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Living next to Etosha National Park: the case of Ehi-Rovipuka
No full textThis chapter considers the implications of being park-adjacent for ovaHerero pastoralists now living in Ehi-Rovipuka Conservancy. Using PhD research conducted in 2006 and 2007 as a baseline, the chapter focuses on three dimensions. First, some aspects of the complex and remembered histories of association with the western part of what is now Etosha National Park are traced via a “memory mapping” methodology with ovaHerero elders. Second, experiences of living next to the park boundary are recounted and analysed, drawing on a structured survey with 40 respondents. Most interviewees indicated that no benefits were received at the time from the national park. They also expressed desires for grazing rights—especially for emergency grazing during dry periods—as well as access to ancestral birthplaces, graves and traditional resource use areas, and involvement in joint tourism development ventures inside the park. Finally, different dimensions of local knowledge are recounted, including of wildlife presence and mobilities through the wider region, “veld-foods”, and school-children’s perceptions of Etosha National Park and the conservancy. Although the research reported here was carried out some years ago, circumstances in Ehi-Rovipuka have changed rather little. The conservancy remains along the border of a national park, and peoples’ histories of utilising, moving through, being born and desiring to be buried in the western reaches of the park, continue to exist. The chapter argues that more awareness of how social, ecological and historical dimensions of the broader Etosha landscape are connected is essential for achieving biodiversity conservation outcomes
Editorial - Social justice through lifelong education: the balancing of self-directed learning outcomes towards ourselves and others
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The role of sexual and romantic attraction in human mate preferences
Get PDFSex differences in mate preferences are ubiquitous, having been evidenced across generations and cultures.
Their prevalence and persistence have compellingly placed them in the evolutionarily adaptive context of
sexual selection. However, the psycho-biological mechanisms contributing to their generation and main-
tenance remain poorly understood. As such a mechanism, sexual attraction is assumed to guide interest,
desire, and the affinity toward specific partner features. However, whether sexual attraction can indeed
explain sex differences in partner preferences has not been explicitly tested. To better understand how sex
and sexual attraction shape mate preferences in humans we assessed how partner preferences differed
across the spectrum of sexual attraction in a sample of 479 individuals that identified as asexual, gray-sexual,
demisexual or allosexual. We further tested whether romantic attraction predicted preference profiles
better than sexual attraction. Our results show that sexual attraction accounts for highly replicable sex
differences in mate preferences for high social status and financial prospects, conscientiousness, and
intelligence; however, it does not account for the enhanced preference for physical attractiveness expressed
by men, which persists even in individuals with low sexual attraction. Instead, sex differences in physical
attractiveness preference are better explained by the degree of romantic attraction. Furthermore, effects of
sexual attraction on sex differences in partner preferences were grounded in current rather than previous
experiences of sexual attraction. Taken together, the results support the idea that contemporary sex
differences in partner preferences are maintained by several psycho-biological mechanisms that evolved
in conjunction, including not only sexual but also romantic attraction
Five Acts
No full textFive Acts is a new commission and solo exhibition by Young In Hong. The exhibition brings together tapestry, sculpture, video and performance to explore the bond between humans and animals through movement, sound and other non-linguistic forms of expression.
The centrepiece of the commission is a forty metre-long, embroidered tapestry that documents the struggles for better working conditions and fair pay of women workers in Korea during the period 1920–1980. Inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry – an 11th century embroidery depicting the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England in 1066 – Hong’s version pays homage to the women workers who fought against Japanese colonial rule and became a driving force behind South Korea’s modernisation.
Surrounding the tapestry is a group of willow and fabric sculptures that resemble animal toys found in zoos. A series of live performances taking place during the exhibition’s run invite a group of five performers to explore improvisation through movement and sound. Taking the tapestry as a score, the performers interact with the sculptures while responding to the historical events narrated in the embroidery.
