Scents and Sensibility: Olfaction, Sense-Making, and Meaning Attribution

2018 ◽  
Vol 83 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen A. Cerulo
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Social Boundaries ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Group Relations ◽  
Race And Class ◽  
Meaning Attribution ◽  
Theories Of Meaning ◽  
Smell Tests

How are smells invested with meaning and how do those meanings structure interactions and group relations? I use cultural theories of meaning-making to explore these questions, situating my inquiry in the world of commercially marketed perfumes. Using blind smell tests in focus groups, I examine how individuals make sense of certain fragrances absent direction from manufacturers or marketing materials. I find that most participants can correctly decode perfume manufacturers’ intended message, target users, and usage sites. I unpack the role of culture in these initial classifications of smells, and later, in how participants apply those evaluations to reify social boundaries and reproduce social relations—especially with reference to race and class. I also identify two cognitive mechanisms—embodied simulation and iterative reprocessing—illustrating how these mechanisms facilitate a dynamic interaction between practical and discursive modes of consciousness in deciphering smells. Finally, I elaborate the role of sociocultural location in olfactory meaning-making. People in all locations may be familiar with public olfactory codes, but social position influences how participants think about, interpret, and apply those codes in meaning-making.

scholarly journals ENGLISH PREFIXAL VERBS: SEMANTIC TRANSFORMATIONS AND COGNITIVE MECHANISMS

2021 ◽  
pp. 52-58
Author(s):  
Dudok A.R.
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
Primary Meaning ◽  
Cognitive Semantic ◽  
Semantic Transformation ◽  
Core Meaning ◽  
Metaphor And Metonymy

The article analyzes the phenomenon of semantic transformations and cognitive mechanisms of creating English prefixal verbs’ meanings on the material of English explanatory dictionaries. It is noted that modern English prefixal verbs show a productive semantic potential for the creation of meanings, and therefore are an effective means of nomination, a verbalized way of thinking and reflecting the linguistic picture of the world. The influence of the studied phenomena on the associative perception of recipients has been clarified and the peculiarities of the expressive emotional potential of prefixal meaning-making, their implicit filling revealed. It is claimed that in the process of semantic transformations of the prefix verb new numerous sendes are actualized, new deep semantic layers are opened, which fill the prefix verb with extraordinary meaning. It is revealed that there is a generalized, core meaning of the prefix verb (invariant, common to all), and others are its variants, id. est. numerous variable senses. The article emphasizes that in practical application, as a derivative and cognitive-semantic mechanism, metaphor and metonymy play the role of simplifying, saving and highlighting the generalized invariant meaning of the English prefix verb. Semantic transformations in metaphor and metonymy, which are part of prefixal verbs, are interpreted as a cognitive mechanism that forms new senses on the basis of associative implications. The idea is put forward that before the basis, the prefix does not merge into a single phonetic-morphological complex with formative inflections, but has its own autonomous (invariant) meaning with its inherent meaning-making paradigm. The article reveals new meanings of prefixal verbs and their senses, which arose as a result of semantic transformation or rethinking of existing nominations. It is proved that the essence of the process of metaphorization, metonymization of English prefixal verbs is to change the primary meaning of the word by including in its semantics new differential semes that modify senses. It is concluded that the prefix derivation of a verb preserves and transmits the same semantic load as common vocabulary, because the prefix always includes a word or term in a certain matrix of the scheme, so its semantic load is specific and clear.Key words: prefixal verbs, semantic transformations, cognitive mechanisms, meanings, metaphor and metonymy, lexical-semantic load, expressive-emotional potential. У статті проаналізовано феномен семантичних трансформацій і когнітивних механізмів творення смислів англійських префіксальних дієслів на матеріалі англомовних тлумачних словників. Зазначено, що сучасні англійські префіксальні дієслова виявляють продуктивний семантичний потенціал творення смислів, отже, є ефек-тивним засобом номінації, вербалізованим способом мислення та відбиття мовної картини світу. З’ясовано вплив досліджуваних явищ на асоціативне сприйняття реципієнтів і розкрито особливості експресивно емоційного потенціалу префіксального смислотворення, їх імпліцитного наповнення. Стверджується, що в процесі семантичних трансформацій префіксального дієслова актуалізуються нові численні смисли, відкриваються нові глибинні семантичні пласти, що наповнюють префіксальне дієслово неординарним змістом. Виявлено, що існує узагальнене, стрижневе значення префіксального дієслова (інваріант, спільне для всіх), а інші – його варіанти, тобто численні змінні смисли. У статті акцентується на тому, що в практичному застосуванні як дерива-тивний і когнітивно-семантичний механізм метафора й метонімія виконують роль спрощення, економії та виділення узагальненого інваріантного значення англійського префіксального дієслова. Семантичні трансформації в метафорі й метонімії, що входять до складу префіксальних дієслів, трактуються як когнітивний механізм, що формує нові смисли на основі асоціативних імплікацій. Висунуто ідею, що, передуючи основі, префікс не зливається в єдиний фонетико-морфологічний комплекс із формоутворювальними флексіями, а має своє автономне (інваріантне) значення з притаманною йому смислотвірною парадигмою. У статті розкрито нові значення префіксальних дієслів та їх смислів, що виникли в результаті семантичної трансформації чи переосмислення наявних номінацій. Доведено, що сутність процесу метафоризації, метонімізації англійських префіксальних дієслів полягає в зміні первинного значення слова шляхом включення до його семантики нових диференційних сем, які модифікують смисли. Зроблено висновок, що префіксальна деривація дієслова зберігає та передає те саме семантичне навантаження що й загальновживана лексика, адже префікс завжди включає слово чи термін у певну матрицю схеми, тому його семантичне навантаження конкретне й чітке.Ключові слова: префіксальні дієслова, семантичні трансформації, когнітивні механізми, значення, метафора й метонімія, лексико-семантичне навантаження, експресивно-емоційний потенціал.

