scholarly journals Small gods, rituals, and cooperation: The Mentawai water spirit Sikameinan

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manvir Singh ◽  
Ted Kaptchuck ◽  
Joseph Henrich
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The Public ◽  
Shared Beliefs ◽  
Healing Rituals ◽  
Public Nature ◽  
Ethnographic Observation ◽  
Evolution Of Religion ◽  
Meat Sharing

Cognitive and evolutionary research has overwhelmingly focused on the powerful deities of large-scale societies, yet little work has examined the smaller gods of animist traditions. Here, in a study of the Mentawai water spirit Sikameinan (Siberut Island, Indonesia), we address three questions: (1) Are smaller gods believed to enforce cooperation, especially compared to bigger gods in larger-scale societies? (2) Do beliefs in these deities encourage people to engage in behavior that would otherwise be perceived as costly? and (3) Does ritual reinforce beliefs in these deities? Drawing on interview responses, data from healing ceremonies, and ethnographic observation, we show that Sikameinan is believed to punish people who violate meat-sharing norms and that people ‘attacked’ by Sikameinan pay shamans to conduct healing rituals. The public nature of rituals, involving prestigious individuals apologizing to Sikameinan for the patient’s stinginess, reinforce onlookers’ beliefs about Sikameinan. The most widely shared beliefs about Sikameinan are represented in rituals while beliefs not represented vary considerably, indicating that ritual may be potent for cultural transmission. These results suggest that moralizing supernatural punishers may be more common than suspected and that the trend in the cultural evolution of religion has been an expansion of deities’ scope, powers, and monitoring abilities.

Is economic inequality a universal evil?

2019 ◽  
pp. 91-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rostislav I. Kapeliushnikov
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
The State ◽  
Fair Play ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
The Public ◽  
Discursive Power ◽  
A Current

Using published estimates of inequality for two countries (Russia and USA) the paper demonstrates that inequality measuring still remains in the state of “statistical cacophony”. Under this condition, it seems at least untimely to pass categorical normative judgments and offer radical political advice for governments. Moreover, the mere practice to draw normative conclusions from quantitative data is ethically invalid since ordinary people (non-intellectuals) tend to evaluate wealth and incomes as admissible or inadmissible not on the basis of their size but basing on whether they were obtained under observance or violations of the rules of “fair play”. The paper concludes that a current large-scale ideological campaign of “struggle against inequality” has been unleashed by left-wing intellectuals in order to strengthen even more their discursive power over the public.

Cultural evolution and cultural psychology

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Mesoudi
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Cultural Psychology ◽  
Phylogenetic Analyses ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Cultural Inheritance ◽  
Human Psychology

Cultural evolution is a branch of the evolutionary sciences which assumes that (i) human cognition and behaviour is shaped not only by genetic inheritance, but also cultural inheritance (also known as social learning), and (ii) this cultural inheritance constitutes a Darwinian evolutionary system that can be analysed and studied using tools borrowed from evolutionary biology. In this chapter I explore the numerous compatibilities between the fields of cultural evolution and cultural psychology, and the potential mutual benefits from their closer alignment. First, understanding the evolutionary context within which human psychology emerged gives added significance to the findings of cultural psychologists, which reinforce the conclusion reached by cultural evolution scholars that humans inhabit a ‘cultural niche’ within which the major means of adaptation to difference environments is cultural, rather than genetic. Hence, we should not be surprised that human psychology shows substantial cross-cultural variation. Second, a focus on cultural transmission pathways, drawing on cultural evolution models and empirical research, can help to explain to the maintenance of, and potential changes in, cultural variation in psychological processes. Evidence from migrants, in particular, points to a mix of vertical, oblique and horizontal cultural transmission that can explain the differential stability of different cultural dimensions. Third, cultural evolutionary methods offer powerful means of testing historical (“macro-evolutionary”) hypotheses put forward by cultural psychologists for the origin of psychological differences. Explanations in terms of means of subsistence, rates of environmental change or pathogen prevalence can be tested using quantitative models and phylogenetic analyses that can be used to reconstruct cultural lineages. Evolutionary considerations also point to potential problems with current cross-country comparisons conducted within cultural psychology, such as the non-independence of data points due to shared cultural history. Finally, I argue that cultural psychology can play a central role in a synthetic evolutionary science of culture, providing valuable links between individual-oriented disciplines such as experimental psychology and neuroscience on the one hand, and society-oriented disciplines such as anthropology, history and sociology on the other, all within an evolutionary framework that provides links to the biological sciences.

