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Cultural Construct (cultural + construct)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences50%

Selected Abstracts

The Russian Empire as Cultural Construct*

THE JOURNAL OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Issue 2 2010
James Cracraft
First page of article [source]

Languages as Women: The Feminisation of Linguistic Discourses in Colonial North India

GENDER & HISTORY, Issue 2 2009
Asha Sarangi
This article locates and analyses the gendered discourses of Hindi and Urdu linguistic identity in late nineteenth-century colonial north India. Using a new concept of language woman, it characterises the multiple discourses of feminisation through three distinctive terms of linguistic femininity, linguistic morality and linguistic patriarchy. These three modes of representation and articulation of feminised discourses over Hindi and Urdu languages are explored using the concept of heteronormativity as a political, ideological and social,cultural construct. The paper argues that language woman established an intimate bond between nationalisation and feminisation of the dominant Hindi linguistic identity in private and public domains as not mutually opposed but complementary and reproducible of each other. [source]

Reconfiguring Gender with John Dewey: Habit, Bodies, and Cultural Change

HYPATIA, Issue 1 2000
SHANNON SULLIVAN
This paper demonstrates how John Dewey's notion of habit can help us understand gender as a constitutive structure of bodily existence. Bringing Dewey's pragmatism in conjunction with Judith Butler's concept of performativity, 1 provide an account of how rigid binary configurations of gender might be transformed at the level of both individual habit and cultural construct. [source]

How race becomes biology: Embodiment of social inequality

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 1 2009
Clarence C. Gravlee
Abstract The current debate over racial inequalities in health is arguably the most important venue for advancing both scientific and public understanding of race, racism, and human biological variation. In the United States and elsewhere, there are well-defined inequalities between racially defined groups for a range of biological outcomes,cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke, certain cancers, low birth weight, preterm delivery, and others. Among biomedical researchers, these patterns are often taken as evidence of fundamental genetic differences between alleged races. However, a growing body of evidence establishes the primacy of social inequalities in the origin and persistence of racial health disparities. Here, I summarize this evidence and argue that the debate over racial inequalities in health presents an opportunity to refine the critique of race in three ways: 1) to reiterate why the race concept is inconsistent with patterns of global human genetic diversity; 2) to refocus attention on the complex, environmental influences on human biology at multiple levels of analysis and across the lifecourse; and 3) to revise the claim that race is a cultural construct and expand research on the sociocultural reality of race and racism. Drawing on recent developments in neighboring disciplines, I present a model for explaining how racial inequality becomes embodied,literally,in the biological well-being of racialized groups and individuals. This model requires a shift in the way we articulate the critique of race as bad biology. Am J Phys Anthropol 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

FOSTERING HOPE IN PEOPLE LIVING WITH AIDS IN AFRICA: THE ROLE OF PRIMARY HEALTH-CARE WORKERS

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF RURAL HEALTH, Issue 4 2001
Henry Abayomi Akinsola
ABSTRACT: Today the medical literature is dominated by discussions on issues related to HIV/AIDS. This is not surprising considering the fact that in the history of humankind, the HIV/AIDS scenario has posed one of the greatest challenges. The reality of the physical, socioeconomic and psychological problems associated with the AIDS epidemic has become obvious to the general populace in Africa. Currently, both the AIDS victims and several others in the society continue to entertain the fear of dying from AIDS. The situation has become a source of concern to almost everyone, including primary health-care (PHC) workers. While several options are being examined to address the AIDS problem in Africa, one area that is often neglected is how to foster hope in people living with AIDS (PLWA) and their caregivers. In an attempt to examine this issue, this paper discusses the concept of hope, the cultural construct of HIV/AIDS in African countries and the role of PHC workers in fostering hope in PLWA. The paper concludes that by assisting the PLWA to develop a good sense of hope, PHC workers will be able to meet an important challenge: how to improve the quality of life for PLWA. [source]

The impact of ethnicity on prospective functional outcomes from community-based psychosocial rehabilitation for persons with schizophrenia

JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 6 2001
Elizabeth S. Phillips
Ethnicity was examined for its relationship to prospective functional outcomes from community-based psychosocial rehabilitation for individuals with schizophrenia. Participants were 98 individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder who were admitted to two community-based psychosocial rehabilitation programs. Previous studies had established that these programs were effective in improving functional outcomes. Data on hospitalization, independent living, social, and work functioning were collected every 6 months for a period of 3 years. The results using hierarchical linear modeling revealed significant differences among non-minorities, African Americans, and Latinos in rehabilitative change over time in the domains of work and social functioning. Non-minorities achieved the greatest gains in both social and work functioning. African Americans showed little change in social functioning, but showed a decline in work functioning. In the domain of work, Latinos deteriorated more than African Americans, and this was most notable for Latino males. There were no cross-ethnic differences in independent living or hospitalization outcomes. Based on these findings, there is important variation among different ethnic groups in their response to psychosocial rehabilitation. Implications are discussed in terms of the need for culturally relevant rehabilitation methods, and for research on cultural constructs in community-based intervention studies. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [source]