THE COGNITIVE POTENTIAL OF METAPHOR IN SCIENTIFIC DISCOURSE

2021 ◽  
pp. 120-129
Author(s):  
Anastasiya A. Pyatunina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Growth ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Efficient Communication ◽  
Science And Culture

The article is devoted to metaphor: its definition, classification, and various approaches to its study. The author attempts to analyze metaphor outside the research field of rhetoric (which traditionally interprets it as a tool of efficient communication) and uses a linguo-cognitive approach to consider it. Within the framework of this approach, metaphor is equated with the cat- egory of thinking and is interpreted as a way of exploring the world and one of the most important cognitive mechanisms used by an individual in the process of his spiritual growth. Since the role of metaphor was completely re-estimated from the point of view of cognitive linguistics, metaphor was no longer considered as a factor inhibiting the formation of scientific knowledge. It was discovered as a unify- ing principle, a semantic potential, which eventually revealed in it the signs of anthropometry that, in turn, served as an impetus for the development of cognitive science. Re-estimation of the role and place of metaphor in the post-nonclassical epistemological field presupposes the evolution of its status: from a common linguistic technique to a meaning-making center, a bridge between being and knowing, subject and object, language and world, science and culture.

Festival, Identity and Social Integration

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-102
Author(s):  
Kayode Onipede
Keyword(s):  
Social Integration ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Group Relations ◽  
Group Competition ◽  
The Social ◽  
Southwest Nigeria ◽  
Historical Role

This study examines the “historical” role of the New Yam Festival in the social integration of Moba people over time, aiming to supplement the dearth of scholarly work on the festivals that had fostered inter-group relations through cultural identity among the Ekiti-Yoruba people of southwest Nigeria. Using a hybrid historical and anthropological research method, which includes oral interviews, participant observation, photography and video and tape recordings to document and elicit data, the study discusses the political and social interaction of the EkitiYoruba social group through the New Yam Festival. The study reveals that the New Yam Festival is traditionally rooted in kinship culture, and is motivated by social and political integration and enhancement within a socio-political space. The festival demonstrates how ritual can promote and enhance peace, cooperation and stability among the different ethnic groups in Nigeria. It is a long-standing festival that renews and celebrates kinship, identity and social relations, and could be used in significant new initiatives to promote national integration and unity among the diverse ethnic groups, promoting social integration in Nigeria, where inter-group relations have tended to become group competition, even among ethnic groups that have historical ties.

