Cross-cultural language learning and web design complexity

Accepting the fact that culture and language are interrelated in second language learning (SLL), the web sites should be designed to integrate with the cultural aspects. Yet many SLL web sites fail to integrate with the cultural aspects and/or focus on language acquisition only. This study identified three issues: (1) anthropologists��� cultural models mostly adopted in cross-cultural web user interface have been superficially used; (2) web designers deal with culture as a fixed one which needs to be modeled into interface design elements, so (3) there is a need for a communication framework between educators and design practitioners, which can be utilized in web design processes. This paper discusses what anthropology can contribute to language learning, mediated through web design processes and suggests a cultural user experience framework for web-based SLL by presenting an exemplary matrix. To evaluate the effectiveness of the framework, the key stakeholders (learners, teachers, and designers) participated in a case scenario-based evaluation. The result shows a high possibility that the framework can enhance the effective communication and collaboration for the cultural integration.

Design and Anthropology

Design and Anthropology challenges conventional thinking regarding the nature of design and creativity, in a way that acknowledges the improvisatory skills and perceptual acuity of people. Combining theoretical investigations and documentation of practice based experiments, it addresses methodological questions concerning the re-conceptualisation of the relation between design and use from both theoretical and practice-based positions. Concerned with what it means to draw 'users' into processes of designing and producing this book emphasises the creativity of design and the emergence of objects in social situations and collaborative endeavours. Organised around the themes of perception and the user-producer, skilled practices of designing and using, and the relation between people and things, the book contains the latest work of researchers from academia and industry, to enhance our understanding of ethnographic practice and develop a research agenda for the emergent field of design anthropology. Drawing together work from anthropologists, philosophers, designers, engineers, scholars of innovation and theatre practitioners, Design and Anthropology will appeal to anthropologists and to those working in the fields of design and innovation, and the philosophy of technology and engineering.

The social mechanism of political deliberation and citizen participation in Guangdong China

Many studies have focused on why deliberative institutions should be established in order to develop Chinese people’s citizenry skills; however few focus on the social conditions and public sentiments that shape the development of deliberative mechanisms. Skills and awareness of citizenry is not only brought into being by deliberative institutions that are set up by the government, but evolve through interplays between technologies and social changes. As a test-bed for economic reform Guangdong is increasingly identified by translocality and hybrid culture. This is framed by identity conflict and unrests, much of which is due to soaring wealth polarisation, high volumes of population movement, cultural collisions and ongoing linguistic contestations. These unrests show the region’s transformation goes beyond the economic front. Profound changes are occurring at what anthropologists and philosophers call the changing social conciseness or moral landscape (Ci, 1994; Yan, 2010). The changing social moralities are a reflection of the awareness of individuals’ rights and responsibilities, and their interdependencies from dominant ideologies. This paper discusses Guangdong’s social and cultural characteristics, and questions how existing social conditions allow the staging of political deliberation by facilitating political engagement and the formation of public opinion. The paper will investigate the tragedy of Xiao Yueyue in Foshan, Guangdong, where ‘right’ and ‘responsibility’, ‘self’ and ‘other’ define the public sentiments of deliberation and participation.

A History of Popular Indigenous Music

SINCE THE INVENTION OF recording technologies like the phonograph in the late 1800s, Indigenous music has been performed and recorded across Australia for a wide range of audiences. In the early twentieth century, for instance, music was recorded by anthropologists keen to capture the sounds of a culture that was believed to be in rapid decline (Thomas). Individual performers were not considered important in these recordings; their music was produced for scientific posterity rather than popular pleasure. And even though Aboriginal participation in local music festivals, touring vaudeville shows, and community gatherings was well documented throughout the twentieth century, it was not until the 1950s that Indigenous “pop stars” began to sell records for mass consumption(Dunbar-Hall and Gibson). Yet, with the persistence of recording artists like Jimmy Little over the past sixty years, Indigenous musicians have steadily gained prominence in Australia’s mainstream. This has been particularly true of the past twenty years, especially since the Sydney Olympics, where promotional strategies have brought about a new popular pride in musical achievements, based upon a celebrated history of diverse sounds and voices.

