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Cold-Water Corals play a paramount role in marine benthic ecosystems, increasing their complexity and providing spawning and nursery habitats to many species. However, due to their sessile lifestyle and ramified shape they are commonly entangled in nets and even by-caught during the practice of bottom-contact fishing, which includes impacts from both large-scale activities such as trawling and small-scale fishing (e.g., trammel nets or pots). In this context, passive and active restoration measures are crucial to avoid their damage and disappearance, which might cause the consequent loss of complexity and biodiversity of marine benthic communities. With the aim of modifying these fishing practices in the Marine Protected Area of Cap de Creus (North-Western Mediterranean), small-scale fishers and scientists (marine biologists) started a Participatory Process in which they agreed to develop a joint marine conservation program combining two distinct projects: a restoration project of the Cold-Water Corals incidentally captured on fishing nets for their subsequent reintroduction at sea (RESCAP project) and also a project on mitigation of fishing impacts on marine benthic communities (MITICAP project). Collaborative actions were carried out including interviews and exchanges of information with the purpose of collecting all the knowledge required for conducting the actions of the projects. This study shows the results of the assessment throughout five years (2017-2022) of cooperative work and highlights how crucial it is to develop long-term and revisable ocean literacy strategies for ensuring a sustainable ocean governance. An ocean literacy test evaluated the scientific knowledge of fishers at the end of the projects and revealed that despite all the efforts applied, still more work is needed, which reinforces the importance of improving the strategies of knowledge transfer for MPA management. Under the coordination of marine social anthropologists, a Cultural Consensus Analysis was conducted with the fishers. Results revealed a protoculture that should be characterized and considered when developing management strategies in the area. Additionally, the Personal Network Analysis showed that fishers have become agents of change and transmitted the learnings of the projects to their communities, fishers from nearby guilds, local educational centers and even the press. Furthermore, a list of recommendations is provided to optimize the multisector opportunities emerging from collaborative projects with marine scientists and fishers in MPAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latinos in the US suffer health disparities including stage of disease at time of breast or colon cancer diagnosis. Understanding Latinas' causal attributions of breast and colon cancer may provide insight into some of the individual level determinants of cancer disparities in this population. Cultural consensus analysis (CCA) is one way to study causal beliefs. The objective of this study was to describe Latina immigrants' causal attributions of breast and colon cancer. We conducted Spanish-language interviews with 22 Latina immigrants using a qualitative exploratory design comprised of freelisting, ranking, and open-ended questions. Participants freelisted causes and risk factors for breast and colon cancer then ranked risk factors according to their perceived role in the development of each cancer. CCA was conducted on rank orders to identify whether a cultural consensus model was present. Participants answered semi-structured, open-ended questions regarding the risk factors and rankings. Interviews were transcribed and subjected to thematic analysis. CCA showed no consensus around rank of causes for either cancer, and residual agreement analysis suggested the presence of two subcultural groups. "Genetics" and "hereditary factors" ranked first and second on average across participants for both cancers. Based on interview data, participants were less aware of colon cancer than breast cancer. Participants' endorsement of heredity as a cause of breast and colon cancer was similar to beliefs reported in studies of primarily non-Latina populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forensic anthropology has recently and publicly grappled with fundamental disciplinary issues—including estimating population affinity, the pursuit of objectivity, and the role of bias in medicolegal contexts—all of which has left the subdiscipline in a state of seeming fracture, with many practitioners worried about its future. Given these concerns, we wondered to what degree polarization exists, if at all, and along what lines. Using the method of cultural consensus analysis, we asked forensic anthropologists: What makes a "good" forensic anthropologist? Our findings suggest that contrary to widespread concern, broad agreement (consensus) exists over the training, experiences, perspectives, and practices forensic anthropologists (n = 103) identified as important for being "good" at what they do. A few points of disagreement emerged—particularly over the issue of neutrality—which dominated the narrative feedback we received. The fault lines of this debate primarily fell along generational lines, with those having earned their degrees earlier believing more strongly in neutrality. This pattern largely maps onto broader (and somewhat routine) disciplinary debates and trends away from positivism, with younger anthropologists more focused on the larger goal of "decolonizing US anthropology" and attending to the antiracist work that figures prominently in anthropology