Disillusioning Gender

2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Britt-Marie Schiller
Keyword(s):  
Gender Identity ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Masculinity And Femininity ◽  
The Social ◽  
Erroneous Beliefs ◽  
Gender Categories ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Internal Sense

Illusions are not errors but erroneous beliefs motivated by wishful ideas and fantasies. To disillusion gender is to challenge the traditional Freudian construction that splits masculinity and femininity into agency versus passivity, the first with power, the second without. Disillusioning femininity as impotent frees up potency and power as generativity. Disillusioning masculinity as phallic and omnipotent opens the masculine subject to permeability and vulnerability. Illusions regarding the transgender include the idea that there are only two gender categories and the idea that gender identity is generated solely from an internal sense of self. The wish “to be seen as” or “to pass as” one gender or the other shows that social structures exceed the individual. At least for now, the disillusionment of gender with which we are left marks a tension between the internal sense of gender identity and the social structures of gender.

scholarly journals Reflective Surfaces: the Individual as the Key Social Relationship in New Zealand Society

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Catherine Ruth Wylie
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationship ◽  
Home Ownership ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
The Social ◽  
Inner Dialogue ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Mode Of Being

<p>The variety of concerns and everyday practices found in the lives of members of Western societies has to some degree deterred their exploration by anthropologists. In this thesis, I hope to demonstrate that a commonality does indeed exist within and sustains this multiformity. However, it exists where we might least expect to find it: in a dialogue which takes place with reference to the physical person rather than, as in other societies, with reference to the relations between categories of people. This thesis posits that the individual is not merely a synonym for person, or human being, but a social mode of being which is characteristic of particular social formations, namely those of the industrialized West. By mode of being I refer to both human experience and the terms in which it is comprehended. The mode of being derives from two overlaid dialectics: the inner dialogue between what I have termed the active self and the sense of self, and the engagement between that dialogue and the stock of options available in any given social ambiance. The mode of being becomes individualistic (compared to those based on exchange, descent, patronage, hierarchy etc) when the inner dialogue refers back to itself, when it is stressed as the locus of reality. The sense of self can be seen as a reflective surface in which is caught the configuration of elements derived from the social options, a pattern which differs sufficiently from person to person for the active self to be affirmed as distinct amongst others, as 'individual'. In the body of this thesis, the constituents of this mode of being are articulated and explored through a spiralling sequence of portraits depicting nineteen individuals, their relationships, possessions, opinions, expectations and the concerns which colour their lives. Three prime styles of the individual mode emerge. The most common of these stresses complementarity, and so focuses on partnership in marriage, exemplified and made demanding (purposeful) by children and home ownership. Less common, though increasing in frequency, is the autonomous style, which focuses on the person as separate, on a capability which carries its owner through a range of situations in which its use refers solipsistically back to the person, demonstratrating to others, particularly peers, those like him or herself (more the former than the latter) his or her high worth. Finally there is the participant style, which in contrast to the other two is more open to options, more fluid; which if involved in family and house, or job, is unlikely to make of those the enclosures they form for the executors of the other two styles. This thesis attempts to refresh our understanding of both individuality and society; and to show that it is not possible to comprehend the former, even though we may sense its significance, unless we broaden our perception of the latter beyond something that is shared, stressing community and categorization, to encompass processes which may lack a shared flcus or ordering but which are nonetheless simultaneously common and transcendent.</p>

scholarly journals Reflective Surfaces: the Individual as the Key Social Relationship in New Zealand Society

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Catherine Ruth Wylie
Keyword(s):  
Social Relationship ◽  
Home Ownership ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Everyday Practices ◽  
The Social ◽  
Inner Dialogue ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Mode Of Being

