Dagara bagr: ritualising myth of social foundation

Africa ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 595-633
Author(s):  
Alexis B. Tengan

AbstractThe article explores the ritualising processes of a myth of social foundation, the bagr myth, among the Dagara of north-west Ghana and south-west Burkina Faso. It describes how rituals form part of the daily life of the Dagara and shows how bagr rituals form a series of private and public events lasting the whole year or the bagr season. The article describes the social life in the neighbourhood within which most ritual activities take place and outlines the historical events which are possibly responsible for the creation of the bagr myth itself as a narrative text. The rest of the article is devoted to the ritualising processes of the bagr myth. Much of the article, particularly this section, is structured around the author's own experiences and participant observation of ritual activities. The aim is to show why the public rituals of bagr are not about initiating particular individuals into a secret society or lodges but are about how Dagara society constitutes itself. The day and night ritual narration of the bagr myth involving different segments of society and described in detail in the second half of the article seems to justify this claim. The article includes excerpts from bagr narratives recorded by the author to illustrate how the text is being constructed and the sort of information it is intended to communicate.

2021 ◽  
pp. 001946462110203
Author(s):  
Dikshit Sarma Bhagabati ◽  
Prithvi Sinha ◽  
Sneha Garg

This essay aims to understand the role of religion in the social work of Pandita Ramabai (1858-1922). By focusing on a twenty-five-year period commencing with her conversion to Christianity in 1883, we argue that religion constructed a political framework for her work in Sharada Sadan and Mukti Mission. There is a lacuna in the conventional scholarship that underplays the nuances of religion in Ramabai’s reform efforts, which we try to fill by conceptualising faith and religiosity as two distinct signifiers of her private and public religious presentations respectively. Drawing on her published letters, the annual reports of the Ramabai Association in America, and a number of evangelical periodicals published during her lifetime, we analyse how she explored Christianity not just as a personal faith but also as a conduit for funds. The conversion enabled her access to American supporters, concomitantly consolidating their claim over her social work. Her peculiar religious identity—a conflation of Hinduism and Christianity—provoked strong protests from the Hindu orthodoxy while leading to a fall-out with the evangelists at the same time. Ramabai shaped the public portrayal of her religiosity to maximise support from American patrons, the colonial state, and liberal Indians, resisting the orthodoxy’s oppositions with these material exploits. Rather than surrendering to patriarchal cynicism, she capitalised on the socio-political volatilities of colonial India to further the nascent women’s movement.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 146-163
Author(s):  
Daniel Renfrew ◽  
Thomas W. Pearson

This article examines the social life of PFAS contamination (a class of several thousand synthetic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) and maps the growing research in the social sciences on the unique conundrums and complex travels of the “forever chemical.” We explore social, political, and cultural dimensions of PFAS toxicity, especially how PFAS move from unseen sites into individual bodies and into the public eye in late industrial contexts; how toxicity is comprehended, experienced, and imagined; the factors shaping regulatory action and ignorance; and how PFAS have been the subject of competing forms of knowledge production. Lastly, we highlight how people mobilize collectively, or become demobilized, in response to PFAS pollution/ toxicity. We argue that PFAS exposure experiences, perceptions, and responses move dynamically through a “toxicity continuum” spanning invisibility, suffering, resignation, and refusal. We off er the concept of the “toxic event” as a way to make sense of the contexts and conditions by which otherwise invisible pollution/toxicity turns into public, mass-mediated, and political episodes. We ground our review in our ongoing multisited ethnographic research on the PFAS exposure experience.