Material Culture

Sociology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terence E. McDonnell ◽  
Kelcie Vercel
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Institutional Characteristics ◽  
Sociology Of Culture ◽  
The Social

Beginning with many of its earliest writings, sociology has a long tradition of theorizing the role of objects and material culture in social life. In the middle of the 20th century, these themes were taken up again by major sociological and anthropological thinkers who inspired a resurgence of interest in the study of objects. The sociology of culture and art began to address the production and reception of objects, while scholars from anthropology, cultural studies, and media studies began to develop a robust body of work around material culture. These two fields have somewhat different takes on the study of objects. Sociological accounts tend to be people focused, examining how institutional characteristics of art worlds shape the objects produced, and focusing explanations of meaning-making on the social position of the audience more so than the symbolic qualities of the object. Alternatively, material culture approaches tend to be object focused, engaging objects as symbols that help explain how people organize subcultures, create solidarity through exchange, or express social status. A turn toward materiality, originating from anthropology but taken up more recently in sociology, privileges the material qualities of objects and how they shape the use and symbolic meaning of objects. This work on objects raises the question of how sociologists should incorporate objects into accounts of action. This question has sparked an ongoing cross-disciplinary debate about whether objects have agency. Research in science and technology studies, alongside studies of craft and sport, have brought attention to how objects act back, shaping how knowledge is produced. Objects have also been understood as mechanisms of power, by shaping categories and morality, ritualizing icons, stabilizing social relations as instruments of the states and institutions, and structuring action through the built environment. These robust and vibrant areas of research make a strong case for the incorporation of objects into theories of power and knowledge.

The effect of social exclusion and similarity on group relations: The role of hormones

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Hitlan ◽  
Derrick McAdams ◽  
Catherine DeSoto ◽  
Rory Deol
Keyword(s):  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Group Relations

The role of collective identifications in family processes of post-trauma reconstruction: An exploratory study with Kurdish refugee families and their diasporic community

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Kevers ◽  
Peter Rober ◽  
Lucia De Haene
Keyword(s):  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Family Processes ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Refugee Families ◽  
Family Contexts ◽  
Diasporic Community ◽  
And Coping

