Islam: The Unpillaged Eastern Religion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Bruce
Keyword(s):  
Faith Community ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
Feng Shui ◽  
The West ◽  
Eastern Religion ◽  
Authoritative Text ◽  
Cultural Borrowing ◽  
Ways Of Life

Understanding why Islam has contributed little to contemporary religious and spiritual innovations allows us to see the principles underlying cultural borrowing. With its creator God, authoritative text, religious dogmas, and defined ways of life, Islam is too much like Christianity for cultural appropriation, and there is a considerable Muslim presence in the West that constrains borrowing. Such appropriation is easiest when ideas are not embedded in a large faith community (feng shui is an example), when they are retrieved from an ancient and undocumented past (as with Celtic Christianity), or when they are entirely fictional (as with the supposed characteristics of Atlantis).

Travelling for an Idea

2019 ◽  
pp. 425-434
Author(s):  
Johusa Meservey
Keyword(s):  
Host Countries ◽  
The West ◽  
Somali Diaspora ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Foreign Fighters ◽  
Ways Of Life

This chapter considers Al-Shabaab's Western foreign fighters. Members of the Somali diaspora in the West were the major source of Al-Shabaab's Western foreign fighters. Previously, a considerable number of members of the diaspora joined or attempted to join Al-Shabaab (referred to as ‘travellers’), and while the group's attractiveness for potential travellers has waned, the risk remains that it could revive. The chapter suggests that alienation plays a role in radicalization, such that travellers' acceptance of Al-Shabaab's violently anti-Western rhetoric demonstrates they were not deeply assimilated into the mainstream values of their host countries. However, it was Al-Shabaab's ideology that primarily attracted travellers. Thus, governments must try to delegitimize Al-Shabaab's worldview while promoting the attractions of their own ways of life in order to ensure travellers will not again seek out Al-Shabaab in large numbers.

Buddhist Nationalism and Burmese Christianity

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-167
Author(s):  
Pum Za Mang
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Religious Conversion ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
The West ◽  
Western Religion ◽  
The Cross ◽  
World Christianity ◽  
Political Milieu

Buddhist nationalists in Burma have characterised Christianity as a Western religion and accused Christians in the country of being more loyal to the West than to the motherland. This essay, however, argues that Christianity is not Western, but global, and that Christians in Burma are not followers of the West, but Burmese who remain as loyal to their homeland as do their fellow Burmese. It is stressed in this article that the indigenous form of Christianity after the exodus of the missionaries from Burma in 1966 has proved that Burmese Christianity should be seen not as a Western religion, but as a part of world Christianity. This article also contends that a combination of social change, political milieu, tribal religion and the cross-cultural appropriation of the gospel has contributed to religious conversion among the ethnic Chin, Kachin and Karen from tribal religion to Christianity.

Cultural Appropriation of Concepts of Democracy

2003 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 410-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Kontogiannopoulou-Polydorides ◽  
G. Fragoulis ◽  
A. Zanni ◽  
M. Ntelikou
Keyword(s):  
Educational Achievement ◽  
International Association ◽  
Meaning Construction ◽  
Political Education ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
The West ◽  
Crucial Question ◽  
Concepts Of Democracy ◽  
Constructing Meaning

This article investigates how 14 year-old students seem to conceptualise democracy in four countries, namely, Italy, Germany, Hungary and Greece. In particular, it will be examined whether adolescents living in different cultural milieus develop different conceptions and different practices regarding democracy. The article indirectly questions the way in which teaching of social and political education in school is related to students' concepts and attitudes. Students' responses in the second phase questionnaires of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) research are the focus of the analysis in this article. A crucial question is whether similarities or homogenisation of students' conceptions regarding democracy are viewed as the result of equal participation in the processes of constructing meaning through education, for example, or as the result of (oppressive?) homogenisation in school and society. However, it will be argued that there is always varying meaning construction and a definite (re)formulation of practices in any conception, and in any practice, a particular cultural appropriation of concepts and practices. From this perspective, the important issue explored in this article is the ways in which independent-contextual construction of meaning for democracy as well as in relation to the dominant in the West model emerges across the four countries reviewed.

