Search Results (33)

Background/Objectives: Traditional nutritional knowledge, shaped by centuries of cultural and ecological adaptation, offers holistic and sustainable dietary frameworks that remain highly relevant to modern health challenges. However, current digital nutrition platforms often fail to reflect this diversity, relying instead on standardized models with limited cultural sensitivity. This paper aims to explore how traditional nutritional wisdom can be integrated into digital health platforms to promote more inclusive and effective approaches to personalized nutrition. Methods: This perspective paper employs a cultural adaptation framework to analyze the integration of traditional food knowledge into digital contexts. Drawing from interdisciplinary research across nutrition science, anthropology, digital health and implementation science, we utilize the Knowledge-to-Action (KTA) Framework and the PEN-3 Cultural Model to structure our analysis. A systematic scoping review of literature published between 2010 and 2025 was conducted to identify integration challenges and opportunities. Additionally, we analyzed case studies of three traditional dietary systems (Argentina, Italy and Japan) and evaluated five leading digital nutrition platforms for their degree of cultural inclusivity, using qualitative comparative methods. Results: The analysis highlights significant challenges in adapting traditional knowledge to digital formats, including standardization barriers, contextual loss and technological limitations. However, successful integration initiatives demonstrate that through participatory design, flexible data architectures and culturally-informed algorithms, traditional food systems can be meaningfully represented. Our proposed four-phase integration framework—documentation, digital adaptation, implementation and evaluation—provides a structured approach for developers and researchers. Conclusions: Bridging traditional nutrition with digital platforms represents a vital opportunity to enhance personalization and preserve food heritage while improving health outcomes for diverse populations. This integration requires interdisciplinary collaboration, user-centered design processes and ethical approaches that respect cultural ownership and context. Full article

In recent decades, various communities and organizations have been working to promote LGBTQ+ inclusion and justify their equal rights. This task becomes more complex within religious communities that are based on traditional values that reject homosexuality. This historical-anthropological study presents “K’Afikim BaNegev”—a special manual that includes more than 347 pages and incorporates 73 diverse sources distributed in early 1994 in American Conservative Jewish congregations aimed at combating homophobia. I clarify how the documents reveal progressive qualitative methodologies for identifying and understanding barriers and mechanisms of community change. Textual analysis of personal letters, educational programs, workshops, and rabbinical sermons revealed two methods for creating this egalitarian change and constructing the Jewish community as a safe space for gay men and lesbian women and their family members: (1) using and promoting personal narrative (storytelling) as a channel to voice LGBTQ+ people’s stories and (2) adapting a text-centered approach that considers biblical sources as authoritative in recognizing LGBTQ+ identity. Thus, the acceptance of homosexuality was not conceptualized in terms of liberal human rights rhetoric but rather as a religious commandment. Thus, I define this novel initiative as an act of ‘queer Jewish activism,’ offering a new typology for community development and practice that advocates for LGBTQ+ individuals within contemporary religious communities. Full article

The main goal of this paper is to explore the difficulties the refugee minors face in the process of seeking inclusion in Portugal. The project conducting this research takes place in a shelter for refugee minors in Portugal, and its inhabitants are the main focus of the analysis. The research is guided by Applied Anthropology which means that, in methodological terms, we use active listening, participant observation, and artistic workshops in drawing and photography in order to get to know them better and establish a closer relationship with the minors. Our interlocutors are refugee minors, boys and girls, aged between 15 and 18, who have been institutionalized by an NGOD responsible for hosting them in Portugal while they await their residence permit. These minors are characterized by a diversity of nationalities, socio-cultural and ethnolinguistic references and different life projects. The artistic focus (drawing and photography) is explored as a non-invasive methodology, a tool that best helps to express emotions, perceptions and desires in a creative and uncompromising way. We chose to focus our analysis not on the traumatic past, as is usually the case when it comes to refugees, but on the future. In other words: we invite these minors to think about their future, what they want for themselves in Portugal and the European Union. As we discuss our difficulties of conducting fieldwork in the institutionalized context, we conclude the article with the idea that working with refugee minors in that environment should not be an end in and of itself, but rather an opportunity to do more profound research. This investigation should continue, preferably outside the institutional gates, on a more personalized basis. As a practical goal, we also propose the idea of organizing an exhibition with the results of the workshops to facilitate the two-way process of inclusion. Full article

