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Cultural Construction (cultural + construction)
Selected AbstractsSurviving a Distant Past: A Case Study of the Cultural Construction of Trauma Descendant IdentityETHOS, Issue 4 2003Carol A. Kidron Despite the abundance of psychological studies on trauma related ills of descendants of historical trauma, and the extensive scholarly work describing the memory politics of silenced traumatic pasts, there has yet to emerge a critical analysis of the constitutive practices of descendants of historical trauma. This article presents an ethnographic account of a support group for descendants of Holocaust survivors, proposing that the discursive frame of intergenerational transmission of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and support group based narrative practices allow descendants to fashion their sense of self as survivors of the distant traumatic past. The discursive frame of transmitted PTSD acts as both a mnemonic bridge to the past and a mechanism of identity making, as participants narratively reemplot their life stories as having been personally constituted by the distant past A close ethnographic reading of on-site discursive practices points to how culture ferments to produce narratives, practices and ultimately carriers of memory to both sustain and revitalize historical grand narratives and the cultural scenarios they embed. [source] Cultural Constructions of Childhood and Early LiteracyLITERACY, Issue 2 2001Tricia David This paper is based on the findings of two research teams, working collaboratively, between 1998 and 2000 in four countries: Australia, Singapore, France and England (see David et al 2000). Taking an ecological stance (Bronfenbrenner 1979), both teams adopted a cross-cultural approach in order to gain a better understanding of the contexts in which young children become familiar with literacy. The team led by Bridie Raban worked in Singapore and Australia, that led by Tricia David in France and England. Early years practitioners in all four countries responded to questionnaires, were observed in action and interviewed. (Information about their training and about entry to primary school in each of the countries is given in the endnote.) In addition, the research teams carried out document analyses on Governmental, research and training literature and teachers' plans, and discussed their findings with others in positions to be able to ,authenticate', or refute , findings. Further data were obtained through group interviews with parents of children attending selected settings involved in the research. Here we provide some of the evidence about the different views expressed by practitioners, our observational findings and analysis of the different pressures relating to literacy experienced in early childhood education and care settings. In each case the learning experiences practitioners provided for children were influenced by a range of factors, such as the contested role of preschools as preparation for schooling. In some settings this preparation was not explicit and practitioners often emphasised the importance of the ,here and now' nature of young children's experiences. Rosenthal's (2000) framework for exploring ,collectivist' and ,individualist' cultures in relation to their valued educational practices was applied to our findings, in order to identify how the cultural assumptions about literacy, learning and young children influenced the teaching approaches selected. [source] Covenantal and contractual values in marriage: Marital Values Orientation toward Wedlock or Self-actualization (Marital VOWS) ScalePERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS, Issue 3 2005JENNIFER S. RIPLEY Cultural constructions of marriage have developed to form 2 marital values orientations. These marital values can be understood along a continuum from covenantal at 1 pole to contractual at the other pole. Covenantal marital values prioritize individual sacrifice for the marriage to promote marital health, commitment, and vow taking to resolve conflict, the collective dyad as the primary unit of the marriage, and often spiritual intervention as a primary means of restoring order. Contractual marital values prioritize individual self-actualization to promote marital health, negotiation, and mutual agreement to resolve conflict, the individual as the primary unit of the marriage, and clinical and psychological interventions as a primary means of restoring order. The authors developed a 26-item scale to measure contractual and covenantal marital values. In 3 studies examining a total of 786 student and community participants, the factor structure of the scale was evaluated, and convergent and discriminant construct validity, item internal consistency, and 4-week test,retest reliability were examined. [source] What Does It Mean to Be Relational?FAMILY PROCESS, Issue 4 2006A Framework for Assessment, Practice The authors begin with a question regarding how to better draw upon relational thinking in making case assessments and treatment plans. They first address issues regarding the cultural construction of self and relationships, integrating women's psychology, family systems, and collectivist culture literatures within a discussion of power. Then they present a heuristic framework for how individuals orient themselves within relationships that includes two dimensions,focus and power,and evolves out of the social context. From these two dimensions, a typology of four basic relational orientations is presented: position directed, rule directed, independence directed, and relationship directed. Case examples from couple's therapy and suggestions for practice are provided. [source] Understanding Remigration and Innovation , An Appeal for a Cultural Economic GeographyGEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 5 2009Claudia Klaerding The acquisition of new knowledge is a crucial capital of highly skilled remigrants and its utilisation in home countries can play a major role for regional economic development. By reviewing the remigration literature it is shown that remigrants are able to create innovation in their home countries and promote regional development. But also theoretical deficits can be identified regarding the structural conditions of transferring new knowledge across regions which precedes potential innovation processes. Recent theoretical ideas cannot sufficiently explain why remigrants become innovative to varying degrees depending on their home regions. A cultural approach of economic geography is needed to highlight the cultural construction of the economy. It allows for remigrants to be perceived as knowledge brokers, which crucially influences the returnee's capacity to innovate. [source] Before