Akea

This brief analyzes the social, historical and societal circumstances influencing the emergence of Islamist extremism in Kosovo and countries of the region. It discusses the creation of propagandist infrastructure by foreign organizations to spread radical ideology and instigate inter-religious conflicts in order to establish an Islamist extremist movement, and highlights the camouflaged activities of humanitarian organizations funding terrorism. This brief focuses particularly on examining the development and concrete manifestation of Islamism and the latent risks posed by Islamist extremism not just for the national security of Kosovo but also for the peace and safety of the entire region. Examining the development, effects and latent risks posed by Islamist extremism in the Balkans, Islamist Extremism in Kosovo and the Countries of the Region will be useful to scholars, policy-makers, and law enforcement practitioners working in counter-terrorism, as well as those interested in the unique sociopolitical climate of the Balkans.

Donald Tuzin first studied the New Guinea village of Ilahita in 1972. When he returned many years later, he arrived in the aftermath of a startling event: the village’s men voluntarily destroyed their secret cult that had allowed them to dominate women for generations. The cult’s collapse indicated nothing less than the death of masculinity, and Tuzin examines the labyrinth of motives behind this improbable, self-devastating act. The villagers' mythic tradition provided a basis for this revenge of Woman upon the dominion of Man, and, remarkably, Tuzin himself became a principal figure in its narratives. The return of the magic-bearing "youngest brother" from America had been prophesied, and the villagers believed that Tuzin’s return "from the dead" signified a further need to destroy masculine traditions. The Cassowary's Revenge is an intimate account of how Ilahita’s men and women think, emote, dream, and explain themselves. Tuzin also explores how the death of masculinity in a remote society raises disturbing implications for gender relations in our own society. In this light Tuzin's book is about men and women in search of how to value one another, and in today's world there is no theme more universal or timely.

Sex, gender and sexuality have played an important role in shaping the culture of surfing and are central themes in the study of sport and movement cultures. Rooted in a rich precolonial history, surfing has undergone a modern transformation shaped by visual culture, commodification, sportization, mediatization and globalization, arguably all linked to sex, gender and sexuality. Using the physical culture of surfing as its focus, this international collection discusses the complex relationships between surfing, sex/es, gender/s and sexuality/ies. This book crosses new theoretical, empirical and methodological boundaries by exploring themes and issues such as indigenous histories, exploitation, the marginalized, race, ethnicity, disability, counter cultures, transgressions and queering. Offering original insights into surfing’s symbolism, postcolonialism, patriocolonial whiteness and heteronormativity, its chapters are connected by a collective aspiration to document sex/es, gender/s and sexuality/ies as they are shaped by surfing and, importantly, as they re-shape the many, possibly previously unknown, worlds of surfing. Surfing, Sex, Genders and Sexualities is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in the sociology of sport or gender and sexuality studies.

This book gathers the proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Systems and Informatics (AISI2016), which took place in Cairo, Egypt during October 24–26, 2016. This international interdisciplinary conference, which highlighted essential research and developments in the field of informatics and intelligent systems, was organized by the Scientific Research Group in Egypt (SRGE) and sponsored by the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (Egypt chapter) and the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (Egypt Chapter). The book’s content is divided into four main sections: Intelligent Language Processing, Intelligent Systems, Intelligent Robotics Systems, and Informatics.

This book, published on 15 December 2005, marks sixty years since the entire population of Banaba (Ocean Island) were relocated from their homeland, which now lies within the territory of Kiribati, to Rabi Island in Fiji, thus freeing up Banaba for continued phosphate mining, which enriched the agricultural industry of other countries, principally New Zealand and Australia. One & a Half Pacific Islands is made up of the stories of the Banabans themselves ?- memories of their ancestors, personal accounts of the often terrible events of the 20th century, and stories of their resurgent life on Rabi today. These stories have been gathered by Makin Corrie Tekenimatang and Jennifer Shennan and are accompanied by photographs by John Casey. In addition there are valuable historical accounts and photographs of early 20th-century Banaba. 'A moving and reflective experience that becomes even more intimate through the photograghs that accompany many of the essays, which literally allow the reader to gaze into the eyes of the storytellers.' -Mary E. Lawson Burke, The Contemporary Pacific 'A unique and engaging volume. Beautifully presented and with some wonderful photographs and illustrations, One and a Half Pacific Islands will be a valuable resource for scholars and a fascinating read for anyone interested in Pacific culture or history.' -David Capie, NZ International Review 'While the pain of relocation and the horror of some of the events that happened on Banaba are not shied away from, many of the stories presented here also narrate the formation of a double consciousness: how to think, remember and revisit Banaba at the same time as learning how to be Banaban elsewhere.' -Miranda Johnson, Journal of Pacific History

Even before the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Turkic communities, living in states newly independent from Ottoman rule, were 'protected' by the Ottomans. With the creation of the new Turkish Republic, the notion of 'Outside Turks' became embedded in a new foreign policy which aimed to unite these communities, with whom Kemalist Turkey claimed to share ethnic origin, to the homeland. After 1980, and particularly during the Justice and Development Party rule, the country's domestic agenda, however, was transformed to imagine Outside Turks along cultural and religious lines, rather than in a purely ethnic sense. Husrev Tabak provides a foreign policy analysis to account for this vital shift, arguing that four post-Kemalist norms are responsible: Ottomania, de-ethnicized nationhood, Turkish Islam and Islamic Internationalism. By focusing on the case of the Kosovar Turks, the book reveals that the post-Kemalist move to re-imagine Outside Turkish communities was largely counterproductive. In losing Turkey as a secure point of reference for their ethnic identity, these communities began to fashion a nationalism which gained a reactionary character.The Kosovar Turks now more vehemently embrace Kemalist attitudes and discourses and their sense of Turkish ethnicity has been sharpened. In tracing the impact of norm changes within Turkey on ethnic Turks beyond Turkey, the book illustrates the way in which domestic norms can be used as a significant foreign policy analysis tool. The Kosovar Turks and Post-Kemalist Turkey will therefore be essential reading for those interested in Turkey's foreign policy and post-Kemalism, as well as those researching the ongoing impact of the Ottoman Empire's multinational, multicultural legacy.

An extensive examination of Hawaiian spiritual tradition and its emphasis on ancestral spirits by a descendant of an ancient lineage of Hawaiian priests • Describes the time-honored intergenerational bond between a people and a land that embodies the heart of indigenous spirituality • A powerful and authentic portrait of a culture on the cusp of extinction In Hawaiian spiritual tradition, the sacred bond formed between the land and its people is perpetuated in every new generation by the voices of the ancestors who pass on this inheritance. Just as elders are the intermediaries between these voices and the younger generations, the na aumakua, or ancestral spirits, are the intermediaries between the living and the sacred land they inhabit. In The Seven Dawns of the Aumakua Moke Kupihea takes the reader on his journey from childhood to young manhood as he experiences what remains of the spirit of his ancestors and learns the importance of remembering. The descent of the aumakua and its spiritual link through the eyes, sound, voice, touch, people, and breath constitute its seven dawns--the means by which the author is reawakened to his native tradition. The author’s desire to know this tradition leads him as a young boy to seek out his kupuna--his elders, the old men of the mountains--and learn from them the stories to be found in each feature of the landscape. These men and the people he meets as he grows older became his kahu--his ancestral guardians--who teach him to understand that the world of ancestral voices still speaks, if only in a whisper. Learning how to hear these voices is the key for returning Hawaii to its proud spiritual path and learning to live mindfully and soulfully with the land and with all who have come before us.