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As a hybrid of the mycological and larval, caterpillar fungus is highly valued as a commodity on the eastern seaboard of China because, according to traditional Chinese medicine, it is thought to maintain overall health and treat illnesses of the liver and immune system. For Han Chinese, the potency of caterpillar fungus is augmented by representations of the Tibetan grasslands as natural (Ch. tian ran) and the only place where a particular hybrid, <i>Ophiocordyceps sinensis</i>, is found. This chapter explores the gathering and trading of caterpillar fungus by Tibetan nomadic pastoralists and how this connects them to a wider world of Hui traders and wealthy Chinese consumers. Taking up the argument by Tsing <i>(HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 3</i>(1), 21-43, 2013) that commodities do not merely define the value system of capitalism, but rather have to be created, and often through non-capitalist interventions such as gifts and relationships, this chapter suggests that Tibetan nomadic pastoralists and middlemen themselves play an important role in creating and recreating the commodity value of caterpillar fungus. Because it is taken up by nomadic pastoralists themselves, caterpillar fungus is able to transform and supersede their relationships with each other and with others in a more profound way compared with many other “products of change.” The growing adoption of a different kind of thinking is viewed not as simple imposition of a global capitalist system but rather as a complicated ecology of relationships that has the potential to transform subjectivities.
A feel good film out of Africa. See how 7,000 Shona Africans moved from malnutrition to abundance. Using sustainable farming including permaculture methods they have turned their lives around.
This preliminary study examined intervention effects of a universal prevention program offered by classroom teachers to public elementary school students. The Unique Minds School Program (M.B. Stern, 1999) is a teacher-led program designed to promote cognitive-social-emotional (CSE) skills, including student self-efficacy, problem solving, social-emotional competence, and a positive classroom climate, with the dual goal of preventing youth behavioral problems and promoting academic learning. During 2 consecutive school years, 119 students and their teachers were assessed in the fall and spring of Grade 4 and again in the spring of Grade 5. As compared to students in the comparison school, students in the intervention showed gains in student self-efficacy, problem solving, social-emotional competencies, and math grades. Incremental gains within CSE domains were found after 1 and 2 years of intervention. (Contains 1 table.)
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OBJECTIVE: Does spending money on others (prosocial spending) improve the cardiovascular health of community-dwelling older adults diagnosed with high blood pressure?METHOD: In Study 1, 186 older adults diagnosed with high blood pressure participating in the Midlife in the U.S. Study (MIDUS) were examined. In Study 2, 73 older adults diagnosed with high blood pressure were assigned to spend money on others or to spend money on themselves.
RESULTS: In Study 1, the more money people spent on others, the lower their blood pressure was 2 years later. In Study 2, participants who were assigned to spend money on others for 3 consecutive weeks subsequently exhibited lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure compared to participants assigned to spend money on themselves. The magnitude of these effects was comparable to the effects of interventions such as antihypertensive medication or exercise.
CONCLUSIONS: Together, these findings suggest that spending money on others shapes cardiovascular health, thereby providing a pathway by which prosocial behavior improves physical health among at-risk older adults. (PsycINFO Database Record
Questioning the distinction between ‘cold’ and ‘hot’ societies, and an implied separation between myth and history, anthropologists have increasingly urged for an understanding of both myth and history as equally valid modes of shared social consciousness. This article takes up this point of view by referring to a written history of Lhagang, a town in Eastern Tibet; a history that appears to have the transformative content and oral circulation of myth. Using Lévi-Strauss’ structural analysis of myth and Santos-Granero's concept of topograms to demonstrate the <i>mythemes</i> that derive from the written history and circulate among Lhagang Tibetans, the article argues that, within the political and cultural context of Lhagang, myth and history shift in and out of indigenous categories even while being categorically distinct.