KETERTINDASAN MELAYU DALAM CERPEN “SUKU POMPONG” KARYA FEDLI AZIS DAN CERPEN “RUMAH DI UJUNG KAMPUNG” KARYA HANG KAFRAWI

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Marlina Marlina
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
Land Conversion ◽  
The Public ◽  
Historical Reality ◽  
Sociological Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Imaginative Literature ◽  
The Village

Reading short stories “Suku Pompong” (Pompong Tribe) and “Rumah di Ujung Kampung” (House at the End of the Village) is like reading a historical reality that is happening on the ground of Riau Malay. The exploitation of forest resources on a large scale in recent decades in Riau Province has changed the land use of the area of intact forest into plantation area. The exploitation process causes friction in the community. The friction is eventually lead to conflict between communities and plantation companies. Their struggle to resolve conflicts and maintain their ancestral land, the strength of the company that has the license to the land and sadness when the public finally has always been on the losing side. This study objected to describe the objective reality of the Malay community in terms of land conversion, the communal land into plantations and reality of imaginative literature contained in the short stories “Suku Pompong” dan “Rumah di Ujung Kampung”. This study applied the sociology of literature approach, while the sociological approach to literature is a literary approach that specializes in reviewing literature by considering the social aspects. Based on these approaches, it can be concluded that short stories Suku Pompong and Rumah di Ujung Jalan are short stories that raised the reality of the Malay community.AbstrakMembaca cerpen “Suku Pompong” dan cerpen “Rumah di Ujung Kampung” seperti membaca sebuah realita sejarah yang terjadi di tanah Melayu Riau. Ekploitasi sumber daya hutan secara besar-besaran pada beberapa dekade terakhir di Provinsi Riau telah mengubah tata guna lahan dari kawasan hutan yang utuh menjadi kawasan perkebunan. Proses eksploitasi tersebut menimbulkan gesekan-gesekan dalam masyarakat. Gesekan-gesekan inilah yang akhirnya menimbulkan konflik antara masyarakat dengan pihak perusahaan perkebunan. Perjuangan masyarakat dalam menyelesaikan konflik dan mempertahankan tanah leluhur mereka, kekuatan pihak perusahaan yang memiliki surat izin atas tanah tersebut, dan kesedihan ketika masyarakat akhirnya selalu berada di pihak yang kalah. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan realitas objektif masyarakat Melayu Riau dalam hal alih fungsi lahan, dari lahan tanah ulayat menjadi lahan perkebunan, dan realititas imajinatif sastra yang terdapat dalam cerpen “Suku Pompong” dan cerpen “Rumah di Ujung Kampung”. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan sosiologi sastra, yaitu suatu pendekatan sastra yang mengkhususkan diri dalam menelaah karya sastra dengan mempertimbangkan segi-segi sosial kemasyarakatan. Dari pendekatan tersebut dapat diambil kesimpulan bahwa cerpen “Suku Pompong” dan cerpen “Rumah di Ujung Kampung” memang merupakan cerpen yang mengangkat realitas masyarakat Melayu Riau.

Approaches to Supporting Local and Community Development

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liesel Mack Filgueiras ◽  
Andreia Rabetim ◽  
Isabel Aché Pillar
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Mining Company ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Social Partnership ◽  
The Public ◽  
Mining Investment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Corporate Social

Reflection about the role of community engagement and corporate social investment in Brazil, associated with the presence of a large economic enterprise, is the major stimulus of this chapter. It seeks to present how cross-sector governance can contribute to the social development of a city and how this process can be led by a partnership comprising a corporate foundation, government, and civil society. The concept of the public–private social partnership (PPSP) is explored: a strategy for building a series of inter-sectoral alliances aimed at promoting the sustainable development of territories where the company has large-scale enterprises, through joint efforts towards integrated long-term strategic planning, around a common agenda. To this end, the case of Canaã dos Carajás is introduced, a municipality in the State of Pará, in the Amazon region, where large-scale mining investment is being carried out by the mining company Vale SA.

The Public

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Holt
Keyword(s):  
Jürgen Habermas ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Jurgen Habermas ◽  
Public Nature ◽  
Private And Public

The chapter continues to discuss the association of judgment and sovereignty using Franz Kafka’s story Das Urteil (The Judgment). It does so in order to then introduce the public nature of spectating and how this has been played out in the thinking of Jurgen Habermas concerning speech situations, and in Hannah Arendt’s writings on the polis. Rather than pitch the public in contrast to the private, the chapter suggests spectating plays on the binary in ways that enrich both. This coming together of the private and public is then woven into the understanding of strategic inquiry as an organizational forming of self-presentation.

