Omaha Terminologies

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-141
Author(s):  
Günther Schlee

Omaha kinship terminologies are distributed globally to the north and south of the belt of ancient “high cultures” which stretches from the Mediterranean Sea to East and Southeast Asia in the Old World and includes parts of Mesoamerica and the Andes in the New World. This article offers an explanation for this curious distribution of Omaha terminologies. In so doing, it reviews examples of Omaha terminologies in Central Asia and on the Horn of Africa, noting their defining characteristics and those other aspects of social organization with which they are associated. In conclusion, it is suggested that a continuum of lineage-based systems, including systems with Omaha terminologies, was split into two areas of concentration, one to the north and the other to the south, as ancient “high cultures,” based on intensive agricultural production, arose among them, reverting, in the process, to terminological systems with a cognatic bias like those of the Eskimo type that are associated with urbanization and statehood.

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-74
Author(s):  
Jessica Donahue ◽  
Steven Hoehner ◽  
Ben Li

This article focuses on the problem of analytically determining the optimal placement of five points on the unit sphere {\bb S}^{2} so that the surface area of the convex hull of the points is maximized. It is shown that the optimal polyhedron has a trigonal bipyramidal structure with two vertices placed at the north and south poles and the other three vertices forming an equilateral triangle inscribed in the equator. This result confirms a conjecture of Akkiraju, who conducted a numerical search for the maximizer. As an application to crystallography, the surface area discrepancy is considered as a measure of distortion between an observed coordination polyhedron and an ideal one. The main result yields a formula for the surface area discrepancy of any coordination polyhedron with five vertices.


Author(s):  
William B. Meyer

One of the earliest historians of the Civil War saw it as a fundamental clash between the peoples of different latitudes. Climate had made the antebellum North and South distinct societies and natural enemies, John W. Draper argued, the one democratic and individualist, the other aristocratic and oligarchical. If such were the case, the future of the reunited states was hardly a bright one. But Draper saw no natural barriers to national unity that wise policy could not surmount. The restlessness and transience of American life that many deplored instead merited, in his view, every assistance possible. In particular, he wrote, Americans needed to be encouraged to move as freely across climatic zones as they already did within them. The tendency of North and South to congeal into hostile types of civilization could be frustrated, but only by an incessant mingling of people. Sectional discord was inevitable only if the natural law that "emigrants move on parallels of latitude" were left free to take its course. These patterns of emigration were left free, for the most part, but without the renewed strife that Draper feared. After the war as before it, few settlers relocating to new homes moved far to the north or south of their points of origin. As late as 1895, Henry Gannett, chief geographer to the U.S. Census, could still describe internal migration as "mainly conducted westward along parallels of latitude." More often as time went on, it was supposed that race and not merely habit underlay the pattern, that climatic preferences were innate, different stocks of people staying in the latitudes of their forbears by the compulsion of biology. Thus, it was supposed, Anglo-Saxons preferred cooler lands than Americans of Mediterranean ancestry, while those of African descent preferred warmer climates than either. Over time, though, latitude loosened its grip and exceptions to the rule multiplied. As the share of the population in farming declined, so did the strongest reason for migrants to stay within familiar climates. Even by the time Gannett wrote, the tendency that he described, though still apparent, was weaker than it had been at mid-century. It weakened because a preference for familiar climates was not a fixed human trait but one shaped by experience and wants, and capable of changing as these variables changed.


