Search Results (94)

This study presents a cross-cultural comparison of two fortified residences—Palazzo Farnese in Italy and Dong’s Fortified Compound in China—through a triadic analytical framework encompassing architectural form, symbolic ornamentation, and public perception. By combining field observation, iconographic interpretation, and digital ethnography, the research investigates how heritage meaning is constructed, encoded, and reinterpreted across distinct sociocultural contexts. Empirical materials include architectural documentation, decorative analysis, and a curated dataset of 4947 user-generated images and 1467 textual comments collected from Chinese and international platforms between 2020 and 2024. Methods such as CLIP-based visual clustering and BERTopic-enabled sentiment modelling were applied to extract patterns of perception and symbolic emphasis. The findings reveal contrasting representational logics: Palazzo Farnese encodes dynastic authority and Renaissance cosmology through geometric order and immersive frescoes, while Dong’s Compound conveys Confucian ethics and frontier identity via nested courtyards and traditional ornamentation. Digital responses diverge accordingly: international users highlight formal aesthetics and photogenic elements; Chinese users engage with symbolic motifs, family memory, and ritual significance. This study illustrates how historically fortified residences are reinterpreted through culturally specific digital practices, offering an interdisciplinary approach that bridges architectural history, symbolic analysis, and digital heritage studies. Full article

On 8 September 2022, Queen Elizabeth II, the United Kingdom’s longest-serving monarch, died at Balmoral, aged 96. She had reigned for 70 years. The death of Queen Elizabeth II was met with mixed reactions worldwide. On the one hand, some mourners wanted to pay their last respects to the longest-ruling monarch in the world. On the other hand, disgruntled people wanted to remember and narrate the Queen’s legacy, including her role in British colonialism. The debates opened up conversations, questioning the British Royal Family’s relevance in today’s world, particularly in light of its largely unrevised colonial history. On X, debates were rife and played out much more fiercely. In this paper, the author undertakes a digital ethnography analysis of how Black Twitter worldwide received and responded to the death of Queen Elizabeth. The study found that Black Twitter reacted to the Queen’s death by (1) resisting respectability politics; (2) resisting the erasure of Black history in Britain and beyond; (3) educating Black people about their history. The study argues that Black Twitter is an essential digital space for people worldwide to mobilize and form racial identity politics. Full article

Measures of sexual orientation and family functioning are widely used among sexual minority populations. However, data on whether these measures are culturally syntonic and responsive to the needs of a particular population, such as Hispanic sexual minority youth (HSMY), are lacking. Therefore, this study assessed whether HSMY understand measures of sexual orientation and family functioning as intended. Authors conducted individual interviews with five HSMY to evaluate the face validity of a measure of sexual orientation (i.e., Klein Sexual Orientation Grid) and measures of family functioning (i.e., Parent–Adolescent Communication Scale, Parenting Practices Scale, Parental Monitoring of Peers). Data were analyzed using a general inductive approach. For the sexual orientation measure, five themes were identified related to the: (1) clarity of questions, (2) challenging nature of questions, (3) difficulty of responses, (4) suggestions to improve response options, and (5) need for questions to include gender identity. For family functioning, three themes were identified: (1) relevance of the measures to sexual minority youth, (2) the importance of understanding family history and cultural context, and (3) capturing the context of how sexual minority status and disclosure impact family functioning. HSMY had generally positive feedback regarding these measures; however, they also suggested specific changes associated with wording and specificity of the measures to make them more relevant to HSMY’s unique needs. Full article

Religious places represent one of the most significant categories of protected heritage. In Italy, however, places of worship belonging to minority communities often remain inconspicuous and are not legally recognized as part of the nation’s cultural heritage. Consequently, the histories of these communities face challenges in securing a space within the collective memory. This contribution, through a spatial approach and an interdisciplinary methodology, highlights the richness of the hidden heritage—both tangible and intangible—of the Greek Orthodox Church of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist in Turin. In particular, this research explores the role of the Greek language, which constitutes a significant element of intangible heritage for the community. Since the 1960s, regular celebrations in the Byzantine rite and the Greek language have been held in the Piedmontese capital. These biritual practices emerged in response to the demands of numerous Greek university students and families who revitalized the Orthodox presence in the territory during those years. In 2000, the Catholic Archdiocese granted the Greek Orthodox community the use of a church in the city’s historic center. This church is interpreted as a shared religious space, having undergone a transformation of identity over time: its Orthodox identity remains architecturally invisible, as the community continues to worship in a former Catholic church. Full article

