maps, such as Figure 1 depicting languages spoken or religions ...Desert] to Congo, tens of thousands of people are at war. You might think these struggles are about religion , or ethnicity, or even political diff...Nazi pseudoscience responsible for 70 million deaths. Academia quickly distanced itself from environmental determinism, the theory behind Geopolitik

La vitalite ethnolinguistique et les caracteristiques socio-psychologiques de l'individu vivant en milieu bilingue (Ethnolinguistic Vitality and the Socio-Psychological Characteristics of the Individual Living in a Bilingual Environment).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Labrie, Normand

A study in Moncton, New Brunswick, of second language use by language minorities and native language maintenance as it relates to the linguistic groups' vitality and the individuals' attitudes toward these groups is reported. Seven research hypotheses were proposed: (1) The first language group's perception of the second language group's vitality…

Plants and geographical names in Croatia.

PubMed

Cargonja, Hrvoje; Daković, Branko; Alegro, Antun

2008-09-01

The main purpose of this paper is to present some general observations, regularities and insights into a complex relationship between plants and people through symbolic systems like geographical names on the territory of Croatia. The basic sources of data for this research were maps from atlas of Croatia of the scale 1:100000. Five groups of maps or areas were selected in order to represent main Croatian phytogeographic regions. A selection of toponyms from each of the map was made in which the name for a plant in Croatian language was recognized (phytotoponyms). Results showed that of all plant names recognized in geographical names the most represented are trees, and among them birch and oak the most. Furthermore, an attempt was made to explain the presence of the most represented plant species in the phytotoponyms in the light of general phytogeographical and sociocultural differences and similarities of comparing areas. The findings confirm an expectation that the genera of climazonal vegetation of particular area are the most represented among the phytotoponyms. Nevertheless, there are ample examples where representation of a plant name in the names of human environment can only be ascribed to ethno-linguistic and socio-cultural motives. Despite the reductionist character of applied methodology, this research also points out some advantages of this approach for ethnobotanic and ethnolinguistic studies of greater areas of human environment.

Premarital fertility in Namibia: trends, factors and consequences.

PubMed

Garenne, Michel; Zwang, Julien

2006-03-01

Premarital fertility, defined as fertility before first marriage, was found to be highly prevalent in Namibia. According to data from the 1992 and 2000 DHS surveys, the proportion of premarital births was 43% for all births, and 60% for the first birth. This seemed to be primarily due to a late mean age at first marriage (26.4 years) and low levels of contraception before first marriage. Data were analysed using a variety of demographic methods, including multiple decrement life table and multivariate logistic models. Major variations were found by ethno-linguistic groups: Herero and Nama/Damara had the highest levels of premarital fertility (above 60%); Ovambo and Lozi had intermediate levels of premarital fertility (around 40%); Kavongo and San appeared to have kept a more traditional behaviour of early marriage and low levels of premarital fertility (around 20%). The largest ethno-linguistic group, the Ovambo, were in a special situation, with fast increasing age at marriage and average level of premarital fertility. Whites and mixed races also differed, with Afrikaans-speaking groups having a behaviour closer to the average, whereas other Europeans had less premarital fertility despite an average age at marriage. Ethnic differences remained stable after controlling for various socioeconomic factors, such as urbanization, level of education, wealth, access to mass media, and religion. Results are discussed in light of the population dynamics and political history of Namibia in the 20th century.

Cryptic Distant Relatives Are Common in Both Isolated and Cosmopolitan Genetic Samples

PubMed Central

Macpherson, J. Michael; Eriksson, Nick; Saxonov, Serge; Pe'er, Itsik; Mountain, Joanna L.

2012-01-01

Although a few hundred single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) suffice to infer close familial relationships, high density genome-wide SNP data make possible the inference of more distant relationships such as 2nd to 9th cousinships. In order to characterize the relationship between genetic similarity and degree of kinship given a timeframe of 100–300 years, we analyzed the sharing of DNA inferred to be identical by descent (IBD) in a subset of individuals from the 23andMe customer database (n = 22,757) and from the Human Genome Diversity Panel (HGDP-CEPH, n = 952). With data from 121 populations, we show that the average amount of DNA shared IBD in most ethnolinguistically-defined populations, for example Native American groups, Finns and Ashkenazi Jews, differs from continentally-defined populations by several orders of magnitude. Via extensive pedigree-based simulations, we determined bounds for predicted degrees of relationship given the amount of genomic IBD sharing in both endogamous and ‘unrelated’ population samples. Using these bounds as a guide, we detected tens of thousands of 2nd to 9th degree cousin pairs within a heterogenous set of 5,000 Europeans. The ubiquity of distant relatives, detected via IBD segments, in both ethnolinguistic populations and in large ‘unrelated’ populations samples has important implications for genetic genealogy, forensics and genotype/phenotype mapping studies. PMID:22509285

Inferring patterns of folktale diffusion using genomic data

PubMed Central

Bortolini, Eugenio; Pagani, Luca; Sarno, Stefania; Boattini, Alessio; Sazzini, Marco; da Silva, Sara Graça; Martini, Gessica; Metspalu, Mait; Pettener, Davide; Luiselli, Donata; Tehrani, Jamshid J.

2017-01-01

Observable patterns of cultural variation are consistently intertwined with demic movements, cultural diffusion, and adaptation to different ecological contexts [Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman (1981) Cultural Transmission and Evolution: A Quantitative Approach; Boyd and Richerson (1985) Culture and the Evolutionary Process]. The quantitative study of gene–culture coevolution has focused in particular on the mechanisms responsible for change in frequency and attributes of cultural traits, the spread of cultural information through demic and cultural diffusion, and detecting relationships between genetic and cultural lineages. Here, we make use of worldwide whole-genome sequences [Pagani et al. (2016) Nature 538:238–242] to assess the impact of processes involving population movement and replacement on cultural diversity, focusing on the variability observed in folktale traditions (n = 596) [Uther (2004) The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography. Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson] in Eurasia. We find that a model of cultural diffusion predicted by isolation-by-distance alone is not sufficient to explain the observed patterns, especially at small spatial scales (up to ∼4,000 km). We also provide an empirical approach to infer presence and impact of ethnolinguistic barriers preventing the unbiased transmission of both genetic and cultural information. After correcting for the effect of ethnolinguistic boundaries, we show that, of the alternative models that we propose, the one entailing cultural diffusion biased by linguistic differences is the most plausible. Additionally, we identify 15 tales that are more likely to be predominantly transmitted through population movement and replacement and locate putative focal areas for a set of tales that are spread worldwide. PMID:28784786

Inferring patterns of folktale diffusion using genomic data.

PubMed

Bortolini, Eugenio; Pagani, Luca; Crema, Enrico R; Sarno, Stefania; Barbieri, Chiara; Boattini, Alessio; Sazzini, Marco; da Silva, Sara Graça; Martini, Gessica; Metspalu, Mait; Pettener, Davide; Luiselli, Donata; Tehrani, Jamshid J

2017-08-22

Observable patterns of cultural variation are consistently intertwined with demic movements, cultural diffusion, and adaptation to different ecological contexts [Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman (1981) Cultural Transmission and Evolution: A Quantitative Approach ; Boyd and Richerson (1985) Culture and the Evolutionary Process ]. The quantitative study of gene-culture coevolution has focused in particular on the mechanisms responsible for change in frequency and attributes of cultural traits, the spread of cultural information through demic and cultural diffusion, and detecting relationships between genetic and cultural lineages. Here, we make use of worldwide whole-genome sequences [Pagani et al. (2016) Nature 538:238-242] to assess the impact of processes involving population movement and replacement on cultural diversity, focusing on the variability observed in folktale traditions ( n  = 596) [Uther (2004) The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography. Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson ] in Eurasia. We find that a model of cultural diffusion predicted by isolation-by-distance alone is not sufficient to explain the observed patterns, especially at small spatial scales (up to [Formula: see text]4,000 km). We also provide an empirical approach to infer presence and impact of ethnolinguistic barriers preventing the unbiased transmission of both genetic and cultural information. After correcting for the effect of ethnolinguistic boundaries, we show that, of the alternative models that we propose, the one entailing cultural diffusion biased by linguistic differences is the most plausible. Additionally, we identify 15 tales that are more likely to be predominantly transmitted through population movement and replacement and locate putative focal areas for a set of tales that are spread worldwide.

An Ethnolinguistic and Genetic Perspective on the Origins of the Dravidian-Speaking Brahui in Pakistan

PubMed Central

Pagani, Luca; Colonna, Vincenza; Tyler-Smith, Chris; Ayub, Qasim

2017-01-01

Pakistan is a part of South Asia that modern humans encountered soon after they left Africa ~50 – 70,000 years ago. Approximately 9,000 years ago they began establishing cities that eventually expanded to represent the Harappan culture, rivalling the early city states of Mesopotamia. The modern state constitutes the north western land mass of the Indian sub-continent and is now the abode of almost 200 million humans representing many ethnicities and linguistic groups. Studies utilising autosomal, Y chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA markers in selected Pakistani populations revealed a mixture of Western Eurasian-, South- and East Asian-specific lineages, some of which were unequivocally associated with past migrations. Overall in Pakistan, genetic relationships are generally predicted more accurately by geographic proximity than linguistic origin. The Dravidian-speaking Brahui population are a prime example of this. They currently reside in south-western Pakistan, surrounded by Indo-Europeans speakers with whom they share a common genetic origin. In contrast, the Hazara share the highest affinity with East Asians, despite their Indo-European linguistic affiliation. In this report we reexamine the genetic origins of the Brahuis, and compare them with diverse populations from India, including several Dravidian-speaking groups, and present a genetic perspective on ethnolinguistic groups in present-day Pakistan. Given the high affinity of Brahui to the other Indo-European Pakistani populations and the absence of population admixture with any of the examined Indian Dravidian groups, we conclude that Brahui are an example of cultural (linguistic) retention following a major population replacement. PMID:28381901

High-resolution mitochondrial DNA analysis sheds light on human diversity, cultural interactions, and population mobility in Northwestern Amazonia.

PubMed

Arias, Leonardo; Barbieri, Chiara; Barreto, Guillermo; Stoneking, Mark; Pakendorf, Brigitte

2018-02-01

Northwestern Amazonia (NWA) is a center of high linguistic and cultural diversity. Several language families and linguistic isolates occur in this region, as well as different subsistence patterns, with some groups being foragers and others agriculturalists. In addition, speakers of Eastern Tukanoan languages are known for practicing linguistic exogamy, a marriage system in which partners are taken from different language groups. In this study, we use high-resolution mitochondrial DNA sequencing to investigate the impact of this linguistic and cultural diversity on the genetic relationships and population structure of NWA groups. We collected saliva samples from individuals representing 40 different NWA ethnolinguistic groups and sequenced 439 complete mitochondrial genomes to an average coverage of 1,030×. The mtDNA data revealed that NWA populations have high genetic diversity with extensive sharing of haplotypes among groups. Moreover, groups who practice linguistic exogamy have higher genetic diversity, while the foraging Nukak have lower genetic diversity. We also find that rivers play a more important role than either geography or language affiliation in structuring the genetic relationships of populations. Contrary to the view of NWA as a pristine area inhabited by small human populations living in isolation, our data support a view of high diversity and contact among different ethnolinguistic groups, with movement along rivers probably facilitating this contact. Additionally, we provide evidence for the impact of cultural practices, such as linguistic exogamy, on patterns of genetic variation. Overall, this study provides new data and insights into a remote and little-studied region of the world. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

An Ethnolinguistic and Genetic Perspective on the Origins of the Dravidian-Speaking Brahui in Pakistan.

