The recovery of tradition

Author(s):  
Lenore T. Ealy

Scholars have increasingly conceptualized American civil society as a realm of mediating structures that humanize our lives by shielding us from the power of society’s megastructures (whether the State or multinational corporations).  This focus on structural position and the work of “mediation” has tended to crowd out an alternative exploration of the family, faith communities, clubs, and voluntary associations rooted in an exploration of their custodial and creative functions in relationship to the traditions through which American society persists.  This chapter draws upon Edward Shils’ seminal work, Tradition, to argue that the essential function of these social institutions is to renew the patterns of belief and conduct that guide human action and enable the re-enactment of such patterns across generations.  It highlights the importance of Shils’ understanding of the intrinsic value and authority of traditionality in light of the ultimate frailty and insufficiency of rationality by itself in enabling human beings to solve the important problems that confront them individually and as participants in a shared culture. 

1988 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-253
Author(s):  
Donna Gabaccia

As any casual reader of John Bodnar’s major new synthesis, The Transplanted (1985), knows, the family is the central analytical concept in this work. Bodnar (1985: xvii) asks us to see immigrants’ adjustment to life in the United States in a new way—taking place at all “the points where immigrant families met the challenges of capitalism and modernity: the homeland, the neighborhood, the school, the workplace, the church, the family and the fraternal hall.” This represents a significant change—I would argue, an advance—over earlier studies which focused on the confrontation of ethnic groups with American society, on the interaction of modern and traditional cultures, or on the peculiarities of American class struggle (Handlin, 1951; Archdeacon, 1983; Cumbler, 1986).By focusing on small family units and a large economic system, Bodnar is able to escape from the confines of the case history, which has dominated immigration history since the late 1960s. Furthermore, he is able to focus quite properly on the considerable fragmentation that characterized most immigrant communities in the United States. Because small groups of immigrants responded to capitalism, they inevitably made differing decisions, both socially and ideologically; they also supported leaders with fundamentally conflicting views of the best interests and futures for immigrant communities. Bodnar’s immigrants, in other words, are human beings who make history, although never under conditions which they themselves determined. Furthermore, they are not isolated economist decision makers.


1970 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muskinul Fuad

The education system in Indonesia emphasize on academic intelligence, whichincludes only two or three aspects, more than on the other aspects of intelligence. For thatreason, many children who are not good at academic intelligence, but have good potentials inother aspects of intelligence, do not develop optimally. They are often considered and labeledas "stupid children" by the existing system. This phenomenon is on the contrary to the theoryof multiple intelligences proposed by Howard Gardner, who argues that intelligence is theability to solve various problems in life and produce products or services that are useful invarious aspects of life.Human intelligence is a combination of various general and specific abilities. Thistheory is different from the concept of IQ (intelligence quotient) that involves only languageskills, mathematical, and spatial logics. According to Gardner, there are nine aspects ofintelligence and its potential indicators to be developed by each child born without a braindefect. What Gardner suggested can be considered as a starting point to a perspective thatevery child has a unique individual intelligence. Parents have to treat and educate theirchildren proportionally and equitably. This treatment will lead to a pattern of education that isfriendly to the brain and to the plurality of children’s potential.More than the above points, the notion that multiple intelligences do not just comefrom the brain needs to be followed. Humans actually have different immaterial (spiritual)aspects that do not refer to brain functions. The belief in spiritual aspects and its potentialsmeans that human beings have various capacities and they differ from physical capacities.This is what needs to be addressed from the perspective of education today. The philosophyand perspective on education of the educators, education stakeholders, and especially parents,are the first major issue to be addressed. With this step, every educational activity andcommunication within the family is expected to develop every aspect of children'sintelligence, especially the spiritual intelligence.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 75-92
Author(s):  
Christian Schröer

An act-theoretical view on the profile of responsibility discourse shows in what sense not only all kinds of technical, pragmatic and moral reason, but also all kinds of religious motivation cannot justify a human action sufficiently without acknowledgment to three basic principles of human autonomy as supreme limiting conditions that are human dignity, sense, and justifiability. According to Thomas Aquinas human beings ultimately owe their moral autonomy to a divine creator. So this autonomy can be considered as an expression of secondary-cause autonomy and as the voice of God in the enlightened conscience.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 184-196
Author(s):  
Deepshikha Rathore ◽  
Geetanjali ◽  
Ram Singh

Background: The history of traditional systems of medicine goes parallel with the history of human beings. Even today people have faith in traditional systems of medicine based on medicinal plants to meet primary health care needs. Hence, the scientific evaluation and documentation of extracts and active ingredients of medicinal plants always play a supportive role in their medicinal applications. Objective: This review aims to present the phytochemicals isolated from the genus Bombax and their pharmacological applications. Methods: The literature from research and review papers was analyzed and the information was compiled to present the pharmacological applications of various secondary metabolites from genus Bombax. Results: The genus Bombax belongs to the family Malvaceae and known for its therapeutic applications. The crude, semi-purified and purified extracts of different parts of this plant have shown potential therapeutic applications. A total of 96 articles including research and review papers were referred for the compilation of isolated phytochemicals and their chemical structures. Conclusion: We systematically summarized 176 isolated compounds from the genus Bombax. The findings show that this plant shows potential towards pharmacological activities. The activities were found more from extracts than the single isolated compounds.


