Reassembling the Lucky Gods

Journeys ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-97
Author(s):  
Tatsuma Padoan
Keyword(s):  
Urban Communities ◽  
New Age ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Sacred Places ◽  
The Media ◽  
Economic Discourses

This article intends to analyze the emergence of new subjectivities and economic discourses, and the semiotic construction of sacred places in global Tokyo as inventively constituted within the popular urban pilgrimage routes of the Seven Lucky Gods (shichifukujin). While a specific neoliberal discourse in Japan linked to tourism and the media has promoted the reinvention of traditional pilgrimage sites as New Age “power spots” informed by novel forms of temporality and subjectivity, urban communities living in those places, with their specific concerns and problems related to the local neighborhoods, often generate pilgrimage spaces that are radically different from those of the “neoliberal pilgrims.” I will thus argue that the pilgrimage of the Seven Lucky Gods emerges as a double discourse through which religious institutions and urban collectives semiotically assemble themselves not only by rebranding older sites as neoliberal power spots through media and tourism practices, but also by creatively producing hybrid subjectivities, sacred places, and alternative ontologies that are set apart from neoliberal economies.

Murder with Impunity: The Construction of Arab Masculinities and Honor Crimes

1970 ◽  
pp. 38-45
Author(s):  
May Abu Jaber
Keyword(s):  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Social Boundaries ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Media ◽  
The One ◽  
Male Authority ◽  
Cultural Networks ◽  
Gender Specific

Violence against women (VAW) continues to exist as a pervasive, structural,systematic, and institutionalized violation of women’s basic human rights (UNDivision of Advancement for Women, 2006). It cuts across the boundaries of age, race, class, education, and religion which affect women of all ages and all backgrounds in every corner of the world. Such violence is used to control and subjugate women by instilling a sense of insecurity that keeps them “bound to the home, economically exploited and socially suppressed” (Mathu, 2008, p. 65). It is estimated that one out of every five women worldwide will be abused during her lifetime with rates reaching up to 70 percent in some countries (WHO, 2005). Whether this abuse is perpetrated by the state and its agents, by family members, or even by strangers, VAW is closely related to the regulation of sexuality in a gender specific (patriarchal) manner. This regulation is, on the one hand, maintained through the implementation of strict cultural, communal, and religious norms, and on the other hand, through particular legal measures that sustain these norms. Therefore, religious institutions, the media, the family/tribe, cultural networks, and the legal system continually disciplinewomen’s sexuality and punish those women (and in some instances men) who have transgressed or allegedly contravened the social boundaries of ‘appropriateness’ as delineated by each society. Such women/men may include lesbians/gays, women who appear ‘too masculine’ or men who appear ‘too feminine,’ women who try to exercise their rights freely or men who do not assert their rights as ‘real men’ should, women/men who have been sexually assaulted or raped, and women/men who challenge male/older male authority.

Madrasas and the Making of Islamic Womanhood

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hem Borker
Keyword(s):  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Marriage Education ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Women's Lives ◽  
The Media ◽  
Education And Employment ◽  
A Site ◽  
Anthropological Literature ◽  
Educational Journeys ◽  
The Ideal

This ethnography provides a theoretically informed account of the educational journeys of students in girls’ madrasas in India. It focuses on the unfolding of young women’s lives as they journey from home to madrasa and beyond. Using a series of ethnographic portraits and bringing together the analytical concepts of community, piety, and aspiration, it highlights the fluidity of the essences of the ideal pious Muslim woman. It illustrates how the madrasa becomes a site where the ideals of Islamic womanhood are negotiated in everyday life. At one level, girls value and adopt practices taught in the madrasa as essential to the practice of piety (amal). At another level, there is a more tactical aspect to cultivating one’s identity as a madrasa-educated Muslim girl. The girls invoke the virtues of safety, modesty, and piety learnt in the madrasa to reconfigure conventional social expectations around marriage, education, and employment. This becomes more apparent in the choices exercised by the girls after leaving the madrasa, highlighted in this book through narratives of madrasa alumni pursuing higher education at a central university in Delhi. The focus on journeys of girls over a period of time, in different contexts, complicates the idealized and coherent notions of piety presented by anthropological literature on women’s participation in Islamic piety projects. Further, the educational stories of girls challenge the media and public representations of madrasas in India, which tend to caricature them as outmoded religious institutions with little relevance to the educational needs of modernizing India. Mapping madrasa students’ personal journeys of becoming educated while leading pious lives allows us to see how these young women are reconfiguring notions of Islamic womanhood.