PubMed

Pagani, Luca; Colonna, Vincenza; Tyler-Smith, Chris; Ayub, Qasim

2017-01-01

Pakistan is a part of South Asia that modern humans encountered soon after they left Africa ~50 - 70,000 years ago. Approximately 9,000 years ago they began establishing cities that eventually expanded to represent the Harappan culture, rivalling the early city states of Mesopotamia. The modern state constitutes the north western land mass of the Indian sub-continent and is now the abode of almost 200 million humans representing many ethnicities and linguistic groups. Studies utilising autosomal, Y chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA markers in selected Pakistani populations revealed a mixture of Western Eurasian-, South- and East Asian-specific lineages, some of which were unequivocally associated with past migrations. Overall in Pakistan, genetic relationships are generally predicted more accurately by geographic proximity than linguistic origin. The Dravidian-speaking Brahui population are a prime example of this. They currently reside in south-western Pakistan, surrounded by Indo-Europeans speakers with whom they share a common genetic origin. In contrast, the Hazara share the highest affinity with East Asians, despite their Indo-European linguistic affiliation. In this report we reexamine the genetic origins of the Brahuis, and compare them with diverse populations from India, including several Dravidian-speaking groups, and present a genetic perspective on ethnolinguistic groups in present-day Pakistan. Given the high affinity of Brahui to the other Indo-European Pakistani populations and the absence of population admixture with any of the examined Indian Dravidian groups, we conclude that Brahui are an example of cultural (linguistic) retention following a major population replacement.

The bear in Eurasian plant names: motivations and models.

PubMed

Kolosova, Valeria; Svanberg, Ingvar; Kalle, Raivo; Strecker, Lisa; Özkan, Ayşe Mine Gençler; Pieroni, Andrea; Cianfaglione, Kevin; Molnár, Zsolt; Papp, Nora; Łuczaj, Łukasz; Dimitrova, Dessislava; Šeškauskaitė, Daiva; Roper, Jonathan; Hajdari, Avni; Sõukand, Renata

2017-02-21

Ethnolinguistic studies are important for understanding an ethnic group's ideas on the world, expressed in its language. Comparing corresponding aspects of such knowledge might help clarify problems of origin for certain concepts and words, e.g. whether they form common heritage, have an independent origin, are borrowings, or calques. The current study was conducted on the material in Slavonic, Baltic, Germanic, Romance, Finno-Ugrian, Turkic and Albanian languages. The bear was chosen as being a large, dangerous animal, important in traditional culture, whose name is widely reflected in folk plant names. The phytonyms for comparison were mostly obtained from dictionaries and other publications, and supplemented with data from databases, the co-authors' field data, and archival sources (dialect and folklore materials). More than 1200 phytonym use records (combinations of a local name and a meaning) for 364 plant and fungal taxa were recorded to help find out the reasoning behind bear-nomination in various languages, as well as differences and similarities between the patterns among them. Among the most common taxa with bear-related phytonyms were Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (L.) Spreng., Heracleum sphondylium L., Acanthus mollis L., and Allium ursinum L., with Latin loan translation contributing a high proportion of the phytonyms. Some plants have many and various bear-related phytonyms, while others have only one or two bear names. Features like form and/or surface generated the richest pool of names, while such features as colour seemed to provoke rather few associations with bears. The unevenness of bear phytonyms in the chosen languages was not related to the size of the language nor the present occurence of the Brown Bear in the region. However, this may, at least to certain extent, be related to the amount of the historical ethnolinguistic research done on the selected languages.

[The alphabet of nature and the alphabet of culture in the eighteenth century. botany, diplomatics, and ethno-linguistics according to Carl von Linné, Johann Christoph Gatterer, and Christian Wilhelm Büttner : Botany, Diplomatics, and ethno-linguistics according to Carl von Linné, Johann Christoph Gatterer, and Christian Wilhelm Büttner].

PubMed

Gierl, Martin

2010-01-01

In the middle of the eighteenth century, Carl von Linné, Johann Christoph Gatterer, and Christian Wilhelm Büttner attempted to realize the old idea of deciphering the alphabet of the world, which Francis Bacon had raised as a general postulate of science. This article describes these attempts and their interrelations. Linné used the model of the alphabet to classify plants according to the characters of this fruiting body. Gatterer, one of the leading German historians during the Enlightenment, adopted the botanical method of classification by genus and species to classify the history of scripts. He used the forms of the alphabetic characters to measure the age of manuscripts and to map the process of history as a genealogy of culture. Gatterer collaborated closely with Büttner, the first Göttingen professor of natural history. Büttner constructed a general alphabet of languages which connected the phonetics of language with the historically known alphabets. Early on, diplomatics and ethnography combined the natural order of natural history and the cultural order of the alphabet with the attempt to register development and to document development by the evolution of forms. Based on the shared model of the alphabet and on the common necessity to classify their empirical material, natural history and the description of culture were related attempts in the middle of the eighteenth century to comprehend the alphabetically organized nature and a naturally ordered culture.

The Representation of Older People in East Asian Television Advertisements.

PubMed

Prieler, Michael; Ivanov, Alex; Hagiwara, Shigeru

2017-06-01

In this study, 432 television advertisements from Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea were analyzed to determine their representations of older people. Findings demonstrate that in East Asian advertisements, older people are highly underrepresented, appear in major roles, mostly alongside younger people, and older men clearly outnumber older women. The other variables investigated (i.e., setting and product categories) led to no conclusive findings for the three societies. In short, our study, employing ethnolinguistic vitality theory to analyze television advertisements, demonstrates how East Asian societies greatly marginalize older people. Potential effects of such representations are discussed using social cognitive theory and cultivation theory.

GENETIC DIVERSITY AND THE ORIGINS OF CULTURAL FRAGMENTATION

PubMed Central

Ashraf, Quamrul; Galor, Oded

2013-01-01

Despite the importance attributed to the effects of diversity on the stability and prosperity of nations, the origins of the uneven distribution of ethnic and cultural fragmentation across countries have been underexplored. Building on the role of deeply-rooted biogeographical forces in comparative development, this research empirically demonstrates that genetic diversity, predominantly determined during the prehistoric “out of Africa” migration of humans, is an underlying cause of various existing manifestations of ethnolinguistic heterogeneity. Further exploration of this uncharted territory may revolutionize the understanding of the effects of deeply-rooted factors on economic development and the composition of human capital across the globe. PMID:25506084

CNV analysis in the Lithuanian population.

PubMed

Urnikyte, A; Domarkiene, I; Stoma, S; Ambrozaityte, L; Uktveryte, I; Meskiene, R; Kasiulevičius, V; Burokiene, N; Kučinskas, V

2016-05-04

Although copy number variation (CNV) has received much attention, knowledge about the characteristics of CNVs such as occurrence rate and distribution in the genome between populations and within the same population is still insufficient. In this study, Illumina 770 K HumanOmniExpress-12 v1.0 (and v1.1) arrays were used to examine the diversity and distribution of CNVs in 286 unrelated individuals from the two main ethnolinguistic groups of the Lithuanian population (Aukštaičiai and Žemaičiai) (see Additional file 3). For primary data analysis, the Illumina GenomeStudio™ Genotyping Module v1.9 and two algorithms, cnvPartition 3.2.0 and QuantiSNP 2.0, were used to identify high-confidence CNVs. A total of 478 autosomal CNVs were detected by both algorithms, and those were clustered in 87 copy number variation regions (CNVRs), spanning ~12.5 Mb of the genome (see Table 1). At least 8.6 % of the CNVRs were unique and had not been reported in the Database of Genomic Variants. Most CNVRs (57.5 %) were rare, with a frequency of <1 %, whereas common CNVRs with at least 5 % frequency made up only 1.1 % of all CNVRs identified. About 49 % of non-singleton CNVRs were shared between Aukštaičiai and Žemaičiai, and the remaining CNVRs were specific to each group. Many of the CNVs detected (66 %) overlapped with known UCSC gene regions. The ethnolinguistic groups of the Lithuanian population could not be differentiated based on CNV profiles, which may reflect their geographical proximity and suggest the homogeneity of the Lithuanian population. In addition, putative novel CNVs unique to the Lithuanian population were identified. The results of our study enhance the CNV map of the Lithuanian population.

Ethnic boxes: the unintended consequences of Habsburg bureaucratic classification

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

The classificatory efforts that accompanied the modernization of the Habsburg state inadvertently helped establish, promote, and perpetuate national categories of identification, often contrary to the intentions of the Habsburg bureaucracy. The state did not create nations, but its classification of languages made available some ethnolinguistic identity categories that nationalists used to make political claims. The institutionalization of these categories also made them more relevant, especially as nationalist movements simultaneously worked toward the same goal. Yet identification with a nation did not follow an algorithmic logic, in the beginning of the twentieth century, sometimes earlier, various nationalisms could undoubtedly mobilize large numbers of people in Austria–Hungary, but people still had agency and nation-ness remained contingent and situational. PMID:29932174

Where Do Ethno-Linguistic Groups Meet? How Copresence during Free-Time Is Related to Copresence at Home and at Work

PubMed Central

Toomet, Ott; Silm, Siiri; Saluveer, Erki; Ahas, Rein; Tammaru, Tiit

2015-01-01

This paper analyzes ethnic segregation across the whole activity space—at place of residence, place of work, and during free-time. We focus on interethnic meeting potential during free-time, measured as copresence, and its relationship to copresence at place of residence and work. The study is based on cellphone data for a medium-sized linguistically divided European city (Tallinn, Estonia), where the Estonian majority and mainly Russian-speaking minority populations are of roughly equal size. The results show that both places of residence and work are segregated, while other activities occur in a far more integrated environment. Copresence during free-time is positively associated with copresence at place of residence and work, however, the relationship is very weak. PMID:25996504

Ethnic Inequality

PubMed Central

Alesina, Alberto; Michalopoulos, Stelios; Papaioannou, Elias

2015-01-01

This study explores the consequences and origins of between-ethnicity economic inequality across countries. First, combining satellite images of nighttime luminosity with the historical homelands of ethnolinguistic groups we construct measures of ethnic inequality for a large sample of countries. We also compile proxies of overall spatial inequality and regional inequality across administrative units. Second, we uncover a strong negative association between ethnic inequality and contemporary comparative development; the correlation is also present when we condition on regional inequality, which is itself related to under-development. Third, we investigate the roots of ethnic inequality and establish that differences in geographic endowments across ethnic homelands explain a sizable fraction of the observed variation in economic disparities across groups. Fourth, we show that ethnic-specific inequality in geographic endowments is also linked to under-development. PMID:27330223

Where Do Ethno-Linguistic Groups Meet? How Copresence during Free-Time Is Related to Copresence at Home and at Work.

PubMed

Toomet, Ott; Silm, Siiri; Saluveer, Erki; Ahas, Rein; Tammaru, Tiit

2015-01-01

This paper analyzes ethnic segregation across the whole activity space-at place of residence, place of work, and during free-time. We focus on interethnic meeting potential during free-time, measured as copresence, and its relationship to copresence at place of residence and work. The study is based on cellphone data for a medium-sized linguistically divided European city (Tallinn, Estonia), where the Estonian majority and mainly Russian-speaking minority populations are of roughly equal size. The results show that both places of residence and work are segregated, while other activities occur in a far more integrated environment. Copresence during free-time is positively associated with copresence at place of residence and work, however, the relationship is very weak.

Health and Illness in Pilipino Immigrants

PubMed Central

Anderson, James N.

1983-01-01

Immigrants from the Philippines and their descendants have tripled in number in the United States in the past 18 years. They will soon surpass 1 million and will be the largest Asian-American minority. Pilipinos in the United States are diverse ethnolinguistically and in important socioeconomic and demographic dimensions, one notable feature being the high level of education and professional status of many recent immigrants. Nevertheless, the health and disease circumstances of Pilipinos and their views of health and illness have been surprisingly neglected to date. A generic principle fundamental to their view of health is that concerning the maintenance of balance. Proper social and cultural conduct is believed to help avoid health problems. Imbalances in social relations, infringements of cultural norms or adverse interaction with the supernatural are linked, in the cultural logic of Pilipinos, to illness. PMID:6364569

A Genome-Wide Search for Greek and Jewish Admixture in the Kashmiri Population

PubMed Central

Tashi, Tsewang; Lorenzo, Felipe Ramos; Feusier, Julie Ellen; Mir, Hyder

2016-01-01

The Kashmiri population is an ethno-linguistic group that resides in the Kashmir Valley in northern India. A longstanding hypothesis is that this population derives ancestry from Jewish and/or Greek sources. There is historical and archaeological evidence of ancient Greek presence in India and Kashmir. Further, some historical accounts suggest ancient Hebrew ancestry as well. To date, it has not been determined whether signatures of Greek or Jewish admixture can be detected in the Kashmiri population. Using genome-wide genotyping and admixture detection methods, we determined there are no significant or substantial signs of Greek or Jewish admixture in modern-day Kashmiris. The ancestry of Kashmiri Tibetans was also determined, which showed signs of admixture with populations from northern India and west Eurasia. These results contribute to our understanding of the existing population structure in northern India and its surrounding geographical areas. PMID:27490348

The cosmobiological balance of the emotional and spiritual worlds: phenomenological structuralism in traditional Chinese medical thought.

