Justin M. Nolan

Fear and Loathing at the Cineplex: Gender Differences in Descriptions and Perceptions of Slasher Films

AbstractThis study investigates gender-specific descriptions and perceptions of slasher films. Sixty Euro-American university students (30 males and 30 females) were asked to recount in a written survey the details of the most memorable slasher film they remember watching and describe the emotional reactions evoked by that film. A text analysis approach was used to examine and interpret informant responses. Males recall a high percentage of descriptive images associated with what is called rural terror, a concept tied to fear of strangers and rural landscapes, whereas females display a greater fear of family terror, which includes themes of betrayed intimacy, stalkings, and spiritual possession. It is found that females report a higher level and a greater number of fear reactions than males, who report more anger and frustration responses. Gender-specific fears as personalized through slasher film recall are discussed with relation to socialization practices and power-control theory. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre scared me to death. It was intensely unpleasant, even though its a cheap splatter flick about some teenagers who get slaughtered by some deranged lunatics in rural Texas somewhere. I guess the most freaky thing about the movie is all the screaming. The one girl who barely escapes the chainsaw guy screams all throughout the movie. She is terrorized unrelentlessly, and after a series of close calls with the chainsaw she is finally rescued by a trucker. I was drained after seeing that film. The gore and graphic violence made me feel awful—almost guilty—for watching it.—Participant No. 102, male undergraduate

ETHNOBIOLOGY, POLITICAL ECOLOGY, AND CONSERVATION

Abstract Ethnobiology is increasingly recognized from within and outside of its boundaries as interdisciplinary. The Society of Ethnobiology defines the field as “the scientific study of dynamic relationships among peoples, biota, and environments.” Ethnobiologists are able to skillfully assess challenges of biocultural conservation across the divides of political ecology. They are situated to mediate between conservation programs that target biodiversity preservation with little concern for the needs of human communities, and those (such as the New Conservation movement) that privilege those needs. Ethnobiology also transcends the pervasive assumption in these fields that Western knowledge and economic goals should guide change. Because of ethnobiologys importance as a bridging discipline, it is important to ask what unifies ethnobiology. Is it common subject matter? Or, is there an underlying emphasis representing an “ethnobiological perspective?” Answers to these questions are explored here using content analysis and discourse-and-ideology analysis. We use the results to identify the unique roles ethnobiologists play in biocultural conservation. This analysis also proved useful in the systematic identification of four salient themes that unify ethnobiology—ethics in ethnobiology, shared environmental and cultural heritage, interdisciplinary science and non-science, and ecological understanding. How ethnobiologists conceive of themselves is critical for further enrichment of the field as interdisciplinary human-environmental scholarship, particularly in reference to biocultural conservation. Self-definition makes explicit the unique strengths of the field, which by its very nature integrates a sophisticated understanding of political ecology with appreciation of the value of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), social science, and the biological sciences.

Introduction to Special Issue on Food Security in a Changing World

Food security, or access to sufficient, healthy, and nutritious foods, presents aserious challenge for scholars committed to the advancement of human healthand well-being. Food insecurity poses a multifaceted biocultural problem thatincludes chronic malnutrition, metabolic and degenerative diseases, and thehastening decline of sustainable food production and subsistence practices.Despite numerous advances made by food scholars, anthropologists, folklorists,ethnobiologists, and others who seek to improve human nutrition and itsconstituent cultural and natural resource bases, food security remains relativelyneglected in studies of the ecology of food procurement, preparation, preserv-ation, consumption, and distribution.Many local and indigenous communities worldwide are presently facingnew and dramatic challenges linked directly to climate change and concomitantfood shortages and inequalities, including health problems associated withhypernutrition and malnutrition (e.g., Lawrence et al. 2010; Lobell and Burke2010; McDonald 2010). Intellectually, ethnobiologists are uniquely situated toexamine human access to foods in ways that may strengthen food security for thebenefit of present and future generations. Traditional ecological knowledge(TEK) is increasingly important among international stakeholders committed tothe systematic improvement of food security and shaping culturally sensitiveapproaches to public health and nutritional policy development. The study oftraditional knowledge of foodways necessarily entails understanding howcommunities protect, procure, prepare, and consume local foods sustainablywithin ecological systems (e.g., DeSoucey and Te´choueyres 2009; Turner 2008;Mirsky 1981). Taken in concert, these findings can in turn promote innovativecollaborative strategies to strengthen food security effectively and lastingly inother regions of the world (Hinrichs and Lyson 2007).The contribution of ethnobiology to food security is furthermore crucial toadvancing current discussions and debates surrounding food sovereignty(Declaration of Nye´le´ni 2007). This dialogue stresses the rights of localcommunities to define their own food systems, including the agency of the localcommunities which produce, distribute, and consume their own foods at thecenter of decisions regarding food systems and policies (Wittman et al. 2010).Ethnobiologists have a special opportunity to establish innovative, collaborativeplatforms together with local communities a nd indigenous groups, environmentalists,food activists, and NGOs for implementing sound strategies of ensuring food