Social and Political Interaction of Local Communities in the Region in the Context of Reactive Relations: Cases of Urban Space Improvement

2021 ◽  
pp. 81-90
Author(s):  
Elena A. Kranzeeva ◽  
◽  
Evgeny V. Golovatsky ◽  
Anna V. Orlova ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Communities ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Event Analysis ◽  
Political Communications ◽  
Political Interaction ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Event

The relevance of the study is associated with the speed of modern sociopolitical processes in the territories, the emergence of new participants and tools for achieving their own and collective interests. The aim of the article is to describe the real urban processes of sociopolitical interaction in the conditions of reactive relations, taking into account the interests and positions of the participants, the content and dynamics of interaction. The methodological basis of the study is the concept of social action and power relations by M. Weber, the concept of resources by A. Giddens, research works by L.L. Shpak, who considers interaction in the aggregate of regional everyday sociopolitical practices. The article proposes a framework for the study of rapid reactive actions and relationships that can significantly accelerate the flow of social and political interactions. The analysis of reactive relations, the dynamics of the nature of social and political interaction on the scale of the urban space, as well as confirmation of signs of reactivity of relations, is based on the analysis of two cases of Kemerovo related to the improvement of the urban space, demonstrating at the same time the practice of social and political communications. For the Statue of Saint Barbara case, the method of content analysis is used to study the Internet audience; the method allows analyzing the density and coherence of information communications taking into account the inclusion and/or belonging of users in relation to the analyzed data. The use of the method of analyzing event data in the media (event analysis) for the Lazurny case illustrates the dynamics of social and political interaction. As a result, it has been revealed that, in the context of new reactive relations, the communicative potential of ordinary users (citizens) grows in the social and political interaction of a city or a certain territory. The practices of social interaction considered in the article are replenished from the implementation of innovative projects within the framework of urban communities. An important role is played by the constantly changing conditions for the transmission and accumulation of information significant in the urban space, as well as by the activity resource – active drivers of modern communication. The prospect of further research is the search for new tools and indicators of a new quality of social and political interaction in the context of reactive relations

Constructing Identity with Dreamstones: Megalithic Sites and Contemporary Nature Spirituality

2007 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip Charles Lucas
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
World System ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Natural Order ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Communal Identity ◽  
Sacred Places ◽  
Construction Of Identity ◽  
Interpretive Process

For growing numbers of people, the postmodern construction of identity includes the search for a spirituality that reconnects them with the natural world and fosters activity that protects the ecosystem and its many forms of life. Practitioners of this "nature spirituality" construct their identities using a large toolkit of symbols, myths, histories, rituals, sacred places, and beliefs. The megalithic sites of Western Europe constitute one element of this toolkit. This paper considers the ways these sites are interpreted and experienced in the nature-spirituality subculture and how these interpretations and experiences help individuals construct empowering identities that tie together their spiritual and ecological commitments. This interpretive process is occurring outside the control of governing elites, ecclesiastical authorities, or dominant religious institutions. It is at root an exercise in both individual and communal identity construction, a movement of resistance to a world system that has lost its secure moorings in the natural order.

A HIPPY-HIPPY CLEAN BREAK?

2015 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-221
Author(s):  
Brian Sloan
Keyword(s):  
Supreme Court ◽  
New Age ◽  
Legal Principle ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Media ◽  
Clean Break ◽  
A Share

THE media were unsurprisingly interested when the Supreme Court considered the case of a poverty-stricken New Age traveller turned multi-millionaire whose former wife appeared years after divorce to claim a share of his subsequently acquired wealth (Vince v Wyatt [2015] UKSC 14). The case also raised an important point of legal principle.

scholarly journals Film and Culture Consumption of Mass Media: A Case Study of Urban Communities in Indonesia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
. Karkono
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Urban Communities ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Urban Society ◽  
Media Consumption ◽  
For Profit ◽  
The Media ◽  
Culture Consumption

Urban society is a society that always tries to improve its quality of life and is open to receiving influences from outside, especially those from the media. The media and the use of information technology in all fields significantly increases the quality of people’s lives. Film as a part of media can reach various groups, in terms of age, education, socio-economic status, cultural background, and religion. Film becomes a strategic media for transforming ideas. It is one of the commodification products that is popular among the people. It is important to monitor the culture of media consumption in urban society from the films. This study aimed at finding out how far films can affect human life. The films that were sampled were two Indonesian films. The problem was solved using questionnaires. The sample community was the community living in the city of Jakarta. The results of the study showed that the majority of respondents (80%) stated that they were watching films not just for entertainment but also to gain insight. Films are produced not only for profit orientation but can also be used for educational purposes. Keywords: culture of mass media consumption, urban society, films