today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What does it mean to say that a prison has a "culture?" Scholars have long emphasized the presence of a "prison code" and, more recently, a "racial code" as salient cultural domains in men's prisons. Yet, even though most people intuitively understand what is meant by "prison culture," little progress has been made regarding the conceptualization and operationalization of culture as an analytical construct in prison scholarship. The current study makes two primary contributions to this literature. First, drawing on advances in anthropology, cultural sociology, and cognitive science, we incorporate the concept of cultural schema to provide a concrete analytical construct. Second, we test varying conceptualizations of cultural schema as either characterized by consensus or as overlapping relational structures. Using cultural consensus and correlational class analyses among a sample of 266 incarcerated men, we find little evidence of a culture of consensus for either the prison code or the racial code. Furthermore, we show evidence of heterogenous schema among these cultural domains. Our study is relevant to wider disciplinary work on culture as the problem of analytical precision we address is characteristic of much of the work in criminology and criminal justice that evokes culture as an explanatory device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To explore how English epistemic adverbs, as used in health communication, are understood by speakers depending on their first language (L1) and language context. Methods: We used an online dissimilarity rating task with paired doctors' opinions which differed only with respect to the embedded epistemic adverbs (e.g., This treatment definitely has side effects vs. This treatment possibly has side effects). In order to evaluate the possible effect of one's L1, we compared the ratings of English-speaking monolinguals and Russian-English bilinguals in Australia (Study 1). To evaluate the impact of language context, we compared the ratings of Russian-English bilinguals in Australia and Russia (Study 2). The data were interpreted using classical multidimensional scaling (C-MDS) analysis, complemented by cultural consensus analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis. Results: The C-MDS analyses returned statistically acceptable results. Intragroup consensus was evident for all speaker groups. They all clustered the high confidence adverbs (clearly, definitely, and obviously) and the hearsay adverbs (presumably and supposedly) similarly. Effects of L1 were seen: for example, unlike the monolinguals, the Russian bilinguals did not include evidently with the high confidence adverbs (Study 1). An effect of context was also evident: Russian-English bilinguals in Australia most resembled the monolinguals in their understanding of epistemic adverbs. The way Russian-based bilinguals clustered epistemic adverbs reflected a less nuanced understanding (Study 2). Conclusion: The subtle differences in how adverbs of likelihood and doubt are understood in health communication suggest extra care is needed when conveying risk and uncertainty to patients from diverse linguistic and/or cultural backgrounds to ensure mutual understanding and mitigate against miscommunication. The impact of L1 and language context on one's understanding highlights the need to explore more widely how epistemic adverbs are understood by diverse populations and, in doing so, improve healthcare communication practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AimTo explore how English epistemic adverbs, as used in health communication, are understood by speakers depending on their first language (L1) and language context.MethodsWe used an online dissimilarity rating task with paired doctors' opinions which differed only with respect to the embedded epistemic adverbs (e.g., This treatment definitely has side effects vs. This treatment possibly has side effects). In order to evaluate the possible effect of one's L1, we compared the ratings of English-speaking monolinguals and Russian-English bilinguals in Australia (Study 1). To evaluate the impact of language context, we compared the ratings of Russian-English bilinguals in Australia and Russia (Study 2). The data were interpreted using classical multidimensional scaling (C-MDS) analysis, complemented by cultural consensus analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis.ResultsThe C-MDS analyses returned statistically acceptable results. Intragroup consensus was evident for all speaker groups. They all clustered the high confidence adverbs (clearly, definitely, and obviously) and the hearsay adverbs (presumably and supposedly) similarly. Effects of L1 were seen: for example, unlike the monolinguals, the Russian bilinguals did not include evidently with the high confidence adverbs (Study 1). An effect of context was also evident: Russian-English bilinguals in Australia most resembled the monolinguals in their understanding of epistemic adverbs. The way Russian-based bilinguals clustered epistemic adverbs reflected a less nuanced understanding (Study 2).ConclusionThe subtle differences in how adverbs of likelihood and doubt are understood in health communication suggest extra care is needed when conveying risk and uncertainty to patients from diverse linguistic and/or cultural backgrounds to ensure mutual understanding and mitigate against miscommunication. The impact of L1 and language context on one's understanding highlights the need to explore more widely how epistemic adverbs are understood by diverse populations and, in doing so, improve healthcare communication practices.