Morphological variation and wear in teeth of Canadian and Greenland Inuit

Polar Record ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 24 (151) ◽  
pp. 293-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Cruwys
Keyword(s):  
Morphological Variation ◽  
East Coast ◽  
Tooth Wear ◽  
Western World ◽  
The West ◽  
Asian Origin ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Dental Models ◽  
Morphological Variants ◽  
Ways Of Life

AbstractDental models of 649 Canadian Inuit from Hall Beach and Igloolik, and both models and skull dentitions of 782 Greenland Inuit (323 from the east coast, 459 from the west coast), were examined for (a) presence or absence of four specific morphological variants considered by various authors to indicate racial affinities (shovel-shaped incisors, cusp of Carabelli, Eskimo tubercle and protostylid on molars and premolars), and (b) amount of wear. Dental models of contemporary British and British-Asian subjects were studied for comparison. Both living and skeletal Greenland material was from people known to have followed a traditional Inuit lifestyle, with little or no contact with the Western world. Canadian material was from a population in transition between traditional and Western ways of life, eating both native and Western foods. Morphological variation was considered in the context of genetic affinities of the populations to each other and to other groups of Central Asian origin. Tooth wear was examined in relation to diet, lifestyle and health.

Respecting Different Ways of Life: A Daoist Ethics of Virtue in the Zhuangzi

2010 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 1049-1069 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Huang
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Moral Life ◽  
Normative Ethics ◽  
The West ◽  
Pluralistic Society ◽  
Common Misconception ◽  
Contemporary Life ◽  
Important Trait ◽  
Moral Discourses ◽  
Ways Of Life

As the ethics of virtue, with a focus on cultivating admirable traits of character instead of commanding adherence to rigid rules, becomes increasingly popular in contemporary moral discourses, scholars have tried to find evidence of virtue ethics in such ancient traditions as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. This article explores the possibility of a virtue ethics in a tradition that has been largely neglected, Chinese Daoism, by focusing on one of the most important classics in this tradition, the Zhuangzi. Contrary to a common misconception of the Zhuangzi as skeptical, relativistic, and therefore empty of any guide to moral life, it presents a solid normative ethics through various stories, and this normative ethics is a virtue ethics. The most important trait of character in this Daoist virtue ethics is respect for different ways of life—a virtue not discussed in any familiar versions of virtue ethics in the West and yet most valuable to contemporary life in a global and pluralistic society.

scholarly journals Moderate Conventionalism and Cultural Appropriation

2019 ◽  
pp. 81-88
Author(s):  
Juha Räikkä ◽  
Mikko Puumala
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Traditional View ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
Moral Relevance ◽  
Moral Criticism ◽  
Relevant Difference ◽  
Social Conventions ◽  
Binding Force ◽  
Or Practice ◽  
Cultural Borrowing

Cultural appropriation, also called cultural borrowing, has been the topic of much discussion in recent years. Roughly speaking, cultural appropriation happens when someone outside of a cultural or ethnic group takes or uses some object that is characteristic or in some way important to the group without the group’s permission. Individuals who find cultural appropriation (or borrowing) unproblematic have often argued that if we express moral criticism of the use of traditional Sami outfits by non-Sami, then we are logically committed to criticize all kinds of habits that are clearly acceptable –such as using jeans, eating pizza or drinking tea. However, we will argue that in many cases that objection is problematic. We point out that if one social habit or practice is prohibited (or supported) by existing social conventions but another is not, then there is a convention difference between the cases. The convention difference is in turn a morally relevant difference, or so we aim to show. We refer to “moderate conventionalism,” according to which existing social conventions are morally relevant facts that should be taken into account when choosing how to act, whatever the content of the conventions happens to be. The claim is analogous with the traditional view that laws have some moral relevance and binding force independent of their content. Keywords: cultural appropriation, conventionalism, moderate conventionalism, convention difference

scholarly journals Tożsamość, dominacja i Internet – zagadnienie apropriacji kulturowej w dyskursie internetowym

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1(5)) ◽  
pp. 35-55
Author(s):  
Marta Kupis
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
The West ◽  
On Line ◽  
The Will ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Financial Gains

IDENTITY, DOMINANCE AND INTERNET – CULTURAL APPROPRIATION IN ON-LINE DISCOURSEIntensification of international contacts during globalisation allowed for mutual understanding and inspiration between representatives of different cultures. Nevertheless, the line between inspiration and copying other cultures’ elements appears thin, unnoticeable in comparison to financial gains from customs’ commercialisation. This topic is discussed in the West as cultural appropriation. The goals of this article were to see what behaviours are perceived as appropriation and if it is perceived as an intercultural problem. The research, conducted on social media, indicates that cultural appropriation is a problematic topic, however the will to define it and treat as intercultural power abuse is increasing.