Sex in the City that Peter Built: The Demimonde and Sociability in Mid-Eighteenth Century St. Petersburg

Slavic Review ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 907-930
Author(s):  
Igor Fedyukin
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Reading Public ◽  
Associational Life ◽  
The Public ◽  
The World ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The City

This article uses the materials of the Drezdensha affair, a large-scale investigation of “indecency” in St. Petersburg in 1750, to explore unofficial sociability among the Imperial elite, and to map out the institutional, social, and economic dimensions of the post-Petrine “sexual underworld.” Sociability and, ultimately, the public sphere in eighteenth century Russia are usually associated with loftier practices, with joining the ranks of the reading public, reflecting on the public good, and generally, becoming more civil and polite. Yet, it is the privately-run, commercially-oriented, and sexually-charged “parties” at the focus of this article that arguably served as a “training ground” for developing the habits of sociability. The world of these “parties” provides a missing link between the debauchery and carousing of Peter I's era and the more polite formats of associational life in the late eighteenth century, as well as the historical context for reflections on morality, sexual licentiousness, foppery, and the excesses of “westernization.”

scholarly journals Limits of data anonymity: lack of public awareness risks trust in health system activities

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix Gille ◽  
Caroline Brall
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
Online News ◽  
Healthcare Management ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
The Public ◽  
Privacy And Anonymity

AbstractPublic trust is paramount for the well functioning of data driven healthcare activities such as digital health interventions, contact tracing or the build-up of electronic health records. As the use of personal data is the common denominator for these healthcare activities, healthcare actors have an interest to ensure privacy and anonymity of the personal data they depend on. Maintaining privacy and anonymity of personal data contribute to the trustworthiness of these healthcare activities and are associated with the public willingness to trust these activities with their personal data. An analysis of online news readership comments about the failed care.data programme in England revealed that parts of the public have a false understanding of anonymity in the context of privacy protection of personal data as used for healthcare management and medical research. Some of those commenting demanded complete anonymity of their data to be willing to trust the process of data collection and analysis. As this demand is impossible to fulfil and trust is built on a false understanding of anonymity, the inability to meet this demand risks undermining public trust. Since public concerns about anonymity and privacy of personal data appear to be increasing, a large-scale information campaign about the limits and possibilities of anonymity with respect to the various uses of personal health data is urgently needed to help the public to make better informed choices about providing personal data.

Public perception and acceptance of negative emission technologies – framing effects in Switzerland

2021 ◽  
Vol 167 (3-4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariane Wenger ◽  
Michael Stauffacher ◽  
Irina Dallo
Keyword(s):  
Moral Hazard ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
The Public ◽  
Net Zero ◽  
Negative Emission ◽  
Public Opinion Perception ◽  
Negative Emission Technologies ◽  
Technological Fix

AbstractLimiting global warming to 1.5 °C requires negative emission technologies (NETs), which remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and permanently store it to offset unavoidable emissions. Successful large-scale deployment of NETs depends not only on technical, biophysical, ecological, and economic factors, but also on public perception and acceptance. However, previous studies on this topic have been scarce. In 2019, Switzerland adopted a net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 target, which will require the use of NETs. To examine the current Swiss public perception and acceptance of five different NETs, we conducted an online survey with Swiss citizens (N = 693). By using a between-subjects design, we investigated differences in public opinion, perception, and acceptance across three of the most used frames in the scientific literature — technological fix, moral hazard, and climate emergency. Results showed that the public perception and acceptance of NETs does not differ between the frames. The technological fix frame best reflected participants’ opinion, whereas participants perceived the moral hazard frame the least credible and the climate emergency frame the most unclear. Moreover, our findings confirm the public’s unfamiliarity with NETs. We found no strong opposition, as participants indicated a moderate acceptance and a neutral evaluation of all five NETs, with afforestation standing out as the most accepted and positively evaluated NET. We conclude that, in the future, the public debate on NETs should be intensified, and the public perception should be monitored regularly to inform the development of NETs.

Role of an architect in projects involving EPC contracts

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 01-15
Author(s):  
Adyathan Dasyapu ◽  
Greeshmika Nagubilli ◽  
Jayanth V Kutcharlapati ◽  
Hari Prasad Guntuku ◽  
Shruti S Nagdeve
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Critical Points ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Common Type ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Related Case ◽  
The Public

Purpose: Engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contracts are on their way to becoming the most common type of contract used by the private sector for large-scale infrastructure projects. Every project requires a strong relationship between all of the experts participating in EPC projects and the client. This relationship must be solidly established by an architect; otherwise, the project may fail for all parties involved, including the client, contractor, lenders, government, and others. The purpose of this study is to identify if the working of the EPC contracts is favourable for the architectural profession, and to identify the way in which the working could be improved. Methodology: A qualitative approach was applied to analyze the critical points of EPC contracts based upon reviews of related case studies from the public sector and supplementary interviews with professionals in the field. Main Finding: The architect's role in an EPC contract is not crucial and is equal to other stakeholders involved in the project. Also, EPC contractors have the power to dictate the workflow of the project and hence, architects might have to compromise in terms of the design, compensation, etc. Implications: It is very important for every project to have an outcome based on each stakeholders/consultants inputs specially on larger projects, this article is a step towards understanding the role of architects under an EPC contract as the future projects will come under its purview.  Novelty: The study is done under the lens of a newly graduated architect and not as any other professional, thereby trying to develop an understanding for fresh architects.

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