An official website of the United States government
Seliš [Salish] oral stories engage with deep time and hold potential to stimulate hierophanies that establish connection between humanness and nature. Creation stories are integral to the establishment of values and sacredness and how the ‘sacred’ should be treated. Oral traditions are fallen out of use threatening ontological teachings of the Seliš people, a Native American tribal group. Five Seliš creations stories are examined to establish the ontology that animals offer as reflection of a reality that the environment and Seliš people are intertwined in all aspect of life. This analysis also dispels Eurocentric stereotyping of Native American oral stories, establishing that the animals in these stories are much like humans of today, exhibiting failings, vices and defects.
more »
« less
Sheltering Indigenous Ontologies: Caves of the Ethiopian Rift Valley
The homeland of the Boreda people—the highlands of southern Ethiopia—sits on the western edge of the Rift Valley, which has long been considered the birthplace of humanity. In Boreda oral traditions, caves birthed the first Boreda people and stories of Dinkinesh (Lucy, Australopithecus afarensis) intertwine with accounts of cave dwellings, stone tools, and the making of leather clothing. Caves today are perceived to be one of the three wombs of the earth according to Boreda Indigenous ontology, Etta Woga. Equated with hollows of fig trees and houses, caves are reproductive liminal spaces. Here, Boreda implore ancestors and nature spirits through technological, therapeutic, and ideological rituals to protect, heal, and transform humans. Caves are part of a network of ancestral sacred grounds that include other significant landscape formations such as high peaks, springs, and forests. Together the interaction of rock (caves), earth (mountains), water (springs), and trees (Fig) on sacred ground is held as evidence that all these elements are beings that have the agency to impact human lives. In turn humans have the responsibility to care and nurture these sacred grounds.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1916933
- PAR ID:
- 10634357
- Publisher / Repository:
- World Archaeological Congress
- Date Published:
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Prague, Czech Republic
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Abstract Migratory birds have the capacity to shift their migration phenology in response to climatic change. Yet the mechanistic underpinning of changes in migratory timing remain poorly understood. We employed newly developed global positioning system (GPS) tracking devices and long-term dataset of migration passage timing to investigate how behavioral responses to environmental conditions relate to phenological shifts in American robins (Turdus migratorius) during spring migration to Arctic-boreal breeding grounds. We found that over the past quarter-century (1994–2018), robins have migrated ca. 5 d/decade earlier. Based on GPS data collected for 55 robins over three springs (2016–2018), we found the arrival timing and likelihood of stopovers, and timing of arrival to breeding grounds, were strongly influenced by dynamics in snow conditions along migratory paths. These findings suggest plasticity in migratory behavior may be an important mechanism for how long-distance migrants adjust their breeding phenology to keep pace with advancement of spring on breeding grounds.more » « less
-
Abstract Urban community gardens have increased in prevalence as a means to generate fresh fruits and vegetables, including in areas lacking access to healthy food options. However, urban soils may have high levels of toxic heavy metals, including lead and cadmium and the metalloid arsenic, which can lead to severe health risks. In this study, fruit and vegetable samples grown at an urban community garden in southeastern San Diego, the Ocean View Growing Grounds, were sampled repeatedly over a four‐year time period in order to measure potential contamination of toxic heavy metals and metalloids and to develop solutions for this problem. Metal nutrient, heavy metal, and metalloid concentrations were monitored in the leaf and fruit tissues of fruit trees over the sampling period. Several of the fruit trees showed uptake of lead in the leaf samples, with Black Mission fig measuring 0.843–1.531 mg/kg dry weight and Mexican Lime measuring 1.103–1.522 mg/kg dry weight over the sampling period. Vegetables that were grown directly in the ground at this community garden and surrounding areas showed arsenic, 0.80 + 0.073 mg/kg dry weight for Swiss chard, and lead, 0.84 ± 0.404 mg/kg dry weight for strawberries, in their edible tissues. The subsequent introduction of raised beds with uncontaminated soil is described, which eliminated any detectable heavy metal or metalloid contamination in these crops during the monitoring period. Recommendations for facilitating the monitoring of edible tissues and for reducing risk are discussed, including introduction of raised beds and collaborations with local universities and research groups.more » « less
-
Abstract Soft robots composed of elastic materials can exhibit nonlinear behaviors, such as variable stiffness and adaptable deformation, that are favorable to cooperation with humans. These characteristics enable soft robots to be used in multiple applications, ranging from minimally invasive surgery and search and rescue in emergency or hazardous environments to marine or space exploration and assistive devices for people with musculoskeletal disorders. Although soft actuators composed of smart materials have been proposed as a control strategy for soft robots, most studies have focused on traditional actuators using hydraulic or pneumatic pressure. Over the years, these have made a lot of progress, but they have not been able to overcome the limitations of the complex configuration of the system and the expansion of the cross-section of the actuator when contracted. This paper merges the actuator design methodology for smart materials with the mechanical analysis of auxetic structures to present an electrically driven soft actuator architecture that achieves reliable actuation displacements. This novel soft actuator, constructed with contractile SMA springs and flexible auxetic metamaterials (FAM), has a spontaneous recovery of the shape after a contraction, a negative Poisson’s ratio, and over 90% of consistency with the performance predictions at the design stage. Our research presents a methodology for the design of a new electrically driven soft actuator, describes the manufacture of SMA springs and FAM, and concludes with the validation of the design by experimental analysis using the 2D planar soft actuator prototype. Finally, our study revealed that the application of the extraordinary characteristics of smart materials and structures together into a single architecture can be a strategy to overcome the limitations of existing soft actuator studies.more » « less
-
Abstract Pinnacle Point (PP) near Mossel Bay in the Western Cape Province, South Africa, is known for a series of archaeological caves with important archaeological finds. Extensive excavations and studies in two of them (PP13B and PP5-6) have documented alternating periods of anthropogenic-dominated and geogenic-dominated sedimentation. A variety of caves do not bear evidence of anthropogenic remains. We have studied in detail the remnant deposits of three of them, Staircase Cave, Crevice Cave, and PP29, which have been formed under the same geologic and sedimentary conditions with those with anthropogenic contributions. Their remains are small and patchy but have extensive speleothem formations (as do most caves at PP) that were isotopically analyzed for paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental reconstruction. These caves also offer the opportunity to understand the purely geogenic signature of the PP locality and thus offer a geogenic baseline for the anthropogenic caves. Archaeologists normally focus only on sites with strong anthropogenic signals, but by building cave life histories we “raise the bar” (Goldberg 2008, p. 30) on our contextual knowledge.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- The DOI is not currently available.