"Do Not Celebrate Your Feast without Your Neighbours" : A Study of References to Feasts and Festivals in Non-Literary Documents from Ramesside Period Deir el-Medina

This dissertation is a study of the forms and functions of feasts and feasting in the ancient Egyptian village of Deir el-Medina in Thebes (modern Luxor). This particular village, during the New Kingdom (c. 1550 1069 BC), was inhabited by the men (and their families) who constructed the Royal Tombs in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens. The royal artisans were probably more literate than the average Egyptians and the numerous Ramesside Period (c. 1295 1069 BC) non-literary texts found in the excavations of the village and its surroundings form the source material for this study. In this study, the methods used are mainly Egyptological and the references to feasts and feasting are considered in view of what is known of New Kingdom Egypt, Thebes, and Deir el-Medina. Nevertheless, it is the use of the methodological concept local vernacular religion that has resulted in the division of the research findings into two sections, i.e., references to feasts celebrated both in and outside the community and other references to feasts and feasting in the village. When considering the function of the feasts celebrated at Deir el-Medina, a functional approach to feasts introduced by anthropologists and archaeologists is utilized. The Deir el-Medina feasts which were associated with the official religion form a festival calendar of feasts celebrated annually on the same civil calendar day. The reconstructed festival calendar of Deir el-Medina reflects the feasts celebrated around Thebes or, at least, in Western Thebes. The function of the nationally and regionally observed feasts (which, at least at Deir el-Medina, resulted in a work-free day) may have been to keep people content so that they would continue to work which was to the advantage of the king and the elite surrounding him. Local feasts appear to have been observed more irregularly at Deir el-Medina or perhaps according to the lunar calendar. Feasts celebrated by the community as a whole served to maintain the unity of the group. In addition to feasts celebrated by the entire community, the inhabitants of Deir el-Medina could mark their own personal feasts and organize small gatherings during public feasts. Through such feasts, an individual man might form alliances and advance his chances of a favourable marriage or of acquiring a position on the work crew.

Survival in the Rainforest : Change and Resilience among the Punan Vuhang of Eastern Sarawak, Malaysia

This dissertation concerns the Punan Vuhang, former hunter-gatherers who are now part-time farmers living in an area of remote rainforest in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. It covers two themes: first, examining their methods of securing a livelihood in the rainforest, and second looking at their adaptation to a settled life and agriculture, and their response to rapid and large-scale commercial logging. This study engages the long-running debates among anthropologists and ecologists on whether recent hunting-gathering societies were able to survive in the tropical rainforest without dependence on farming societies for food resources. In the search for evidence, the study poses three questions: What food resources were available to rainforest hunter-gatherers? How did they hunt and gather these foods? How did they cope with periodic food shortages? In fashioning a life in the rainforest, the Punan Vuhang survived resource scarcity by developing adaptive strategies through intensive use of their knowledge of the forest and its resources. They also adopted social practices such as sharing and reciprocity, and resource tenure to sustain themselves without recourse to external sources of food. In the 1960s, the Punan Vuhang settled down in response to external influences arising in part from the Indonesian-Malaysian Confrontation. This, in turn, initiated a series of processes with political, economic and religious implications. However, elements of the traditional economy have remained resilient as the people continue to hunt, fish and gather, and are able to farm on an individual basis, unlike neighboring shifting cultivators who need to cooperate with each other. At the beginning of the 21st century, the Punan Vuhang face a new challenge arising from the issue of rights in the context of the state and national law and large-scale commercial logging in their forest habitat. The future seems bleak as they face the social problems of alcoholism, declining leadership, and dependence on cash income and commodities from the market.

Las Cartas marruecas desde una morfología del relato de viajes

Número monográfico: El viaje y sus discursos

Ganadería, trasterminancia y trashumancia en los territorios vascos en el tránsito del medievo a la modernidad (siglos XV y XVI)

[ES] El presente artículo pretende aportar nuevos datos sobre la ganadería en los territorios vascos durante la Edad Moderna. Ante todo se trata de romper con falsos paradigmas que se han venido repitiendo durante largo tiempo, aportando datos inéditos. Los clásicos de la historiografía vasca siempre han recalcado el carácter rural y agrario de la economía vasca; a pesar de ello, actividades como la ganadería jamás han ocupado un espacio primordial como objeto de estudio entre los historiadores, que en muchos casos han aceptado las teorías de etnógrafos y antropólogos sin contrastarlas. La ganadería en tierras vascas siguió modelos cantábricos, que ya vienen siendo estudiados desde algunas décadas por los historiadores gallegos, asturianos o cántabros; escuelas que han establecido nuevas metodologías para el estudio de la ganadería, las cabañas predominantes, el régimen de explotación, su impacto económico, etc., y cuyo ejemplo desgraciadamente no ha sido secundado en el caso vasco.

