Sociology of Culture Commons^™

Physical, Social, And Documentary Genocide: The Monacan Indian Nation V. The Commonwealth Of Virginia, Michael C. Cundiff

Theses & Honors Papers

Basic human rights for all citizens, is a standard in Western society which is often taken for granted. When we look back at our past it becomes clear that this standard has not always been the norm. The key to assuring that the future will continue to hold promise and opportunity for all is to remain ever conscious of our collective history and what it has to teach us about where we are headed. This research examines prejudice, racism and bigotry and the "trickle down" effect that these fear based traits can have on all strata of society. By examining …

Cultural Commentary: Won For All And All For Won, William C. Levin

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

A Privatization Of Politics: Anthony Elliot's Concepts Of The Self (2001), Paula Murphy

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

It would be difficult to find a more appropriate image of selfhood in the modern world than that found in Ezra Pound's poem In a Station of the Metro. It is a selfhood which is at once unique and conglomerative, fleetingly visible then tantalizingly out of focus. It is this slippery, indefinable entity that is the subject of Anthony Elliot's book. The title bears witness to the enormous breadth of its subject matter: Concepts of the Self is an attempt to engage with the various contemporary theoretical frameworks through which selfhood is explicated. Elliot's approach is admirably inter-disciplinary, …

Mcdonald’S And Samoan Youth: A Case Study Of Globalization, Anna Schechter

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The topics of change, development and globalization are extremely pertinent to modern-day Samoa. The past ten years have lead to a vast increase in the inter-connectedness of Samoa to the world economically, socially, and culturally. This paper uses McDonald’s as a representation of the globalization occurring in Samoa in order to better understand the real impacts of these abstract terms. Samoan youth act as a medium in which to explore this topic. They are often the most attune to the impacts of globalization and perhaps even act as a catalyst for change. Thus this paper explores, specifically, the relationship between …

Social Capital And Religion: A Quantitative Analysis Of The Relationship Between Religious Participation And Social Capital, Kyshawn Smith

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to confirm the existence of a positive correlation between religious participation and social capital, and to show that such a correlation varies considerably when specific demographic variables, and denominational and organizational dynamics are accounted for. Beginning with the early theoretical works of James S. Coleman, The World Bank and Robert Putnam, research has shown the importance of studying the philosophy and science of social capital, and the significance of measuring interrelated concepts like community volunteerism, political involvement, and religious participation. However, much of this research surveys national audiences and either completely ignores or spends …

Cultural Value Orientations, Attributions, And Breast Cancer Screening Behaviors, Patricia M. Flynn

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Discrepancies in breast cancer screening behavior exist among various ethnic groups in the United States (Jacobs & Lauderdale, 2001), with Latino American women reporting particularly low screening rates in comparison to Anglo American women (ACS, 2002). Research indicates that behavior is in part influenced by aspects of culture and relevant psychological processes (Betancourt & Lopez, 1993; Betancourt & Fuentes, 2001). This study was designed to investigate the relations among cultural values, attributional processes, and breast cancer screening behavior among Anglo and Latino women. This study also investigated the influence of acculturation among Latino women in relation to the other study …

Social Divisions And Coercive Control In Advanced Societies: Law Enforcement Strength In Eleven Nations From 1975 To 1994., Stephanie L. Kent, David Jacobs

Sociology & Criminology Faculty Publications

Conflict theory suggests that economic stratification poses a threat to order, so we should expect increased inequality to lead to a greater capacity for coercive control. The police are the primary agency that uses force to preserve order, yet we know little about the effects of economic divisions on police size in advanced nations besides the United States. The generality of findings based on a fixed-effects panel design applied to 11 developed nations should provide increased insight about how coercion is used to preserve domestic order. Other social divisions that should matter include minority presence and unemployment. With economic development, …

The Latecoming Of The Posthuman, Or, Why 'We' Do The Apocalypse Differently, 'Now', Ivan Callus, Stefan Herbrechter

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[Editors' Introduction]

