Timeline.

During the first four weeks, South Korea controlled the potential spread of COVID-19 by using high-tech resources like tracking the use of credit cards and checking CCTV footage of confirmed patients. However, since 18 February, the number of cases increased to more than 1,700 after discovery of the fact that patient No. 31 was a member of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus. Some media reported that was difficult for KCDC to screen the patient because Shincheonji teaches that illness is sin. Many members were uncooperative with KCDC and could not be contacted. Shincheonji denied this, and other sources report that the sect did cooperate with the authorities. About half of confirmed cases were linked to the Shincheonji Church as of 27 February; this was verified by health officials. As of 10 March, the KCDC was able to contact and test most of the Shincheonji Church members, with the total number of tests nationally standing at around 200,000.

20 January – 17 February.

On 20 January, the first confirmed case was identified as a 35-year-old Chinese woman. The first South Korean national to be infected occurred three days later was a 55-year-old man who worked in Wuhan and returned for a checkup with flu symptoms. The two infection reports were publicly released on 24 January.  On 26 January, a third case as a 54-year-old South Korean man. He had used a rental car and visited three restaurants, a hotel, a convenience store and met his family before admitting himself to hospital. All these places were disinfected.  On 27 January, a fourth case was reported as a 55-year-old South Korean man who returned from Wuhan on 20 January. He first experienced flu symptoms on 21 January and suffered further complications four days later, eventually turning himself in. Both cases were tallied into formal records on 27 January.  On 1 February, an update on the first four patients indicated that the first three patients were showing weaker symptoms and recovering well while the fourth patient was getting treatment from pneumonia. Rumours circulated that the fourth patient had died which health authorities denied.  Two more confirmed cases were

18 February – 29 February.

On 18 February, South Korea confirmed its 31st case in Daegu, a member of the Shincheonji religious organisation. The patient continued to go to gatherings of Shincheonji days after showing symptoms, which are typically held with people in very close proximity and include physical contact of the members. Many of the patient's close contacts would turn out to be infected, triggering a drastic escalation of the South Korean spread of confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection.  On 19 February, the number of confirmed cases increased by 20. On 20 February 70 new cases were confirmed, giving

March.

On 2 March, there were over 4,200 confirmed cases. With an additional 4,000 cases of COVID-19 within two weeks, and roughly 60% of the total infections nationwide having stemmed from the church, the Seoul city government asked prosecutors to press charges against the religious group's founder and senior members for murder, causing harm, and for violating the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act. Interviews have occurred with all 230,000 members of the religious group and nearly 9,000 were said to be showing symptoms of the virus. Due to the number of infections

April.

As infection rates have risen outside Korea leading to increases of sick arriving in the country (476 of 9,661 cases were imported as of 30 March), the KCDC will be implementing stronger infectious disease control measures for travelers coming from overseas as of 1 April. Additionally, new self-quarantine measures for travelers coming from Europe or the United States will be in effect from the same day. For example, those showing symptoms but test negative, and those who are without symptoms and are staying short-term in Korea, need to quarantine for two weeks in a government provided facility. Costs for the stay at the facility are the responsibility of

May.

After a sustained period of reported cases in the country being below 20, a new cluster emerged in central Seoul. A 29-year-old patient from Yongin was found to have visited at least five nightclubs in Itaewon during the late night hours of May 1 and the subsequent early morning hours of May 2. After having gone to other places in Seoul and neighboring Gyeonggi and Gangwon provinces, he tested positive for COVID-19 and was admitted to a hospital in Suwon. His more than 1,300 contacts, several among them

Containment.

In its efforts to fight and contain the virus, South Korea has combined testing with contact tracing.  Infected South Koreans are required to go into isolation in government shelters. Their phones and credit card data are used to trace their prior movements and find their contacts. Those who are determined to have been near the infected individual receive phone alerts with information about their prior movements.  According to

Preventive measures.

Those ordered to self-quarantine are required to download an app that

Impacts and reactions.

By 18 March, South Korea's KOSPI stock index had dropped nearly 30% compared to a month earlier. The drop began on 23 February, when the country raised the coronavirus alert to 'highest level'. On 15 March, the KOSPI closed at 1,771.44 and the Kosdaq finished at 524 points, down 7%, prompting the Financial Supervisory Commission to impose a six-month ban on short-selling, the first such action in nearly nine years. This was despite a markedly lower daily increase in cases. Automaker Hyundai Motor Company, having shut down its factories as the outbreak intensified, saw exports drop 21.4% in February from the same month last year.

Social impact.

As of 25 February, Daegu officials were aggressively warning residents to take precautions, while allowing private businesses such as restaurants to stay open. As a precautionary measure, many restaurants check the temperatures of their customers before accepting them. It is common for "offices, hotels, and other large buildings" to use thermal image cameras in order to identify people with fevers. All Daegu's public libraries, museums, churches, day-care centers and courts had been closed.  Apart from the city of Daegu and the church community involved, most of South Korea is operating close to normality, although nine planned festivals have been closed and tax-free retailers are closing. The South Korean military manpower agency made an announcement that conscription from Daegu will temporarily be suspended. The "Daegu Office of Education" decided to postpone the start of every school in the region by one week.  Numerous educational institutes have temporarily

Travel restrictions.

As of 20 March, a total of 171 countries and territories had issued entry bans or suspended visas for travelers from South Korea. On 16

Number of inspections.

The Blue House announced on 28 February the current status of coronavirus tests in Korea, comparing the testing situation in the United States and Japan. The number

Reactions from KMA.

On 26 January, the Korean Medical Association (KMA) asked the government to temporarily bar entry to all travelers arriving from mainland China, but this recommendation was not followed. On 27 January, KMA President Choi Dae-zip said: "The third confirmed case indicates that we have reached the point where we have to get rid of passive stance and actively prepare for the worsening

Public reactions.

Presidential approval rating.

Although there are many confirmed cases of COVID-19, President Moon Jae-in's approval rating rose by two percentage points to 44%. During the MERS crisis, the previous President

Anti-foreigner sentiment.

In February 2020, an entrance to a South Korean restaurant in downtown Seoul reportedly had a sign in red Chinese characters stating: "No Chinese Allowed." "No Chinese" signs have been cropping up, and some businesses are simply banning all foreigners. Some foreign residents have been excluded from the government mask distribution program as it is currently only allowed to 1.25 million foreigners who were subscribed to the public health insurance. Concerning COVID-19, more than 760,000 South Korean citizens have signed a petition

Homophobia.

On May 1, a 29 year old patient from Yongin visited several night clubs in Itaewon, a district in Seoul with multiple LGBTQ friendly nightclubs. When the infection spread, homophobic comments were left on CCTV videos of the club in question. The mayor of Seoul has threatened to send police to the homes of people who may have been infected, raising concerns over anti-LGBTQ harassment. Jeong Gol Lee, general director of a LGTBQ rights group in South Korea, said there have been many malicious reports about gay men since the Itaewon cluster emerged.

International response.

On 24 February, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) upgraded the status of South Korea to level 3 (avoid non-essential travels due to widespread community transmission).  On 28 February, Charles Schwab Corporation advised employees who had travelled to China and South Korea to self-quarantine for 14

View of foreign media on COVID-19 in South Korea.

"The Washington Post" has praised the South Korean government's handling of coronavirus outbreak and stated that South Korea is a model for the U.S. response instead of Iran. "The Washington Post" also appreciated South Korea's response as a successful model for democratic countries.  Agence France-Presse has compared South Korea's handling of coronavirus outbreak with China. The newspaper stated that "While China locked down cities, Seoul embraced widespread testing and public notice of movements of those infected, raising some privacy concerns". Also, AFP analyzed that the South Korean government handled the crisis using a model of open information, public participation, and widespread testing. Additionally, according to the paper, Masahiro Kami, a chairperson of the Tokyo-based Medical Governance Research Institute stated that South Korea is a good model for every country for handling the coronavirus outbreak.  WSJ analyzed the aggressive Coronavirus Test Program in South Korea. The government contacted the citizens proactively to test the

Gradual lifting of restrictions.

As of April 18, South Korea only detected single-digit numbers of new cases. Pre-season baseball is scheduled to start April 20, without fans in the stands, with the regular season to start in early May. They will be the second country in the world, after Taiwan, to hold baseball games this year. Each player's temperature will be taken twice before a game. Players will be highly encouraged to wear masks in the clubhouse and in other places, except for in the dugout and on the field. Barehand high fives and handshakes will be prohibited. Umpires will wear masks.  If a player tests positive, that ballpark will not be used for two days, in order to make way for cleaning and allot time for the virus to die. League officials will then make a decision on whether the season can continue based on how much contact that player has had with other players. South Koreas professional soccer league, K-League, will be the first major soccer league to resume play since the coronavirus pandemic started. There will be restrictions on talking and spitting.  On May 20, schools began to reopen in the city of Incheon, but immediately sent all students home after two students tested positive for coronavirus. On May 28, the Korean CDC reported 79 new cases (all but 10 at a distribution center in Bucheon), and this led to hundreds of schools closing and 838 other schools cancelling plans to reopen and instead continuing with remote learning.  <br

The COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). On 20 January 2020, the first case in South Korea was announced. The number of confirmed cases increased on 19 February by 20, and on 20 February by 58 or 70, giving a total of 346 confirmed cases on 21 February 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Korea (KCDC), with the sudden jump mostly attributed to "Patient 31" who participated in a gathering at a Shincheonji Church of Jesus the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony church in Daegu.

La pandémie de Covid-19 en Corée du Sud est liée à la pandémie de Covid-19 venue de Chine à partir de. Les premiers cas confirmés viennent de personnalités s'étant rendues à Wuhan, épicentre de la contamination. La propagation prend de l'importance lors du diagnostic positif de la « patiente 31 », considérée comme un cas de superinfection, le après avoir côtoyé plus d'un millier de personnes au sein de son organisation religieuse, l'église Shincheonji de Jésus : elle avait en effet participé à des rassemblements que cette église organisait.


Contents.

