Constructing the diasporic body: ritual practices among South Asians in Britain

In this article, I explore the ways bodies are trained, made and re-made in diasporic settings. Looking at South Asians in Britain, I argue that ritual practices are a relevant context to observe the process when the diasporic body is constructed. First, I bridge the gap between the anthropology of migration and the anthropology of the body through the process of diasporic self-making. Second, I explore ethnographic data on ritual activities among South Asians in Britain and outline different ways the diasporic body is constructed during these practices.     

Order Beyond Crisis: Organizing Considerations Across the Public Service Configuration Life Cycle

This article responds to the preceding paper by Stephanie Moulton and Charles Wise, critiquing the dimensions that those authors use as organizing guides in the delivery of public services through public–private institutional configurations, including the evaluation of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). In this essay, Eva M. Witesman proposes a modification to the framework and provides suggestions for future research.     

The problem of single parent/child paternity analysis--practical results involving 336 children and 348 unrelated men

In a certain amount of paternity investigations, only DNA from child and alleged father is analyzed, thus increasing the possibility of false paternity inclusions. The aim of this study was to determine how many wrong paternity inclusions could be detected in a rather small geographical area comparing empirical results from 336 children and 348 men (13-15 STRs were investigated per person). This comparison between each child and all unrelated men (i.e. all putative fathers from the other cases) with an especially designed computer program resulted in 116,004 man/child pairs. Less than three excluding STRs were found in 1666 child/unrelated man pairs (1.44% of the comparisons). At least one unrelated man with only two or less STR mismatches could be determined for 322 children (95.8% of all investigated children). In 26 comparisons no STR mismatches between a child and an unrelated man were detected, thus at least one and up to three "second father(s)" under 350 men could be found for 23 children, if the mother is excluded. Paternity probabilities between 95.475% and 99.996% were calculated. Our results underline the difficulties in motherless paternity cases using only STR analysis and advise great precaution in assigning verbal predicates such as "paternity proven" in those investigations.     

Theoretical and Methodological Challenges of Studying Refugee Children in the Middle East and North Africa: Young Palestinian, Afghan and Sahrawi Refugees

This article aims to address a number of conceptual and methodologicalchallenges facing the study of young refugees. Much of the researchon refugees has, until recently, been focused on adults, andto a lesser degree, on young children. Those studies that doinclude children are largely carried out in the domain of psychologyand psychiatry and tend to pathologize and individualize. Thisarticle is based on observations derived from a six-year, multi-disciplinaryanthropological and participatory research programme that examinedthe impact of forced migration on young people in the MiddleEast and North Africa: Palestinian refugee youth in Lebanon,Syria, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza, Sahrawi youth in Algeria,and Afghan youth in Iran. It argues that despite the challenges,an anthropological and participatory approach contributes toa greater, more holistic understanding of refugee youth.     

The EDNAP mitochondrial DNA population database (EMPOP) collaborative exercises: organisation, results and perspectives

This paper presents an overview of the organisation and the results of the collaborative exercises (CE) of the European DNA Profiling (EDNAP) Group's mitochondrial DNA population database project (EMPOP). The aim of the collaborative exercises was to determine whether uniformity of mtDNA sequencing results could be achieved among different laboratories. These were asked to sequence either the complete mtDNA control region or the two hypervariable regions HVI (16024-16365) and HVII (73-340) from DNA extracts, buccal swabs or bloodstains, proceeding in accordance with the protocol and strategies used in each individual laboratory. The results of the collaborative exercises were employed to identify possible sources of errors that could arise during the analysis and interpretation of mtDNA profiles. These findings were taken as a basis to tentatively make suitable arrangements for the construction of a high quality mtDNA database. One hundred fifty mtDNA profiles were submitted to the evaluating laboratory, and disaccording profiles were classified into four groups corresponding to the source of error: clerical errors, sample mix-ups, contaminations and discrepancies with respect to the mtDNA nomenclature. Overall, 14 disaccording haplotypes (16 individual errors) were observed. The errors included 10 clerical errors, 3 interpretation problems, 2 cases of sample mix-up and 1 case of point heteroplasmic mixture, where the 2 sequencing reactions brought inconsistent base calls. This corresponds to an error rate of 10.7% in a virtual mtDNA database consisting of the collaborative exercise results. However, this estimate is still conservative compared to conclusions drawn by authors of meanwhile numerous publications critically reviewing published mtDNA population databases. Our results and earlier published concerns strongly emphasize the need for appropriate safety regulations when mtDNA profiles are compiled for database purposes in order to accomplish the high standard required for mtDNA databases that are used in the forensic context.     

Y-STR haplotypes from eight south Indian groups based on five loci

Five Y-chromosome short tandem repeat (STR) loci (DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, and DYS393) were typed in 81 males from seven tribal populations of south India, including 30 Koragas, 23 Yeravas, 5 Mullukurunan, 2 Mullukurumba, 4 Paniya, 3 Kuruchian and 3 Bettakurumba; and 11 south Indian caste individuals of mixed origins.     

Conflict reconsidered: The boomerang effect of depoliticization in the policy process

This article argues that the efforts of policy‐makers to avoid conflict in the short run can be counterproductive in the long run. Not only may policy‐makers fail to reap the benefits of conflicts when they try to steer clear, but conflict may actually increase rather than diminish. We study conflict through the conceptual lens of (de)politicization in the lengthy and highly contested policy‐making process over the multibillion‐euro ‘Oosterweelconnection’ highway in Antwerp (Belgium). An in‐depth media analysis of 739 articles is combined with data from 32 narrative interviews. We conclude that efforts to end public debate through depoliticization can have a boomerang effect, in which conflict disappears only temporarily, and that these efforts can ultimately increase conflict while wasting engagement and creativity. More attention to the productive aspects of conflict is needed in public administration literature and practice.