While collective identifications of diasporic Kurds have attracted considerable scholarly interest, their possible role in familial processes of post-trauma reconstruction has hardly been studied. The aim of this article is therefore to develop an explorative understanding of the deployment and meaning of collective identifications in intimate family contexts by examining the interconnectedness between the transmission of cultural and political belonging and post-trauma meaning-making and coping in Kurdish refugee families. After contextualising diasporic Kurds’ collective identifications through an ethnographic depiction of the Kurdish diasporic community in Belgium, this article reports on findings from a small-scale, exploratory study with five Kurdish refugee families in Belgium. Thematic analysis of family and parent interviews indicates how cultural and political identifications may operate as sources of (1) dealing with cultural bereavement and loss; (2) commemorating trauma; and (3) reversing versus reiterating trauma. Overall, this study’s findings support an explorative understanding of collective identifications as meaningful resources in families’ post-trauma reconstruction.ABSTRACT IN KURMANJIRola nasnameyên komelî di pêvajoyên malbatî yên vesazkirina paş-trawmayê de: Xebateke raveker li ser malbatên kurd ên penaber û civakên wan ên dîasporayêTevî ku nasnameyên komelî yên kurdên dîasporayê ta radeyeke baș bûye mijara lêkolînan, rola wan a muhtemel di pêvajoyên malbatî yên vesazkirina (selihandin) paş-trawmayê qet nehatine vekolîn. Lewma armanca vê gotarê ew e têgihiştineke raveker pêş bixe li ser rol û wateya nasnameyên komelî yên di çarçoveya mehremiya malbatê de, ku vê yekê jî dê bi rêya vekolîna wê têkiliya rijd bike ya di navbera neqlkirina aidiyetên çandî-siyasî û rêyên sazkirina wateyê û serederîkirina li dû trawmayê di nav malbatên kurd ên penaber de. Piştî diyarkirina çarçoveya nasnameya komelî ya Kurdên diasporayê bi rêya teswîreke etnografîk a cemaeta diasporaya Kurd li Belçîkayê, ev gotar encamên ji xebateke biçûk a bi pênc malbatên kurd ên penaber ên li Belçîkayê pêşkêş dike. Tehlîla babetî ya hevpeyvînên ligel malbatan û dayik û bavan nîşan dide ka çawa nasnameyên çandî û siyasî dikarin bibin çavkanî ji bo (1) serederîkirina bi mehrûmiyeta çandî û windahiyên xwe; (2) bibîranîna trawmayê; û (3) kêmrengkirin an, beramber vê yekê, dubarekirina trawmayê. Bi giştî, encamên vê xebatê wê têgihiştineke raveker tesdîq dikin ku nasnameyên kolektîf çavkaniyên kêrhatî ne di vesazkirina paş-trawmayê ya malbatan de. ABSTRACT IN SORANIDewrî nasname bekomellekan le prose binemalleyîyekanî sazkirdinewey paş-trawmayîda: lêkollîneweyekî şirovekarî binemalle penabere kurdekan û civatî ewan le diyasporaLe katêkda nasname bekomellekanî kurdekanî diyaspora le layen şarezakanewe giringîyekî berçawî pê drawe û serincî ewanî bo lay xoyî rakêşawe, bellam sebaret be egerî dewrî prose binemalleyîyekanî sazkirdinewey paş-tirawma be degmen lêkollîneweyek encam drawe. Ke wate, amancî em wutare perepêdan be têgeyîştinêkî şirovekarane lemerr bekarhênan û manay nasname bekomellekan le bestênekanî têkellawîy binemalleyîdaye, ke le rêgey peywendîy nêwan rewtî gwastineweyî grêdraweyî kultûrî û siyasî, sazbûnî mana û herweha rahatin legell kêşekanî qonaẍî paş tirawma le binemalle kurde penaberekanda taqî krawetewe. Dway awirrdanewe le civakî diyasporay kurd le Belcîka, nasname bekomellekanî kurdekanî diyaspora le bestênî xoyda xwêndinewey bo krawe û bem gêreye lem wutareda lêkollîneweyekî şirovekarane bo qebareyekî biçûk le pênc binemalley kurdî penaber le Belcîka dekrê û encamekanî billaw dekrêtewe. Şîkarîyekî babetiyaney wutuwêj legell binemalle û dayk û bawkekan nîşanî dedat ke çon dekrê nasname kultûrî û siyasîyekan wek serçaweyek bo em sê mijare derbikewn: (1) gîrodebûn be ledestçûn û bizirbûnî kultûr; (2) webîrhênanewey tirawma; û (3) pêçewanebûnî tirawma leberamber dûbarebûneweyda. Beşêweyekî giştî, encamekanî em lêkollîneweye piştgîrî le têgeyîştinêkî şirovekarane le nasname bekomellekan dekat ke wekû serçaweyekî giring bo sazkirdinewey binemallekan le dway qonaẍî paş-tirawma seyr dekrêt.

Receptions of the Past: Commemoration, Racism, Desire

Somatechnics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 288-303
Author(s):  
Michael Connors Jackman
Keyword(s):  
Critical Point ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
White Privilege ◽  
Body Politic ◽  
The Body ◽  
Race And Racism ◽  
Lesbian And Gay ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of

This article investigates the ways in which the work of The Body Politic (TBP), the first major lesbian and gay newspaper in Canada, comes to be commemorated in queer publics and how it figures in the memories of those who were involved in producing the paper. In revisiting a critical point in the history of TBP from 1985 when controversy erupted over race and racism within the editorial collective, this discussion considers the role of memory in the reproduction of whiteness and in the rupture of standard narratives about the past. As the controversy continues to haunt contemporary queer activism in Canada, the productive work of memory must be considered an essential aspect of how, when and for what reasons the work of TBP comes to be commemorated. By revisiting the events of 1985 and by sifting through interviews with individuals who contributed to the work of TBP, this article complicates the narrative of TBP as a bluntly racist endeavour whilst questioning the white privilege and racially-charged demands that undergird its commemoration. The work of producing and preserving queer history is a vital means of challenging the intentional and strategic erasure of queer existence, but those who engage in such efforts must remain attentive to the unequal terrain of social relations within which remembering forms its objects.

