This thesis represents the first anthropological perspective to be offered on the nature of the Klondike Gold Rush population. In order to better understand the experience of the average gold rusher, morbidity and mortality patterns are examined for the residents of the Yukon Territory following the discovery of gold in the region (1898-1904). Infectious diseases such as measles, pneumonia, smallpox and typhoid fever are the primary focus of this study, however local factors such as the severe climate and the seclusion of the gold fields from the outside world also offers an interesting opportunity to examine the consequences of leading a particularly harsh and physically demanding lifestyle in an inhospitable environment.

This study examines the impact of two different models of teaching English to Chinese children, to see whether it meets learners&rsquo / needs. These two different approaches appear to lead to different result for children. The results of the analysis appear to show that this teaching programme is failing the children at Z&rsquo / SL. Therefore, the course needs to be reviewed and improved. Four research tools were used in this study: interviews, questionnaires, classroom observation, and document analysis. Interviews and questionnaires were distributed to coordinators and teachers at both schools. Questionnaires were also distributed to the parents of students. Classroom observation was done during normal class time by the researcher. The document analysis dealt with the analysis of the textbooks.<br /> <br /> The results of the study appear to show that the teaching programme in English at Z&rsquo / SL has failed to meet the children&rsquo / s needs. The materials are not designed for young learner&rsquo / s needs. They just emphasize the four skills of English in an English environment, but neglect the relatively unstable language situation of the children. The teaching methodology emphasized the direct method, but neglected children&rsquo / s needs. Children should be taught to know how to use a language in the society they live in and to learn a second language effectively for actual use. This study concludes that two-way bilingual education and the cognitive developmental approach are most effective to develop dual language proficiency for Chinese children in their native language and English in order to bring up the children as members of Chinese society. Additive bilingualism education is also appropriate for Chinese children when the home language is a majority language and the school is adding a second minority or majority language. Another consideration is that collaboration between parents and teachers is more effective to provide opportunities for children to maintain their own language and culture while children acquire a second language.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Linguistics & Psychology, Department of Linguistics, 2005. / Bibliography: p. 329-355. / Preamble -- Research objectives and methodology -- Theoretical and epistemological frameworks -- Culture, identity and power -- Meetings -- "The clearing of the sky" -- Project reform. / The data for this research thesis derives from a development project in Samoa. Through the study of key project events and their associated discourses the study identifies and interprets cultural and professional resources that the project team draws on as they negotiate their way through the project; in particular the 'resources' (including communication resources) that participants bring to project interactions. The thesis explores how participants used these resources and what consequences resulted (for them and for others) from such use. -- This study takes a critical and ideological stance, underpinned by a belief in the value and possibility of social action. While not primarily a call to action, the thesis presents its interpretations in the context of larger ethical and political challenges, with a view to informing change, specifically what deliberate action might be taken to improve processes and practices in future projects. The project is explored as a 'soft' system of social interactions and processes; and as a 'Third Space' (Bhabha 1990, 1994) where traditional boundaries of sociocultural organisation, or of professions, are destabilised and where newlyconstructed practices, orders of discourse, identities and representations are required. -- The study is evaluation and policy oriented. It explicitly addresses the implications of knowledge gained from the research for future project design and implementation. In making recommendations for project change, the study argues for the inclusion of local research as a legitimate project task, to inform evaluative processes and create a framework for ongoing modification to project design and implementation. The recommendations for change made in this study are concerned with determining principles and codes of practice for: - identifying and developing intercultural competence in project situations ; - project training (for intercultural project work, including ongoing participant research) ; - improving project systems ; - using relevant approaches/techniques in organisational change management. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / 397 p

In this exploratory case study, I take a constant comparative methods type approach to exploring a shift in second language acquisition (SLA) away from approaches built on the assumption that language participants in the U.S. are monolingual English speakers (Block, 2003; Ortega, 2009, 2013; Thompson, 2013; Valdés, 2005), with little initial investment in the language or its culture (Rivera-Mills, 2012; Valdés, Fishman, Chavéz, & Pérez, 2006). This bias has entrenched a monolingual speaker baseline for statistical analysis within many experimental designs (Block, 2003; Ortega, 2009, 2013; Thompson, 2013; Valdés, 2005). Further, I redress this methodological bias by applying sociocultural theoretical (SCT) (Vygotsky, 1986) approaches to investigating Spanish heritage language learners (SHLLs). Heritage Language Acquisition (HLA) has an established tradition of situating its research within socio-cultural context when considering language-learning phenomena, laying groundwork for relating these contextual factors to the issues in delivering pedagogically sound HL instruction. Ducar (2008) identifies a specific gap in HLA