South Africa’s media terrain faces diverging fortunes

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
New Age ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Investigative Journalism ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Tv News ◽  
The Media ◽  
Run Up ◽  
Institutional Decline

Significance Manyi, a Zuma ally, bought the Gupta-owned The New Age newspaper and TV news channel ANN7 in August in a wholly vendor-financed deal. In recent years, The New Age and ANN7 have emerged as unambiguous supporters of Zuma’s government and it is widely believed that the sale overestimates the value of the assets. It comes as the media landscape undergoes conflicting trajectories: declining newspaper readership; acclaimed collaborative investigative journalism uncovering state corruption; and the gradual financial and institutional decline of the state-owned South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). Impacts The proliferation of ‘fake news’ on twitter and social media sites will increase in the run up to the ANC’s December national conference. An SABC request for a further sizeable state guarantee will stretch the National Treasury’s capacity. The Guptas' broader political influence could be partly lessened due to the loss of formal banking facilities.

Influence of Age-Rating Label Salience on Perception and Evaluation of Media

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven Jöckel ◽  
Christopher Blake ◽  
Daniela Schlütz
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
New Age ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Unintended Effects ◽  
Tracking Data ◽  
Audiovisual Media ◽  
Recent Reform ◽  
The Media ◽  
Tracking Technology

A recent reform of the German protection-of-minors laws demanded the increase of salience factors for the packages of audiovisual media products. This study evaluated the effects of an increase in salience factors of age-rating labels for video games and movies. We used eye-tracking technology in a 2 (Parents, Sons) x 2 (Old, New label) experimental design with 52 parent–son dyads. We measured attention to the age-rating labels and attitude toward the media content. Increased attention to the age-rating labels could be demonstrated. Eye-tracking data showed more frequent and prolonged perception of the more salient age-rating labels. The new age-rating labels were more likely to be fixated and were gazed at longer than their old counterparts. At the same time, this did not automatically lead to a reduction in age-inappropriate media attractiveness. Unintended effects that approached marginal significance were found for adolescent boys: The enhanced attention to new age-rating labels was accompanied by an increased attractiveness of age-inappropriate media. Independent of the type of label shown to parents, they neither allowed their sons to use inappropriate media, nor were they willing to buy such video games or movies for them. Increasing salience factors for age-rating labels is a double-edged sword, resulting in increased awareness of age-rating, but not a reduction in attractiveness of age-inappropriate content.

Legal basis of regulation of inter-confessional conflicts over religious buildings

1996 ◽  
pp. 29-36
Author(s):  
M. Palinchak
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Legal Basis ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Religious Buildings ◽  
Paradoxical Situation ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Mind

The experience of Transcarpathia shows that the heads of district and village councils are not well aware of the legal framework for the regulation of inter-confessional conflicts. Legislation in the media is interpreted differently. A paradoxical situation has arisen: by proclaiming a course on the construction of a lawful state, we are still continuing to build relationships between believers of different denominations and trends, believers and non-believers, state authorities and religious institutions, not on the principle of the rule of law - the cornerstone of the rule of law, but appealing to the mind of the crowd believers

scholarly journals Contestation of ‘the holy places in the Zimbabwean Religious Landscape’: A study of the Johane Masowe Chishanu yeNyenyedzi Church’s sacred places

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip Musoni
Keyword(s):  
Research Study ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Religious Institutions ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Sacred Places ◽  
Contemporary Issue ◽  
Holy Places ◽  
Midlands Province ◽  
Religious Landscape

Places that are regarded as holy are highly esteemed in most religious institutions. Such places are revered because they denote the converging points of human beings and the divine. The fundamental questions addressed in this study are: what makes a place holy? Do Christians share sacred places with other religious groups? The study theorises that the Johane Masowe Chishanu yeNyenyedzi Church has forcefully appropriated most of the African indigenous scared places such as hills, shades and dams for all-night prayers and water baptisms. The researcher has selected two indigenous religious shrines; Chivavarira hill and Gonawapotera pool of Chirumhanzu located in the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe. The two shrines are regarded by the indigenes as renowned and sacred. This study analyses and thereto seeks to decode deeper on what makes the Johane Masowe Chishanu yeNyenyedzi Church to enthusiastically appropriate most of the African indigenous shrines and, to some extent, turn them to be their shrines. It is this insight which makes the two shrines to be contested places, especially as perceived from both the indigenes and Christian perspectives. Therefore, this study is a contemporary issue that constitutes the focus of the present concerns. Accordingly, in order to archive the intended goal, this research study relies heavily on participant observation and interviews for data collection, since there is hardly documentation readily available about the Masowe yeNyenyedzi Church in Zimbabwe.

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