Description:
This article examines the evidence for land succession in western Victoria and considers the fission, fusion, and extinction of some clan groups at the time of contact with non-Aboriginal people in the late 1830s and 1840s. A special study is made of the intriguing scraps of evidence surrounding Knenknenwurrung. This appears to be the case of a cluster of related clans fragmenting and being absorbed into contiguous language groups¾some into Djadjawurrung, some Jardwadjali, and the majority absorbed into Djabwurrung. Exactly when this fragmentation and fission occurred is unclear, but certainly within the living memory of Aboriginal people in the early 1840s.
Description:
ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) is the pseudo-scientific term used to describe a ‘tingly’ physical response that viewers of ASMR videos may experience from watching a combination of auditory, visual and tactile triggers. To explore how this might happen, we examine the experience of ASMR as a technologically-mediated, affective experience, using examples from prominent ASMR artists. We seek to understand this community of ASMR viewers through the disjuncture that exists between the embodied experience of tingles and deep relaxation, and its technologically-mediated delivery. In this paper, we explore ASMR as a mediated affective experience – uniquely shaped by online spaces and their affordances. After providing a brief overview of ASMR videos and creators, we explore how ASMR artists engage in boundary work through the definitions of ASMR that they produce to support a quest for cultural and scientific legitimacy. The practice of naming and defining ASMR creates a site affective 'stickiness’, where affective experiences are intentionally constructed and strategically heightened. Finally, we examine the provocations that research into ASMR may bring an understanding of the senses, affect and technologically-mediated intimacy.
Description:
A study of Aboriginal associations with Victorian caves finds that there is a rich cultural heritage associated with caves. This association has been found to be rich and varied in which caves and sink holes featured prominently in the lives of Aboriginal people - they were often the abodes of malevolent creatures and spirits and some were associated with important ancestral heroes, traditional harming practices, and some were important in the after death movement of souls to their resting places. Aboriginal names for caves, where known, are discussed.
Description:
A key concept in ethnography is reflectivity. The last decade there has been an increasing discussion about the importance of the reseacher's role in regard to the creation of data as well as the analysis of the data material.
Description:
In 2009 the bachelor of Arts Degree at James Cook University, a regional multicampus institution in North Queensland, Australia, was flagged by the Vice Chancellor for "deep attention". This paper showcases the work undertaken as part of the university-wide curriculum refresh to improve the first year experience at JCU. It surveys and reflects upon the uptake of research undertaken by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) and the Deans of the Social Sciences and Humanities (DASSH) in their joint report Nature and Roles of Arts Degrees in Contemporary Society: A National Scoping Project of Arts Programss across Australia. (Gannaway and Trent 2008) in the design and implementaion of new first-year core subjects designed to aid with transition, retention, skillbuilding, and cohort-identity in the Bachelor of Arts Degree.
Description:
Results: This chapter analyzed the leadership styles of female and male leaders in HEI management teams in Australia and Portugal. It found that both women and men in Australian universities valued transformational leadership skills, whereas the male respondents in Portugal saw traditional management as more effective, even though female respondents considered women demonstrated transformational leadership. It also found that while women's leadership is recognized in Australian universities, in Portugal men saw women's leadership as problematic. Originality/value of chapter: The findings suggest that there is more possibility for transformation in the academy if both men and women in HEI leadership value women's leadership role. Methodology: A total of 44 interviews with female and male university senior managers in Australia and Portugal were conducted by the authors and then analyzed using thematic content analysis. Purpose: This chapter examines if women in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are constrained in their leadership style and if the organizational culture makes them less valued in senior management teams. It then explores if the 7-S organizational framework has relevance to gender and leadership in HEIs. The nature of authority within HEIs increases the complexity of leadership within an academic context. Leadership is often vested in a single person, and the positional power of Rectors/Vice-Chancellors (VCs) is based on authority, discipline knowledge, experience, and peer and professional recognition. The literature highlights that HEIs continue to be male dominated and that women are underrepresented in university leadership.