Cognitive culture theory and the associated methods of cultural domain analysis and cultural consensus analysis have revolutionized the study of cultural sharing and variation. However, the ways in which these methods can be employed are still not widely appreciated. Our aim in this paper is to propose a systematic framework for investigating cultural models. We provide examples of ideal types of sharing and variation in cultural models, including monocentric cultural models, multifocal cultural models, and multicentric cultural models. This review will contribute to mixed methods by providing a roadmap for researchers interested in employing cultural modeling in their own work, but who may not have a well‐developed sense of the various ways in which it can be pursued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Establishing and maintaining collaborative scientific environments that can cultivate and benefit from a full range of talents is essential for the quality and influence of science. Inclusion of research training and career development interventions to expose nursing PhD students, postdocs, and junior faculty to team science stands to prepare graduates to effectively engage with interdisciplinary colleagues to conduct cutting-edge nursing research and compete successfully for precious research resources. To be effective, nursing research workforce development programs need to recognize and share a culture of interdisciplinarity. Objectives: This project aims to develop, validate, and disseminate a theoretically grounded and methodologically rigorous tool for a cultural consensus analysis (CCA) of the culture of interdisciplinary collaboration in nursing research. Methods: Culture can be defined as shared cognitive structures and consensus around culturally correct values, attitudes, and normative behaviors. This mixed-methods study employs CCA to assess construct validity and empirically determine a set of underlying socially learned and shared notions about the cultural domain of interdisciplinary collaboration in nursing research. The study will include three phases: (a) qualitative data collection and analysis to define the cultural domain of interdisciplinary collaborations in nursing research; (b) validation of the CCA tool with the use of cultural knowledge statements; and (c) application of the CCA tool to assess cultural differences among nursing trainees, junior faculty, and training directors. The study participant pool consists of National Institutes of Health–National Institute of Nursing Research awardees, including training directors of institutional training grants, pre- and postdoctoral trainees with individual fellowship training grants, and junior faculty with career development awards. Qualitative data will be analyzed to formulate cultural statements about the values and behaviors that promote interdisciplinary collaboration in nursing research. Subsequent survey data will be assessed using matrix algebra, principal component analysis, and the Stuart–Maxwell Marginal Homogeneity Test. Discussion: The development and validation of a CCA tool is a novel approach to assess, support, and systematically examine interdisciplinary collaboration and team science in nursing research and training. However, the investigation of culture needs to remain value neutral, refrain from being prescriptive, and be sensitive to the emergence and dominance of one "right" culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study applied a two‐phase, mixed‐methods research design, grounded in cultural consensus theory (CCT), to examine shared beliefs about mental health held by Japanese clinical psychologists (CPs). In CCT, qualitative methods are first used to identify culturally salient elements of a domain; factor analysis is then used to quantify the degree of sharedness, an approach known as cultural consensus analysis (CCA). First, a free‐listing technique with 16 Japanese CPs was conducted to elicit salient terms for the two domains: (a) how members of the general public acquire beliefs about mental health; and (b) how Japanese mental healthcare ought to be reformed. In the second phase, CCA was conducted through a survey completed by 100 CPs. The free‐listing analysis generated 21 and 23 culturally salient terms for the two domains, respectively. Then, CCA demonstrated that the two domains could each be characterized as a single cultural model with a high degree of consensus. CCT provides a systematic mixed‐methods approach that is particularly well‐suited to investigating culturally grounded shared beliefs held by people in a specific cultural context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Campesinos are the most numerous hunters in Latin America. Yet, local and traditional knowledge (LTK) among campesinos about hunting is often invisible to conservationists who perceive them as nonindigenous or illegal hunters. Moreover, research and methods for accessing campesino hunting LTK are limited in theory and practice. Conservationists therefore know little about campesinos' cultural understandings of hunting. We assessed the LTK of Nicaraguan campesinos to determine whether they shared cultural hunting knowledge. Through 11 months of ethnographic fieldwork, an ethnoecology framework, and cultural consensus analysis, we found that campesino hunting LTK was shared across the study community. This knowledge extended from a worldview that emphasized subsistence and hunting secrets to ensure bountiful harvests, expressed through folk taxonomies, hunting strategies, campesino-dog relationships, and preparation of hunted animals. Campesino hunting LTK emerged from campesino culture, yielding numerous implications for conservation in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, the widespread occurrence of disrespect and abuse (D&A) on maternity wards is well-documented. Using ethnography and cultural consensus analysis we explore how the practice of midwives hitting women who are in the second stage of labor (pushing) has become a locally accepted form of care in Tanzania if a baby's life appears to be at risk. This analysis interrogates the deep uncertainty of birth outcomes in this setting that may motivate abuse during this time. Seriously engaging with local discourses on abuse and care sheds light on hegemonic norms and power dynamics and is critical for improving maternity services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stigma associated with substance use is well known, but little research has examined stigma attribution, or the tendency to stigmatize, nor is there much cross-cultural research on the topic. We examine cultural models for the risk of substance use associated with stigma attribution in two settings: the United States and Brazil. Study populations of young adults are the focus in each setting. Using methods of cultural domain analysis, cultural consensus analysis, and the analysis of residual agreement, we find similar models in each society. There is a continuum from viewing substance use risk as a biopsychosocial problem to viewing it as a moral issue. In the United States, viewing substance use as a biopsychosocial issue is associated with