In the 2017 Danzy Senna novel, New People, the mixed-race protagonist is described as a white ‘passing’ mixed-race woman who interprets the death of her adopted Black mother as a symbol of the death of her Black identity. The book’s themes parallel ongoing multiracial political debates that explore the extent to which mixed-race people with proximity to whiteness perceive individual agency in identity negotiations. This paper examines how mixed-race people in Britain discuss the experience of loss and separation, thereby demonstrating how loss and separation interact with their sense of self. Employing a content and thematic analysis of 19 stories from the British-based organisation Mixedracefaces, my findings show that the mixed-race respondents saw their racially marginalised family members as critical connections to their own. Thus, a process of identity de/construction was instigated when they experienced a loss that perpetuated and/or challenged monoracism. I argue that we must disrupt oppressive monoracial paradigms of ‘race’ that uphold monoracial whiteness and prevent mixed-race identity agency. Through mixed-race counterstories, we can reveal further generational histories of struggles, resistance, love, and refusal in Britain. I intentionally provide a safe space for the millions of mixed people looking for connection through this experience. Full article

Between 1871 and 1969, Native Americans (American Indians) endured the U.S. Federal Indian Boarding School system, while Chinese Americans faced enduring impacts from the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882–1943). Drawing on historical sources, this paper examines literary works by and about Native Americans and Chinese Americans, focusing on their sufferings under forced isolation policies. Through works like Ceremony and Gardens in the Dunes by Leslie Marmon Silko and Eat a Bowl of Tea by Louis Chu, this study illustrates how systematic oppression, characterized by erasure of cultural identity, manifested through institutions such as “boarding school” and “bachelor society”. It explores how forced policies (like assimilation and isolation) and institutional oppression, through cultural erasure and the severing of family ties, dismantled family structures, weakened cultural transmission, and led to identity crises, inter-generational alienation, and psychological trauma in marginalized communities. These ethnic narratives not only document histories of oppression but also highlight the ethnic groups’ resilience and their efforts to reconstruct multicultural identity through cultural heritage and community ties under multifaceted pressures. Full article

The species Niphon spinosus (Cuvier, 1829) is the only representative of the family Niphonidae and the genus Niphon, and its taxonomic history is complicated; it is still unclear in a phylogenetic sense. In this study, we report the complete mitochondrial genome of N. spinosus (OP391482), which was determined to be 16,503 bp long with biased A + T contents (53.8%) using next-generation technology. The typical set of 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and one control region (D-loop) are included in the mitochondrial genome. The H-strand encoded 28 genes (14 tRNA, 2 rRNA, and 12 PCGs), and D-loop, whereas the L-strand encoded the remaining 9 genes (8 tRNA and ND6). Its nucleotide composition, gene arrangement, codon usage patterns, and tRNA secondary structures are identical with other members of the Percoidei suborder. Furthermore, we reconstructed phylogenetic trees based on the 13 PCGs. The resulting phylogenetic trees showed N. spinosus placing as a separate lineage within the family Niphonidae, its close relationship to Trachinus draco (Trachinidae), and the clustering of major subfamilies like Luciopercinae and Percinae of the Percoidei suborder. These findings will contribute to future studies on the evolutionary history, population genetics, molecular taxonomy, and phylogeny of N. spinosus and related species. Full article

In this paper, I provide a close examination of early Christian biographical sources through the heuristic lens of “home studies”, tracing a thread from the New Testament Gospels to martyrdom texts, the apocryphal Acts literature, Eusebius’ biography of Origen in his Church History, and finally, Athanasius’ Life of Antony. I demonstrate that the lens of home allows us to see that in each of these discrete groups of texts, Christ’s call to discipleship is understood to redefine and reconstitute the meaning of home and relatedly, family: to be “home” required a great deal of displacement and mobility as one forsook one’s biological family and household for the sake of obedience to the call of Christ. I argue that three topics, typically examined separately, are fruitfully brought together through the lens of home: (1) the shaping of ancient Christian identity formation, as expressed by the characters’ use of familial language to identify other members of the early Christian movement; (2) the mobile nature of the person who joins the movement, providing insights about the mobility and travel of many of its members; and (3) ancient Christian eschatological thought concerning the final dwelling of Christ-believers in some form of otherworldly home after death. Full article