<p>The variety of concerns and everyday practices found in the lives of members of Western societies has to some degree deterred their exploration by anthropologists. In this thesis, I hope to demonstrate that a commonality does indeed exist within and sustains this multiformity. However, it exists where we might least expect to find it: in a dialogue which takes place with reference to the physical person rather than, as in other societies, with reference to the relations between categories of people. This thesis posits that the individual is not merely a synonym for person, or human being, but a social mode of being which is characteristic of particular social formations, namely those of the industrialized West. By mode of being I refer to both human experience and the terms in which it is comprehended. The mode of being derives from two overlaid dialectics: the inner dialogue between what I have termed the active self and the sense of self, and the engagement between that dialogue and the stock of options available in any given social ambiance. The mode of being becomes individualistic (compared to those based on exchange, descent, patronage, hierarchy etc) when the inner dialogue refers back to itself, when it is stressed as the locus of reality. The sense of self can be seen as a reflective surface in which is caught the configuration of elements derived from the social options, a pattern which differs sufficiently from person to person for the active self to be affirmed as distinct amongst others, as 'individual'. In the body of this thesis, the constituents of this mode of being are articulated and explored through a spiralling sequence of portraits depicting nineteen individuals, their relationships, possessions, opinions, expectations and the concerns which colour their lives. Three prime styles of the individual mode emerge. The most common of these stresses complementarity, and so focuses on partnership in marriage, exemplified and made demanding (purposeful) by children and home ownership. Less common, though increasing in frequency, is the autonomous style, which focuses on the person as separate, on a capability which carries its owner through a range of situations in which its use refers solipsistically back to the person, demonstratrating to others, particularly peers, those like him or herself (more the former than the latter) his or her high worth. Finally there is the participant style, which in contrast to the other two is more open to options, more fluid; which if involved in family and house, or job, is unlikely to make of those the enclosures they form for the executors of the other two styles. This thesis attempts to refresh our understanding of both individuality and society; and to show that it is not possible to comprehend the former, even though we may sense its significance, unless we broaden our perception of the latter beyond something that is shared, stressing community and categorization, to encompass processes which may lack a shared flcus or ordering but which are nonetheless simultaneously common and transcendent.</p>

If One Does Not Have the Spirit of Christ, One Does Not Belong to Him

2020 ◽  
pp. 134-166
Author(s):  
Giovanni B. Bazzana
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Moral Agency ◽  
Spirit Possession ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Western Modernity ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Productive Role

This chapter attends to the social and ethical functions of the religious experience of possession in the Pauline groups. Recent ethnographic literature has illustrated how spirit possession can have a truly “productive” role in shaping social structures, ways of knowing, moral agency, and even the formation of individual subjectivities. This chapter shows that these same traits are recognizable in the Pauline Christ groups. Specific attention are given to the forms in which possession enables a poiesis of the past. The sense of temporality underlying such an experience is remarkably different from the archival and academic study of history typical of western modernity. Through his very embodiment of the πνεῦμα‎ of Christ, Paul (and arguably the other members of his groups) could make the person of Christ present in a way that affectively and effectively informed not only their remembrance of and interaction with the past but also their moral agency and even their subjectification as Christ believers.

scholarly journals Content and stylistic peculiarities of non-canonical Orthodox Internet Sermon in modern Russia

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 83-96
Author(s):  
Konstantin S. Sharov
Keyword(s):  
Social Groups ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Internet Users ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Goals And Objectives ◽  
Technical Professions

