Peace in the Family is the Basis of Peace in the Country: How Women Contribute to Local Peace in Southern Kyrgyzstan

ABSTRACT

There has been a significant amount of research on peacebuilding in Central Asia in general and in Kyrgyzstan in particular. This has helped us both understand socio-political processes in the republic itself, and the shortcomings of the liberal peacebuilding framework in general. However, this work has, with rare exceptions, focused largely on male peacebuilding at either the state or international scale. Correcting that trend, this article illuminates the role of women peacebuilders in the post-conflict city of Osh. Based on ethnographic research conducted in 2016, it argues that women have a hitherto overlooked but nonetheless important ‘invisible’ role in peacebuilding.     

White and Mexican Heritage Elders' Crime Victimization Perspectives

Abstract

Prior research on the fear of crime among the elderly has shown that elders are more afraid of being a victim of crime than are younger persons and that such fears may vary depending upon where people reside. This study compares the level of fear of criminal victimization of elders living in three adjacent southwestern communities. White elders live in an age-restricted community within two of the studied communities. The third community is not age-restricted, and the elders who reside there are primarily of Mexican heritage. This study found that Mexican heritage elders expressed more fears associated with crime and victimization than did white elders. In studying gender differences, this study found no significant differences between the expressed level of fear of crime between male and female respondents. Nonetheless, most elders will undertake a variety of reasonable measures to protect themselves when they are home or go out, a finding that is consistent with previous research that studied white elders.     

老年人犯罪宽宥制度刍议

随着我国进入老龄化社会,老年人犯罪现象日益突出。我国自古就有敬老的传统,《刑法修正案（八）》增加了老年人犯罪宽宥制度的规定,对老年人故意犯罪和过失犯罪作了区别规定,并严格限制了对老年人死刑的适用,这不仅不会影响司法公正,而且对提升我国的司法形象有着积极的影响。     

Women of protest,men of applause: political activism,gender and tradition in Kyrgyzstan

ABSTRACT

Tradition has come to play an important role throughout Central Asia in a number of new ways since independence, but has been predominantly investigated regarding nation building. In this article, we show how tradition is being used operationally in the context of activism and political conflict. We expose the various motivations and tactics pursued by aksakals (lit., whitebeards) and by a movement of mature women called OBON (lit., Women Units for Special Purposes) as they participate in politics, and the role tradition plays in these activities. We argue that aksakals actively draw on tradition even in the political realm to avoid being derogatorily labelled ‘elders on duty’, whereas OBON women position themselves as economic and political actors but are subjected to discourses and practices of tradition by others. While both aksakals and OBON women have been central to political action in Kyrgyzstan in the last two decades, this article is the first to compare and contrast these two categories of unusual activists. The comparison reveals a perpetuation of culturally recognized gender roles even when these actors go beyond their ‘traditional’ realms of competence.     

Simpler is better? Analysis of a codesign session with elders

Prototyping plays various roles in software engineering: it can function in an exploratory way in order to gather requirements, or generate an artifact that, through iterative cycles of development, leads to final delivery of the product or system. According to literature (Beaudouin-Lafon, M., and W. Mackay. 2007. “Prototyping Tools and Techniques.” In Human Computer Interaction Handbook: Fundamentals. CRC Press.; Lim, Y. K., E. Stolterman, and J. Tenenberg. 2008. “The anatomy of prototypes: Prototypes as filters, prototypes as manifestations of design ideas.” ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) 15 (2): 7.), a prototype can be described as an incomplete but flexible communication tool for a design idea, both manifesting and filtering interesting aspects of the original idea. On this basis, we propose a Peircean definition for this tool: a prototype can be considered as a complex set of signs, or better as a text, because each of its features literally “stands for” corresponding features of the final artifact, foreseeing particular aspects or the overall capacity of the outcome. But what happens when stakeholders involved in a project have no or little competence in tools and technologies discussed? Can they correctly interpret a prototype? To answer this question, we propose a Discourse Analysis (Duranti, A. 1997. Linguistic Anthropology. Cambridge, Mass: Cambridge University Press; Potter, J. 2004. “Discourse analysis as a way of analyzing naturally occurring talk.” In Qualitative research: Theory, Method and Practice, edited by D. Silverman, 200–221. SAGE; Schegloff, J. 1989. “Harvey Sacks’ lectures on conversation: an Introduction/memoir.” Human Studies 12: 185–209.) of a co-design session with elders of a daily centre for frail adults in Rome. In this context, we could observe how interactions between the material aspect of the prototype (i.e. the product itself) and its intended meaning (i.e. its significance) can produce distortions, in the form of aberrant interpretations or even a complete lack of comprehension. During this communication breakdown, prototypes lose their connection to the features and behaviors of the product: the relation between representamen and interpretant is lost.     