PubMed

Davis, S

1996-03-01

This paper points to a convergence of formal and rhetorical features in ancient Chinese cosmobiological theory, within which is developed a view of the inner life of human emotions. Inasmuch as there is an extensive classical tradition considering the emotions in conjunction with music, one can justify a structural analysis of medical texts treating disorder in emotional life, since emotions, musical interpretation and structural analysis all deal with systems interrelated in a transformational space largely independent of objective reference and propositional coordination. Following a section of ethnolinguistic sketches to provide grounds in some phenomenological worlds recognized by Chinese people, there is a textual analysis of a classical medical source for the treatment of emotional distress. Through close examination of the compositional schema of this text, it can be demonstrated that the standard categories of correlative cosmology are arrayed within a more comprehensive structural order.

Admixture into and within sub-Saharan Africa.

PubMed

Busby, George Bj; Band, Gavin; Si Le, Quang; Jallow, Muminatou; Bougama, Edith; Mangano, Valentina D; Amenga-Etego, Lucas N; Enimil, Anthony; Apinjoh, Tobias; Ndila, Carolyne M; Manjurano, Alphaxard; Nyirongo, Vysaul; Doumba, Ogobara; Rockett, Kirk A; Kwiatkowski, Dominic P; Spencer, Chris Ca

2016-06-21

Similarity between two individuals in the combination of genetic markers along their chromosomes indicates shared ancestry and can be used to identify historical connections between different population groups due to admixture. We use a genome-wide, haplotype-based, analysis to characterise the structure of genetic diversity and gene-flow in a collection of 48 sub-Saharan African groups. We show that coastal populations experienced an influx of Eurasian haplotypes over the last 7000 years, and that Eastern and Southern Niger-Congo speaking groups share ancestry with Central West Africans as a result of recent population expansions. In fact, most sub-Saharan populations share ancestry with groups from outside of their current geographic region as a result of gene-flow within the last 4000 years. Our in-depth analysis provides insight into haplotype sharing across different ethno-linguistic groups and the recent movement of alleles into new environments, both of which are relevant to studies of genetic epidemiology.

Welsh settlement patterns in a nineteenth-century Australian gold town.

PubMed

Tyler, Robert

2009-01-01

The adjacent gold mining settlements of Ballarat and Sebastopol in the colony of Victoria are universally acknowledged as the major focal point for Welsh immigrants in Australia in the second half of the nineteenth century. Here, the Welsh had congregated in sufficient numbers to establish an identifiable and highly visible ethnolinguistic community. Factors such as the necessity of acquiring the English language, movement out of the mining industry, high rates of exogamy, the failure to unite within one religious denomination and the conscious desire to integrate into mainstream Australian society, all served to undermine the integrity of that community. This paper argues that the more fundamental issue of residential propinquity was of primary importance in this process; that it was the failure of the Welsh immigrant group to establish and maintain long term exclusively Welsh areas of settlement that ensured the eventual dilution and absorption of the Welsh as a distinct community.

Complete mitochondrial genomes of Thai and Lao populations indicate an ancient origin of Austroasiatic groups and demic diffusion in the spread of Tai-Kadai languages.

PubMed

Kutanan, Wibhu; Kampuansai, Jatupol; Srikummool, Metawee; Kangwanpong, Daoroong; Ghirotto, Silvia; Brunelli, Andrea; Stoneking, Mark

2017-01-01

The Tai-Kadai (TK) language family is thought to have originated in southern China and spread to Thailand and Laos, but it is not clear if TK languages spread by demic diffusion (i.e., a migration of people from southern China) or by cultural diffusion, with native Austroasiatic (AA) speakers switching to TK languages. To address this and other questions, we obtained 1234 complete mtDNA genome sequences from 51 TK and AA groups from Thailand and Laos. We find high genetic heterogeneity across the region, with 212 different haplogroups, and significant genetic differentiation among different samples from the same ethnolinguistic group. TK groups are more genetically homogeneous than AA groups, with the latter exhibiting more ancient/basal mtDNA lineages, and showing more drift effects. Modeling of demic diffusion, cultural diffusion, and admixture scenarios consistently supports the spread of TK languages by demic diffusion.

Different selection pressures give rise to distinct ethnic phenomena : a functionalist framework with illustrations from the Peruvian Altiplano.

PubMed

Moya, Cristina; Boyd, Robert

2015-03-01

Many accounts of ethnic phenomena imply that processes such as stereotyping, essentialism, ethnocentrism, and intergroup hostility stem from a unitary adaptation for reasoning about groups. This is partly justified by the phenomena's co-occurrence in correlational studies. Here we argue that these behaviors are better modeled as functionally independent adaptations that arose in response to different selection pressures throughout human evolution. As such, different mechanisms may be triggered by different group boundaries within a single society. We illustrate this functionalist framework using ethnographic work from the Quechua-Aymara language boundary in the Peruvian Altiplano. We show that different group boundaries motivate different ethnic phenomena. For example, people have strong stereotypes about socioeconomic categories, which are not cooperative units, whereas they hold fewer stereotypes about communities, which are the primary focus of cooperative activity. We also show that, despite the cross-cultural importance of ethnolinguistic boundaries, the Quechua-Aymara linguistic distinction does not strongly motivate any of these intergroup processes.

Different Selection Pressures Give Rise to Distinct Ethnic Phenomena

PubMed Central

Moya, Cristina; Boyd, Robert

2015-01-01

Many accounts of ethnic phenomena imply that processes such as stereotyping, essentialism, ethnocentrism, and intergroup hostility stem from a unitary adaptation for reasoning about groups. This is partly justified by the phenomena’s co-occurrence in correlational studies. Here we argue that these behaviors are better modeled as functionally independent adaptations that arose in response to different selection pressures throughout human evolution. As such, different mechanisms may be triggered by different group boundaries within a single society. We illustrate this functionalist framework using ethnographic work from the Quechua-Aymara language boundary in the Peruvian Altiplano. We show that different group boundaries motivate different ethnic phenomena. For example, people have strong stereotypes about socioeconomic categories, which are not cooperative units, whereas they hold fewer stereotypes about communities, which are the primary focus of cooperative activity. We also show that, despite the cross-cultural importance of ethnolinguistic boundaries, the Quechua-Aymara linguistic distinction does not strongly motivate any of these intergroup processes. PMID:25731969

Admixture into and within sub-Saharan Africa

PubMed Central

Busby, George BJ; Band, Gavin; Si Le, Quang; Jallow, Muminatou; Bougama, Edith; Mangano, Valentina D; Amenga-Etego, Lucas N; Enimil, Anthony; Apinjoh, Tobias; Ndila, Carolyne M; Manjurano, Alphaxard; Nyirongo, Vysaul; Doumba, Ogobara; Rockett, Kirk A; Kwiatkowski, Dominic P; Spencer, Chris CA

2016-01-01

Similarity between two individuals in the combination of genetic markers along their chromosomes indicates shared ancestry and can be used to identify historical connections between different population groups due to admixture. We use a genome-wide, haplotype-based, analysis to characterise the structure of genetic diversity and gene-flow in a collection of 48 sub-Saharan African groups. We show that coastal populations experienced an influx of Eurasian haplotypes over the last 7000 years, and that Eastern and Southern Niger-Congo speaking groups share ancestry with Central West Africans as a result of recent population expansions. In fact, most sub-Saharan populations share ancestry with groups from outside of their current geographic region as a result of gene-flow within the last 4000 years. Our in-depth analysis provides insight into haplotype sharing across different ethno-linguistic groups and the recent movement of alleles into new environments, both of which are relevant to studies of genetic epidemiology. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.15266.001 PMID:27324836

Differential positive selection of malaria resistance genes in three indigenous populations of Peninsular Malaysia.

PubMed

Liu, Xuanyao; Yunus, Yushimah; Lu, Dongsheng; Aghakhanian, Farhang; Saw, Woei-Yuh; Deng, Lian; Ali, Mohammad; Wang, Xu; Nor, Fadzilah Mohd; Ghazali, Fadzilah; Rahman, Thuhairah Abdul; Shaari, Shahrul Azlin; Salleh, Mohd Zaki; Phipps, Maude E; Ong, Rick Twee-Hee; Xu, Shuhua; Teo, Yik-Ying; Hoh, Boon-Peng

2015-04-01

The indigenous populations from Peninsular Malaysia, locally known as Orang Asli, continue to adopt an agro-subsistence nomadic lifestyle, residing primarily within natural jungle habitats. Leading a hunter-gatherer lifestyle in a tropical jungle environment, the Orang Asli are routinely exposed to malaria. Here we surveyed the genetic architecture of individuals from four Orang Asli tribes with high-density genotyping across more than 2.5 million polymorphisms. These tribes reside in different geographical locations in Peninsular Malaysia and belong to three main ethno-linguistic groups, where there is minimal interaction between the tribes. We first dissect the genetic diversity and admixture between the tribes and with neighboring urban populations. Later, by implementing five metrics, we investigated the genome-wide signatures for positive natural selection of these Orang Asli, respectively. Finally, we searched for evidence of genomic adaptation to the pressure of malaria infection. We observed that different evolutionary responses might have emerged in the different Orang Asli communities to mitigate malaria infection.

Political complexity predicts the spread of ethnolinguistic groups

PubMed Central

Currie, Thomas E.; Mace, Ruth

2009-01-01

Human languages show a remarkable degree of variation in the area they cover. However, the factors governing the distribution of human cultural groups such as languages are not well understood. While previous studies have examined the role of a number of environmental variables the importance of cultural factors has not been systematically addressed. Here we use a geographical information system (GIS) to integrate information about languages with environmental, ecological, and ethnographic data to test a number of hypotheses that have been proposed to explain the global distribution of languages. We show that the degree of political complexity and type of subsistence strategy exhibited by societies are important predictors of the area covered by a language. Political complexity is also strongly associated with the latitudinal gradient in language area, whereas subsistence strategy is not. We argue that a process of cultural group selection favoring more complex societies may have been important in shaping the present-day global distribution of language diversity. PMID:19380740

THE ENIGMA OF ETHIOPIAN SEX RATIOS AT BIRTH.

PubMed

Garenne, Michel

2017-09-01

This study analysed sex ratios at birth (defined as the number of male births per 100 female births) using data on children ever-born from three censuses conducted in Ethiopia in 1984, 1994 and 2007. The results showed very high values by any standard, with an average of 108.4 for a sample of some 8.2 million births, with somewhat lower values in urban areas. Analysis of socioeconomic correlates revealed that the sex ratio varied very much by household wealth, from about 110 for very poor women to about 102 for wealthier women. The high value of the sex ratio at birth in Ethiopia could be explained by poverty, used as a proxy for poor nutritional status. In multivariate analysis, the effects of living in urban areas and of maternal education were less important than household wealth. Among the many ethno-linguistic groups, the Nilotic family had higher sex ratios than other groups. The results were confirmed using data from DHS surveys conducted in the country, and by the analysis of children still living at time of census.

Does social diversity impede sound economic management? An empirical analysis, 1980-2012.

PubMed

de Soysa, Indra; Vadlamannati, Krishna Chaitanya

2017-02-01

Several celebrated scholars argue that diverse preferences and coordination failure due to ethnic and cultural diversity hamper the social cohesion necessary for good economic management, leading to development failure. Using several measures of diversity, we find that higher levels of ethno-linguistic and cultural fractionalization are conditioned positively on higher economic growth by an index of economic freedom, which is often heralded as a good measure of sound economic management. High diversity in turn is associated with higher levels of economic freedom. We do not find any evidence to suggest that high diversity hampers change towards greater economic freedom and institutions supporting liberal policies. The effect of diversity, moreover, is conditioned positively by higher democracy. Our results raise serious doubt about the centrality of social diversity for explaining economic failure, nor is there evidence to suggest that autocratic measures are required under conditions of social diversity to implement growth-promoting policies. This is good news because history and culture seem to matter less than rational agency for ensuring sound economic management. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Genetics and southern African prehistory: an archaeological view.