1992 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 324-324
Author(s):  
Keith Young

In northeastern Chihuahua and Trans-Pecos Texas, in the early Late Albian zone of Hysteroceras varicosum occurs the Boeseites romeri (Haas) fauna with B. romeri (Hass), B. perarmata (Hass), B. aff. barbouri (Haas), B. cf. howelli (Haas), B.proteus (Haas), Prohysteroceras cf. P. hanhaense Haas, Elobiceras sp., and Dipoloceras (?) sp. B. perarmata has also been collected at Cerro Mercado, near Monclova, Coahuila. Haas originally described this fauna from Angola. Now, from rocks in the same zone in the Sierra Mojada, Coahuila, Mexico, there is a form related to if not identical with Hysteroceras famelicum Van Hoepen, also originally described from Angola and also from the zone of Hysteroceras varicosum.These fossils are known only from southern North America and Angola; they have not been described from the European Tethys. In 1984 I suggested that during the highstand of sea level of the early Late Albian (Hysteroceras varicosum zone) these ammonites migrated from Angola to Mexico and Trans-Pecos Texas via an epeiric seaway extending across the sag between South America and Africa proposed by Kennedy and Cooper. This would be twelve to fifteen million years prior to an oceanic connection between the North and South Atlantic.I would now ask, can similar epeiric seas and highstands of sea level explain the migration of successive European, Tethyan, Jurassic ammonite faunas down the Mozambique Channel and around the horn of Africa into the Neuquen Basin of Argentina before Africa and Antarctica separated, as proposed by Spath.


1878 ◽  
Vol 5 (7) ◽  
pp. 305-310
Author(s):  
Townshend M. Hall

The Meeting of the British Association at Plymouth has not unnaturally been the means of directing attention to some of the most complex points of Devonshire geology, and of reviving the discussion as to the age and position of the Devonian series in North and South Devon. Mr. Jukes, it will be remembered, died in 1869. Had he lived longer, his energy of purpose would doubtless have led him to carry on the work he had begun, until he could either prove the correctness of his views, or satisfy himself that the generally accepted classification was, after all, the right one. The followers of Jukes seem to confine themselves to those portions only of the district which he had more specially studied—North Somerset, Lynton and Pickwell Down; searching in almost hopeless despair amongst the lower rocks, instead of beginning at the other end of the scale, with the Millstone-grit, and tracing the beds downwards. As a result, the fossiliferous beds of the Upper Devonian have been almost entirely neglected, and their relation to the Carboniferous slates passed over.


Author(s):  
Henrich Neumann

The Ballachulish slates, exposed to the north and south of Loch Leven in Argyllshire, contain, in most places, cubes of pyrite up to half an inch in diameter. During a visit to the area in the spring of 1949 the writer's attention was attracted by the dark colour of the 'pyrite' cubes in the North Ballaehulish slate quarry a little more than a mile east of Onich. On examination these proved to consist of a mass of haphazardly orientated crystals of pyrrhotine with irregular outlines. Slates collected from the main working quarry on the south shore of Loch Leven, on the other hand, contain cubes which are single crystals of unaltered pyrite.


C. Vann Woodward’s lecture compares two commemorations of the Civil War fifty years apart, one in 1911 and the other in 1961. The first one reflected sectional reunification predicated on a shared understanding of the tragic nature of war but also a sense that the conflict had solved the problem of sectional animosity. In so doing Woodward notes that whites in the North and South could only accomplish this by excluding meaningful African-American participation. The lecture then outlines the cycles of Reconstruction historiography, and looks at the dual psychological traumas the North and South experienced in the aftermath of Reconstruction. Woodward maintains that after the North emerged victorious from the war it failed to live up to its ideals, leaving wracked guilt, self-criticism, and remorse. The South emerged with a predilection for extortion, indignation, and extreme bellicosity, consistently blaming its own weaknesses on Reconstruction. Woodward suggests that historians should act as therapists, enabling the nation to come to terms with the psychological traumas triggered by the past.


Author(s):  
Roger Ling ◽  
Paul Arthur ◽  
Georgia Clarke ◽  
Estelle Lazer ◽  
Lesley A. Ling ◽  
...  