lower attributed stigma; in Brazil, viewing substance use as a biopsychosocial issue is associated with higher attributed stigma. We argue that social patterns of drug use in each society underlie this difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Creating and assessing relatively broad conservation education curricula is important when trying to reach a variety of students. We used a curriculum centred around a storybook in 12 schools in four separate areas of Indonesia, reaching 529 students. We visited each school twice, and taught the ecology and importance of the target taxa, Indonesia's seven threatened slow loris species (Nycticebus spp.). Through cultural consensus analyses and structural equation modelling, we found that students from all regions showed improvements in knowledge, and that the distance from the forest to where children lived, teachers' use of given education materials, and students' use of the storybook all affected student performance in drawing and essay accuracy. Here we make suggestions for creating and evaluating multi-site environmental education programmes. We recommend creating curricula that are not inclusive of any particular community; providing teachers with materials to supplement a conservation intervention; giving each child their own copy of any visual materials used in the lessons; following up with students and teachers about the use of such materials; and interviewing teachers and students regarding their experience with and attitudes towards the study subject. Furthermore we suggest practitioners share their materials and have confidence in adapting them for other species and locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural consensus analysis (CCA) is a quantitative method for determining cohesion in a specified cultural domain and cultural modelling (CM) is a method for designing and testing connections within a cultural domain based on qualitative data collection. After a description of the methods, and examples of their application, we provide a description of three main points in the programme planning, implementation and evaluation cycle at which the method can best be utilized to plan, contextualize or evaluate programmes and policies. In addition, the use of CCA and CM is not constrained to one point in time though, in order to maximize its ability to help with programme design or evaluation, it ought to be done as early as possible in the process. Through examples from research, and a broader description of the methods of CM and analysis, we provide another tool for global public health practitioners, planners and policymakers. We argue these tools can be used to great effect in a short period of time to maximize the local suitability, acceptability and quality of proposed and implemented interventions, building on existing local strengths, not just in maternal health but, more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describing the link between culture (as a phenomenon pertaining to social aggregates) and the beliefs and behaviors of individuals has eluded satisfactory resolution; however, contemporary cognitive culture theory offers hope. In this theory, culture is conceptualized as cognitive models describing specific domains of life that are shared by members of a social group. It is sharing that gives culture its aggregate properties. There are two aspects to these cultural models at the level of the individual. Persons have their own representations of the world that correspond incompletely to the shared model—this is their ‘cultural competence.’ Persons are also variable in the degree to which they can put cultural models into practice in their own lives—this is their ‘cultural consonance.’ Low cultural consonance is a stressful experience and has been linked to higher psychological distress. The relationship of cultural competence per se and psychological distress is less clear. In the research reported here, cultural competence and cultural consonance are measured on the same sample and their associations with psychological distress are examined using multiple regression analysis. Results indicate that, with respect to psychological distress, while it is good to know the cultural model, it is better to put it into practice.

Despite recent efforts to supply antiretroviral therapy, many in Africa are not receiving medication, instead relying on self-management in their attempts to remain healthy. In Kenya, the majority of those infected are women who are below the extreme poverty level. Building on research demonstrating a link between knowledge of HIV/AIDS management and the length of time HIV-positive women have lived in Nairobi, this article uses a cognitive anthropological approach that conceives of culture as shared models and explores the relationship between how well women know a cultural model of self-managing HIV/AIDS and health among women who are not receiving biomedical treatment. Outcomes include reported perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and recent illness episodes. Here, this association of competence in the shared cultural model and health among women living in extremely marginal economic conditions is explored from a biocultural perspective to better understand this relationship. Knowledge of the model is a significant predictor of better overall health even after controlling for age, education, income, marital status, internal locus of control, and how long women have known that they are HIV-positive. This article adds to the HIV/AIDS literature by quantitatively linking health to cultural knowledge among an HIV-positive population. It also contributes to the cultural consensus literature by demonstrating health benefits of cultural knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describing the link between culture (as a phenomenon pertaining to social aggregates) and the beliefs and behaviors of individuals has eluded satisfactory resolution; however, contemporary cognitive culture theory offers hope. In this theory, culture is conceptualized as cognitive models describing specific domains of life that are shared by members of a social group. It is sharing that gives culture its aggregate properties. There are two aspects to these cultural models at the level of the individual. Persons have their own representations of the world that correspond incompletely to the shared model--this is their ‘cultural competence.' Persons are also variable in the degree to which they can put cultural models into practice in their own lives--this is their ‘cultural consonance.' Low cultural consonance is a stressful experience and has been linked to higher psychological distress. The relationship of cultural competence per se and psychological distress is less clear. In the research reported here, cultural competence and cultural consonance are measured on the same sample and their associations with psychological distress are examined using multiple regression analysis. Results indicate that, with respect to psychological distress, while it is good to know the cultural model, it is better to put it into practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the knowledge individuals use to