scholarly journals In Search of a Touchable Body: Christian Mission and Dalit Conversions

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 644
Author(s):  
Chakali Chandra Sekhar
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Religious Conversion ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Cultural Impact ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Christian Mission ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mass Conversion ◽  
Caste Structure

This paper significantly wishes to unpack the social and cultural impact of the mass religious conversion movements in Rayalaseema society with specific reference to Dalits during the period 1850 to 1880. This paper will use the archival material such as missionary records, magazines, pamphlets, and books written by missionaries; further, it will also utilize oral interviews collected from the field. The mass conversion movements established a relationship between Dalits and missionaries and brought them together. In their efforts to create a new Christian community of Dalit converts, missionaries had interacted with Dalits, shared meal with them, stayed with them and transformed forbidden and “polluted” ghettos into social spaces. The present paper argues that the practices of the missionaries were liberating and humanizing for Dalits. It will examine how these practices led to unintended consequences. It needs to be remembered that the missionaries’ aim was not to abolish caste but to develop Christianity. How did the missionaries contribute to social interaction and build a spirit of solidarity among the Dalit converts? Based on specific situations, incidents, and examples recorded in the missionary archives and oral interviews, the article observes that community conversion movements destabilized the caste structure and brought significant changes in the social life of Dalits in colonial Rayalaseema.

scholarly journals Critism of the methods of Christian missions in China from a sociological point of view

1916 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Dora Otis Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Chinese People ◽  
Christian Missions ◽  
Christian Mission ◽  
Mission Work ◽  
Personal Opinion ◽  
The Social

Text from page 1: "Christian Missions have been a powerful agency toward the social transformation of mission lands. While it has been as a rule the avowed purpose of missionaries to work for individuals, they have from time to time been drawn into the struggle against social evils. lt is the purpose of this thesis to criticise the methods by which missionaries have attacked the colossal social evils of China. The motive for Christian mission work is religious. While it is my personal opinion and the opinion of all who engage in mission work that their success is due to this fact, it is not the province of this thesis to deal with that important phase of mission work. It is the province of this thesis to deal with the purely social results of missions and to criticise the methods of missionaries from the point of view of their influence on the social life of the Chinese people."

scholarly journals The Relation of Muslim and Christian Community: Hermeneutic Contribution to Create the Third Space in the Communities

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 233-252
Author(s):  
Eric D. Coblentz
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Third Space ◽  
Religious Conflict ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Social Conflicts ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
The Third ◽  
Middle Way ◽  
The Social ◽  
Hermeneutic Approach

One of the social conflicts caused by the false understanding of religion often occurs, making horizontal and vertical conflicts in social life. Nevertheless, there is a way to resolve the inter-religious conflict called a ‘third space community.’ This article seeks to answer how we should interpret Jesus in two different religious communities (Islam and Christian)? With Martin Buber’s hermeneutic approach to ‘I-Thou,’ this paper describes an understanding of the “term of religions” to interpret each other in the two religious communities. Multicultural communication as a form of interpretation of the “third space” is a middle way to resolve conflicts. Thus, this paper is expected that the understanding of Jesus is not a source of division but rather a limitation of religion, culture, and horizons for its adherents. Referring to Gadamer’s concept, a one-sided understanding will prevent each society (Islam and Christian) from interpreting Jesus. Afterward, this article suggests that the understanding of Jesus let the community fully interpret it.

‘Strike a pose’: Fabricating posthumous presence in mannequin design

2020 ◽  
pp. 135918352090794
Author(s):  
Cath Davies
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Original Function ◽  
Bodily Integrity ◽  
Frida Kahlo ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Corporeal Substance

Interviewed in 2004, designer duo Viktor and Rolf outlined their ambivalence towards fashion exhibitions suggesting that ‘somehow life is taken out of the subject’ (2008, cited in Teunissen, ‘Understanding Fashion through the Museum in Melchior, MR, 2014). Garments seeking spectator attention within the museum space are often perceived as static entities devoid of their original function as embodied artefacts. There is no denying an inert aura pervades listless materials that have supposedly lost their agency, now confined to the vaults of the museum-as-mausoleum. In their re-purposed role of performing as reminders of a life now departed, this article considers curatorial strategies that seek to revive a living presence in garment display with specific reference to the remodelling of Frida Kahlo in the V&A exhibition ‘Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up (2018)’. Addressing Dudley’s suggestion in Museum Objects: Experiencing the Properties of Things (2012: 19) that an artefact’s ‘fundamental material characteristics’ should be at the heart of contextual interpretation, the role that an object’s material properties can play in the re-materializing of embodiment is evaluated. In the V&A exhibition, a narrative emerges on clothing as an agent that conceals vulnerable corporeality. Sartorial practices armoured Kahlo’s body and the role material entities can play in containing and preserving the illusion of corporeal substance will be investigated. Given this premise, it seems wholly appropriate to focus on the contribution that the mannequin can make to this conceptual framework. After all, it is an artefact with a central occupation of establishing bodily integrity in the display of clothing. Reiterating Clark’s suggestion in The Textile Reader (2012) that the mannequin contributes to the vocabulary of a curatorial brief, this article proposes that this artefact can interrogate the tensions that exist between Kahlo’s sartorial practices and her abject body. Substantiating Appadurai’s premise of material objects’ agency in The Social Life of Things (2001[1986]), the exhibition arguably employs the once humble tailor’s dummy in a significant role, thereby reconstructing its dominant function of embodying fabric in the museum.