This study articulates how naming and family trees can become epic texts upon which intended or unintended meanings, identities and narratives can be decoded, including mutations in families, as basic units of society. Many studies in African anthroponym have articulated names and naming from differing perspectives, but have tended to ignore the diachronic and synchronic significance of looking at family trees which are woven in time and space through naming. Within the framework of Darwinian Theory of Evolution, we used in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of respondents from the Bette people of the Obudu local government area, to enable us to build family trees which were subtextually analyzed for meaning and mutations through six generations. Our findings enabled us to develop deeper insights into how a longitudinal articulation of naming and family trees can enhance our understanding of the synchronic realities, increased cultural aliteracy, dislocation of homesteads due to occupational shifts, changing ideas of kinship, patriarchal attitudes towards women and challenge of new technologies like DNA testing and new media within the Bette traditional kinship tradition. Significantly, naming and family trees, beyond dynastic delineations for identity, inclusivity and otherness, can become signifiers of a people’s epic progression and mutation, and, as it were, a tapestry of significant narratives of micro and macro family history. Full article

Background/Objectives: Ethnic identity development is associated with positive mental health in young adults from ethnic minority groups. How a sense of belonging and attachment to one’s ethnic culture is related to personal mental health recovery remains unexplained. This study examines the experiences of ethnic minority young adults in the U.S. to understand the aspects of culture and identity development that are relevant to their recovery processes. Methods: Young adults who were living with chronic mental disorders were recruited from four rehabilitation programs. Interviews produced quantitative and qualitative data. An explanatory sequential mixed methods design was used to integrate the qualitative findings from a sub-group of young adults (n = 44) with the results from the quantitative study. Directed content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data, and the integrated data were analyzed in joint displays. Results: The prominent themes characterizing ethnic identity development in personal recovery were (a) cultural history, traditions, and values; (b) mental illness stigma within the ethnic community; and (c) bias and discrimination in mental health services. Young adults with high ethnic identity development reported having more support from family, but they also described experiences with stigma and racism. Conclusions: The integrated results suggest that ethnic identity development promotes mental health recovery in minoritized young adults through social support and improved well-being and resilience. Experiences of intersectional stigma and structural racism associated with ethnic identity can interfere with self-determination and access to care among minoritized Hispanic/Latine, Black, and multiracial young adults in the U.S. Full article

This article examines the type of family lore that leads white Canadians and Americans to claim Indigenous identities. Using a case-study approach, I demonstrate how 2000 descendants of a French-Canadian couple, born in the early 1800s near Montréal, joined one of the largest land claims in Canadian history as “Algonquins”. The tools of critical settler family history provide the necessary theoretical scaffolding to unpack how genealogical and geographical proximity to Indigenous people in the past are the bases for the family lore that propelled these individuals to become card-carrying, voting members of the land claim. Despite continued opposition to their inclusion by the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation, the only federally recognized Algonquin community involved in the land claim, these fake Algonquins remained potential land claim beneficiaries for over two decades, until an independent tribunal finally removed them in 2023. Family lore resolves the crisis in the family: no longer the colonizers responsible for Indigenous displacement and dispossession, white pretendians become the victims of settler colonial violence. Full article