literature, where HLL voices are underrepresented and Valdés et al. (2006) further highlights the need for the development of resources and strategies for accommodating HLLs specifically. I attempt to fill these gaps under SCT by using qualitative methods that incorporate HLL voices into the broader HLA discussion (Ducar, 2008). I take a bottom up approach to resource and task design targeted to serve Spanish heritage language learners (SHLLs) in the U.S. by first surveying the population’s backgrounds and motivations at universities that serve an over 20% student body of Hispanic/latin@ students. Next, I propose a supplemental resource whose agile design is able to adapt to the unique needs of these SHLLs. Further, I investigate in what ways one technological resource, the virtual world Second Life (SL), may be adopted to meet Spanish HLL (SHLL) needs. In this second part, I analyze how one SHLL, who I will refer to as David, used this SL resource. I was guided in this analysis by asking: “In what ways does differentiating HL instruction with SL afford identity mediation through symbolic artifacts within SL?” and “In what ways can task design and extension activities be adapted to meet specific SHLLs’ needs without overly constraining their creative language use or the open format of SL?”. I do this by first taking a snap shot via anonymous survey of 47 SHLLs across the U.S., attending 133 universities with a high level of undergraduate latin@/Hispanic students (20% or higher) that offer concentrations in Spanish (see http://www.collegedata.com). The respondents needed to be currently enrolled in a course advancing them beyond the Novice High level of proficiency as defined by ACFTL (2012). My analysis and discussion of these responses is organized around trends illuminated with descriptive statistics in their backgrounds and then motivations. Finally, I draw on open ended responses to create a qualitative analysis and present vignettes that highlight SHLL voices, while exemplifying trends found through word count analysis and axial coding of the data. Next, I explore the case of a single SHLL, reporting a familial connection to the language and studying intermediate Spanish at a university in the U.S, and his experience with SL. My analysis of David’s case draws on data from a pre-survey that was designed to elicit data on his background, align discussion with established criteria for matching HLL backgrounds to learning needs, and elicit his emic perspective about using SL to study his HL. Additionally, the community of inquiry framework (COI) (Arbaugh, Cleveland-Innes, Diaz, Garrison, Ice, Richardson, & Swan, 2008) guided me in meticulously designing SL tasks that elicited data about David’s engagement with the SL environment, its affordances, and the HL. These also provided insights into what ways that he chose to expand or deepen his command of the HL. I coded these data with Dedoose, a qualitative research tool, using a three-stage coding process similar to axial coding, building code trees and constantly relating themes to one another until saturated thematic categories emerge. I build a critical discussion of what this coding process reveals in relation to the case-study’s research focuses above, the guiding research questions, and relate the resulting findings to possible implications for teaching Spanish to SHLLs in the U.S., instructional design for this population within specific intuitional constraints, and for task design that leverages specific affordances that SL may offer SHLLs. In Part I, I present a rationale for introducing two new research questions to help guide my investigation of the survey of 47 SHLLs: “In what ways do SHLL motivations for studying their HL differ and how might these motivations be best accommodated through instructional design?” and “In what ways do SHLL backgrounds differ and influence their objectives for studying their HL?”. I then used these research questions to analyze these data and weave a discussion. At the beginning of each stage of this analysis I explain the methodology behind the analysis and the generation of any figures or tables that helped me in interpreting the data and answering the research questions. Ultimately, I create vignettes to highlight SHLL voices (Ducar, 2008) and weave a narrative grounded in the major trends and themes sown together throughout the chapter. In Part II, I present rationale for modifying my original three research questions, removing the second one completely due to lack of data: “In what ways do SHLL backgrounds differ and influence their objectives for studying their HL?” and “In what ways do SHLL motivations for studying their HL differ and how might these motivations be best accommodated through instructional design?”. I interweave my exploratory analysis and discussion about David’s background and motivations with that of the previous chapter to related David’s case to the larger data set. Further, I use the COI framework (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000, 2001) and Dörnyei’s (1994, 2005, 2009, 2014) work on motivation to analyze my instructional design in relation to David’s experience within the SL Lab. I analyze David’s motivational attractor states from a qualitative perspective as he progressed through to completion of the lab and compare motivational factors between David and pilot study participants. Based on these findings I offer some recommendations for both revising the proposed resource’s design and for the design of other resources that might capitalize on what I have learned during the course of this investigation. During the course of these investigative efforts I also encountered some challenges and surprising rewards. I reserve a section of this study to discuss some of these challenges, such as institutional barriers, demands on student time, strains on student motivation, and instructional design adaptations that frequently failed to address these challenges despite being research supported approaches. I correspondingly recount how these challenges coupled with moments of collegial collaboration to help both myself as a researcher and the project to grow, persevere, and adapt during the long course of the investigation. It is my sincere hope that sharing this personal perspective provides greater context to the study and insight for other researchers that would take on similar research endeavors.

