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This paper presents new paleobiological data from the skeletal remains founded in the necropolis of Cap de Forma; the site is located on a narrow isthmus that links a 30-m-high coastal promontory in the island of Minorca (Mahon). The archeological complex, made of rock tombs called Cuevas, surrounds a complex cyclopean monument that is an atypical example of Talayotic architecture. The excavations of the necropolis were carried out between 1997 and 2001, and during these years two tombs, the number 3 and 22, respectively, were excavated. This paper describes the digging operations and the subsequent anthropological investigations focused on the analysis of the skeletal remains from the tomb 3. It was possible to identify 37 adult individuals, including 5 females and 12 males, and 7 subadults. The preliminary investigations of pathologies and stress markers reveled good health conditions characterized by an intense physical activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper endeavour to explore the sociolinguistic charateristics of gaì, a local jargon spoken by some pastoral communities on Italian Alps, untill mid/late XX century. The article first tackles the classification of gaì as a class language, and identifies its affinity with other local and foreign jargons. After a brief description of gaì's main linguistic features, the article proceeds by locating its socio-anthropological roots in the relations between shepherds, farmers and miners. Lastly, the article proposes a non-linguistic research on the origins of gaì, with a focus on the introduction of enclosures in Valcamonica. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last fifty years we have witnessed a significant increase in the exposure of the female body and its nudity, first in advertising and cinema and currently in social networks. The pervasiveness of this practice has now become widespread, but it does not stop questioning, especially in relation to the meaning that underlies the representations and the ideal of female beauty they're contributing to spread. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyze the thought of Julia Kristeva on pleasure of seeing, beauty and body, in order to question the contemporary public show of the female body to understand if it contains an invitation to admire with pleasure, the pleasure of re-veiling precisely, or rather, as the Bulgarian thinker would say, coincides with a reductive grimace of femininity itself. There seems to be some suspicion that behind this practice there are forms of violence against women, with important ethical and social implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human skeletal material described in this paper comes from the archaeological excavation carried out by the Geopark Society and the Archaeological Superintendence of Cagliari and Oristano under the direction Dr. D. Salvi, at the Church of St. Francis of Iglesias, in the area called S. Marcello Orto. The radiocarbon dating of the findings, calibrated, resulted in the year span 1460-1650 AD at 95.4%. This paper describes the digging operations and the subsequent anthropological examination of the skeletal material, with considerations about paleo-pathology and living conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I'trying to show that there is a relationship between rock art, a site where rock art is placed and the wider landscape, articulated according to the Camunian "mindscape" in Valcamonica, Italy. In particular, I believe rock art may be regarded, making Lødøen's felicitous phrase my own, as a 'consumption of souls' within an animistic understanding of the world. I think the importance of mining copper and iron in relation to petroglyphs in Valcamonica has been underestimated so far, and I have tried to show its strong symbolic relationships. I believe I have made quite clear the symbolical connections between a certain type of landscape, a gulch with a strong hydrocentric focus, thundering noises, mining, metallurgy and deer, thanks to linguistic analysis, which shows how the same kind of landscape and similar mythologies can be found over an extremely wide territory. We do not know what the religious beliefs of the ancient Camunians were, similarities with neighboring populations aside, but linguistic analysis, anthropological as well as archaeological comparison and the study of both local folklore and archaic Aegean beliefs, allows us to hypothesize a more detailed picture of the Camunian thought in the Iron Age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tribal population of India constitutes 8.6% of the total population. They traditionally lead diverse life style and their way of life is indigenous. They are more susceptible to undernutrition which is recognized as a prevalent health problem mainly because of their uncertainty of food supply, which has serious long term consequences for the child and adversely influences the development of the nation. The assessment of nutritional status is paramount importance because it impels to identify malnutrition which is a potential cause and or an aggravation of morbidity and mortality. This review was aimed to find out the overall nutritional status of tribal preschool children. It also seek the major socio-cultural causes which influence the nutritional status from bio-cultural perspectives form of existing literature among the tribal children in India in order to make foundation of new research. In the present review, 40 papers on nutritional status of tribal pre-school children published from January 1st 2000 to till date, have been identified and included for analysis. To analyze the data Meta analysis was done using MedCalc software. The Meta analysis revealed the average rate of prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting among the preschool tribal children of India was 39.25%; 39.67% and 19.54%. Among the 40 different studies these rates vary among the different tribal groups of different States associated with their socio-economic status (10%), their cultures of food consumption (10%), maternal education (15%), child feeding practices (20%), dietary deficit during pregnancy (25%) and poor nutrition of the child (52%). Prevalence rate of under-nutrition and stunting is relatively high in comparison to WHO in India whereas, rate of wasting was lower in comparison to National level which reflect that immediate nutritional status was poor but chronic deficiency of nutrition was less. Nutritional education and short term appropriately planned nutritional intervention programs may also be useful