Ravenelia is the third largest rust genus of the order Pucciniales with more than 200 described species. It is an important rust genus that has undergone tremendous taxonomic changes. This genus produces teliospores united into a head on a compound pedicel composed of two to several hyphae with autoecious, macro-, demi- to hemi-, and, more rarely, microcyclic modes of their life cycle which provide it a unique identity and have proved helpful in the identification of the genus. The current understanding of the taxonomy, history, diversity and distribution of this genus is discussed in this paper. Both online and offline resources were searched to gather data of the published literature. The data thus obtained were analyzed for numerical and graphical summaries to provide the diversity and distribution of the genus. In addition, a phylogenetic analysis based on the ITS and nLSU DNA sequence data available in GenBank and the published literature was performed to examine the taxonomic placement of different species within the genus. The genus was reported to be distributed over 53 countries of the world. Around 51 plant genera belonging to four plant families, viz., Fabaceae, Phyllanthaceae, Asphodelaceae and Zygophyllaceae were found to be infected with these rust fungi. The phylogenetic analysis based on LSU and ITS sequence data revealed the polyphyletic nature of the genus. A table of 248 species of this genus is also provided with all information of host, distribution and cited reference that can be helpful for mycologists to find all information at one place. Future perspectives for the advancement of this genus are also discussed. Full article

Children’s dress is a constituent element of individual and group identity as well as an indicator of social change. Exploring childhood in three Greek rural communities in Laconia, Kythera, and Crete as well as in their respective diaspora in the United States, this study aims at shedding light on the (re)presentation of children in photographic records through clothing, perceived as the material projection on the self and the group (familial, ethnic, transnational). Drawing from theoretical and methodological approaches of distinct fields, such as history, fashion, photography, material and visual studies, and social anthropology, the study explores dynamic changes and shifting meanings in the way children were perceived and projected or asserted themselves through tangible sources, namely photographs, and clothing. The time period examined spans from the 1900s to the late 1930s without rigidly defining, as shifts witnessed in this time period were occurring in the last years of the 19th century, while the aftermath of the 1930s recession years could be felt beyond the period under study. Full article

The utility of the mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) in analyzing the evolutionary history of animals has been proven. Five deep-sea corals (Bathypathes sp.1, Bathypathes sp.2, Schizopathidae 1, Trissopathes sp., and Leiopathes sp.) were collected in the South China Sea (SCS). Initially, the structures and collinearity of the five deep-sea coral mitogenomes were analyzed. The gene arrangements in the five deep-sea coral mitogenomes were similar to those in the order Antipatharia, which evidenced their conservation throughout evolutionary history. Additionally, to elucidate the slow evolutionary rates in Hexacorallia mitogenomes, we conducted comprehensive analyses, including examining phylogenetic relationships, performing average nucleotide identity (ANI) analysis, and assessing GC-skew dissimilarity combining five deep-sea coral mitogenomes and 522 reference Hexacorallia mitogenomes. Phylogenetic analysis using 13 conserved proteins revealed that species clustered together at the order level, and they exhibited interspersed distributions at the family level. The ANI results revealed that species had significant similarities (identity > 85%) within the same order, while species from different orders showed notable differences (identity < 80%). The investigation of the Hexacorallia mitogenomes also highlighted that the GC-skew dissimilarity was highly significant at the order level, but not as pronounced at the family level. These results might be attributed to the slow evolution rate of Hexacorallia mitogenomes and provide evidence of mitogenomic diversity. Furthermore, divergence time analysis revealed older divergence times assessed via mitogenomes compared with nuclear data, shedding light on significant evolutionary events shaping distinct orders within Hexacorallia corals. Those findings provide new insights into understanding the slow evolutionary rates of deep-sea corals in all lineages of Hexacorallia using their mitogenomes. Full article

In this paper, the constructions of historical personal identity of Finnish-speaking students are analysed. The students participated in a larger study of historical narratives and identities, carried out in 2020 in two schools in Finland and in one European School outside Finland. In the mixed-method study, sixty-one students were interviewed and given writing and drawing assignments on historical identity. In this paper, the students’ visual representations of their personal historical identity and its relationship with wider official history are analysed. The aim is to increase understanding of how 14–16-year-old students visualise and articulate their historical personal identity constructions and the historical elements they use in negotiating this identity. The findings suggest that the students integrate personal and historical social narratives in diverse ways but that the majority of them find it challenging to connect their personal family history with the wider official history. Only twelve students made the connection. In addition to presenting the results for the whole group of students, the visual representations of two selected students are discussed in more detail so as to highlight the difference in the approaches to historical personal identity construction among the students. Full article