Implikasies van die keuse van 'n teoretiese benadering vir beslissings oor navorsingsontwerp

SUMMARY

This article sets out to show that and how the researcher's theoretical approach, that is, the view of communication that derives from his/her ontological, anthropological and epistemological assumptions, determines decisions concerning research design and the application of the findings. Two contrasting theoretical approaches, viz. functionalism and phenomenology, are discussed and the consequences of their assumptions for the execution of research illustrated with reference to two empirical studies. The most important issue arising from their contrary positions concerns the truthfulness of research findings. While phenomenologists maintain that findings must be validated by respondents' agreement that their experience of reality has been truthfully expressed, functionalists argue that research must produce general patterns that may be presented by means of predetermined categories. It is finally suggested that the ongoing debate concerning suitable theoretical approaches is of vital importance to researchers since it highlights their ethical responsibility.     

A Method for Estimating Sex Using Metric Analysis of the Scapula*

Abstract: The most accurate and precise methods for the assessment of age and stature often require knowledge of sex. Thus, being able to correctly identify sex from skeletal remains is critical in the forensic context. The presence of the os coxae or skull can never be guaranteed, making the development of reliable methods of sex estimation using other skeletal elements necessary. Using a 724 individual calibration sample from the Hamann‐Todd collection, this study identifies sexual dimorphism in the human scapula, and presents a new five‐variable discriminant function for sex estimation. The overall accuracy of this method proved to be 95.7% on the cross‐validated calibration sample, 92.5% on an 80 individual test sample from the Hamann‐Todd collection, and 84.4% on a 32 individual test sample from the skeletal collection of the Wichita State University Biological Anthropology Laboratory. Additionally, a slightly less accurate two‐variable model was developed and has cross‐validated accuracy of 91.3%.     

Mass terror and the court: The Military Collegium of the USSR

Apart from its role in the Moscow show trials during 1936 – 38, the Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court under V.V. Ul'rikh also tried some 40,000 ‘enemies of the people’ behind closed doors, sentencing most of them to death. These pseudo-trials of no more than a few minutes took place in prisons or NKVD offices in Moscow or (through the Collegium's assizes) provincial centres. There was no serious investigation of the evidence, and the court turned a blind eye to apparent cases of torture. The judges personally attended executions, occasionally even participating in them. The punishments had been determined beforehand by the political leadership under Stalin by way of lists, with the Military Collegium only ‘legalising’ the sentences. The defendants originated from the Soviet elite. The aim of this article is to throw more light on this side of the Collegium's activities, mainly based on archival sources. The article suggests that this quasi-legal procedure was adopted by the leadership under Stalin, in preference to purely administrative measures, because it was considered to be less likely to endanger the elite's loyalty.

We did not break the law, did not sign just like that. These are lies. Ul'rikh gave reports. There was a court, an indictment, there were sentences: everything as it should be, everything according to the law (Lazar' Kaganovich interviewed by G.A. Kumanev in Kumanev 1999 Kumanev, G. A. 1999. ‘Dve besedy s L.M. Kaganovichem’. Novaya i noveishaya istoriya, 2: 101–122.  [Google Scholar], p. 116).