make judgments about persons with substance use disorder. First, we show that there is a cultural model of addiction causality that is both shared and contested. Second, we examine how individuals' understanding of that model is associated with stigma attribution. Research was conducted among undergraduate students at the University of Alabama. College students in the 18-25 age range are especially at risk for developing substance use disorder, and they are, perhaps more than any other population group, intensely targeted by drug education. The elicited cultural model includes different types of causes distributed across five distinct themes: Biological, Self-Medication, Familial, Social, and Hedonistic. Though there was cultural consensus among respondents overall, residual agreement analysis showed that the cultural model of addiction causality is a multicentric domain. Two centers of the model, the moral and the medical, were discovered. Differing adherence to these centers is associated with the level of stigma attributed towards individuals with substance use disorder. The results suggest that current approaches to substance use education could contribute to stigma attribution, which may or may not be inadvertent. The significance of these results for both theory and the treatment of addiction are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although fisheries managers often attempt to incorporate stakeholders' views into development of policy options, integration of fishermen's local ecological knowledge into biological assessments remains uncommon. Using the case of the eastern Baltic cod (Gadus morhua) resource, this article documented local ecological knowledge about a managed fishery stock. In 2012 and 2013, local media reported that fishermen were observing increased occurrences of cod with poor body condition ("skinny" cod) in their catches from waters off Poland. Polish cod fishermen were interviewed (n = 31) to quantify the strength of their agreement about the abundance and body condition of cod. Agreement among fishermen was assessed about trends in abundance and occurrence of "skinny" cod, as well as the mechanisms explaining those patterns. Cultural consensus analysis showed strong agreement among Polish fishermen that "skinny" cod may be attributed to overfishing on sprat, a key prey species. Fishermen and scientists observed similar declines in the abundance and condition of cod along the Polish coastline; however, they may perceive causes of those changes differently. Generalized additive models were used to show that trends in fishermen's observations of abundance and "skinny" cod occurrence may be partially explained by variation in temperature, salinity, and sprat abundance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural consonance is the degree to which individuals approximate, in their own beliefs and behaviors, the prototypes for belief and behavior encoded in cultural models. Low cultural consonance is associated with higher psychological distress. Cultural consonance also converges across some cultural domains. Cultural consonance in different domains may converge because of an individual’s access to socioeconomic resources, or cultural consonance in multiple cultural domains may occur because these domains are in turn meaningfully—or culturally—organized. These possibilities were investigated in two linked studies conducted in urban Brazil, using mixed methods. A cultural domain analysis indicated that several cultural domains are organized around a broader concept of “goals in life.” Cultural consonance in these cultural domains in turn forms a single factor of “cultural consonance in life goals,” which is associated with lower depressive symptoms. The implications of these results for the further study of cultural consonance, and for a better understanding of culture, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study deals with an emerging domestic rail travel phenomenon among Korean youth, known asRail-ro(Railo), which has influenced aspects of youth culture and domestic tourism in Korea since 2007. The purpose of this study is to determine whetherRailoexperiences exist as a coherent culture amongRailersbased on cultural consensus analysis. The result indicatesRailers’strong agreement aboutRailoexperiences, which reinforces the view that a particular rail pass could be instrumental in forming a distinct youth travel subculture. This study demonstrates how travel culture driven by the seasonal rail pass supports domestic tourism and inbound tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As large-scale collaborative, cross-cultural ethnographic research becomes easier and easier to realize, certain ethnographic methods and analyses should be correspondingly more available, inviting, and accommodating. We have therefore created AnthroTools, a package for the free, opensource language R, with a variety of tools and functions suitable for both multi-factor free-list analysis and Bayesian cultural consensus modeling. Free-list data elicitation is a simple technique for ethnographic research. However, especially for cross-cultural free-list data, background preparation is considerable and often requires specific software. In addition, although current cultural consensus analysis tools offer very sophisticated analyses, they also either require specialized software or have computationally taxing methods. AnthroTools expedites these techniques, rapidly performs diagnostics, and prepares data for further analysis. In this article, we briefly discuss what this package offers cross-cultural researchers and provide basic examples of some of its functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We employed ethnographic methods more attentive to insider gamer perspectives to develop culturally-sensitive scale measures of online gaming involvement and its positive and negative consequences. Our inquiry combined relatively unstructured in-game participant-observation, semi-structured interviews, and a web survey. The latter derived from both ethnography and theory, and contained 15 involvement items and 21 each for positive and negative consequences items. Cultural consensus analysis revealed broadly shared understandings among players about online gaming involvement and its positive consequences, but less agreement about negative scale items. Our findings suggest the need for caution in employing current tools to assess “addictive” and “disordered” gaming, as our gamer respondents judged commonly used scale items, such as cognitive salience, withdrawal, and tolerance, as not fitting with their own understandings and experiences. We argue that our approach, rooted in gamers' actual experiences and also current theory, contributes to more valid psychiatric assessments of online gaming experiences, though more research is needed to refine the new measures we present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explored the feasibility of using multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis in novel combination with other techniques to study comprehension of epistemic adverbs expressing doubt and certainty (e.g., evidently, obviously, probably) as