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European Cultures (european + culture)
Selected AbstractsWestphalian Eurocentrism in International Relations TheoryINTERNATIONAL STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 2 2010Turan Kayaoglu In the past 10,15 years, an increasing number of revisionist scholars have rejected the most significant elements of the argument about the centrality of the Peace of Westphalia (1648) to the evolution and structure of international society. At the same time, the prominence of this argument has grown in the English School and constructivist international relations scholarship. I deconstruct the function of the Westphalian narrative to explain its pervasiveness and persistence. I argue that it was first developed by nineteenth century imperial international jurists and that the Westphalian narrative perpetuates a Eurocentric bias in international relations theory. This bias maintains that Westphalia created an international society, consolidating a normative divergence between European international relations and the rest of the international system. This dualism is predicated on the assumption that with Westphalia European states had solved the anarchy problem either through cultural or contractual evolution. Non-European states, lacking this European culture and social contract, remained in anarchy until the European states allowed them to join the international society,upon their achievement of the "standards of civilization." This Westphalian narrative distorts the emergence of the modern international system and leads to misdiagnoses of major problems of contemporary international relations. Furthermore, their commitment to the Westphalian narrative prevents international relations scholars from adequately theorizing about international interdependencies and accommodating global pluralism. [source] Kabbalah: A Medieval Tradition and Its Contemporary AppealHISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 2 2008Hava Tirosh-Samuelson Popular culture today is suffused with kabbalah, an elitist, intellectual strand of medieval Judaism that claimed to disclose the esoteric meaning of the rabbinic tradition. While rooted in esoteric speculations in late antiquity, kabbalah emerged in the tenth century as an internal debate among Jewish theologians about the ontological status of divine attributes. At the end of the twelfth century speculations about the nature of God emerged among the Pietists of Germany and the ,masters of kabbalah' in Provence. During the thirteenth century kabbalah flourished in Spain where its self-understanding as redemptive activity was expressed in two paradigms , the ,theosophy-theurgic' and the ,ecstatic-prophetic'. Kabbalah continued to evolve in the early modern period, shaping both Jewish and European cultures. The modern period saw the rise of the academic study of kabbalah, but it was employed in two conflicting manners: in the nineteenth century scholars associated with the Enlightenment used historical analysis of kabbalah to debunk Jewish traditionalism, but in the first half of the twentieth century, the academic study of kabbalah was used to generate a secular, collective Zionist identity. Although scholarship on kabbalah has flourished in the twentieth century, kabbalah has become a variant of New-Age religions, accessible to all, regardless of ethnic identity or spiritual readiness. [source] Tooth wear in two ancient populations of the Khazar Kaganat region in the UkraineINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OSTEOARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 1 2007W. H. Arnold Abstract Tooth wear is a common phenomenon in archaeological material. It has been related to the abrasiveness of diet and to the tribological attrition of teeth of individuals. Numerous investigations have been carried out in north and middle American samples as well as African anthropological material. Not much is known about tooth wear in European cultures. Eleven skulls from Chervona Gusarovka, and 14 skulls from the Upper Saltov sites of the Khazar Kaganat region (8th,10th centuries AD) in eastern Ukraine, with different diets were examined. A total of 208 teeth were studied for tooth wear, caries prevalence and periodontal status. Abrasion grades were determined according to a standardised classification and statistically evaluated. Periodontal status was measured using the distance between the enamel-cementum junction and alveolar crest and the gingival attachment level respectively. Tooth wear was significantly different (P,<,0.01) between the two populations. A low caries prevalence of 4.2% in the Chervona Gusarovka population and 1.7% in the Upper Saltov population was found. Significantly more alveolar crest bone resorption on the lingual side was found in the premolars and anterior teeth of the Chervona Gusarovka population. No significant differences were found regarding gingival attachment levels and gingival recession. It is concluded that the content and mode of food preparation influenced tooth wear, as reflected by the prevalence of dental caries and periodontal diseases in these ancient populations. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Bisexuality: A Contemporary Paradox for WomenJOURNAL OF SOCIAL ISSUES, Issue 2 2000Paula C. Rodríguez Rust The cultural construction of ,lesbian' and ,heterosexual' women in late-nineteenth-century European cultures created both the possibility of conceiving the "bisexual" woman and the belief that bisexuality cannot exist. Social scientists have suggested several alternatives to dichotomous constructions of sexuality to facilitate the conceptualization of, and therefore empirical research on, bisexuality. This article reviews these alternatives and summarizes the current state of researchon bisexuality, including research on ,situational homosexuality' (behavioral bisexuality), recent national probability studies on sexual behaviors and identities in the United States, the meanings of bisexual self-identities among women, masculinist biases in methods of assessing and theorizing sexual self-identities, and prejudice against bisexuals. The article concludes with suggestions for future social scientific research on bisexuality. [source] | ||||||||||