The casa degli amanti (house of the lovers), at the south-west corner of the insula, falls into two fairly distinct halves: the atrium complex, oriented on the street to the west, and the peristyle with its surrounding rooms, oriented on the street to the south and on the property boundary to the east. In the atrium complex, the atrium is misplaced to the south of the central axis, allowing space for two large rooms to the north, one of which was possibly a shop or workshop (5.50 m. × 4.70 m.), with a separate entry from the street (I 10, 10), while the other (5.80 m. × 4.50 m.), decorated with mythological wallpaintings and provided with a wide opening on to the peristyle, must have been a dining-room or oecus (room 8). Each of these had a segmental vault rising from a height of about 3.50 m. at the spring to slightly over 4 m. at the crown. In the first the vault is missing, but the holes for some of its timbers are visible in the east wall and a groove along the north wall marks the seating for the planking attached to them; at a higher level, in the north and south walls, are the remains of beam-holes for the joists of the upper floor or attic (see below). The arrangements in room 8 are now obscured by the modern vault constructed to provide a surface for the reassembled fragments of the ceiling-paintings; but the shape of the vault is confirmed by the surviving plaster of the lunettes, while a beam-hole for the lowest of the vault-timbers is visible above the corner of the western lunette in an early photograph (Superintendency neg. C 1944). The shop I 10, 10 had a small window high in the street wall to the south of Its entrance; whether there were any additional windows above the entrance, it is impossible to say, since this part of the wall is a modern reconstruction. Room 8 was lit by a splayed window cut in the angle of the vault and the eastern lunette, opening into the upper storey of the peristyle.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (24) ◽  
pp. 137-160
Author(s):  
ALEXANDRE MARCHANT

Résumé:  La continentalisation et la mondialisation du trafic de drogue dans les Amériques semble avoir débuté avec l”™émergence des grands cartels colombiens et mexicains dans les années 1980. Elles plongent en réalité leurs racines dans le systá¨me mis en place des années auparavant par les mafias marseillaises exportatrices d”™héroá¯ne dans le Nouveau Monde au temps de la  French Connection. Du sud au nord du continent, des criminels français expatriés ont institué des réseaux, des itinéraires et des pratiques qui ne disparurent pas du jour au lendemain avec l”™effondrement de la filiá¨re française au début des années 1970. Bien au contraire, les cartels naissants de la cocaá¯ne ont cherché á  intégrer d”™anciens trafiquants de la  French Connection  pour mettre á  profit leur savoir-faire, avant de perfectionner leurs méthodes pour aboutir á  de nouveaux équilibres entre Amériques et Europe dans le trafic international de stupéfiants au tournant des années 1980-1990.Mots-clefs:  Trafic. Mafia. Cartel. «FRENCH CONNECTIONS NA AMÉRICA LATINA »:  nas raá­zes dos circuitos contemporá¢neos da droga.  Resumo:  A continentalização e a mundialização do tráfico de droga nas Américas parecem ter começado com a emergência dos grandes cartéis colombianos e mexicanos nos anos 1980. Mas, na realidade, elas se enraizaram, muitos anos antes, no sistema implantado, pelas máfias marselhesas exportadoras de heroá­na no Novo Mundo, nos tempos da  French Connection. Do sul ao norte do continente, criminosos franceses expatriados instituá­ram redes, itinerários e práticas que não desapareceram do dia para a noite com a queda da filial francesa no começo dos anos 1970. Ao contrário, os cartéis nascentes da cocaá­na buscaram integrar antigos traficantes da  French Connection  para tirar proveito de suas experiências, antes mesmo de aperfeiçoarem seus métodos, para alcançar novos equilá­brios entre Américas e Europa no tráfico internacional de entorpecentes na virada dos anos 1980-1990.Palavras-chave:  Tráfico. Máfia. Cartel. «  FRENCH CONNECTIONS IN LATIN  AMERICA »:  at the roots of drug contemporary routes.Abstract:  Continentalization and globalization of drug trafficking in the Americas seem to have begun with the emergence of Colombian and Mexican cartels in the 1980s. However, in reality they were entrenched many years before in the embedded system by the Mafias from Marselha which were exporters of heroin in the ”New World” throughout the period of the  French Connection. From the south to the north of the continent, expatriate French criminals instituted networks, itineraries and practices, which did not abruptly disappear with the collapse of the French branch in the early 1970s. On the other hand, cocaine's emerging cartels sought to integrate former French Connection traffickers to take advantage of their experiences, before perfecting their methods to achieve new equilibrium between Americas and Europe with the international traffic of drugs during the years 1980-1990.Keywords:  Traffic. Mafia. Cartel.     «FRENCH CONNECTIONS EN AMÉRICA LATINA »:  en las raá­ces de los circuitos contemporáneos de la droga.  Resumen:  La continentalización y la mundialización del tráfico de drogas en las Américas parecen haber comenzado con la emergencia de los grandes carteles colombianos y mexicanos en los años 1980. Pero, en realidad, se enraizaron, muchos años antes, en el sistema implantado por las mafias marsellesas exportadoras de heroá­na en el Nuevo Mundo, en los tiempos de  French Connection.  Del sur al norte del continente, criminosos franceses expatriados establecieron redes, itinerarios y prácticas que no desaparecieron del dá­a para la noche con la caá­da de la filial francesa a principios de los años 1970. Al contrario, los carteles nacientes de la cocaá­na buscaron integrar a antiguos traficantes de la  French Connection  para aprovechar sus experiencias, antes incluso de perfeccionar sus métodos, para alcanzar nuevos equilibrios entre Américas y Europa en el tráfico internacional de estupefacientes en el cambio de los años 1980-1990.Palabras clave: Tráfico. Mafia. Cartel.  