they relate to health communication in clinical settings. In Study 1, Australian English speakers performed a dissimilarity-rating task with sentence pairs containing the target stimuli, presented as doctors' opinions. Ratings were analyzed using a combination of cultural consensus analysis (factor analysis across participants), weighted-data classical-MDS, and cluster analysis. Analyses revealed strong within-community consistency for a 3-dimensional semantic space solution that took into account individual differences, strong statistical acceptability of the MDS results in terms of stress and explained variance, and semantic configurations that were interpretable in terms of linguistic analyses of the target adverbs. The results confirmed the feasibility of using MDS in this context. Study 2 replicated the results with Canadian English speakers on the same task. Semantic analyses and stress decomposition analysis were performed on the Australian and Canadian data sets, revealing similarities and differences between the two groups. Overall, the results support using MDS to study comprehension of words critical for health communication, including in future studies, for example, second language speaking patients and/or practitioners. More broadly, the results indicate that the techniques described should be promising for comprehension studies in many communicative domains, in both clinical settings and beyond, and including those targeting other aspects of language and focusing on comparisons across different speech communities.

Despite progress in policies and services for domestic violence, service use remains lower than the need suggests. This study, an analysis from a larger project on social service providers, examines welfare workers' shared beliefs about domestic violence. Using a mixed method design utilizing pile sorts (n= 38; 11 child welfare and 29 financial assistance), a survey (n= 57; 24 child welfare and 33 financial assistance), and in-depth interviews (n= 3; two child welfare and one financial assistance)—workers organized their ideas about factors that contribute to domestic violence, rated the factors along key dimensions of meaning (importance, controllability, characteristics of victims or perpetrators, and cause or effect), and shared experiences of their work with domestic violence cases. Financial assistance and child welfare workers organized their beliefs similarly demonstrating consensus on the importance of the factors, and shared beliefs about the factors that were causes and effects of domestic violence. In interviews, child welfare workers emphasized their focus on systems and collaboration. Despite areas of agreement, child welfare and financial assistance workers did not demonstrate consensus on ideas about domestic violence overall. The findings have implications for practice, specifically for improving responses to domestic violence and increasing the use of domestic violence services. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Changing climate, social institutions, and natural resource management policies are reshaping the dynamics of social-ecological systems globally, with subsistence-based communities likely to be among the most vulnerable to the impacts of global change. These communities' local ecological knowledge is increasingly recognized as a source of adaptive capacity for them as well as a crucial source of information to be incorporated into scientific understanding and policy making. We interviewed Tibetan pastoralists about their observations of environmental changes, their interpretations of the causes of these changes, and the ways in which they acquire and transmit this knowledge. We found that community members tended to agree that changing climate is driving undesirable trends in grassland and livestock health, and some also viewed changing management practices as compounding the impacts of climate change. However, those nominated by their peers as experts on traditional, pastoral knowledge observed fewer changes than did a more heterogeneous group of people who reported more ways in which the environment is changing. Herders mostly discussed these changes among themselves and particularly with village leaders, yet people who discussed environmental changes together did not necessarily hold the same knowledge of them. These results indicate that members of the community are transferring knowledge of environmental change primarily as a means for seeking adaptive solutions to it, rather than for learning from others, and that local leaders can serve as critical brokers of knowledge transfer within and beyond their communities. This highlights not only the interconnectedness of knowledge, practice, and power, but also points toward the important role that local governance can have in helping communities cope with the impacts of global change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the replication after 10 years of cultural consensus analyses in four cultural domains in the city of Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. Additionally, two methods for evaluating residual agreement are applied to the data, and a new technique for evaluating how cultural knowledge is represented by residual agreement is introduced. We found that overall cultural consensus observed in 2001 was replicated in 2011 in four cultural domains. Significant residual agreement in all four cultural domains was observed using a technique for assessing the structure of the respondent-by-respondent agreement matrix. Analysis of loadings on the second factor from the cultural consensus analyses indicated that time period was associated with residual agreement in the domain of lifestyle, while other variables were associated with residual agreement in other domains. The variation in the configuration of elements in the cultural model of lifestyle within each time period, relative to the overall consensus, was examined using deviation scores. Implications of these results for the study of culture and the distribution and sharing of culture are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given current and projected warming trends in the Arctic and the important role played by subsistence hunting and fishing in the life of northern rural communities, it is increasingly important to document local observations of climate change and its impacts on livelihood practices. We describe ethnographic research exploring local observations of climate changes and related impacts on subsistence fisheries in three Iñupiat communities in northwest Alaska and six Athabascan communities in the Yukon River drainage. We found consistent agreement among perceptions concerning a broad range of environmental changes affecting subsistence practices in these communities. These observations of environmental changes are not experienced in isolation but within the context of accompanying social changes that are continually reshaping rural Alaskan communities and subsistence economies. In this paper we reflect on our research approach combining multiple methods of inquiry. Participant observation and semidirected interviews provided the conceptual framework for broadening our