In the postface to the "Kongzi Jiayu", its author describes the collection as discussions Confucius had with his disciples and others, recorded by his disciples. Selected discussions were published as the "Analects" ("Lunyu"), while the rest was collected in the "Jiayu". This characterization is consistent with the content of the "Jiayu", which contains nearly all the Confucian lore found in such diverse ancient texts as the "Zuozhuan", "Guoyu", "Mencius", "Han Feizi", "Book of Rites", "Han Shi Waizhuan", "Lüshi Chunqiu", "Huainanzi", etc., except what is included in the "Analects", the "Classic of Filial Piety", and a few other works.  The topics covered by the "Kongzi Jiayu" include Confucius' detailed ancestry, his parents, his birth, episodes and events from his life, and his sayings. His disciples also feature prominently, including one section devoted entirely to Yan Hui, Confucius' favourite. In all, 76 disciples are mentioned by name.

Influence and controversy.

The postface to the "Kongzi Jiayu" asserts that it was compiled by Kong Anguo, an influential scholar and descendant of Confucius who lived in the 2nd century BC, from actual recordings of Confucius' sayings made by his disciples. Soon after Wang Su, who was a critic of the scholar Zheng Xuan, published his version of the "Jiayu", Ma Zhao (馬昭), a follower of Zheng, declared that it had been "amended and enlarged" by Wang.  Despite lingering doubts about its authenticity, the "Jiayu" was influential throughout the Tang and Song dynasties. Sima Zhen, author of an important commentary to Sima Qian's "Shiji", valued it as highly as the "Shiji" itself. Zhu Xi, the leading Neo-Confucianist, also held it in high regard.  A new rationalist intellectual movement, Han learning, gained influence during the Qing dynasty and began a thorough criticism of the "Kongzi Jiayu" and other purportedly authentic ancient works. A large number of scholars, including Sun Zhizu (孫志祖), Fan Jiaxiang (范家相), Yao Jiheng (姚際恒), Cui Shu (崔述), Pi Xirui (皮錫瑞), Wang Pinzhen (王聘珍), and Ding Yan, all reached the same verdict that the "Jiayu" was a forgery. Sun and Fan both wrote detailed analyses supporting their conclusion. Although the "Jiayu" had its defenders, represented by Chen Shike (陳士珂), they were a small minority.  In the 20th century, Gu Jiegang, the leading force of the highly influential Doubting Antiquity School, reaffirmed the Qing scholars' conclusion that the "Kongzi Jiayu" was a forgery by Wang Su, and called it "worthless" for the study of Confucius. As a result, few modern scholars studied the work.

Western scholarship.

Due to the controversy surrounding the "Kongzi Jiayu", and the fact that much of its content was known from other ancient texts, early Western sinologists did not pay much attention to the work. A few, however, including James Legge, Alfred Forke, and Richard Wilhelm, believed the "Jiayu" was authentic, despite the forgery verdict reached by the Chinese scholars.  Robert Paul Kramers translated the first ten sections of the "Kongzi Jiayu" into English, published in 1950 under the title "K'ung Tzu Chia Yü: The School Sayings of Confucius". In his introduction, Kramers rejects the possibility that Wang Su may have forged the entire work.

Archaeological discoveries.

In 1973, Chinese archaeologists excavated a large Western Han dynasty tomb in Bajiaolang, Dingzhou, Hebei province, which was dated to 55 BC. Among the bamboo strips discovered in the tomb was a text entitled "Ru Jia Zhe Yan" (, "Words of the Ru (Confucian) Lineage"), which bears great similarities to the "Kongzi Jiayu".  In 1977, archaeologists discovered the Shuanggudui tomb, sealed in 165 BC, in Fuyang, Anhui province. A wooden board found in the tomb contains the table of contents of "Ru Jia Zhe Yan", which is also very similar to the received text of the "Kongzi Jiayu".  These archaeological discoveries, together with research on the Shanghai Museum bamboo slips, and publication of the "Kongzi Jiayu" text from the Dunhuang manuscripts in the British Library, have convinced many scholars that the received text of the "Kongzi Jiayu" could not have been forged by Wang Su, and could well have been compiled by Kong Anguo, as Wang had claimed. Scholars are now paying renewed attention to the text. Yang Chaoming (楊朝明), author of the 2005 book "Kongzi Jiayu Tongjie" (孔子家語通解), considers the "Kongzi Jiayu" no less valuable than the "Analects" to the study of Confucius.

The Kongzi Jiayu (), translated as The School Sayings of Confucius or Family Sayings of Confucius, is a collection of sayings of Confucius (Kongzi), written as a supplement to the "Analects" ("Lunyu").

Les Entretiens familiers de Confucius, de leur titre chinois Kongzi Jiayu ( ; transcription de Harlez : Kong-tze kia-yu), sont un recueil d'entretiens de Confucius rédigé en supplément aux "Analectes".


Blocus autochtone anti-gazoduc de 2020 au Canada

Coastal GasLink pipeline project.

The Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline is a long natural gas pipeline designed to carry natural gas from mines in north-eastern British Columbia to a liquefaction plant located at the port of Kitimat. The project is intended to supply natural gas to several Asian energy companies, who are partners in the project. The pipeline's route passes through unceded lands of several First Nations peoples, including of <nowiki>Wetʼsuwetʼen</nowiki> territory. Within the Wetʼsuwetʼen territory, the pipeline does not pass through reserves, only through traditional territory.  The consortium developed its plans for the pipeline route in the early 2010s, securing the approval of several First Nations councils along the route, but did not secure the approval of the Office of the Wetʼsuwetʼen, the hereditary government of the <nowiki>Wetʼsuwetʼen</nowiki> peoples, although most of the elected band councils of the Wetʼsuwetʼen First Nations did enter into a benefits agreement with TCEnergy, the owner of the pipeline project. In 2014, British Columbia authorities approved the environmental assessment of the project, then approved permits to construct the project in 2015 and 2016. TC Energy was given final approval by its partners to begin construction of the project in 2018, still without the consent of all of the <nowiki>Wetʼsuwetʼen</nowiki> hereditary chiefs. Only one of the nine sitting house chiefs, Samooh (Herb Naziel) supports the project.

Wet’suwet’en opposition.

Background.

The Wet’suwet’en are an Indigenous nation made up of five clans including the: Gilseyhu (Big Frog), Laksilyu (Small Frog), Gitdumden (Wolf/Bear), Laksamshu (Fireweed) and the Tsayu (Beaver Clan). These five clans' territory lies in the central western portion of British Columbia. The language spoken by the Wet’suwet’en people is Babine-Witsuwit’en, one of the Athabaskan languages. Their traditional government, predating Confederation, is a system of chiefs representing each clan, called the hereditary chiefs. The chiefs have been represented by the non-profit Office of the Wetsuweten since 1994, before having a joint office with the Gitxsan. The elected band councils were created by order of the Government of Canada, under the "Indian Act", to govern the reserves put in place, of which the Wet’suwet’en have several.  According to hereditary chief Na’Moks (John Ridsdale), "it's the hereditary chiefs' duty to protect the territory". According to Na’Moks, the pipeline "is going along rivers, it will go over rivers and even in some instances, it will go under. 190 kilometres of the proposed route will run through our territory. It threatens our water, our salmon, and our rights, our title, our jurisdiction". The pipeline would also go through areas of cultural significance to the Wet’suwet’en.  In 1997, the Supreme Court of Canada issued the Delgamuukw-Gisday’wa decision, which ruled that aboriginal title exists as an exclusive territorial right for indigenous people. The ruling was made in an appeal of a Supreme Court of British Columbia decision, which had ruled against recognition of Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan land rights. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that a new trial was warranted, but encouraged a negotiated settlement. The Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan then entered the treaty process with the BC government. However, the BC government's position that the Nations would only receive 4-6 per cent of their territory was unacceptable and the nations walked away from the process. Hence, the boundaries of the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan nations' traditional territories are not yet recognized in Canadian law. In the absence of an agreement over aboriginal title and rights, the hereditary chiefs' position is that their full consent is required for any energy or resource projects within their territory, and the CGL does not have their consent. The rights and title issue has also been the basis for several solidarity protests, which have also objected to the actions and presence of the RCMP within the Wet’suwet’en traditional territory (known in Babine-Witsuwit’en as ).

Blockades, injunctions and RCMP interventions.

2010.

Beginning in 2010, the Wetʼsuwetʼen hereditary chiefs and their supporters set up barricades and checkpoints along the Morice West Forest Service Road that provides access to the construction of pipeline projects that threatened their territory, originally the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines, and later also Coastal GasLink (planning for which began in 2012). The largest of those camps is Unistʼotʼen Camp, directly in the path of the pipeline, established in 2010 as a checkpoint, and has since added a healing centre.

2018.

After TC Energy received its partners' go-ahead in November, it appealed to the Supreme Court of British Columbia to grant an injunction to stop the blockade of its intended route through the Wetʼsuwetʼen territory. A temporary injunction was issued in December by BC Supreme Court Judge Marguerite Church to allow CGL pre-construction work.

2019.

On January 7, the RCMP conducted a raid to enforce TC Energy's injunction, removing the barricades on the Morice Forest Service Road and arresting 14 of the Wetʼsuwetʼen land defenders. The RCMP faced criticism from protesters for the amount of force used in the bloodless raid, including police snipers. The RCMP set up a continuous presence along the road, setting up a local detachment called the Community Industry Safety Office. The Wetʼsuwetʼen remained in place along the road, but did not make any further efforts to disrupt the CGL pre-construction work.  In December, TC Energy prepared to start construction in the Wetʼsuwetʼen territory. It applied for an extension of the injunction order as the land defenders had resumed blockading access after the pre-construction work was done. This injunction was extended by Judge Church of the BC Supreme Court on December 31. The extension included an order authorizing the RCMP to enforce the injunction. In her decision, Church stated: "There is a public interest in upholding the rule of law and restraining illegal behaviour and protecting of the right of the public, including the plaintiff, to access on Crown roads," and "the defendants may genuinely believe in their rights under indigenous law to prevent the plaintiff from entering Dark House territory, but the law does not recognize any right to blockade and obstruct the plaintiff from pursuing lawfully authorized activities." In a public statement, the Wetʼsuwetʼen chief rejected the decision.

2020.