scholarly journals Traduzir o intraduzível: o impacto dos textos sagrados orientais no ocidente

2009 ◽  
pp. 125-136
Author(s):  
Felipe Santos
Keyword(s):  
The West ◽  
Eastern Religion ◽  
Sacred Texts ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Historia Natural

Resumo: As obras do remoto Oriente foram trazidas para a Europa ao longo dos séculos XVIII e XIX para serem estudadas inicialmente com intenção polêmica, visando a fortalecer as crenças coloniais na superioridade ocidental. Porém o seu estudo tomou caminhos imprevisíveis, colocando em causa a identidade religiosa e cultural da Europa dominante e as crenças religiosas dos conquistadores. No final a cultura do vencido acabou conquistando a do arrogante vencedor, segundo o paradigma horaciano (Hor., Epistulae 2.1.156-7). Um novo mundo “antigo” surge ante os olhos estupefatos dos homens de pensamento, um mundo cuja pervivência poderia e deveria ser estudada in situ. Deu-se uma revolução cultural tão importante como a provocada pelo renascimento da cultura greco-latina e a descoberta de novos continentes e populações no século XV, ou a dos novos mundos astronômicos, físicos e da história natural ao longo da Idade Moderna. As principais consequências da vitória da Filologia se fizeram sentir no mundo da teologia e da filosofia.Palavras-Chave: Orientalismo; Gramática comparada; tradução.Abstract: The Eastern Sacred texts arrived at Europe during the XVIII and XIX centuries and were supposed to help Christian conversions: proselytizers and missionaries assumed that translating them to European languages would bring to general derision the beliefs of the Eastern colonized nations, and will bring support to the cultural supremacy of the West. However, such translations acted more as a vehicle for Eastern religion to enter the West, rather than to the West to convert the East. The article summarizes the lives of important Orientalists, and presents the first translations of the Persian, Chinese and Indian classics.Keywords: Orientalism; Compared gramar; translation.

2011

Peyote Effect ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 154-168
Author(s):  
Alexander S. Dawson
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
The West ◽  
History Of

This chapter turns to the white shamans. This is not a term of endearment, as it is often linked to notions of charlatanism, foolishness, and more lately, cultural appropriation. Beginning with Carlos Castaneda, several generations of white shamans have deployed images tied to Wixárika peyotism in order to authorize their special wisdom. Resisting the temptation to dismiss them in a wholesale fashion, the chapter explores these figures in the context of the long history of non-indigenous interest in peyote and endeavors to reconsider their practices in that light. If viewed as part of long-standing historical phenomena, the white shamans can represent something more than what is allowed by contemporary binaries (i.e., authentic indigenous mysticism versus an inauthentic white shamanism). While some are, indeed, quite clearly hucksters, as a whole, the white shamans can be read as figures whose attractions to indigeneity speak to a long history in which Western notions of rationality and observable reality have not always been broadly embraced, even within the West. They become fascinating figures who at once reinforce the distinction between the West and the Other (through their embrace of the romance of indigeneity) and destabilize that distinction (by seeking to transcend its categories).

The War of “Who Is Who”: Autochthony, Nationalism, and Citizenship in the Ivoirian Crisis

2006 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Marshall-Fratani
Keyword(s):  
State Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Political Practice ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
The West ◽  
Liminal Spaces ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ways Of Life

Abstract:Over the past four years the Ivoirian crisis has seen as its central dynamic the mobilization of the categories of autochthony and territorialized belonging in an ultranationalist discourse vehicled by the party in power. More than just a struggle to the death for state power, the conflict involves the redefinition of the content of citizenship and the conditions of sovereignty. The explosion of violence and counterviolence provoked and legitimated by the mobilization of these categories does not necessarily signify either the triumph of those monolithic identities “engineered” during the colonial occupation, nor the disintegration of the nation-state in the context of globalization. The Ivoirian case shows the continued vitality of the nation-state: not only as the principal space in terms of which discourses of authochtony are constructed, but also in terms of the techniques and categories that the political practice of autochthony puts into play. While in some senses the Ivoirian conflict appears to be a war without borders—in particular with the “spillover” of the Liberian war in the west during 2003—it is above all a war about borders, crystallizing in liminal spaces and social categories and on emerging practices and ways of life.

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