HUMANIKA ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurtanio Agus Puwanto

Education is it doesn't matter always closely related with social life. That thing is in limited scale earned we to see as interaction of school with public around and education in society itself. In public laymen looks into someone based on it’s the social status, like level of it’s (the economics social, education even material properties owned).In public is recognized also social institution as an order applied at one particular certain public. Institution of Social is life pattern standard reference a public so that always adhered by group of the public. If some acquitted outside institution embraced a public hence people or the group will be assumed impinges institution which has been specified. Talks about institution of social don’t get out of development of culture happened in public.Cultural development hardly influenced by public patterned thinking formed by education obtained, experience of public individual or group of people, foreign intervention and change of internal area and external happened.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3.21) ◽  
pp. 326
Author(s):  
Zikri Fachrul Nurhadi ◽  
Ummu Salamah ◽  
Yully Destari ◽  
Novie Susanti Suseno

The purpose of this study to discover and reveal the social construction of masculine woman identity in terms of externalization, objectivation, and internalization. This study used a qualitative approach, with a method or theory of social reality construction of constructivism paradigm. Data collection was done through in-depth interviews, participant observation, and literature. The study finding showed that the social construction of masculine woman identity in terms of externalization is influenced by internal and external factors. Internal factor is influenced by a family that makes informants show the social construction of masculine woman identity to the public. While external factor is influenced by association with male friend and technological advances (mass media) that have contributed to the formation of character, appearance style, and feeling to others. In general, social identity construction of masculine woman constructs her identity in a way  showed that masculine woman does not always have a negative character. In this case, a masculine woman can survive and adapt to the family, campus and community environments. The research finding showed that appearance changes will only happen if there is a will from the masculine woman herself, and the comfort level of masculine appearance can not change the identity.  


Author(s):  
Anna Leander

The terms habitus and field are useful heuristic devices for thinking about power relations in international studies. Habitus refers to a person’s taken-for-granted, unreflected—hence largely habitual—way of thinking and acting. The habitus is a “structuring structure” shaping understandings, attitudes, behavior, and the body. It is formed through the accumulated experience of people in different fields. Using fields to study the social world is to acknowledge that social life is highly differentiated. A field can be exceedingly varied in scope and scale. A family, a village, a market, an organization, or a profession may be conceptualized as a field provided it develops its own organizing logic around a stake at stake. Each field is marked by its own taken-for-granted understanding of the world, implicit and explicit rules of behavior, and valuation of what confers power onto someone: that is, what counts as “capital.” The analysis of power through the habitus/field makes it possible to transcend the distinctions between the material and the “ideational” as well as between the individual and the structural. Moreover, working with habitus/field in international studies problematizes the role played by central organizing divides, such as the inside/outside and the public/private; and can uncover politics not primarily structured by these divides. Developing research drawing on habitus/field in international studies will be worthwhile for international studies scholars wishing to raise and answer questions about symbolic power/violence.


2006 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 181-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. K. Rangachari

Undergraduate science students took an Inquiry course in their second (sophomore) year. The course was designed to explore the social life of scientific knowledge. They were given a set of eight assessment options: personal logs, targeted oral examinations, commentaries, mini-lectures, individual explorations, research proposals, book reviews, and problem-solving exercises. Each option had a specific maximum mark (percentage or grade point) associated with it. Students were permitted to select any set of options to obtain their total grade for the course. From the student’s perspective, the course provided a valuable learning experience and enabled them to recognize the complexities involved in the process of generating scientific information and making it useful and relevant to the public. The opportunity given to select their own assessment options enhanced their learning. For me, as the sole instructor managing 51 students, the experience was rewarding.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 193-198
Author(s):  
Liana Alekseevna Aghajanyan ◽  
Ekaterina Andreevna Iagafova

The paper considers the forms and directions of the activity of the public organization - the Union of Armenian Youth (UAY) in the socio-cultural environment of Samara, and shows its role in the life of the regional community of Armenians. The UAY appeared in 2015 as a youth wing in Samara Armenian national-cultural autonomy Nairi. Currently it is engaged in organizing both youth events and large public events in the Armenian community. The main activities of the UAY are organization of national (Armenian) public events, thematic exhibitions, festivals in Samara and in the Samara Region; organization of work of national collectives; Sunday schools of the Armenian language, history and culture of the Armenian people; organization of participation of the UAY members in joint activities of other national public institutions on the territory of the Samara Region. The activities of the UAY are connected with the social life of the Armenian community of Samara and the region. Due to the activity of young people, the activities of Armenian public organizations are visible in the public space of the Samara Region. During a short period of time, the UAY has accumulated considerable experience of public activity, which contributes to the productive work of the organization. At the same time, there are some problems in its activity in cooperation with other Armenian organizations of the region. Being the most active part of the Armenian community of Samara, the UAY continues to develop dynamically, attracting new members to the organization and improving the forms of work in the Armenian community. The research is based on the analysis of field materials, the organizations archive and Internet resources.