The paper takes its cue from a brief but pointed passage in Specters of Marx, in which Jacques Derrida describes as latecomers those who discuss the apocalypse in a manner that disregards previous discussions of the theme within philosophy and theory. Especially concerned with tracing Derrida's wariness of the beguilements of narratives of the end, Callus and Herbrecther analyze the implications of that wariness for any study of the vexed relation between the apocalyptic and the posthuman, doing so on the basis of reference to a number of the relevant essays by Derrida, but in particular to …

The Impact Of Culture On Accounting Choices: Can Cultural Conservatism Explain Accounting Conservatism?, Tony Kang, Lian Fen Lee, Jeffrey Ng, Joanne Tay

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We explore the extent to which cultural conservatism explains accounting conservatism. Our primary measure for accounting conservatism is the magnitude of non-operating accruals, which are highly discretionary in nature. Culture permeates values and attitudes, and thus governs many aspects of human behavior. Hence it is likely to affect managers’ accounting choice behaviors. However, there is surprisingly little evidence on the association between the two types of conservatism in the literature. Using a sample of 800 firms originating from 21 countries during the nine-year period from 1993 to 2001, we find strong evidence that the managers in more conservative cultural environments …

Post·Hum·An·Ous, C. Jason Smith, Geoff Klock, Ximena Gallardo-C.

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

The Death of the Human is in many ways one of those characteristic intellectual bids for attention, in the vein of Lacan's Woman does not exist or Baudrillard's the Gulf War never happened. Flashy and rhetorically misleading, such assertions nevertheless create a discursive space in what otherwise appears to be a closed, natural(ized) system. Posthumanism, like any other movement or -ism, is difficult to introduce, first and foremost, because of this kind of rhetoric: its first infiltrating tactic is to call the time of death on the current age. Perhaps the most salient example of this self-defined loss …

Euthanasia: An Exploration Of Public Opinion, Debra M. Babylon

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

The acceptance of euthanasia is examined using the 1972-2002 GSS cumulative dataset. The dataset contains a total of 43,698 respondents. The euthanasia question, "Should a terminally ill patient be allowed the right to die?" was asked beginning in 1977. The number of respondents answering the euthanasia question totals 22,039. The independent variables age, race, gender, political view, religious affiliation, and education were reviewed to assess their impact on support of euthanasia. Additionally, in order to test the "slippery slope" hypothesis, the abortion question, "Should abortion be allowed under any circumstance?" was added to the independent variable list. Cross tabulation was …

Racial Discourse In Planet Of The Apes, Mandy Sheidah Allen

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of the study is to explore the racial discourse in the six Planet of the Apes films. The films range from 1968 to 2001 and portray the radical advances and the slow progression of race relations during this time frame. The racial discourse will be examined using themes of race and devolution, looking at the race class hierarchies of the ape society (a subversive metaphor for human society) and race as it is associated with power and political movements. The earlier films will be contrasted with Burton's 2001 version to explore how the concept race has shifted its …

Religious Pluralism, Cultural Differences, And Social Stability In Nigeria, Rose C. Uzoma

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Review Of Marching On Washington: The Forging Of An American Political Tradition., Robert Kleidman

Sociology & Criminology Faculty Publications

Reviews the book "Marching on Washington: The Forging of an American Political Tradition," by Lucy G. Barber.

Welfare As A Social Control In The United States, Jimmi Sue Brown

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The question is whether the Clinton Administration “reforms” were a revolutionary concept or an extension of history’s pattern of forgetting the “deserving poor” and ignoring the “undeserving poor”. A literature search was conducted focusing on the deserving and undeserving poor in the United States over the past century. Historically, the deserving poor were defined as people who were impoverished as a consequence of old age, mental illness, physical illness and blindness or widowed and orphaned. The undeserving poor were people who were able to work, but did not and people of color. There have been occasions when the unemployed were …

Punishing The Poor: America’S Use Of The Welfare System As A Means Of Controlling The Impoverished, Jill R. Foley

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Throughout America’s history, various welfare assistance programs have been implemented in an attempt to prevent the poor from coordinating a social uprising to overturn capitalism. Applying sociologist Karl Marx’s theories on capitalism and the presence of a false versus a class consciousness one can trace the growth of industrialization in American with the increasing efforts devoted to subduing the impoverished. Actions ranging from the imprisonment of the poor to child saving in the 1700 and 1800s to the use of police force to dissipate uprisings of the indigent in the 1900s provide evidence of the government's continued efforts to prevent …

