Chiefs of rain – chiefs of ruling: a reinterpretation of pre-colonial Tonga (Zambia) social and political structure

Africa ◽  
1983 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 23-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan O'Brien
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Social Unit ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Local Council ◽  
Territorial Unit ◽  
Political Office ◽  
Basic Parameters ◽  
Basic Position

IntroductionThis article reassesses the accepted model of pre-colonial Tonga (Zambian) society. In a series of books and articles Elizabeth Colson has established an anthropological framework in which to analyse Tonga social and political activities. The basic parameters of that framework would appear to be: ‘Until the beginnings of the colonial period, approximately seventy years ago the largest named territorial unit among the Tonga was the small neighbourhood community.’ Ritual offices existed within the neighbourhood but political office was embryonic or non-existent until the British Government recognized headmen and chiefs and later developed a local council with an appointed civil service. (Colson, 1980b: 35). Social life is characterized as ‘anarchical’ (Colson, 1970a: 87). Politically the Tonga were said to be ‘stateless’ (Colson, 1970a: 207) and ‘amorphous’ (Colson, 1970b: 36). In a paper given in 1968 Colson analyses the concept of tribe, and states that the Tonga only recognized themselves as Tonga when young nationalist schoolboys tried to give them self-awareness. Thus, the Tonga in Colson's view are a creation of British bureaucracy and of a burgeoning nationalism. (Colson, 1968: 202; cf. also Colson, 1970b: 36). More recently the same basic position is reiterated, though the possibility of a change of viewpoint is left open; ‘Even the idea of a social unit of all Tonga is a recent creation and is still likely to be invoked principally in the national political arena, though the continued importance of the shrine of Monze may have political overtones of which I am unaware.’ (Colson, 1977: 137).

scholarly journals The Era of Uncertainty and Ethical Arrangement in Javanese Classical Texts: Disseminating Ranggawarsita’s Works as Source of Islamic Ethics in Islamic Higher Education

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 461-493
Author(s):  
Zumrotul Mukaffa
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Unethical Behavior ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Islamic Ethics ◽  
Classical Text ◽  
Uncertainty Condition ◽  
The Social

This paper investigates the era of uncertainty and ethical arrangement formulated in the Javanese classical text written by Ranggawarsita. Most of his works, especially Serat Kalatidha, Serat Sabdapranawa, and Serat Sabdatama, situated in the era of uncertainty and moved to the era of zaman edan (crazy age), kalabendhu (age of anger), owah or pakewuh (bizar time). Social structure in this era tied to unethical behavior. Elite communities were lacking of self- representation as a good example, meanwhile the communities were ignoring public advisability.  To set free from uncertainty condition is possible through implementing four ethical doctrines in the social life, namely: Monotheistic behavior, active submission to God’s predestination, self-contemplation, and eling lan waspada (self-awareness and mindfulness). The dynamic of nationhood today is almost reflecting the age of kalabendhu, and therefore it is necessary to do dissemination and transformation of ethical doctrines in the Islamic Higher Education by using the doctrine as a source of subject of Islamic Ethic. The need of dissemination is because academia in the Islamic Higher Education is an integral part of uncertain social structure.

scholarly journals The Problem of Individualization in Revealing Humanistic Anthropocentrism of the Renaissance

2020 ◽  
pp. 212-220
Author(s):  
Pavlo PYLYPYSHYN
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Free Market ◽  
World Order ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Individual Values ◽  
Self Knowledge

