Ideology and the Direction of Causation in the Acquisition and Maintenance of Shared Belief Systems

Kyklos ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 392-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael C. Munger
Keyword(s):  
Belief Systems ◽  
Direction Of Causation

The Place of Traditional Artists in the Preservation of Nigerian Art

2018 ◽  
pp. 75-88
Author(s):  
Victoria N Osuagwu
Keyword(s):  
Belief Systems ◽  
Sacred Grove ◽  
Art World ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Open Spaces ◽  
Economic Resource ◽  
The People ◽  
Traditional Artists ◽  
Global Art ◽  
Source Of Information

Human beings have always left signs of their activities behind them. These signs take both tangible and intangible forms, including buildings, sites, sculptural works, antiquities, rock art paintings, belief systems, and traditions. The people of this millennium have recognized the remains of our fore-bears namely archaeological, architectural monuments, sites, and cultural works as an integral part of the cultural heritage of all humanity. They also recognized the fact that heritage is an invaluable source of information about the lives and activities of human beings and their artistic and technical capabilities over the centuries. The Nigerian Ancient Art Tradition which spans eight thousand years is a product of diverse artists from Dufuna, Nok, Igbo-Ukwu, Ife, Owo, Benin, Tada, etc. Also remarkable are the sculptural works created by late Susanne Wenger (an Austrian) and her New Sacred Art Movement in Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove, which gave meaning to open spaces within the grove. This paper examines the role played by these artworks to project Nigeria to the global art world. The benefits to Nigeria and the global art traditions and recommendations on how to revive this dwindling economic resource will also be examined. The approach used was to study the artworks produced by some of these artists. Some of the findings were that the works were carefully done with suitable materials that have withstood climate change.

Coming-of-Age Cinema in New Zealand

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alistair Fox
Keyword(s):  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Art Cinema ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
French New Wave ◽  
Significant Phenomenon ◽  
The Impact ◽  
New Zealanders

This book investigates the coming-of-age genre as a significant phenomenon in New Zealand’s national cinema, tracing its development from the 1970s to the present day. A preliminary chapter identifies the characteristics of the coming-of-age film as a genre, tracing its evolution and the influence of the French New Wave and European Art Cinema, and speculating on the role of the genre in the output of national cinemas. Through case studies of fifteen significant films, including The God Boy, Sleeping Dogs, The Scarecrow, Vigil, Mauri, An Angel at My Table, Heavenly Creatures, Once Were Warriors, Rain, Whale Rider, In My Father’s Den, 50 Ways of Saying Fabulous, Boy, Mahana, and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, subsequent chapters examine thematic preoccupations of filmmakers such as the impact of repressive belief systems and social codes, the experience of cultural dislocation, the expression of a Māori perspective through an indigenous “Fourth Cinema,” bicultural relationships, and issues of sexual identity, arguing that these films provide a unique insight into the cultural formation of New Zealanders. Given that the majority of films are adaptations of literary sources, the book also explores the dialogue each film conducts with the nation’s literature, showing how the time frame of each film is updated in a way that allows these films to be considered as a register of important cultural shifts that have occurred as New Zealanders have sought to discover their emerging national identity.

For Pity's Sake

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Hodkinson ◽  
Chandrika Devarakonda
Keyword(s):  
Global Education ◽  
Affective Commitment ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Teacher Discourse ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Forensic Examination ◽  
Indian Tradition

This paper offers a critique of transnational aspects of ‘inclusion,’ one of those global education buzzwords that as Slee (2009) puts it, say everything but say nothing. It starts off by trying to compare Indian and English usages and attitudes at the level of teacher discourse, and notes the impossibility of any ‘authentic’ translation, given the very different cultural contexts and histories. In response to these divergences, the authors undertake a much more genealogical and ‘forensic’ examination of values associated with ‘inclusion,’ focussing especially on a key notion of ‘pity.’ The Eurocentric tradition is traced from its Platonic origins through what is claimed to be the ‘industrialization of pity’ and its rejection as a virtue in favour of more apparently egalitarian measures of fairness. The Indian tradition relates rather to religious traditions across a number of different belief systems, most of which centre on some version of a karmic notion of pity. The authors both criticise and reject ‘inclusion’ as a colonisation of the global and call for a new understanding of notions like ‘pity’ as affective commitment rather than ‘fair’ dispensation of equality.

