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I am creating a list of culturally conveyed health beliefs and misconceptions for a research project exploring how they may be related to different attitudes and health behaviours (e.g. health anxiety). I am interested in beliefs that are socially/culturally conveyed and are not (at least yet) supported by science and endorsed by medical professionals. I am particularly interested in culture specific (e.g. within a country or set of countries) that have the potential to significantly affect individuals' behaviour. At the moment my focus is mostly on beliefs "frequently" endorsed in Western/European cultures.
To give some examples, the beliefs that:
- You should not go into the water after eating
- Cold weather can cause flu or common colds
- Vaccines cause Autism
If you are aware of significant health misconceptions (modern or ancient) that may have a significant impact on behaviour please let me know (and if possible, in which country/culture they are "prevalent"). Thanks
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Thank you all! very useful
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I can´t remember the topics I chose years ago, but I am studying Cultural Anthropology now and would like to get news, papers etc. from that field.
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@Kathrin. I think you should define your scope of cultural anthropology. You should note there has never been a universal culture because cultures differ within societies. So you should define the culture you want to study.
Now because cultures differ from one place to another the behavior of your participants based on their social actions differs and meaning will differ while there could be similarities between cultures based on shared values.
So you need to define what behaviours of what culture or cultures you want to study. Your instrument of data collection must be qualitative in depth interview, focus group discussion, participatory observation, participant observation with a narrative design. You still cannot escape pshycology since you want to understand why your participants think the way they think in conforming to or in defiance with a culture in a particular society so understanding what folkway, mores and taboos are can help make you achieve a lot about cultural anthropology. Max Weber's Social Action of symbolic interactionalism will help so your targeted audience should not exceed 1000.
I hope this helps
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Evolutionary psychiatry attempts to explain and examine the development and prevalence of psychiatric disorders through the lens of evolutionary and adaptationist theories. In this edited volume, leading international evolutionary scholars present a variety of Darwinian perspectives that will encourage readers to consider 'why' as well as 'how' mental disorders arise. Using insights from comparative animal evolution, ethology, anthropology, culture, philosophy and other humanities, evolutionary thinking helps us to re-evaluate psychiatric epidemiology, genetics, biochemistry and psychology. It seeks explanations for persistent heritable traits shaped by selection and other evolutionary processes, and reviews traits and disorders using phylogenetic history and insights from the neurosciences as well as the effects of the modern environment. By bridging the gap between social and biological approaches to psychiatry, and encouraging bringing the evolutionary perspective into mainstream psychiatry, this book will help to inspire new avenues of research into the causation and treatment of mental disorders.
A copy of the reference could be requested on:
See also:
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Dear scholars,
I have a feeling that the discussion of traditional performing arts within Cultural Evolution is almost non-existent. Maybe because the nature of traditional dance is too complex? It seems that performing arts research falls mainly either within cultural and anthropology but never within Cultural Evolution. Is it because it is impossible to discuss? What are your thoughts?
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Traditional performing arts within cultural evolution was a big topic historically for the German schools of "comparative musicology" (including dance studies). You can find many of their books and articles in English, mostly from the 1890s-1950s. In recent years, there is a bit of a revival of the topic.
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Wearing mask has been inevitable, though not bad, it too has established a mask culture over the world. Along with it arose some major problems, likewise, identity issues, healty issues and bargaining. Production of mask has taken the shape of big profit making Industries. There is a lack of knowledge regarding proper wearing of mask. There is no check on production firms. There should be parameters and specifications on material, size, thickness, etc. for producing masks of good quality. Many a time, wearing a mask creates identity crisis and it may create some other social problems if not handled within time. What do you think about these issues? Kindly share your views and experience.