Because of systemic discrimination, transgender individuals are at greater risk of being the victims of violence and of homicide. Accurate post-mortem identification from skeletonized remains of transgender individuals must be incorporated into a new standard for forensic anthropological analyses. A critical component of any investigation is the assessment of skeletal remains for evidence of gender-affirming care. A systematic review of the current medical literature was conducted to compile in one document descriptions of changes that could be used by forensic anthropologists to recognize skeletal manifestations resulting from gender-affirming surgeries, including facial feminization surgery (FFS), shoulder width reduction surgery, and limb-lengthening procedures. These skeletal changes, when present bilaterally and without evidence of healed trauma, serve as key indicators of a person’s transgender identity postmortem. Recognizing common patterns in bone structure alterations due to gender-affirming interventions will assist in identifying transgender individuals and providing closure for families. By integrating markers from gender-affirming care practices into forensic investigations, this research contributes to more inclusive and rigorous forensic investigations. Full article

A spatial turn is increasingly being recognised across education, the humanities, and social sciences to critique Western Cartesian assumptions treating space as either empty or a diametric opposition bringing dualistic splits between reason/emotion and mind/body. Bacon’s vision of human subjugation of nature as a tool for human progress is examined as a diametric spatial projection, where humans are above and apart from nature, in a mirror-image inverted symmetry of above/below hierarchy and side-by-side assumed separation as diametric space. Building on an interdisciplinary synthesis between an aspect of the structural anthropology of Lévi-Strauss, De Beauvoir’s othering, and Bronfenbrenner’s social-ecological systems in psychology, allied with a Heideggerian critique of being as needing a mode of ‘being alongside the world’, a shift in experiential and conceptual space is proposed in this conceptual review article for education. This shift is towards a framework of concentric spatial systems of sustainability. Concentric relational spaces of assumed connection and relative openness and away from diametric spaces of splitting and closure have been developed recently for sustainability concerns regarding inclusion in education. This article goes further to interrogate systems of concentric relational space for belonging with and encountering the natural world for environmental sustainability. Full article

The Agenda provided by the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) represent an opportunity to eradicate poverty, preserve the planet, promote peace, and develop a more prosperous society. This global horizon is reinforced by the religious proposal of the Encyclical “Laudato si”, in which Pope Francis reflects on the anthropological, social, and spiritual repercussions of the interaction of human beings with their environmental reality. With the term integral ecology, the Catholic leader proposes processes to put an end of poverty, exclusion, and environmental degradation. This research aims to explore the cornerstones and application of the SDGs and integral ecology in the framework of the Catholic university. The study brings Agenda 2030 into dialogue with the Christian ethical perspective of human development and integral ecology by showing their complementarity. It develops the inclusion of the SDGs and integral ecology objectives in the mission and strategic plan of the Catholic university. For this reason, an action plan is projected in which the values of sustainability are transversally structured in the diverse areas of the university, such as governance, teaching, research, transfer of knowledge and social impact, extracurricular activity, green procurement, infrastructure, energy, waste, water, and mobility. Full article

The halfway point for the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was marked in 2023, as set forth in the 2030 Agenda. Geospatial technologies have proven indispensable in assessing and tracking fundamental components of each of the 17 SDGs, including climatological and ecological trends, and changes and humanitarian crises and socio-economic impacts. However, gaps remain in the capacity for geospatial and related digital technologies, like AI, to provide a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of the complex and multi-factorial challenges delineated in the SDGs. Lack of progress toward these goals, and the immense implementation challenges that remain, call for inclusive and holistic approaches, coupled with transformative uses of digital technologies. This paper reviews transdisciplinary, holistic, and participatory approaches to address gaps in ethics and diversity in geospatial and related technologies and to meet the pressing need for bottom-up, community-driven initiatives. Small-scale, community-based initiatives are known to have a systemic and aggregate effect toward macro-economic and global environmental goals. Cybernetic systems thinking approaches are the conceptual framework investigated in this study, as these approaches suggest that a decentralized, polycentric system—for example, each community acting as one node in a larger, global system—has the resilience and capacity to create and sustain positive change, even if it is counter to top-down decisions and mechanisms. Thus, this paper will discuss how holistic systems thinking—societal, political, environmental, and economic choices considered in an interrelated context—may be central to building true resilience to climate change and creating sustainable development pathways. Traditional and Indigenous knowledge (IK) systems around the world hold holistic awareness of human-ecological interactions—practicable, reciprocal relationships developed over time as a cultural approach. This cultural holistic approach is also known as Systemic Literacy, which considers how systems function beyond “mechanical” aspects and include political, philosophical, psychological, emotional, relational, anthropological, and ecological dimensions. When Indigenous-led, these dimensions can be unified into participatory, community-centered conservation practices that support long-term human and environmental well-being. There is a growing recognition of the criticality of Indigenous leadership in sustainability practices, as well as that partnerships with Indigenous peoples and weaving knowledge systems, as a missing link to approaching global ecological crises. This review investigates the inequality in technological systems—the “digital divide” that further inhibits participation by communities and groups that retain knowledge of “place” and may offer the most transformative solutions. Following the review and synthesis, this study presents cybernetics as a bridge of understanding to Indigenous systems thinking. As non-Indigenous scholars, we hope that this study serves to foster informed, productive, and respectful dialogues so that the strength of diverse knowledges might offer whole-systems approaches to decision making that tackle wicked problems. Lastly, we discuss use cases of community-based processes and co-developed geospatial technologies, along with ethical considerations, as avenues toward enhancing equity and making advances in democratizing and decolonizing technology. Full article