Ordering ideals: accomplishing well-being in a Kyrgyz cooperative of elders

In May 2005, after a tumultuous parliamentary election campaign had led to factionalism among the village population, village elders in northern Kyrgyzstan formed the cooperative Yiman Nuru (Light of Faith). The institution, which is headed by the local imam, was set up with the explicit aim to restore harmony and unity among all villagers. This article deals with how people in rural Kyrgyzstan try to achieve a state of well-being for themselves. Specifically, it analyses a chart the elders created upon forming the cooperative, in which they order their social and economic practices, their moral duties and responsibilities vis-à-vis other villagers, as well as their relationship with state actors, along the lines of three moral concepts: harmony, unity, and moral conduct. This chart provides a unique opportunity to probe into people's reflexivity and their own ways of reasoning about the meaning of well-being.     

Methodological challenges in doing ethnomathematical research

Abstract

Researchers in ethnomathematics are confronted by a variety of methodological questions when they carry out ethnomathematical research. These have to deal with: participants and knowledge holders; language used in research; interviews and observations; familiarity (or lack thereof) with the knowledge holders; mathematical analysis of cultural artefacts; etc. Knowledge in this field engages with indigenous knowledge systems. This article primarily deals with indigenous games which the author researched. He proceeds to explore questions which arose and to provide possible solutions. The author also reflects on and analyses other studies that have grappled with the questions and draws on the implications and insights of these studies in constructing the suggested answers. The article therefore demonstrates that ethnomathematical research contributes to the demystification of the historical false projection by colonialism that Africa and Africans were and are not culturally embedded in mathematics – especially applied mathematics.     

农村孤寡老人社会支持系统分析

当前，我国农村孤寡老人生存状况堪忧，农村孤寡老人社会支持系统存在严重问题，其支持的主体、客体、内容和手段都存在许多不足。构建和完善农村孤寡老人社会支持系统。必须明确农村孤寡老人社会支持的主体及其具体责任，完善农村孤寡老人社会支持的内容，改革和创新农村孤寡老人社会支持的手段，加快社会工作专业化发展的进程。     

Sexual Abuse, Trauma and Dementia in the Elderly: A Retrospective Study of 284 Cases

The study objective was to compare elders with a dementia with those without a dementia as to method of disclosure of sexual abuse, forensic markers of sexual abuse and legal outcome of cases. A convenience sample was obtained of 284 forensic cases known to a multidisciplinary group of professionals who investigated, examined or consulted on elder sexual abuse victims. The Comprehensive Sexual Assault Assessment (CSAAT) was used to enter data from case files. 60 percent of the 284 elders were diagnosed with some degree of dementia. Elders with dementia, compared to those without a diagnosis, were abused more often by persons known to them (family member, caregiver or another nursing home resident) than a stranger, presented behavior cues of distress rather than verbal disclosures, were easily confused and verbally manipulated, and were beaten. Suspects who were identified whom abused elders with dementia had less chance of being arrested, indicted or plea bargained. All reported suspected cases of elder sexual abuse need a complete physical examination as well as a sexual assault evidence kit. Patterns of verbal, behavioral or physical changes of elders can be used to support an allegation of sexual assault.     

论存留养亲制度在中国封建社会存在的合理性

存留养亲制度是中国封建社会独有的、普遍适用于社会各阶层的一种特殊法律制度,它的实行主要就是为了维护和体现封建伦理道德。从存留养亲制度的实行情况来看,历代法典对存留养亲都规定了严格的适用条件,对存留养亲的犯人一般并不免除其刑罚,司法实践中对存留养亲的适用也是严格把握控制,这使得存留养亲姑息、放纵罪犯的可能性被降至最低。而且在中国封建社会中,由于存留养亲制度的存在,使老、疾尊长得到奉养,维护了家庭和社会的稳定,更有利于感化和改造罪犯,更有利于封建君主进行统治。