Special Treatment Interdisciplinary Journal, 2026.12(Special Issue)—full text

In the context of Jordan’s chronic water scarcity, this research investigates how ethical leadership is practiced within the Ministry of Water and Irrigation. Moving beyond technocratic models, the study adopts an anthropological lens to frame governance as a "moral ecology"—a dynamic space where environmental constraints, cultural values, and organizational structures intersect. Through qualitative ethnographic methods, the paper highlights the role of middle managers as intercalary leaders who must navigate the tension between rigid bureaucratic mandates and the informal social networks, or wasta, that underpin Jordanian social life. The research argues that these informal networks are not merely indicators of institutional weakness or corruption; instead, they function as culturally meaningful mechanisms essential for maintaining trust, cooperation, and legitimacy within the ministry. By situating ethics in the everyday labor of relational negotiation, the study demonstrates that effective governance in resource-scarce environments requires moving away from individualistic leadership models toward a more socially embedded understanding. Ultimately, this work contributes to business and cultural anthropology by reframing ethical leadership as a relational and ecological process, offering a nuanced framework for understanding institutional life under severe environmental and social pressure.

Tourism has surged in Khuvsgul Lake National Park region in the past few decades. This area attracts both foreign and domestic visitors due to its natural scenery, cultural heritage and unique ethnic minorities. As a result, numerous tourist camps, restaurants, and shops have dramatically established in Khatgal village and lake surrounding campsite areas, recently. The area is also home to several indigenous ethnic communities including Tsaatan and Darkhad.  They maintain distinct culture and diverse nomadic lifestyle. Tsaatan people depend on their reindeer herding while Darkhad nomads engage in pastoralism, raising livestock including yak. Local communities in this area actively participate in tourism development. However, rapid tourism growth can also introduce environmental pressures. This research aims to briefly describe main tourism patterns and trends in Khuvsgul Lake National Park and its surrounding camp site areas, indigenous ethnic communities with their cultural practices, their participation in tourism development and current ecological environment conditions. The research analyzes secondary data resources, literature, tourism and domestic statistics and firsthand field findings including visual observation.

Founded during Anglo-Egyptian Condominium colonial Rule (1899-1956) and continuing into postcolonial Sudan as the main development project, the scheme underwent significant governance changes, shifting from a centrally managed system characterised by a bureaucratic irrigation network and relatively well-functioning infrastructure to a more liberalised and decentralised system, as presented by the dominant literature. In this view, the reforms are regarded as a break from the inherited colonial logic, marked by the state’s withdrawal and the transfer of risks and responsibilities to tenants, labourers, and local subsistence economies. Such accounts highlight a rupture with earlier forms of governance, often portraying the colonial system as more coherent and effective than the current one. However, this perspective overlooks how these changes conceal the persistence of an underlying colonial epistemological and governance framework that continues to organise, classify, and control land, labour, population, and nature. The scheme continues to be operated through a centralised hydraulic irrigation system, despite uneven recent conditions for its reproduction, functioning as a mechanism for regulating farmers and agricultural production. This is intertwined with the ongoing development of agrarian subjectivities within the tenancy regime, which recognises local Arab groups as political agrarian entities. Conversely, West African labourers and ethnic minority groups are marginalised and excluded subjects. The recent reforms reflect and deepen the logic of the colonial extractive economy, which prioritises technocratic scientific knowledge over local systems of understanding and indigenous needs. By combining long-standing ethnography with a Decolonial perspective and employing a methodological framework that integrates multi-sided ethnography with Decolonial critical literature, this approach enables scholars to trace how colonial epistemologies have persisted in hegemonic, reinterpreted, and contested forms across comparable Sudanese agrarian contexts and throughout postcolonial Africa.

The paper examines the idea that the Tunisian migrants in Hungary are capable to preserve the feeling of home by means of conducting their domestic activities. The point is that the sphere in which cultural contingency is the most prominent is not the community life in general, but the very household where the traditions of the cooking process, family life, and ritual activity are practiced every day. Based on a questionnaire survey (N = 100) and 25 semi-structured interviews, these domestic practices remain remarkably stable and are passed to younger family members. It is observed in the analysis that daily activities aid greatly to the continuity of cultures even when the family has migrated; food preparation, hospitality, and the ritual celebrations are ordinary and routine practices that introduce cultural information and principles into the family environment. The results show how domestic heritage helps the migrants to maintain cultural continuity as they adjust to the Hungarian society. This way, they become part of the host culture without losing their identity back home because they remain involved in domestic affairs. In brief, daily domestic activities, create a hybrid experience of integration that upholds cultural identity and adopts new environments.