On January 1, after rejecting the injunction, the hereditary chiefs ordered the eviction of the RCMP and Coastal GasLink personnel from the Wetʼsuwetʼen territory.  On January 30, the RCMP announced that they would stand down while the hereditary chiefs and the province met to discuss and try to come to an agreement. On February 3, the Office of the Wetʼsuwetʼen asked for a judicial review of the environmental approval for the pipeline. All parties issued statements on February 4, 2020 that the talks had broken down.  On February 6, the RCMP began removing the blockades on Wetʼsuwetʼen territory, arresting 28 land defenders at camps along the route between February 6 and 9. All were released within two days. The RCMP also detained several reporters and were accused of interfering with the freedom of the press. Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs Grand Chief Stewart Phillip stated that "we are in absolute outrage and a state of painful anguish as we witness the Wetʼsuwetʼen people having their title and rights brutally trampled on and their right to self-determination denied."  On February 11, the RCMP announced that the road to the construction site was cleared and TC Energy announced that work would resume the following Monday. After the hereditary chiefs made it a condition for talks with government, the RCMP closed their local office and moved to their detachment in Houston on February 22.  On June 5, the BC Prosecution Service issued a statement saying that criminal contempt charges for 22 members of the Wetʼsuwetʼen Nation and their supporters would not be pursued. Additionally, Coastal GasLink issued a statement that they would not pursue civil contempt charges against the protesters.

Meetings and MOU.

On February 27, 2020 meetings began between the hereditary chiefs and the Canadian and BC governments, represented by Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett and BC Indigenous Relations Minister Scott Fraser. The meetings were planned to last two days. They took place in Smithers, British Columbia. For the duration of those two days, the RCMP agreed to stop all patrols on the Morice West Forest Service Road and to shut down their mobile detachment (CISO) in the area. In addition, Coastal GasLink agreed to suspend operations in the territory during the talks. RCMP and CGL work resumed on the territory once the meetings were complete.  On March 1, after three days of meetings, the Canadian Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister, the BC Indigenous Relations Minister and representatives of the Wet’suwet’en, including hereditary chiefs and matriarchs announced a proposed agreement to address the Wet’suwet’en land rights, title and a protocol for addressing any future projects impacting on their territory, in the form of a memorandum of understanding (MOU). Specific details of the agreement were not immediately released, because the MOU had to first be seen and ratified by the broader Wet’suwet’en nation. However, it was made clear by all parties to the discussions that the agreement did not concern the Coastal GasLink Pipeline project.  On March 10, a statement was released by Theresa Tait-Day, president and one of three founders of the Wet’suwet’en Matrilineal Coalition (WMC), who was stripped of the subchief name Wi’hali’yte in the mid-2010s over her support of the pipeline project and suspected conflict of interest. Tait-Day stated that the proposed agreement made on March 1 was not inclusive of the entire community, saying "the government has legitimized the meeting with the five [sic] hereditary chiefs and left out their entire community. We can not be dictated to by a group of five guys [sic]." According to Tait-Day, "over 80 per cent of the people in our community said they wanted LNG [(First Nations LNG Alliance)] to proceed."  Meetings were held among the individual clans of the Wet’suwet’en throughout March. The memorandum of understanding was ratified by the attendees of one meeting of the Laksilyu (Small Frog Clan). They held a meeting via Zoom on April 22. According to the hereditary chiefs, the Gilseyhu (Big Frog Clan) met once and endorsed the MOU, as did the Laksamshu (Fireweed and Owl Clan) and the Tsayu (Beaver Clan) after two meetings. The Gitdumden (Wolf and Bear Clan) met twice, but their third meeting (scheduled for March 16) was cancelled due to a death in the community.  A planned all-clans meeting on March 19 was cancelled, for a variety of factors including concerns among the hereditary chiefs over the spread of COVID-19 and death in the community (unrelated to COVID-19).  On April 30th, the hereditary chiefs made a joint statement with the provincial and federal governments that all five clans had agreed to ratify the MOU after having reviewed and discussed it in the prior weeks. However, the elected chiefs of five Wet’suwet’en band governments (Nee Tahi Buhn Indian Band, Skin Tyee Nation, T’silh Kaz Koh First Nation, Wet’suwet’en First Nation, and Witset First Nation) released their own joint statement in response the following day, calling on the agreement to be withdrawn, saying they weren't consulted properly. A further statement released on May 11 called once again for the agreement to be withdrawn so the elected governments could be consulted properly, and further calling for Minister Bennett to resign. The May 11 statement was not signed by Chief Sandra George of Witset or Chief Cynthia Joseph of Hagwilget.  The draft agreement was finally distributed to the elected band councils on May 7, to all other Wet’suwet’en the following day, and finally it was published on the Office of the Wet’suwet’en website on May 12.  The MOU was signed by hereditary chiefs, Minister Bennett, and Minister Fraser on May 14, 2020, in a virtual ceremony via Zoom. The memorandum does not address the Coastal GasLink Pipeline project, nor does it alter Wet’suwet’en rights and title. The MOU states that the Canadian and British Columbian governments recognize that those rights and title are held under the Wet’suwet’en's own system of governance, and commits Canada and BC to a three-month process to craft a formal Affirmation Agreement that confirm aboriginal title as a legal right. It also establishes a twelve-month timeline for negotiation on jurisdiction including over land-use planning, resources, water, wildlife, fish, and child and family wellness. Further, it acknowledges that reunification of the rift between the hereditary leadership and the elected band councils is an essential part of the implementation of the MOU.

Solidarity protests.

Protests on January 20, 2020 disrupted BC ferry service leaving from Swartz Bay, which is Victoria's main ferry link to the BC mainland. BC ferries later obtained a preemptive injunction to prevent anticipated future demonstrations from blocking Vancouver-Victoria ferry service.  Once the RCMP began to take down the Wetʼsuwetʼen blockades, protests sprang up across Canada in solidarity with the hereditary chiefs and the land defenders. On February 11, protesters surrounded the BC Legislature in Victoria, preventing the traditional ceremonies around the reading of the Throne Speech by the Lieutenant Governor. Members of the Legislature had to have police assistance to enter or used alternate entrances. Other protests took place in Nelson, Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Sherbrooke, and Halifax.  Several major protests blocked access to the Port of Vancouver, Deltaport, and two other ports in Metro Vancouver for a number of days before the Metro Vancouver police began enforcing an injunction on the morning of February 10, 2020, arresting 47 protesters who refused to cease obstructing the port.  Protests on February 16 and 17 temporarily blocked the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls, Ontario and Thousand Islands Bridge in Ivy Lea, Ontario, two major border crossings between the United States and Canada. At the same time, Miꞌkmaq demonstrators partially blocked access to the Confederation Bridge, the sole road link to Prince Edward Island. On February 18, several activists were arrested for trespassing at BC Premier Horgan's residence.  A nation-wide student walkout occurred March 4, with university students across the country showing their support for the Wetʼsuwetʼen protesters.  The protests led to the creation of several hashtags, used widely on social media in relation to coverage of the protests. These include #ShutDownCanada, #WetsuwetenStrong, #LandBack, and #AllEyesOnWetsuweten.

Rail disruptions.

Other First Nations, activists and other supporters of the <nowiki>Wetʼsuwetʼen</nowiki> hereditary chiefs targeted railway lines for their demonstrations of solidarity. Near Belleville, Ontario, members of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation began a blockade of the Canadian National Railway rail line just north of Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory on February 6, 2020, causing Via Rail to cancel trains on their Toronto–Montreal and Toronto-Ottawa routes. The line is critical to the CNR network in Eastern Canada as CNR has no other east–west rail lines through Eastern Ontario. However, in order to mitigate major economic disruption, CNR brokered a "workaround" agreement with Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) to share tracks in order to avoid the Mohawk protesters.  Other protests blocking rail lines halted service on Via Rail's Prince Rupert and Prince George lines, running on CNR tracks. Protests on the CNR line west of Winnipeg additionally blocked the only trans-Canada passenger rail route. Protests disrupted GO train lines in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and Exo's Candiac line in Montreal. CPR rail lines were also disrupted in downtown Toronto and south of Montreal. The Société du Chemin de fer de la Gaspésie (SCFG) freight railway between Gaspé and Matapedia was blockaded on February 10 by members of the Listuguj Miꞌgmaq First Nation.  Starting on February 6, Via Rail announced passenger train cancellations on a day-to-day basis. Trains on the Toronto-Ottawa and Toronto-Montreal routes were cancelled first. Prince George-Prince Rupert service was suspended on February 11. Canadian National Railway (CNR) rail freight traffic was also halted along these lines. Other Canadian routes were intermittently disrupted as well.  On February 13, CNR shut down its rail lines east of Toronto. On the same day Via Rail, which rents these lines for its passenger service, announced it would be shutting down its entire network, with the exception of the Sudbury–White River train line and the Winnipeg–Churchill train between Churchill and The Pas, until further notice.  Amtrak international service from New York City to Toronto and Montreal was not affected. Amtrak rail service between Seattle and Vancouver on BNSF Railway Company lines was intermittently blocked; Amtrak's bus operation over the same route was not affected.  CNR issued multiple injunctions against the protestors, including several separate injunctions against the Mohawk protesters near Belleville. The Ontario Provincial Police decided not to act immediately on the injunctions.  The rail blockade of Prince Rupert was lifted on February 14. On February 18, VIA announced partial restoration of passenger service starting February 20, between Ottawa and Quebec City. Via later announced it would resume some south-western Ontario routes. Trans-Canada passenger service was not restored.  On February 19, a group of about 20 protesters from a group called "Cuzzins for Wet’suwet’en" erected a blockade on a CN rail line in west Edmonton, Alberta. CN obtained a court injunction, and less than twelve hours after the blockade began, it was dismantled by counter-protesters after a CN legal representative arrived to serve the injunction.  On February 19, activists set up a blockade on the Mont-Saint-Hilaire rail line in Saint-Lambert, Quebec, promising to stay until the RCMP leaves the disputed zone in Wetʼsuwetʼen territory. The blockade caused Via Rail to postpone resuming service between Montreal and Quebec City. The Mont-Saint-Hilaire rail line was cleared on February 21, 2019 after Quebec Police arrived to enforce a CNR injunction.  On February 20, another blockade of CPR tracks sprang up between Kamloops and Chase in British Columbia. The protesters left voluntarily on February 21, after the RCMP offered to leave the Wet’suwet’en land. The group vowed to return in four days if a dialogue was not started between the prime minister and the hereditary chiefs. This was followed by CPR writing an open letter to Prime Minister Trudeau, asking him to speak directly with the hereditary chiefs. The Mont-Saint-Hilaire rail line was cleared on February 21, 2020 after Quebec Police arrived to enforce a CNR injunction.  On March 5, the rail blockades in Kahnawake and the Gaspé Peninsula were removed peacefully by the First Nations involved.  In early March, Canada's medical officer had advised against gatherings, as part of the country's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and by the second week of March, most blockades had come down. Despite the widespread closures in response to the pandemic, CGL is continuing construction in the disputed territory. Pipeline opponents launched a letter-writing campaign urging the company to stop on March 21.  Businesses attacked by protesters, such as CN Rail, have filed lawsuits against protesters to recover damages.