Author(s):  
Gerald O’Collins, SJ

Help towards understanding the human and religious functions of tradition comes from such sociologists as Peter Berger, Anthony Giddens, and Edward Shils. Tradition by Shils continues to illuminate how, although human beings modify inherited beliefs and change traditional patterns of behaviour, the new always incorporates something of the past. Shils takes a global view of tradition; it embodies everything individuals inherit when born into the world. It is through tradition that new members of society begin to identify themselves. The bearers of tradition may be not only official but also ‘learned’ and ‘ordinary’. Shils dedicates many further pages to changes in traditions and the forces leading to these changes. What sociologists like Giddens say about globalization also affects theological reflection on tradition. Surprisingly, the very few theologians who have published on tradition have ignored the sociologists.


Author(s):  
Jon Stewart

This work represents a combination of different genres: cultural history, philosophical anthropology, and textbook. It follows a handful of different but interrelated themes through more than a dozen texts that were written over a period of several millennia. By means of an analysis of these texts, this work presents a theory about the development of Western Civilization from antiquity to the Middle Ages. The main line of argument traces the various self-conceptions of the different cultures as they developed historically. These self-conceptions reflect different views of what it is to be human. The thesis is that in these we can discern the gradual emergence of what we today call inwardness, subjectivity and individual freedom. As human civilization took its first tenuous steps, it had a very limited conception of the individual. Instead, the dominant principle was that of the wider group: the family, clan or people. Only in the course of history did the idea of what we know as individuality begin to emerge. It took millennia for this idea to be fully recognized and developed. The conception of human beings as having a sphere of inwardness and subjectivity subsequently had a sweeping impact on all aspects of culture, such as philosophy, religion, law, and art. Indeed, this conception largely constitutes what is today referred to as modernity. It is easy to lose sight of the fact that this modern conception of human subjectivity was not simply something given but rather the result of a long process of historical and cultural development.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 1567-1574
Author(s):  
Juan Du ◽  
Ruth Mace

Abstract We examined how individual investment was associated with the duration of marriage partnerships in a pastoralist society of Amdo Tibetans in China. We collected demographic and socioeconomic data from 420 women and 369 men over five villages to assess which factors predicted partnership length. We found that the payment of dowry and bridewealth from both sides of the family predicted marriage stability. The production of offspring, regardless of their survivorship, also had a positive effect on marriage duration, as did trial marriage, a time period before formal marriage. Finally, we found that if both bride and groom invest resources initially into a partnership—whether wealth or labor—their subsequent partnership is stronger than couples who do not make such investments. This paper adds to our understanding of complex social institutions like marriage from a behavioral ecological perspective.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3231
Author(s):  
Luigi Fusco Girard ◽  
Marilena Vecco

By referring to the European Green Deal, this paper analyzes the “intrinsic value” of cultural heritage by investigating the human-centered adaptive reuse of this heritage. This implies questions such as how to improve the effectiveness of reuse, restoration, and valorization interventions on cultural heritage/landscapes and how to transform a cultural asset into a place, interpreted as a living ecosystem, to be managed as a living organism. The autopoietic characteristic of the eco-bio-systems, specifically focusing on the intrinsic versus instrumental values of cultural heritage ecosystem is discussed in detail. Specifically, the notion of complex social value is introduced to express the above integration. In ecology, the notion of intrinsic value (or “primary value”) relates to the recognition of a value that “pre-exists” any exploitation by human beings. The effectiveness of transforming a heritage asset into a living ecosystem is seen to follow from an integration of these two values. In this context, the paper provides an overview of the different applications of the business model concept in the circular economy, for a better investment decision-making and management in heritage adaptive reuse. Matera case is presented as an example of a cultural heritage ecosystem. To conclude, recommendations toward an integrated approach in managing the adaptive reuse of heritage ecosystem as a living organism are proposed.


1981 ◽  
Vol 14 (02) ◽  
pp. 262-263
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Mann

By now most of you are aware of the severe cuts in federal funding for the social and behavioral sciences and for the humanities proposed by the Reagan Administration.At the National Science Foundation, while support for the natural sciences is slated to increase, the proposed budget for the social and economic sciences calls for a 65 percent reduction.At the National Institute of Mental Health (ADAMHA), the Administration proposes toeliminateall social research, which is expected to include research on the family, socialization of children, effects of separation and divorce, evaluation of prevention efforts with children, effects of mass media on behavior of children. In addition, the definition probably will include social policy research, research on race and ethnic relations, studies of community structure and change and studies of social institutions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-121
Author(s):  
Rivanti Muslimawaty

Many parents do not understand the concept of faith education inchildren. This could be based on an assumption that children are stilltoo young to be educated in matters of faith. Whereas the family, in thiscase the parents, is an educational institution that is directly related tothe child since he was born. So there is a thought that the family isbelieved to have a very strong influence on children’s religiouseducation. This happens because the relationship that exists betweenparents and children for 24 hours is very important in education.Zakiah Daradjat is an education expert who also believes that theimportance of faith education is given to children as early as possible,so the purpose of this study is to find out how Zakiah Daradjat’sthoughts about children’s religious education are in the family. Byusing qualitative research methods, the author seeks to explain theeducation of children’s faith in the family according to ZakiahDaradjat. The author found that Zakiah Daradjat had clear thoughtsabout children’s religious education in the family, which aims to makechildren as human beings, through the six pillars of faith, with methodsof exemplification, habituation, wrong correction, erroneous quarrelsthat occur and reminding the forgotten. The evaluations carried out inthe form of memorization tests, tests of understanding and practice ofworship. This makes Zakiah Daradjat’s thoughts still relevant to beapplied in today’s life and become a reference for psrents, teachers abdother related parties.


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