Historiography and transformation of ethnic identity in the Mongol Empire: the Öng’üt case

Throughout their history, Inner Asian empires used familiar imperial institutions to rapidly impose new ethnic designations and their attendant languages, such as ‘Türk’ or ‘Mongol’, on their subjects. The swiftness of this integration into new ethnic designations should not be taken to mean that this integration was painless, however. In the well-documented Mongol empire, for example, this incorporation was extremely traumatic for many Inner Asian ethnic groups, even where the subordinate local elites achieved high status in the new regime. This may be seen in the case of the Öng’üt, a Christian Turkic-speaking people of Inner Mongolia whose rulers then became key marriage partners of the Mongol aristocracy. Successive iterations of the origin story of the Öng’üt rulers show how these histories went through vast changes as they were forcibly incorporated into the new empire, and dealt with the internal conflicts sparked by that incorporation. Previously central parts of their historic past, such as Christianity and service as border guards to the previous Jin dynasty, had to be marginalized and a new historical past had to be created. Historiography thus reflected and shaped changes in ethnic identity in a traumatic dynastic transition.     

Crying for Food: The Mexican Myths of ‘La Llorona’ and ‘The Hungry Woman’ in Cherríe L. Moraga

The Mexican legend of ‘La Llorona’ (‘The Weeping Woman’), who drowned her children out of revenge for being abandoned by her lover, and the Aztec creation myth of ‘The Hungry Woman’ — crying constantly for food, with mouths all around her body — have inspired Chicana writers in the symbolic representation of their own yearning, be it sexual, identity-building, or anti-patriarchal. This essay seeks to lay the mythical groundwork within this topic, as well as to illustrate with some particular examples the different reappropriations of these myths in Cherríe L. Moraga, mainly in her play The Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea (2001). With a view to opening up a past ‘that can provide a kind of road map to our future’ (: ix), these examples of transgressive women will be deprived of the feminine colonial passivity imbued by the dominant male discourse, and analysed as a complex, active, polyvalent mythological female corpus that integrates both life and death, womb and grave. This hybrid approach is inherent to the Aztec mythology on which Moraga relies in order to transcend Manichaeistic resolutions and probe the social, political, and gender reasons leading a hungry mother to commit infanticide.     

Building,Engaging, and Sustaining a Continuum of Care From Harm Reduction to Recovery Support: The Rutgers Alcohol and Other Drug Assistance Program

Since 1983, the focus of the Rutgers Alcohol and Other Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) has been developing policies, training staff to identify students at risk, developing and implementing evidence-based screening and brief interventions, providing short-term counseling by professionals trained in alcohol and other drug abuse to assist students beyond brief interventions, identifying effective treatment for college students, developing a campus recovery program, on-campus recovery housing, and other supports for students in recovery. This article presents a case study of the Rutgers ADAP program, of building and sustaining a program committed to engaging students in both evidence-based risk reduction interventions and an on-campus recovery community given their stage of change and motivation to make changes. Historical milestones are described as part of a creative model for intervention. We identify the challenges of integrating substance abuse recovery into campus mental health programs, and of integrating recovery into other university communities.     

Intergenerational Remote Exergaming with Family and Friends for Health and Leisure

Global guidelines for physical activity are not being met by most of the world’s youths, adults, and older adults. Family and friends who engage in physical activity across generations derive emotional, social, cognitive, and physical benefits from their interaction. Youths depend on adult assistance to travel long distances, adults are encumbered with obligations to work, and older adults often live more than 200 miles from their extended families. Intergenerational physical activity is difficult because generations are distant and lead busy lifestyles. Remotely played exergames can connect family and friends for intergenerational physical activity. Internet exergaming can help to make physical activity convenient and enjoyable as well as eliminate the effect of distance on playing with family and friends.     

The Relationship Between Online Sexual Compulsivity,Dissociation, and Past Child Abuse Among Men Who Have Sex with Men

The objective of this study was to measure the relationships between online sexual compulsivity, three dimensions of dissociation (absorption, depersonalization, and amnesia), and past child abuse among men who have sex with men (MSM). A total of 517 MSM, recruited from Internet chat rooms, completed the survey. Results indicated that past child abuse was significantly related to dissociation but not online sexual compulsivity. It was also found that the amount of time MSM spent online in a one-week period, in general and specifically engaged in sexual activity, was significantly related to online sexual compulsivity and three dimensions of dissociation. Online sexual compulsivity was a significant predictor of absorption, depersonalization, and amnesia. Implications for clinicians and future research are presented.     