The presented thesis deals mainly with the informative value of the correspondence of the early modern nobleman and the warrior George Olivier Wallis with his family members at the end of the 17th and the first half of the 18th century. The attention of the author will be focus on the extent of the intensity of the relationship between the individual actors of written communication and the image of thought of George Olivier in the letters of close relatives. Last but not least, the thesis also deals with some of the anthropological categories of early modern culture, which appeared on the pages of the letters of Count Wallis and his family members.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:00:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 4673.pdf: 1325976 bytes, checksum: bb323defb55134422f9fe31659dbd17e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-28 / This work investigates possible relations between a modern anthropological theory and discourses about "development". These relations are presented in theories of cultural change which will be consider with focus on the role mediators play in the production of specific meanings to the notion of "development". The analysis focus on Darcy Ribeiro´s 'The Civilizing Process: stages of sociocultural evolution', published in 1968. In thhis book Ribeiro presents his theory articulating a neoevolucionist anthropological perspective with a project of development for the Brazilian nation based on the concept of "technological revolutions". This concept is one of the foundations of Ribeiro's idea of cultural change at the same time offers a critique of dependency theory in Latin America, in the form of placing in th epolitical field debates on the underdevelopment-"Development" constrast. From the concept of technological revolutions, Ribeiro returns to the issue of cultural dynamics, dear to the theories of modern anthropology and grounded in an evolutionary perspective, as well as to the values of the national-developmentalism defended by Labour politicians - values that reside in the critical dependence of Latin countries' economic and the search for political autonomy, as well as in the defense of nations "underdeveloped" as the path to development. / Esta dissertação procura investigar possíveis pontos de interlocução entre uma teoria antropológica moderna e discursos sobre o &#8213;desenvolvimento&#8214;. O principal ponto de interlocução destes campos são teorias acerca da mudança cultural, considerando o papel de mediadoras que desempenham ao produzir sentidos específicos para a noção de &#8213;desenvolvimento&#8214;. O material utilizado para tanto foi o livro &#8215;O Processo Civilizatório: etapas da evolução sociocultural de Darcy Ribeiro, publicado em 1968, e que compõe os &#8215;Estudos de Antropologia da Civilização . No caso de Darcy Ribeiro, observamos que este articulou uma teoria antropológica neoevolucionista e um projeto de nação desenvolvimentista a partir do conceito de revoluções tecnológicas. Tal conceito perfaz a ideia do autor de mudança cultural, ao mesmo tempo que enseja uma crítica à teoria da dependência latino-americana, nos moldes do debate acerca do subdesenvolvimento tal como a discussão sobre o &#8213;desenvolvimento&#8214;se encaminhava no campo político. A partir do conceito de revoluções tecnológicas, Darcy Ribeiro retoma o tema das dinâmicas culturais, caro às teorias da antropologia moderna e embasadas em uma perspectiva evolucionista, bem como valores do projeto nacional-desenvolvimentista defendido por políticos trabalhistas valores que residem na crítica à dependência econômica dos países latinos e na defesa da autonomia política de nações &#8213;subdesenvolvidas&#8214; como caminho para o desenvolvimento.

