A Call to Action: The Need for a Cultural Psychological Approach to Discrimination on the Basis of Skin Color in Asia

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 1131-1139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karim Bettache

A strong preference for fair skin appears to be the norm across the Asian continent and may pervade many aspects of social life. Yet scholarly work on this ubiquitous phenomenon is rare within psychological science. This article is a call for a psychological investigation into colorism in Asia. I argue that colorism has firm systemic roots as a result of the sociohistorical trajectories of different Asian societies that have attached cultural meanings to skin color. Consequently, similarities and differences in such trajectories may account for variability in the expression of colorism within contemporary Asian societies. Directions for a cultural psychological approach to colorism are suggested.

Author(s):  
Shigehiro Oishi ◽  
Samantha J. Heintzleman

This chapter highlights the contributions that have been made by personality and social psychology, respectively and together, to the science of well-being. Since its humble beginning in the 1930s, the science of well-being has grown to become one of the most vibrant research topics in psychological science today. The personality tradition of well-being research has shown that it is possible to measure well-being reliably, that self-reported well-being predicts important life outcomes, and that well-being has nontrivial genetic origins. The social psychology tradition has illuminated that there are various cultural meanings of well-being, that responses to well-being questions involve multiple cognitive processes, that happiness is experienced often in relationship contexts, and that it is possible to improve one’s well-being. Finally, there are recent methodological integrations of the personality and social psychology perspectives that delineate person–situation interactions.


2021 ◽  
pp. 115-120
Author(s):  
T.M. Tagiyeva ◽  

Presented is the analysis of scientific and theoretical approaches to the problem of migration in modern science. Migration is a complex concept in modern science, and therefore attracts attention of many social and humanitarian sciences. It is determined that this direction of scientific research was originated already in ancient historical science then became the subject of study of economic science. Today, thanks to increased interest in this area of social life, theoretical and methodological foundations have emerged for an integrated approach to the analysis of any social phenomenon, associated with migration. This is evident from the number of scientific publications in the world, related to the analysis and forecasting of specific processes and situations of migration. In the future, methodology of research in this area will be enriched through the use of capabilities of mathematics and statistics methods, as well as achievements of psychological science.


Author(s):  
Dmitry V. Arzyutov

This article deals with the ethnographic analysis of the history and social life of electricity among Nenets in the Yamal Peninsula. Based on historical documents and field data the author reconstructs a history of the electrification of the northern part of the peninsula. This work also includes the reflections on social and cultural meanings of electricity among Nenets in and out the tundra. Through these historical and current dynamics, the author suggests analysing the life of electricity in off-the-grid settings through the lens of transnational technological entanglements in the Arctic


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tesa Anjelia ◽  
Rusdi Noor Rosa

Geography and social life were two main causes of why a language has the variation. One of them is lexical variation The purpose of this research was (1) to identify the lexical similarities between Simarasok sub-dialect and Padang Tarok sub-dialect (2) to identify the lexical differences between Simarasok sub-dialect and Padang Tarok sub-dialect. In this research, the researcher used descriptive method; it is possible to compare two sub-dialects so the researcher can find the similarities of vocabularies, the lexical variation and the uniqueness of lexical changes. From the research that has been done, the researcher used 200 words of swadesh list and 100 words of basic vocabularies to see the lexical similarities and differences that exist between Simarasok sub-dialect and Padang Tarok sub-dialect. From the data, the researcher found the similarities of vocabularies used between Simarasok sub-dialect and Padang Tarok sub-dialect. The differences or the lexical variation that found in Simarasok sub-dialect and Padang Tarok sub-dialect are caused by the affixation, derivation, borrowing from other languages and blending. From this paper the researcher hope that this paper can be useful in learning as an additional knowledge in learning Dialectology.


2019 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 68-83
Author(s):  
Barbara Horejs

This paper provides an overview of our current knowledge about the transformation towards the Neolithic in western Anatolia and the Aegean, and offers a narrative for their interpretation. Within the longue durée perspective of the long revolution in the Near East, the first millennia of the Holocene of the Aegean and western Anatolia are contrasted with each other. Economic strategies, environmental conditions, technologies, raw material procurement and cultural practices in the Aegean Mesolithic and the Pre-Neolithic times in western Anatolia are analysed to classify potential similarities and differences. The evidence of new cultural and symbolic practices, eco-nomies, and technologies in the seventh millennium is discussed as the paradox of a short revolu-tion embedded in a long-term process of interaction, knowledge-transfer and adaptation, setting the scene for the Neolithic pioneers establishing a new social life.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 90-101
Author(s):  
V. Constanza Ocampo-Raeder

