Social Identity of an Ancestral Religious Group: A Study of the Hamai People in Northeast India

Social Change ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 004908572110402
Author(s):  
Kamei Samson
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Northeast India ◽  
Religious Group ◽  
Ancestral Group ◽  
The Social ◽  
Group A

An ancestral group, with a native religion, views its religion from a strictly confined group’s identity perspective. This narrowly confined identity narrative of their origin, rooted in their relationship with their proto-ancestor’s creator, contributes towards their belief systems that naturally precludes all other groups and thus results in a cautiously guarded religion of their ancestral group. The social identity process of religion shields it from evolving into a more universal belief system that cuts across cultures and languages. Nevertheless, the social identity process of the religion of an ancestral group is certainly a phenomenon that allows one to better comprehend the various intricate dynamics within an ancestral group and their inter-group dynamics. The article is contextualised within an ancestral group known as Hamai who come under Zeliangrong, an organisation formed for the socio-economic and political objectives of a section of the Hamai people of Manipur, Nagaland and Assam.

scholarly journals Intergroup and intragroup dimensions of COVID-19: A social identity perspective on social fragmentation and unity

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic Abrams ◽  
Fanny Lalot ◽  
Michael A. Hogg
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Social Fragmentation ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Face ◽  
Political Management ◽  
Psychological Challenge ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
People’S Perceptions

COVID-19 is a challenge faced by individuals (personal vulnerability and behavior), requiring coordinated policy from national government. However, another critical layer—intergroup relations—frames many decisions about how resources and support should be allocated. Based on theories of self and social identity uncertainty, subjective group dynamics, leadership, and social cohesion, we argue that this intergroup layer has important implications for people’s perceptions of their own and others’ situation, political management of the pandemic, how people are influenced, and how they resolve identity uncertainty. In the face of the pandemic, initial national or global unity is prone to intergroup fractures and competition through which leaders can exploit uncertainties to gain short-term credibility, power, or influence for their own groups, feeding polarization and extremism. Thus, the social and psychological challenge is how to sustain the superordinate objective of surviving and recovering from the pandemic through mutual cross-group effort.

Thy Will Be Done: Exploring the Longitudinal Rewards of Religious Group Membership Enactment During Volunteering

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliet Wakefield ◽  
Mhairi Bowe ◽  
Blerina Kellezi
Keyword(s):  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Group Identification ◽  
Religious Group ◽  
Voluntary Work ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Social Identity Approach

The volunteering literature is replete with studies revealing the health benefits of volunteering. This has led psychologists to question whether social processes may help deliver these benefits while also supporting sustained volunteering engagement. The Social Identity Approach (SIA) recognises that volunteering takes place in groups, and sheds light on these processes by providing insights into group dynamics. Specifically, recent work within the Social Cure tradition has revealed the dynamic relationship between volunteering and group identification, and how this can influence health and wellbeing. This study extends previous work by exploring whether the relationship is mediated by the extent to which volunteers feel able to enact their membership of a valued group (specifically their religious group) through their volunteering. People who volunteer with religiously-motivated voluntary groups (N = 194) completed the same online survey twice, three months apart (T1/T2). For participants high in religiosity, T1 identification with their voluntary group positively predicted their sense of being able to enact the membership of their religious group through their voluntary work at T2, which in turn was a positive predictor of T2 mental health and volunteer engagement. The implications of these findings for both the theoretical literature and for voluntary organisations are discussed.

Small Group Dynamics and Survival on Chronic Hemodialysis

1978 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Gordon Foster ◽  
F. Patrick McKegney
Keyword(s):  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Treatment Decision ◽  
Chronic Hemodialysis ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Dialysis Unit ◽  
Group Assignment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Staff Interactions ◽  
Group A ◽  
Group B