In addition to these newly commissioned pieces, Hong presents two recent works. Ring of Animals (2023) and The White Mask (2021)
Post-sonic and psychosocially engaged: developing a decentred, impact-focused approach to open-score composition
Get PDFThis thesis documents the development of a post-sonic and psychosocially engaged
approach to open-score composition - a transdisciplinary mode of music-making that
operates at the boundaries of socially engaged art practices, experimental music, and music
therapy, to pursue a novel conceptualisation of its impacts. The thesis begins by setting out
the context for such a practice by introducing these complementary areas of research,
before focusing on four key themes (reaction, interaction, impact, and performativity) that
are used to introduce a series of critical arguments, musical analyses, and commentaries of
my own compositions. In Chapter 1, the theme of reaction is approached in order to reflect
upon critical or contrarian art practices - pieces or movements that primarily position
themselves as an alternative to established forms of practice. This chapter charts some of
these methods and legacies, primarily in relation to the art-group Fluxus and post-Cagean
experimental music, before introducing my own works that were conceived from a similarly
reactive position. Then, in Chapter 2, greater attention is given to socially engaged arts
practices, and how interactions are quantified, valued, or discussed in this artform, with
particular prominence given to the writings of Bishop and Nicholas Bourriaud, before the
interactive elements of my own compositions are again discussed. In Chapter 3, the question
of impact in participatory art and music-making is addressed with greater urgency, and
evaluative frameworks from music therapists including Brynjulf Stige and Stuart Wood are
introduced to sketch out the means by which impacts might be evaluated more successfully
in socially engaged composition practices. Again, this discussion is followed by an
introduction to elements of my work that explore these themes, and a number of my works
are evaluated using frameworks taken from music therapy. Next, in the fourth chapter on
the theme of performativity, the thesis condenses the criticisms and conclusions of the
previous three chapters into an affirmative and original illustration of what a
transdisciplinary approach to post-sonic and psychosocially engaged open-score composition
may consist of, predominantly through a detailed commentary on a substantial collection of
compositions taken from my portfolio. The thesis concludes with some closing remarks that
sketch out some of the forms future practice could feasibly take and the contexts in which
they could be deployed
Etosha-Kunene, from “pre-colonial” to German colonial times
No full textWe outline “pre-colonial” and German colonial structuring of “Etosha-Kunene”, leading in the early 1900s to the institution of formal game laws and game reserves as key elements of colonial spatial organisation and administration. We review the complex factors shaping histories and dynamics prior to formal annexation of the territory by Germany in 1884. We summarise key Indigenous-colonial alliances entered into in the 1800s, and their breakdown as the rinderpest epidemic of 1897 decimated indigenous livestock herds and precipitated enhanced colonial control via veterinary measures and a north-west expansion of military personnel. A critical and collaborative Indigenous “uprising” in the north-west in 1897–1898—known variously as the Swartbooi or Grootberg Uprising—was met by significant military force, disrupting local settlement and use of the area stretching from south of Etosha Pan towards the Kunene River. It resulted in the large-scale deportation of inhabitants of the area, who were brought to Windhoek for mobilisation as forced labour for the consolidating colony. An intended outcome was the clearance of land for appropriation by German and Boer settler farmers, a process that also contributed to establishing a massive game reserve in Etosha-Kunene in subsequent years. The proclamation of “Game Reserve No. 2” in 1907 can be seen as the beginning of a long and varied history of formal colonial nature conservation in Etosha-Kunene, whose shifting objectives, policies and practices had tremendous influence on its human and beyond-human inhabitants
Spatial severance and nature conservation: apartheid histories in Etosha-Kunene
No full textWe review conservation policy and legislation and its impacts under the territory’s post-World War 1 administration from Pretoria, prior to the formalisation of an Independent Namibia in 1990. We trace the history of nature conservation in Etosha-Kunene during the times of South African government. In the initial phase “game preservation” was not high on the agenda of the South African administration, which focused instead on white settlement of the territory, requiring a continuous re-organisation of space. After World War 2, the potential of tourism and the role of “nature conservation” for the economy was given more attention. Fortress conservation was the dominant paradigm, leading to the removal of local inhabitants from their land. Shifting boundaries of Game Reserve No. 2 characterised the 1950s up to the 1970s: part of Game Reserve No.2 became Etosha Game Park in 1958 and finally Etosha National Park in 1967, which in its current size was completely fenced in 1973. The arid area along the coast was proclaimed the Skeleton Coast National Park in 1971. Alongside these changes, new allocations of land following the ideal of apartheid or “separate development” were made, “perfecting” spatial-functional organisation with neat boundaries between “Homelands” for local inhabitants, the (white) settlement area and game/nature. Land, flora and fauna, and people of various backgrounds were treated as separable categories to be sorted and arranged according to colonial needs and visions. A new impetus towards participatory approaches to conservation began to be initiated in north-west Namibia in the 1980s, prefiguring Namibia’s post-Independence move towards community-based conservation