Serpent Handling: Toward a Cognitive Account – Honoring the Scholarship of Ralph W. Hood Jr.

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 414-430
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Coleman ◽  
Christopher F. Silver ◽  
Jonathan Jong
Keyword(s):  
Social Functions ◽  
University Of Tennessee ◽  
Cultural Form ◽  
Speaking In Tongues ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cognitive Theories ◽  
Current Article ◽  
The University ◽  
Serpent Handling

Abstract The ritual handling of serpents remains an unnoticed cultural form for the explanatory aims and theoretical insights desired by cognitive scientists of religion. In the current article, we introduce the Hood and Williams archives at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga that contains data culled from Hood’s 40-plus year career of studying serpent handlers. The archives contain hundreds of hours of interviews and recordings of speaking in tongues, handling fire, drinking poison, and taking up serpents by different congregants and congregations. The archive remains a rich but untapped source of data for building, testing, and refining cognitive theories of ritual in general, and serpent handling in specific. We connect Hood’s work to current cognitive theories and engage critically with research on the social functions of ritual. Finally, we discuss several further reasons to pay more attention to SHS communities and practices in cognitive theories of ritual.

scholarly journals Serpent Handling: Toward a Cognitive Account-honoring the scholarship of Ralph W

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Joseph Coleman ◽  
Christopher Silver ◽  
Jonathan Jong
Keyword(s):  
Social Functions ◽  
University Of Tennessee ◽  
Cultural Form ◽  
Speaking In Tongues ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cognitive Theories ◽  
Current Article ◽  
The University ◽  
Serpent Handling

The ritual handling of serpents remains an unnoticed cultural form for the explanatory aims and theoretical insights desired by cognitive scientists of religion. In the current article, we introduce the Hood and Williams archives at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga that contains data culled from Hood’s 40-plus year career of studying serpent handlers. The archives contain hundreds of hours of interviews and recordings of speaking in tongues, handling fire, drinking poison, and taking up serpents by different congregants and congregations. The archive remains a rich but untapped source of data for building, testing, and refining cognitive theories of ritual in general,and serpent handling in specific. We connect Hood’s work to current cognitive theories and engage critically with research on the social functions of ritual. Finally, we discuss several further reasons to pay more attention to SHS communities and practices in cognitive theories of ritual.

scholarly journals The Analysis of Students’ Opinions about the Social Responsibility Of Ukrainian Universities

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 527-538
Author(s):  
Kateryna Tryma
Keyword(s):  
Social Responsibility ◽  
Local Community ◽  
State University ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
Teaching And Research ◽  
Social Mission ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
The Social ◽  
The University ◽  
Civic Universities

Aim. The paper is aimed to investigate the students’ opinion about the social responsibility carried out by higher education institutions (HEIs) in Ukraine. Nowadays social responsibility has become one of the key characteristics of modern HEIs. Ukrainian universities are trying to become 'civic universities', i.e., institutions which contribute to the development of the local community. The students, as key stakeholders of the university activities, also take part in this process. Methods. To investigate the social responsibility of the Ukrainian HEIs, the case study method is used in the present paper: the case of Mariupol State University and its social functions within the city are highlighted. The online survey was applied to investigate the level of students’ awareness of the university social functions and the role played by the university in the local community. Materials published by the university and the results of the survey have been analysed to test the hypothesis that students consider Mariupol State University to be a socially responsible university which cooperates with the local community. Results. The students’ opinion on the social functions carried out by Mariupol State University is that this local university has strong ties with the local community and authorities and perform its social mission. However, the social functions of the university, according to the students, are limited by teaching and research activities. Few students consider social responsibility of the university in a wider context. Conclusion. On the example of the MSU the paper shows that modern universities in Ukraine perform social functions and try to become truly civic universities to contribute to the development of the local communities in cooperation with different stakeholders. Nevertheless, students as a key stakeholder of the university activities still consider social responsibility of the university primarily aimed at teaching and research.

scholarly journals INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF SCIENCE AND THE SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY — DIFFICULTIES AND OPPORTUNITIES

2020 ◽  
pp. 50-61
Author(s):  
Jarosław Charchuła
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Social Institution ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
Academic World ◽  
Scientific Institutions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Components ◽  
The University ◽  
Globalized World

It is evident that, especially in the recent decades, the scientific institutions have strongly evolved and modified their structures in order to be adapted to the changing socio-cultural environment as well as to be more aware of the need to generate new knowledge in order to support the economic growth. Social sciences tried to interpret the process of institutionalization of science in the academic world in various ways, analyzing the social components of the process of creating the knowledge. The approach in social sciences is primarily characterized by the study of the level of institutionalization that enables the study of the features that, in turn, define science as a social institution. This approach is useful in the study of higher education systems because the institutionalized principles make the structure of an organization and primarily provide the information about what regulates the formation of a university and not only about what regulates the behavior of an individual. The organization of the university is a clear example to understand the changes that are taking place in social institutions based on scientific and technological knowledge. In fact, in recent decades, universities have changed the way they organize their activities. The new requirements favor the reorganization of the knowledge creation process which has significant consequences for changes in the internal structure of a science institution. This article focuses on the analysis of the process of institutionalization of science. This approach to science is primarily characterized by the analysis of the features that define science as a social institution. In this context, the most important challenges and difficulties related to these processes in a globalized world are presented.