Two groups of patients undergoing hemodialysis for chronic renal failure were prospectively studied for twenty-four months. Group A patients (n=12) were dialyzed on Mondays and Thursdays; Group B patients (n=9) on Tuesdays and Fridays. Although patients were supposedly assigned to dialysis groups on a random basis, over a twenty-four month period Group A had significantly more deaths (7 patients) than did Group B (none). This phenomenon is interpreted in the framework of an ongoing intergroup interaction among patients and between patients and staff, as conceptualized in the Tavistock Model propounded by Bion. It is hypothesized that in the dialysis unit, unconscious splitting by the staff led to a bias in patient-group assignment, such that those patients with more severe personality disruption, and “bad” in that sense, were assigned to Group A. Since patients in Groups A and B did not differ significantly in biological or demographic parameters at time of entry into the study, it is suggested that the increasing density of psychopathology in Group A was related to poorer care, more physical morbidity and a decreasing survival rate. Although no intermediary psychobiological mechanisms were defined, these findings suggest a significant interaction between the social, psychological and biological factors determining survival on chronic renal hemodialysis, beginning with the treatment decision and continuing throughout the course of treatment. These phenomena should be studied further and may have important implications for planning patient care and patient-staff interactions.

Between Communitas and Pantheism

2019 ◽  
pp. 169-184
Author(s):  
Anja Höing
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Hierarchical Structures ◽  
Scientific Discourse ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
Colonial Society ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific

This chapter argues that the openness and egalitarianism of scientific discourse to be found in Terry Pratchett’s Nation functions as an alternative to the hierarchical structures imposed by colonialism. In addition, the chapter discusses the ways in which Pratchett attributes liminal potential to religious beliefs and posits the suggestion that pantheism is the most appropriate religious belief system within the social-scientific framework of his model post-colonial society. Finally, the chapter argues that Nation highlights the importance for young readers of addressing and critically reflecting on the issue of their own belief systems, in order to manage the difficulties of 21st-century living.

Virtue

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mandy Sadan
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Belief System ◽  
The Self ◽  
Theravada Buddhism ◽  
Baptist Church ◽  
American Baptist ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact

This chapter considers the impact of conversion to Christianity among the Kachin peoples of Burma and the role that conflict has had in promoting Christianity as a principal ideological foundation for the social movement of Kachin ethno-nationalism. It challenges the perception that Christianity was a majority belief system before the late 1970s and explores some of the different social dynamics that produced this large-scale conversion beyond the colonial period. It also examines the boundaries between Christianity (specifically American Baptist doctrinal orthodoxies), Theravada Buddhism, and autochthonous belief systems to show how ideological perceptions of threats to the self and the community have been modelled by Kachin Christian ethno-nationalists within the Kachin Baptist Church. It then describes how the social prevalence of this belief system among Kachin youth has created significant shifts in comprehension of ‘Kachin’ history and society, which have also had a transformative effect upon modern Kachin ethno-nationalist ideologies.

scholarly journals The Prophetic and the Prosperous: Religious Ideologies and the Maintenance of Group Consciousness

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 488-503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric L. McDaniel
Keyword(s):  
Black Church ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Social Gospel ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Group Consciousness ◽  
Prosperity Gospel ◽  
Data Set ◽  
The Social ◽  
Material Gain

Integral to the development of group consciousness is the establishment of independent entities, which allow individuals to develop a common identity and solidarity. In the case of African Americans, the black church has facilitated racial group consciousness by bringing blacks together and advocating a belief system that emphasizes justice and community, commonly referred to as the social gospel. In contrast to the social gospel, the prosperity gospel emphasizes individualism and material gain. Scholars and critics argue its growth in the black religious discourse may erode the group cohesion developed by the social gospel. Using a unique data set that measures support for these religious belief systems and black group consciousness, I find support for these assertions. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that the nature of these relationships is contingent upon exposure to religious institutions.

scholarly journals Challenges to belief systems in the context of climate change adaptation

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brechtje S. Jooste ◽  
Jon-Vegard Dokken ◽  
Dewald Van Niekerk ◽  
Ruth A. Loubser
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Internal Control ◽  
Q Methodology ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
The Social

This article focuses on the social aspects of climate change and explores the interrelationship between belief systems and adaptation. The links and interaction between external and internal realities are examined from the perspective of contextual vulnerability, with a focus on the multifaceted structure of belief systems. The aim was to determine those challenges regarding climate change adaptation that are caused by a community’s belief system and to make recommendations to overcome them. Diverse perceptions of climate change and beliefs from three townships in the North-West Province of South Africa were collected and analysed using Q-methodology, finding five distinct worldview narratives. These narratives were named naturalist collectivist, religious, religious determinist, activist collectivist and structural thinker. It is recommended that policymakers aim to address diverse views and should be informed by factors that increase resistance to belief revision. Information should be framed in ways that foster the perception of internal control, are clearly evidence based and encourage a desire to learn more.