Your Very Eyes: Illness, Agency, and the Management of Tourette SyndromeMEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2008Andrew Buckser In this article, I examine the ways that people with Tourette Syndrome (TS) manage the motor and vocal tics characteristic of this neurological disorder. To mitigate the powerful stigmas associated with TS, individuals must either remove tics from public view or strive to recast the way that they are perceived. Drawing on ethnographic research with TS sufferers in Indiana, I elaborate three strategies by which this is done, strategies referred to here as displacement, misattribution, and contextualization. These processes strongly affect both the symptoms themselves and the subjective experience of the illness. They also affect the perception of TS in the larger culture, associating the disease with florid symptoms like cursing,symptoms that, although not at all typical of TS, are the ones most resistant to these kinds of management. These patterns highlight how individual agency may actively shape the cultural construction of illness. [source] Animal bells as symbols: sound and hearing in a Greek island villageTHE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, Issue 4 2003Panayotis Panopoulos This article deals with the cultural construction of sound and hearing in a mountain village in the Greek island of Naxos, in the Cyclades. The analysis is based on the ethnographic presentation and discussion of the cultural meanings and symbolism of animal bells. I further explore the relation of bells and their sound to the issues of social reproduction and the cultural constitution of social order. By focusing on the indigenous conceptualizations of sound and noise and the metaphoric language concerning the sense of hearing, I also consider some wider aspects of sound, sound symbolism, and hearing in this community. [source] Violence and Temporal SubjectivityANTHROPOLOGY & HUMANISM, Issue 1 2009Eric J. Haanstad SUMMARY Perceptions of temporal malleability and subjectivity are experienced by many perpetrators, victims, and witnesses of violence. Are perceptions of the slowing down, speeding up, or heightened awareness of time, which accompany violent moments, indicative of broader cultural and humanistic phenomena? In this article, I explore accounts of temporal perceptions surrounding violent encounters as a methodologically useful field of intersection between theories concerning the cultural construction of reality, the anthropology of time, simulation, and an emergent holographic physics. If, as a growing number of physicists assert, the universe can be described as a hologram where "time" is illusory and simultaneous, violent events that are perceived as temporally ambiguous offer sites of particular interest for the humanistic examination of these physical models. In other words, the temporal subjectivity often experienced by those who encounter violence can be interpreted as directly perceivable holographic encounters. The perpetrators, victims, and witnesses of such encounters can be viewed not only as interpreters of particular cultural temporal systems but also actively manipulating space,time and socially constructed reality. Interpreting violence through the experience of human agents could lead to greater insight into not only the symbolic meaning generated by acts of violence but also its hyperreal, desensitizing, and dissociative effects. Furthermore, the amplification of these effects by mass media and modern state ideologues becomes more penetrable under such an interpretive model. I draw from ethnographic research with police and "security" personnel in Thailand, Vietnam, and the United States, as well as from media and performance analysis. [source] THE LIMITS OF INTIMATE CITIZENSHIP: REPRODUCTION OF DIFFERENCE IN FLEMISH-ETHIOPIAN ,ADOPTION CULTURES'BIOETHICS, Issue 7 2010KATRIEN DE GRAEVE ABSTRACT The concept of ,intimate citizenship' stresses the right of people to choose how they organize their personal lives and claim identities. Support and interest groups are seen as playing an important role in the pursuit of recognition for these intimate choices, by elaborating visible and positive cultures that invade broader public spheres. Most studies on intimate citizenship take into consideration the exclusions these groups encounter when negotiating their differences with society at large. However, much less attention is paid to the ways in which these groups internalize the surrounding ideologies, identity categories and hierarchies that pervade society and constrain their recognition as full citizens. In contrast, this paper aims to emphasize the reproduction of otherness within alternative spheres of life, and to reveal the ambiguities and complexities involved in their dialectic relationship with society at large. To address this issue, the paper focuses on the role that ,adoption cultures' of Flemish adoptive parents with children from Ethiopia play in the pursuit of being recognized as ,proper' families and full citizens. The ethnographic research among adoptive parents and adoption professionals shows a defensive discourse and action that aims at empowering against potential problems, as well as a tendency to other the adoptive child by pathologizing its non-normativity. By showing the strong embeddedness of adoptive families' practices of familial and cultural construction in larger cultural frames of selfing and othering, characterized by biologism and nativism, one begins to understand the limits of their capacity to realize full citizenship. [source] Waorani Grief and the Witch-Killer's Rage: Worldview, Emotion, and Anthropological ExplanationETHOS, Issue 2 2005CLAYTON ROBARCHEK This article analyzes a complex of grief, rage and homicide among the Ecuadorian Waorani, tracing the relationships among worldview, values and concepts of self, and envy, rage and homicide, especially witch-killing. We contrast the results with the position taken by Rosaldo in his widely cited paper "Grief and the Headhunters Rage" (1989). We hold that Waorani individuals' experience of rage during bereavement is not, as argued by Rosaldo for the Ilongot, a thing sui generis, immune to further explanation. Rather, it is explained as a product of people defining their experience on the basis of cultural constructions of self and reality and acting in accord with those definitions. We also argue that this explanation, coupled with the similarities in the Waorani and Ilongot complexes, suggests the operation of similar sociocultural and psychological processes in the two societies and supports, contra the assertions of postmodernists and others, the continued value and validity of cross-cultural comparative research. [source] | ||||||||||