Da superação da monogamia como princípio estruturante do estatuto jurídico da família

A tese propõe novos fundamentos para a abordagem da conjugalidade contemporânea, tendo como eixo de referência a superação da monogamia como princípio estruturante do estatuto jurídico da família. Alguns fios condutores perpassam a tese e norteiam o tratamento do tema: (i) o princípio jurídico da monogamia como mecanismo legitimador da dominação masculina; (ii) a preocupação com a construção de lugares de não-direito e de invisibilidade jurídica de determinadas pessoas, mormente, as concubinas, excluídas da condição de sujeito de direito; (iii) o concubinato, campo privilegiado de estudo, é referido e analisado como estatuto de exclusão; (iv) os fatores decisivos para a reconfiguração da conjugalidade contemporânea: a democracia, o pluralismo cultural e a laicização do Direito; (v) a perspectiva do Direito Civil constitucionalizado é tomada como referência para a problematização da questão central da tese, e os princípios constitucionais da dignidade humana, solidariedade, igualdade, liberdade e democracia prestam-se ao estabelecimento de um banco de provas a que é submetida a assertiva que constitui o enunciado da própria tese: a superação da monogamia como princípio estruturante do estatuto jurídico das famílias contemporâneas. O tratamento dado à matéria é necessariamente interdisciplinar, tendo-se mostrado indispensável a interlocução, ainda que pontual, com historiadores, antropólogos, e sociólogos e mesmo com autores das ciências naturais. O princípio da monogamia consolidado no Ocidente, por força do monopólio da regulação das relações familiares pelo Direito Canônico, especialmente, pelos decretos e cânones tridentinos, e transposto ao domínio jurídico do Estado, a partir das revoluções burguesas experimenta, na reconfiguração da conjugalidade contemporânea, efetivo arrefecimento. Fatores, como a superação da dominação masculina, a laicização do Estado e do Direito, a primazia alcançada pela autonomia privada no campo das situações subjetivas existenciais e coexistenciais, a consagração do princípio do pluralismo das entidades familiares, nítida expressão da democratização da intimidade, são indicados como razões decisivas para a superação da monogamia como princípio jurídico.

Escritas encarceradas: representações do universo prisional feminino nas páginas do jornal da Penitenciária Talavera Bruce

O jornal da Penitenciária Feminina Talavera Bruce, intitulado Só Isso!, produzido no período de 2004 a 2008, constitui objeto e fonte privilegiada nesta dissertação. Na análise do impresso, a metodologia de pesquisa esteve centrada na produção, circulação e recepção do referido jornal, buscando refletir sobre os possíveis sentidos constituídos nas escritas das apenadas, para uma melhor compreensão das práticas cotidianas dessas mulheres, principalmente, no que tange a uma realidade tão específica, fazendo emergir o registro de um modo de vida tão particular. Nesse sentido, busquei compreender o impresso pesquisado em seus destinos e representações mergulhando em nuances e particularidades que o tema comporta, buscando o universo de significados, isto é, a possibilidade de entendimento acerca das relações estabelecidas por esses sujeitos privados liberdade com a escrita na prisão, o que permitiu perceber quem são apenadas, como expressam suas sensibilidades e subjetividades, como vivem, por que escrevem e quais dificuldades enfrentam. Para analisar esse periódico, aproximei-me de fundamentos e de metodologia vinculados à História da Cultura Escrita e também de autores que auxiliaram a problematizar as questões voltadas para as vicissitudes do encarceramento feminino. Sendo assim, a interpretação desenvolvida está alicerçada em autores que apontam e problematizam a importância de compreender a escrita e o seu suporte, estudiosos que discutem as escritas em espaços de confinamento que, via de regra, procuram ocupar o tempo, experimentar a liberdade ou burlar a solidão, além de pesquisadores que ajudam a pensar a escrita de si e suas representações, e outros voltados para a História da Educação que pensam e discutem a importância do impresso enquanto fonte de pesquisa. Tendo em vista o fato desse tema ter uma fronteira tênue entre os campos de pesquisa, dialogo também com antropólogos e sociólogos que trazem dados sistematizados sobre o universo prisional e auxiliam na sua compreensão. O trabalho de pesquisa sobre jornal, representou, portanto, compreender um pouco mais sobre a realidade das mulheres privadas de liberdade, valorizando a escrita oriunda de um contexto em que os rigorosos meios de controle utilizados pela instituição penitenciária acabam por desumanizar os sujeitos apenados. Desta forma, o direito ao ato de escrita e leitura na prisão, torna-se revestido de uma função social e educativa fundamental para a sobrevivência no cárcere. A tentativa dessa pesquisa é, de alguma forma, trazer contribuições que possam refletir em garantia de direitos e oportunidades, possibilitando aos sujeitos encarcerados dignidade e melhores condições de vida.

