Ambiguity In Yolngu Religious Language

For Muslims universally, the mosque is the place of prostration to the Almighty. Its design, however, is left to local cultures. The mosque is both architecturally unique and contextual: the present essay explores the development of mosque architecture in Indonesia through different eras and is developed from my field research, as well as from my experience living there and working as an architect and urban planner between 1993 and 2005.     

Sea breeze: Globalisation and cook islands popular music

This paper examines the dynamics of Cook Islands popular music, most commonly referred to as ‘island music’. Among Cook Islands communities at home and abroad, island music is performed at informal gatherings, at nightclubs and bars. It is also a central component of large functions such as weddings and island fundraising events. String bands—who perform island music—undertake performance tours through New Zealand, the Cook Islands and French Polynesia. These bands also record audiotapes and CDs of their music, which are extremely popular among Cook Islander communities across the region. Despite island music's centrality in many social contexts it is also the subject of much critical debate. It is viewed by some both as a ‘bastardisation’ of ‘traditional’ expressive forms and as an indicator of ‘global’ corruption; local music is seen as ‘swamped’ by Western popular music. I argue that these debates are symptomatic of anxiety about globalisation and related notions of authenticity, cultural ownership and loss. They are also ultimately concerned with negotiating locality and identity across the Cook Islands diaspora.     

Applying an Ecological Framework to Understanding Drug Addiction and Recovery

ABSTRACT

A new conceptual model of drug addiction and recovery, the Acculturation Model, is presented, with “addiction” and “recovery” understood as distinct sociocultural phenomena with their unique prescribed behaviors, rituals, symbols, and language that serve to construct and consolidate a cultural identity. The model suggests that individuals in recovery from drug addiction will need to make a cultural transformation in order to maintain sobriety. Examples of specific rituals that may help facilitate movement from addiction to recovery are detailed.     

浅析高校宿舍文化建设与学风建设

在新形势下,高校学生管理工作面临着新的问题,这些问题将对高校学风建设产生一定的影响。宿舍文化建设作为学生管理工作的重要方面,其对高校学风建设的作用正日益彰显。文章阐述了当前高校宿舍文化的特点与不足,分析了当前高校宿舍文化建设的现状和问题,并就新形势下如何创建高校宿舍文化,提高学风建设的质量提出几点看法。     

中国少数民族题材纪录片发展现状及其对策分析

作为中国纪录片一大类型,少数民族题材纪录片从20世纪80年代以来获得了迅速发展,它既再现了少数民族地区风土人情、多彩文化和重大历史事件,又记录了少数民族普通人日常生活、生存状态和社会变迁,对中国纪录片艺术进步以及各民族之间相互交流作出了贡献。少数民族题材纪录片承载着少数民族和中国国家形象,它的广泛传播有利于文化认同、民族国家认同和现代化建设。针对当前历史语境和传播技术条件,少数民族题材纪录片可以从传播渠道、国际交流、政府扶持、摄制队伍建设等方面寻求突破与发展。     

Recollections of harsh discipline in childhood and depressive feelings in adulthood: The roles of culture and gender

The present study examined the roles of culture and gender in the association between recollections of harsh discipline experienced during childhood and levels of depressive feelings in early adulthood. A sample of Jewish (n = 250) and Arab (n = 115) university students reported regarding exposure to corporal punishment and emotional aggression from each parent during childhood, and about current depressive feelings. Consistent with predictions, both culture and gender moderated the links between corporal punishment (used by either mother or father) and depression. Arab males, for whom exposure to corporal punishment might be more culturally normative, showed a different pattern than both Arab females and Jewish respondents. Moreover, culture moderated the association between emotional aggression from fathers (but not mothers) and depression. The discussion focuses on the importance of examining the effects of gender (of child and parent) in conjunction with culture, and on the complex role of cultural normativeness.     

Unravelling Cultural Constructions in Social Work Education: Journeying Toward Cultural Competence

Cultural understanding is often so deeply internalised it is difficult to know when and how values, beliefs and traditions were learned and even whether the ingrained messages carried from the past remain relevant in the present. Finding creative and culturally inclusive ways for students to unravel the origins of their own cultural constructions evolved into an assignment for a family course in social work education at the University of Otago, New Zealand. The student group were distance taught, mature students, most of whom were working in social service settings. Students self‐selected into groups and were asked to research, analyse and present their understanding of the influence of a culturally specific and influential myth, legend or fairytale. A key requirement was that this occurred within the context of working with families. Students were required to examine how the messages from well known ‘stories’ are perpetuated and how these then influence social work practice. This method of assessment was monitored and evaluated in terms of the students' experiences along with the learning outcomes for the course. It is the rationale, the process, and evaluation of this assignment that will be discussed in this paper.     

‘Upholding the Banner of Islam’: British Converts to Islam and the Liverpool Muslim Institute,c.1887–1908

Much has been written in recent years about the life of William Henry Abdullah Quilliam, late-Victorian propagator of Islam in Britain and founder of the Liverpool Muslim Institute (LMI). However, little attention has been given to Quilliam's fellow British Muslim converts, who constituted Britain's first indigenous Muslim community. This article briefly looks at the LMI as a missionary organisation. It then quantifies and examines the socio-demographics and post-conversion lives of the British Muslim community. It argues that individual commitment to both the LMI and Islam was affected by discrimination and misunderstanding of Muslims and their faith in society. However, by considering the fate of the Muslims following the LMI's demise, it is shown that a core of resolute converts held fast to their beliefs and played an important role in the consolidation of Islam in early twentieth-century Britain.     

Social Work and Child Maltreatment Intervention in Disney Animated Feature Films: 1937–2006

Abstract

The 45 Disney animated feature films produced between 1937 and 2006 were analysed for representations of child maltreatment and child maltreatment interventions according to criteria set out in the US National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect. Although there are 263 maltreated child characters in 30 of the 45 films, they seldom show formal interventionists at work. The types of resolutions and interventions to child maltreatment in the films were analysed and contrasted with the single depiction of a social worker. The actions of this character were assessed according to national codes of ethics and standards for social worker interventions and decision making. Implications are drawn for the profession of social work and the findings are discussed within the context of previously published analyses of media representations of social workers.     

Impartial regimes of truth

This essay is concerned. with one of the most mundane, routine, yet significant practices of modern society: the inquiry. Approaching the inquiry as, simultaneously, a mechanism for the evaluation and adjudication of truth, and as a method of information collection and compilation, the paper argues that the inquiry is a key apparatus for the production of a regime of truth governed. by the liberal notion of ‘impartiality’. In making this argument, the paper provides a detailed. case study of the numerous colonial inquiries into the nineteenth-century migration of indentured. Indian labour: It outlines how, as a method of information collection and compilation, these inquiries formed. a discursive field defining the parameters of the debates on indenture. In addition, it demonstrates how, as an apparatus for the production of truth, the continual appearance of the inquiry served. to shore up the notion of ‘impartial’ truth, thereby enabling the system of indenture for almost a century. The resonances between the status of the inquiry with regard to indentured. migration and a host of current practices become evident through the paper, as specific effects of power attach to the ‘impartial truth’ produced. by the apparatus of the inquiry.