Digital Commons Network^™

Cognitive Relatives Yet Moral Strangers?, Judith Benz-Scharzberg, Andrew Knight

Andrew Knight, PhD

This article provides an empirically based, interdisciplinary approach to the following two questions: Do animals possess behavioral and cognitive characteristics such as culture, language, and a theory of mind? And if so, what are the implications, when long-standing criteria used to justify differences in moral consideration between humans and animals are no longer considered indisputable? One basic implication is that the psychological needs of captive animals should be adequately catered for. However, for species such as great apes and dolphins with whom we share major characteristics of personhood, welfare considerations alone may not suffice, and consideration of basic rights may …

Sexual Misconduct, Religion, And Culture, Alev Dudek

Alev Dudek

The Douban Online Social Media Barometer And The Chinese Reception Of Korean Popular Culture Flows, Brian Yecies, Jie Yang, Ae-Gyung Shim, Kai Ruo Soh, Matthew J. Berryman

Dr Brian Yecies

Since its launch in 2005, the Chinese online social networking site Douban has become a key platform for creating and sharing user-generated content on a rising tide of global popular culture. Such content and its corresponding user data has become so prolific that Western media outlets are now using Douban a key barometer for gauging representative opinions and attitudes towards foreign content in China. However, a full range of tools for harvesting and analyzing Chinese-language datasets has yet to be explored in English. This article attempts to fill this gap by investigating the applicability of an analytical framework that can …

A Reflection Of Lingering In Nature.Pdf, Xinyue Deng

Xinyue Deng

Xinyuedeng-Thesis.Pdf, Xinyue Deng

Xinyue Deng

The Dark Side Of Creative Tourism: A Philosophical Dialogue With Culture, Babu P. George

Babu George

Polymediated Narrative: The Case Of The Supernatural Episode "Fan Fiction", Art Herbig, Andrew F. Herrmann

Andrew F. Herrmann

Modern stories are the product of a recursive process influenced by elements of genre, outside content, medium, and more. These stories exist in a multitude of forms and are transmitted across multiple media. This article examines how those stories function as pieces of a broader narrative, as well as how that narrative acts as a world for the creation of stories. Through an examination of the polymediated nature of modern narratives, we explore the complicated nature of modern storytelling.

Interview With A First Generation Male Indian Immigrant, Lisa Roy-Davis

Lisa Roy-Davis

Male immigrant from India discusses his immigration to America for an advanced degree in engineering. He talks about his community involvement both in America and India. Also he relates how he feels the two countries are different in regard to culture, politics, and education.

Cultural Perceptions Of Human Intelligence, Ebinepre A. Cocodia

Ebinepre Cocodia

This paper analyzes notions of culture and human intelligence. Drawing on implicit and explicit theory frameworks, I explore discourses about perceptions of intelligence and culture. These include cultural perceptions and meanings of intelligence in Asia, Africa and Western cultures. While there is little consensus on what intelligence really means from one culture to the next, the literature suggests that the culture or sub culture of an individual will determine how intelligence is conceived. In conclusion, the view is that culture and intelligence are interwoven.

‘Strategies Of Recognition’ And Palestinian Immigrant Women’S Dress: Forging Communities And Negotiating Power Relations, Enaya Othman

Enaya Othman

Law's Religion: Rendering Culture, Benjamin L. Berger

Benjamin L. Berger

This article argues that constitutional law's inability to deal with religion in a satisfying way flows, in part, from its failure to understand religion as, in a robust sense, culture. Once one begins to understand the Canadian constitutional rule of law itself as a cultural form, it becomes apparent that law renders religion in a very particular fashion, and that this rendering is a product of law's symbolic categories and interpretive horizons. This article draws out the elements of Canadian constitutionalism's unique rendering of religion and argues that, although Canadian constitutionalism claims to understand religion as a culture, this is …

Creating The Back Ward: The Triumph Of Custodialism And The Uses Of Therapeutic Failure In Nineteenth Century Idiot Asylums, Philip M. Ferguson

Philip M. Ferguson

"My focus in this chapter is on the origin of the back ward rather than its demise. Where did the “back wards” that [Burton] Blatt and [Senator Robert] Kennedy witnessed come from in the first place? What 3 exactly were those “antecedents of the problems observed” that Blatt cited? This chapter reviews that history and argues that, in fact, there is a specific narrative to the evolution of the institutional “back ward” as an identifiable place where people with the most significant intellectual disabilities were to be incarcerated and largely forgotten."

