Search Results (80)

This paper examines how the designation of coracle net fishing in southwest Wales as intangible cultural heritage is reshaping the ontology of the fishery. Drawing on two years of ethnographic research with the Carmarthen Coracle and Netsmen Association, the study approaches river fishing not simply as an economic activity but as a culturally embedded practice through which relationships with river environments, kinship, ecological memory, and seasonal time are enacted and sustained. Coracle fishers on the River Towy possess detailed ecological knowledge developed through repeated engagement with water conditions, fish behaviour, and shifting river rhythms across generations. In the context of salmonid decline, polluted catchments, and regulatory tightening, heritage licensing now permits continued practice while restricting the sale and retention of migratory fish. The paper argues that this shift operates as an indirect form of displacement. While affirming cultural value, it reclassifies a working fishery as heritage display and constrains the material rights and adaptive capacity that sustain it as livelihood practice. By analysing how fishers interpret and respond to this reclassification, the paper shows how bureaucratic heritage frameworks transform what the fishery is understood to be, from reciprocal labour and livelihood to curated cultural artefact. The Welsh case contributes to anthropological debates on heritage governance, bureaucratic classification, and the regulation of small scale resource practices under environmental change. Full article

Recent years have seen renewed, at times seemingly contradictory, trends in socio-anthropological studies of Chinese urban families, in which the places of the individual, filial piety, and patriarchy have remained theoretically unsettled. These transformations have renewed the conversation around the early anthropological studies that made Chinese society a cornerstone of kinship and social theories. Taking the form of a critical essay, this text engages in depth with the recent literature on the transformation of families—read alongside brief fieldwork revisits carried out in Chengdu and Guangzhou in 2024—and questions the tendency to set a prototypical Chinese family against a so-called Western model. Three trends are examined: the first is the flexibilization of family models; the second is the renewal, reinvention, or reversion of earlier “patriarchy”; and the third is an affective transformation of earlier “filial piety” with the appearance of a puzzling “intergenerational integration of personhood” associated with a return of “familism,” paradoxically happening in parallel with a rise of “individualization.” Situating these trends within the political conditions that allow increased individual autonomy to coexist with the renewed family influence over their members’ fates, the article advances three arguments: that “Chineseness” here designates a political and economic situation rather than a cultural given; that what has been called “altruistic individualism” is better understood as a pragmatic familism, familism and individualism serving as alternative solutions to the same practical problems; and that, extending Foucault’s account of the individual as a political technology, the family itself can be read as a form shaped by state objectives. Kinship here appears to be as much politically bonded as culturally defined. Full article

Names and naming are some of the ways by which Igbo families and communities of Southeastern Nigeria construe and express ideation about their origins, kinship, intergroup relations, social and spiritual roles, and identity. The names that most Igbo families and communities bear provide information about their ancestry, historical ties, and the experiences and circumstances that define their existence as a distinct people. Among the Igbo, names are not merely a means of identification; they are perceived as carriers of history and social experiences. Igbo communities and families use names to identify the descendants (umu—children) of a particular progenitor, indicate the specific number of in-group members that share common ancestry or social bond (name + number marker), indicate the spatial location of a community, and indicate the spiritual roles of a community or family. Igbo families in particular use the names they bear to frame the social experiences and situations that surround the birth of a child (nwa), peculiar professions associated with a family, and peculiar social, economic or spiritual roles associated with some families, among other uses. Thus, based on the tenets of anthropological/cultural linguistics, this study will examine the social and cultural–cognitive factors that shape how the Igbo of Southeastern Nigeria derive community and family names. While insights from anthropological linguistics provide the framework for the study of the names in the social and cultural contexts, the cognitive dimensions of this study derive from the framework of Cultural Linguistics (CL). This ensures that the cognitive aspects of the names are integrated into the analysis. Many of the existing studies on Igbo names and naming practices have centred chiefly on personal names, while only a handful have focused on community and family names among the Igbo. This study, which draws chiefly from anthropological linguistics (AL) and Cultural Linguistics (CL), aims to address this lacuna. Full article

This paper presents a systemic analysis of the global energy transition, framing it as the central thermodynamic and economic driver of the modern polycrisis. The primary research objective is to demonstrate how current decarbonization strategies, lacking a holistic view, inadvertently trigger nonlinear amplifying feedback loops that exacerbate geopolitical and market volatility. Methodologically, the research introduces a systemic control dashboard, operationalizing the anthropological concept of contact zones into measurable techno-ecological and socio-economic interfaces. This framework is preferable to existing socio-technical approaches because it operationally couples rigid physical limits (e.g., thermodynamics) with volatile socio-behavioral friction, eliminating the blind spots of siloed analyses. The main contribution of this study lies in its systemic validation: it proves that the energy transition operates as the master control node of the polycrisis and successfully identifies eight high-leverage control levers (comprising sixteen Key Performance Indicators) that govern the friction between physical boundaries and societal acceptance. Regarding policy implications, the findings demonstrate that securing a Social License to Operate (SLO) requires actively managing these specific interface tensions—such as balancing renewable deployment against baseload inertia—rather than relying on isolated cost–benefit metrics. Ultimately, this approach equips energy planners with a robust methodology to minimize systemic risk and guide the transition toward a resilient, low-entropy steady state. Full article