focus from climate and environmental change to community residents' understanding of climate change in the context of their holistic human-environment worldview. Cultural consensus analysis allowed us to assess the extent to which perceptions of change are shared among hunters and fishers within and between villages and regions and to identify those phenomena occurring or experienced at smaller scales. Reflecting on this multimethods approach, we highlight important questions that have emerged about how we understand, synthesize, and represent local knowledge, especially as it is used in regulatory or management arenas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changing climate, social institutions, and natural resource management policies are reshaping the dynamics of social-ecological systems globally, with subsistence-based communities likely to be among the most vulnerable to the impacts of global change. These communities' local ecological knowledge is increasingly recognized as a source of adaptive capacity for them as well as a crucial source of information to be incorporated into scientific understanding and policy making. We interviewed Tibetan pastoralists about their observations of environmental changes, their interpretations of the causes of these changes, and the ways in which they acquire and transmit this knowledge. We found that community members tended to agree that changing climate is driving undesirable trends in grassland and livestock health, and some also viewed changing management practices as compounding the impacts of climate change. However, those nominated by their peers as experts on traditional, pastoral knowledge observed fewer changes than did a more heterogeneous group of people who reported more ways in which the environment is changing. Herders mostly discussed these changes among themselves and particularly with village leaders, yet people who discussed environmental changes together did not necessarily hold the same knowledge of them. These results indicate that members of the community are transferring knowledge of environmental change primarily as a means for seeking adaptive solutions to it, rather than for learning from others, and that local leaders can serve as critical brokers of knowledge transfer within and beyond their communities. This highlights not only the interconnectedness of knowledge, practice, and power, but also points toward the important role that local governance can have in helping communities cope with the impacts of global change.

Highlights: [•] Christians show higher responses to God’s knowledge of moral than nonmoral information. [•] Tyvans show a bias towards moralizing explicitly nonmoral Tyvan spirit-masters. [•] Tyvans reason about spirit-masters’ knowledge and concerns spatially. [•] Wider attributed knowledge breadth of spirit-masters predicts attributed concern for morality. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Understanding contested cultural boundaries continues to be a theoretical and empirical issue for anthropologists. For some time, cognitive and other like-minded anthropologists have used cultural consensus analysis (CCA), developed by Romney, Weller, and Batchelder (1986), to quantitatively estimate the level of cultural sharing around a particular domain. This method has limits and, as its critics (fairly or unfairly) have pointed out, can present a static, homogeneous image of culture. Residual agreement analysis (RAA) helps address this lacuna. This extension of CCA can identify subcultural variation and elicit the structural nature of such shared deviation. Utilizing data from Brazilian Pentecostals, CCA demonstrates that this community shares a model of lifestyle success known as A Vida Completa. Residual agreement analysis, however, shows systematic deviations from the overall cultural consensus across two congregations. This finding suggests that the distinction between how these two churches conceive of A Vida Completa may not be due to unique cultural beliefs but rather to differential emphasis of an underlying shared cultural model. This research demonstrates a novel extension of CCA and provides insights into the characteristics of Brazil's fastest growing religious community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Cultural consensus analysis" (CCA) of similarity data involves analyzing the matrix of inter-subject correlations with Factor Analysis. If the pattern of correlations can be explained by a single dominant factor, one can assume that the subjects grouped the items according to a shared mental model - a cultural consensus - and their responses can safely be merged in subsequent stages of analysis. In the negative case where no consensus exists and the pattern of correlations contains more than one factor, we argue that a logical extension of CCA is the Points-of-View approach of Tucker and Messick. Each "point of view" (PoV) is an idealized or prototypal mode of organizing the items, obtained by rotating the factors to simple structure. The distinct organization present in each PoV can be made explicit by considering it as a matrix of item proximities, suitable for clustering or multidimensional scaling. To account for each subject's data, these idealized modes are combined in proportions given by the subject's factor loadings. Following a canonical application of CCA, subjects sorted a list of animal names. The Points-of-View model accommodated the variations among subjects, while clarifying the distinct mental models forming the extremes of their variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cultural consensus model (CCM) is a frequently used model of cultural diversity, which predicts how individuals from a common cultural background would share knowledge in a specific domain. Cultural competence, or the degree to which an individual agrees with a local cultural truth, is a central concept in CCM, and many uses of competence estimates rest on the assumption that they reflect real variation among individuals in their knowledge of a cultural truth. However, Weller has shown that even in situations where there are no real differences among individuals in their underlying competences, the CCM will still estimate individual competences that appear to vary, sometimes substantially. To address this issue, we describe a test of the null hypothesis that there is no real difference in competence among individuals. We also present tables with specific cutoffs for this test across a range of data set characteristics. These can help researchers decide whether a specific set of data warrants further analyses of individual differences in competence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reports a study which investigated masculinity, gender role beliefs, and HIV risk among homeless men who have sex with women (MSW) in Skid Row area of Los Angeles, California. The results revealed that relationship barriers with women and ideals of masculinity were some of the factors associated with high-risk behaviors among homeless men. The study highlights the need for interventions to spread awareness on high-risk sexual behaviors among homeless men to prevent the spread of HIV.

