TRIOS: A Psychological Theory of the African Legacy in American Culture

TRIOS is comprised of attitudes, beliefs and values about time, rhythm, improvisation, orality and spirituality. It is proposed that TRIOS represents the cultural foundation of an African legacy for African Americans and provides a means of coping with slavery and various forms of racism over time. TRIOS is a model for the dual processes of self-protective and self-enhancing motivations for targets who must live in a universal context of racism. TRIOS is described as a context-dependent theory of being-in-the-world, as opposed to doing-in-the-world. Evidence for the origins of TRIOS elements in African and Caribbean culture is presented. A scale to measure TRIOS is described and evidence for racial/ethnic differences shows that African Americans score higher than other racial/ethnic groups. The implications of TRIOS for psychological well-being of African Americans and a wide array of future research questions are discussed.     

Culture and Women's Sexualities

Anthropological studies of women's same-sex relations in non-Western societies provide an important source for theorizing women's sexuality because they allow us to go beyond a narrow focus on Western cultures and concepts. Looking at studies from groups other than the dominant societies of Europe and America, I explore the diversity of women's sexualities and the sociocultural factors that produce sexual beliefs and practices. This article argues that sexual practices take their meaning from particular cultures and their beliefs about the self and the world. Cultural systems of gender, in particular, construct different sexual beliefs and practices for men and women. I conclude the article by suggesting some broad patterns at work in the production of women's sexualities across cultures.     

Cotton: The Fabric that Made the Modern World

Carlo Cipolla, Public Health and the Medical Profession in the Renaissance (1976), viii+136 (Cambridge University Press, £5.50).

Norman Davis (ed.), Paston Letters and Papers of the Fifteenth Century: Part II (Oxford, 1977), xxxiü+664 (Clarendon Press: Oxford University Press, £25.00).

Felicity Heal and Rosemary O'Day (eds), Church and Society in England: Henry VIII to James I (1977), vi+200 (Macmillan, £5.95, paperback £2.95).

Theodore K. Rabb, The Struggle for Stability in Early Modern Europe (1976), xii+171+25 illustrations (Oxford University Press, £3.50, paperback £1.50).

Stephanie Grauman Wolf, Urban Village: Population, Community, and Family Structure in Germantown, Pennsylvania, 1683–1800 (1976), xi+361 (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, £15.80).

Alan J. Lee, The Origins of the Popular Press 1855–1914 (1976), 310 (Croom Helm, £9.50).

David Kynaston, King Labour: The British Working Class 1850–1914 (1976), 184 (George Allen &; Unwin, £6.50, paperback £2.95).

Peter N. Stearns, Old Age in European Society: The Case of France (1976), 163 (Croom Helm, £6.95).

Rudolf Schenda, Die Lesestoffe der Kleinen Leute (1976), 208 (C. H. Beck, München, Paperback. DM 16.80). (The Reading Matter of the Common Man)     

African American Lesbian and Bisexual Women

This article explores the convergence of racism, sexism, and heterosexism in the lives of African American women, particularly lesbian and bisexual women, and its effects on the development of their sexuality and sexual identity. Specifics of this discussion focus on African American women, however, the struggles reflected in their development of a personal identity exemplify the kinds of struggles that most women of color encounter. These struggles are reflected in the need to negotiate a dominant culture that devalues women, people of color, and lesbians; the need to master and integrate the cultural derivatives of one's own ethnic group; the need to manage relationships with family, community, and partners; and the need to form a consolidated personal identity.     

Culture Religion and Infertility: A South African Perspective

¹ Dr Vishanthie Sewpaul, Department of Social Work, University of Natal, Durban 4041, South Africa. E-mail: sewpaul{at}mtb.und.ac.za Summary This paper contains data pertaining to cultural views on fertilityand infertility, and the use of traditional healing in infertility,from a sample of twenty-four case studies of infertile participantsand from twelve religious leaders representative of the faithsof the infertile participants. This is followed by a discussionon the impact of religion on the handling of infertility. Theunique differences between the Indian and African world viewscompared with those of Coloureds and Whites² are evident. However,the impact of religion on the handling of infertility reflectssimilarities across different religious groups. Within the variousthemes that emerged regarding religion and infertility, themost pervasive, across all religious faiths, was that infertilitywas seen as punishment for wrong-doing. The individual's levelof involvement with religion, their personal conception of God,and their sense of self in relation to God appeared to be importantfactors in influencing the impact of religion on the experienceof infertility.     

文化与美国外交:一种宗教视角的分析

在西方文化观中,美国文化具有鲜明的宗教性.宗教文化对美国外交的影响体现在三大方面:源于宗教的使命感强化了美国外交中的孤立主义与干涉主义:美利坚民族信奉的宗教自由理念在20世纪90年代的国际大背景下促使美国政府出台国际宗教自由法,由此加剧了国际社会在人权问题上的冲突:20世纪后期宗教保守主义的复兴强化了美国对外政策中的宗教神学色彩.