Toward a Model for Fisheries Social Impact Assessment

This paper presents a model for Fisheries Social Impact Assessment (SIA) that lays the groundwork for development of fisheries-focused, quantitative social assessments with a clear conceptual model. The usefulness of current fisheries SIA’s has been called into question by some as incompatible with approaches taken by fisheries biologists and economists when assessing potential effects of management actions. Our model’s approach is closer to the economists’ and biologists’ assessments and is therefore more useful for Fishery Management Council members. The paper was developed by anthropologists initially brought together in 2004 for an SIA Modeling Workshop by the National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. Opinions and conclusions expressed or implied are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policy of the National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA.

Fracture and energy partitioning in uncooked and cooked noodles

Humans perform fascinating science experiments at home on a daily basis when they undertake the modification of natural and naturally-derived materials by a cooking process prior to consumption. The material properties of such foods are of interest to food scientists (texture is often fundamental to food acceptability), oral biologists (foods modulate feeding behavior), anthropologists (cooking is probably as old as the genus Homo and distinguishes us from all other creatures) and dentists (foods interact with tooth and tooth replacement materials). Materials scientists may be interested in the drastic changes in food properties observed over relatively short cooking times. In the current study, the mechanical properties of one of the most common (and oldest at 4,000+ years) foods on earth, the noodle, were examined as a function of cooking time. Two types of noodles were studied, each made from natural materials (wheat flour, salt, alkali and water) by kneading dough and passing them through a pasta-making machine. These were boiled for between 2-14 min and tested at regular intervals from raw to an overcooked state. Cyclic tensile tests at small strain levels were used to examine energy dissipation characteristics. Energy dissipation was >50% per cycle in uncooked noodles, but decreased by an order of magnitude with cooking. Fractional dissipation values remained approximately constant at cooking times greater than 7 min. Overall, a greater effect of cooking was on viscoplastic dissipation characteristics rather than on fracture resistance. The results of the current study plot the evolution of a viscoplastic mixture into an essentially elastic material in the space of 7 minutes and have broad implications for understanding what cooking does to food materials. In particular, they suggest that textural assessment by consumers of the optimally cooked state of food has a definite physical definition. © 2007 Materials Research Society.

Criminal Profiling : A Continuing History

Chapter 1 RAE2008

Symbole w działaniu. Akademickie konteksty nurtu symbolicznego w antropologii

Niniejsza publikacja podejmuje problem, który jest dla antropologii symbolicznej fundamentalny. Jest nim ukazanie tego, jak w ramach tego kierunku ujmowano kwestię działań o charakterze symbolicznym oraz tego, jak działają same symbole w kulturze. Równie istotnym problemem wiążącym się ze sposobem pojmowania przez ten nurt powyższych kwestii jest jego uwarunkowanie kontekstualne. Chodzi w tym miejscu nie tylko o źródła naukowych inspiracji, ale również o mniej oczywiste czynniki kształtujące teoretyczne stanowiska Geertza czy Turnera. Antropologia symboliczna stanowiła część paradygmatu interpretacyjnego. To właśnie wpływ wiążącego się ze zwrotem interpretacyjnym klimatu intelektualnego, jak też instytucjonalne oddziaływanie wspomnianych powyżej ośrodków akademickich jest najbardziej interesujące. Historyczno-naukowa kontekstualizacja określonych prądów naukowych wywiera wpływ na kształt realizowanych w ich ramach teorii w takim samym stopniu, co relacje pomiędzy stanowiskami poszczególnych badaczy i ich autorskie programy antropologiczne.

(O)znaki śmierci w polskiej poezji po roku 1956

Wydział Filologii Polskiej i Klasycznej: Instytut Filologii Polskiej