Pathways to Druidry: A Case Study of ÁÁr nDraííocht Fééin

2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 40-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael T. Cooper
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Field Data ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Movement ◽  
Religious Expression ◽  
European Origin

Contemporary Druidry is a religious expression that claims ties to the ancient Druids of Indo-European origin. These ties are not necessarily historical as much as they are ideological. As one expression of this form of Druidry, ÁÁr nDraííocht Fééin (ADF) represents a vital and growing new religious movement in the United States and Western Europe. The question arises as to how people encounter ADF and what leads them to become adherents. This article analyzes field data to build a framework for understanding the various pathways to ADF. Utilizing the Lofland-Stark model of conversion, the article discusses conversion theory in light of the testimonies of adherents to ADF. The article concludes by suggesting that religious deprivation, religious identity, and religious legitimacy are factors that contribute to conversion and should be a focus of study in conversion theory.

16. Human Trafficking

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea M. Bertone
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Slave Trade ◽  
The United States ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
White Slavery ◽  
Global Issue ◽  
Late Nineteenth

This chapter examines how the international community has defined and framed the issue of human trafficking over the last century, and how governments such as the United States have responded politically to the problem of human trafficking. Contemporary concerns about trafficking can be traced back to a late nineteenth-century movement in the United States and Western Europe against white slavery. White slavery, also known as the white slave trade, refers to the kidnapping and transport of Caucasian girls and women for the purposes of prostitution. The chapter first considers the definitions of human trafficking before discussing the anti-white slavery movement and the increase in international consciousness about the trafficking of women. It then traces the origins of the contemporary anti-human trafficking movement and analyses how trafficking emerged as a global issue in the 1990s. It also presents a case study on human trafficking in the United States.

South Africa’s Proxy War in Angola

Proxy War ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 157-181
Author(s):  
Tyrone L. Groh
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
Proxy War ◽  
National Congress ◽  
High Degree

This chapter presents a case study for how South Africa used UNITA as a proxy to intervene in the tense civil war in Angola to protect itself from communist influence. Pretoria wanted to prevent the African National Congress from taking over South Africa by force and to minimize Soviet influence in the region. UNITA received relatively overt support, operated with a high degree of autonomy, and had highly divergent objectives. Although the international community rhetorically opposed South Africa’s involvement in Angola, the actions of the United States and Western Europe reflected a more tacit approval. Domestically, South Africa’s public was reluctantly supportive but only on the condition that the costs remain low. Considering that most states had already rhetorically condemned Pretoria’s government and its foreign policy in southern Africa, it is interesting that states failed to raise the international costs of South Africa’s indirect intervention in Angola.

scholarly journals Competing Visions of Islam in the United States

1998 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-139
Author(s):  
Ahmed Hussain
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Muslim Identity ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
American Muslim ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Muslim Communities

Barring the initial works of a handful of scholars over the last 50 years,Muslim communities and their understanding of Islam in America have gonerelatively unstudied in relation to other religious groups. The lacuna now, however,has been partially filled by the work of Kambiz GhaneaBassiri in a concisebut complete in-way-of-issues-mentioned manner. Primarily a secondarysource, it relies heavily on the initial works produced by scholars such asYvonne Haddad, Adair T. Lummis, Earle Waugh. Aminah McCloud, and AtifWasfi. The book is the first of a second generation of work on the subjectUsing a purely sociological method and lens, the book analyzes the findings ofthe works that came before it, coupling a case study of the views, opinions, andattitudes of different constituents of the Muslim populace of Los Angeles withthe more cross-sectional approach used by the aforementioned scholars. Thework raises fundamental questions regarding the validity of studying sociologicallythe American Muslim condition; whether a truly American Muslim conditionexists; and (if it does) its characteristic features. Nevertheless, KambizGhaneaBassiri's work indexes, in a cartographic manner, the competing visionsof Islam in the United States.Within the introduction of his work, the author outlines the purpose andmethodology of his study. Departing from the writings and approach of Haddad,Lummis, Waugh, McCloud, and Wasfi, he makes his intention clear: to use surveysto examine the religious identity of Muslims in the United States by determininghow they define their role as American citizens. His already enigmaticdefinition of a religious identity, however, being an amalgam of one's "desires,""needs," "cultural and ethnic background" and "level of religious understanding,"missed certain key elements. The roles of intention and volitional acts­the main components of the textual definition of Muslim identity-outlinedwithin the Qur'an and Sunnah, more than the categories used in the study, defineMuslim identity. The lack of a clear definition of Muslim identity and the inabilityof the study to operationalize it are the work's two main weaknesses.Nowhere in the work is it scientifically illustrated or articulated that a case study ...