PubMed

Mitchell, Peter

2010-01-01

Southern African populations speaking languages that are often - but inaccurately - grouped together under the label 'Khoisan' are an important focus of molecular genetic research, not least in tracking the early stages of human genetic diversification. This paper reviews these studies from an archaeological standpoint, concentrating on modern human origins, the introduction of pastoralism to southern Africa and admixture between the region's indigenous foragers and incoming Bantu-speaking farmers. To minimise confusion and facilitate correlation with anthropological, linguistic and archaeological data it emphasises the need to use ethnolinguistic labels accurately and with due regard for the particular histories of individual groups. It also stresses the geographically and culturally biased nature of the genetic studies undertaken to date, which employ data from only a few 'Khoisan' groups. Specific topics for which the combined deployment of genetic and archaeological methods would be particularly useful include the early history of Ju-Hoan- and Tuu-speaking hunter-gatherers, the expansion of Khoe-speaking populations, the chronology of genetic exchange between hunter-gatherers and farmers, and the origins of the Sotho/Tswana- and Nguni-speaking populations that dominate much of southern Africa today.

Africa: continent of genome contrasts with implications for biomedical research and health.

PubMed

Ramsay, Michèle

2012-08-31

The genomic architecture of African populations is poorly understood and there is considerable variation between ethno-linguistic groups. Genome-wide approaches have been extensively applied to search for genetic associations to complex traits in Europeans, but rarely in Africans. This is largely attributed to lower levels of funding, poor infrastructure and public health systems, and to the small pool of trained scientists. High levels of genetic variation and underlying population structure in Africans present significant challenges, but lower levels of linkage disequilibrium provide an opportunity for more effective localisation of causal variants. High throughput technologies, including dense genotyping arrays, genome sequencing and epigenome studies, together with plummeting costs, are making research more affordable, even for African scientists. Understanding the interactions between genome structure and environmental influences is essential to interpreting their contributions to the increase in infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases, exacerbated by adverse environments and lifestyle choices. The unique genome dynamics in African populations have an important role to play in understanding human health and susceptibility to disease. Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Anthropometric characteristics of female smallholder farmers of Uganda--Toward design of labor-saving tools.

PubMed

Mugisa, Dana J; Katimbo, Abia; Sempiira, John E; Kisaalita, William S

2016-05-01

Sub-Saharan African women on small-acreage farms carry a disproportionately higher labor burden, which is one of the main reasons they are unable to produce for both home and the market and realize higher incomes. Labor-saving interventions such as hand-tools are needed to save time and/or increase productivity in, for example, land preparation for crop and animal agriculture, post-harvest processing, and meeting daily energy and water needs. Development of such tools requires comprehensive and content-specific anthropometric data or body dimensions and existing databases based on Western women may be less relevant. We conducted measurements on 89 women to provide preliminary results toward answering two questions. First, how well existing databases are applicable in the design of hand-tools for sub-Saharan African women. Second, how universal body dimension predictive models are among ethnic groups. Our results show that, body dimensions between Bantu and Nilotic ethnolinguistic groups are different and both are different from American women. These results strongly support the need for establishing anthropometric databases for sub-Saharan African women, toward hand-tool design. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Cultural phylogeography of the Bantu Languages of sub-Saharan Africa.

PubMed

Currie, Thomas E; Meade, Andrew; Guillon, Myrtille; Mace, Ruth

2013-07-07

There is disagreement about the routes taken by populations speaking Bantu languages as they expanded to cover much of sub-Saharan Africa. Here, we build phylogenetic trees of Bantu languages and map them onto geographical space in order to assess the likely pathway of expansion and test between dispersal scenarios. The results clearly support a scenario in which groups first moved south through the rainforest from a homeland somewhere near the Nigeria-Cameroon border. Emerging on the south side of the rainforest, one branch moved south and west. Another branch moved towards the Great Lakes, eventually giving rise to the monophyletic clade of East Bantu languages that inhabit East and Southeastern Africa. These phylogenies also reveal information about more general processes involved in the diversification of human populations into distinct ethnolinguistic groups. Our study reveals that Bantu languages show a latitudinal gradient in covering greater areas with increasing distance from the equator. Analyses suggest that this pattern reflects a true ecological relationship rather than merely being an artefact of shared history. The study shows how a phylogeographic approach can address questions relating to the specific histories of certain groups, as well as general cultural evolutionary processes.

The Y-chromosome landscape of the Philippines: extensive heterogeneity and varying genetic affinities of Negrito and non-Negrito groups

PubMed Central

Delfin, Frederick; Salvador, Jazelyn M; Calacal, Gayvelline C; Perdigon, Henry B; Tabbada, Kristina A; Villamor, Lilian P; Halos, Saturnina C; Gunnarsdóttir, Ellen; Myles, Sean; Hughes, David A; Xu, Shuhua; Jin, Li; Lao, Oscar; Kayser, Manfred; Hurles, Matthew E; Stoneking, Mark; De Ungria, Maria Corazon A

2011-01-01

The Philippines exhibits a rich diversity of people, languages, and culture, including so-called ‘Negrito' groups that have for long fascinated anthropologists, yet little is known about their genetic diversity. We report here, a survey of Y-chromosome variation in 390 individuals from 16 Filipino ethnolinguistic groups, including six Negrito groups, from across the archipelago. We find extreme diversity in the Y-chromosome lineages of Filipino groups with heterogeneity seen in both Negrito and non-Negrito groups, which does not support a simple dichotomy of Filipino groups as Negrito vs non-Negrito. Filipino non-recombining region of the human Y chromosome lineages reflect a chronology that extends from after the initial colonization of the Asia-Pacific region, to the time frame of the Austronesian expansion. Filipino groups appear to have diverse genetic affinities with different populations in the Asia-Pacific region. In particular, some Negrito groups are associated with indigenous Australians, with a potential time for the association ranging from the initial colonization of the region to more recent (after colonization) times. Overall, our results indicate extensive heterogeneity contributing to a complex genetic history for Filipino groups, with varying roles for migrations from outside the Philippines, genetic drift, and admixture among neighboring groups. PMID:20877414

The genetics of East African populations: a Nilo-Saharan component in the African genetic landscape

PubMed Central

Dobon, Begoña; Hassan, Hisham Y.; Laayouni, Hafid; Luisi, Pierre; Ricaño-Ponce, Isis; Zhernakova, Alexandra; Wijmenga, Cisca; Tahir, Hanan; Comas, David; Netea, Mihai G.; Bertranpetit, Jaume

2015-01-01

East Africa is a strategic region to study human genetic diversity due to the presence of ethnically, linguistically, and geographically diverse populations. Here, we provide new insight into the genetic history of populations living in the Sudanese region of East Africa by analysing nine ethnic groups belonging to three African linguistic families: Niger-Kordofanian, Nilo-Saharan and Afro-Asiatic. A total of 500 individuals were genotyped for 200,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms. Principal component analysis, clustering analysis using ADMIXTURE, FST statistics, and the three-population test were used to investigate the underlying genetic structure and ancestry of the different ethno-linguistic groups. Our analyses revealed a genetic component for Sudanese Nilo-Saharan speaking groups (Darfurians and part of Nuba populations) related to Nilotes of South Sudan, but not to other Sudanese populations or other sub-Saharan populations. Populations inhabiting the North of the region showed close genetic affinities with North Africa, with a component that could be remnant of North Africans before the migrations of Arabs from Arabia. In addition, we found very low genetic distances between populations in genes important for anti-malarial and anti-bacterial host defence, suggesting similar selective pressures on these genes and stressing the importance of considering functional pathways to understand the evolutionary history of populations. PMID:26017457

A Phylogenetic Comparative Study of Bantu Kinship Terminology Finds Limited Support for Its Co-Evolution with Social Organisation

PubMed Central

Guillon, Myrtille; Mace, Ruth

2016-01-01

The classification of kin into structured groups is a diverse phenomenon which is ubiquitous in human culture. For populations which are organized into large agropastoral groupings of sedentary residence but not governed within the context of a centralised state, such as our study sample of 83 historical Bantu-speaking groups of sub-Saharan Africa, cultural kinship norms guide all aspects of everyday life and social organization. Such rules operate in part through the use of differing terminological referential systems of familial organization. Although the cross-cultural study of kinship terminology was foundational in Anthropology, few modern studies have made use of statistical advances to further our sparse understanding of the structuring and diversification of terminological systems of kinship over time. In this study we use Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods of phylogenetic comparison to investigate the evolution of Bantu kinship terminology and reconstruct the ancestral state and diversification of cousin terminology in this family of sub-Saharan ethnolinguistic groups. Using a phylogenetic tree of Bantu languages, we then test the prominent hypothesis that structured variation in systems of cousin terminology has co-evolved alongside adaptive change in patterns of descent organization, as well as rules of residence. We find limited support for this hypothesis, and argue that the shaping of systems of kinship terminology is a multifactorial process, concluding with possible avenues of future research. PMID:27008364

Genetic Population Structure Accounts for Contemporary Ecogeographic Patterns in Tropic and Subtropic-Dwelling Humans

PubMed Central

Hruschka, Daniel J.; Hadley, Craig; Brewis, Alexandra A.; Stojanowski, Christopher M.

2015-01-01

Contemporary human populations conform to ecogeographic predictions that animals will become more compact in cooler climates and less compact in warmer ones. However, it remains unclear to what extent this pattern reflects plastic responses to current environments or genetic differences among populations. Analyzing anthropometric surveys of 232,684 children and adults from across 80 ethnolinguistic groups in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Americas, we confirm that body surface-to-volume correlates with contemporary temperature at magnitudes found in more latitudinally diverse samples (Adj. R2 = 0.14-0.28). However, far more variation in body surface-to-volume is attributable to genetic population structure (Adj. R2 = 0.50-0.74). Moreover, genetic population structure accounts for nearly all of the observed relationship between contemporary temperature and body surface-to-volume among children and adults. Indeed, after controlling for population structure, contemporary temperature accounts for no more than 4% of the variance in body form in these groups. This effect of genetic affinity on body form is also independent of other ecological variables, such as dominant mode of subsistence and household wealth per capita. These findings suggest that the observed fit of human body surface-to-volume with current climate in this sample reflects relatively large effects of existing genetic population structure of contemporary humans compared to plastic response to current environments. PMID:25816235

Maya Healers' Conception of Cancer as Revealed by Comparison With Western Medicine

PubMed Central

Gharzouzi, Eduardo; Renner, Christoph

2016-01-01

Purpose Cultural diversity in clinical encounters is common, yet mental constructions regarding cancer that influence expected treatment are poorly studied for indigenous people. We explored Maya healers' conceptions, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer to remedy this problem. Methods In-depth structured interviews with 67 traditional Maya healers in Guatemala across Kaqchikel, Kiche', Mam, Mopan, and Q'eqchi' ethnolinguistic groups were conducted by using a transdisciplinary format. Analysis of qualitative data in categorized matrixes allowed for statistical examination of tendencies and the results were complemented by validation workshops with Maya representatives. Results Maya classification of diseases has broad categories of malignant diseases including cancer. Specific Maya terms might equate to particular cancer types, which would open new avenues for research. Notions of malignancy and metastasis were expressed by healers as core characteristics of cancer, a disease believed to be both material and spiritual. Resolution of and/or treatment for cancer is based on restoring physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual equilibrium of the patient and extending that equilibrium to his larger social circle. Conclusion Maya conceptions of cancer determine how traditional diagnostic tools are used and dictate treatment options that include the patient's social-spiritual support system. Official health care providers' understanding of these principles can improve implementation of culturally appropriate protocols that increase indigenous patients' compliance and reduce rates of treatment abandonment. PMID:28717684

HLA class II SNP interactions and the association with type 1 diabetes mellitus in Bengali speaking patients of Eastern India.