Impact.

The blockades led to the shutdown of CNR's Eastern Canadian network, causing a complete halt of freight traffic from Halifax west to Toronto. On February 19, Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters estimated that million in goods were being stranded each day of the shutdown. An executive of the Business Council of Canada called the shutdown "potentially a catastrophe for the economy" and said that rail "is the backbone of infrastructure in this country."  Due to a poor growing season which resulted in an unusually late harvest just before Christmas, Canadian wheat and barley shipments were already in a backlog and were further impacted by the rail blockades. Spring farm supplies such as fertilizer were also delayed by the rail shutdown. Canadian grain farmers have previously advocated to have rail transport declared an essential service. Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Mary Robinson warned of "huge financial consequences" as farmers do not get paid until products are delivered to the market.  Dennis Darby, president and CEO of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association, states that Canadian manufacturers rely on 4,500 rail cars per day, which represent both supply chain and delivery of finished products. Many of these products are too large or bulky to be shipped by other means. The total value of these deliveries amounts to billion annually. Chemicals trade group Responsible Distribution Canada warned of shortages of chlorine to purify drinking water. Supply chains for chlorine, jet fuel and de-icing fluid all rely on rail transport: "You can't put it in a truck and send it down the 401" said an executive of the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada. Mining, which accounted for 20% of Canada's 2018 exports, also moves "most" of its output by rail. By February 21, 4,000 containers reportedly sat on the docks of Montreal waiting for transport and no grain had arrived for shipment at the port. In Halifax, the Atlantic Container Line has diverted to New York and Baltimore. In Vancouver, goods waiting to be shipped east led to a backlog of 50 ships waiting to be unloaded.  The disruption of propane rail shipments was expected to lead to shortages and rationing, during a time when many communities were experiencing extremely cold weather. In Atlantic Canada, at the end of the propane supply line, reserves fell to a five-day supply by February 14. Superior Propane, Canada's largest supplier, rationed distribution in Atlantic Canada.  SCFG laid off five of its 30 employees on February 14. On February 18, CNR laid off 450 employees for reasons related to the pipeline disruptions; the company has stated that as many as 6,000 of its 24,000 employees could be laid off. On February 19, Via Rail announced temporary layoffs of up to 1,000 people due to the blockades. By the first week of March, the majority of the laid-off Via Rail employees and all of the affected CNR employees were recalled.  On March 13, Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux released a report that the protests would leave "a minimal dent in the pace of economic growth", estimating that the blockades would reduce Canadian economic growth by 0.2% for the first quarter of 2020. For the whole year, the expectation was for the GDP to fall by, about 0.01% of the total GDP, which Giroux referred to as "a blip", despite the warnings by businesses of shortages, referred to by the PBO as "overblown". The PBO said that the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic would likely have a greater impact on the economy.

Federal government response.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said politicians should not be telling the police how to deal with protesters and that resolution should come through dialogue. The Canadian government does not tell the police what to do operationally. In any case, the police services are under provincial or municipal control.  On February 12, Canada's Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller began a dialogue with several indigenous leaders from different parts of Canada. On February 15, Miller met the Mohawks in a ceremonial encounter on the CNR train tracks to renew a 17th Century treaty between the Iroquois and the British Crown known as the Silver Covenant Chain. Miller then discussed the blockade with the leaders of Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation, along with Kanenhariyo, one of the primary organizers of the protest near Tyendinaga. Miller asked for a temporary drawback of the protest but his request was refused after Wetʼsuwetʼen hereditary Chief Woos, who was on the phone, stated that the RCMP was still on his territory and "they are out there with guns, threatening us." Leaked audio of the meetings included a Mohawk resident in the meeting telling the minister to "Get the red coats out first, get the blue coats out... then we can maybe have some common discussions". Miller returned to Ottawa and met with Prime Minister Trudeau and other members of the Cabinet called the "Incident Response Group". Trudeau had returned from a foreign relations trip to deal with the issue.  On February 18, the House of Commons of Canada resumed after the winter break. Trudeau addressed the Commons asking Canadians for patience as the government sought a negotiated end. "On all sides, people are upset and frustrated. I get it. It's understandable because this is about things that matter — rights and livelihoods, the rule of law and our democracy." Opposition leader Andrew Scheer condemned the government's refusal to use the police to stop the illegal blockades, calling it "the weakest response to a national crisis in Canadian history. Will our country be one of the rule of the law, or will our country be one of the rule of the mob?" Trudeau held a private meeting with the other opposition parties' leaders, barring Scheer after his comments.  On February 18, the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) held a press conference in Ottawa. AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde called for all parties to engage in dialogue. "It's on everybody. It's not on any one individual. I'm just calling on all the parties to come together, get this dialogue started in a constructive way."  On February 20, according to a statement from Canadian Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, the RCMP agreed to move its personnel from Wetʼsuwetʼen territory to nearby Houston. The next day, Prime Minister Trudeau held a press conference to state "Canadians have been patient. Our government has been patient, but it has been two weeks and the barricades need to come down now. The government had made repeated overtures to the hereditary chiefs to hold meetings but had been ignored. You can’t have dialogue when only one party is coming to the table. Our hand remains extended should someone want to reach for it. We have come to a moment where the onus is now on Indigenous leadership."  Shortly after Trudeau's statement on February 21, the <nowiki>Wetʼsuwetʼen</nowiki> hereditary chiefs released a statement reaffirming that discussions would continue once all RCMP and CGL personnel vacate the <nowiki>Wetʼsuwetʼen</nowiki> territory. At the same time, the Mohawk of Tyendinaga asserted that their rail blockade would be removed as soon as Wet’suwet’en legal observers confirm that the RCMP is off their land. On February 24, the day of the Mohawk blockade removal by the OPP, Indigenous Services Minister Miller repeated that the Liberal government was "still open for dialogue" and willing to negotiate.

Criticism.

On February 24, in a statement signed and supported by over 200 Canadian lawyers and legal scholars, Beverly Jacobs and Sylvia McAdam of the University of Windsor, Alex Neve of Amnesty International, and Harsha Walia of the BC Civil Liberties Association responded to the calls for the "rule of law." In their opinion, it is the Canadian federal and provincial governments that are breaking international law, not the <nowiki>Wetʼsuwetʼen</nowiki> hereditary chiefs. They also pointed out that the requirements laid out in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples have continued to be ignored by Canadian courts, although Canadian governments have expressed a willingness to follow the UN resolution. They call for an end to the violation of indigenous persons' right to free, prior and informed consent.  In early May, the elected chiefs of several Wetʼsuwetʼen band councils (primarily Nee-Tahi-Buhn, Skin Tyee, Tsʼil Kaz Koh, and Wetʼsuwetʼen First Nations) called on Minister Bennett to resign, as the Canadian and BC governments, along with the hereditary chiefs, pressed forward with the memorandum of understanding. In a statement on May 11, before the signing of the memorandum, the elected chiefs called on Minister Bennett to resign due to her "disregard for [their] special relationship". They repeated this demand in a statement on May 14, after the signing of the MOU, and added a call for Minister Marc Miller to speak up about his "intention to protect the programs and services the We people depend on".

The 2020 Canadian pipeline and railway protests were a series of civil disobedience protests held in Canada. The main issue behind the protests was the construction of the Coastal GasLink Pipeline (CGL) through of Wetʼsuwetʼen First Nation territory in British Columbia (BC), land that is unceded. Other concerns of the protesters were indigenous land rights, the actions of police, land conservation, and the environmental impact of energy projects.

Les blocus et manifestations anti-gazoduc de 2020 au Canada sont un mouvement de protestation contre le projet de construction du gazoduc Coastal GasLink (CGL) sur les territoires du peuple Wet'suwet'en dans la province de la Colombie-Britannique.


Overview.

Buddhist modernism emerged during the late 19th-century and early 20th-century colonial era, as a co-creation of Western Orientalists and reform-minded Buddhists. It appropriated elements of Western philosophy, psychological insights as well as themes increasingly felt to be secular and proper. It de-emphasized or denied ritual elements, cosmology, gods, icons, rebirth, karma, monasticism, clerical hierarchy and other Buddhist concepts. Instead, modernistic Buddhism has emphasized interior exploration, satisfaction in the current life, and themes such as cosmic interdependence. Some advocates of Buddhist modernism claim their new interpretations to be original teachings of the Buddha, and state that the core doctrines and traditional practices found in Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism are extraneous accretions that were interpolated and introduced after Buddha died. According to McMahan, Buddhism of the form found in the West today has been deeply influenced by this modernism.  Buddhist Modernist traditions are reconstructions and a reformulation with emphasis on rationality, meditation, compatibility with modern science about body and mind. In the modernistic presentations, Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhist practices are "detraditionalized", in that they are often presented in such a way that occludes their historical construction. Instead, Buddhist Modernists often employ an essentialized description of their tradition, where key tenets are reformulated in universal terms, and the modernistic practices significantly differ from Asian Buddhist communities with centuries-old traditions.

History.

