The staff of madness: the visualization of insanity and the othering of the insane.

In this article I trace a history of the most ubiquitous visual symbol of madness: the staff. First, I argue that the staff, in its variants (such as the pinwheel) and with its attachments (such as an inflated bladder), represents madness as air. It thus represents madness as an invisible entity that must be made visible. Secondly, I claim that the staff - being iconic of other 'unwanted' categories such as vagabonds - represents the insane as outsiders. Also in this case, the staff serves the purpose of making madness visible. Through this interpretation I show that the urge to make madness visible outlives icons of insanity such as the staff, making it a constant presence in popular culture and medical practice.

Offshore vagrancy in passerines is predicted by season, wind-drift, and species characteristics.

BACKGROUND: Migratory birds accomplish remarkable feats of long-distance navigation. Vagrants, few individuals who migrate to incorrect locations, reveal conditions where orientation and navigation fail. Studies of vagrancy on a continental scale reveal the importance of external factors such as strong winds driving birds off course, clouds obscuring migratory landmarks, and natural disruptions in the Earth's magnetic field interfering with migratory orientation. Species may also possess characteristics that make them more prone to vagrancy. The external drivers of vagrancy on a smaller scale are less understood. METHODS: I used eBird, a community science dataset comprising millions of bird observations, to study land passerines observed over the Pacific Ocean, here termed offshore vagrants. These data present the opportunity to study a particular case of vagrancy: small-scale displacement into highly inhospitable areas. I modeled how season, wind, lack of visibility, interference with magnetoreception, and species differences may predict offshore vagrancy. Then, I modeled how species vagrancy likelihood is predicted by morphological and life history traits. RESULTS: Vagrancy was more common in the fall and positively associated with stronger tail winds in the spring. Species with greater preference for understory foraging habitat were less likely to occur as vagrants. Species vagrancy likelihood was higher in birds with a longer migration distance and rounded wings, but the relationship was weaker in birds with a pointed wings. Brown-headed Cowbirds were the most common offshore species in terms of absolute number of records and proportional to onshore frequency. CONCLUSIONS: Offshore community science records proved revealing of mechanisms for small scale vagrancy in passerines. Offshore vagrancy can be driven by wind drift in the spring, but not in the fall despite higher overall levels of vagrancy. Life history characteristics like foraging habitat preference and migration duration may make some species more vulnerable to the effects of wind drift. Species with longer migrations may have more time to encounter vagrancy causing events, but greater aerodynamic efficiency may counteract this effect.

The Yellow-browed Warbler (Phylloscopus inornatus) as a model to understand vagrancy and its potential for the evolution of new migration routes.

Why and how new migration routes emerge remain fundamental questions in ecology, particularly in the context of current global changes. In its early stages, when few individuals are involved, the evolution of new migration routes can be easily confused with vagrancy, i.e. the occurrence of individuals outside their regular breeding, non-breeding or migratory distribution ranges. Yet, vagrancy can in theory generate new migration routes if vagrants survive, return to their breeding grounds and transfer their new migration route to their offspring, thus increasing a new migratory phenotype in the population. Here, we review the conceptual framework and empirical challenges of distinguishing regular migration from vagrancy in small obligate migratory passerines and explain how this can inform our understanding of migration evolution. For this purpose, we use the Yellow-browed Warbler (Phylloscopus inornatus) as a case study. This Siberian species normally winters in southern Asia and its recent increase in occurrence in Western Europe has become a prominent evolutionary puzzle. We first review and discuss available evidence suggesting that the species is still mostly a vagrant in Western Europe but might be establishing a new migration route initiated by vagrants. We then list possible empirical approaches to check if some individuals really undertake regular migratory movements between Western Europe and Siberia, which would make this species an ideal model for studying the links between vagrancy and the emergence of new migratory routes.

Lunatic asylums: A business of profit during the colonial empire in India.