Tree Diversity Conservation Initiatives in Sacred Groves of Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-68
Author(s):  
Laxmi Joshi Shrestha ◽  
Mohan Devkota ◽  
Bhuvan Keshar Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Tree Species ◽  
Management System ◽  
Survey Methods ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Diversity Indices ◽  
Kathmandu Valley ◽  
Sacred Grove ◽  
Sacred Groves ◽  
The Government

 The study was conducted in two sacred groves of Kathmandu Valley, Pashupati Sacred Grove, and Bajrabarahi Sacred Grove, aiming to analyze the diversity of tree species and their role in conserving biodiversity. Parallel transects with concentric circular plot survey methods were applied for data collection. During the study, 23 tree species belonging to 22 genera and 15 families were recorded in Pashupati sacred grove, whereas only 19 tree species belonging to 16 genera and 13 families were recorded from Bajrabarahi Sacred Grove. The Shannon-Weiner diversity indices were higher (H=1.91) in Pashupati Sacred Grove compared to Bajrabarahi Sacred Grove, with 1.80 Shanon-Weiner Indices. Three types of forest were recorded from Pashupati Sacred Grove, namely the Schima-Pyrus forest, Myrsine-Persea forest, and Quercus-Myrsine forest, and only one Neolitsiacuipala forest from Bajrabarahi Sacred Grove. The sacred grove is one of the pioneers and community-based management regimes of the forest resource management system. It plays a decisive role in biodiversity conservation as it associated with many taboos and belief systems, thus providing a better opportunity for conservation compared to that of the government management system.

ISLAMIC SOCIAL SCIENCES

1988 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona Abul Fadl
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Foundations ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Human Value ◽  
The Social ◽  
Western Values ◽  
Culture Brokers

The need for a relevant and instrumental body of knowledge that can secure the taskof historical reconstruction in Muslim societies originally inspired the da’wa for the Islamizationof knowledge. The immediate targets for this da’wa were the social sciences for obvious reasons.Their field directly impinges on the organization of human societies and as such carries intothe area of human value and belief systems. The fact that such a body of knowledge alreadyexisted and that the norms for its disciplined pursuit were assumed in the dominant practiceconfronted Muslim scholars with the context for addressing the issues at stake. How relevantwas current social science to Muslim needs and aspirations? Could it, in its present formand emphasis, provide Muslims with the framework for operationalizing their values in theirhistorical present? How instrumental is it in shaping the social foundations vital for the Muslimfuture? Is instrumentality the only criteria for such evaluations? In seeking to answer thesequestions the seeds are sown for a new orientation in the social sciences. This orientationrepresents the legitimate claims and aspirations of a long silent/silenced world culture.In locating the activities of Muslim social scientists today it is important to distinguishbetween two currents. The first is in its formative stages as it sets out to rediscover the worldfrom the perspective of a recovered sense of identity and in terms of its renewed culturalaffinities. Its preoccupations are those of the Muslim revival. The other current is constitutedof the remnants of an earlier generation of modernizers who still retain a faith in the universalityof Western values. Demoralized by the revival, as much as by their own cultural alientation,they seek to deploy their reserves of scholarship and logistics to recover lost ground. Bymodifying their strategy and revalorizing the legacy they hope that, as culture-brokers, theymight be more effective where others have failed. They seek to pre-empt the cultural revivalby appropriating its symbols and reinterpreting the Islamic legacy to make it more tractableto modernity. They blame Orientalism for its inherent fixations and strive to redress its selfimposedlimitations. Their efforts may frequently intersect with those of the Islamizing current,but should clearly not be confused with them. For all the tireless ingenuity, these effortsare more conspicuous for their industry than for their originality. Between the new breadof renovationists and the old guard of ‘modernizers’, the future of an Islamic Social Scienceclearly lies with the efforts of the former.Within the Islamizing current it is possible to distinguish three principal trends. The firstopts for a radical perspective and takes its stand on epistemological grounds. It questionsthe compatibility of the current social sciences on account of their rootedness in the paradigmof the European Enlightenment and its attendant naturalistic and positivist biases. Consistencedemands a concerted e€fort to generate alternative paradigms for a new social science fromIslamic epistemologies. In contrast, the second trend opts for a more pragmatic approachwhich assumes that it is possible to interact within the existing framework of the disciplinesafter adapting them to Islamic values. The problem with modern sciene is ethical, notepistemological, and by recasting it accordingly, it is possible to benefit from its strengthsand curtail its derogatory consequences. The third trend focuses on the Muslim scholar, rather ...