PubMed

Raha, Oindrila; Sarkar, Biswanath; Lakkakula, Bhaskar V K S; Pasumarthy, Veerraju; Godi, Sudhakar; Chowdhury, Subhankar; Raychaudhuri, Pradip; Vadlamudi, Raghavendra Rao

2013-02-27

Several studies have demonstrated a fundamental role for the HLA in the susceptibility of, or protection to, type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). However, this has not been adequately studied in Asian Indian populations. To assess the frequency of HLA class II (DPA1, DPB1, DQA1, DQB1 and DRB1) associated to susceptibility or protection toT1DM in a Bengali population of India with diabetes. Single nucleotide polymorphism study. The HLA genotyping was performed by a polymerase chain reaction followed by their HLA-DP, DQ, and DRB1 genotypes and haplotypes by sequencing method. The results are studied by Plink software. The χ2 tests were used for the inferential statistics. To our knowledge, this study is the first of a kind which has attempted to check the HLA association with T1DM by SNPs analysis. The study recruited 151 patients with T1DM and same number of ethno-linguistic, sex matched non-diabetic controls. The present study found a significant SNP rs7990 of HLA-DQA1 (p = 0.009) negative correlation, again indicating that risk from HLA is considerably more with T1DM. This study demonstrates that the HLA class-II alleles play a major role in genetic basis of T1DM.

Menopause in highland Guatemala Mayan women.

PubMed

Stewart, Donna E

2003-04-25

To explore any feelings and symptoms surrounding menopause among Mayan women in three ethnolinguistic groups in highland Guatemala and compare these with previous reports from Mexico. This was a qualitative exploratory study of the experiences around menopause of eight middle aged women and one local key informant in each of three villages in western highland Guatemala (n=27). Individual interviews were conducted in women with irregular menses or whose menses has ceased in the last 3 years. Field notes were kept and then an analysis undertaken by the author. Twenty-four Mayan women, aged 38-55, and three Mayan key informants (all women over age 50) were interviewed. Most women reported some symptoms, including hot flashes, night sweats, changes in libido, irritability, moodiness, abdominal cramps and menstrual clots occurring at some stage during the last 3 years. Although women reported symptoms, they mostly accepted them with equanimity; and rejoiced at the cessation of their periods. Highland Guatemalan Mayan women reported symptoms that were not reported in Mayan women in Yucatan, Mexico in the years surrounding menopause. The reasons for this disparity are unclear but may reflect differences in body weight and diet. Despite these symptoms, Mayan women looked forward to menopause and their newfound freedom and status. Symptoms in women in the years around menopause must be interpreted in geographical, nutritional, biological, psychological and cultural context.

Genetic population structure accounts for contemporary ecogeographic patterns in tropic and subtropic-dwelling humans.

PubMed

Hruschka, Daniel J; Hadley, Craig; Brewis, Alexandra A; Stojanowski, Christopher M

2015-01-01

Contemporary human populations conform to ecogeographic predictions that animals will become more compact in cooler climates and less compact in warmer ones. However, it remains unclear to what extent this pattern reflects plastic responses to current environments or genetic differences among populations. Analyzing anthropometric surveys of 232,684 children and adults from across 80 ethnolinguistic groups in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Americas, we confirm that body surface-to-volume correlates with contemporary temperature at magnitudes found in more latitudinally diverse samples (Adj. R2 = 0.14-0.28). However, far more variation in body surface-to-volume is attributable to genetic population structure (Adj. R2 = 0.50-0.74). Moreover, genetic population structure accounts for nearly all of the observed relationship between contemporary temperature and body surface-to-volume among children and adults. Indeed, after controlling for population structure, contemporary temperature accounts for no more than 4% of the variance in body form in these groups. This effect of genetic affinity on body form is also independent of other ecological variables, such as dominant mode of subsistence and household wealth per capita. These findings suggest that the observed fit of human body surface-to-volume with current climate in this sample reflects relatively large effects of existing genetic population structure of contemporary humans compared to plastic response to current environments.

Interdisciplinary approach to the demography of Jamaica

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background The trans-Atlantic slave trade dramatically changed the demographic makeup of the New World, with varying regions of the African coast exploited differently over roughly a 400 year period. When compared to the discrete mitochondrial haplotype distribution of historically appropriate source populations, the unique distribution within a specific source population can prove insightful in estimating the contribution of each population. Here, we analyzed the first hypervariable region of mitochondrial DNA in a sample from the Caribbean island of Jamaica and compared it to aggregated populations in Africa divided according to historiographically defined segments of the continent's coastline. The results from these admixture procedures were then compared to the wealth of historic knowledge surrounding the disembarkation of Africans on the island. Results In line with previous findings, the matriline of Jamaica is almost entirely of West African descent. Results from the admixture analyses suggest modern Jamaicans share a closer affinity with groups from the Gold Coast and Bight of Benin despite high mortality, low fecundity, and waning regional importation. The slaves from the Bight of Biafra and West-central Africa were imported in great numbers; however, the results suggest a deficit in expected maternal contribution from those regions. Conclusions When considering the demographic pressures imposed by chattel slavery on Jamaica during the slave era, the results seem incongruous. Ethnolinguistic and ethnographic evidence, however, may explain the apparent non-random levels of genetic perseverance. The application of genetics may prove useful in answering difficult demographic questions left by historically voiceless groups. PMID:22360861

From social liminality to cultural negotiation: Transformative processes in immigrant mental wellbeing.

PubMed

Simich, Laura; Maiter, Sarah; Ochocka, Joanna

2009-12-01

The underlying psychosocial processes that produce immigrant mental wellbeing are understudied in anthropology and medicine. This paper provides insights into these processes by describing culturally diverse immigrants' perceptions of mental health and adaptation strategies. Qualitative data were collected from 21 focus groups as part of a large, multidisciplinary, participatory action research project about mental health with five ethnolinguistic groups (Mandarin-speaking Chinese, Polish, Punjabi Sikh, Somali and Spanish-speaking Latin American) in Ontario, Canada. In framing the analysis, transformative concepts are applied to address dimensions of power and culture - social liminality and cultural negotiation - to the ongoing psychosocial processes of coping with mental distress. 'Social liminality' describes how immigrants perceive themselves to be in a psychologically stressful, transitional state, whereas 'cultural negotiation' describes how they actively cope with cultural tensions and respond to mental health challenges. Study findings show that while social liminality and cultural negotiation are stressful, they also have the potential to help individuals adapt by producing a positive synthesis of ideas about mental health in new social and cultural contexts. The study contributes to the shift from problem identification using a biomedical model of mental illness to a more psychosocial and ecological approach that reveals the potential for resolving some mental health problems experienced in immigrant communities. Describing active psychosocial process of adaptation also reinforces the therapeutic and educational value of partnerships between practitioners and clients and immigrant communities and mental health systems.

Ancient Humans Influenced the Current Spatial Genetic Structure of Common Walnut Populations in Asia

PubMed Central

Pollegioni, Paola; Woeste, Keith E.; Chiocchini, Francesca; Del Lungo, Stefano; Olimpieri, Irene; Tortolano, Virginia; Clark, Jo; Hemery, Gabriel E.; Mapelli, Sergio; Malvolti, Maria Emilia

2015-01-01

Common walnut (Juglans regia L) is an economically important species cultivated worldwide for its wood and nuts. It is generally accepted that J. regia survived and grew spontaneously in almost completely isolated stands in its Asian native range after the Last Glacial Maximum. Despite its natural geographic isolation, J. regia evolved over many centuries under the influence of human management and exploitation. We evaluated the hypothesis that the current distribution of natural genetic resources of common walnut in Asia is, at least in part, the product of ancient anthropogenic dispersal, human cultural interactions, and afforestation. Genetic analysis combined with ethno-linguistic and historical data indicated that ancient trade routes such as the Persian Royal Road and Silk Road enabled long-distance dispersal of J. regia from Iran and Trans-Caucasus to Central Asia, and from Western to Eastern China. Ancient commerce also disrupted the local spatial genetic structure of autochthonous walnut populations between Tashkent and Samarkand (Central-Eastern Uzbekistan), where the northern and central routes of the Northern Silk Road converged. A significant association between ancient language phyla and the genetic structure of walnut populations is reported even after adjustment for geographic distances that could have affected both walnut gene flow and human commerce over the centuries. Beyond the economic importance of common walnut, our study delineates an alternative approach for understanding how the genetic resources of long-lived perennial tree species may be affected by the interaction of geography and human history. PMID:26332919

Interdisciplinary approach to the demography of Jamaica.

PubMed

Deason, Michael L; Salas, Antonio; Newman, Simon P; Macaulay, Vincent A; St A Morrison, Errol Y; Pitsiladis, Yannis P

2012-02-23

The trans-Atlantic slave trade dramatically changed the demographic makeup of the New World, with varying regions of the African coast exploited differently over roughly a 400 year period. When compared to the discrete mitochondrial haplotype distribution of historically appropriate source populations, the unique distribution within a specific source population can prove insightful in estimating the contribution of each population. Here, we analyzed the first hypervariable region of mitochondrial DNA in a sample from the Caribbean island of Jamaica and compared it to aggregated populations in Africa divided according to historiographically defined segments of the continent's coastline. The results from these admixture procedures were then compared to the wealth of historic knowledge surrounding the disembarkation of Africans on the island. In line with previous findings, the matriline of Jamaica is almost entirely of West African descent. Results from the admixture analyses suggest modern Jamaicans share a closer affinity with groups from the Gold Coast and Bight of Benin despite high mortality, low fecundity, and waning regional importation. The slaves from the Bight of Biafra and West-central Africa were imported in great numbers; however, the results suggest a deficit in expected maternal contribution from those regions. When considering the demographic pressures imposed by chattel slavery on Jamaica during the slave era, the results seem incongruous. Ethnolinguistic and ethnographic evidence, however, may explain the apparent non-random levels of genetic perseverance. The application of genetics may prove useful in answering difficult demographic questions left by historically voiceless groups.

Linguistic Stereotyping in Older Adults' Perceptions of Health Care Aides.

PubMed

Rubin, Donald; Coles, Valerie Berenice; Barnett, Joshua Trey

2016-07-01

The cultural and linguistic diversity of the U.S. health care provider workforce is expanding. Diversity among health care personnel such as paraprofessional health care assistants (HCAs)-many of whom are immigrants-means that intimate, high-stakes cross-cultural and cross-linguistic contact characterizes many health interactions. In particular, nonmainstream HCAs may face negative patient expectations because of patients' language stereotypes. In other contexts, reverse linguistic stereotyping has been shown to result in negative speaker evaluations and even reduced listening comprehension quite independently of the actual language performance of the speaker. The present study extends the language and attitude paradigm to older adults' perceptions of HCAs. Listeners heard the identical speaker of Standard American English as they watched interactions between an HCA and an older patient. Ethnolinguistic identities-either an Anglo native speaker of English or a Mexican nonnative speaker-were ascribed to HCAs by means of fabricated personnel files. Dependent variables included measures of perceived HCA language proficiency, personal characteristics, and professional competence, as well as listeners' comprehension of a health message delivered by the putative HCA. For most of these outcomes, moderate effect sizes were found such that the HCA with an ascribed Anglo identity-relative to the Mexican guise-was judged more proficient in English, socially superior, interpersonally more attractive, more dynamic, and a more satisfactory home health aide. No difference in listening comprehension emerged, but the Anglo guise tended to engender a more compliant listening mind set. Results of this study can inform both provider-directed and patient-directed efforts to improve health care services for members of all linguistic and cultural groups.

Cultural Influences in Women-Friendly Labor-Saving Hand Tool Designs: The Milk Churner Case.

PubMed

Kisaalita, William S; Katimbo, Abia; Sempiira, Edison J; Mugisa, Dana J

2016-02-01

The aim of this study was to highlight the importance of culture in sustainable, labor-saving solutions design for women in low-resource settings. One of the reasons behind the gender asset gap among Sub-Saharan African women is the higher labor burden these women face, making it difficult for them to produce for the home and markets. Hand tools are the simplest form and therefore the best first step to address this problem. But designing women-friendly (sustainable) hand tools calls for better understanding of the low-resource settings where these women reside. A milk churner was redesigned using a human-centered (participatory) approach with groups of women from two dominant ethnolinguistic groups of Bantu and Nilotic of Uganda, and its usability was tested. The churner reduced labor up to eightfold and has potential to expand the range of uses to include children and husbands due to its simplicity. Also, the churner significantly reduced undesirable health effects, like pain in knee joints. Based on the experience with the churner, a six-item "survival guide" is proposed to complement human-centered design guiding principles for facilitating the generation of solutions in low-resource settings. By paying great attention to culture in relation to human factors, a labor-reducing churner has been successfully introduced among Ugandan women. The ultimate goal is to make the churner available to female smallholder dairy-farming households throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. This study provides a survival guide for generating solutions to problems from low-resource settings. © 2016, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

Cultural Influences in Women-Friendly Labor-Saving Hand Tool Designs

PubMed Central

Kisaalita, William S.; Katimbo, Abia; Sempiira, Edison J.; Mugisa, Dana J.