Esta tese procura registrar uma história de vida articulada por imagens da literatura apropriadas pela subjetividade no sentido de uma educação do cultivo da alma. Para isso, lanço-me, a partir de alguns trajetos de leitura, a um percurso teórico-analítico de cunho antropoliterário, no qual o texto é compreendido como mito e incorporado à história de vida do leitor como mediador simbólico inter e intrasubjetivo, cuja abertura semântica deve-se justamente à presença da imagem arquetípica segundo noção de James Hillman (1995:10). Os potenciais pedagógicos da literatura são veiculados pelas imagens portadoras do arquétipo como \"janelas de aprendizagem\" (Paula Carvalho) que permitem que o leitor transite do texto à existência e de volta, num circuito que o auxilia a promover a equilibração de polaridades e a elaboração criativa da alteridade representada, em última instância, pelo inconsciente, no sentido da construção da identidade do ego e em direção à individuação. São eixos organizadores: (1) a Arquetipologia Geral no contexto da Teoria Geral do Imaginário, de Gilbert Durand; (2) a noção de imagem no contexto da Psicologia Arquetípica, segundo James Hillman e (3) a noção de Educação Fática em José Carlos de Paula Carvalho. A partir de uma perspectiva hermenêutica que procura a abertura do discursivo rumo ao existencial (Paula Carvalho, 1998:59), recolho imagens de três obras clássicas da literatura, lidas por mim aos treze anos de idade, e que me conduziram na direção da descoberta da imagem essencial - a da educadora -, processo no qual enxergo a finalidade última da educação. As referidas obras lidas à margem da escola tornaram-se especialmente significativas devido à dinâmica proposta pela dimensão escolar oficial, também ela imprescindível para que a experiência com o significado se construísse. Retorno assim a Madame Bovary, de Gustave Flaubert, como exemplo de uma literatura para a formação da sensibilidade heróica; ao Decamerão, de Giovanni Boccaccio, como exemplo de uma literatura para a formação da sensibilidade mística e a O morro dos ventos uivantes, de Emily Brontë, como exemplo de uma literatura para a formação da sensibilidade dramática. / This present study tries to register images of a life history articulated by images of the literature - these latter ones appropriated by the subjectivity towards an education of the soul. Being so, I launch myself, starting from my experiences as a reader, into a theoretical-analytical path based on an anthropo-literary view in which literature is understood as myth and life history, i.e., as inter and intra-subjective symbolic mediator whose semantic openness is due mostly to the presence of the archetypal image - according to James Hillman\'s denomination ( 1995, 10). The pedagogical potentials of the literature are, in this way, transmitted by the images bearing an archetypal meaning that circulates from the text towards the life of the reader, to promote the equilibrium of the polarities, through the creative elaboration of alterity represented by the unconscious, in the construction of the ego´s identity. The thematic axe\'s that organize this study are: 1) The General Archetypology, of Gilbert Durand (1997); 2) the notion of image according to the Archetypal Psychology, of James Hillman (1997b). From an hermeneutic perspective, which looks for an openness that goes from the discourse towards the existential (Paula Carvalho, 1998, 59), I get images from three classical novels, in order to understand themselves in the convergence of life with reading, even guiding me to the direction of the discovery of my own essential image or daimon - in which I recognize the objective of education. The mentioned novels were read apart from school. Nevertheless, they became specially significant in my educational process due to the dynamism proposed by the official schooling dimension - also completely necessary so that this experience with meaning could be built. So, I come back to Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert, as an example of a literature that forms the heroic sensibility; to Decameron, by Giovanni Bocaccio, as an example of a literature that forms the mystic sensibility; to O morro dos ventos uivantes, by Emily Brontë, as an example of a literature that forms the dramatic sensibility.