Ancient Ways

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Weinel
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Visual Art ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Altered State ◽  
Field Recordings ◽  
Spirit World ◽  
Relevant Field ◽  
Altered State Of Consciousness ◽  
And Function ◽  
Role And Function

This chapter discusses shamanism, explaining the ethos and mythology of several indigenous societies, and how these belief systems relate to the design of art and music. First, a general overview of shamanism is provided, which outlines the typical role and function of a shaman. An explanation of the shamanic visionary experience, a type of altered state of consciousness, is then provided. Following this, the chapter explores a variety of visual art from indigenous shamanic cultures, including examples from San, Native American, Huichol, Tukano, and Shipibo traditions. The sound and music of shamanic and trance cultures is also discussed, with reference to Vodou, Tukano, Mazatec, Kiowa, and Mayan examples, and relevant field recordings. Through the course of this discussion, the chapter establishes a view of how shamanic art and music invoke a sense of the spirit world, which informs the subsequent discourse of Inner Sound.

African and African American Religions in the Early Americas

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Young
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Subsequent Development ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
African American Religion ◽  
African Religion ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
New Generation ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter chronicles the relationship between African religious practices on the continent and African American religion in the plantation Americas in the era of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. A new generation of scholars who emerged in the 1960s and 1970s have demonstrated not only that African religious practices exhibit remarkable subtlety and complexity but also that these cultures have played significant roles in the subsequent development of religious practices throughout the world. Christianity, Islam, and traditional African religion comprised a set of broad and varied religious practices that contributed to the development of creative, subtle, and complex belief systems that circulated around the African Diaspora. In addition, this chapter addresses some of the vexed epistemological challenges related to discussing and describing non-Western ritual and religious practices.

Twin Studies and Politics

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Levente Littvay
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Behavioral Genetics ◽  
Twin Studies ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Genetic Transmission ◽  
The Social ◽  
Direction Of Causation ◽  
Social Part ◽  
The Impact

As recently as 2005, John Alford and colleagues surprised political science with their twin study that found empirical evidence of the genetic transmission of political attitudes and behaviors. Reactions in the field were mixed, but one thing is for sure: it is not time to mourn the social part of the social sciences. Genetics is not the deterministic mechanism that social scientists often assume it to be. No specific part of DNA is responsible for anything but minute, indirect effects on political orientations. Genes express themselves differently in different contexts, suggesting that the political phenomenon behavioral political scientists take for granted may be quite volatile; hence, the impact of genetics is also much less stable in its foundations than initially assumed. Twin studies can offer a unique and powerful avenue to study these behavioral processes as they are more powerful than cross-sectional (or even longitudinal) studies not only for understanding heritability but also for asserting the direction of causation, the social (and, of course, genetic) pathways that explain how political phenomena are related to each other. This chapter aims to take the reader through this journey that political science has gone through over the past decade and a half and point to the synergies behavioral political science and behavioral genetics offer to the advancement of the discipline.

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