Partisan political connections, ethnic tribalism, and firm performance

This paper investigates the impact of partisan political connections and ethnic tribalism on firm performance in a hyper-partisan political environment. Although existing literature generally shows that political connections improve firm performance, we argue that under the theory of electoral competition, political connections can be a double-edged sword because of the tension of partisan politics. Hence, we expect that changes in government can affect firm performance. Using a unique dataset from Nigeria, we find that political connections are valuable when a firm's patron party is in power, whereas they are detrimental to firm value when their patron party is in opposition. Furthermore, we find that CEO ethnic tribal affiliation with the President improves firm performance even when the firm's patron party is in opposition. This paper extends the literature on political connections and helps managers and policymakers understand the timely use of political connections in a hyper-partisan environment.

Graffiti Inside Jordanian Public Transport Vehicles

Purpose. The study reported here aims to investigate the commonest communicative categories and subcategories of graffiti written inside Jordanian public transport vehicles. Method. The researchers collected 1,410 tokens of graffiti from six Jordanian cities, viz., Amman, Madaba, Irbid, Zarqa, Salt, and Jerash. The data which were collected from public transport vehicles included 1000 handwritten graffiti tokens and 410 custom-made stickers. Specifically, the data were collected from large and small buses as well as service and yellow taxis that lined up in main bus stations and bus stops available in front of hospitals, universities, malls and close to traffic circles. Then the categories and subcategories of graffiti were identified on the basis of their content. Results. The analysis reveals eight communicative categories, viz., personal, interpersonal, philosophical, religious, offensive, political, humorous, and sports. The analysis also reveals thirteen subcategories, viz., naming and self-identification, self-appraisal, love and familial relationships, philosophical perspectives, ethics of transport, decline of morals, expressions of Islamic faith, supplication, preaches, protection from the envious eye, territorial and tribal affiliation. Conclusions The study concludes that a host of societal concerns and individuals’ feelings and thoughts are transmitted through the discourse of graffiti. The passengers and drivers have expressed their self-concentration, philosophical views, affiliation with territories and tribes, hostility and anger to individuals and groups, and allegiance to religion beliefs and traditions. The study also concludes that there are socio-psychological motives that drive writing graffiti, viz., identify oneself, release emotions, criticize individuals and groups, reveal pride and admiration, advertise goods and promote business, search for contacts, post messages for the public, express attachment to educational institutions, document the occurrence of a particular occasion. The study recommends that graffiti written inside public transport vehicles in other Arab countries be examined. Thus, one could examine to what extent the communicative categories and subcategories of graffiti along with its socio-psychological tend to show a pan-Arab base.

Native owned and grown or demeaning and offensive? American Indian adults’ perspectives on Natural American Spirit branded cigarettes

IntroductionOwned by a major US tobacco company with no American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) tribal affiliation, Natural American Spirit (NAS) cigarette packs feature an American Indian warrior, thunderbird and peace pipe. The current study examined AI/AN adults’ perceptions of NAS cigarette packs in the US, which have not been reported on prior.MethodsAI/AN adults were recruited via Qualtrics national panels (n=500; 64% female, age M=39.9 years, 47% current smokers) in 2020. After viewing NAS pack images online (front, back and sides), participants were asked about NAS tribal affiliation, health perceptions and purchase intentions. Participants also wrote-in what the NAS pack logos meant to them.ResultsMost participants (65%) believed NAS is AI/AN-owned and/or grown on tribal lands. Among current smokers, beliefs of an AI/AN affiliation were associated with misperceptions of NAS being a healthier cigarette and with greater intention to purchase NAS cigarettes (p’s<0.01). Participants who did not believe NAS was grown or owned by AI/AN tribes were more likely to describe the NAS warrior logo as cultural misappropriation (17%) than participants who believed NAS was AI/AN tribally affiliated (4%, p<0.001).ConclusionsThe findings indicate a dichotomy in beliefs among surveyed AI/AN adults regarding NAS brand cigarettes. A majority held the misconception that NAS is tribally affiliated, while an informed and concerned minority characterised the branding as cultural misappropriation. The current packaging is reasonably expected to result in beliefs that NAS cigarettes are AI/AN tribally affiliated, and these beliefs may be associated with misperceptions of lesser harm.

The Politics of Tribalization in Syria

International media outlets have covered the news of Syrian tribes since the beginning of the protest movement that erupted in the country in 2011. This started with the “Friday of Tribes,” when Syrian tribes participating in protests against the Syrian regime in the Syrian city of Dar‘a began chanting “faz‘a” (chanting for support), which meant that they were seeking solidarity from other tribes for defense against the regime's aggression. As the Syrian uprising turned into a civil war that involved many players, some media outlets focused on the scenes of tribal leaders pledging allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), or of others being summoned to Geneva, Switzerland, to hold talks with Western powers about the possibility of mobilizing against ISIS militants. One could only wonder exactly why tribal loyalties continued to play such a significant role in the everyday events of the Syrian civil war when many civil society advocates had argued that tribal affiliation in Syria had diminished.