In this article I present the social life of camarones, a Peruvian river crustacean used in some of the region’s favorite dishes, and the liminal space they occupy in the geography, minds, and ecosystem of Peru and its people. I situate the relationship between these crawfish and the folks who capture them, known as camaroneros, within insights of environmental anthropologists and food scholars who also explore the connections between cultural and biological diversity and the entangled socio-ecological histories that inform the manner in which nature is mediated and understood by local societies. In this article, however, I expand this understanding to reveal unexpected spaces of engagement, especially those that emerge while eating, which tend to be overlooked by bounded notions of culture and nature and limit the ways we can imagine human-nature relationships. Via the story of camarones and camaroneros of one river valley of Peru, I argue that eating is a socio-ecological act that is imbued with profound cultural meanings involving a wide range of participants—not just farmers or producers—each with their own ecological identities yet still implicitly linked to one another through the process of producing, preparing, and consuming food.


Author(s):  
Yasser Mahfooz ◽  
Faisal Mahfooz

The market for fairness creams around the globe was an untouched territory till mid-1970s. No cream was available which could claim an effect on the fairness of skin. The first product for this market was Fair & Lovely (Fair & Lovely) by Hindustan Unilever Ltd (Hindustan Unilever Ltd.:HUL) which was launched in India in 1975. It was a turning point for the fairness cream business and several companies followed soon. Fair & Lovely didn’t take much time to become a household name with more and more women putting their trust in the product for giving them the much needed fair skin they always desired. A product which started as another addition to the product line, acquired the status of a super brand by 2004. It became a part of the customer’s persona. In a society where the general population is genetically brown in skin color, yet has resentment to it; fair color of skin is an obsession and is equated with beauty, happiness and success. This craze for fair skin is marketed aggressively and a range of products are available in the market, which gratify the likes of teenagers as well as grown women. The following case on the product Fair & Lovely gives a background of the market for fairness creams in India and focuses on different aspects of behavior of women as consumers of this product.


Author(s):  
Florence Graezer Bideau

This chapter adopts an anthropological perspective to explore the role played by institutions in the social and historical construction of heritage. Since member states ratified the UNESCO Conventions, national inventories have been collated so that candidacies can be submitted to international lists for recognition and, in turn, return the benefits of this cultural showcase to the nation. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in China and Switzerland, this chapter focuses on the logic underlying processes of selection, which involves both political and administrative bodies. How cultural heritage is interpreted by various stakeholders will be outlined, along with an analysis of practices and narratives that almost inevitably produces friction. The case studies presented here highlight the complexity of cultural meanings and frictions among stakeholders at all levels who claim their ‘rights to cultural heritage’.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-74
Author(s):  
Aude Béliard ◽  
Álvaro Jiménez-Molina ◽  
Javiera Díaz-Valdés ◽  
Alice Le Goff ◽  
Sarra Mougel ◽  
...  

Abstract The purpose of this article is to describe the subjective experience of the diagnosis of Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and the cultural meanings that shape this experience. Based on interviews and discussion groups with diagnosed people and their families in Chile and France, this article show that ADHD can acquire multiple meanings. From a thematic analysis, we identified three registers or ways of living and thinking about ADHD. In the deficit register, the disorder is experienced primarily as a failure of certain abilities. In the disruption register, the disorder is experienced as disrupting the person’s life, personality and interactions, which must then be normalized. In the register of hidden potential, on which this article focuses, ADHD is simultaneously thought of as a difficult and valuable condition, a source of exceptional capacities that are often hidden in the ordinary functioning of social life. We therefore invite reflection that identifies the factors of mobilization or non-mobilization of the hidden potential register, with particular emphasis not only on relational configurations, socio-economic variables, and the gender variable, but also on the institutional and political context of each country.


Africa ◽  
1937 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Godfrey Wilson

Opening ParagraphThe Problem of Social Conformity in Action. The functional analysis of social life is concerned with the discovery and elucidation of the inner coherence and living unity of single cultures. The comparative analysis of social life, on the other hand, sets out to explain the similarities and differences which distinguish separate cultures by reference to universal laws which are objectively, that is to say actually, true of all known societies. Separate analysis must necessarily precede detailed comparison, for only so can intelligible units of comparison be discovered. None the less the analysis of a single culture must, right from the beginning, assume a certain general similarity between all cultures if it is to be successful in its own limited field. Intelligibility is nothing else than comparability, and it is only by making explicit the comparability of a Central African culture, for example, with our own and other cultures that we can make its own unity and inner coherence intelligible to ourselves. But, while we are concerned with a single unit only, its comparability with other units can only be made explicit in general terms and not in detail.


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