It has been proved that after the Middle Ages a new philosophical and legal worldview started to shape, which ensured a significant development of the philosophy of law that enabled emerging individualism. In the philosophy of the Renaissance, the problem of individualism changed its vector from the objective world to all spheres of social life that led to a rise of individual consciousness, causing human’s discovery of itself as a subject of activity. It has been established that the changes also occurred in the type of thinking that moved from collectivist to new thinking focused on defending dignity, the value of an individual, showing interest to interpersonal relationships, respect to individual sense of being, increasing attention to the process of self-knowledge, awareness of individual notion of oneself. It has been proved that the Renaissance relieved a human from external authorities and gave him a space of freedom, in which new notions of human’s place in the world appeared: the role of the state in organizing public life, the importance of social and individual values in taking significant decisions. It has been found out that the reasons that contributed to the emergence of a new individualism in the Renaissance era, in our opinion, include: the replacement of Christian theocentrism with humanistic anthropocentrism; integration of aesthetic and moral ideas taken from the ancient world order; the exit of individual freedom of the subjective «I» from the category of universal, denying the fundamental foundations of the latter; growth of intellectual movement; formation of new economic relations based on the freedom of economic entities; growth of free market economy, raising the prestige of educated people; proclamation of the right to individual initiative, self-awareness; the rise of individual religious consciousness; affirmation of the priority of human nature over the immanent reality; human’s discovery of itself as a subject of activity and law; fast growth of interest to self-knowledge, awareness of individual notion of oneself, transformation of a view of human nature and its relationship with the social and legal aspects of life, significance if internal motifs of individual actions as part of social and legal evaluation of an individual, focusing on humanism. Keywords: individualism, individualization, individuality, personality, individual, Renaissance, freedom.

Youth Sports awareness and culture in contemporary society

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 93-146
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sport Culture ◽  
Culture And Health ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Individual Self ◽  
Research Show ◽  
The Way

Culture and awareness are two flexible concepts that are related to the social nature and its development, and the creative and scientific activities of humans since time immemorial. Awareness is developed by humans living their social life, the way they react towards their environment that consists of people, the average of their knowledge and the way they react to the things around them. What distinguishing the individual self-awareness is the human's ability to make any decision and their knowledge of their general behavior. in the light of taking what we need of the information, data, properties and characteristics, we give the youth their needs of activities, movement, awareness and culture through setting codified thoughtful programs. Therefore, we need to know the following: Are the attitudes of the males differ from the attitudes of the females of practicing sports? The importance of the research lies in the fact that it is one of the few studies that takes into consideration sport culture and health of an important segment, which is the youth. One of the results of the research is that the physical activity that the youth do in sports centers (gyms) that brings important benefits like prevention of diseases. The research was conducted on (202) of males which is 63.3% and (98) females which is (32.7). The results of the research show that most of those whom the research was conducted on were from the age of 18 to 25, which makes 47% of the study sample.

Social Structure and Political Participation: Developmental Relationships, Part I

1969 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 361-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman H. Nie ◽  
G. Bingham Powell ◽  
Kenneth Prewitt
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Political Life ◽  
General Level ◽  
Political Activities

Economic development has consequences for many aspects of social life. Some of these social consequences, in turn, have an impact on a nation's political life. Studies of social mobilization, for example, have demonstrated that economic development is associated with sharp increases in the general level of political participation. These studies report strong relationships between aggregate socio-economic measures such as per capita income, median level of education, and percentage of the population in urban areas, on one hand, and aggregate measures of political participation, such as voting turnout, on the other. Simultaneously, scholars conducting surveys of individual political participation consistently have reported that an individual's social status, education, and organizational memberships strongly affect the likelihood of his engaging in various types of political activities.In spite of the consistency of both sets of findings across many studies and although the findings appear frequently in analysis of political stability, democracy, and even strategies of political growth, we know little about the connections between social structure and political participation. With few exceptions the literature on individual participation is notable for low level generalizations (the better educated citizen talks about politics more regularly), and the absence of systematic and comprehensive theory. While the literature on the growth of national political participation has been more elaborate theoretically, the dependence on aggregate measures has made it difficult to determine empirically how these macro social changes structure individuals' life experiences in ways which alter their political behavior.