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Wearing face masks is one of the essential means to prevent the transmission of certain diseases such as COVID-19. Surgical mask-wearing in Japan is has been routine practice against a range of health threats. Their usage and associated meanings are explored in Tokyo with both mask wearers and non-mask wearers. Although acceptance of COVID-19 masks is increasing globally, many people feel that social interaction is affected by wearing a mask. In addition, there are individual perceptions of infection risk, personal interpretations of responsibility and solidarity, cultural traditions and religious imprinting, and the need to express self-identity. Therefore, the significance of an in-depth understanding of the cultural and sociopolitical considerations around the personal and social meaning of mask-wearing in different contexts as a prerequisite for assessing the effectiveness of face masks as a public health measure is critical. Furthermore, improving the personal and collective understanding of citizens' behaviors and attitudes appears crucial for developing more effective health contacts about the COVID-19 or similar hereafter.
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I am thinking to start working on a few research papers/articles. This question aims to guide me regarding possible future research trends in the field of social sciences, for example in the domains of Development Studies; Conflict, Peace and Development; and Cultural Anthropology.
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Post Pandemic world and the economy affected by it. You should choose a topic in relation to it, in your local context, and social environment to get into the reality of the problem.
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The European Academy of Religion announces its fourth Annual Conference, which will take place in Münster (Germany) between Monday, August 30th and Thursday, September 2nd. Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster will be the organizing institution.
Due to the cancellation of #EuARe2020, it will be possible to re-submit for the next annual conference those panels that were already accepted in 2020 and were listed in the conference program - This is our case!
Proponents will find a dedicated submission form that will be open from Friday, December 4th to Wednesday, December 23rd. Re-submitted panels will be automatically included in the conference program.
Further to the re-submission, proponents will be able to make adjustments to the general setting of their sessions. Changes to the panel duration are possible, but not guaranteed.
PANEL: Religious experiences of contemporary pilgrims The panel aims to discuss relations between cultural and religious heritage and the religious experiences of modern pilgrims. Who is a modern “real” pilgrim? How the religious heritage is perceived and experienced during its journey? How the religious heritage is interpreted in literary and visual representations? The panel is mainly focused on networks called European Cultural Route i.e. Santiago de Compostela Pilgrim Routes (1987); Via Francigena (1994); Saint Martin of Tours Route (2005), Cluniac Sites in Europe (2005), European Route of Cistercian abbeys (2010), European Cemeteries Route (2010), Route of Saint Olav Ways (2010), Huguenot and Waldensian trail (2013), Routes of Reformation (2019) but it accepts papers on other local examples and non-European studies and perspectives.
The deadline for paper submission is Friday, MARCH, 19th, 2021 (23.59, GMT +1) Contact: pabloplichta@gmail.com
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I am very interested in this topic. I am a mental health nurse in the UK and have also walked the Camino on a number of occasions. A close friend of mine who is also a nurse supported a fellow Pilgrim on the Camino Way who then had to be admitted to a psychiatric ward - with unusual beliefs of a religious nature. The narrative which psychiatry adds to such experience seems to have a pivotal role in recovery. Often there is a total rejection of personal narrative - and in so doing - missing connection and understanding. I look forward to hearing others views. Rebecca - Bradford Early Intervention in Psychosis Team
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We all know that illegal practices are fought by state or mainstream authority. However, many illegal organizations enjoy vigor and influence that rival those of the recognized/legal/mainstream authority though they work in the dark and are denied public support, resources and recognition. These illegal entities or practices sometimes show an impact that threatens the stability of society, that society which is supported by the recognized authority with its laws, regulations, and resources.
Of course what is legal or legitimate is relative. But how comes that such bodies/entities/practices flourish in spite of the regulations put by mainstream authorities?
My question is cannot the methods and techniques used by the "dark" forces be implemented by the second in order to establish human rights that guarantee equality and nation-welfare? Examples abound: gun market, drugs, prostitution, human trafficking, research black market...etc.
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Hi Muthana,
I recommend you have a look at Baumol, W. J. (1990). Entrepreneurship: Productive, unproductive, and destructive. Journal of Political Economy,
98 (5), 893 - 921. This is pretty much regarded as a key text in respect of illegal entrepreneurship.