for enhancing their nutritional status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pornography promotes a constant sexualization of various aspects of contemporary culture. This sexualisation can take place through direct channels, such as explicit pornography, or through the mediation of other cultural forms, such as cinema, fashion and art. Rock music played a decisive role among these channels. This paper takes into consideration the contribution to sexualization brought by the first great exponents of rock, from Elvis Presley to the Beatles, examining the ways in which they sexualized their artistic expressions and the reasons that have favored their success among the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Okipa ceremony of the Mandan Indians has numerous characteristics that differentiate it from the general model of the Sun Dance. This paper analyzes its founding myths and rituals and shows how the theme of the relationship with the buffaloes constitutes the nucleus at the base of various symbolic economic, anthropological, and cosmic codes. With the celebration of the Okipa it was possible to open the hunting season and refound and restore the values connected with this activity; the human group was renewed through initiatory elements and its identity was reshaped; the boundaries of the cosmos were redefined, evoking and overcoming potential catastrophes. In this way the ritual acted on the mutable, producing the stability of the cosmos for a whole year and annually rebuilt the presence of the Mandan in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unfortunately on a regular basis the newspapers refer to "homemade" ritual circumcisions with fatal results. Despite the seriousness of the problem, in our country the path to an unprejudiced understanding of ritual circumcision, overcoming economic and political interests, is still long. Many and not easy to be solved, in fact, are the bioethical problems that this practice raises, especially in this historical period in which xenophobia has arisen, and not only in Italy. The author hopes that the bioethical reflections contained in the present article, a synthesis deriving from various papers and conferences, can contribute to better clarifying the terms of the question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article elaborates and develops two speeches I made at the Forum of the General States of the Historical Re-enactment held in Florence on 9-10 April 2016 and will be included in the White Paper as a result of the Forum. The first part is also a preview of the long field work at a number of archaeological open museums, better known as archeoparks, during the last four years, I conducted as a participant observer, who has not remained a 'marginal native', but in some cases took a leading role. Thanks to this period of intense fieldwork, I was able to see the strengths and weaknesses of a number of Italian archeoparks. The second part, however, is more theoretical and concerns the problem of the "authentic reconstruction" of the past and the tension between traditional roles and modern requirements in the historical re-enactment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes a complex ritual called lila ("night") performed by the Gnawa, descendants of West African slaves brought to Morocco through the Trans-Saharan trade. The lila is an example of religious and cultural syncretism between Sufi Islam and African rituals of possession trance. The all-night ceremony begins with an animal sacrifice (dbiha), followed by a procession (aada) and a dance performance (kouyou). Later the maalem (master musician) consecrates and "opens" the space (ftouh er-rahba) and he calls seven families of spirits (mlouk). The ceremony evokes the first sacrifice of God and the creation of the universe. Yet the ritual takes place mostly for therapeutic purposes. The lila is the expression of the dynamic interplay of different meanings and multiple dimensions such as religion, politics, medicine and aesthetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term xo'pini indicates power in the Mandan culture, and it had strong social repercussions. Xo'pini power was increased by undertaking a number of actions that we may call "sacralised", such as fasting, self-torture and honouring the sacred bundles. It decreased by performing secular activities, such as war, hunting, horse taming. During certain ceremonies husbands offered the elders the chance to have intercourse with their wives. In this case the xo'pini power went directly from the elders to the husbands and because of this weak elders could refuse to take advantage of the gift of the wives. This paper tries to reconstruct the logic underlying the exchange of xo'pini power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropological knowledge relies on a particular methodology, participant observation. The practice of being in the field for a long time, busy in daily contact with the one's interlocutors, has become anthropology's distinctive mark. Nowadays, the challenge of Covid-19 and the obligatory restrictions on sociality dynamics require a rethinking of these theoretical and methodological assumptions: what does doing ethnography at the time of social distancing mean? This contribution aims to rethink the concept of the field made inaccessible by the current contingencies, overcoming the idea of a geographical location. Hence, online sociality as becomes a relational location built on people's communicative practices. Furthermore, researchers are creatively adopting new ways of relating to their interlocutors at a time when social contacts are necessarily limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The magic rites are divided into oral (spells) and manual (sympathetic rites or symbolic rites, sacrificial rites, healing rites, purification rites), complementary to each other. These rites present a recitative part, λόγος, with formulas and spells, and an operational part, πρᾶξις, with particular gestures, tools and substances. In both cases the word is fundamental because it is the magic tool par excellence, thanks to its evocative and expressive power: it is a creative and pragmatic force that acts directly on reality. This act of speech is expressed either through simple pronunciation, as in the case of oral spells, or through writing, generally on particular objects. The study will attempt investigate the power of the logos in magic rites, the ritual formulas and the different types of written objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to analyze first the relationship between tourists and natives