Gendered differences in emigration and mobility perspectives among European researchers working abroad

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Scheibelhofer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Research Strategy ◽  
The Future ◽  
Highly Skilled

This paper focuses on gendered mobilities of highly skilled researchers working abroad. It is based on an empirical qualitative study that explored the mobility aspirations of Austrian scientists who were working in the United States at the time they were interviewed. Supported by a case study, the paper demonstrates how a qualitative research strategy including graphic drawings sketched by the interviewed persons can help us gain a better understanding of the gendered importance of social relations for the future mobility aspirations of scientists working abroad.

‘A Routh O’ Auld Nick-Nackets’ – the antiquarian collection of John Rae

2015 ◽  
Vol 36-37 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-183
Author(s):  
Paul Taylor
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Moral Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Representative Case ◽  
National Museums ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The University

John Rae, a Scottish antiquarian collector and spirit merchant, played a highly prominent role in the local natural history societies and exhibitions of nineteenth-century Aberdeen. While he modestly described his collection of archaeological lithics and other artefacts, principally drawn from Aberdeenshire but including some items from as far afield as the United States, as a mere ‘routh o’ auld nick-nackets' (abundance of old knick-knacks), a contemporary singled it out as ‘the best known in private hands' (Daily Free Press 4/5/91). After Rae's death, Glasgow Museums, National Museums Scotland, the University of Aberdeen Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, as well as numerous individual private collectors, purchased items from the collection. Making use of historical and archive materials to explore the individual biography of Rae and his collection, this article examines how Rae's collecting and other antiquarian activities represent and mirror wider developments in both the ‘amateur’ antiquarianism carried out by Rae and his fellow collectors for reasons of self-improvement and moral education, and the ‘professional’ antiquarianism of the museums which purchased his artefacts. Considered in its wider nineteenth-century context, this is a representative case study of the early development of archaeology in the wider intellectual, scientific and social context of the era.

Anne O. Krueger, Constantine Michalopoulos and Vernon W. Ruttan. Aid and Development. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1989. xiv + 386 pp.Price: U.S. $ 52.00

1991 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-217
Author(s):  
Mir Annice Mahmood
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
International Development ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Development Assistance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Infrastructure ◽  
Low Literacy ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Impact

Foreign aid has been the subject of much examination and research ever since it entered the economic armamentarium approximately 45 years ago. This was the time when the Second World War had successfully ended for the Allies in the defeat of Germany and Japan. However, a new enemy, the Soviet Union, had materialized at the end of the conflict. To counter the threat from the East, the United States undertook the implementation of the Marshal Plan, which was extremely successful in rebuilding and revitalizing a shattered Western Europe. Aid had made its impact. The book under review is by three well-known economists and is the outcome of a study sponsored by the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development. The major objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of assistance, i.e., aid, on economic development. This evaluation however, was to be based on the existing literature on the subject. The book has five major parts: Part One deals with development thought and development assistance; Part Two looks at the relationship between donors and recipients; Part Three evaluates the use of aid by sector; Part Four presents country case-studies; and Part Five synthesizes the lessons from development assistance. Part One of the book is very informative in that it summarises very concisely the theoretical underpinnings of the aid process. In the beginning, aid was thought to be the answer to underdevelopment which could be achieved by a transfer of capital from the rich to the poor. This approach, however, did not succeed as it was simplistic. Capital transfers were not sufficient in themselves to bring about development, as research in this area came to reveal. The development process is a complicated one, with inputs from all sectors of the economy. Thus, it came to be recognized that factors such as low literacy rates, poor health facilities, and lack of social infrastructure are also responsible for economic backwardness. Part One of the book, therefore, sums up appropriately the various trends in development thought. This is important because the book deals primarily with the issue of the effectiveness of aid as a catalyst to further economic development.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document