2016-01-01

Objective: The aim of this study was to highlight the importance of culture in sustainable, labor-saving solutions design for women in low-resource settings. Background: One of the reasons behind the gender asset gap among Sub-Saharan African women is the higher labor burden these women face, making it difficult for them to produce for the home and markets. Hand tools are the simplest form and therefore the best first step to address this problem. But designing women-friendly (sustainable) hand tools calls for better understanding of the low-resource settings where these women reside. Method: A milk churner was redesigned using a human-centered (participatory) approach with groups of women from two dominant ethnolinguistic groups of Bantu and Nilotic of Uganda, and its usability was tested. Results: The churner reduced labor up to eightfold and has potential to expand the range of uses to include children and husbands due to its simplicity. Also, the churner significantly reduced undesirable health effects, like pain in knee joints. Based on the experience with the churner, a six-item “survival guide” is proposed to complement human-centered design guiding principles for facilitating the generation of solutions in low-resource settings. Conclusion: By paying great attention to culture in relation to human factors, a labor-reducing churner has been successfully introduced among Ugandan women. The ultimate goal is to make the churner available to female smallholder dairy-farming households throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. Applications: This study provides a survival guide for generating solutions to problems from low-resource settings. PMID:26764373

Barriers to acceptance of self-sampling for human papillomavirus across ethnolinguistic groups of women.

PubMed

Howard, Michelle; Lytwyn, Alice; Lohfeld, Lynne; Redwood-Campbell, Lynda; Fowler, Nancy; Karwalajtys, Tina

2009-01-01

Immigrant and low socio-economic (SES) women in North America underutilize Papanicolaou screening. Vaginal swab self-sampling for oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV) has the potential to increase cervical cancer screening participation. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the perceptions of lower SES and immigrant women regarding self-sampling for HPV. Eleven focus-group interviews were conducted: one with Canadian-born English-speaking lower SES women, and two groups each with Arabic, Cantonese, Dari (Afghani), Somali and Spanish (Latino)-speaking women (one group conducted in English, the other in the native language) recently immigrated to Canada. Five to nine women aged 35 to 65 years and married with children participated in each group. Themes included 1) who might use self-sampling and why; 2) aversion to self-sampling and reasons to prefer physician; 3) ways to improve the appeal of self-sampling. Women generally perceived benefits of self-sampling and a small number felt they might use the method, but all groups had some reservations. Reasons included: uncertainty over performing the sampling correctly; fear of hurting themselves; concern about obtaining appropriate material; and concerns about test accuracy. Women preferred testing by a health care professional because they were accustomed to pelvic examinations, it was more convenient, or they trusted the results. Perceptions of self-sampling for HPV were similar across cultures and pertained to issues of confidence in self-sampling and need for physician involvement in care. These findings can inform programs and studies planning to employ self-sampling as a screening modality for cervical cancer.

The Complex Admixture History and Recent Southern Origins of Siberian Populations

PubMed Central

Pugach, Irina; Matveev, Rostislav; Spitsyn, Viktor; Makarov, Sergey; Novgorodov, Innokentiy; Osakovsky, Vladimir; Stoneking, Mark; Pakendorf, Brigitte

2016-01-01

Although Siberia was inhabited by modern humans at an early stage, there is still debate over whether it remained habitable during the extreme cold of the Last Glacial Maximum or whether it was subsequently repopulated by peoples with recent shared ancestry. Previous studies of the genetic history of Siberian populations were hampered by the extensive admixture that appears to have taken place among these populations, because commonly used methods assume a tree-like population history and at most single admixture events. Here we analyze geogenetic maps and use other approaches to distinguish the effects of shared ancestry from prehistoric migrations and contact, and develop a new method based on the covariance of ancestry components, to investigate the potentially complex admixture history. We furthermore adapt a previously devised method of admixture dating for use with multiple events of gene flow, and apply these methods to whole-genome genotype data from over 500 individuals belonging to 20 different Siberian ethnolinguistic groups. The results of these analyses indicate that there have been multiple layers of admixture detectable in most of the Siberian populations, with considerable differences in the admixture histories of individual populations. Furthermore, most of the populations of Siberia included here, even those settled far to the north, appear to have a southern origin, with the northward expansions of different populations possibly being driven partly by the advent of pastoralism, especially reindeer domestication. These newly developed methods to analyze multiple admixture events should aid in the investigation of similarly complex population histories elsewhere. PMID:26993256

Mosaic maternal ancestry in the Great Lakes region of East Africa.

PubMed

Gomes, Verónica; Pala, Maria; Salas, Antonio; Álvarez-Iglesias, Vanesa; Amorim, António; Gómez-Carballa, Alberto; Carracedo, Ángel; Clarke, Douglas J; Hill, Catherine; Mormina, Maru; Shaw, Marie-Anne; Dunne, David W; Pereira, Rui; Pereira, Vânia; Prata, Maria João; Sánchez-Diz, Paula; Rito, Teresa; Soares, Pedro; Gusmão, Leonor; Richards, Martin B

2015-09-01

The Great Lakes lie within a region of East Africa with very high human genetic diversity, home of many ethno-linguistic groups usually assumed to be the product of a small number of major dispersals. However, our knowledge of these dispersals relies primarily on the inferences of historical, linguistics and oral traditions, with attempts to match up the archaeological evidence where possible. This is an obvious area to which archaeogenetics can contribute, yet Uganda, at the heart of these developments, has not been studied for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation. Here, we compare mtDNA lineages at this putative genetic crossroads across 409 representatives of the major language groups: Bantu speakers and Eastern and Western Nilotic speakers. We show that Uganda harbours one of the highest mtDNA diversities within and between linguistic groups, with the various groups significantly differentiated from each other. Despite an inferred linguistic origin in South Sudan, the data from the two Nilotic-speaking groups point to a much more complex history, involving not only possible dispersals from Sudan and the Horn but also large-scale assimilation of autochthonous lineages within East Africa and even Uganda itself. The Eastern Nilotic group also carries signals characteristic of West-Central Africa, primarily due to Bantu influence, whereas a much stronger signal in the Western Nilotic group suggests direct West-Central African ancestry. Bantu speakers share lineages with both Nilotic groups, and also harbour East African lineages not found in Western Nilotic speakers, likely due to assimilating indigenous populations since arriving in the region ~3000 years ago.

Insight into the Peopling of Mainland Southeast Asia from Thai Population Genetic Structure

PubMed Central

Chaichoompu, Kridsadakorn; Ngamphiw, Chumpol; Assawamakin, Anunchai; Nuinoon, Manit; Sripichai, Orapan; Svasti, Saovaros; Fucharoen, Suthat; Praphanphoj, Verayuth; Tongsima, Sissades

2013-01-01

There is considerable ethno-linguistic and genetic variation among human populations in Asia, although tracing the origins of this diversity is complicated by migration events. Thailand is at the center of Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA), a region within Asia that has not been extensively studied. Genetic substructure may exist in the Thai population, since waves of migration from southern China throughout its recent history may have contributed to substantial gene flow. Autosomal SNP data were collated for 438,503 markers from 992 Thai individuals. Using the available self-reported regional origin, four Thai subpopulations genetically distinct from each other and from other Asian populations were resolved by Neighbor-Joining analysis using a 41,569 marker subset. Using an independent Principal Components-based unsupervised clustering approach, four major MSEA subpopulations were resolved in which regional bias was apparent. A major ancestry component was common to these MSEA subpopulations and distinguishes them from other Asian subpopulations. On the other hand, these MSEA subpopulations were admixed with other ancestries, in particular one shared with Chinese. Subpopulation clustering using only Thai individuals and the complete marker set resolved four subpopulations, which are distributed differently across Thailand. A Sino-Thai subpopulation was concentrated in the Central region of Thailand, although this constituted a minority in an otherwise diverse region. Among the most highly differentiated markers which distinguish the Thai subpopulations, several map to regions known to affect phenotypic traits such as skin pigmentation and susceptibility to common diseases. The subpopulation patterns elucidated have important implications for evolutionary and medical genetics. The subpopulation structure within Thailand may reflect the contributions of different migrants throughout the history of MSEA. The information will also be important for genetic association studies to account for population-structure confounding effects. PMID:24223962

Resourcing speech-language pathologists to work with multilingual children.

PubMed

McLeod, Sharynne

2014-06-01

Speech-language pathologists play important roles in supporting people to be competent communicators in the languages of their communities. However, with over 7000 languages spoken throughout the world and the majority of the global population being multilingual, there is often a mismatch between the languages spoken by children and families and their speech-language pathologists. This paper provides insights into service provision for multilingual children within an English-dominant country by viewing Australia's multilingual population as a microcosm of ethnolinguistic minorities. Recent population studies of Australian pre-school children show that their most common languages other than English are: Arabic, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Italian, Mandarin, Spanish, and Greek. Although 20.2% of services by Speech Pathology Australia members are offered in languages other than English, there is a mismatch between the language of the services and the languages of children within similar geographical communities. Australian speech-language pathologists typically use informal or English-based assessments and intervention tools with multilingual children. Thus, there is a need for accessible culturally and linguistically appropriate resources for working with multilingual children. Recent international collaborations have resulted in practical strategies to support speech-language pathologists during assessment, intervention, and collaboration with families, communities, and other professionals. The International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children's Speech was assembled to prepare a position paper to address issues faced by speech-language pathologists when working with multilingual populations. The Multilingual Children's Speech website ( http://www.csu.edu.au/research/multilingual-speech ) addresses one of the aims of the position paper by providing free resources and information for speech-language pathologists about more than 45 languages. These international collaborations have been framed around the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF-CY) and have been established with the goal of supporting multilingual children to participate in society.

Demographic Histories, Isolation and Social Factors as Determinants of the Genetic Structure of Alpine Linguistic Groups

PubMed Central

Coia, Valentina; Capocasa, Marco; Anagnostou, Paolo; Pascali, Vincenzo; Scarnicci, Francesca; Boschi, Ilaria; Battaggia, Cinzia; Crivellaro, Federica; Ferri, Gianmarco; Alù, Milena; Brisighelli, Francesca; Busby, George B. J.; Capelli, Cristian; Maixner, Frank; Cipollini, Giovanna; Viazzo, Pier Paolo; Zink, Albert; Destro Bisol, Giovanni

2013-01-01

Great European mountain ranges have acted as barriers to gene flow for resident populations since prehistory and have offered a place for the settlement of small, and sometimes culturally diverse, communities. Therefore, the human groups that have settled in these areas are worth exploring as an important potential source of diversity in the genetic structure of European populations. In this study, we present new high resolution data concerning Y chromosomal variation in three distinct Alpine ethno-linguistic groups, Italian, Ladin and German. Combining unpublished and literature data on Y chromosome and mitochondrial variation, we were able to detect different genetic patterns. In fact, within and among population diversity values observed vary across linguistic groups, with German and Italian speakers at the two extremes, and seem to reflect their different demographic histories. Using simulations we inferred that the joint effect of continued genetic isolation and reduced founding group size may explain the apportionment of genetic diversity observed in all groups. Extending the analysis to other continental populations, we observed that the genetic differentiation of Ladins and German speakers from Europeans is comparable or even greater to that observed for well known outliers like Sardinian and Basques. Finally, we found that in south Tyroleans, the social practice of Geschlossener Hof, a hereditary norm which might have favored male dispersal, coincides with a significant intra-group diversity for mtDNA but not for Y chromosome, a genetic pattern which is opposite to those expected among patrilocal populations. Together with previous evidence regarding the possible effects of “local ethnicity” on the genetic structure of German speakers that have settled in the eastern Italian Alps, this finding suggests that taking socio-cultural factors into account together with geographical variables and linguistic diversity may help unveil some yet to be understood aspects of the genetic structure of European populations. PMID:24312576

Using obsidian transfer distances to explore social network maintenance in late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers.