This study examines hygeralai as a system of knowledge and socio-ecological governance practiced by the Indigenous community of Luang Island, Southwest Maluku, within the broader context of global climate change and increasing coastal development pressures. Against the backdrop of rising sea temperatures and ocean acidification that significantly affect coastal ecosystems, the study positions hygeralai not merely as a customary tradition, but as a normative and cosmological framework that structures sustainable human–nature relations. The research employs a qualitative ethnographic design grounded in ecological anthropology and the socio-ecological systems (SES) framework. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, participant observation, documentation, and spatial analysis using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Sampling followed the principle of data saturation, reaching a saturation level exceeding 90%. Data analysis proceeded through domain, taxonomic, componential, and thematic stages to identify the normative, ecological, and social dimensions embedded in hygeralai practices. The findings indicate that hygeralai is rooted in linguistic transformation and local cosmology that conceptualize the sea as both a sacred domain and a communal resource. The system regulates seasonal harvesting closures and openings, restricts fishing gear, and institutionalizes collective responsibility for maintaining ecological balance. Coral reef conditions in the Luang region, including Metiamarang Island, remain relatively healthy, characterized by low levels of degradation and high biodiversity. Nevertheless, ecosystem sustainability faces internal challenges, such as unstructured waste management, as well as external threats including illegal fishing, destructive fishing practices, and the impacts of global climate change. The study demonstrates that hygeralai represents a spiritually grounded environmental ethic integrating historical, linguistic, and ecological dimensions within a community-based governance system. It contributes to the development of marine resource management models for Indonesia’s outermost small islands by emphasizing the integration of local knowledge, institutional support, and adaptive policy responses to global environmental change.

The Maluku region constitutes one of Indonesia’s post-conflict areas that continues to experience long-term social consequences. The conflict not only resulted in physical destruction but also generated enduring social vulnerability manifested in fragmented social relations, weakened intergroup trust, and limited access to social and educational resources. This article aims to analysed the dynamics of post-conflict social vulnerability in Maluku from a sociological perspective, emphasizing how local communities interpret, experience, and respond to these conditions in their everyday social lives. The study employs a qualitative approach with a case study design, drawing on in-depth interviews, participant observation, and documentation of community-based social and customary practices. Data were analysed through thematic and narrative approaches to capture the interconnections between conflict memory, social structure, and community-based recovery mechanisms. The findings indicate that post-conflict social vulnerability in Maluku is structural, relational, and historical in nature; however, it does not entirely incapacitate the community’s social capacity. Customary institutions and community relations play a significant role in rebuilding social cohesion, facilitating social inclusion, and transmitting intergenerational peace values. These findings underscore that post-conflict recovery does not rely solely on formal state interventions, but also on the strength of local social and cultural practices and historical consciousness. This study contributes to the development of post-conflict sociology and the sociology of social inclusion by highlighting the importance of community-based approaches in understanding and managing social vulnerability.

This article examines how the ethnic identity of the Veddha community in Sri Lanka has been transformed into a modern myth through dominant practices of representation. Based on Eriksen’s understanding of ethnic identity as dynamic and socially constructed and Barthes’s theory of modern mythology, the present study argues that Veddha identity is not inherently primitive or static but is actively reshaped through cultural, political, and symbolic processes. Tourism, media, and political discourse continue to portray the Veddha community as timeless forest dwellers belonging to the past, although they are integrated into the modern Sri Lankan society where they have access to formal education, wage labor, and everyday use of modern technologies. The article utilizes qualitative insights from fieldwork and textual analysis to show how political discourse uses Veddha identity as national heritage.  This hides the effects of development, conservation, and land dispossession. Similarly, media narratives depoliticize cultural change by framing it as a natural disappearance. Tourism promotes the staged performance and commercialization of specific cultural practices. These processes simplify history, erase power relations, and naturalize inequality. The article concludes that the Veddhas have become a modern myth not because of their lived realities, but because of how they are represented. It highlights the need to recognize them as a living ethnic community with agency, rights, and an ongoing place in contemporary Sri Lankan society.

Influenced remarkable iconic figures in the music scene, their echo reached the farthest corners of the world, attracted souls and spirits to join its magic. Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley, Jimmy Hendrix and many other artists from Jazz, blues and rock made a fusion music with their special music and rhythms. In Morocco, the community of Gnawa is not just an ethnic group but rather a significant cultural patrimony of the country that has been inscribed by the UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage due to its authenticity and special rituals. Despite the huge fame, the commoditisation factors and the tourism, Gnawa preserved its traditions and rituals for the healing purposes, which keep this community sacred and authentic. Gnawa became a cultural phenomenon and movement that influenced many people from all over the world.