scholarly journals The dynamics of audience applause

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (85) ◽  
pp. 20130466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard P. Mann ◽  
Jolyon Faria ◽  
David J. T. Sumpter ◽  
Jens Krause
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Model Selection ◽  
Bayesian Model ◽  
Social Contagion ◽  
Spatial Proximity ◽  
The Social ◽  
Group A ◽  
Contagion Model ◽  
Crowd Psychology

The study of social identity and crowd psychology looks at how and why individual people change their behaviour in response to others. Within a group, a new behaviour can emerge first in a few individuals before it spreads rapidly to all other members. A number of mathematical models have been hypothesized to describe these social contagion phenomena, but these models remain largely untested against empirical data. We used Bayesian model selection to test between various hypotheses about the spread of a simple social behaviour, applause after an academic presentation. Individuals' probability of starting clapping increased in proportion to the number of other audience members already ‘infected’ by this social contagion, regardless of their spatial proximity. The cessation of applause is similarly socially mediated, but is to a lesser degree controlled by the reluctance of individuals to clap too many times. We also found consistent differences between individuals in their willingness to start and stop clapping. The social contagion model arising from our analysis predicts that the time the audience spends clapping can vary considerably, even in the absence of any differences in the quality of the presentations they have heard.

scholarly journals Digital Boundaries and Imaginaries of Khasi Ethnic Identity in Social Media

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-149
Author(s):  
Rajani K. Chhetri ◽  
Fr. (Dr) George Plathottam
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Identity ◽  
Northeast India ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Northeast Region ◽  
Social Media Site ◽  
The Social ◽  
Identity Discourses ◽  
Political Milieu ◽  
Online Group

Identity is an integral aspect of human cognition and a composite of varied elements and subjectivities; it is fluidic and contextual. Identity discourses have dominated the socio-cultural and political milieu of Northeast India. A range of scholarship emanating from both within the Northeast region and outside has explored several identity dimensions. As the social media site Facebook allows for the formation of different kinds of interactional groups, this study explored a closed private Facebook group of twenty-five thousand members belonging exclusively to the Khasi ethnic community to understand the phenomenon of ascribing Khasi social identity among members in the online group. The study adopts Tajfel’s Social Identity framework and engages in a netnographic study on an online group. The study’s findings reveal a range of key symbolic manifestations in the co- constructions of Khasi identity in the online space. The study also discovers unique possibilities and affordances proliferated by social media in building collectivities, strengthening ethnic ties, and belongingness in the online space.

scholarly journals Crowds and Collective Behavior

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Drury ◽  
Stephen Reicher
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Collective Behavior ◽  
Behavioral Control ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Mass Gatherings ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Identity Approach ◽  
The Way

The challenge for a psychology of crowds and collective behavior is to explain how large numbers of people are, spontaneously, able to act together in patterned and socially meaningful ways and, at the same time, how crowd events can bring about social and psychological change. Classical theories, which treat crowd psychology as pathological, deny any meaning to crowd action. More recent normative and rationalist models begin to explain the coherence of crowd action but are unable to explain how that links to broader social systems of meaning. In both cases, the explanatory impasse derives from an individualistic conception of selfhood that denies any social basis to behavioral control. Such a basis is provided by the social identity approach. This proposes that crowd formation is underpinned by the development of shared social identity whereby people see themselves and others in terms of membership of a common category. This leads to three psychological transformations: members perceive the world in terms of collective values and belief systems; they coordinate themselves effectively; and hence they are empowered to realize their collective goals. These transformations explain the social form of crowd action. At the same time, crowd events are intergroup phenomena. It is through the intergroup dynamics between the crowd and an out-group (typically the police)—more specifically the way the social position of crowd members can change through the way police officers understand and respond to their actions—that change can occur. The social identity framework helps make sense of a range of phenomena beyond conflict crowds, including behavior in emergencies and disasters and the psychology of mass gatherings. The practical adequacy of the social identity approach is demonstrated by its use in a number of applied fields, including “public order” policing, crowd and emergency management, mass gatherings, health, and pedestrian modeling.

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