Culture, Hybridity And The Dialogical Self: Cases From The South Asian-American Diaspora, Sunil Bhatia, Anjali Ram

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

This article outlines a dialogical approach to understanding how South Asian-American women living in diasporic locations negotiate their multiple and often conflicting cultural identities. We specifically use the concept of voice to articulate the different forms of dialogicality--polyphonization, expropriation, and ventriloquation--that are involved in the acculturation experiences of two 2nd-generation South Asian-American women. In particular, we argue that it is important to think of acculturation of the South Asian-American women as essentially a contested, dynamic, and dialogical process. We demonstrate that such a dialogical process involves a constant moving back and forth between various cultural voices that are connected to …

The Fair City Production Line: An Examination Of Soap Opera’S Potential Contribution To The Public Sphere, Edward Brennan

Articles

Between December 2000 and February 2001 the Irish soap opera Fair City ran an unprecedented, risky and controversial abortion storyline. This came before a looming referendum on the legality of abortion. Here, Fair City was not just offering entertainment, but provoking debate and discussion on a divisive issue in Irish society. In this case, and many others, it appears that soap opera, by promoting such discussion, may contribute to the formation of public opinion in contemporary civil society. Heretofore, most academic studies have overlooked the possible consequences of soap opera for civil society, public opinion and the democratic process. This …

American Conversations With(In) Catholicism, Richard W. Garnett

Journal Articles

CATHOLICISM AND AMERICAN FREEDOM: A HISTORY. By John T. McGreevy. New York and London: W.W. Norton & Co. 2003. Pp. 431. $26.95.

John T. McGreevy's Catholicism and American Freedom tells the story of how America or, more particularly, American liberalism has reacted and responded to Catholic claims about the nature and purpose of freedom. It also addresses how these claims were, in turn, shaped by Catholicism's own interactions with, internal conversations about, and adjustment to American liberalism. As McGreevy shows, for many people and for many years, the Roman Catholic Church served as a foil for American values and …

Does Dowry Improve Life For Brides? A Test Of The Bequest Theory Of Dowry In Rural Bangladesh, Luciana Suran, Sajeda Amin, Lopita Huq, Kobita Chowdury

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

In recent years, dowry levels in Bangladesh have risen to previously unforeseen levels—sometimes three or four times a family’s total assets. Some recent economic writings suggest that dowry functions as a bequest or pre-mortem inheritance, implying it persists because it is “good for the bride.” Using panel data from an adolescent study in rural Bangladesh, this Population Council working paper explores the association between dowry and the prevalence of domestic abuse to test the bequest theory of dowry. Contrary to the prediction of the bequest theory, married females who paid dowry at marriage have a higher likelihood of reporting domestic …

Towards Heterogeneous Faith Communities: Understanding Transitional Processes In Seventh-Day Adventist Churches In South Africa, Alan Parker, Ph.D.

Faculty Works

This dissertation examines racial transition toward heterogeneity in three Seventh-day Adventist congregations in South Africa. This dissertation aims to uncover social factors involved in this change as well as to set forth a theological direction with application to the local faith community.

The first section examines recent studies and literature on multiracial congregations, indicating a possible breakdown between theory and practice. Using insights from Kuhn, Gadamer, Habermas, and Geertz, a critical correlational approach is proposed using narrative, community-based praxis, dialectical thinking, and eschatological vision. The theological methods of Groome and Browning are combined to suggest a four-phase approach to practical …

The Virulence Of Blackthink™ And How Its Threat Of Ostracism Shackles Those Deemed Not Black Enough, Kimberly Jade Norwood

Scholarship@WashULaw

This Article explores a non-traditional form of discrimination based on color. In the United States we are accustomed to hearing about discrimination in the context of historic injustices the black community has faced for no other reason but that they were born black or African-American. This Article deals with another form of discrimination against black people based on skin color: discrimination based on not being black enough. Blacks who do not fit a particular expectation about what it means to be black are often marginalized or even ostracized from their communities. They are vilified as Sells-Outs, Oreos and Uncle Toms. …