The knowledge about "maladies of the mind" was in the early stages of development and far from being considered as medical conditions till the mid-19th century. Around this period, the British began to establish "Native-Only" lunatic asylums in India, particularly in the Bengal Presidency of their colonial empire. These institutions were primarily meant to provide custodial care and to rehabilitate those creating nuisance, particularly the wanderers and vagrants. However, these facilities turned into forced labor houses producing goods for the British Empire in the name of treatment. As traders, the British amassed India's wealth in several ways, and the establishment of lunatic asylums for the natives was one of the profit-making businesses. Undercover of Victorian morality, the reports of medical treatment had evolved into profit margin data. This article explores some of the obscure facts of British colonial rule in regards to mental health.

A new westward migration route in an Asian passerine bird.

The evolution of migration routes in birds remains poorly understood as changes in migration strategies are rarely observed on contemporary timescales.1-3 The Richard's Pipit Anthus richardi, a migratory songbird breeding in Siberian grasslands and wintering in Southeast Asia, has only recently become a regular autumn and winter visitor to western Europe. Here, we examine whether this change in occurrence merely reflects an increase in the number of vagrants, that is, "lost" individuals that likely do not manage to return to their breeding grounds, or represents a new migratory strategy.4-6 We show that Richard's Pipits in southwestern Europe are true migrants: the same marked individuals return to southern France in subsequent winters and geo-localization tracking revealed that they originate from the western edge of the known breeding range. They make an astonishing 6,000 km journey from Central Asia across Eurasia, a very unusual longitudinal westward route among Siberian migratory birds.7,8 Climatic niche modeling using citizen-science bird data suggests that the winter niche suitability has increased in southwestern Europe, which may have led to increased winter survival and eventual successful return journey and reproduction of individuals that initially reached Europe as autumn vagrants. This illustrates that vagrancy may have an underestimated role in the emergence of new migratory routes and adaptation to global change in migratory birds.9,10 Whatever the underlying drivers and mechanisms, it constitutes one of the few documented contemporary changes in migration route, and the first longitudinal shift, in a long-distance migratory bird.

Wherever I may roam: social viscosity and kin affiliation in a wild population despite natal dispersal.

Dispersal affects the social contexts individuals experience by redistributing individuals in space, and the nature of social interactions can have important fitness consequences. During the vagrancy stage of natal dispersal, after an individual has left its natal site and before it has settled to breed, social affiliations might be predicted by opportunities to associate (e.g., distance in space and time between natal points of origin) or kin preferences. We investigated the social structure of a population of juvenile great tits (Parus major) and asked whether social affiliations during vagrancy were predicted by 1) the distance between natal nest-boxes, 2) synchrony in fledge dates, and 3) accounting for spatial and temporal predictors, whether siblings tended to stay together. We show that association strength was affected predominantly by spatial proximity at fledging and, to a lesser extent, temporal proximity in birth dates. Independently of spatial and temporal effects, sibling pairs associated more often than expected by chance. Our results suggest that the structure of the winter population is shaped primarily by limits to dispersal through incomplete population mixing. In addition, our results reveal kin structure, and hence the scope for fitness-related interactions between particular classes of kin. Both spatial-mediated and socially mediated population structuring can have implications for our understanding of the evolution of sociality.

O discurso sobre a vadiagem na Praça da Sé (SP) / El discurso sobre la vagancia en la Plaza de La Sé (SP) / The discourse on vagrancy in Praça da Sé (SP)

Resumo Este artigo apresenta uma pesquisa de mestrado que buscou investigar se o discurso acerca da vadiagem está presente entre os frequentadores da Praça da Sé (SP), em relação àqueles que se "deixam ficar" nas imediações do logradouro em período comercial dos dias úteis. A realização de um trabalho de campo, de cunho etnográfico, na praça entre 2012 e 2013, aliado a uma análise documental de jornais sobre a temática, permitiu verificar a estigmatização de certa plêiade de pedestres que têm em comum o fato de sentar-se/deitar-se nas muretas ou no chão da praça. Neste cenário, a rua torna-se um espaço onde é preciso seguir certas regras de apresentação pública a fim de se discriminar daqueles que são vistos como "acomodados" que "não querem saber de trabalhar". Conclui-se ainda a presença da norma salarial identificada na figura do trabalhador, em oposição à "viração" das classes pobres associada às representações de vadiagem.