In many of the social sciences it is useful to explore the 'working models' or mental schemata that people use to organise items from some cognitive or perceptual domain. With an increasing number of items, versions of the Method of Sorting become important techniques for collecting data about inter-item similarities. Because people do not necessarily all bring the same mental model to the items, there is also the prospect that sorting data can identify a range within the population of interest, or even distinct subgroups. Anthropology provides one tool for this purpose in the form of Cultural Consensus Analysis (CCA). CCA itself proves to be a special case of the 'Points of View' approach. Here factor analysis is applied to the subjects' method-of-sorting responses, obtaining idealized or prototypal modes of organising the items-the 'viewpoints'. These idealised modes account for each subject's data by combining them in proportions given by the subject's factor loadings. The separate organisation represented by each viewpoint can be made explicit with clustering or multidimensional scaling. The technique is illustrated with job-sorting data from occupational research, and social-network data from primate behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given current and projected warming trends in the Arctic and the important role played by subsistence hunting and fishing in the life of northern rural communities, it is increasingly important to document local observations of climate change and its impacts on livelihood practices. We describe ethnographic research exploring local observations of climate changes and related impacts on subsistence fisheries in three Iñupiat communities in northwest Alaska and six Athabascan communities in the Yukon River drainage. We found consistent agreement among perceptions concerning a broad range of environmental changes affecting subsistence practices in these communities. These observations of environmental changes are not experienced in isolation but within the context of accompanying social changes that are continually reshaping rural Alaskan communities and subsistence economies. In this paper we reflect on our research approach combining multiple methods of inquiry. Participant observation and semidirected interviews provided the conceptual framework for broadening our focus from climate and environmental change to community residents' understanding of climate change in the context of their holistic human-environment worldview. Cultural consensus analysis allowed us to assess the extent to which perceptions of change are shared among hunters and fishers within and between villages and regions and to identify those phenomena occurring or experienced at smaller scales. Reflecting on this multimethods approach, we highlight important questions that have emerged about how we understand, synthesize, and represent local knowledge, especially as it is used in regulatory or management arenas.

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The introductory essay to this collection correctly observes that there are many 'challenges for rapprochement' between anthropology and (the rest of) cognitive science. Still, the possibilities of fruitful interchanges provide some hope for the parties getting back together, at least on an intermittent basis. This response offers some views concerning the 'incompatibility' of psychology and anthropology, reviews why cognitive anthropology drifted away from cognitive science, and notes two areas of contemporary interest within cognitive anthropology that may lead to a re-engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consensus analysis enables estimation of individual differences in competencies and response tendencies when answer keys to dichotomous forced-choice questions are unknown. CAML, a set of functions written in R, implements maximum likelihood estimation for the general Condorcet model that underlies consensus analysis. CAML avoids problems of alternative approaches that have often rendered consensus analysis impractical or unfeasible in the past. It provides (1) measures of model fit, (2) a measure of consensus, (3) point and interval estimates of competencies and response tendencies, and (4) an estimate of the unknown answer key. The present article describes the general Condorcet model, the CAML algorithms, and the handling of the software. In addition, the validity of CAML results is tested in a recognition memory study using selective experimental manipulations of the parameters. The results show that CAML works very well in practice and provides valid estimates of competencies, response tendencies, and answer keys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]