Writing African Women's History with Male Sources: Possibilities and Limitations

2004 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 319-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Schler
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Women's History ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Political Life ◽  
African Women ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Birthing Practices ◽  
Women’S History

Colonial sources can provide historians with a wealth of information about African lives during the colonial period, but they must be read against the grain, filtering out valuable information from the biases and prejudices of European officials. The task of studying African women's history using colonial sources is even more complicated, as women were not often the focus of the colonial agenda, and contact between colonial officials and African women was relatively limited, and often indirect. Particularly in those arenas of African social, cultural, and political life deemed as women's spheres, colonial officials had little incentive to intervene. As a result, historians of later generations are faced with relatively sparse documentation of women-centered social activity during the colonial era. For their part, African women guarded cultural and political spheres under their influence from outside intervention, thus making it difficult for Europeans, and particularly European men, to gain a full and accurate understanding of women's individual and collective experiences under colonial rule.This paper will examine colonial research and documentation of African women's birthing practices.to illustrate both the potential for using these sources to understand some basic elements of women's experiences, and the limitations of this source material in providing deep and accurate insights into African women's history. Using an example from colonial Cameroon, we will see how European interest in women's birthing practices was motivated by colonial economic and scientific agendas steeped in racism and sexism, preventing European researchers from obtaining a balanced and accurate understanding of this women's sphere of social life. On the other hand, the documents reveal efforts of African women to prevent the colonial infiltration into women's arenas of influence.

scholarly journals The Nuclear/Nuclear Family

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-50
Author(s):  
Petra Tjitske Kalshoven
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Nuclear Family ◽  
Nuclear Industry ◽  
Host Community ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Unit ◽  
Nuclear Families ◽  
North West ◽  
Personal Management ◽  
The One

During the COVID-19 lockdown, as households were kept separate in a bid to contain the coronavirus, morally underpinned dynamics of fission and fusion occurred, privileging the ‘nuclear family’, which is taken here in two senses: the conventional social unit of a couple and their children, on the one hand, and the togetherness promoted by the nuclear industry in North West England, on the other. Whilst Sellafield’s Nuclear family fused with its host community in an outpouring of corporate kindness and volunteering, singles bereft of nuclear families were fissioned off from social life, which led to a corrective debate in the Netherlands. Drawing out analogies from a modest comparative perspective, I posit the nuclear family as a prism affording insights into the corporate, governmental and personal management of intimacy.

scholarly journals Внутрисемейные взаимоотношения у башкир во второй половине XIX – начале XX в.

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 248-258
Author(s):  
Rima N. Suleimanova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Family Relations ◽  
Local History ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
The Family ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
The Status ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
New Phenomena ◽  
Intra Family

Introduction. The article examines intra-family relations in Bashkir society in the mid-19th to early 20th centuries. Goals. The work aims at outlining the characteristics and new phenomena in Bashkir intra-family relations during the period under consideration. Materials and Methods. The main sources are archival documentary materials and published sources. The analysis of the source material, the assessment of events and phenomena were implemented through the principles of historicism, objectivity and scientific nature. The study employs such methods as comparative historical, problem-chronological, retrospective, logical ones, etc. Results. On the basis of unique sources, such as archival documents, published sources, works by famous Russian scientists, public figures and local historians, the paper provides insight into the family life of Bashkirs in this period — with due account of turning events in Russia’s social life and its actual phenomena. The latter initiated certain changes in this sphere and had a serious impact on intra-family relations, positions of family members. That especially affected the status of women which has also been highlighted in published scientific and local history works. Changes took place in the woman herself, in her self-awareness and behavior, radically different from the established norms. This is evidenced by the increased number of cases when women turned to the Orenburg Mohammedan Spiritual Association with requests for divorce, permission for a new marriage, with complaints against their husbands, as well as by the emergence of women’s societies which became first experience of their self-organization outside homes and that of social life. However, family was still dominated by man, and other members remained as humiliated and dependent. All this attests to the strength of traditional intra-family relations. Conclusions. During the period under review, Bashkir intra-family relations remained virtually unchanged. Nonetheless, the events that took place in the early 20th century in Russia’s social life resulted in that positions of family and its members became noticeably complicated and unstable. The position of woman in family was undergoing serious changes as well: it became different, like the traditional Bashkir society itself.

scholarly journals ICT Usage as Communication and Social Participation on Housewives (Case Study in North Sulawesi, Gorontalo, Central Sulawesi, and West Sulawesi Rurals)

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nkenda
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Social Ties ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Communication Tool ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Media Center ◽  
North Sulawesi