I've written a bit on this too, generally in relation to organised crime. You will find my work on my home page if it is of interest.
I think a really interesting 'case study' to look at that relates to your question is 20th century alcohol prohibition in the United States. A good article on this is at:
Hope this is helpful.
Kind Regards,
Martin
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Memetics, the study of memes and how cultural units replicate, was like a shooting star. Although it was trendy at first, it was officially buried in 2005 with the death of its official journal. A few articles (e.g. Vada 2015) say it's still alive but I wonder. Does anyone here study it right now? What aspect do you study or how do you use it in your studies? Personally, I use a lot of concepts from memetics (meme fitness, stages for replication, etc) and adapt them to linguistics for proverbs and idioms. There are still many applications for memetics and I think it's a shame that it has gone "under the radar".
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Ewa Dąbrowska - Prokopowska - me too :-)
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1. “Tribe”: What does it mean?
Is there any biological definition?
Are “they” (note the deictic “they” that entails spatio-temporal and personal distancing effect or process of othering) not human beings/Homo sapiens sapiens?
Is there any cultural/social definition?
Is it a politico-administrative term, adopted in Academiocracy?
Is it a colonial construct or historical apriori?
Is it a dividing practice deployed by different disciplinary technologies (subjectification) for the sake of objectification of subjects and subjection (governmentality) as well?
1. Same questions are also applicable to the terms, “aborigines” and “aboriginals”.
Why are we branding a group of human being as ab-origines?
Is it not coined (with a new semantic value) by the colonizers as an exonym for “original” inhabitants of Australia (around 1788-90) by deliberately forgetting “their” endonyms? Hiding invasion?
I am deliberately using the term” endonym” instead of “ethnonym” as I have same questions regarding the status of “ethnic group”. Why are we not simply using “group”, “kowm” or “community” for such groups?
Are “we”, the earthians, Homo sapiens, species beings (please pardon me for such strategic essentialism!) not “original” inhabitants of this planet though some of us might be displaced (either willingly or forcefully) within the earth?
Some scholars say that “they” are “primitive”, “Neanderthal MAN” (sexism intended)! Levi-Strauss opposed such de-sign-ation: primitive (1963:pg. 102). It is not surprising, if findings of The Neanderthal genome project are to be believed, that “99.7% of the base pairs of the modern human and Neanderthal genomes are identical”!
NB: As I am not interested in etymology, searching “authentic “(?) meaning or metaphysical “origin” of word per se, for the obvious reason of semantic change, kindly emphasize on the political history at the time of explaining. cf. “Why Do I Forsake Historical Linguistics?” https://www.academia.edu...
See more @ FOLK AND NON-FOLK: QUESTIONING THE DICHOTOMY
For further praxis: ANTHROPOGENIC GLOBAL HEATING AND THE CONDITION OF CREATIVE SPEAKING...
TRIBE
Thanks for sharing the anecdote that reveals the relative cultural semantics of the term ‘tribe’ etc. Even within the academic tribe(s) (If I would write a book/article on social anthropology of academiocracy, I wish to call the practitioners of institutionalized funded organized sciences asacademic tribe), there are differences. The anthropologists’ concept of ‘tribe’ differs from biological taxonomy, though ‘tribe’ is seldom used here in taxonomizing species-genus. The politico-administrative (not epistemological) status of ‘tribe’ in the Indian constitution is peculiarly tautologous:
“Article 366 (25) of the Constitution of India refers to Scheduled Tribes as those communities, who are scheduled in accordance with Article 342 of the Constitution. This Article says that only those communities who have been declared as such by the President through an initial public notification or through a subsequent amending Act of Parliament will be considered to be Scheduled Tribes.