This article examines the development of Catholic reflection on media, communication, and technology from nineteenth-century debates over press freedom to contemporary interventions on artificial intelligence. Drawing on a purposively selected corpus of Catholic documents issued at the universal level between 1832 and 2026, it combines historical–hermeneutical reconstruction, comparative document analysis, and juridical–institutional interpretation. The study distinguishes three heuristic phases: defensive regulation and the construction of Catholic media institutions; pastoral appropriation, dialogue, media education, and digital adaptation; and, since 2020, an anthropological deepening accompanied by growing concern with the political, economic, juridical, and social structures of AI. Particular attention is given to the Rome Call for AI Ethics, the two papal messages of 2024, Antiqua et nova, and Magnifica humanitas. The article argues that this history does not reveal an unchanged doctrine of human dignity, but a developing anthropological concern whose vocabulary, theological grounding, and normative function change over time. Earlier concerns with truth, moral order, ecclesial responsibility, and the salvation of souls are progressively reformulated through communication as communion, participation, rights, human agency, and integral human development. Full article

Natural and human-caused disasters have operated as selection mechanisms in the evolution of within-polity and interpolity sociocultural systems by destroying lives and the human-built environment, and they have provoked challenge-and-response dynamics that caused human polities to innovate and to implement innovations that resulted in increases in complexity and hierarchy. Individuals, households, communities, settlements, and polities and interpolity systems that were most prepared and resilient to these selection mechanisms survived and prevailed. This article reviews the theoretical literature in geography, historiography, sociology, anthropology, political science and economics on hypotheses regarding the effects of disasters on human social change, including both increases and decreases in sociocultural complexity and hierarchy. Full article

This study proposes a theological-orthodox reinterpretation of contemporary management concepts—particularly “value innovation,” the “blue ocean strategy,” and the E.R.S.C. matrix—within the framework of church administration. Starting from the premise that such concepts cannot be directly imported into the ecclesial context without distortion, the paper argues for their “theological translation,” whereby their underlying logic is reoriented toward the service of the person, communion, and oikonomia. The analysis demonstrates that church administration cannot be understood as a neutral technical system, but as a form of diakonia, intrinsically linked to the ecclesial nature of the Church as the Body of Christ. Consequently, “value” is redefined not in utilitarian or economic terms, but as concrete good: the protection of human dignity, the strengthening of communion, the accessibility of liturgical and pastoral life, and the responsible use of resources. Within this framework, innovation is understood as a Christ-centered renewal of administrative practices, while differentiation (“blue ocean”) becomes a form of service rather than competition. The E.R.S.C. matrix is reinterpreted as an ascetical discipline of discernment, guiding administrative decisions through criteria rooted in theological anthropology and ecclesial ethics. Furthermore, the study addresses the ethical meaning of surplus, the role of transparency, the integration of virtue and competence in organizational culture, and the transformation of communication from image management into truthful witness. Ultimately, the paper argues that authentic church administration is not defined by procedural efficiency alone, but by its capacity to manifest, through structures and decisions, the love of Christ in concrete institutional life. Full article

This paper investigates the anthropological and ethical roots of the global ecological and social crisis, centered on Pope Francis’s critique of the “throwaway culture” (Laudato Si’, LS). While LS identifies this crisis in the linear “take–make–dispose” model and the technocratic paradigm—which prioritizes efficiency over moral reflection—this research argues that these macro-societal failures originate in a foundational spiritual pathology: concupiscence. Drawing upon St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body (TOB), we analyze concupiscence as “appropriation,” the direct antithesis to the human vocation of the “sincere gift of self.” This study aligns LS’s socio-economic critique with Karol Wojtyła’s personalist anthropology, asserting that the systemic exploitation of nature and the marginalization of the vulnerable are structural extensions of the human failure to reread the “language of the body” in truth. The throwaway culture is thus revealed as an axiological reduction—a societal manifestation of lust that reduces both the body and creation to mere objects of utility. Consequently, a genuine ecological conversion (LS) necessitates embracing the “ethos of redemption” (TOB). This transformation of desire is essential to restoring the harmony between humanity and nature, recognizing that the ‘cry of the earth’ and the ‘cry of the poor’ are inextricably linked within an integral ecology. Full article