PubMed

Pearce, Eiluned; Moutsiou, Theodora

2014-12-01

Social behaviour is notoriously difficult to study archaeologically and it is unclear how large the networks of prehistoric humans were, or how they remained connected. Maintaining social cohesion was crucial for early humans because social networks facilitate cooperation and are imperative for survival and reproduction. Recent hunter-gatherer social organisation typically comprises a number of nested layers, ranging from the nuclear family through to the ~1500-strong ethnolinguistic tribe. Here we compare maximum obsidian transfer distances from the late Pleistocene with ethnographic data on the size of the geographic areas associated with each of these social grouping layers in recent hunter-gatherers. The closest match between the two is taken to indicate the maximum social layer within which contact could be sustained by Pleistocene hominins. Within both the (sub)tropical African and Subarctic biomes, the maximum obsidian transfer distances for Pleistocene modern humans (~200km and ~400km respectively) correspond to the geographic ranges of the outermost tribal layer in recent hunter-gatherers. This suggests that modern humans could potentially sustain the cohesion of their entire tribe at all latitudes, even though networks are more dispersed nearer the poles. Neanderthal obsidian transfer distances (300km) indicate that although Neanderthal home ranges are larger than those of low latitude hominins, Neanderthals travelled shorter distances than modern humans living at the same high latitudes. We argue that, like modern humans, Neanderthals could have maintained tribal cohesion, but that their tribes were substantially smaller than those of contemporary modern humans living in similar environments. The greater time taken to traverse the larger modern human tribal ranges may have limited the frequency of their face-to-face interactions and thus necessitated additional mechanisms to ensure network connectivity, such as the exchange of symbolic artefacts including ornaments and figurines. Such cultural supports may not have been required to the same extent by the Neanderthals due to their smaller tribes and home ranges.

Why Latrines Are Not Used: Communities’ Perceptions and Practices Regarding Latrines in a Taenia solium Endemic Rural Area in Eastern Zambia

PubMed Central

Thys, Séverine; Mwape, Kabemba E.; Lefèvre, Pierre; Dorny, Pierre; Marcotty, Tanguy; Phiri, Andrew M.; Phiri, Isaak K.; Gabriël, Sarah

2015-01-01

Taenia solium cysticercosis is a neglected parasitic zoonosis occurring in many developing countries. Socio-cultural determinants related to its control remain unclear. Studies in Africa have shown that the underuse of sanitary facilities and the widespread occurrence of free-roaming pigs are the major risk factors for porcine cysticercosis. The study objective was to assess the communities’ perceptions, practices and knowledge regarding latrines in a T. solium endemic rural area in Eastern Zambia inhabited by the Nsenga ethno-linguistic group, and to identify possible barriers to their construction and use. A total of 21 focus group discussions on latrine use were organized separately with men, women and children, in seven villages of the Petauke district. The themes covered were related to perceived latrine availability (absence-presence, building obstacles) and perceived latrine use (defecation practices, latrine management, socio-cultural constraints).The findings reveal that latrines were not constructed in every household because of the convenient use of existing latrines in the neighborhood. Latrines were perceived to contribute to good hygiene mainly because they prevent pigs from eating human feces. Men expressed reluctance to abandon the open-air defecation practice mainly because of toilet-associated taboos with in-laws and grown-up children of the opposite gender. When reviewing conceptual frameworks of people’s approach to sanitation, we found that seeking privacy and taboos hindering latrine use and construction were mainly explained in our study area by the fact that the Nsenga observe a traditionally matrilineal descent. These findings indicate that in this local context latrine promotion messages should not only focus on health benefits in general. Since only men were responsible for building latrines and mostly men preferred open defecation, sanitation programs should also be directed to men and address related sanitary taboos in order to be effective. PMID:25739017

Reprioritizing government spending on health: pushing an elephant up the stairs?

PubMed

Tandon, Ajay; Fleisher, Lisa; Li, Rong; Yap, Wei Aun

2014-01-01

Countries vary widely with respect to the share of government spending on health, a metric that can serve as a proxy for the extent to which health is prioritized by governments. World Health Organization (WHO) data estimate that, in 2011, health's share of aggregate government expenditure averaged 12% in the 170 countries for which data were available. However, country differences were striking: ranging from a low of 1% in Myanmar to a high of 28% in Costa Rica. Some of the observed differences in health's share of government spending across countries are unsurprisingly related to differences in national income. However, significant variations exist in health's share of government spending even after controlling for national income. This paper provides a global overview of health's share of government spending and summarizes some of the key theoretical and empirical perspectives on allocation of public resources to health vis-à-vis other sectors from the perspective of reprioritization, one of the modalities for realizing fiscal space for health. The paper argues that theory and cross-country empirical analyses do not provide clear-cut explanations for the observed variations in government prioritization of health. Standard economic theory arguments that are often used to justify public financing for health are equally applicable to many other sectors including defence, education and infrastructure. To date, empirical work on prioritization has been sparse: available cross-country econometric analyses suggest that factors such as democratization, lower levels of corruption, ethnolinguistic homogeneity and more women in public office are correlated with higher shares of public spending on health; however, these findings are not robust and are sensitive to model specification. Evidence from case studies suggests that country-specific political economy considerations are key, and that results-focused reform efforts - in particular efforts to explicitly expand the breadth and depth of health coverage as opposed to efforts focused only on government budgetary benchmarking targets - are more likely to result in sustained and politically feasible prioritization of health from a fiscal space perspective.

Demographic histories, isolation and social factors as determinants of the genetic structure of Alpine linguistic groups.

PubMed

Coia, Valentina; Capocasa, Marco; Anagnostou, Paolo; Pascali, Vincenzo; Scarnicci, Francesca; Boschi, Ilaria; Battaggia, Cinzia; Crivellaro, Federica; Ferri, Gianmarco; Alù, Milena; Brisighelli, Francesca; Busby, George B J; Capelli, Cristian; Maixner, Frank; Cipollini, Giovanna; Viazzo, Pier Paolo; Zink, Albert; Destro Bisol, Giovanni

2013-01-01

Great European mountain ranges have acted as barriers to gene flow for resident populations since prehistory and have offered a place for the settlement of small, and sometimes culturally diverse, communities. Therefore, the human groups that have settled in these areas are worth exploring as an important potential source of diversity in the genetic structure of European populations. In this study, we present new high resolution data concerning Y chromosomal variation in three distinct Alpine ethno-linguistic groups, Italian, Ladin and German. Combining unpublished and literature data on Y chromosome and mitochondrial variation, we were able to detect different genetic patterns. In fact, within and among population diversity values observed vary across linguistic groups, with German and Italian speakers at the two extremes, and seem to reflect their different demographic histories. Using simulations we inferred that the joint effect of continued genetic isolation and reduced founding group size may explain the apportionment of genetic diversity observed in all groups. Extending the analysis to other continental populations, we observed that the genetic differentiation of Ladins and German speakers from Europeans is comparable or even greater to that observed for well known outliers like Sardinian and Basques. Finally, we found that in south Tyroleans, the social practice of Geschlossener Hof, a hereditary norm which might have favored male dispersal, coincides with a significant intra-group diversity for mtDNA but not for Y chromosome, a genetic pattern which is opposite to those expected among patrilocal populations. Together with previous evidence regarding the possible effects of "local ethnicity" on the genetic structure of German speakers that have settled in the eastern Italian Alps, this finding suggests that taking socio-cultural factors into account together with geographical variables and linguistic diversity may help unveil some yet to be understood aspects of the genetic structure of European populations.

Using obsidian transfer distances to explore social network maintenance in late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers

PubMed Central

Pearce, Eiluned; Moutsiou, Theodora

2014-01-01

Social behaviour is notoriously difficult to study archaeologically and it is unclear how large the networks of prehistoric humans were, or how they remained connected. Maintaining social cohesion was crucial for early humans because social networks facilitate cooperation and are imperative for survival and reproduction. Recent hunter-gatherer social organisation typically comprises a number of nested layers, ranging from the nuclear family through to the ~1500-strong ethnolinguistic tribe. Here we compare maximum obsidian transfer distances from the late Pleistocene with ethnographic data on the size of the geographic areas associated with each of these social grouping layers in recent hunter-gatherers. The closest match between the two is taken to indicate the maximum social layer within which contact could be sustained by Pleistocene hominins. Within both the (sub)tropical African and Subarctic biomes, the maximum obsidian transfer distances for Pleistocene modern humans (~200km and ~400km respectively) correspond to the geographic ranges of the outermost tribal layer in recent hunter-gatherers. This suggests that modern humans could potentially sustain the cohesion of their entire tribe at all latitudes, even though networks are more dispersed nearer the poles. Neanderthal obsidian transfer distances (300km) indicate that although Neanderthal home ranges are larger than those of low latitude hominins, Neanderthals travelled shorter distances than modern humans living at the same high latitudes. We argue that, like modern humans, Neanderthals could have maintained tribal cohesion, but that their tribes were substantially smaller than those of contemporary modern humans living in similar environments. The greater time taken to traverse the larger modern human tribal ranges may have limited the frequency of their face-to-face interactions and thus necessitated additional mechanisms to ensure network connectivity, such as the exchange of symbolic artefacts including ornaments and figurines. Such cultural supports may not have been required to the same extent by the Neanderthals due to their smaller tribes and home ranges. PMID:25214705

Medicinal plants of Papua New Guinea's Miu speaking population and a focus on their use of plant-slaked lime mixtures.

PubMed

Prescott, Thomas A K; Briggs, Marie; Kiapranis, Robert; Simmonds, Monique S J

2015-11-04

Here we present the results of an ethnobotanical survey of the medicinal plants used by the Miu, a virtually unresearched ethnolinguistic group who live in the mountainous interior of Papua New Guinea's West New Britain Province. We compare the findings for those previously reported for the neighbouring inland Kaulong speaking population. Three species, Trema orientalis, Spondias dulcis and Ficus botryocarpa are used in combination with locally prepared slaked lime to produce intensely coloured mixtures which are applied to dermatological infections. Their effects on dermal fibroblast viability with and without slaked lime are examined. The sap of F. botryocarpa which is used to treat tropical ulcers was examined further with assays relevant to wound healing. Focus groups and semi-structured interviews were used to acquire information on the uses of plants, vouchers of which were collected and identified by comparison with authentic herbarium specimens. LC-MS and NMR were used to identify chemical components. Cell viability assays were used to examine the effects of added slaked lime on dermal fibroblasts. For the sap of F. botryocarpa, fibroblast stimulation assays and antibacterial growth inhibition with Bacillus subtilis were carried out. The survey identified 33 plants and one fungal species, and clear differences with the inland Kaulong group despite their close proximity. Added slaked lime does not greatly increase the cytotoxicity of plant material towards dermal fibroblasts. The sap of F. botryocarpa contains the alkaloid ficuseptine as a single major component and displays antibacterial activity. The results demonstrate the potential for variation in medicinal plant use amongst Papua New Guinea's numerous language groups. The addition of slaked lime to plant material does not appear to present a concern for wound healing in the amounts used. The sap of F. botryocarpa displays antibacterial activity at concentrations that would occur at the wound surface and could be used as a highly accessible alternative to conventional antiseptics for remote communities in Papua New Guinea. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Young African American children constructing identities in an urban integrated science-literacy classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kane, Justine M.

This is a qualitative study of identities constructed and enacted by four 3rd-grade African American children (two girls and two boys) in an urban classroom that engaged in a year-long, integrated science-literacy project. Juxtaposing narrative and discursive identity lenses, coupled with race and gender perspectives, I examined the ways in which the four children saw and performed themselves as students and as science students in their classroom. Interview data were used for the narrative analysis and classroom Discourse and artifacts were used for the discursive analysis. A constructivist grounded theory framework was adopted for both analyses. The findings highlight the diversity and richness of perspectives and forms of engagement these young children shared and enacted, and help us see African American children as knowers, doers, and talkers of science individually and collectively. In their stories about themselves, all the children identified themselves as smart but they associated with smartness different characteristics and practices depending on their strengths and preferences. Drawing on the children's social, cultural, and ethnolinguistic resources, the dialogic and multimodal learning spaces facilitated by their teacher allowed the children to explore, negotiate, question, and learn science ideas. The children in this study brought their understandings and ways of being into the "lived-in" spaces co-created with classmates and teacher and influenced how these spaces were created. At the same time, each child's ways of being and understandings were shaped by the words, actions, behaviors, and feelings of peers and teacher. Moreover, as these four children engaged with science-literacy activities, they came to see themselves as competent, creative, active participants in science learning. Although their stories of "studenting" seemed dominated by following rules and being well-behaved, their stories of "sciencing" were filled with exploration, ingenuity, risk taking, and thinking. The study calls for (a) research that is positioned within children's perspectives and give voice to the experiences of African American children in urban schools, (b) teacher education that supports teachers' efforts to help urban school students become academically successful, and (c) policy that foregrounds identity development along with subject-matter learning.