Resumen En este articulo se presenta una pesquisa de maestría que se propone a investigar el discurso sobre la vagancia presente entre los frecuentadores de la Plaza de la Sé (SP), en comparación con aquellos que se "dejan quedar" en las inmediaciones de la calles en los periodos comerciales, de lunes a viernes. La realización de un trabajo de campo en la Plaza, etnográfico, entre 2012 y 2013, combinado con una análise documental acerca de la temática, se he demonstrado con la estigmatización de cierta cantidad de de peatones que tienen en común el hecho de estar sentado o tumbado en paredes bajas o en el piso de la plaza. En este escenario, la calle se convierte en un lugar donde es necessário seguir con ciertas reglas de presentación pública con el fin de discriminar a aquellos que son vistos como "acomodados" o a que "no les importa trabajar". La conclusión es todavia la presencia de la norma salario identificada en la figura del trabajador, en contraposición a la informalidad de las clases pobres asociadas con las representaciones de vagabundeo.

Abstract This study introduces a master's degree inquiry that investigated whether or not the current idea of vagrancy is present among the frequenters of Praça da Sé (SP) when compared with those who "just stay" in the vicinity during commercial time on weekdays. The accomplishment of an ethnographical fieldwork at the place between 2012 and 2013, together with documental analysis of journals about this theme, empowered an examination about the stigmatization of a certain group of pedestrians who share the habit of sitting/lying on low walls or the ground of the square. In this scenario, the street becomes a place where it is necessary to follow certain rules of public presentation in order to become differentiated from those that seem "settled people who do not want to work". We also concluded that the presence of the wage norm is related to the worker's appearance, as opposed to the poor people's occasional work associated with the representations of vagrancy.

Vou pintar o terror: pois bem, veja então isso / I'm gonna show you people: just watch this / Je vais peindre la terreur: eh bien, vois donc ça / Voy a pintar el terror: vea entonces esto

A errância do adolescente em situação de rua reflete uma segregação social perversa, marcada pela destituição simbólica e pela mutilação social. Em meio ao despedaçamento e ao desamparo, um adolescente enuncia e ameaça: "Vou pintar o terror!". Uma violência que ora se apresenta como um reflexo do organismo ora ancora-se num esboço de discurso endereçado ao Outro, numa tentativa de inscrição. Partimos de uma experiência clínico-institucional (Olinda, PE) e propomos situar, na radicalidade da violência, uma tentativa de enodamento entre o ato e o apelo ao Outro.

The vagrancy of adolescents living on the streets reflects perverse social segregation, characterized by symbolic anomie and social mutilation. In the midst of destitution and helplessness, an adolescent may threaten with a statement like: "I'm gonna show you people. Just watch this." This violence may be presented as the reflex of an organism or be anchored in a discourse that is addressed to the Other, as an effort at inscription. We base our study on clinical and institutional experience (Olinda, PE) and we propose to place, in the radicalness of violence, an attempt to link act and appeal to the Other.

L'errance de l'adolescent en situation de rue reflète une ségrégation sociale perverse, marquée par la destitution symbolique et par la mutilation sociale. Étant donné son anéantissement et son délaissement, un adolescent énonce et menace: "Je vais peindre la terreur!" Une forme de violence qui se présente soit comme un reflet de l'organisme, soit ancrée dans un projet de discours adressé à l'Autre, comme tentative d'inscription. Nous prenons comme base une expérience clinique institutionnelle (Olinda, PE) et proposons situer, dans la radicalité de la violence, une tentative de connexion entre l'acte et l'appel à l'Autre.

El errancia del adolescente en la situación de la calle refleja una segregación social perversa, marcado por la destitución simbólica y por la mutilación social. En medio de la ruptura y el desamparo, un adolescente declara y amenaza: "Voy a pintar el terror". Una violencia que se presenta por um lado como un reflejo del organismo y por otro se ancla en un bosquejo de discurso direccionado al Otro en un intento de inscribirse. Partimos de una experiencia clínica e institucional (Olinda, PE) y proponemos situar en la radicalidad de la violência, un intento del anudar acto y apelo al Otro.