Photographs have become important subjects of study since the early nineteenth century, drawing attention from a wide range of disciplines. In cultural anthropology, photographs function as both pictorial representa-tions and cultural artifacts, providing evidence of social practices and material traces of the past. Clothing, objects, gestures, space, and social relations in photographs communicate collective and historical meanings. Additionally, photographs reveal hidden meanings related to cultural constructions, ideology, and power; as Barthes argued, photography is a system of signs in which meaning is never neutral. This study analyzes three late-nineteenth-century photographs from Borneo to clarify their social, cultural, and ideological significance. Furthermore, the study interprets the historical connection between Dayak communities in Borneo and Martaban jars, valued as indispensable objects. The analysis aims for rigor and neutrality by distinguishing between visible elements (denotation), cultural associations (connotation), and underlying ideology (myth). The three photographs, featuring deliberately arranged scenes, focus on ethnic features with the jar as the principal subject. The jar conveys clear ideas of ownership, strong possessions, pride, and privilege, reflecting a persistent social construct. As depicted, the vase is an integrated element of the human world, persisting across different times and places and bringing a unique narrative with each appearance.

Catholics in several Southern Tagalog towns in the Philippines express the joy of Christ’s resurrection through a ritual dance called Sayaw ng Pagbati (Dance of Greeting). In Parañaque City, children in elaborate costumes and holding flags perform the dance ritual in the cathedral early Easter Sunday morning and in their corresponding neighborhoods throughout the day. This study intends to frame the Easter dance through material culture by exploring how ritual objects relate to both performers and the community. Using a qualitative research design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 respondents and unstructured observation of the ritual dance in San Dionisio, Parañaque. The study identifies that ritual objects in the Easter dance mediate and materialize the sacred and entangle both performers and the community in networks of obligation, reception, and identity. As prestige goods, ritual objects function as social markers for the performers and their families.

The historical development of Roma policy in Europe has been characterized by discrimination, assimilation and some would say failure. Other see an attempt in recent years by Europe to reflect solidarity through Roma inclusion policies. Progress has been made towards a social Europe, but policy on the Roma minority remains on the margins. This paper deals with the historical development of EU Roma policy. The EU Youth Guarantee would be a powerful tool for young Roma, but the necessary institutions are often lacking. The same applies to the new EU Strategic Framework for Roma, which is a positive development compared to its predecessor, adding three new pillars. An interview with Dr. László Andor, former Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, on Roma policies was conducted, adding to the existing literature on the subject. Inclusive targeting proves to be the best measure for effective Roma policy making. In the future, a re-evaluation of the migration issue, a move away from the securitization approach, or the enlargement of the EU to include the Balkan countries could breathe new life into the importance of Roma policy. But the practical relevance of EU policies is often limited, as they struggle to adapt to social realities on the ground. Although the article deals primarily with recent history, attention is made to early policy dating back to the arrival of the Roma in Europe in the late Middle Ages. 

Although internal influences existed within Bukusu society, women largely remained stable within, and responsive to, established cultural expectations. However, exposure to external interventions, particularly Christian missionary activity, marked the beginning of new male and female role dynamics. This study examines the influence of Christian missionary activity on the roles of Bukusu women in Bungoma County, western Kenya, from the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. It proceeds from the observation that many internal social transformations became more visible in the context of missionary encounter. Drawing on oral narratives, archival materials, secondary sources, and ethnographic interpretation, the study argues that missionary engagement with Bukusu society produced neither wholesale cultural rupture nor straightforward continuity. Rather, Bukusu women selectively appropriated missionary education, religious practices, and health interventions to renegotiate domestic authority, moral legitimacy, and social visibility. By foregrounding women’s voices, the study demonstrates how missionary influence was mediated through locally embedded sex-based logics, kinship obligations, and moral economies, revealing a process of cultural negotiation rather than passive reception.

This paper seeks to examine the experiences of Vietnamese migrants in Hungary, which specifically puts a focus on their ethnic economy. Using qualitative data and an intersectional perspective, it explores the ways ethnic economy, debt, and related ethnic apparatus shape how people live their everyday life and how they navigate through options of future opportunities. This paper finds that ethnic businesses, especially restaurants and shops, together with the debt factor, form a powerful duo in shaping the paths towards upward mobility that is arguably limited in most of the cases. Ultimately, the findings show that while migrants show strong effort and resilience, deep structural barriers continue to restrict full integration and upward mobility.

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