The Impact of COVID-19 Quarantine on Children‘s Behaviors and Language

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 796-806
Author(s):  
Sana M Kamal ◽  
Ali Al-Samydai ◽  
Rudaina Othman Yousif ◽  
Talal Aburjai
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Child Psychology ◽  
Simple Random Sample ◽  
Community Pharmacies ◽  
The World ◽  
Female Children ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Pharmaceutical Interventions

COVID-19 pandemic has spread across the world, which considered a relative of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), with possibility of transmission from animals to human and effect each of health and economic. Several preventative strategies and non-pharmaceutical interventions have been used to slow down the spread of COVID-19. The questionnaire contained 36 questions regarding the impact of COVID-19 quarantine on children`s behaviors and language have been distributed online (Google form). Data collected after asking parents about their children behavior during quarantine, among the survey completers (n=469), 42.3% were female children, and 57.7 were male children. Results showed that quarantine has an impact on children`s behaviors and language, where stress and isolationism has a higher effect, while social relations had no impact. The majority of the respondents (75.0%) had confidence that community pharmacies can play an important role in helping families in protection their children`s behaviors and language as they made the highest contact with pharmacists during quarantine. One of the main recommendations that could be applied to help parents protection and improvement their children`s behaviors and language in quarantine condition base on simple random sample opinion is increasing the role of community pharmacies inpatient counseling and especially towards children after giving courses to pharmacists in child psychology and behavior. This could be helpful to family to protect their children, from any changing in them behaviors and language in such conditions in the future if the world reface such the same problem.

Improving the questions we ask, with Psychology and Cognitive Conflict.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett Buttliere
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Cognitive Conflict ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Scientific Papers ◽  
Science In Society

Over the last decade, there have been many suggestions to improve how scientists answer their questions, but far fewer attempt to improve the questions scientists are asking in the first place. The goal of the paper is then to examine and summarize synthesize the evidence on how to ask the best questions possible. First is a brief review of the philosophical and empirical literature on how the best science is done, which implicitly but not explicitly mentions the role of psychology and especially cognitive conflict. Then we more closely focus on the psychology of the scientist, finding that they are humans, engaged in a meaning making process, and that cognitive conflict is a necessary input for any learning or change in the system. The scientific method is, of course, a specialized meaning making process. We present evidence for this central role of cognitive conflict in science by examining the most discussed scientific papers between 2013 and 2017, which are, in general, controversial and about big problems (e.g., whether vaccines cause autism, how often doctors kill us with their mistakes). Toward the end we discuss the role of science in society, suggesting science itself is an uncertainty reducing and problem solving enterprise. From this basis we encourage scientists to take riskier stances on bigger topics, for the good of themselves and society generally.

Perfection Makes Practice

2006 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 98-100
Author(s):  
Muhamad Ali
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Psychological Dimension ◽  
South Sulawesi ◽  
Complex Dimensions ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of

Studies of Islam in Southeast Asia have sought to better understand its multifacetedand complex dimensions, although one may make a generalizedcategorization of Muslim beliefs and practices based on a fundamental differencein ideologies and strategies, such as cultural and political Islam.Anna M. Gade’s Perfection Makes Practice stresses the cultural aspect ofIndonesian Muslim practices by analyzing the practices of reciting andmemorizing the Qur’an, as well as the annual competition.Muslim engagement with the Qur’an has tended to emphasize the cognitiveover the psychological dimension. Perfection Makes Practice analyzesthe role of emotion in these undertakings through a combination ofapproaches, particularly the history of religions, ethnography, psychology,and anthropology. By investigating Qur’anic practitioners in Makassar,South Sulawesi, during the 1990s, Gade argues that the perfection of theQur’an as a perceived, learned, and performed text has made and remade thepractitioners, as well as other members of the Muslim community, to renewor increase their engagement with the holy text. In this process, she suggests,moods and motivation are crucial to preserving the recited Qur’an and revitalizingthe Muslim community.In chapter 1, Gade begins with a theoretical consideration for her casestudy. Drawing from concepts that emphasize the importance of feeling andemotion in ritual and religious experience, she develops a conceptualizationof this engagement. In chapter 2, Gade explains memorization within thecontext of the self and social relations. She argues that Qur’anic memorizershave a special relationship with its style and structure, as well as with thesocial milieu. Although Qur’anic memorization is a normal practice for mostMuslims, its practitioners have learned how to memorize and recite beautifullysome or all of the Qur’an’s verses, a process that requires emotion ...

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