Mudanças na economia, na sociedade e no mundo do trabalho deram grande destaque à educação não formal ao longo da segunda metade do século XX, gerando maior valorização dos processos de aprendizagem que se preocupam em aproximar a ciência, a tecnologia, a sociedade e o ambiente. Nesse cenário, uma das questões e desafios que se revelam está em torno do como realizar a socialização do conhecimento científico. De acordo com Marandino (2004), a transformação do conhecimento científico, com fins de ensino e divulgação, pode ser analisada no intuito de compreender a produção de novos saberes nesses processos. Nesse sentido, encontramos na Teoria Antropológica do Didático (TAD), proposta por Chevallard (1991), o referencial teórico que permitiu identificar quais saberes são produzidos pelo museu, por meio de suas ações educativas, e que podem ou não ser observados pelo visitante, por meio de uma Organização Praxeológica (OP). Atualmente, vários meios museográficos são usados na preparação de exposições de museus de ciências e, entre eles, destacam-se os dioramas. O entendimento dos dioramas como objetos didáticos, produzidos com a finalidade de ensino e aprendizagem, implica estudá-los numa perspectiva praxeológica, pois permite visualizar a articulação entre a dimensão prática e a teórica do objeto que está sendo analisado. O estudo da praxeologia em museus foi recentemente desenvolvido e busca, entre outros aspectos, analisar como revelar determinados conhecimentos e objetivos em um espaço, de forma inteligível para diferentes tipos de público. O objetivo deste trabalho foi verificar como os museus ensinam por meio de exposições, em especial, pelo diorama \"Floresta Amazônica\", presente na exposição do Museu de Zoologia da USP. A metodologia desenvolvida incluiu a elaboração de um quadro praxeológico a partir dos dados obtidos por três instrumentos de coleta: documentos sobre a exposição e sobre o diorama; entrevistas com os designers e/ou os responsáveis pela exposição; e por meio da descrição e da observação do diorama. A análise qualitativa dos dados permitiu identificar a teoria e a tecnologia do diorama no contexto de sua exposição e, também, as tarefas e as técnicas propostas. Os resultados obtidos ajudaram a identificar o potencial educativo do diorama e serviram como proposta para desenvolver processos de produção de exposições em museus de ciências. / Changes in the economy, in the society and in the world of work gave great prominence to non-formal education, during the second half of the twentieth century, generating greater appreciation of learning processes, which are concerned to approach the relationship among science, technology, society and environment. In this scenario, one of the issues and challenges that unfold, is around how to perform the socialization of scientific knowledge. According to Marandino (2004), the transformation of scientific knowledge for purposes of education and dissemination, can be analyzed in order to understand the production of new knowledge in these processes. Accordingly, we find in Anthropological Theory of the Didactic (TAD), proposed by Chevallard (1991), the theoretical framework that will identify which knowledge is produced by the museum, through its educational activities, and that they can or can not be observed by the visitor, through a praxeological Organization (OP). Nowadays, several museographic means are used in the preparation of exhibitions, in science museum, and among these, we highlight the dioramas. The understanding of dioramas as didactic objects produced for the purpose of teaching and learning, involves studying them in a praxeological perspective, because it allows to visualize the relationship between the theoretical and the practical dimension of the object being analyzed. The study of praxeology in Museums has been recently developed and it seeks, among other things, to examine how to expose certain knowledge and objectives in a space, in intelligible form for different types of public.The objective of this work was to investigate how museums teach through exhibitions, especially the diorama \"Amazon Forest\" present at the exhibition of the USP Zoology Museum. The methodology included the development of a praxeological framework from the data obtained by three collection tools: documents about the exhibitions and the diorama; interviews with the designers and/or responsible for the exhibition; description and observation of the diorama.The qualitative analysis identified the theory and technology in the context of his exhibition and also the tasks and technical proposed for the diorama.The results allowed us to identify the educational potential of the diorama and they served as a proposal to the development of processes for producing exhibitions in science museums.

