scholarly journals Song Transmission as a Formal Cultural Practice

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefanie Stadler Elmer

From a biological point of view, the singing of songs is based on the human vocal learning capacity. It is universally widespread in all cultures. The transmission of songs is an elementary cultural practice, by which members of the older generations introduce both musico-linguistic rules and affect-regulative means to the younger ones. Traditionally, informal singing in familiar settings primarily subserves affect-regulation goals, whereas formal song transmission is embedded in various normative claims and interests, such as preserving cultural heritage and representing collective and national identity. Songs are vocal acts and abstract models that are densely structured and conform to cultural rules. Songs mirror each generations’ wishes, desires, values, hopes, humor, and stories and rest on unfathomable traditions of our cultural and human history. Framed in the emerging scientific field of didactics, I argue that research on formal song transmission needs to make explicit the norms and rules that govern the relationships between song, teacher, and pupils. I investigate these three didactic components, first, by conceptualizing song as rule-governed in terms of a grammar, with songs for children representing the most elementary musico-linguistic genre. The Children’s Song Grammar presented here is based on syllables as elements and on syntactic rules concerning timing, tonality, and poetic language. It makes it possible to examine and evaluate songs in terms of correctness and well-formedness. Second, the pupils’ learning of a target song is exemplified by an acoustical micro-genetic study that shows how vocalization is gradually adapted to the song model. Third, I address the teachers’ role in song transmission with normative accounts and provide exemplary insights into how we study song teaching empirically. With each new song, a teacher teaches the musico-linguistic rules that constitute the respective genre and conveys related cultural feelings. Formal teaching includes self-evaluation and judgments with respect to educational duties and aesthetic norms. This study of the three-fold didactic process shows song transmission as experiencing shared rule-following that induces feelings of well-formedness. I argue that making the inherent normativity of this process more explicit – here systematically at a descriptive and conceptual level – enhances the scientificity of this research domain.

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 260-275
Author(s):  
Victor V.  Aksyuchits

In the article the author studies the formation process of Russian intelligentsia analyzing its «birth marks», such as nihilism, estrangement from native soil, West orientation, infatuation with radical political ideas, Russophobia. The author examines the causes of political radicalization of Russian intelligentsia that grew swiftly at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries and played an important role in the Russian revolution of 1917.


Author(s):  
Nikita Tananaev ◽  
Roman Teisserenc ◽  
Matvey Debolskiy

Permafrost hydrology is an emerging discipline, attracting increasing attention as the Arctic region is undergoing rapid change. However, the research domain of this discipline had never been explicitly formulated. Both 'permafrost' and 'hydrology' yield differing meanings across languages and scientific domains, hence 'permafrost hydrology' serves as an example of linguistic relativity. The differing views of permafrost as either an ecosystem class or a geographical region, and hydrology as a discipline concerned with either landscapes or generic water bodies, maintain a language-specific touch in the definition of permafrost hydrology. From this point of view, the English and Russian usage of this term is explained. A universal process-based definition is further proposed, developed on a specific process assemblage, including (i) water table dynamics caused by migration of an upper aquitard through freeze–thaw processes; (ii) water migration in soil matrix, driven by phase transitions in the active layer; (iii) transient water storage in solid state in the subsurface compartment. This definition is shown to fill the niche in existing vocabulary, and other definitions from northern hydrology field are revisited.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (9) ◽  
pp. 4678
Author(s):  
E. O. Taratukhin

When communicating with a patient, a doctor is within a certain cultural practice (science-based medicine and state health care system), falling outside the limits of which is not legal. However, a broader understanding of medicine as a cultural phenomenon with a focus on health also requires a more varied perspective on patient care. The patient’s problem can be more complex than looking at it from science- and evidence-based point of view. Therefore, in risk communication as an element of work with adherence or as part of signing informed consent, different ways are needed to consider a patient’s situation. An ethical and psychological perspective on clinical interactions allows for a more holistic view of the disease.


Author(s):  
John Joe Parappallil ◽  
Novica Zarvic ◽  
Oliver Thomas

In this paper, the authors present the results of a recently performed literature analysis on the topic of Business-IT Alignment. They have thereby investigated 270 articles from the period 1993-2011 in a structured way. The articles were selected on the basis of three well-known ranking lists of publications in the Information Systems research domain. In the authors’ analysis they distinguish a context and a content point of view. The former one focuses on metadata analysis of the articles under consideration whereas the latter one uses text mining techniques to dive into the articles´ body of content. Finally, they discuss their results and present conceivable future research directions that should be tackled by alignment researchers and conclude their paper.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 20190928 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ella Z. Lattenkamp ◽  
Sonja C. Vernes ◽  
Lutz Wiegrebe

Vocal production learning (VPL), or the ability to modify vocalizations through the imitation of sounds, is a rare trait in the animal kingdom. While humans are exceptional vocal learners, few other mammalian species share this trait. Owing to their singular ecology and lifestyle, bats are highly specialized for the precise emission and reception of acoustic signals. This specialization makes them ideal candidates for the study of vocal learning, and several bat species have previously shown evidence supportive of vocal learning. Here we use a sophisticated automated set-up and a contingency training paradigm to explore the vocal learning capacity of pale spear-nosed bats. We show that these bats are capable of directional change of the fundamental frequency of their calls according to an auditory target. With this study, we further highlight the importance of bats for the study of vocal learning and provide evidence for the VPL capacity of the pale spear-nosed bat.


