Jaisa Desh, Waisa Vesh? Explorations on the representations of Adivasis in popular Hindi cinema

This article seeks to discuss specific examples of Adivasi representation in Indian cinema, particularly popular Hindi cinema (as opposed to ‘art’ or ‘parallel’ cinema), and the ways in which it has distilled and codified the representations of ‘other’ groups for a mass audience. Mainstream Hindi cinema, even in its postcolonial phase, has not provided images of Adivasis that reflect their reality. This ‘constructed reality’ of the cinema in which Adivasis exist remains the widespread (mis)understanding of their cultures. It is this cinematic marginalization and cultural stereotyping that will be explored further. This article is a preliminary exploration and will look at particular examples of representation in Hindi films, including Naagin [Female Cobra] (Nandlal Jaswantlal, 1954), Madhumati (Bimal Roy, 1958), Yeh Gulistan Hamara [This Flower Garden of Ours] (Atma Ram, 1972), Lal Salaam [Red Salute] (Gaganvihari Boratte, 2002) and Chak De! [Come On! India] (Shimit Amin, 2007). The aim is for this exploration to provide a foundation for further research into Adivasi representation and the wider discourses of power, politics and inequality in Indian society.

Cosmopolitanism : religion and kinship among young people in south-western Sydney

Debates about globalization have been accompanied by considerable critical assessment of the notion of cosmopolitanism. The upsurge in travel, trade, communication, and resettlement among non-elite individuals and groups has raised questions about the nature and form of ‘bottom-up’ or ‘vernacular’ cosmopolitanism. This article explores the ways in which the experiences of a group of young people (12–15 years of age) in south-western Sydney contribute to shared practices of membership in a culturally differentiated society. On one level, these young people display a de facto vernacular cosmopolitanism through familial experiences of migration. However, the article shows how these young people often move within socially and culturally bounded communities defined by ethnicity, language, socio-economic status, shaped by desires for safety, support and belonging, and maintained by propinquity, religion and the persistence of traditional expectations and patterns around gender and inter-marriage.

Commentary on planned gay father families in kinship arrangements

The article presents the author's views on the research by Henny Bos, professor on the planned families by gay fathers kinship arrangements. It states that according to Bos, gay fathers are more likely top be attacked by the society. It mentions that with reference to the book "The Transformation of Intimacy:Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Societies," by A. Giddens, the formulation of freely chosen roles and relationship is more easy.

Dopamine transporter (DAT1) VNTR polymorphism and alcoholism in two culturally different populations of South India

It is well established that the central dopaminergic reward pathway is likely involved in alcohol intake and the progression of alcohol dependence. Dopamine transporter (DAT1) mediates the active re-uptake of DA from the synapse and is a principal regulator of dopaminergic neurotransmission. The gene for the human DAT1 displays several polymorphisms, including a 40-bp variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) ranging from 3 to 16 copies in the 3′-untranslated region (UTR) of the gene. To assess the role of this gene in alcoholism, we genotyped the VNTR of DAT1 gene in a sample of 206 subjects from the Kota population (111 alcohol dependence cases and 95 controls) and 142 subjects from Badaga population (81 alcohol dependence cases and 61 controls). Both populations inhabit a similar environmental zone, but have different ethnic histories. Phenotype was defined based on the DSM-IV criteria. Genotyping was performed using PCR and electrophoresis. The association of DAT1 with alcoholism was tested by using the Clump v1.9 program which uses the Monte Carlo method. In both Kota and Badaga populations, the allele A10 was the most frequent allele followed by allele A9. The genotypic distribution is in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium in both cases and control groups of Kota and Badaga populations. The DAT1 VNTR was significantly associated with alcoholism in Badaga population but not in Kota population. Our results suggest that the A9 allele of the DAT gene is involved in vulnerability to alcoholism, but that these associations are population specific.

The use of insects and associated arthropods in legal cases : a historical and practical perspective

 Forensic entomology has generally been recognised among law enforcement and the wider community as a science employed in the estimation of time since death. The utility of this science in contributing to the provision of time frames resulting in the focusing of valuable investigative resources has certainly been of the greatest importance. However, arthropods have been exploited extensively for their ability to provide information in a multitude of other situations, including cases of neglect, the food industry, and information relating to the cause and manner of death. This chapter will discuss the realm of information obtainable from insects and related groups in the forensic context, including and beyond the recognised time since death applications. Two areas of current research, molecular forensic entomology and entomotoxicology, will be discussed for their potential impact in the field.

Disorder and the body of drugs : addiction, consumption, control, and city space

Different cultures and the specific culture manifested within them are intrinsically linked to addiction in a complex fashion which has a long history. For important thinkers, such as Nietzsche, addiction actually embodies human culture, rendering addiction and culture inseparable. This is clearly seen within the Western world’s addiction to the consumption of material goods and the damage that results.

Utopia has often become dystopia. Not only is an understanding of addiction key to understanding culture but to an understanding of the very act thinking itself and the way of being in the world. Addiction raises key philosophical questions, such as: do people really have a choice in their behavior, and what governs them; is it free will or predetermination? Is it biology or environment is it the external world or the internal that drives addiction, or a complex combination of both?

In a contemporary context the media frenzy around celebrity addiction continually fuels public debate in this area, and this book deepens the understanding of addiction within this contentious context. This book addresses a key concern over how addiction became the norm, and it seeks to understand its dominance comprehensively. How did it come to pass that not being an addict was a transgressive act and way of being?