AbstrakPenggunaan TIK telah memepengaruhi kehidupan sosial masyarakat umumnya. Perubahan sosial terjadi dari kemampuan adaptasi TIK/internet. Ibu rumah tangga terintegrasi dalam ikatan sosial, inklusi, kohesi dan layanan sosial. Penelitian pada rumah tangga / individu dan ibu rumah tangga, difilterisasi dengan pivot excel untuk mendapatkan data responden di empat provinsi, dengan analisis deskriptif. Hasilnya 35,00% responden memiliki perangkat TIK/internet, 65,00% menggunakan TIK/internet dengan bantuan keluarga tetangga dan kerabat. 70,59% tidak memiliki keterampilan TIK, 29,41% berketerampilan dasar/pemula dengan belajar sendiri/melalui orang lain. Manfaat TIK/internet dominan mencari informasi, dan sebagai media pendidikan. TIK/internet sebagai alat komunkasi pengikat kehidupan sosial. Partisipasi inklusi sosial  bekerja sama, pengambilan keputusan dan aktifitas politik dengan masyarakat sekitar domisili, di atas  52,00%. Kohesi sosial dalam kontribusi  norma kehidupan bersama, dipersepsi baik diatas 60,00% sedangkan layanan sosial daring pemerintah masih rendah pemanfaatanya. Simpulannya; penggunaan TIK/internet memperlancar komunikasi, mendorong ikatan sosial, memperkuat inklusi dan menjadi enabler kohesi sosial. Saran; keterbatasan pendidikan dan ekonomi keluarga, kepada stakeholder terkait dapat memfasilitasi,  pendampingan pelatihan literasi untuk menjadikan responden yang lebih familiar dengan TIK/internet akan membantu kehidupan sosial ekonomi keluarganya. Kata kunci: Penggunaan TIK/internet, komunikasi, partisipasi sosial dan ibu rumah tangga.  Abstract ICT usage has influenced social life in general. The social change happened through the ability of ICT or internet adaptation. Housewives have integrated into social ties, inclusion, cohesion and social services. A descriptive analysis study on individuals and housewives filtered by pivot excel to collect data in four province shows 35% of respondents had ICT/internet devices, 65% using ICT/internet helped by them neighbor/family. 70,59% was unable to use ICT, 29,41% was able to use ICT with limited skills by learning it themselves or helped by others. The benefits of ICT that is looking for information and such an education media center. ICT/internet as a socially binding communication tool. Participation in social inclusion in cooperation, decision making, and political activities with the community around the domicile is above 52%. Social cohesion in contributing to the norm of living together was perceived well above 60% while the government’s online social services are still of low usage. ICT as a communication tool for social life. Conclusion; ICT usage could unleash communication, encourage social ties, reinforcing social inclusion and could be an enabler of social cohesion. Suggestion: education boundaries and family economy, related stakeholders hopefully could facilitate, giving some literacy assistance training to make the respondents familiar with ICT and it might help the socio-economy life of their families.

scholarly journals From the Sustainable Development to the Sustainable Community: the World Council of Churches’ Contribution to the Concept of Sustainability

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 293-304
Author(s):  
Piotr Kopiec
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
World Council Of Churches ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council

At the turn of 20th and 21st century political activities are being inspired by two main ideas: the concept of ‘civil society’ and ‘sustainable development’. The latter has recently become a background of the United Nations strategy to support international cooperation regarding social and ecological problems, in particular to eradicate poverty. The UN’s ac- tivity is reviewed by the World Council of Churches, the biggest ecumenical organization. The WCC, when declaring its support to all initiatives striving to eradicate poverty and to foster peaceful political relations, suggests its own concept of ‘sustanaible community’ and the concept of ‘economy of life’. In this sense the ecumenical movement distinguishes itself from activities of secular political actors and imposes on Christians a task to promote new ideas and models of social life, inspired by the biblical teachings. This article defines the notion of sustainable development and discusses the main stages of its unfolding. Furthermore, the paper highlights the World Council of Churches’ criticism of the concept of sustainable development and scrutinizes a contribution of the WCC to the global debate on new political and social philosophy

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