The list of Scheduled Tribes is State/UT specific and a community declared as a Scheduled Tribe in a State need not be so in another State/UT.(emphasis added) The essential characteristics, first laid down by the Lokur Committee, for a community to be identified as Scheduled Tribes are –
• indications of primitive traits;
• distinctive culture;
• shyness of contact with the community at large;
• geographical isolation; and
All these distinctive features might be contested by just following Levi-Strauss and putting questions like: What is primitiveness, backwardness (in contrast with World Bank-sponsored ‘development”)? etc.
My agenda is to understand the discursive formations of dividing practice (with universal truth claims) that lead to such objectified categorization. Nothing more than that!
ABORIGINES
Firstly, I must admit that I am not an etymologist nor I, unphenomenologically speaking, am searching for the authentic (?) meaning of the ‘word’. (cf. Derek Attridge’s article “Language as History/History as language: Saussure and the Romance of Etymology” in Attridge, D. Bennington, G. Young, R. (Ed.). 1987. Post-Structuralism and the Question of History. New York. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. & “Why Do I Forsake Historical Linguistics?”
Secondly, despite the fact of being an anti-etymologist, I am skeptic about the interpretation of the prefix ‘ab-‘ as “from the beginning” in the word “aborigine”. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ab- says—I am citing,
“Word Origin
1.
a formal element occurring in loanwords from Latin, where it meant “away from”:
abdicate; abolition.
< Latin ab (preposition and prefix) from, away, cognate with Greek apó, Sanskrit ápa, German ab, English of1,off “
If it is believed to be ““away from” (origin), how could I interpret it as “from the beginning”. Furthermore, please note the meaning of the Sanskrit cognate “ápa-”, which is sometimes used as negative marker it “express deterioration”. Cf. http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/monier/ Cf. English word “ abnormal”.
Thirdly, my foreparents are staying here at West Bengal, India “from the beginning (what is beginning? )”. Are we aborigines? None calls us “aborigines”!
Lastly, I cannot decide the origin of “aborigine”. Let us be homo sapiens (essentialism?).
FOLK
I have talked a lot about it.(cf. ) Let me stop here.
I have another question: may we, members of academic tribe, take value-loaded terms from the common usages and deploy them in the realm of our epistemological pursuit?
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To a modest way, I’m extremely reacted on a paper recently as it is a western architecture of defining the terms, ethinicity came in fore 60s, to cover all tribals in a nation state, I know post positivisits would attack me particularly Barthian tradition,
Soon I will attach this article here
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Hello, My name is Jacob, I'm a student of the arts and I am currently researching about symbolism of trees & fruit throughout cultures.
Notable Examples being;
-Yggdrasil
-Kabbalah
-Golden Apples of Iðunn
-Trees of Life & Knowledge in the Garden of Eden
-The Peaches of Immortality,
I am curious if there are any papers that conducted a cross-cultural analysis of Trees and Fruit throughout mythology & folklore.
Could anyone point me in the right direction?
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This is certainly an interesting topic. I wish I had some specifics to add, but I'm actually going to go on a hunt for papers. Are you also interested in books that might cover this topic? Also, are you interested only in trees specifically, or would forest dwelling creatures, like dryads and kodama be helpful as well?
The only initial thing I found of interest is what might as well be considered ancient. HADLEY, LIZZIE M. “THE FOLK-LORE OF TREES.” The Journal of Education, vol. 39, no. 9 (959), 1894, pp. 132–132. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44038539.
Admittedly, it might be an interesting read, if nothing else. I suppose it depends on your goal. Also, given that you are a student in art, would you be interested in depictions of trees in folklore? I'm sure there are plenty, and you might want to do a search through some museum websites. For instance, here's a piece that is likely a wood nymph. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/38140
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Is cynicism an efficient way of persisting a corporate culture? Or does cynicism maintain a company's power by subjecting oneself to the system? What about cultural aspects?
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Наличие цинизма у сотрудников по отношению к корпоративной культуре свидетельствует о том, что они не разделяют ценности этой компании, слабо мотированы или не полностью реализовывают свои способности или просто не компетенты в профессиональной деятельности!