African migrants living in High-Income Countries are more vulnerable to socio-economic insecurity, as well as higher morbidity and mortality. In their cultural background, these populations, especially the Bamiléké ethnic group from Cameroon, tend to socially value stoutness as a symbol of health and prosperity, potentially obesogenic in urban areas. However, recent studies showed that urbanisation has led to an acculturation process toward the promotion of thinness in young African adults, exposing them to emerging eating disorders. From this perspective, we conducted an original mixed-methods anthropological study, through a repeated qualitative cross-sectional study (two time points in 2011 and 2021) and a quantitative survey (in 2012), in young Cameroonian Bamiléké [18–39 y] migrating to urban Cameroon and France to innovatively explore obesity- and eating disorder-related body weight perceptions. We observed that the qualitative rural–urban tendencies were similar between 2011 and 2021. While rural people tended to value stoutness as a symbol of prosperity, wellbeing and peacefulness, urban people, especially in Paris, tended to value thinness, even extreme thinness, as a symbol of beauty and health and reported a pronounced weight stigma. Quantitatively, we found that Parisian Bamiléké had a desired and ideal body size (DBS and IBS) in the normal-weight category with standard deviations reaching or close to the underweight category, whereas the rural and urban ones had DBS and IBS means between normal-weight and overweight categories. Moreover, we observed a high prevalence of overweight and obesity in both urban groups while the Parisian one tended to underestimate one’s weight and expected to lose it. Public health policies should consider body image as a persisting risk factor for obesity and also a risk factor for emerging eating disorders in young Cameroonian migrants experiencing this dual burden within the urban transition. Full article

This study traces the metamorphoses of concealment from Hesiod’s observation that “the gods keep the means of life concealed from human beings” to contemporary attention economies. In Hesiod’s pronouncement the event of concealment generates the dialectic of need and surplus, from which anthropological difference emerges, distinguishing the human from the animal and the divine. Divine concealment simultaneously creates humanity as seeker, sustenance as sought, and technics as necessity. Bataille’s “general economy” expands this framework from its theological to secular dimensions and from human labor to terrestrial life through solar energy, showing how technique generates discrete perception. Platonov’s revolutionary writings attempt to overcome nature’s dialectics through a quasi-theology of labor, yet the resulting socialist tragedy reveals a marked disproportion between technical development and subjective formation. Contemporary digital technologies transform concealment fundamentally: attention becomes liberated from searching for the hidden, only to be captured and commodified. Semiotic surplus manifests everywhere while material access remains restricted. The ancient matrix of concealment persists through digital transformations, assuming new forms while preserving its essential structure across radically different economic and technological conditions. Full article

Background/Objectives: Low vaccination coverage and the persistence of zero-dose children remain the principal challenges for immunization efforts in Madagascar. To address these barriers, a socio-anthropological study was conducted to identify the determinants of both vaccination and non-vaccination in eight districts of the country. Methods: District selection was based primarily on immunization performance—specifically the proportion of zero-dose children—along with criteria of geographic and cultural diversity. A qualitative approach was employed, comprising 162 semi-structured individual interviews and 41 focus group discussions with key informants, including political–administrative, religious, and traditional authorities, healthcare workers, community health workers, and parents. Results: Overall, the benefits of vaccination were widely acknowledged by the population. Anti-vaccine rumors were found to be sporadic and, due to their provisional nature, potentially reversible even among those who relay them. Beyond conventional barriers such as scheduling constraints and limited accessibility, fluctuating motivation among community health workers and structural challenges affecting their work emerged as notable findings. Conversely, factors promoting vaccine acceptance were associated with trust in the vaccinators themselves and with a good understanding of vaccination-related issues, fostered through increased and context-specific sensitization efforts. Conclusions: In conclusion, no evidence was found to associate contexts such as rural settings or low-performing vaccination areas with lower vaccine acceptance. Similarly, anti-vaccine rumors were not confined to any particular category or group. Ultimately, the main obstacles are the prioritization of economic risk and concerns about potential side effects. The primary recommendation concerns strengthening awareness-raising efforts, while strengthening trust and improving the working conditions of community health workers. Full article