Neophilology ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 214-220
Author(s):  
Theodosius (Vasnev)

The Seminary influence on the governorate social life development was an integral part of social processes in the period of 1867-1884, which formed the prototype of the modern education practice. Identification of the Seminary role in the Tambov Governorate social life of the 19th century is a research component of this study, which affects the knowledge of the spiritual and moral education of society current state. Manuscript drafting source was the archival data of Tambov eparchy clergy activities of the late 19th century, the periodical press data of the same period. We interpret the obtained sources in the logic of the general civilized approach to the study of Seminary as an institution of social life characterized by regional aspects. Studies of the role of Seminary in social life have shown the sequence of its formation and development, its further socialization in the social life of the governorate. Special importance is attached to the Tambov Seminary in the years of transformations. Spiritual and moral influence of the Seminary on contemporaries, its increasingly active participation in the public life of the city, the change of its moral appearance contributed to the increase in the authority (role) of the Seminary in the social life of the Tambov Governorate.


AKADEMIKA ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Sofiatul Iman

Abstract: Da'wah messages can be accepted among the (youth) community through da'wah packages that attract the attention of da'wah objects (mad'u). In packing da'wah messages, it is necessary to understand the mad'u situation, as done by jam'iyyah Hadrah Nurul Mustofa, which is much favored by young people, especially in Darungan-Cangkring-Jenggawah-Jember. The da'wah activities carried out by the Hadrah Nurul Mustofa have a special attraction for members and the community in general as their madú. Because the design of the da'wah movement is carried out in balance with the social conditions of young people who incidentally are alcoholic addicts. The purpose of this study is to understand the propaganda movement carried out by the Hadrah Nurul Mustofa to provide academic contributions with a theoretical description in the missionary movement, in addition it also provides a broad understanding for readers regarding the missionary movement, especially for Muslims who have the obligation to convey religious messages through da'wah. In this study, the researcher uses descriptive qualitative methods to explore data. This type of research uses a phenomenological approach that describes the general meaning of a number of individuals on various life experiences, so that the researcher can explore data relating to the tendency of youth and general habits already inherent in their social life. Collecting data in this study with active participant observation, non-structural in-depth interviews so that the data needed can be explored as deeply as possible. Data analysis uses a combined description of the phenomenon being studied by including textural descriptions and structural descriptions. This is the essence of individual experience that is the object of research and displays the peak aspects of phenomenological studies. The validity of the research data uses data triangulation which includes source triangulation, technique triangulation and time triangulation. The conclusion of this research is that the Majlis Shalawat Nurul Mustofa in fortifying youth morality is by using an emotional approach so that they have self-motivation in leaving all the wrong behaviors and doing good deeds or positive attitudes.Keyword: Da'wah, Moral, Youth


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-37
Author(s):  
Gloria Monica Woodlove ◽  
Mike Emerson Vurly

The research was to aim at approaching a political discourse as an effort to solve the issues. News reporting assigns meaning to issues by providing a continuous record of public events and visibility to the claims of actors. The public sphere is an important field where social problems are constructed and political alternatives become defined. When one considers these functions, it is hardly surprising that news has become an important source of data for a group of researchers who are interested in studying the nature of political challenges that are mobilized in the public domain. However, there sometimes appears to be a tendency within the social movements field to let theoretical development outrun a discussion on the methods with which we are equipped to address our research questions. In this contribution, our focus will be self-consciously directed to methods, and more precisely we make specific proposals regarding how the important methodological developments that have been made in the field in recent times, might be profitably extended. 


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