Orientador: Guita Grin Debert / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-10T01:39:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Antonio_AndreaTochiode_M.pdf: 1067282 bytes, checksum: c0a8e1291052e2e9577824ea1f135d3f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Resumo: Esta Dissertação analisa a construção contemporânea dos padrões de beleza femininos, tendo como referência o ideal corrente de "supervalorização do corpo", por meio de uma das técnicas de sua produção: a cirurgia plástica de caráter estético. Para tanto, a pesquisa de campo foi realizada no Hospital das Clínicas da Unicamp, especificamente no Setor de Cirurgia Plástica tendo como objetivo a observação da dinâmica dos atendimentos qúe engloba as consultas pré e pós operatórias e os curativos pós-cirúrgicos. Entrevistas com pacientes e cirurgiões plásticos também foram realizadas, assim como o acompanhamento das cirurgias e de reuniões mensais onde os médicos residentes discutem os casos e dados científicos com os médicos responsáveis. Através da observação participante da pesquisadora a intenção foi apreender o cotidiano do Serviço de Cirurgia Plástica de um Hospital de ensino que é público e no qual, a princípio tal serviço é voltado para as camadas populares. Com isto, procura refletir acerca das concepções e significados do uso do corpo por parte de mulheres de classes populares, privilegiando as dimensões de classe social, faixa etária e gênero / Abstract: This essay provides an analysis of the construction of contemporary female beauty patterns, having as a reference the current ideal of "body super valorization" by means of one ofthe techniques used in producing results fitting such standards: the aesthetic plastic surgery. To achieve this, the field research was carried out at Unicamp's Hospital das Clinicas, specifically at the Plastic Surgery Division, having as the main objective to observe and study the dynamics of all procedures, including patient and physician interaction, the pre and post operative appointments, as well as the post-surgery removal of stitches and dressings. lnterviews with patients and the plastic surgeons were conducted. The actual surgeries and the monthly meetings where the resident ' doctors discussed the cases with the attending physicians, were also carefully observed.Through the participative observation, the researcher's goal was to learn about the daily activities and routine work of a PIas ti c Surgery division belonging to a public teaching hospital, in which its primary attention is aimed at citizens who cannot afford care at private health facilities. With all those data gathered, a discussion was done on the concepts and meanings of the female body usage by the working and poor classes, with special attention to social class, age group and gender / Mestrado / Sexualidade, Genero e Corpo / Mestre em Antropologia Social

Notre thèse de doctorat approfondit le thème de l’animalité à partir de Merleau-Ponty. La recherche est structurée en trois parties, qui suivent respectivement trois pôles de recherche : sujet-monde-intersubjectivité. La première partie s’interroge sur la possibilité de définir l’animal comme un véritable sujet. La phénoménologie de Merleau-Ponty reformule la notion de subjectivité et nous conduit à une définition de l’animal comme une existence incarnée, ouverte sur le monde et caractérisée par une conduite signifiante. Pourtant, il faudra s’interroger sur le statut d’une telle subjectivité. La deuxième partie de notre travail est consacrée à la notion d’espace. En particulier, nous nous interrogerons sur les espaces animaux, c’est-à-dire sur la notion de milieu. Enfin, le dernier chapitre de cette partie approfondit la différence entre milieu et monde. La troisième et dernière partie de notre travail prend en charge la question de l’intersubjectivité qui s’établit dans la relation entre l’animal et l’homme, dans leur spécificité et dans leur différence. Loin de proposer une sorte d’égalitarisme entre les deux, le véritable défi est de définir une notion de différence qui, d’une part, n’efface pas l’essence spécifique de l’être humain et qui, d’autre part, ne le détache pas de la continuité du monde naturel. Dans ce cadre, l’animal est reconnu selon son être-au-monde spécifique, alors que l’homme se profile comme une nouvelle dimension, sans perdre la parenté avec les autres vivants. / This study examines the notion of animality in relation to the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. It is composed of three parts, which take up three main issues: subject – world – intersubjectivity. The first part explores the possibility of defining animals as subjects. Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, in fact, has deeply reformulated the notion of subjectivity and led to a definition of animal being as an embodied existence, open to the world and characterised by meaningful conduct. Even so, it will be necessary to question the nature of such subjectivity. The second part of the thesis concerns spatiality, and in particular, the notion of milieu. Lastly, the last chapter elaborates on the difference between milieu and world. The third and final part deepens the intersubjectivity established in the relationship between animal and human being, in their specificity and difference. Far from proposing a kind of egalitarianism between the two, the challenge is to establish a notion of difference which, on the one hand, does not negate the uniqueness of human essence and, on the other, does not separate the human being from the continuity of the natural world. We will see that, in Merleau-Ponty’s approach, the animal being is recognised in accordance to its specific being in the world, while the human being is recognised in a new dimension, without losing its kinship and connection with other living beings.