in a liminal area such as the villages built on the road that takes tourists to Mursiland, and the dialogical construction that derives from it, which is in all respects a representation, and secondly in which way tourism has changed external and internal relations in the Mursi society. The dialogue between these two groups, tourists and Mursi, gives rise to an image that is the product of both the expectations of the visitors, and the idea Mursi women, the main subject of the photos, have about these expectations. The outcome is a representation of the savage who often conflicts, given its aggressiveness, venality and unreliability with that of the kind, well-mannered Rousseau-an primitive. In this liminal area, with the mimesis of the wild Savage, the Mursi on the one hand enter the market economy and globalization, but maintaining some control in the process. On the other hand, they adapt their society by creating new figures of cultural brokers, as well as allow the weaker sector of society, girls and women, to acquire 'agency' and access to a new type of wealth, money, and not only cattle on which the Mursi's patriarchal society is based. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The subject of this article is about traditional Russian embroidery and, in particular, some figures that are interpreted as archaic female deities. Initially studied by Tsarist and Soviet archaeologists and ethnographers, it found a renewed interest among American scholars linked to the feminist world. Embroidery, however, distinct from the archaeological material, for many centuries after the fall of paganism in Russia, has remained a component of the life of the people and, therefore, underwent important changes. The particular political coloring of the works on traditional Russian embroidery has influenced the interpretations of their origin and development, precisely during a period that saw the disappearance, even violent, of the rural way of life that had produced the embroidered fabrics collected by intellectuals, aristocrats, as well as Soviet officials, who transformed a family product into a commodity and then into a museum object detached from its context and transformed into a symbol of the 'authentic' Russian soul. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first Christian missionaries who went to North America claimed that the Indians believed in reincarnation and that it was the core of their religions. A survey among the Mandan shows that their limited notions about the after-life and reincarnation do not present any eschatological significance. These notions have the only function of designing the cosmos and enhancing some kinship relations. In fact, it is even dubious whether the Mandans had the notion of a life after death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My purpose in this article is to frame the mat, the Russian foul language, within a more general linguistic background, and discard those beliefs that describe it as a linguistic system far from the standard Russian language. I make some observations on the foul language in general, on its definitions from an anthropological, sociological, linguistic point of view, then I briefly deal with some cases concerning classical antiquity and modern use. Finally, I focus on the Russian mat, its popular use and cultured one, its political history, from the Tsar to contemporary Russia, and briefly mention the problems we can find when we translate it into another language, taking into account the substantial differences with which the two languages work as to the foul language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The mescalbean among the North American Natives" - With the name "mescalbean cult" or "mescalism", a group of ritual practices of the North American Planes Natives are named, during which a vegetal psychoactive source was employed. The human relationship with this visionary source originates starting from the most remote antiquity, and lasted until the end of the XIX century of our era. In the present study the historical, ethnographical, archaeological, and mythological aspects of these rites are reviewed, bringing clarifications on the problem of the relationship of mescalism with peyotism, and on some terminological and ethnobotanical confusions which dragged in the studies for several decades. Lastly, some ethological aspects concerning the animal relationship with the mescalbean are analyzed, and which could clarify the origins of the human relationship with this intoxicant source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Especially during the last decades of the twentieth century, a profound change in the cultural category of "folk tradition" affected particularly the rural world. Only some categories related to culinary folk heritage survived industrialization, supported by a progressive attempt to recover the traditional knowledge related to the farmers' folk calendar and food production. My project has observed the transition from a production tied to tradition and a "food geography" to a new one burdened by an imaginary "food and wine" authenticity. Analyzing the dynamics of some new realities I highlight how they are supposed to rebuild and regenerate the memory of the "Cucina Popolare" (folk cuisine), helping modern people to reinvent themselves into a community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medea is generally known as a murderous witch due to hostile Athenian propaganda, but myth, iconography and linguistics allow us to suggest a new Medea, not only an agricultural goddess, but also a goddess of fermentation and wine, connected with Dionysus as well as Greek traditions about the diffusion of viticulture. This Medea, however, is mostly centred in the Corinthian tradition and especially in the Heraion of Perachora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition from the atlatl to the bow and arrow in North America has not been so "sudden" as once proposed by Utilitarian Determinism. The two weapons coexisted for a long time as carriers of different social needs or "habitus", as in Bourdieu. These results are consistent with archaeological finds, a classification following different and more precise criteria of dart and arrow points, a greater interaction between archeology, ethnography and anthropology. Moreover, in some complex societies such as the Mesoamerican ones the atlatl as a weapon remained dominant until the Conquest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Antrocom: Online Journal of Anthropology is the property of Antrocom Onlus and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)