Description:
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the ability of BMI, WC, and WHtR to identify increased cardiometabolic risk in pre-adolescents. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study involving 192 children (10.92 +/- 0.58 years, 56% female) from the United Kingdom between 2010 and 2013. Receiver operating characteristic curves determined the discriminatory ability of BMI, WC and WHtR to identify individuals with increased cardiometabolic risk (increased clustered triglycerides, HDL-cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, cardiorespiratory fitness, and glucose). RESULTS: A WHtR >/= 0.5 increased the odds by 5.2 (95% confidence interval 2.6 - 10.3) of having increased cardiometabolic risk. Similar associations were observed for BMI and WC. Both BMI-z and WHtR were fair predictors of increased cardiometabolic risk, although BMI-z demonstrated the best trade-off between sensitivity and specificity, 76.1% and 63.6%, compared with 68.1% and 65.5% for WHtR. Cross-validation analysis revealed that BMI-z and WHtR correctly classified 84% of individuals (kappa score = 0.671, 95% CI 0.55, 0.79). The sensitivity of the cut-points suggests that 89.3% of individuals were correctly classified as being at risk with only 10.7% misdiagnosed whereas the specificity of the cut-points indicated that 77.8% of individuals were correctly identified as being healthy with 22.2% of individuals incorrectly diagnosed as being at risk. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that WHtR provides similar cardiometabolic risk estimates to age and sex adjusted BMI.
Description:
To a great extent, popular representations of Indo-Australian relations have been viewed through the lens of cricket - the national game in both countries. Despite a proliferation of writing on colonial Indian cricket, Australia's contribution to it has been largely ignored. In October 1935, a team of cricketers embarked on the first Australian tour to the subcontinent.(1) The tour was conceived and financed by the Maharaja of Patiala to assist preparation of an official Indian team to tour Britain in 1936. In this paper, I will draw upon primary sources and interviews to help articulate the complex colonial relationship between the East and the West, whilst locating the ambiguous position of Australia within this. Despite predominantly conforming to the Orientalist view that Westerners considered themselves a superior 'race', the Australian cricketers demonstrated an atypical cultural sensitivity to the Orient and the 'Other'.
Description:
Recent senior anthropologists have heralded a new era where performative social and cultural kinship may eclipse procreational ‘biological kinship’ in contemporary western society. This article takes research on permanent residents in caravan parks as an extreme case that may act as an exemplar for future western contexts. Between 2003 and 2008, interviews with caravanpark managers, 50 interviews with park residents and short field stays at 17 outer Melbourne and rural Victorian caravan parks, provided multi-sited ethnographic material for analysis. I argue that contemporary contexts for relatedness give scope for creative development of social performative ties with ‘ex’ spouses and in-laws, friends and pets. ‘Biological’ kin and family with a material dimension remain central, however, and a response to family need or rupture is often the broadening of the procreative kin links between grandparent and grandchild and between siblings. Childhood institutionalisation and divorce in particular, contributed to pathways towards caravan park housing. Other kin-based motivations include finding safe accommodation for wives; providing housing for young adult males after injury and family divorce; and arranging for housing succession for children. Ideas of blood and folk biology demonstrate considerable resilience in contemporary kinship arrangements.
Description:
Recent senior anthropologists have heralded a new era where performative social and cultural kinship may eclipse procreational ‘biological kinship’ in contemporary western society. This article takes research on permanent residents in caravan parks as an extreme case that may act as an exemplar for future western contexts. Between 2003 and 2008, interviews with caravanpark managers, 50 interviews with park residents and short field stays at 17 outer Melbourne and rural Victorian caravan parks, provided multi-sited ethnographic material for analysis. I argue that contemporary contexts for relatedness give scope for creative development of social performative ties with ‘ex’ spouses and in-laws, friends and pets. ‘Biological’ kin and family with a material dimension remain central, however, and a response to family need or rupture is often the broadening of the procreative kin links between grandparent and grandchild and between siblings. Childhood institutionalisation and divorce in particular, contributed to pathways towards caravan park housing. Other kin-based motivations include finding safe accommodation for wives; providing housing for young adult males after injury and family divorce; and arranging for housing succession for children. Ideas of blood and folk biology demonstrate considerable resilience in contemporary kinship arrangements.