Politics Or Metaphysics? On Attributing Psychological Properties To Animals, Kristin Andrews

Kristin Andrews, PhD

Following recent arguments that there is no logical problem with attributing mental or agential states to animals, I address the epistemological problem of how to go about making accurate attributions. I suggest that there is a two-part general method for determining whether a psychological property can be accurately attributed to a member of another species: folk expert opinion and functionality. This method is based on well-known assessments used to attribute mental states to humans who are unable to self-ascribe due to an early stage of development or impairment, and can be used to describe social and emotional development as well …

Overview: A Sketch Of Themes In Analysis Of Creaturely Motives, Kirby Farrell

kirby farrell

This is a response to a Research Gate session on “Horror Sanguinis,” an essay posted by D.L. Smith and Ioanna Panaitiu, on rites of purification through which cultures prepare warriors and others tainted by violence to reenter society. My comment sketches some basic themes in my work on creaturely motives in cultural analysis (Post-Traumatic Culture and The Psychology of Abandon).

Aesthetics In Culture, Dan Rager

Dan Rager

This article examines the role of aesthetics in art, music, non-art objects, and activities in daily life. It shows that recognition is vital to our understanding of art and art-objects and sometimes creates conflicts which ask, what does one do with art? The question becomes more confusing when we think about non-art objects and activities which concern our everyday experiences from eating, clothing, cleaning and dealing with life's natural elements. The author points out that Western cultures have a distinct artworld that is usually limited for special occasions set aside for that purpose. He suggests that aesthetics in culture is …

The Time & The Place: Sundance London 2014 Review Article, Vaughan S. Roberts

Vaughan S Roberts

Befriending Death: Over 100 Essayists On Living And Dying, Michael C. Vocino, Alfred G. Killilea

michael c vocino

This book provides brief essays from people of a vast array of backgrounds, all taking death seriously and openly reflecting on how and where they find meaning in life. Many of these voices are from the smallest state, Rhode Island, which we feel serves as a microcosm of the diversity and insight of the larger country. This chance for a rare sharing of views on a truly profound subject has attracted commentators who are deeply religious and those who are not religious, noted authors and people who have never published a word, people celebrated by the world and people ignored …

November Uri Community Diversity Project 2010, Joseph A. Santiago Mr, Riley Davis Ms, Richard V. Travisano Mr

Richard Travisano

November is National Novel Writing Month. For the first time at the University of Rhode Island November was a month for the URI community to share their stories, poems, art, and photos with the world. The Writing to Model Diversity project intends to connect individuals across cultural boundaries and borders by sharing the stories and experiences that challenge our everyday experiences and the dreams of the future. Built on the efforts of the World Voice series, URI presents a book that shares the stories and culture of the students, faculty, staff, and community members who embrace the idea of becoming …

Cultural Contradictions Of The Anytime, Anywhere Economy: Reframing Communication Technology, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Detlev Zwick

Nikhilesh Dholakia

Technology-aided ubiquity and instantaneity have emerged as major goals of most information technology providers and of certain classes of users such as “road warriors”. New mobile technologies promise genie-in-a-bottle type near-magical qualities with anytime, anywhere access to information and services. While the complex science, systems, and economics of such technologies receive considerable attention from industry executives and researchers, the social and cultural aspects of these technologies attract less attention. This paper explores the oft-contradictory promises and pitfalls of anytime, anywhere technologies from a cultural standpoint. It makes suggestions for reinterpreting these technologies for greater human good.

Jon And His Dead Lover, Michael C. Vocino

michael c vocino

Short story about a doctor who discovers a crime.

Six Crosses, Michael C. Vocino

michael c vocino

Brief short story or observation about life in a small southern Italian town.