In response to the specter of looming anthropogenic ecological catastrophe, many Christian thinkers have begun to rethink the God/world relationship and reimagine the ontic cleavage between divinity and creation. The idea of “deep incarnation”, which expands the scope of divine incarnation in an attempt to draw God and creation into closer relation, is a prevalent framework for such reimagination. Two historic, underutilized thinkers that might help deep incarnation theologians expand their own theologies and make sense of the conceptual and ethical differences among them are Neo-Platonist philosopher–theologians Nicholas of Cusa and Giordano Bruno. Working within an ecofeminist framework, this article argues that while both Cusanus and Bruno provide significant philosophical grounds for contemporary ecotheologies of deep incarnation, a Brunist perspective is preferable because of its more expansive anthropology and its more inclusive understanding of divinity. Full article

Mitochondrial (mt) DNA plays an important role in the fields of forensic and clinical genetics, molecular anthropology, and population genetics, with mixture interpretation being of particular interest in medical and forensic genetics. The high copy number, haploid state (only a single haplotype contributed per individual), high mutation rate, and well-known phylogeny of mtDNA, makes it an attractive marker for mixture deconvolution in damaged and low quantity samples of all types. Given the desire to deconvolute mtDNA mixtures, the goals of this study were to (1) create a new software, MixtureAceMT™, to deconvolute mtDNA mixtures by assessing and combining two existing software tools, MixtureAce™ and Mixemt, (2) create a dataset of in-silico MPS mixtures from whole mitogenome haplotypes representing a diverse set of population groups, and consisting of two and three contributors at different dilution ratios, and (3) since amplicon targeted sequencing is desirable, and is a commonly used approach in forensic laboratories, create biological mixture data associated with two amplification kits: PowerSeq™ Whole Genome Mito (Promega™, Madison, WI, USA) and Precision ID mtDNA Whole Genome Panel (Thermo Fisher Scientific by AB™, Waltham, MA, USA) to further validate the software for use in forensic laboratories. MixtureAceMT™ provides a user-friendly interface while reducing confounding features such as NUMTs and noise, reducing traditionally prohibitive processing times. The new software was able to detect the correct contributing haplogroups and closely estimate contributor proportions in sequencing data generated from small amplicons for mixtures with minor contributions of ≥5%. A challenge of mixture deconvolution using small amplicon sequencing is the potential generation of spurious haplogroups resulting from private mutations that differ from Phylotree. MixtureAceMT™ was able to resolve these additional haplogroups by including known haplotype/s in the evaluation. In addition, for some samples, the inclusion of known haplotypes was also able to resolve trace contributors (minor contribution 1–2%), which remain challenging to resolve even with deep sequencing. Full article

Human-machine interfaces hold promise in enhancing rehabilitation by predicting and responding to subjects’ movement intent. In gait rehabilitation, neural network architectures utilize lower-limb muscle and brain activity to predict continuous kinematics and kinetics during stepping and walking. This systematic review, spanning five databases, assessed 16 papers meeting inclusion criteria. Studies predicted lower-limb kinematics and kinetics using electroencephalograms (EEGs), electromyograms (EMGs), or a combination with kinematic data and anthropological parameters. Long short-term memory (LSTM) and convolutional neural network (CNN) tools demonstrated highest accuracies. EEG focused on joint angles, while EMG predicted moments and torque joints. Useful EEG electrode locations included C3, C4, Cz, P3, F4, and F8. Vastus Lateralis, Rectus Femoris, and Gastrocnemius were the most commonly accessed muscles for kinematic and kinetic prediction using EMGs. No studies combining EEGs and EMGs to predict lower-limb kinematics and kinetics during stepping or walking were found, suggesting a potential avenue for future development in this technology. Full article

Research overviews of and historiography on the attitude of the Catholic Church and theologians towards athletes with intellectual and physical disabilities assume that the Church and theologians have only very recently begun to interest themselves in this subject. Starting from John Paul II’s contribution to this field, and above all from his integral anthropological vision, this article assesses his position by comparing it with that of his two successors Benedict XVI and Francis. Especially the latter’s addresses and interviews and the official documents on sport issued by the Holy See during his pontificate are testimony to his special commitment to athletes with disabilities. The article also examines the history of the Holy See and studies its attention to athletes with a disability. The results of this inquiry are that papal interest in this field is not limited to, nor did it start with the pontificate of John Paul II. Instead, it dates from the very beginning of the modern phenomenon of sport, with Pope Pius X at the beginning of the 20th century, continued by Pius XII and John XXIII. The latter’s speech to the participants of the first Paralympic Games in 1960 is the strongest indication of a pre-John Paul II affirmation of disabled sport. This points to the importance of taking a more nuanced position in the current debate, although it is clear that Pope Francis must be considered the champion of the Holy See’s commitment to the inclusion of athletes with a disability. Full article