Hydrology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Nikita Tananaev ◽  
Roman Teisserenc ◽  
Matvey Debolskiy

Permafrost hydrology is an emerging discipline, attracting increasing attention as the Arctic region is undergoing rapid change. However, the research domain of this discipline had never been explicitly formulated. Both ‘permafrost’ and ‘hydrology’ yield differing meanings across languages and scientific domains; hence, ‘permafrost hydrology’ serves as an example of cognitive linguistic relativity. From this point of view, the English and Russian usages of this term are explained. The differing views of permafrost as either an ecosystem class or a geographical region, and hydrology as a discipline concerned with either landscapes or generic water bodies, maintain a language-specific touch of the research in this field. Responding to a current lack of a unified approach, we propose a universal process-based definition of permafrost hydrology, based on a specific process assemblage, specific to permafrost regions and including: (1) Unconfined groundwater surface dynamics related to the active layer development; (2) water migration in the soil matrix, driven by phase transitions in the freezing active layer; and (3) transient water storage in both surface and subsurface compartments, redistributing runoff on various time scales. This definition fills the gap in existing scientific vocabulary. Other definitions from the field are revisited and discussed. The future of permafrost hydrology research is discussed, where the most important results would emerge at the interface between permafrost hydrology, periglacial geomorphology, and geocryology.


1969 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 177-189 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellwyn Stoddard

An ever-expanding number of voluntary organizations have been created in recent decades to aid catastrophe victims. This proliferation of new groups, added to already existing relief organizations, has made the coordination of disaster relief increasingly difficult. Moreover, competitive spirit is fostered by the need of each to maintain a popular image of success and compassion since public reactions to their operations determine to a great extent how much financial support they can expect. But definitions of success may differ. A relief official may measure success in terms of the efficient distribution of a determined amount of food, clothing, shelter and services to those most in need. Yet material relief of this sort need not be the criterion of a successful relief operation from the victim's point of view. Most disaster studies fail to distinguish clearly between self-evaluation from within an organization and attitudes of those persons for whom the services are intended. It is my purpose here to clarify this distinction and to examine in some detail the effectiveness of two contrasting relief agencies. It is further anticipated that findings and concIusions from this study can be used to develop more effective methods for distributing disaster relief or for administering other welfare and relief programs.


2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (12) ◽  
pp. 809 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camila Franco ◽  
Renato Franco ◽  
Milton Severo ◽  
Maria Amélia Ferreira

Introduction: This paper describes and analyses the results of a multicenter course on clinical communication skills with the use of thelearning in small groups, patient actors and feedback. The aim of the course was to encourage participants to develop a more effective clinical communication to recognize the different manifestations of the same disease in different patients (disease versus illness).Material and Methods: The course was applied to third and fourth year medical students in three Brazilian universities and one university in Portugal. The evaluation was performed using scales regarding the participants’ point of view, multiple choice questionnaire, a self-efficacy and attitudinal questionnaire.Results: The study was conducted in 69 participants at the four universities. The overall evaluation of the course (from 1 - 5) was 4.70(SD 0.494), the self-evaluation on participation was 4.07 (SD 0.671); and the evaluation about the use of simulated patients 4.51 (SD 0.501). The multiple choice questionnaire and self-efficacy scale showed significant improvement.Discussion: The course methods had an excellent evaluation by students regardless of the context in which the course has been applied. Furthermore, it allowed an improvement on the knowledge and attitude of students regarding clinical communication.Conclusion: It was possible to develop a multi-centric learning strategy for clinical communication with a high evaluation by students who came from a Portuguese university in a cooperation project with teachers from Brazilian universities.


Organizacija ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 287-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Donik ◽  
Majda Pajnkihar ◽  
Mojca Bernik

Abstract Starting points: In Slovenia, the higher education institution for nursing started exploring employability opportunities in nursing care in connection with the achievement of competencies from students’ and employers’ point of view. This article highlights the importance of monitoring nursing graduates’ employability. Its aim is to examine the employability of nursing care graduates based on the self-evaluation of competences obtained during the last study year and to establish a link between the self-evaluation of competences and students’ academic performance. Methodology: A questionnaire was distributed to full and part time nursing care students attending the last study year at five different healthcare/health sciences faculties in Slovenia and to employers (healthcare institutions) where the majority of nursing care graduates finds employment. We examined the level of competence achieved by nursing students and the level of competences required by employers. The sample included a total of 485 students. 194 surveys were returned, which represent a 40 percent response. We used Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for each individual joined competence. Further, we compared employability skills of students and employers with Mann-Whitney and Wilcox rank-sum test. For correlation between two variables we used Spearman correlation analysis. Results: The Mann-Whitney and Wilkson Rank test show that employers generally assess competences with a higher average grade in comparison to students and these differences are statistically significant. By applying the Spearman correlation analysis, we established that a statistically significant weak correlation may be observed between the “average grade” and “competences” variables. Discussion and conclusion: Our findings show that a continuous monitoring of general and subject-specific competences gained by students, along with a periodic verification of competences demanded by employers, is necessary. It is very important to monitor the requirements of the labour market in terms of ongoing communication with employers who can best estimate special knowledge needs.


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