1964 ◽  
Vol 42 (7) ◽  
pp. 891-922 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Boraiah ◽  
Margaret Heimburger

New World taxa of Anemone L. (section Eriocephalus Hook. f. & Thoms.) with woody rootstocks have few morphological differences on which to delimit species. With the aid of data from cytological, distributional, and hybridization studies, the following species with ternate leaves could be recognized: A. multiceps (Greene) Standl., A. multifida Poir., 2n 32, A. tetonensis Porter, 2n 32, A. stylosa Nelson, 2n 32. A. drummondii S. wats., 2n 32, and A. lithophila Rydb., 2n 48, are complexes with two or more taxa in each. All these taxa except A. multifida are restricted in distribution to the Rocky Mountains. A. multifida is a morphologically variable but cytologically homogeneous species widely distributed in both North and South America. The remaining taxa have biternate leaves and are sparingly represented in herbaria by specimens from widely separated localities. Their status has not been determined. A collection from Mt. Rainier, Wash., is diploid and one from Kittitas Co., Wash., is tetraploid.Karyotype studies indicate a close relationship among the tetraploids, A. multifida, A. tetonensis, and A. stylosa, all of which have one set of large and one set of small chromosomes. The other taxa have sets of small chromosomes only. Affinities among taxa in the A. lithophila and A. drummondii. complexes are suggested by the sharing of distinctive marker chromosomes. The European alpine A. baldensis L., 2n 16, is not related to the ternate-leaved taxa of the above complexes but a relationship with the biternate-leaved taxa may possibly exist.


1928 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-75
Author(s):  
W. Douglas Simpson

The ruins of Kindrochit Castle stand in the heart of the much-frequented village of Braemar, near the head of the river Dee, amid the wild mountains of western Aberdeenshire. The castle occupies a very strong position on the east brink of a rocky gorge formed by the Clunie Water, and on the other side was defended by an ancient mill-lade, taken off the Clunie above the castle, and rejoining it below, so as to complete the insulation of the site. In the name of the castle (Kindrochit = ‘bridge-head’) is enshrined its early importance as a fortified post guarding the passage of the great north road across the Clunie Water. The map (fig. 1) clearly indicates how the significance of the castle is to be found not in the east-and-west or blind-alley strategy of the Dee valley, but rather in the north and south or transversal strategy of the ancient trunk roads converging northwards across the ‘Mounth’ or mountain barrier between Strathmore and Mar.


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