Diagnosing Norms Surrounding Sexual Harassment at a Jordanian University

Sexual harassment (SH) is a form of gender-based violence (GBV) that negatively impacts women’s physical, mental, social, and financial well-being. Although SH is a global phenomenon, it also is a contextualized one, with local and institutional norms influencing the ways in which harassment behavior manifests. As more women attend institutions of higher education in Jordan, these women are at increased risk of experiencing SH in university settings, with potential implications for their health and future employment. Social norms theory, which examines the informal rules governing individual behavior within groups, has been a useful framework for understanding and developing interventions against GBV globally. We sought to apply a social-norms lens to the understanding and prevention of SH at a Jordanian university. To gain a comprehensive and nuanced picture of social norms surrounding SH, we collected qualitative data using three complementary methods: focus group discussions (n = 6) with male and female students (n = 33); key informant interviews with staff and faculty (n = 5); and a public, participatory event to elicit anonymous short responses from students (n = 317). Using this data, we created a codebook incorporating social-norms components and emergent themes. As perceived by participants, SH was unacceptable yet common, characterized as a weak norm primarily because negative sanctioning of harassers was unlikely. Distal norms related to gender and tribal affiliation served to weaken further norms against SH by blaming the victim, preventing reporting, discouraging bystander intervention, and/or protecting the perpetrator. The complexity of the normative environment surrounding SH perpetration will necessitate the use of targeted, parallel approaches to change harmful norms. Strengthening weak norms against SH will require increasing the likelihood of sanctions, by revising university policies and procedures to increase accountability, increasing the acceptability of bystander intervention and reporting, and fostering tribal investment in sanctioning members who harass women. Creating dialogue that emphasizes the harmful nature of SH behaviors and safe spaces to practice positive masculinity also may be an effective strategy to change how male students interact in the presence of peers. Any social norms change intervention will need to consider the various reference groups that dictate and enforce norms surrounding SH.

The Inscriptions

This chapter focuses on the epigraphic evidence from Larinum and its territory as well as examples found in the wider Mediterranean. It begins with a prosopographical discussion of the eight principal families of the town, noting the survival and prominence of local families in the late Republic and early Empire, as well as newly prominent local families under the Roman Empire. The families discussed are the Cluentii, the Didii, the Paquii, the Papii, the Vibii/Vibbii, the Raii, the Coelii, and the Gabbii. These families, along with other residents bearing family names of Oscan origin, appear to have been the chief protagonists of Larinum’s transition into the Roman state. The continuity of the elite as an institution at the site, even if power changes hands between different families, allows for Larinum’s successful incorporation after the conquest. The importance of the epigraphic record for understanding of the social and administrative history is also discussed. The inscriptions provide evidence of linguistic developments in Oscan and early Latin. The patronage inscriptions show Larinum’s desire to forge links with key individuals within the Roman state. The epigraphy also provides information about territorial administration and tribal affiliation, demographics, and intermarriage. This information reinforces the conclusions drawn from looking at Cicero’s Pro Cluentio. The strong evidence of continuity seen in the inscriptions matches the stability seen in the settlement patterns in the territory and supports the conclusion that Larinum’s transition into the Roman state at the hands of the local elites was generally a smooth one.

Sudovians in Sambia in the 13th–14th centuries

The aim of the proposed work is to ascertain, based on archeological data and written sources, the presence of individuals of the easternmost tribe from the community of the Western Balts — Sudins/Yotvingians. Both scien-tific data from old German excavations and the latest archaeological research in the Zelenogradsk district of the Kaliningrad region are introduced into the scientific discourse. There are no funeral monuments of the Teutonic Order in the territory of the ‘Sudovian corner’ (Lat. Campus Sudowitarum) in the northwestern part of the Sambia peninsula. Ethnographic data on this part of the Amber Coast, provided by the local history manuscripts of the 16th–17th c., include data on the West Baltic population of Western Sambia without actual confirmation of its tribal affiliation. In fact, authors of Polish written sources of the Order time do not draw distinction between the Sudins and Prussians either. Individual burials of male warriors and women with features characteristic of the Sudovian funeral rituals were found at the Prussian burial grounds of the Northern Sambia. Anthropological data confirm this conclusion. In the eastern part of the Prussian tribal area, occupied by the Prussians in the pre-Order times, according to the dating of the burial grounds, two burials with spearheads were encountered amongst the com-plexes of the 14th c., which can be tentatively associated with bearers of the Sudovian traditions. The low repre-sentation of the Sudovian burials at Prussian burial grounds attests to the fact that the Order authorities could have appointed individual representatives of the Sudovian aristocracy, who sided with the conquerors, in order to strengthen the Order in the local polcas (volosts). Using the linguistic and cultural closeness with the Sembians, these Sudins possessed military power (presence of spearheads in the burials, with the common absence of weapons in the Prussian community graves) and could have been collecting taxes on behalf of the Order (the presence of a Western European moneybag in burial Ve-161). The seemingly unnatural presence of the Baltic warriors in the service of the Teutonic Order is symbolized by the decoration of the buckle from burial Ve-161, which bears the coat of arms of the Order and a stylized image of the mythical companion of God Perkuno — the sacred goat, an object of the Prussian sacrifices, presented here as a symbol of the native spiritual traditions.

Conclusion

I revisit my argument that legalizing same-sex marriage both provided new rights and benefits to same-sex couples and further entrenched structures of inequality grounded in patriarchy, white supremacy, and economic stratification. I explore my research questions about how same-sex marriage was legalized and what that change may mean. The short answer is: It depends on whom you ask. Intersections of race, gender, tribal affiliation, socioeconomic status, and region show how same-sex marriage affects families in different social locations. I explore the meanings of the 2015 US Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage federally through three allegories. The family-making narratives of queer mothers articulate a critique of the contemporary US system of regulating and disseminating the rights of citizenship through legal marriage. I draw on these intersectional stories to envision coalitions and intersections between and among people and families whose lives are not recognized, valued, and protected in the United States.