Worldwide, UNESCO provides a global and authorized set of protocols for the conservation of heritage. The organization has long framed the discourse and practice of cultural heritage management. At the Hangzhou International Congress in 2013, UNESCO declared culture as key to development, thereby confirming the role of culture and cultural heritage in sustainable development. In this article, attention is given to emerging sensory ecofeminism and its links to heritage and tourism in Mauritius, specifically in “unauthorized” heritage management locales and hotel settings. The research problem engaged in this study is that globally, heritage conservation is perceived as being of primary interest to UNESCO, the prerogative of authorized professionals and nominated heritage sites. The goal of the research is to understand the manifestation of cultural heritage and its management in coastal locales and how coastal sites and “unauthorized” heritage managers, hitherto not included in national heritage discourse and practice, may advance inclusive heritage management. Using the anthropological research methods of semi-structured interviews and participant observation to produce ethnographic data in 2022, this study finds that a selection of luxury hotels in Mauritius advances a gender-influenced and ecofeminist discourse that supports heritage, tourism, and sustainability in Mauritius. The conclusion of this study is that “unauthorized” heritage management processes and practices in luxury hotels and tourism establishments can be gender and community inclusive, sensitive to various social hierarchies, and required to achieve environmental sustainability. It is recommended that national heritage institutions and practitioners give more attention to the diverse, often unexpected locales for heritage conservation and inclusion. Full article

Forensic anthropology and, more broadly, the forensic sciences have only recently begun to acknowledge the importance of lived gender identity in the resolution of forensic cases, the epidemic of anti-transgender violence, and the need to seek practical solutions. The current literature suggests that forensic anthropologists are becoming aware of these issues and are working toward efforts to improve identification of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) persons. The scope of the problem, however, is not limited to methodology and instead can be traced to systemic anti-trans stigma ingrained within our cultural institutions. As such, we call on forensic anthropologists to counteract cisgenderism and transphobia and promote gender equity and inclusion in their practice. In this paper, we identify three areas in which forensic anthropologists may be positioned to intervene on cisgenderist practices and systems: in casework, research, and education. This paper aims to provide strategies for forensic anthropologists to improve resolution of TGD cases, produce more nuanced, gender-informed research, and promote gender equity and inclusion in the field. Full article

Despite the increasing visibility of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people in U.S. society, current linguistic practices within forensic anthropology and death investigation in general are not TGD-inclusive. This lack of consideration for TGD decedents can cause unnecessary delays in the identification and disposition of their remains; moreover, failing to recognize their true identities is a form of forced post-mortem detransition. Using De León’s concept of necroviolence as a framework, we argue that language can also harm the dead and that the (mis)use of language within medicolegal death investigation reflects and reinforces structural violence against TGD people. Examples drawn from a qualitative review of public details for 87 cases are used to demonstrate how language and language-enforced bureaucratic structures can harm TGD decedents, their loved ones, the broader TGD community, and the process of medicolegal death resolution itself. We then suggest steps that anthropologists, death investigators, and their affiliated partners can take to reduce the systemic necropolitical violence faced by the TGD community. While TGD-inclusive methods will take time to implement at the institutional level, individual practitioners can enact significant change within the system by upholding core standards that recognize and respect the personhood and lived experiences of TGD decedents. Full article

The core motivation for this study is the realization that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) encounter temporary obstacles, conflicts, or inconsistencies that impede progress and generalization. According to the authors, sustainable development across social, environmental, and economic dimensions is unlikely to occur without redefining the meaning and recalibrating the metrics used to measure commodities. These meanings and metrics must align with values such as general reciprocity, morality, and the common good, going beyond mere calculations of means and ends and personal preferences. The research has three primary objectives: first, to compare and reassess the meanings and responsibilities assigned to “items” traded in indigenous and modern economies; second, to use Hegelian dialectics to enhance and transform the notion of a commodity by revising and expanding its current understanding; and third, to introduce a new construct—the giftized commodity—along with potential implicational scenarios and recommendations for its inclusion in theory development in stakeholder capitalism, sustainable consumer behavior, and ecological economics. Through a dialectical interaction (in a Hegelian sense), by integrating seminal and diverse viewpoints from economics and anthropology, such as Neoliberalism, commodity theory, gift theory, and production and consumption in indigenous societies, the authors intend to modify and restructure the scope of responsibilities associated with commodities and commodity exchange. Full article