While there has been a great deal of debate about addiction utilizing the discourse of individual and often competing disciplines such as biology and psychology, little attention has been paid to the cultural aspects of addiction. The innovative approach taken by this book is to offer insights into this complex area through a contemporary methodology that covers diverse interrelated areas. Drawing on different disciplines, offering deeper insights, from the analysis of music lyrics to empirical social science and anthropological work in AA groups in Mexico and the portrayal of the “addiction’ to therapy in film and television, amongst other areas, this book addresses the need for a more comprehensive approach.

Academic analysis is also given to the discourse on celebrity culture and addiction. A contemporary fusion of the humanities and the social sciences is the best way forward to tackle this subject and move the debate on. The focus of this study is an innovative interdisciplinary and intercultural approach to addiction, from the social sciences to the humanities, including cultural studies, film and media studies, and literary studies. Areas that have been overlooked, such as lost women’s writings, are examined, in addition to comics, popular film and television, and the work of AA groups.

This edited collection is the first study to provide such a comprehensive analysis of the cultures of addiction. Traversing cultures across the globe, including Asia, Central America, as well as Europe and America, this book opens up the debate in addiction studies and cultural studies. The important insights the book delivers helps to answer questions such as: In what way can Deleuze further the understanding of addiction through the analysis of rock lyrics? How does anthropology improve the understanding of AA groups? How can cultural studies deepen knowledge on the “addiction” to therapy? These are just some of the vast array of areas this book covers. Other areas include the condemnation of “addiction” to comic reading through an historical examination, violence in popular culture, and lost women’s writing on addiction. No other book has such depth and contemporary breadth.

Cultures of Addiction is an important book for those taking cultural studies courses across a range of interrelated disciplines, including English and literary studies, history, American studies, and film and media studies. This will be invaluable to library collections in these fields and beyond in the social sciences, and specifically in addiction studies and psychology.

(Jason Lee, Editor)

Association of differential gene expression with imatinib mesylate and omacetaxine mepesuccinate toxicity in lymphoblastoid cell lines

Background

Imatinib mesylate is currently the drug of choice to treat chronic myeloid leukemia. However, patient resistance and cytotoxicity make secondary lines of treatment, such as omacetaxine mepesuccinate, a necessity. Given that drug cytotoxicity represents a major problem during treatment, it is essential to understand the biological pathways affected to better predict poor drug response and prioritize a treatment regime.
Methods

We conducted cell viability and gene expression assays to determine heritability and gene expression changes associated with imatinib and omacetaxine treatment of 55 non-cancerous lymphoblastoid cell lines, derived from 17 pedigrees. In total, 48,803 transcripts derived from Illumina Human WG-6 BeadChips were analyzed for each sample using SOLAR, whilst correcting for kinship structure.
Results

Cytotoxicity within cell lines was highly heritable following imatinib treatment (h2 = 0.60-0.73), but not omacetaxine treatment. Cell lines treated with an IC20 dose of imatinib or omacetaxine showed differential gene expression for 956 (1.96%) and 3,892 transcripts (7.97%), respectively; 395 of these (0.8%) were significantly influenced by both imatinib and omacetaxine treatment. k-means clustering and DAVID functional annotation showed expression changes in genes related to kinase binding and vacuole-related functions following imatinib treatment, whilst expression changes in genes related to cell division and apoptosis were evident following treatment with omacetaxine. The enrichment scores for these ontologies were very high (mostly >10).
Conclusions

Induction of gene expression changes related to different pathways following imatinib and omacetaxine treatment suggests that the cytotoxicity of such drugs may be differentially tolerated by individuals based on their genetic background.

Embedded in the land: customary social relations and practices of resilience in an East Timorese community

Drawing on a case study of Cacavei, a rural subsistence community in Timor-Leste, this article explores the mutually constitutive relationship between people and land within customary forms of society. Patterns of land use and connection to land are not simply reflective of genealogical modes of social organisation, but are also enabling of them. Particularly, the embedding of ancestors within the land offers a means of accessing kinship relationships beyond the genealogical present. Embeddedness provides a quality of embodiment that makes ancestors active participants in social life. Constituted in the relational nexus of people and land, forms of social organisation in Cacavei have a mutability which goes some way to explaining the community’s resilience in spite of forced displacement and cultural disruption during the period of Indonesian occupation. This mutability might be considered more broadly as a source of resilience for customary communities grappling with modernising processes of change.

Tourist snapshot : the mediating gaze of the Sydney Opera House

There has already been much scholarly work produced about the Sydney Opera House, discussing the production of its architecture, historical and political context, and its symbolic meaning to Sydney. However little scholarly attention has been paid to the way this building is represented through tourist practices of photography. The essay attempts to bring an architectural perspective to the study of this tourist practice, which is usually addressed from the disciplines of cultural geography, sociology and anthropology. The essay considers the above questions by the analysis of some 300 images sourced from the photo sharing website Flickr (www.flickr.com). It draws on John Urry's notion of the 'tourist gaze' which describes how places are structured and regulated by the visual. The essay then uses Jonas Larsen's work, which position tourist photography as a performance of social relations to argue that the activity of photographing the Sydney Opera House is more than a ritual of consumption, and can be seen as an embodied performance located at the intersection of space, experience and image.