The earliest western accounts of Buddhism were by 19th-century European travelers and Christian missionaries who, states Coleman, portrayed it as another "heathen religion with strange gods and exotic ceremonies", where their concern was not understanding the religion but to debunk it. By mid 19th-century, European scholars gave a new picture but once again in concepts understood in the West. They described Buddhism as a "life-denying faith" that rejected all the Christian ideas such as "God, man, life, eternity"; it was an exotic Asian religion that taught nirvana, which was explained then as "annihilation of the individual". In 1879, Edwin Arnold's book "The Light of Asia" presented a more sympathetic account of Buddhism, in the form of the life of the Buddha, emphasizing the parallels between the Buddha and the Christ. The sociopolitical developments in Europe, the rise of scientific theories such as those of Charles Darwin, in late 19th-century and early 20th-century created interest in Buddhism and other eastern religions, but it was studied in the West and those trained in Western education system with the prevalent cultural premises and modernism. The first comprehensive study of Buddhist modernism in the Theravada tradition as a distinct phenomenon was published in 1966 by Heinz Bechert. Bechert regarded Buddhist modernism as "modern Buddhist revivalism" in postcolonial societies like Sri Lanka. He identified several characteristics of Buddhist modernism: new interpretations of early Buddhist teachings, demythologisation and reinterpretation of Buddhism as "scientific religion", social philosophy or "philosophy of optimism", emphasis on equality and democracy, "activism" and social engagement, support of Buddhist nationalism, and the revival of meditation practice.

Japan: Neo-Buddhism.

The term Neo-Buddhism and modernism in the context of Japanese Buddhist and Western interactions appear in late 19th-century and early 20th-century publications. For example, Andre Bellesort used the term in 1901, while Louis de La Vallée-Poussin used it in a 1910 article. According to James Coleman, the first presenters of a modernistic Buddhism before a Western audience were Anagarika Dharmapala and Soyen Shaku in 1893 at The World Congress of Religion. Shaku's student D.T. Suzuki was a prolific writer, fluent in English and he introduced Zen Buddhism to Westerners.

"New Buddhism" and Japanese Nationalism.

Scholars such as Martin Verhoeven and Robert Sharf, as well as Japanese Zen monk G. Victor Sogen Hori, have argued that the breed of Japanese Zen that was propagated by New Buddhism ideologues, such as Imakita Kosen and Soyen Shaku, was not typical of Japanese Zen during their time, nor is it typical of Japanese Zen now. Although greatly altered by the Meiji Restoration, Japanese Zen still flourishes as a monastic tradition. The Zen Tradition in Japan, aside from the New Buddhism style of it, required a great deal of time and discipline from monks that laity would have difficulty finding. Zen monks were often expected to have spent several years in intensive doctrinal study, memorizing sutras and poring over commentaries, before even entering the monastery to undergo koan practice in sanzen with the roshi. The fact that Suzuki himself was able to do so as a layman was largely a result of New Buddhism.  At the onset of the Meiji period, in 1868, when Japan entered into the international community and began to industrialize and modernize at an astounding rate, Buddhism was briefly persecuted in Japan as "a corrupt, decadent, anti-social, parasitic, and superstitious creed, inimical to Japan's need for scientific and technological advancement." The Japanese government dedicated itself to the eradication of the tradition, which was seen as foreign, incapable of fostering the sentiments that would be vital for national, ideological cohesion. In addition to this, industrialization had taken its toll on the Buddhist establishment as well, leading to the breakdown of the parishioner system that had funded monasteries for centuries. In response to this seemingly intractable state of turmoil, a group of modern Buddhist leaders emerged to argue for the Buddhist cause. These leaders stood in agreement with the government persecution of Buddhism, stating that Buddhist institutions were indeed corrupted and in need of revitalization.  This Japanese movement was known as shin bukkyo, or "New Buddhism." The leaders themselves were university-educated intellectuals who had been exposed to a vast body of Western intellectual literature. The fact that what was presented to the West as Japanese Zen would be so commensurate with the Enlightenment critique of "superstitious," institutional, or ritual-based religion is due to this fact, as such ideals directly informed the creation of this new tradition. This reformulation work has roots in the writings of Eugène Burnouf in the 1840s, who expressed his liking for "the Brahmins, the Buddhists, the Zoroastrians" and a dislike for "the Jesuits" to Max Muller. Imakita Kosen, who would become D.T. Suzuki's teacher in Zen until his death in 1892, was an important figure in this movement. Largely responding to the Reformation critique of elite institutionalism, he opened Engakuji monastery to lay practitioners, which would allow students like Suzuki unprecedented access to Zen practice.  Advocates of New Buddhism, like Kosen and his successor Soyen Shaku, not only saw this movement as a defense of Buddhism against government persecution, they also saw it as a way to bring their nation into the modern world as a competitive, cultural force. Kosen himself was even employed by the Japanese government as a "national evangelist" during the 1870s. The cause of Japanese nationalism and the portrayal of Japan as a superior cultural entity on the international scene was at the heart of the Zen missionary movement. Zen would be touted as the essential Japanese religion, fully embodied by the bushido, or samurai spirit, an expression of the Japanese people in the fullest sense, in spite of the fact that this version of Zen was a recent invention in Japan that was largely based on Western philosophical ideals.  Soyen Shaku, Suzuki's teacher in Zen after Kosen's death in 1892, claimed "Religion is the only force in which the Western people know that they are inferior to the nations of the East... Let us wed the Great Vehicle [Mahayana Buddhism] to Western thought...at Chicago next year [referring to the 1893 World Parliament of Religions] the fitting time will come.” According to Martin Verhoeven, "The spiritual crisis of the West exposed its Achilles' heel to be vanquished. Though economically and technologically bested by the Western powers, Japan saw a chance to reassert its sense of cultural superiority via religion."

D.T. Suzuki.

For a number of reasons, several scholars have identified D.T. Suzuki—whose works were popular in the West from the 1930s onward, and particularly in the 1950s and 60s—as a "Buddhist Modernist." Suzuki's depiction of Zen Buddhism can be classified as Buddhist Modernist in that it employs all of these traits. That he was a university-educated intellectual steeped in knowledge of Western philosophy and literature allowed him to be particularly successful and persuasive in arguing his case to a Western audience. As Suzuki presented it, Zen Buddhism was a highly practical religion whose emphasis on direct experience made it particularly comparable to forms of mysticism that scholars such as William James had emphasized as the fountainhead of all religious sentiment. As McMahan explains, "In his discussion of humanity and nature, Suzuki takes Zen literature out of its social, ritual, and ethical contexts and reframes it in terms of a language of metaphysics derived from German Romantic idealism, English Romanticism, and American Transcendentalism." Drawing on these traditions, Suzuki presents a version of Zen that has been described by hostile critics as detraditionalized and essentialized: Zen is the ultimate fact of all philosophy and religion. Every intellectual effort must culminate in it, or rather must start from it, if it is to bear any practical fruits. Every religious faith must spring from it if it has to prove at all efficiently and livingly workable in our active life. Therefore Zen is not necessarily the fountain of Buddhist thought and life alone; it is very much alive also in Christianity, Mohammedanism, in Taoism, and even positivistic Confucianism. What makes all these religions and philosophies vital and inspiring, keeping up their usefulness and efficiency, is due to the presence in them of what I may designate as the Zen element. Scholars such as Robert Sharf have argued that such statements also betray inklings of nationalist sentiment, common to many early Buddhist Modernists, in that they portray Zen, which Suzuki had described as representing the essence of the Japanese people, as superior to all other religions.

India: Navayana.

A Neo-Buddhist movement was founded by the Indian Dalit leader B. R. Ambedkar in the 1950s. Ambedkar held a press conference on October 13, 1956, announcing his rejection of Theravada and Mahayana vehicles, as well as of Hinduism. He then adopted Navayana Buddhism, and converted between 500,000 and 600,000 Dalits to his Neo-Buddhism movement. All the elements of religious modernism, state Christopher Queen and Sallie King, may be found in Ambedkar Buddhism where his "The Buddha and His Dhamma" abandons the traditional precepts and practices, then adopts science, activism and social reforms as a form of Engaged Buddhism. Ambedkar's formulation of Buddhism is different from Western modernism, states Skaria, given his synthesis of the ideas of modern Karl Marx into the structure of ideas by the ancient Buddha.  According to Ambedkar, several of the core beliefs and doctrines of traditional Buddhist traditions such as Four Noble Truths and Anatta as flawed and pessimistic, may have been inserted into the Buddhist scriptures by wrong headed Buddhist monks of a later era. These should not be considered as Buddha's teachings in Ambedkar's view. Other foundational concepts of Buddhism such as Karma and Rebirth were considered by Ambedkar as superstitions.  Navayana abandons practices and precepts such as the institution of monk after renunciation, ideas such as karma, rebirth in afterlife, samsara, meditation, nirvana and Four Noble Truths considered to be foundational in the Buddhist traditions. Ambedkar's Neo-Buddhism rejected these ideas and re-interpreted the Buddha's religion in terms of class struggle and social equality.  Ambedkar called his version of Buddhism Navayana or "Neo-Buddhism". His book, "The Buddha and His Dhamma" is the holy book of Navayana followers. According to Junghare, for the followers of Navyana, Ambedkar has become a deity and he is worshipped in its practice.

West: Naturalized Buddhism.