Laos.

PubMed

1986-05-01

Focus in this discussion of Laos is on geography, the people, history, the government, the economy, foreign relations, and relations between the US and Laos. In 1985, the population of Laos totaled 3.6 million with an annual growth rate of 2.9%. The infant mortality rate is 126/1000; life expectancy is 46 years. A landlocked country on the Indochinese Peninsula, Laos is dominated by dense jungle and rugged mountains with a the monsoonal climate. Most of the people live in the valleys of the Mekong and its tributaries. Just under half of the population are ethnic Lao, the principal lowland inhabitants and politically and culturally dominant group. Mountain tribes of Sino-Tibetan and Thai ethnolinguistic heritage are found in northern Laos. In the central and southern mountains, Mon-Khmer tribes predominate. There also are Vietnamese and Chinese minorities, particularly in the towns. Throughout its history Siamese and Vietnamese kingdoms have competed for control of Laos, with the Siamese dominating much of what is now Laos in the 19th century, but supplanted by the French late in the century. France formally recognized the independence of Laos and Laos remained a member of the French Union until 1953. Lao politics remained unstable but essentially unchanged through the 1960s. On December 2, 1975, the monarchy was abolished, and the communist Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR) was established. The new government set about transforming Laos into a socialist state. Laos is underdeveloped. Most of its limited resources are underexploited and unsurveyed. It is further handicapped by an inadequate internal transportation system and isolation from the sea. An estimated 85% of the population engages in subsistence agriculture, but less than 10% of the land area is for agricultural use. The government permits a private sector, but the LPDR emphasizes development through socialism with improvement in agriculture and transporation as stated goals. Since the inauguration of the new regime in December 1975, Laos has maintained a close relationship with Vietnam. US relations with Laos deteriorated sharply in 1975, after government inspired mobs attacked US installations. No US economic or military assistance programs exist in Laos.

Determinants of Performance of Health Systems Concerning Maternal and Child Health: A Global Approach

PubMed Central

Pinzón-Flórez, Carlos Eduardo; Fernández-Niño, Julián Alfredo; Ruiz-Rodríguez, Myriam; Idrovo, Álvaro J.; Arredondo López, Abel Armando

2015-01-01

Aims To assess the association of social determinants on the performance of health systems around the world. Methods A transnational ecological study was conducted with an observation level focused on the country. In order to research on the strength of the association between the annual maternal and child mortality in 154 countries and social determinants: corruption, democratization, income inequality and cultural fragmentation, we used a mixed linear regression model for repeated measures with random intercepts and a conglomerate-based geographical analysis, between 2000 and 2010. Results Health determinants with a significant association on child mortality(<1year): higher access to water (βa Quartile 4(Q4) vs Quartile 1(Q1) = -6,14; 95%CI: -11,63 to -0,73), sanitation systems, (Q4 vs Q1 = -25,58; 95%CI: -31,91 to -19,25), % measles vaccination coverage (Q4 vs Q1 = -7.35; 95%CI: -10,18 to -4,52), % of births attended by a healthcare professional (Q4 vs Q1 = -7,91; 95%CI: -11,36 to -4,52) and a % of the total health expenditure (Q3 vs Q1 = -2,85; 95%CI: -4,93 to -0,7). Ethnic fragmentation (Q4 vs Q1 = 9,93; 95%CI: -0.03 to 19.89) had a marginal effect. For child mortality<5 years, an association was found for these variables and democratization (not free vs free = 11,23; 95%CI: -0,82 to 23,29), out-of-pocket expenditure (Q1 vs Q4 = 17,71; 95%CI: 5,86 to 29,56). For MMR (Maternal mortality ratio), % of access to water for all the quartiles, % of access to sanitation systems, (Q3 vs Q1 = -171,15; 95%CI: -281,29 to -61), birth attention by a healthcare professional (Q4 vs Q1 = -231,23; 95%CI: -349,32 to -113,15), and having corrupt government (Q3 vs Q1 = 83,05; 95%CI: 33,10 to 133). Conclusions Improving access to water and sanitation systems, decreasing corruption in the health sector must become priorities in health systems. The ethno-linguistic cultural fragmentation and the detriment of democracy turn out to be two factors related to health results. PMID:25822246

Linguistic, geographic and genetic isolation: a collaborative study of Italian populations.

PubMed

Capocasa, Marco; Anagnostou, Paolo; Bachis, Valeria; Battaggia, Cinzia; Bertoncini, Stefania; Biondi, Gianfranco; Boattini, Alessio; Boschi, Ilaria; Brisighelli, Francesca; Caló, Carla Maria; Carta, Marilisa; Coia, Valentina; Corrias, Laura; Crivellaro, Federica; De Fanti, Sara; Dominici, Valentina; Ferri, Gianmarco; Francalacci, Paolo; Franceschi, Zelda Alice; Luiselli, Donata; Morelli, Laura; Paoli, Giorgio; Rickards, Olga; Robledo, Renato; Sanna, Daria; Sanna, Emanuele; Sarno, Stefania; Sineo, Luca; Taglioli, Luca; Tagarelli, Giuseppe; Tofanelli, Sergio; Vona, Giuseppe; Pettener, Davide; Destro Bisol, Giovanni

2014-01-01

The animal and plant biodiversity of the Italian territory is known to be one of the richest in the Mediterranean basin and Europe as a whole, but does the genetic diversity of extant human populations show a comparable pattern? According to a number of studies, the genetic structure of Italian populations retains the signatures of complex peopling processes which took place from the Paleolithic to modern era. Although the observed patterns highlight a remarkable degree of genetic heterogeneity, they do not, however, take into account an important source of variation. In fact, Italy is home to numerous ethnolinguistic minorities which have yet to be studied systematically. Due to their difference in geographical origin and demographic history, such groups not only signal the cultural and social diversity of our country, but they are also potential contributors to its bio-anthropological heterogeneity. To fill this gap, research groups from four Italian Universities (Bologna, Cagliari, Pisa and Roma Sapienza) started a collaborative study in 2007, which was funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research and received partial support by the Istituto Italiano di Antropologia. In this paper, we present an account of the results obtained in the course of this initiative. Four case-studies relative to linguistic minorities from the Eastern Alps, Sardinia, Apennines and Southern Italy are first described and discussed, focusing on their micro-evolutionary and anthropological implications. Thereafter, we present the results of a systematic analysis of the relations between linguistic, geographic and genetic isolation. Integrating the data obtained in the course of the long-term study with literature and unpublished results on Italian populations, we show that a combination of linguistic and geographic factors is probably responsible for the presence of the most robust signatures of genetic isolation. Finally, we evaluate the magnitude of the diversity of Italian populations in the European context. The human genetic diversity of our country was found to be greater than observed throughout the continent at short (0-200 km) and intermediate (700-800km) distances, and accounted for most of the highest values of genetic distances observed at all geographic ranges. Interestingly, an important contribution to this pattern comes from the "linguistic islands"( e.g. German speaking groups of Sappada and Luserna from the Eastern Italian Alps), further proof of the importance of considering social and cultural factors when studying human genetic variation.

Determinants of performance of health systems concerning maternal and child health: a global approach.

PubMed

Pinzón-Flórez, Carlos Eduardo; Fernández-Niño, Julián Alfredo; Ruiz-Rodríguez, Myriam; Idrovo, Álvaro J; Arredondo López, Abel Armando

2015-01-01

To assess the association of social determinants on the performance of health systems around the world. A transnational ecological study was conducted with an observation level focused on the country. In order to research on the strength of the association between the annual maternal and child mortality in 154 countries and social determinants: corruption, democratization, income inequality and cultural fragmentation, we used a mixed linear regression model for repeated measures with random intercepts and a conglomerate-based geographical analysis, between 2000 and 2010. Health determinants with a significant association on child mortality(<1year): higher access to water (βa Quartile 4(Q4) vs Quartile 1(Q1) = -6,14; 95%CI: -11,63 to -0,73), sanitation systems, (Q4 vs Q1 = -25,58; 95%CI: -31,91 to -19,25), % measles vaccination coverage (Q4 vs Q1 = -7.35; 95%CI: -10,18 to -4,52), % of births attended by a healthcare professional (Q4 vs Q1 = -7,91; 95%CI: -11,36 to -4,52) and a % of the total health expenditure (Q3 vs Q1 = -2,85; 95%CI: -4,93 to -0,7). Ethnic fragmentation (Q4 vs Q1 = 9,93; 95%CI: -0.03 to 19.89) had a marginal effect. For child mortality<5 years, an association was found for these variables and democratization (not free vs free = 11,23; 95%CI: -0,82 to 23,29), out-of-pocket expenditure (Q1 vs Q4 = 17,71; 95%CI: 5,86 to 29,56). For MMR (Maternal mortality ratio), % of access to water for all the quartiles, % of access to sanitation systems, (Q3 vs Q1 = -171,15; 95%CI: -281,29 to -61), birth attention by a healthcare professional (Q4 vs Q1 = -231,23; 95%CI: -349,32 to -113,15), and having corrupt government (Q3 vs Q1 = 83,05; 95%CI: 33,10 to 133). Improving access to water and sanitation systems, decreasing corruption in the health sector must become priorities in health systems. The ethno-linguistic cultural fragmentation and the detriment of democracy turn out to be two factors related to health results.

Y-chromosomal diversity in the population of Guinea-Bissau: a multiethnic perspective

PubMed Central

Rosa, Alexandra; Ornelas, Carolina; Jobling, Mark A; Brehm, António; Villems, Richard

2007-01-01

Background The geographic and ethnolinguistic differentiation of many African Y-chromosomal lineages provides an opportunity to evaluate human migration episodes and admixture processes, in a pan-continental context. The analysis of the paternal genetic structure of Equatorial West Africans carried out to date leaves their origins and relationships unclear, and raises questions about the existence of major demographic phenomena analogous to the large-scale Bantu expansions. To address this, we have analysed the variation of 31 binary and 11 microsatellite markers on the non-recombining portion of the Y chromosome in Guinea-Bissau samples of diverse ethnic affiliations, some not studied before. Results The Guinea-Bissau Y chromosome pool is characterized by low haplogroup diversity (D = 0.470, sd 0.033), with the predominant haplogroup E3a*-M2 shared among the ethnic clusters and reaching a maximum of 82.2% in the Mandenka people. The Felupe-Djola and Papel groups exhibit the highest diversity of lineages and harbor the deep-rooting haplogroups A-M91, E2-M75 and E3*-PN2, typical of Sahel's more central and eastern areas. Their genetic distinction from other groups is statistically significant (P = 0.01) though not attributable to linguistic, geographic or religious criteria. Non sub-Saharan influences were associated with the presence of haplogroup R1b-P25 and particular lineages of E3b1-M78. Conclusion The predominance and high diversity of haplogroup E3a*-M2 suggests a demographic expansion in the equatorial western fringe, possibly supported by a local agricultural center. The paternal pool of the Mandenka and Balanta displays evidence of a particularly marked population growth among the Guineans, possibly reflecting the demographic effects of the agriculturalist lifestyle and their putative relationship to the people that introduced early cultivation practices into West Africa. The paternal background of the Felupe-Djola and Papel ethnic groups suggests a better conserved ancestral pool deriving from East Africa, from where they have supposedly migrated in recent times. Despite the overall homogeneity in a multiethnic sample, which contrasts with their social structure, minor clusters suggest the imprints of multiple peoples at different timescales: traces of ancestral inhabitants in haplogroups A-M91 and B-M60, today typical of hunter-gatherers; North African influence in E3b1-M78 Y chromosomes, probably due to trans-Saharan contacts; and R1b-P25 lineages reflecting European admixture via the North Atlantic slave trade. PMID:17662131