Between Acculturation and Conversion

2013 ◽  
pp. 257-293
Author(s):  
Natalie Naimark-Goldberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Religious Conversion ◽  
World View ◽  
Jewish People ◽  
German Society ◽  
Jewish Women ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
The Social ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter describes the relationship of the enlightened Jewish women to Judaism and to religion in general, including their attitude to conversion to Christianity. One of the most significant features of the act of conversion in the case of these Jewish women is the fact that, for them, it came in most cases at a relatively advanced age, despite the fact that their close involvement with German society and culture had started years before, in their teens or early twenties. All these women, then, spent many years distancing themselves in practice from the traditional Jewish way of life, blurring the borders that separated the Jewish and Christian worlds. During those years, they usually lived as non-observant Jews, who gradually abandoned Jewish practices but nevertheless remained affiliated to the Jewish people. As such, despite the indisputable importance of religious conversion, in most cases, the act itself did not mark a decisive point of departure in either the social life or the world-view of these women. The act of conversion constituted not a sudden leap from one world to another so much as one more step in a continuing process of acculturation in German society and alienation from the Jewish world.

Facilitating resident community in nursing homes: a slippery slope? An analysis on collectivistic and individualistic approaches

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 469-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gudmund Ågotnes ◽  
Christine Øye
Keyword(s):  
Nursing Home ◽  
Nursing Homes ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Nursing Home Residents ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Everyday Life Activities

Residents in nursing homes are old and frail and are dependent on constant care, medical, or otherwise, by trained professionals. But they are also social beings, secluded in an institutional setting which is both total and foreign. In this setting, most of the residents most of the time must relate to other residents: other residents are the nursing home residents’ peers, companions, and perhaps even significant others. In this article, we will discuss how resident communities in nursing homes are influenced by the approaches of nursing home staff. Two nursing homes have been included in this article—one from Canada and one from Norway. Participant observation was conducted at these two nursing homes, predominantly focusing on everyday-life activities. The cases from Norway and Canada are illustrative of two very different general approaches to residents: one collectivistic and one individualistic. These general approaches produce different contexts for the formation and content of resident communities, greatly affecting nursing home residents. The significance of these approaches to resident community is profound and also somewhat unanticipated; the approaches of staff provide residents with different opportunities and limitations and also yield unintended consequences for the social life of residents. The two different general approaches are, we suggest, “cultural expressions,” conditioned by more than official preferences and recommendations. The difference between the institutions is, in other words, anchored in ideas and ideologies that are not explicitly addressed.

Current Postvention Research and Priorities for the Future

Crisis ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 202-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl Andriessen ◽  
Dolores Angela Castelli Dransart ◽  
Julie Cerel ◽  
Myfanwy Maple
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Research Priorities ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Intercultural Collaboration ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Suicide Bereavement ◽  
Ethical Approval

Abstract. Background: Suicide can have a lasting impact on the social life as well as the physical and mental health of the bereaved. Targeted research is needed to better understand the nature of suicide bereavement and the effectiveness of support. Aims: To take stock of ongoing studies, and to inquire about future research priorities regarding suicide bereavement and postvention. Method: In March 2015, an online survey was widely disseminated in the suicidology community. Results: The questionnaire was accessed 77 times, and 22 records were included in the analysis. The respondents provided valuable information regarding current research projects and recommendations for the future. Limitations: Bearing in mind the modest number of replies, all from respondents in Westernized countries, it is not known how representative the findings are. Conclusion: The survey generated three strategies for future postvention research: increase intercultural collaboration, increase theory-driven research, and build bonds between research and practice. Future surveys should include experiences with obtaining research grants and ethical approval for postvention studies.

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