Other forms of Neo-Buddhism are found outside Asia, particularly in European nations. According to Bernard Faure – a professor of Religious Studies with a focus on Buddhism, Neo-Buddhism in the forms found in the West is a modernist restatement, a form of spiritual response to anxieties of individuals and the modern world that is not grounded in its ancient ideas, but "a sort of impersonal flavorless or odorless spirituality". It is a re-adaptation, a kind of Buddhism "a la carte", that understands the needs and then is reformulated to fill a void in the West, rather than reflect the ancient canons and secondary literature of Buddhism.  Some Western interpreters of Buddhism have proposed the term "naturalized Buddhism" for few of these movements. It is devoid of rebirth, karma, nirvana, realms of existence, and other concepts of Buddhism, with doctrines such as the Four Noble Truths reformulated and restated in modernistic terms. This "deflated secular Buddhism" stresses compassion, impermanence, causality, selfless persons, no Bodhisattvas, no nirvana, no rebirth, and a naturalists approach to well-being of oneself and others. Meditation and spiritual practices such as Vipassana, or its variants, centered around self-development remain a part of the Western Neo-Buddhist movements. According to James Coleman, the focus of most vipassana students in the west "is mainly on meditation practice and a kind of down-to-earth psychological wisdom."  For many western Buddhists, the rebirth doctrine in the Four Noble Truths teaching is a problematic notion. According to Lamb, "Certain forms of modern western Buddhism [...] see it as purely mythical and thus a dispensable notion." Westerners find "the ideas of karma and rebirth puzzling", states Damien Keown – a professor of Buddhist Ethics. It may not be necessary to believe in some of the core Buddhist doctrines to be a Buddhist, though most Buddhists in Asia do accept these traditional teachings and seek better rebirth. The rebirth, karma, realms of existence and cyclic universe doctrines underpin the Four Noble Truths in Buddhism. It is possible to reinterpret the Buddhist doctrines such as the Four Noble Truths, states Keown, since the final goal and the answer to the problem of suffering is nirvana and not rebirth.  According to Konik, Traditional Buddhist scholars disagree with these modernist Western interpretations. Bhikkhu Bodhi, for example, states that rebirth is an integral part of the Buddhist teachings as found in the sutras, despite the problems that "modernist interpreters of Buddhism" seem to have with it. Thanissaro Bhikkhu, as another example, rejects the "modern argument" that "one can still obtain all the results of the practice without having to accept the possibility of rebirth." He states, "rebirth has always been a central teaching in the Buddhist tradition."  According to Owen Flanagan, the Dalai Lama states that "Buddhists believe in rebirth" and that this belief has been common among his followers. However, the Dalai Lama's belief, adds Flanagan, is more sophisticated than ordinary Buddhists, because it is not same as reincarnation, rebirth in Buddhism is envisioned as happening without an assumption of an "atman, self, soul", rather through a "consciousness conceived along the anatman lines". The doctrine of rebirth is considered mandatory in Tibetan Buddhism, and across many Buddhist sects. According to Melford Spiro, the reinterpretations of Buddhism that discard rebirth undermine the Four Noble Truths, for it does not address the existential question for the Buddhist as to "why live? why not commit suicide, hasten the end of "dukkha" in current life by ending life". In traditional Buddhism, rebirth continues the "dukkha" and the path to cessation of "dukkha" isn't suicide, but the fourth reality of the Four Noble Truths.  According to Christopher Gowans, for "most ordinary Buddhists, today as well as in the past, their basic moral orientation is governed by belief in karma and rebirth". Buddhist morality hinges on the hope of well being in this lifetime or in future rebirth, with nirvana (enlightenment) a project for a future lifetime. A denial of karma and rebirth undermines their history, moral orientation and religious foundations. However, adds Gowans, many Western followers and people interested in exploring Buddhism are skeptical and object to the belief in karma and rebirth foundational to the Four Noble Truths.  The "naturalized Buddhism", according to Gowans, is a radical revision to traditional Buddhist thought and practice, and it attacks the structure behind the hopes, needs and rationalization of the realities of human life to traditional Buddhists in East, Southeast and South Asia.

Other New Buddhisms.

According to Burkhard Scherer – a professor of Comparative Religion, the novel interpretations are a new, separate Buddhist sectarian lineage and Shambhala International "has to be described as New Buddhism (Coleman) or, better still, Neo-Buddhism".  In Central and Eastern Europe, according to Burkhard Scherer, the fast growing Diamond Way Buddhism started by Hannah and Ole Nydahl is a Neo-orthoprax Buddhism movement.. The charismatic leadership of Nydahl and his 600 dharma centers worldwide have made it the largest convert movement in Eastern Europe, but its interpretations of Tibetan Buddhism and tantric meditation techniques have been criticized by both traditional Buddhists and non-Buddhists.  Others have used "New Buddhism" to describe or publish manifesto of socially Engaged Buddhism. For example, David Brazier published his "manifesto of the New Buddhism" in 2001, wherein he calls for radical shift of focus from monasticism and traditional Buddhist doctrines to radically novel interpretations that engaged with the secular world. According to Brazier, the traditional Buddhist traditions such as Theravada and Mahayana have been "instrument of state policy for subduing rather than liberating the population", and have become paths of "individual salvation rather than address the roots of world disease".

Lopez's concept of "modern Buddhism".

Donald S. Lopez Jr. uses the term "Modern Buddhism" to describe the entirety of Buddhist modernist traditions, which he suggests "has developed into a kind of transnational Buddhist sect", "an international Buddhism that transcends cultural and national boundaries, creating...a cosmopolitan network of intellectuals, writing most often in English". This "sect" is rooted neither in geography nor in traditional schools but is the modern aspect of a variety of Buddhist schools in different locations. Moreover, it has its own cosmopolitan lineage and canonical "scriptures," mainly the works of popular and semischolarly authors—figures from the formative years of modern Buddhism, including Soyen Shaku, Dwight Goddard, D. T. Suzuki, and Alexandra David-Neel, as well as more recent figures like Shunryu Suzuki, Sangharakshita, Alan Watts, Thich Nhat Hanh, Chögyam Trungpa, and the Fourteenth Dalai Lama."

Buddhist modernism (also referred to as modern Buddhism, modernist Buddhism and Neo-Buddhism) are new movements based on modern era reinterpretations of Buddhism. David McMahan states that modernism in Buddhism is similar to those found in other religions. The sources of influences have variously been an engagement of Buddhist communities and teachers with the new cultures and methodologies such as "western monotheism; rationalism and scientific naturalism; and Romantic expressivism". The influence of monotheism has been the internalization of Buddhist gods to make it acceptable in modern West, while scientific naturalism and romanticism has influenced the emphasis on current life, empirical defense, reason, psychological and health benefits.

Le néo-bouddhisme (également appelé modernisme bouddhiste, bouddhisme moderne ou encore bouddhisme moderniste) est une appellation qui regroupe un ensemble de nouveaux mouvements caractérisé par des réinterprétations modernes du bouddhisme. David McMahan relève que le modernisme qui imprègne le bouddhisme est similaire à celui que l'on trouve dans d'autres religions. Les sources d'influence sont multiples : l'engagement des communautés et des enseignants bouddhistes dans de nouvelles cultures et méthodologies telles que le monothéisme occidental, le rationalisme et le naturalisme scientifique ; ou encore ce que Charles Taylor appelle l’« expressivisme romantique », à savoir le mouvement à la fois littéraire, artistique et philosophique qui se manifeste comme une critique de la rationalisation, de la mécanisation et de la désacralisation croissantes du monde occidentale, induites par l'industrialisation et la révolution scientifique. Ainsi, sous l'influence du monothéisme, le néo-bouddhisme a intériorisé ses dieux, afin de les rendre acceptables dans l'Occident moderne tandis que le naturalisme scientifique et le romantisme ont mis en avant la vie quotidienne, l'empirisme, la raison, l'étude de questions liées à l'amélioration de l'individu sur les plan de la santé physique et psychologique.


History.

The 11⁄2 story log building was designed by the National Park Service Branch of Plans and Design. Built as a barn, it became a patrol cabin in 1945. It was built by workers from CCC Hot Springs Camp #NP-3 or Jenny Lake Camp #NP-4, working out of the Phelps Lake Spike Camp. A proposed cabin to house trail maintenance tools and personnel was never completed, so the barn was converted to that purpose shortly after the CCC was dissolved. In the 1950s it briefly housed a seasonal ranger station.

Design.

The rustic log cabin features saddle-notched log corners on a stone foundation. The foundation is buttressed at the corners to support the projecting log ends, a feature typical of Park Service designs of the era. The original wide barn door has been filled in with windows and a personnel door. The interior consists of a large main room with a small tack room in the southwest corner, now used for tool storage. The partition uses vertical poles faced with 4-1/2: wide tongue and groove planks. A loft is framed with logs and 8" rough-cut decking, reached by a milled-lumber stairway. The loft deck is covered with 6" wide flooring planks. The roof structure is open to the underside of the roof, with exposed log trusses.The hayloft was converted to a sleeping loft. The furnishings include a rodent-proof food storage bock and a propane stove. The adjoining corral enclosure is listed as a contributing feature, with standing trees supporting most of the fence enclosure.  The Death Canyon Barn was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 25, 1998.

The Death Canyon Barn is a combination barn and ranger patrol cabin in Grand Teton National Park. The barn was built in Death Canyon on the Death Canyon Trail at its junction with the Alaska Basin Trail by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1935 in the National Park Service rustic style. Located with a clear view of Prospector Mountain, it shares a common style and purpose with the Cascade Canyon Barn to the north in the park, with minor differences attributable to available materials and the preferences of the work crews building the barns.

La Death Canyon Barn est une grange et une station de rangers du comté de Teton, dans le Wyoming, aux États-Unis. Protégée au sein du parc national de Grand Teton, elle est inscrite au Registre national des lieux historiques depuis le.


Youth and poetry.

Rutland was born at Belvoir Castle, the younger son of John Manners, 5th Duke of Rutland by Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle. Charles Manners, 6th Duke of Rutland was his elder brother and Lord George Manners his younger brother. He was educated at Eton College, then entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1836. At Cambridge, he was a member of the University Pitt Club. He graduated MA in 1839, and was later awarded the honorary degrees of LLD by the same university in 1862, and DCL by Oxford in 1876.  He wrote two books of poetry: "England's Trust and Other Poems", published in 1841, and "English Ballads and Other Poems", published in 1850. The 1841 book contains his famous quote: "Let wealth and commerce, laws and learning die, But leave us still our old Nobility!" The 1850 book contains his poem "A Legend of Haddon Hall."

Political career.

In 1841 Rutland was returned for Newark in the Tory interest, along with William Ewart Gladstone, and sat for that borough until 1847. Subsequently, he sat for Colchester, 1850–57; for North Leicestershire, 1857–85; and for Melton from 1885 until, in 1888, he took his seat in the House of Lords upon succeeding to the dukedom.

Young England.