The paper is concerned with a study of the changing content and style of non-canonical Christian religious preaching in the digital age. Special attention is paid to the analysis of modern rhetoric Christian preachers practice in their Internet channels, forums and blogs. It is shown that the content of the Internet sermon is largely determined by the Internet users themselves and the topics of their appeals. The fundamental characteristics of the content of the Internet sermon are: 1) focus on the individual, their private goals and objectives, not just on theological problems; 2) rethinking the phenomenon of the neighbour; 3) a shift from the Hesychast tradition of preaching the importance of inner spiritual concentration to the preaching of religious interactivity. The observed stylistic features of the digital preaching can be summarised as follows: 1) moving away from simple answers to the rhetoric of new questions addressed to the audience; 2) empathy, co-participation with a person in his/her life conflicts and experiences; 3) desire to share religious information, not to impose it; 4) resorting to various rhetorical techniques to reach different audiences; 5) a tendency to use slang, sometimes even irrespective of the audience’s language preferences and expectations. It should be pointed out that the Orthodox Internet sermon in the Russian Internet space has a dual and contradictory nature. On the one hand, this phenomenon can be regarded as positive for the Orthodox preaching in general, since it is a means of spreading Christian ideas in the social groups that do not constitute a core of parishioners of Orthodox churches, for example, schoolchildren, students, representatives of technical professions, etc. On the other hand, the effectiveness of such preaching is still unclear. Lack of reliable statistics as well as the results of the survey related to the Orthodox Internet preaching gives us no opportunity to judge about effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the phenomenon at this stage of its development.

Mobile Communication Tools as Morality-Building Devices

2015 ◽  
pp. 25-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
André H. Caron ◽  
Letizia Caronia
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Communication ◽  
The Other ◽  
Communication Tools ◽  
Public Places ◽  
Vast Number ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
And Function ◽  
Everyday Communication

The rise of Mobile Devices (MD) in the last two decades is noteworthy not only for the unprecedented rate at which they have spread, but for the vast number of countries in which they have so quickly been adopted, blind to both culture and economic stature. Moreover, the accelerated nature of their constantly-evolving design and function adds additional layers of complexity to the already-complicated topic of behavior in public places and during face-to-face communication. Drawing on extant literature and research, this article focuses on a specific but underexplored consequence of the mobile turn in everyday communication: MDs enhance the stage dimension of the social interactions they are embedded in, and therefore elicit a moral reasoning on the rights and duties of the individual in public places. They cooperate in building the bases of intersubjectivity: a sense of the other.

African Indigenous Religions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter E.A. van Beek
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Indigenous Religion ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
The World ◽  
Other World ◽  
Indigenous Religions ◽  
The Village

There is not one African indigenous religion (AIR); rather, there are many, and they diverge widely. As a group, AIRs are quite different from the scriptural religions the world is more familiar with, since what is central to AIRs is neither belief nor faith, but ritual. Exemplifying an “imagistic” form of religiosity, these religions have no sacred books or writings and are learned by doing, by participation and experience, rather than by instruction and teaching. Belonging to specific local ethnic groups, they are deeply embedded in and informed by the various ecologies of foragers, pastoralists, and horticulturalists—as they are also by the social structures of these societies: they “dwell” in their cultures. These are religions of the living, not so much preparing for afterlife as geared toward meeting the challenges of everyday life, illness and misfortune, mourning and comforting—but also toward feasting, life, fertility, and togetherness, even in death. Quiet rituals of the family contrast with exuberant public celebrations when new adults re-enter the village after an arduous initiation; intricate ritual attention to the all-important crops may include tense rites to procure much needed rains. The range of rituals is wide and all-encompassing. In AIRs, the dead and the living are close, either as ancestors or as other representatives of the other world. Accompanied by spirits of all kinds, both good and bad, harmful and nurturing, existence is full of ambivalence. Various channels are open for communication with the invisible world, from prayer to trance, and from dreams to revelations, but throughout it is divination in its manifold forms that offers a window on the deeper layers of reality. Stories about the other world abound, and many myths and legends are never far removed from basic folktales. These stories do not so much explain the world as they entertainingly teach about the deep humanity that AIRs share and cherish.

scholarly journals How Moving Together Binds Us Together: The Social Consequences of Interpersonal Entrainment and Group Processes

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 273-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liam Cross ◽  
Martine Turgeon ◽  
Gray Atherton
Keyword(s):  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Group Formation ◽  
Group Processes ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Social Effects ◽  
Psychological Consequences ◽  
The Social ◽  
Common Group ◽  
The Individual