The scholastic tradition is often criticized for starting from abstract principles or philosophical definitions. In this way, scholastic theology is frequently contrasted with post-conciliar theology, which is developed on the basis of the Paschal event, understood as the hermeneutical criterion for the whole of theology. Karl Rahner accuses Thomas Aquinas of “isolating” the Trinity from other areas of theology, such as soteriology, anthropology, moral theology, and spirituality. He also criticizes Aquinas for separating Christology from the Trinity, arguing that in the Thomistic account of the Incarnation it is not essential that the Son becomes incarnate, since any divine Person could, in principle, have done so. Rahner contends that this doctrine weakens the connection between God’s inner Trinitarian life and the missions. Consequently, our adoption as children of God would no longer be grounded in the Son’s own sonship, and what God reveals of himself in history would not truly express who he is as the Triune God. The purpose of this article is to show that such criticisms do not accurately represent Thomistic teaching and to present the doctrine of our divine filiation within a Trinitarian Christological framework. It will first examine the relationship between the immanent Trinity and the economic Trinity, then present the Thomistic doctrine of the divine missions and processions. Finally, it will address the role of the Holy Spirit and our adoptive divine filiation, all considered from a Thomistic perspective. Alongside the Summa theologiae, particular attention will be paid to Aquinas’s biblical commentaries, where he focuses on the Trinitarian economy and its implications for salvation, drawn directly from his reading of Scripture. Full article

Numerous attempts to define art have been made from antiquity to the present, yet historical overviews often adopt a Eurocentric (and American-centric) perspective focused mainly on culturally dependent aesthetic approaches. As a universal social and cultural phenomenon, art resists center-periphery models. The cognitive turn reshaped art theory by reconsidering art as a cognitive dimension of humanity. Art has no limits on who can create or enjoy it. The ability to use and understand metaphor, for instance, demonstrates everyday human artistic cognition. The analysis relies on both field research (case studies) and academic literature; it argues for a revised theoretical frame for defining art and organizes it into a dynamic model of three main vectors: (1) art as communication (including art as agency); (2) art as creation; and (3) art as experience (involving both audience and artist). The model can incorporate the study of emotions into the third criterion while remaining open to both materialist and non-materialist approaches. Rather than offering a new definition, the study integrates the perspective of cognitive anthropology, cognitive semantics, and the anthropology of art in order to broaden understanding. Instead of searching for special aesthetic or economic values, these three dimensions of art appear more universal. A pragmatic analysis of how art “works” in individuals and groups provides a useful model for cognitive sciences. Instead of binary codes, it is a vectorial model, a 3D space for expressing family resemblance, since there is no common denominator (prototype) for all kinds of art. Full article

The article examines human dignity as a fundamental category of Christian anthropology and its role as a basis for sustainable development. It highlights the continuity of the Church’s teaching on the inseparability of human dignity, justice, and solidarity, and interprets them in the context of current social and ecological challenges. Methodologically, the study applies a conceptual and theological analysis of magisterial documents (from Leo XIII to Francis), complemented by the relevant secondary literature in the fields of theology, philosophy, and ethics. The results show that human dignity is not only a theological concept but also a practical criterion for shaping social, economic, and environmental policies aimed at sustainability. The discussion emphasizes the interdisciplinary potential of human dignity to serve as a bridge between religious and secular discourses on sustainable development. The study concludes that integrating the principle of human dignity into the sustainability agenda provides a stable anthropological foundation and strengthens the ethical dimension of global responsibility. Full article

Academic researchers in technical and policy fields tend to pay little attention to the metaphysical and ontological ‘priors’ that nevertheless structure and determine scientific strategies and results. Green political agendas rooted in ecological modernization (EM) are distinguished from antecedent visions predicated on biophysical limits. Net zero is shown to be rooted in a project of global EM. Ecomodernism is analyzed in relation to its principal actors, geopolitical context and underlying metaphysics and anthropology. It is driven by non-negotiable societal priorities (‘ends’), which themselves derive from a particular set of technical ‘means’. The top-down version of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR4.0) and new paradigm of global net zero constitute an integrated agenda of eco-modernism. Global net zero cannot hope to achieve its own metabolic goals in respect of either energy flows or the circular economy. A competing, bottom-up and distributed model of the IR4.0 could potentially achieve these targets without falling prey to the Jevons paradox. This potential turns on the greater capacity of low-overhead, prosumer models to nurture less materialist cultural priorities that are more communitarian and family-oriented. A smart energy system that emerges in the context of distributed, domestic and informal production is much more likely to mirror the complex, infinitely gradated and granular pattern of oscillating energy transfers that are characteristic of biological systems. From an ecological economic perspective, such a bottom-up approach to the IR4.0 is much more likely to see the orders of magnitude reduction in the unit energetic cost of social complexity envisaged, in principle, by net zero. Through this comprehensive review of the metaphysical and ontological priors of mainstream IR4.0, researchers in the linked fields of energy and circular economy are presented with a wider range of potential options less constrained by preconceived assumptions about the ‘ends’ of societal development and progress. Full article