The Unbroken Messiah: A Johannine Feature and its Social Functions

1995 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 428-441
Author(s):  
Bruce W. Longenecker
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Fourth Gospel ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
Narrative Approaches ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Biblical Study ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One ◽  
The University

Two areas of biblical study identified as ‘growth points’ are the sociological and narrative approaches to early Christianity and its literature. Although these two approaches may be the offspring of different departments within the university, they are intricately related: narratives relate to a social context to the extent that they reinforce or subvert socio-perspectives. This project explores the interface of the two, examining one aspect of the narrative of the Fourth Gospel and considering ways in which it might have functioned within the social context of Johannine Christianity. While some literary critics draw high walls around a text to contain the ‘text world’ and keep it from outside contamination, others work on the basis that narratives are often referential, pointing to other narratives and building their own storyline in relation to them in some fashion. The latter approach is the one taken here, as certain points in the Johannine storyline are considered in relation to two important stories within early Christian tradition and within Judaism. The starting-point for this investigation is the feeding miracle in John 6.

Epistemic and relational conflicts in sharing identical vs. complementary information during cooperative learning

2002 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 139-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Céline Darnon ◽  
Céline Buchs ◽  
Fabrizio Butera
Keyword(s):  
Cooperative Learning ◽  
Social Comparison ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Complementary Information ◽  
Relational Conflict ◽  
The Social ◽  
The University

When interacting on a learning task, which is typical of several academic situations, individuals may experience two different motives: Understanding the problem, or showing their competences. When a conflict (confrontation of divergent propositions) emerges from this interaction, it can be solved either in an epistemic way (focused on the task) or in a relational way (focused on the social comparison of competences). The latter is believed to be detrimental for learning. Moreover, research on cooperative learning shows that when they share identical information, partners are led to compare to each other, and are less encouraged to cooperate than when they share complementary information. An epistemic vs. relational conflict vs. no conflict was provoked in dyads composed by a participant and a confederate, working either on identical or on complementary information (N = 122). Results showed that, if relational and epistemic conflicts both entailed more perceived interactions and divergence than the control group, only relational conflict entailed more perceived comparison activities and a less positive relationship than the control group. Epistemic conflict resulted in a more positive perceived relationship than the control group. As far as performance is concerned, relational conflict led to a worse learning than epistemic conflict, and - after a delay - than the control group. An interaction between the two variables on delayed performance showed that epistemic and relational conflicts were different only when working with complementary information. This study shows the importance of the quality of relationship when sharing information during cooperative learning, a crucial factor to be taken into account when planning educational settings at the university.

Social attribution, correspondence bias, and the emergence of stereotypes *This research has been completed in partial requirement of a doctoral dissertation of the first author under the supervision of the second author. We wish to thank the members of the social psychology division at the University of Louvain at Louvain-la-Neuve, especially Steve Rocher and Emanuele Castano for their insightful comments on preliminary drafts. This paper has been enriched by feedbacks received from Russell Spears, Roos Vonk, Margit Oswald, and anonymous reviewers. Many thanks to Philippe Kemp and Christophe Remy for their assistance in running the study, and to the students who volunteered to appear on the video. This research has been presented at the Social Cognition workshop of the Kurt Lewin Institute, workshop held at the Free University of Amsterdam in April 1998: we want to thank participants of this workshop and especially Gün Semin for their useful feedback. Completion of this study benefited from a research grant from the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research to the first author.

1999 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 233-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anouk Rogier ◽  
Vincent Yzerbyt
Keyword(s):  
Correspondence Bias ◽  
Social Attribution ◽  
The Social ◽  
Dispositional Attributions ◽  
Kurt Lewin ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Group Target ◽  
The University ◽  
Institute Workshop ◽  
Research Grant

Yzerbyt, Rogier and Fiske (1998) argued that perceivers confronted with a group high in entitativity (i.e., a group perceived as an entity, a tight-knit group) more readily call upon an underlying essence to explain people's behavior than perceivers confronted with an aggregate. Their study showed that group entitativity promoted dispositional attributions for the behavior of group members. Moreover, stereotypes emerged when people faced entitative groups. In this study, we replicate and extend these results by providing further evidence that the process of social attribution is responsible for the emergence of stereotypes. We use the attitude attribution paradigm ( Jones & Harris, 1967 ) and show that the correspondence bias is stronger for an entitative group target than for an aggregate. Besides, several dependent measures indicate that the target's group membership stands as a plausible causal factor to account for members' behavior, a process we call Social Attribution. Implications for current theories of stereotyping are discussed.

Confound It!

