From Bawdyhouse to Cabaret: The Evolution of the Tango as an Expression of Argentine Popular Culture

While most readers will be generally familiar with the tango, few of us know very much about its fascinating history and evolution. Deborah Jakubs makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of this initially working-class cultural form, which was at first disdained and then appropriated by the Argentine middle and upper classes. She traces its origins in the lower class neighborhoods on the outskirts of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, its exportation to major European cultural centers, and finally its repatriation to Argentina where it has become a symbol of tradition and national identity. The author ably leads us through the maze of studies that historians, sociologists, musicologists and others have generated over the last hundred years. She examines some of the tango's principal themes in order to delineate its cultural significance within Argentine society in general and within Buenos Aires in particular. We come away from this article much more cognizant of how a popular cultural form can function in the formation of a nation's identity.     

Contraceptive utilization: profile of the Muslim Arab women in rural Israel

The contraceptive habits of the Arab population in rural Israel was explored by means of a cohort ( n =429) of rural Muslim women, with the aim to compose a profile of the women who practice modern contraception. Self-reported information revealed that only one third of the women apply modern contraceptive devices. Multivariate analysis showed the following independent variables to bear a contributory and predictive value with respect to use or non-use of modern contraceptive means by Muslim village women in Israel: degree of religiosity of the woman, male offspring, extent of modernity within the nuclear family, number of children, occupation of the husband, and adherence to traditional norms by the woman.     

大众文化的批判与辩护——当代西方大众文化理论述评

对于"大众文化",西方学界一直存在着不同的观点.批判者认为其是"欺骗群众的启蒙精神",是肤浅文化的同义语,是美国文化对本土文化的入侵,是民间文化的灾难.辩护者则认为,对大众文化的这些非难关系到一系列价值标准的判定,大众文化和趣味标准不应由意识形态的制造者来决定,大众文化与其说是将艺术降格为商品世界的符号的再生产,不如说它是一个转折点,即终结了旧的文化形式,并将符号和消费引入自身地位的界定之中.所以,传统的批判理论指责大众文化被框定在极度的消费主义之中,风格千篇一律的刻板单调和平庸陈腐,是无的放矢.大众文化或许同样可以对高雅文化说,它事实上什么也不缺.大众文化本质上是一种下层文化.大众用两种基本方式来对待自己的下层性:一是逃避;二是对抗.两者是相互联系在一起的,并且都包含着快乐和意义的相互作用.在逃避中快乐多于意义,在对抗中则意义比快乐更为重要.大众文化的负面影响表现为全球文化一体化和单一化的趋势,对人生深度、意义深度的消解,对艺术的神圣性、超越性的消解.