SHOORPANAKHA ON STAGE: LOOSENING THE NOOSE

This qualitative research paper investigates how Bharatanatyam dancers recongure specic cultural histories in their novel choreographies and practices. It considers two stage productions, Shoorpanakha – Navarasa Gadhya by Karthik Hebbar and Shruti Gopal and Shoorpanakha – The Story Only She Nose! by Dakshina Vaidyanathan Baghel. The paper intends to study how these dance labels contest the social and cultural norm from within the traditional art form and from the outside lived- in cosmopolitan life. The discussion will intertwine with the exploration of gender and identity through female characters from Indian mythology. While this paper argues that these artistes continually expand the creative boundary, it also recognises that contemporary Bharatanatyam is in ux that culturally is of value.

Atypical development spectra considering the hunter-breeder culture transition

The different types of atypical development manifest themselves in deviations in the development and operation of neurological functions involved in the process called neurological maturation. We assume that what is called neurological maturation is in effect dependent on the cultural development of homo sapiens. Our culture changes and evolves over time. In the past, the skills and abilities of our hunter-gatherer ancestors with being a mainly oral culture is significantly different from the agricultural, stockbreeder, farmer lifestyle coupled with a mainly written culture. Each of these very distinct cultural styles require different behaviour and cognitive functions. In this article, we discuss how the increased prevalence of learning and control difficulties, along autism, may be a result of the vulnerability of the cerebral functions which from the perspective of human development count as very new. However, this may be only one aspect of a very complex story, as what may present as difficulties in one cultural norm may be strengths in another cultural norm. Many types of the specific learning difficulties, ADHD, autism spectrum disorders are getting more frequent specialties, and their becoming more frequent is the consequence of the effect of the dramatically changing environment on the brain development. While autism and dyslexia spectra seem to be the ends of a continuum, they may be rather a result of a diffused neurological development, where in contrast to the typical development, the culturally new areas are mixed over- or under-functioning.

Organic entities, costume, human body and neo-liberalism

This visual essay presents four of the author’s artistic projects, which respond to prevailing eastern European neo-liberal conceptions of the human body and the subjects it produces. The first project is concerned with the use of human skin as an organic material donated by its ‘owner’ for the manufacture of a corset and belt, which become parts of a new costume. The second project explores the characteristic of the ‘ideal’ neo-liberal human subject by means of the costume produced by manipulating the author’s own blood. The third project highlights the cultural norm according to which one is expected to present oneself to the known and especially unknown others in line with the dominant standards of feminine beauty – erotically attractive, healthy, youthful and slim. The fourth project focuses on the almost obsessive endeavour to preserve or rather achieve ‘the perfect skin’, as evident in countless beauty advertisements and artificially ‘optimized’ selfies.

Loss of vocal culture and fitness costs in a critically endangered songbird

Cultures in humans and other species are maintained through interactions among conspecifics. Declines in population density could be exacerbated by culture loss, thereby linking culture to conservation. We combined historical recordings, citizen science and breeding data to assess the impact of severe population decline on song culture, song complexity and individual fitness in critically endangered regent honeyeaters ( Anthochaera phrygia ). Song production in the remaining wild males varied dramatically, with 27% singing songs that differed from the regional cultural norm. Twelve per cent of males, occurring in areas of particularly low population density, completely failed to sing any species-specific songs and instead sang other species' songs. Atypical song production was associated with reduced individual fitness, as males singing atypical songs were less likely to pair or nest than males that sang the regional cultural norm. Songs of captive-bred birds differed from those of all wild birds. The complexity of regent honeyeater songs has also declined over recent decades. We therefore provide rare evidence that a severe decline in population density is associated with the loss of vocal culture in a wild animal, with concomitant fitness costs for remaining individuals. The loss of culture may be a precursor to extinction in declining populations that learn selected behaviours from conspecifics, and therefore provides a useful conservation indicator.

“We Participate, Silently”: Explicating Thai University Students’ Perceptions of Their Classroom Participation and Communication

This study explores Thai university students’ perceptions of their reluctance in verbal classroom participation especially in situations where English is used as the medium for instruction. It is generally perceived that non-native learners particularly from high context cultures such as Thailand have the tendency to remain silent during discussion sessions or when they are asked to participate in activities related to expressing their opinions. By investigating this phenomenon through focus group meetings with Thai university students, this study reveals reasons that cause students to be hesitant speakers in class through the eyes of students themselves. The results confirm that though students agree to the common perception of Asian students being quiet learners, they did not agree that they were passive learners; they emphasized the fact that they used ‘silence’ as a tool to quietly yet attentively participate. The study also highlights that students’ silence can be seen as a way to harmonize with the environment and situation which is the cultural norm in the Thai context.

The Loving Community

Caritas was an idea with resonance across early modern Europe, but given shape and form within particular national or religious contexts. This chapter introduces how the Scottish Kirk envisioned caritas as an embodied ethic—an experience of love that was manifested in deportment, thought, feeling, and behaviour—as well as its widespread take-up as a cultural norm. It particularly highlights that the family—the holy household—was imagined as the basis of a social order founded on caritas and introduces how the idea of caritas shaped the practice of the family-household relationships in eighteenth-century Scotland. It explores how the family was located not just as a site of patriarchal discipline, but also of peace and comfort, where fighting and quarrelling (excesses of passion) should be minimized. The family-household was not formed in private, however: its loving behaviours were interpreted and given meaning by a watching community.