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 855-867 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Kulas ◽  
Rachael Klahr ◽  
Lindsey Knights
Keyword(s):  
Social Desirability ◽  
Response Pattern ◽  
Experimental Manipulation ◽  
Scoring Method ◽  
Method Effect ◽  
Coding Method ◽  
The Social ◽  
Current Article ◽  
Method Factors ◽  
Psychological Inventory

Abstract. Many investigators have noted “reverse-coding” method factors when exploring response pattern structure with psychological inventory data. The current article probes for the existence of a confound in these investigations, whereby an item’s level of saturation with socially desirable content tends to covary with the item’s substantive scale keying. We first investigate its existence, demonstrating that 15 of 16 measures that have been previously implicated as exhibiting a reverse-scoring method effect can also be reasonably characterized as exhibiting a scoring key/social desirability confound. A second set of analyses targets the extent to which the confounding variable may confuse interpretation of factor analytic results and documents strong social desirability associations. The results suggest that assessment developers perhaps consider the social desirability scale value of indicators when constructing scale aggregates (and possibly scales when investigating inter-construct associations). Future investigations would ideally disentangle the confound via experimental manipulation.

Speaker-Oriented Attitude Datives in Social Context

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youssef A. Haddad
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Shared Values ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
Rapport Management ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Levantine Arabic ◽  
Values And Beliefs ◽  
Social Acts

This chapter examines the social functions of speaker-oriented attitude datives in Levantine Arabic. It analyzes these datives as perspectivizers used by a speaker to instruct her hearer to view her as a form of authority in relation to him, to the content of her utterance, and to the activity they are both involved in. The nature of this authority depends on the sociocultural, situational, and co-textual context, including the speaker’s and hearer’s shared values and beliefs, their respective identities, and the social acts employed in interaction. The chapter analyzes specific instances of speaker-oriented attitude datives as used in different types of social acts (e.g., commands, complaints) and in different types of settings (e.g., family talk, gossip). It also examines how these datives interact with facework, politeness, and rapport management.

University Geographies and Folk Music Landscapes

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
David K. Blake
Keyword(s):  
Mass Culture ◽  
Folk Music ◽  
Traditional Music ◽  
Rural Landscape ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Distant Object ◽  
University Of Illinois ◽  
Liberal Politics ◽  
Cultural Form ◽  
The University

By examining folk music activities connecting students and local musicians during the early 1960s at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, this article demonstrates how university geographies and musical landscapes influence musical activities in college towns. The geography of the University of Illinois, a rural Midwestern location with a mostly urban, middle-class student population, created an unusual combination of privileged students in a primarily working-class area. This combination of geography and landscape framed interactions between students and local musicians in Urbana-Champaign, stimulating and complicating the traversal of sociocultural differences through traditional music. Members of the University of Illinois Campus Folksong Club considered traditional music as a high cultural form distinct from mass-culture artists, aligning their interests with then-dominant scholarly approaches in folklore and film studies departments. Yet students also interrogated the impropriety of folksong presentation on campus, and community folksingers projected their own discomfort with students’ liberal politics. In hosting concerts by rural musicians such as Frank Proffitt and producing a record of local Urbana-Champaign folksingers called Green Fields of Illinois (1963), the folksong club attempted to suture these differences by highlighting the aesthetic, domestic, historical, and educational aspects of local folk music, while avoiding contemporary socioeconomic, commercial, and political concerns. This depoliticized conception of folk music bridged students and local folksingers, but also represented local music via a nineteenth-century rural landscape that converted contemporaneous lived practice into a temporally distant object of aesthetic study. Students’ study of folk music thus reinforced the power structures of university culture—but engaging local folksinging as an educational subject remained for them the most ethical solution for questioning, and potentially traversing, larger problems of inequality and difference.

Engaging Student Mothers Creatively: Animated Stories of Navigating University, Inner City, and Home Worlds

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-114
Author(s):  
Lise Kouri ◽  
Tania Guertin ◽  
Angel Shingoose
Keyword(s):  
Inner City ◽  
Community Engagement ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Graphic Narrative ◽  
Student Mothers ◽  
Education Outcomes ◽  
The Social ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The University ◽  
Animated Graphic

The article discusses a collaborative project undertaken in Saskatoon by Community Engagement and Outreach office at the University of Saskatchewan in partnership with undergraduate student mothers with lived experience of poverty. The results of the project were presented as an animated graphic narrative that seeks to make space for an under-represented student subpopulation, tracing strategies of survival among university, inner city and home worlds. The innovative animation format is intended to share with all citizens how community supports can be used to claim fairer health and education outcomes within system forces at play in society. This article discusses the project process, including the background stories of the students. The entire project, based at the University of Saskatchewan, Community Engagement and Outreach office at Station 20 West, in Saskatoon’s inner city, explores complex intersections of racialization, poverty and gender for the purpose of cultivating empathy and deeper understanding within the university to better support inner city students. amplifying community voices and emphasizing the social determinants of health in Saskatoon through animated stories.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document