In the early 1840s Manners was a leading figure in the Young England movement, led by Benjamin Disraeli. This party sought to reduce the predominance of the middle class "bourgeoisie", and to re-create the political prestige of the aristocracy by proving its capacity to ameliorate the social, intellectual, and material condition of the peasantry and the labouring classes. At the same time its members looked for a regeneration of the Church, and the rescue of both the Church and Ireland from the troubles inherited from the Whig predominance of the 18th century. Manners made an extensive tour of inspection in the industrial parts of northern England, in the course of which he and his friend George Smythe, later 7th Viscount Strangford, gave well-received speeches. In 1843 he supported Lord Grey's motion for an inquiry into the condition of England, the serious disaffection of the working classes of the north being a subject to which he was constantly drawing the attention of parliament. Among other measures that he urged were the disestablishment of the Irish Church, the modification of the Statutes of Mortmain, and the resumption of regular diplomatic relations with the Vatican. In the same year he issued in pamphlet form a strong "Plea for National Holydays".  In 1844 Lord John vigorously supported the Factories Act ("Ten-hours Bill"), which, though strongly opposed by Manchester representatives, was ultimately passed in May 1847. In October 1844 he took part in, and spoke at, the "soirée" held at the Manchester Athenaeum under the presidency of Disraeli. A few days later, he and his friends attended a festival at Bingley, in Yorkshire, to celebrate the allotment of land for gardens to working men, a step which, through the agency of his father, he had done a great deal to further.  However, divergences of opinion starting in 1845 eventually led to the disruption of the movement.

Cabinet.

During the three short administrations of Lord Derby (1852, 1858–59, and 1866–68) he sat in the cabinet as First Commissioner of Works. In 1852 he was admitted to the Privy Council. On the return of the Conservatives to power in 1874 he became Postmaster-General under Disraeli, and was made GCB on his retirement in 1880. He was again Postmaster-General in Lord Salisbury's administration, 1885–86, and was head of the department when sixpenny telegrams were introduced. Finally, in the Conservative government of 1886–92 he was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1891 and in 1896 he was further honoured when he was made Baron Roos of Belvoir, in the County of Leicester.  He was patron of Saint Martin's League for letter carriers.

Sporting interests.

He had a sympathetic interest in the Olympian Games movement of William Penny Brookes, first shown when he joined a party with his first cousin Lord Forester that viewed the first Wenlock Olympian Games at Much Wenlock in 1850. He there and then donated a cash prize of £1 (worth £58 in 2005) to the committee, who awarded it to the winner of a running race. He was a member of the council of the fourth National Olympian Games that were held, again at Much Wenlock, in 1874. In 1883 he was president of Wenlock Olympian Games themselves that year.

Family.

Rutland married firstly Catherine Louisa Georgina, daughter of George Marley, in 1851. They had one child:  Catherine died in April 1854.  Rutland married secondly Janetta, daughter of Thomas Hughan, in 1862. They had seven children, including:  His second family also had a Scottish property: St Mary's Tower in Dunkeld.  Rutland succeeded to the dukedom of Rutland in March 1888, upon the death of his elder brother. The Duchess of Rutland died in July 1899. Rutland survived her by seven years and died on 4 August 1906, aged 87, at Belvoir Castle.

John James Robert Manners, 7th Duke of Rutland, (13 December 18184 August 1906), known as Lord John Manners before 1888, was an English statesman.

John James Robert Manners, duc de Rutland, ( - ), connu sous le nom de Lord John Manners avant 1888, est un anglais.


Mechanism.

Upon application of pressure to the internal end of the cervix, oxytocin is released (therefore increase in contractile proteins), which stimulates uterine contractions, which in turn increases pressure on the cervix (thereby increasing oxytocin release, etc.), until the baby is delivered.  Sensory information regarding mechanical stretch of the cervix is carried in a sensory neuron, which synapses in the dorsal horn before ascending to the brain in the anterolateral columns (ipsilateral and contralateral routes). Via the median forebrain bundle, the efferent reaches the PVN and SON of the hypothalamus. The posterior pituitary releases oxytocin due to increased firing in the hypothalamo-hypophyseal tract. Oxytocin acts on the myometrium, on receptors which have been upregulated by a functional increase of the estrogen-progesterone ratio. This functional ratio change is mediated by a decrease in myometrial sensitivity to progesterone, due to an increase (surely this should be decrease) in progesterone receptor A, and a concurrent increase in myometrial sensitivity to estrogen, due to an increase in estrogen receptor α. This causes myometrial contraction and further positive feedback on the reflex.  The concept of cortical influences provided reasons to raise questions about the process of parturition among humans, characterized by a high encephalization quotient. Odent had observed that, in situations that are exceptionally rare, women can occasionally experience such a reflex, characterized by a birth after a short series of irresistible and powerful contractions without any room for voluntary movements. For such a hormonal cascade to occur, requires sufficient psychological safety, as occurs in normal or undisturbed birth. The higher the intervention rate, such as induction or caesarian section, the lower the likelihood of the Ferguson Reflex occurring. In contrast, the lower the incidence of intervention, such as is found in those countries with high rate of home births, and birth centres worldwide, the higher the likelihood of the Ferguson Reflex occurring. This may explain the lack of research, considering the public health benefits of such education to both hospitals and the general public.

The Ferguson reflex (also called the foetal ejection reflex) is the neuroendocrine reflex comprising the self-sustaining cycle of uterine contractions initiated by pressure at the cervix or vaginal walls. It is an example of positive feedback in biology. The Ferguson reflex occurs in mammals.

Le réflexe de Ferguson (également appelé réflexe d'éjection fœtale) est le réflexe neuroendocrinien comprenant le cycle autosuffisant de contractions utérines initiées par une pression au niveau du col ou des parois vaginales. C'est un exemple de rétroaction positive en biologie. Le réflexe de Ferguson se produit chez les mammifères.


Terminology.

When the two modes are unequal the larger mode is known as the major mode and the other as the minor mode. The least frequent value between the modes is known as the antimode. The difference between the major and minor modes is known as the amplitude. In time series the major mode is called the acrophase and the antimode the batiphase.

Galtung's classification.

Galtung introduced a classification system (AJUS) for distributions:  This classification has since been modified slightly:  Under this classification bimodal distributions are classified as type S or U.

Examples.

Bimodal distributions occur both in mathematics and in the natural sciences.

Probability distributions.

Important bimodal distributions include the arcsine distribution and the beta distribution. Others include the U-quadratic distribution.  The ratio of two normal distributions is also bimodally distributed. Let  where "a" and "b" are constant and "x" and "y" are distributed as normal variables with a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1. "R" has a known density that can be expressed as a confluent hypergeometric function.  The distribution of the reciprocal of a "t" distributed random variable is bimodal when the degrees of freedom are more than one. Similarly the reciprocal of a normally distributed variable is also bimodally distributed.  A "t" statistic generated from data set drawn from a Cauchy distribution is bimodal.

Occurrences in nature.

Examples of variables with bimodal distributions include the time between eruptions of certain geysers, the color of galaxies, the size of worker weaver ants, the age of incidence of Hodgkin's lymphoma, the speed of inactivation of the drug isoniazid in US adults, the absolute magnitude of novae, and the circadian activity patterns of those crepuscular animals that are active both in morning and evening twilight. In fishery science multimodal length distributions reflect the different year classes and can thus be used for age distribution- and growth estimates of the fish population. Sediments are usually distributed in a bimodal fashion. Bimodal distributions are also seen in traffic analysis, where traffic peaks in during the AM rush hour and then again in the PM rush hour. This phenomenon is also seen in daily water distribution, as water demand, in the form of showers, cooking, and toilet use, generally peak in the morning and evening periods.

Econometrics.

In econometric models, the parameters may be bimodally distributed.

Origins.

Mathematical.

A bimodal distribution most commonly arises as a mixture of two different unimodal distributions (i.e. distributions having only one mode). In other words, the bimodally distributed random variable X is defined as formula_2 with probability formula_3 or formula_4 with probability formula_5 where "Y" and "Z" are unimodal random variables and formula_6 is a mixture coefficient.  Mixtures with two distinct components need not be bimodal and two component mixtures of unimodal component densities can have more than two modes. There is no immediate connection between the number of components in a mixture and the number of modes of the resulting density.

Particular distributions.

Bimodal distributions, despite their frequent occurrence in data sets, have only rarely been studied. This may be because of the difficulties in estimating their parameters either with frequentist or Bayesian methods. Among those that have been studied are  Bimodality also naturally arises in the cusp catastrophe distribution.

Biology.

In biology five factors are known to contribute to bimodal distributions of population sizes:  The bimodal distribution of sizes of weaver ant workers arises due to existence of two distinct classes of workers, namely major workers and minor workers.  The distribution of fitness effects of mutations for both whole genomes and individual genes is also frequently found to be bimodal with most mutations being either neutral or lethal with relatively few having intermediate effect.

General properties.

A mixture of two unimodal distributions with differing means is not necessarily bimodal. The combined distribution of heights of men and women is sometimes used as an example of a bimodal distribution, but in fact the difference in mean heights of men and women is too small relative to their standard deviations to produce bimodality.  Bimodal distributions have the peculiar property that – unlike the unimodal distributions – the mean may be a more robust sample estimator than the median. This is clearly the case when the distribution is U shaped like the arcsine distribution. It may not be true when the distribution has one or more long tails.

Moments of mixtures.

Let  where "g" is a probability distribution and "p" is the mixing parameter.  The moments of "f"("x") are  where  and "S" and "K" are the skewness and kurtosis of the "i" distribution.

Mixture of two normal distributions.

It is not uncommon to encounter situations where an investigator believes that the data comes from a mixture of two normal distributions. Because of this, this mixture has been studied in some detail.  A mixture of two normal distributions has five parameters to estimate: the two means, the two variances and the mixing parameter. A mixture of two normal distributions with equal standard deviations is bimodal only if their means differ by at least twice the common standard deviation. Estimates of the parameters is simplified if the variances can be assumed to be equal (the homoscedastic case).  If the means of the two normal distributions are equal, then the combined distribution is unimodal. Conditions for unimodality of the combined distribution were derived by Eisenberger. Necessary and sufficient conditions for a mixture of normal distributions to be bimodal have been identified by Ray and Lindsay.  A mixture of two approximately equal mass normal distributions has a negative kurtosis since the two modes on either side of the center of mass effectively reduces the tails of the distribution.  A mixture of two normal distributions with highly unequal mass has a positive kurtosis since the smaller distribution lengthens the tail of the more dominant normal distribution.  Mixtures of other distributions require additional parameters to be estimated.

Tests for unimodality.

or  where "p" is the mixing parameter and  and where "μ" and "μ" are the means of the two normal distributions and "σ" and "σ" are their standard deviations.  The separation factor ("S") is  If the variances are equal then "S" = 1. The mixture density is unimodal if and only if

Summary statistics.