AbstractInterpersonal entrainment has been shown to have a wide variety of social consequences which span far beyond those that could be considered purely pro-social. This work reviews all of the social effects of entrainment and the various explanations for them. The group formation framework emerges as a parsimonious account claiming that as we entrain our sense of self is temporarily diluted as an interdependent identity becomes more salient, thus leading to a range of social and psychological consequences which are pro-group. The sense of belonging arising from moving together is conducive towards pro-social behaviours; yet, it also makes the individual more susceptible to adopting the ideology of the group without critical thinking. We argue that the wide landscape of interpersonal entrainment’s effects reflects its primary effect, de-individuation, and the formation of a common group identity amongst co-actors.

scholarly journals Offspring social network structure predicts fitness in families

2012 ◽  
Vol 279 (1749) ◽  
pp. 4914-4922 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick J. Royle ◽  
Thomas W. Pike ◽  
Philipp Heeb ◽  
Heinz Richner ◽  
Mathias Kölliker
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Network Structure ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Parus Major ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Emergent Properties ◽  
Social Network Structure ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual

Social structures such as families emerge as outcomes of behavioural interactions among individuals, and can evolve over time if families with particular types of social structures tend to leave more individuals in subsequent generations. The social behaviour of interacting individuals is typically analysed as a series of multiple dyadic (pair-wise) interactions, rather than a network of interactions among multiple individuals. However, in species where parents feed dependant young, interactions within families nearly always involve more than two individuals simultaneously. Such social networks of interactions at least partly reflect conflicts of interest over the provision of costly parental investment. Consequently, variation in family network structure reflects variation in how conflicts of interest are resolved among family members. Despite its importance in understanding the evolution of emergent properties of social organization such as family life and cooperation, nothing is currently known about how selection acts on the structure of social networks. Here, we show that the social network structure of broods of begging nestling great tits Parus major predicts fitness in families. Although selection at the level of the individual favours large nestlings, selection at the level of the kin-group primarily favours families that resolve conflicts most effectively.

The Acceptability of Physical Restraint Procedures for People with a Learning Difficulty

1993 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew A. McDonnell ◽  
Peter Sturmey ◽  
Bob Dearden
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Physical Restraint ◽  
Treatment Evaluation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Acceptability ◽  
Learning Difficulty ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Evaluation Inventory

Three methods of physical restraint were videotaped and presented to two groups of subjects (undergraduate students and teenagers). Two of the methods recommended restraining a person with a learning difficulty on the ground; the other method proposed seating the individual in a chair. Subjects were asked to rate the social acceptability of the procedures using the Treatment Evaluation Inventory (TEI). Both undergraduate students and teenagers rated the chair method as more acceptable. The implications of these findings for the use of physical restraint procedures were discussed.

Some Aspects of the Interregnum in Malaya (14 August–3 September 1945)

1977 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheah Boon Kheng
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Social Revolution ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
The Social ◽  
Post War ◽  
The One ◽  
Comprehensive Study

Following Japan's announcement of unconditional surrender to the Allied Powers on 14 August 1945, almost three crucial weeks elapsed in Malaya before the landing of the British Royal Marines at Penang on 3 September. A day before the Marines landed, Vice-Admiral Walker had arrived off Penang aboard H.M.S. Nelson, and received the surrender of the local Japanese commanders. What happened in Malaya during the Interregnum still awaits a comprehensive study. The Interregnum is an important period in Malaya's social and political history which saw, on the one hand, the dramatic and cataclysmic collapse of the Japanese order and, on the other, the eruption of local political and social forces which were involved in a relentless and deadly struggle for power. True, there was no social revolution, as in Indonesia. What took place were conflicts along mainly communal rather than class lines. No class conflicts took place among the Malays, as in Sumatra between the traditional and religious groups, or among the Chinese and Indians. The social structures of the various communities in Malaya emerged relatively intact throughout the Interregnum and in the period thereafter. But there were bloody racial clashes, between Malays and Chinese. There were also bloody political feuds amongst the Chinese themselves. But, on the whole, the Malay-Chinese conflicts had far more serious repercussions on Malaya's post-war society and political development.

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