"People Want To See What Happened": Treme, Televisual Tourism, And The Racial Remapping Of Post-Katrina New Orleans, Lynnell Thomas

Lynnell Thomas

Occupying the space between cultural reproduction and theatrical production, the HBO series Treme offers an important vantage point from which to analyze the intersection of race, class, culture, and media representation animating New Orleans’s post-Katrina tourist identity. Treme illustrates the tension between the welcome recognition and celebration of New Orleans black expressive culture and its spectacularization and commodification. The resuscitation of tourist tropes and an emphasis on jazz and heritage music in the series often render the city’s history of racial conflict and injustice invisible or subordinate to new narratives of cross-racial unity among Katrina survivors and paternalistic actions by …

Heritage And Regional Development: An Indigenous Perspective, Robbie Collins, K. Mcmahon-Coleman

Kimberley McMahon-Coleman

Heritage is important to regional development in terms of promoting a sense of place and a sense of identity for those in the region. Heritage is often expressed through culture and the arts as a means of manifesting a community’s sense of what the community or region is about. For Indigenous communities this is particularly relevant given the lack of social capital as a result of colonialism and displacement. In these communities the value of the Indigenous way of viewing things and sense of place has been subjugated by hegemonic norms. There is a need for Indigenous peoples to find …

Dimensionalising Cultural Implications Of The Multinationals In The Niger Delta: A Consequentialist Approach For Resistance, Uzoechi Nwagbara

Dr Uzoechi Nwagbara

The presence of multinational oil corporations in Nigeria – which include Agip, Chevron, Elf, Mobil, Shell, and Total among others have come with heavy consequences to the nation’s cultural heritage and identity in the global marketplace. This is particularly the case in the Niger delta region of Nigeria considered as the goose that lays the golden egg, that is, oil, which has been described in many quarters as a major source of the nation’s malaise. The cultural and environmental damage of oil exploration as well as the pauperisation of the locals is inextricably linked to the ruse of global capitalism, …

Book Review - Allison Levy, Widowhood And Visual Culture In Early Modern Europe, Louise D'Arcens

Louise D'Arcens

The past decade has witnessed the appearance of a number of excellent edited essay collections dealing with widowhood in the European past, including Louise Mirrer’s Upon My Husband’s Death: Widows in the Literature and Histories of Medieval Europe (1992), Cindy L. Carlson and Angela Jane Weisl’s Constructions of Widowhood and Virginity in the Middle Ages (1999), and Sandra Cavallo and Lyndan Warner’s Widowhood in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (1999). The essays assembled by Allison Levy in Widowhood and Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe offer a distinctive contribution to the existing scholarship, shifting the focus away from social, legal, …

Book Review Of: Tracking King Kong: A Hollywood Icon In World Culture, Brian M. Yecies

Dr Brian Yecies

No abstract provided.

Cultural Flows Beneath Death Note: Catching The Wave Of Popular Japanese Culture In China, Peter Goderie, Brian M. Yecies

Dr Brian Yecies

The government of the People’s Republic of China has often been criticized for its policies regarding freedom of expression. Cinema in China has been central to this criticism, particularly with respect to the distribution of foreign films. This article uses a case study of the Japanese film Death Note (Kaneko Shūsuke, 2006) to advance current understanding of Chinese cinema found in important studies such as Chu (2002), Zhang (2004) and Berry and Farquhar (2006). To better understand the controversy surrounding Death Note in the Chinese context, this article explores the historical precursors to the Chinese Communist Party’s ban on horror …

In Search Of America, Ellen Bigler

Ellen Bigler

Taken collectively, Latinos are now the largest minority group in the USA. This chapter, with a focus on U.S. Latinos, explores the changing face of the USA in recent decades and the significance of this demographic change for the ongoing construction and negotiation of an American identity. The culture wars (e.g., debates over the canon, curriculum, and language) of the late 1980s and 1990s, and the contested role of schools in the arena of critical multiculturalism, are examined for insights into the bases of resistance to change. The author draws from her experiences in public schools as both a teacher …

Dangerous Discourses, Ellen Bigler

Ellen Bigler

Contemporary historians of U.S. immigration and ethnicity, and those who chart the experiences of Puerto Ricans on the mainland, may recognize the flaws inherent in usingthe "immigrant analogy" to evaluate and anticipate the Puerto Rican experience on themainland. However, my ethnographic research in an upstate New York city with a growingPuerto Rican population suggests that such perspectives have yet to make their way intothe mainstream. In analysis of community and school discourse over a three-year period, Ifound ethnic success stories being used by community "old-timers" to "discipline" thosewho are judged to have failed through a dearth of hard work. Within …

Cultural Wars, Then And Now, Richard Mcgowan

Richard McGowan

The Islamic world: cartoons provoke riots and death, teachers imprisoned for allowing students to name a teddy bear Muhammad, bombs detonated in markets and on minibuses, rape victims jailed. The Islamic world: leaders of countries reject evidence about the Holocaust and ban the practice of yoga. The Islamic world: irrational behavior in the name of religion.