Commentary: Evolution and Nonverbal Behavior: Functions and Mediating Processes

The articles in this special issue provide important, new insight into the evolutionary roots of expressive behavior. Across the three articles, a strong argument is made for behavioral mimicry, expressivity, and laughter providing adaptive value to ancestral humans that is still reflected in our modern world. The place of an evolutionary analysis in the development of a broader functional approach to nonverbal communication is described and discussed. Each article proposes specific dynamics through which expressive behaviors predispose receivers to respond in a manner benefitting the sender. The mediating mechanisms advanced in the articles are examined more closely and modifications in the proposed processes are considered.     

Chapter 6: Gay Latinos and AIDS:

AIDS education, prevention strategies, and support services for gay and bisexual Latinos have traditionally been inadequate, even though surveillance data demonstrate that the risk of contracting AIDS is two and one-half times greater for gay or bisexual Latino men than for their white counterparts. Language, culture, disproportionate poverty, and different definitions of gay or bisexual identity in Latino communities must be considered when addressing AIDS issues among Latino groups in the United States. It should not be assumed that outreach, education and prevention programs which may be appropriate for whites or African Americans will be appropriate for Latinos. This article offers a theoretical framework for developing a culturally-sensitive AIDS prevention program for gay and bisexual Latino men.     

Wives and Mothers-in-law:

Elder abuse exists in Japan. Not only is recognition of the problem inadequate, but there are few systematic efforts to deal with it. This paper describes a small-scale survey that explored the conflictual relationship between wives and mothers-in-law. Since the end of World War II, the positions of the wife and that of the mother-in-law have been reversed, resulting in a weaker position for the latter. This change from the traditional relationship may be a source of elder abuse.     

Research and Practice:

In this multiply-authored account, five academicians discuss the connections between their work as clinicians and their clinical qualitative research. Each saw connections between practice and research, and each in her or his own domain of interest has found that practice informs research and research informs practice. This article also introduces three major types of qualitative clinical family research: conversational analysis, recursive frame analysis, and hermeneutic phenomenology.     

Families and Museums:

No abstract available for this article.     

Management and Succession:

Aspects of management and succession in any business can be analysed as though they involved intergenerational family relationships, whether in fact or by metaphor. Summaries are provided of research on management of offspring and intergenerational succession in business families and then extended metaphorically to managament and succession when the people involved are not relatives. Metaphoric analysis leads to a discussion of family of origin intrusions into work situations and the issues involved in succession when a successor and person succeeded are markedly different in age.     

Women and HIV:

Women constitute one of the fastest growing groups of people infected with HIV. Women have always been affected by HIV as informal or formal caregivers. Despite this, HIV services and education have been directed almost exclusively towards men. Given that women comprise half of the workforce, the change in the face of the epidemic requires a reexamination of the EAP professional's approach to AIDS education and services. This article delineates HTV-related issues specific to women and their impact on the functions of the EAP. Suggestions are made for targeting AIDS workplace education and prevention to women. The implications of women's issues on early identification, counseling, and referral by EAP professionals are also explored. Consideration is given to the cultural and socioeconomic diversity of women affected by HIV.     

Aging and Housing:

Housing is conceptualized as a source of positive or negative status. Some environmentally related indicators of status are generated to open new lines of inquiry. The social class limits of new housing as a Source of accorded status are discussed.     

Difference and Diversity:

Some therapists believe that they should treat gay and lesbian couples ôjust like heterosexual couples.ö Others hold the view that same-sex couples are completely different from heterosexual couples and that only specially trained therapist can work with them. This paper is an attempt to over come the lack of information about gay and lesbian couple by describing the differences between heterosexual couples and homosexual couples; differences between gay couples and lesbian couples; diversity within both lesbian couples and gay couples; and the therapeutic implications of these differences. The discussion of differences has powerful political implications and is embedded within a larger context of belief systems about gender and sexual orientation. Therapist needs to protect against categorizing, essentializing, or over generalizing about gay and lesbian couples. Although heterosexism, homophobia, and sexism affect the dynamics of all gay and lesbian relationships, it is important to recognize that age, class, race, ethnicity, and physical ability, as well as the dynamics of each individual couple, make each relationship unique. The therapist, whether lesbian, gay, bisexual, or heterosexual, should be familiar with issues specific to lesbian and gay experience within the dominant society, and, at the same time, be attuned to the idiosyncratic nature of individual couples.     

Multiculturalism and Activism:

No abstract available for this article.     

Misogyny and Modernity:

This paper argues that what Roussea sees as the modern pathology of "social problem" of dependence is both symbolized and manifested by what are, in Rousseau's eyes, the vices of modern women. Women manifest in microcosm what Rousseau sees as the failings of modern civil society at large. Thus, a major requirement of Rousseau's solution for the modern pathology in The Social Contract is the subjection of women. Despite this clearly misogynistic attitudes, Rousseau's treatment of women is instructive for feminist thought, and useful as an interpretive tool for understanding his larger political theory.     

Research note: Bourdieu and Leibniz: mediated dualisms

The research note discusses similarities in theory construction between Bourdieu and Leibniz. Instead of ‘overcoming’ the Cartesian dualisms, both authors find a way to mediate between the dualistic concepts by introducing a third concept. In Leibniz' case, this is God, in Bourdieu's case, history. Reading Bourdieu thus from a Leibnizian angle, the note seeks to clarify some issues in Bourdieu's theory construction.     

Perspectives: Abortion and Genocide: The Unbridgeable Gap

This article examines The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform's claimthat abortion is genocide, assessing it against legal, trait-basedand "dynamic process" definitions of genocide. The purpose ofthis exercise is not to give credence to what many consideran outrageous claim, nor is it to merely refute this claim basedupon a close reading of existing definitions of genocide; instead,by subjecting The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform's claim to anethical and performative evaluation, our goal is to illustratehow the term genocide can be "misused." In the end, we arguethat The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform uses the term genocidefor its own totalizing and essentializing purposes, and in doingso engages in practices that share an affinity with the exclusionarydiscourses that help make genocide thinkable.     

Review Essay: Sociology and Knowledge: Trust, Truth, and Troth

Epistemic Cultures: How the Sciences Make Knowledge , by Karin Knorr Cetina.
Social Mechanisms: An Analytic Approach to Social Theory , edited by Peter Hedström and Richard Swedberg.
A Watched POT: How We Experience Time , by Michael G. Flaherty.