THE LOVABLE, THE LOATHSOME, AND THE LIMINAL: EMOTIONALITY IN ETHNOZOOLOGICAL COGNITION

ABSTRACT In this paper we demonstrate the interrelationship between emotional meaning and ethnozoological cognition in American culture. Data were obtained from 101 undergraduates who freelisted the names of the animals they like as well as the names of those they dislike. Respondents also rated the five ethnozoological life forms (birds, snakes, fish, mammals, and “wugs”) according to personal preference. We found a significant correlation between the evaluation of each life form (e.g., the relative order of preference) and the cognitive salience of the life form on the freelists. Concordance was also found between the evaluation of each life form and the respective proportion of each life form on the freelists. In addition, we discovered a strong level of intragroup agreement among the ratings of the five life forms. Our conclusions support the growing body of evidence suggesting that culturally programmed orientations toward living creatures constitute a powerful component in ethnobiological information processing.

A Measure of Semantic Category Clustering in Free-Listing Tasks

A measure of semantic category (subset) clustering in free lists is presented that has several advantages over other cluster measures: (1) it is independent of interitem distances; (2) it expresses the degree of clustering of semantic subsets within a list, and overall, as proportions of a maximum that ranges from 0 to 1; and (3) this ratio can be used to compare the degree of clustering within semantic subsets in the same list, overall, and across lists, despite list inequalities in the number of items or subsets. An example of the measures use is illustrated here from a study of laterality in American kinship.

Optical water quality and human perceptions of rivers: an ethnohydrology study

Abstract Rivers are revered worldwide for their ecologic, scenic, and recreational value. The capacity to communicate effectively among human groups with vested interest in rivers hinges on understanding the nature of human perceptions of water quality and the extent to which they vary intraculturally. Recognizing the intersection between measured water quality and the characteristics of rivers that influence human perceptions facilitates potential for better communication across disciplines and among stakeholders. We conducted interviews and a pile‐sort task with water quality experts and nonexperts. Our analysis suggested human evaluation of water quality is guided by culturally constructed criteria, regardless of respondent expertise, experience, or demographics. Cluster analysis results implied that measured physical and chemical parameters of rivers were directly related to the visible attributes used in human judgments. We suggest that, regardless of variability among individual stakeholders, observable characteristics may be the foundation for a common understanding of water quality in rivers.

Recollections, reflections, and revelations: ethnobiologists and their “First Time” in the field

For nearly a century, ethnobiologists have collaborated with local community members in their efforts to document and safeguard our planet’s rich and varied biocultural heritage. Work in ethnobiology and ethnomedicine, including ethnobotany, ethnozoology, and ethnoecology, necessarily entails meticulous and rigorous systematic observation of the myriad ways indigenous and local communities cognize, utilize, and classify the floral and faunal resources on which they depend for survival. By its very nature, ethnobiology synthesizes humanism, ethnoscience, and empirical data collection and hypothesis-testing. Clearly, ethnographic and methodological flexibility are critical historically to the present and future successes of the programs we create and carry forth into the world. The practice of ethnobiology is itself inevitably capable of advancing pedagogies with real and lasting applications for students with only cursory knowledge of first-hand field experiences. Medical ethnobiology and ethnobotany, including ethnopharmacology, ethnoecology, conservation biology, and their related fields and approaches, are poised to evaluate carefully the richly and distinctly expressive component of our projects, wherever they are located geographically and situated culturally. Personal experiences, narratives, and reflections are occasionally minimized to varying degrees in the now-expansive body of ethnobiological and ethnomedical literature. Although notable exceptions certainly exist, our goal in the next months is to expand the scope of dialogue by turning attention to the most engaging forms of ethnography within ethnobiological accounts--that is, we seek to capture the stories, chronicles, imaginations, and memoirs of ethnnobiologists. Every few months the Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine will begin to offer editorials drafted by several international ethnobiologists, who report their first-hand recollections of their earliest field experiences. These, we believe, are uniquely capable of rendering interpersonal interactions comprehensible and meaningful in vastly innovative, sometimes subtle, and often unexpected ways for students who are new to the field especially, and for intermediate and seasoned scholars with vested interests in the well-being of the communities they study. In introducing this novelty within the Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, our goal is to ready readers for the array of voices, narratives, admissions, tribulations, engagements, and experiences of scholars whose works reveal how ethnobiological research is personalized and internalized, how friendships are forged, how emotions, responses, and senses are heightened in the process, and how casual and intimate field experiences coalesce and emerge through the lives and minds of scholars working early in their careers. Readers with established research programs in ethnomedicine and ethnobiology will find the essays provocative and revealing. Undergraduate and graduate students from various programs worldwide may find these recollections compelling, inspiring, illuminating, and encouraging. We also hope they speak to the curiosities and mysteries associated inextricably with “first time encounters” in field settings. In publishing this series of essays in the Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine we intend to provide readers a vibrant portrait of productive and rewarding learning journeys in the growing disciplines of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine.