Bimodal distributions are a commonly used example of how summary statistics such as the mean, median, and standard deviation can be deceptive when used on an arbitrary distribution. For example, in the distribution in Figure 1, the mean and median would be about zero, even though zero is not a typical value. The standard deviation is also larger than deviation of each normal distribution.  Although several have been suggested, there is no presently generally agreed summary statistic (or set of statistics) to quantify the parameters of a general bimodal distribution. For a mixture of two normal distributions the means and standard deviations along with the mixing parameter (the weight for the combination) are usually used – a total of five parameters.

Ashman's D.

A statistic that may be useful is Ashman's D:  where "μ", "μ" are the means and "σ" "σ" are the standard deviations.  For a mixture of two normal distributions "D" > 2 is required for a clean separation of the distributions.

van der Eijk's A.

This measure is a weighted average of the degree of agreement the frequency distribution. "A" ranges from -1 (perfect bimodality) to +1 (perfect unimodality). It is defined as  where "U" is the unimodality of the distribution, "S" the number of categories that have nonzero frequencies and "K" the total number of categories.  The value of U is 1 if the distribution has any of the three following characteristics:  With distributions other than these the data must be divided into 'layers'. Within a layer the responses are either equal or zero. The categories do not have to be contiguous. A value for "A" for each layer ("A") is calculated and a weighted average for the distribution is determined. The weights ("w") for each layer are the number of responses in that layer. In symbols  A uniform distribution has "A" = 0: when all the responses fall into one category "A" = +1.  One theoretical problem with this index is that it assumes that the intervals are equally spaced. This may limit its applicability.

Bimodal separation.

This index assumes that the distribution is a mixture of two normal distributions with means ("μ" and "μ") and standard deviations ("σ" and "σ"):

Bimodality coefficient.

Sarle's bimodality coefficient "b" is  where "γ" is the skewness and "κ" is the kurtosis. The kurtosis is here defined to be the standardised fourth moment around the mean. The value of "b" lies between 0 and 1. The logic behind this coefficient is that a bimodal distribution with light tails will have very low kurtosis, an asymmetric character, or both – all of which increase this coefficient.  The formula for a finite sample is  where "n" is the number of items in the sample, "g" is the sample skewness and "k" is the sample excess kurtosis.  The value of "b" for the uniform distribution is 5/9. This is also its value for the exponential distribution. Values greater than 5/9 may indicate a bimodal or multimodal distribution, though corresponding values can also result for heavily skewed unimodal distributions. The maximum value (1.0) is reached only by a Bernoulli distribution with only two distinct values or the sum of two different Dirac delta functions (a bi-delta distribution).  The distribution of this statistic is unknown. It is related to a statistic proposed earlier by Pearson – the difference between the kurtosis and the square of the skewness ("vide infra").

Bimodality amplitude.

This is defined as  where "A" is the amplitude of the smaller peak and "A" is the amplitude of the antimode.  "A" is always < 1. Larger values indicate more distinct peaks.

Bimodal ratio.

This is the ratio of the left and right peaks. Mathematically  where "A" and "A" are the amplitudes of the left and right peaks respectively.

Bimodality parameter.

This parameter ("B") is due to Wilcock.  where "A" and "A" are the amplitudes of the left and right peaks respectively and "P" is the logarithm taken to the base 2 of the proportion of the distribution in the i interval. The maximal value of the "ΣP" is 1 but the value of "B" may be greater than this.  To use this index, the log of the values are taken. The data is then divided into interval of width Φ whose value is log 2. The width of the peaks are taken to be four times 1/4Φ centered on their maximum values.

Bimodality indices.

The bimodality index proposed by Wang "et al" assumes that the distribution is a sum of two normal distributions with equal variances but differing means. It is defined as follows:  where "μ", "μ" are the means and "σ" is the common standard deviation.  where "p" is the mixing parameter.  A different bimodality index has been proposed by Sturrock.  This index ("B") is defined as  When "m" = 2 and "γ" is uniformly distributed, "B" is exponentially distributed.  This statistic is a form of periodogram. It suffers from the usual problems of estimation and spectral leakage common to this form of statistic.  Another bimodality index has been proposed by de Michele and Accatino. Their index ("B") is  where "μ" is the arithmetic mean of the sample and  where "m" is number of data points in the "i" bin,"x" is the center of the "i" bin and "L" is the number of bins.  The authors suggested a cut off value of 0.1 for "B" to distinguish between a bimodal ("B" > 0.1)and unimodal ("B" < 0.1) distribution. No statistical justification was offered for this value.  A further index ("B") has been proposed by Sambrook Smith "et al"  formula_38  where "p" and "p" are the proportion contained in the primary (that with the greater amplitude) and secondary (that with the lesser amplitude) mode and "φ" and "φ" are the "φ"-sizes of the primary and secondary mode. The "φ"-size is defined as minus one times the log of the data size taken to the base 2. This transformation is commonly used in the study of sediments.  The authors recommended a cut off value of 1.5 with B being greater than 1.5 for a bimodal distribution and less than 1.5 for a unimodal distribution. No statistical justification for this value was given.  Another bimodality parameter has been proposed by Chaudhuri and Agrawal. This parameter requires knowledge of the variances of the two subpopulations that make up the bimodal distribution. It is defined as  formula_39  where "n" is the number of data points in the "i" subpopulation, "σ" is the variance of the "i" subpopulation, "m" is the total size of the sample and "σ" is the sample variance.  It is a weighted average of the variance. The authors suggest that this parameter can be used as the optimisation target to divide a sample into two subpopulations. No statistical justification for this suggestion was given.

Statistical tests.

A number of tests are available to determine if a data set is distributed in a bimodal (or multimodal) fashion.

Graphical methods.

In the study of sediments, particle size is frequently bimodal. Empirically, it has been found useful to plot the frequency against the log( size ) of the particles. This usually gives a clear separation of the particles into a bimodal distribution. In geological applications the logarithm is normally taken to the base 2. The log transformed values are referred to as phi (Φ) units. This system is known as the Krumbein (or phi) scale.  An alternative method is to plot the log of the particle size against the cumulative frequency. This graph will usually consist two reasonably straight lines with a connecting line corresponding to the antimode.  Approximate values for several statistics can be derived from the graphic plots.  where "Mean" is the mean, "StdDev" is the standard deviation, "Skew" is the skewness, "Kurt" is the kurtosis and "φ" is the value of the variate "φ" at the "x" percentage of the distribution.

Unimodal vs. bimodal distribution.

Pearson in 1894 was the first to devise a procedure to test whether a distribution could be resolved into two normal distributions. This method required the solution of a ninth order polynomial. In a subsequent paper Pearson reported that for any distribution skewness + 1 < kurtosis. Later Pearson showed that  where "b" is the kurtosis and "b" is the square of the skewness. Equality holds only for the two point Bernoulli distribution or the sum of two different Dirac delta functions. These are the most extreme cases of bimodality possible. The kurtosis in both these cases is 1. Since they are both symmetrical their skewness is 0 and the difference is 1.  Baker proposed a transformation to convert a bimodal to a unimodal distribution.  Several tests of unimodality versus bimodality have been proposed: Haldane suggested one based on second central differences. Larkin later introduced a test based on the F test; Benett created one based on Fisher's G test. Tokeshi has proposed a fourth test. A test based on a likelihood ratio has been proposed by Holzmann and Vollmer.  A method based on the score and Wald tests has been proposed. This method can distinguish between unimodal and bimodal distributions when the underlying distributions are known.

Antimode tests.

Statistical tests for the antimode are known.  Otsu's method is commonly employed in computer graphics to determine the optimal separation between two distributions.

General tests.

To test if a distribution is other than unimodal, several additional tests have been devised: the bandwidth test, the dip test, the excess mass test, the MAP test, the mode existence test, the runt test, the span test, and the saddle test.  An implementation of the dip test is available for the R programming language. The p-values for the dip statistic values range between 0 and 1. P-values less than 0.05 indicate significant multimodality and p-values greater than 0.05 but less than 0.10 suggest multimodality with marginal significance.

Silverman's test.

Silverman introduced a bootstrap method for the number of modes. The test uses a fixed bandwidth which reduces the power of the test and its interpretability. Under smoothed densities may have an excessive number of modes whose count during bootstrapping is unstable.

Bajgier-Aggarwal test.

Bajgier and Aggarwal have proposed a test based on the kurtosis of the distribution.

Special cases.

Additional tests are available for a number of special cases:  A study of a mixture density of two normal distributions data found that separation into the two normal distributions was difficult unless the means were separated by 4–6 standard deviations.  In astronomy the Kernel Mean Matching algorithm is used to decide if a data set belongs to a single normal distribution or to a mixture of two normal distributions.  This distribution is bimodal for certain values of is parameters. A test for these values has been described.

Parameter estimation and fitting curves.

Assuming that the distribution is known to be bimodal or has been shown to be bimodal by one or more of the tests above, it is frequently desirable to fit a curve to the data. This may be difficult.  Bayesian methods may be useful in difficult cases.

Software.

A package for R is available for testing for bimodality. This package assumes that the data are distributed as a sum of two normal distributions. If this assumption is not correct the results may not be reliable. It also includes functions for fitting a sum of two normal distributions to the data.  Assuming that the distribution is a mixture of two normal distributions then the expectation-maximization algorithm may be used to determine the parameters. Several programmes are available for this including Cluster, and the R package nor1mix.  The mixtools package available for R can test for and estimate the parameters of a number of different distributions. A package for a mixture of two right-tailed gamma distributions is available.  Several other packages for R are available to fit mixture models; these include flexmix, mcclust, agrmt, and mixdist.  The statistical programming language SAS can also fit a variety of mixed distributions with the PROC FREQ procedure.

In statistics, a bimodal distribution is a probability distribution with two different modes. These appear as distinct peaks (local maxima) in the probability density function, as shown in Figures 1 and 2. Categorical, continuous, and discrete data can all form bimodal distributions.

Une distribution multimodale est une distribution statistique présentant plusieurs modes et par définition ne suit pas une loi normale. Par exemple la répartition bimodale gaussienne présente deux maxima locaux.