“If You Talk Badly about Drilling,You're a Pariah”: Challenging a Capitalist Patriarchy in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale Region

Research on energy development is largely gender neutral, creating a need to illuminate how gender structures life in contemporary energy boomtowns. This study demonstrates how gender and the local economy are intertwined to perpetuate a capitalist patriarchy, which structures life for residents in these communities. The purpose of this article is to show that this economic‐gender structure creates tensions between those men and women whose gender performances reinforce hegemony and those who perform gender in direct opposition to resource extraction. I argue that men and women unconstrained by the capitalist patriarchy are better able to challenge its dominance than residents employed in the local economy. I use qualitative interviews (N = 39) with community residents and observations of community events in northeastern Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale region as the primary methods of data collection. This study complements previous research by demonstrating the relationship between masculinity and femininity, showing the variability of gender in natural‐resource‐based settings and defining the hierarchal relationship among masculinities and femininities during periods of rapid energy development.     

Examining the Psychometric Properties of the Sexual Excitation/Sexual Inhibition Inventory for Women (SESII-W) in a Sample of Lesbian and Bisexual Women

The Sexual Excitation/Sexual Inhibition Inventory for Women (SESII-W) assesses propensities for sexual excitation (SE) and inhibition (SI). Previous research utilizing the SESII-W included samples comprised exclusively or almost entirely of heterosexual women. The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the SESII-W and assess its relation to aspects of sexual function within a sample of lesbian and bisexual women. The sample included 974 self-identified bisexual (n = 733) or lesbian/homosexual (n = 241) women who completed an online survey including items assessing women’s sexual behaviors, feelings, and functioning, sociodemographics, and the SESII-W. The sample was split; exploratory factor analyses were conducted on the first half, yielding eight lower-order factors with two higher-order factors. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the second half and suggested reasonable model fit. SI was positively correlated with sexual problems and negatively correlated with sexual pleasure; the correlations were significant but small. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationships between SESII-W scores and sexual problems/sexual pleasure, controlling for age, relationship duration, and relationship status. Four lower-order factors predicted reports of sexual problems. Findings indicated the SESII-W has similar psychometric properties among sexual minority women as it does among heterosexual women.     

A Problematic Test of the Kin Selection Hypothesis Among the Urak-Lawoi of Ko Lipe,Thailand: Commentary on Camperio Ciani,Battaglia, and Liotta (2015)

Camperio Ciani et al. argued that the Urak-Lawoi people of Ko Lipe island live in a “traditional,” “subsistence primitive society” reminiscent of the “ancestral” human past and that their socio-cultural situation is “remarkably similar” to Samoa. On this basis, they asserted that the Ko Lipe Urak-Lawoi are an appropriate population for determining the role that kin selection played in the evolution of male androphilia. The purpose of this commentary is to outline some of our concerns with this characterization and with the statistical analyses conducted by Camperio Ciani et al. in their study of the Urak-Lawoi.     

Prevalence of Sexual Aggression Victimization and Perpetration in a Sample of Female and Male College Students in Turkey

In Turkey, there is a shortage of studies on the prevalence of sexual aggression among young adults. The present study examined sexual aggression victimization and perpetration since the age of 15 in a convenience sample of N = 1,376 college students (886 women) from four public universities in Ankara, Turkey. Prevalence rates for different coercive strategies, victim-perpetrator constellations, and sexual acts were measured with a Turkish version of the Sexual Aggression and Victimization Scale (SAV-S). Overall, 77.6% of women and 65.5% of men reported at least one instance of sexual aggression victimization, and 28.9% of men and 14.2% of women reported at least one instance of sexual aggression perpetration. Prevalence rates of sexual aggression victimization and perpetration were highest for current or former partners, followed by acquaintances/friends and strangers. Alcohol was involved in a substantial proportion of the reported incidents. The findings are the first to provide systematic evidence on sexual aggression perpetration and victimization among college students in Turkey, including both women and men.