Medical Tourism in the Backcountry: Alternative Health and Healing in the Arkansas Ozarks

Tourists travel to Arkansas’ mountain regions to experience, appreciate, and consume multiple aspects of otherness, including sacred sites and pristine and authentic peoples and environments. A largely unexplored aspect of this consumption of authenticity is alternative medicine, provided to tourists and day travelers in search of physical and emotional restoration. Traditional forms of medicine are deeply rooted in women’s social roles as community healers in the region and are perpetuated in part because of the lack of readily accessible forms of so‐called modern medicine. Contemporary medical tourism in Arkansas has promoted access to folk health systems, preserving them by incorporating them into tourists’ health care services, and also has attracted new and dynamic alternative medical practices while encouraging the transformation of existing forms of traditional medicine. Ultimately, the blend of alternative, folk, and conventional medicine in the Arkansas highlands is evidence of globalizing forces at work in a regional culture. It also serves to highlight a renewed appreciation for the historic continuity and the efficacy of traditional knowledge in the upper South.

An Improved Measure of Cognitive Salience in Free Listing Tasks: A Marshallese Example.

A new free-list measure of cognitive salience, B′, is presented, which includes both list position and list frequency. It surpasses other extant measures by being normed to vary between a maximum of 1 and a minimum of 0, thereby making it useful for comparisons irrespective of list length or number of respondents. An illustration of its properties, uses, and computation is provided with the aid of examples drawn from free lists of foods elicited from a sample of migrants from the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

Cognition, culture and utility: plant classification by Paraguayan immigrant farmers in Misiones, Argentina

BackgroundThis study was conducted in three rural communities of small farmers of Paraguayan origin living in the province of Misiones, Argentina. These Criollos (Mestizos) hail chiefly from departments located in the east of Paraguay, where the climate and flora have similar characteristics as those in Misiones. These ecological features contribute to the continuation and maintenance of knowledge and practices related to the use of plants.MethodsFieldwork was conducted between September 2014 and August 2015. Forty five informants from three rural localities situated along the Parana River participated in an ethno-classification task. For the classification event, photographs of 30 medicinal and edible plants were chosen, specifically those yielding the highest frequency of mention among the members of that community (based on data obtained in the first stage of research in 2014). Variation in local plant classifications was examined and compared using principal component analysis and cluster analysis.ResultsWe found that people classify plants according to application or use (primarily medicinal, to a lesser extent as edible). Morphology is rarely taken into account, even for very similar and closely-related species such as varieties of palms. In light of our findings, we highlight a dominant functionality model at work in the process of plant cognition and classification among farmers of Paraguayan origin. Salient cultural beliefs and practices associated with rural Paraguayan plant-based medicine are described. Additionally, the manner by which residents’ concepts of plants articulate with local folk epistemology is discussed.ConclusionsCulturally constructed use patterns ultimately override morphological variables in rural Paraguayans’ ethnobotanical classification.ResumenAntecedentesEste trabajo se realizó con pequeños agricultores de origen paraguayo, que habitan en la provincia de Misiones, Argentina. Los criollos (mestizos) en su mayoría provienen de departamentos ubicados al oriente del Paraguay, donde el clima y la flora presentan características similares a la provincia de Misiones. Estas características ecológicas contribuyen a la continuación y el mantenimiento de los conocimientos y las prácticas relacionados al uso de las plantas.MétodosEl trabajo de campo se realizó entre septiembre de 2014 y agosto de 2015. En la etnoclasificación participaron 45 informantes, provenientes de tres localidades rurales, situadas a lo largo del río Paraná, frontera entre los dos países. Para la clasificación se utilizaron imágenes fotográficas de 30 especies -comestibles y medicinales- preseleccionadas como las de mayor frecuencia de mención entre los habitantes de la región (a partir de los datos obtenidos en una primera etapa de investigación en el año 2014). Por medio del análisis de componentes principales y el análisis de agrupamiento (cluster) se contrastaron y compararon las variaciones en las etnoclasificaciones locales de plantas.ResultadosSe encontró que los pobladores clasifican sus plantas según su aplicación y uso (mayormente asociadas a la categoría medicinal y en menor medida a la comestible). Mientras, la morfología rara vez se tiene en cuenta, incluso en aquellas especies muy similares y estrechamente relacionadas como las palmeras. A la luz de los hallazgos, se destaca un modelo de funcionalidad dominante en el proceso de cognición y de clasificación de las plantas entre los agricultores de origen paraguayo. Se describen las principales creencias y prácticas culturales asociadas a la medicina rural paraguaya. Adicionalmente, se discuten algunos de los conceptos de las plantas que mantienen los paraguayos y su articulación con la epistemología local.ConclusionesEn la clasificación etnobotánica de los pobladores de origen paraguayo los patrones de uso construidos culturalmente tienen mayor peso que las variables morfológicas.