scholarly journals Secularization of Marriage Ritual Among the Ameru in Kenya

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 52-57
Author(s):  
Jona Mbaabu Karicha ◽  
Stephen Ifedha Akaranga ◽  
Telesia K Musili

The Ameru are a Bantu group of people who inhabit Meru and Tharaka Nithi Counties of Kenya. This paper examines how the ritual of marriage was conducted in the traditional setup and the changes that it has undergone with the coming of European missionaries and the influence of the Western ways of life since 1912. In order to contextualize the discussion, the following questions are addressed. First, how was marriage practised among the indigenous Ameru? Second, what are the changes that have affected this ritual in contemporary society? The Secularization theory is adopted to explain the changes that have taken place in this important rite of passage. The findings of this study are based on research conducted in Meru and Tharaka Nithi counties in Kenya. The study reveals that the Ameru society is dynamic and marriage as observed in the contemporary society is no longer practised the way it was before they interacted with the European missionaries. The indigenous positive cultural values should be accommodated while adjusting to modernity.  

2021 ◽  
pp. 136843102199664
Author(s):  
Chris Shilling

During the past two decades, there has been a significant growth of sociological studies into the ‘body pedagogics’ of cultural transmission, reproduction and change. Rejecting the tendency to over-valorise cognitive information, these investigations have explored the importance of corporeal capacities, habits and techniques in the processes associated with belonging to specific ‘ways of life’. Focused on practical issues associated with ‘knowing how’ to operate within specific cultures, however, body pedagogic analyses have been less effective at accounting for the incarnation of cultural values. Addressing this limitation, with reference to the radically diverse norms involved historically and contemporarily in ‘vélo worlds’, I develop Dewey’s pragmatist transactionalism by arguing that the social, material and intellectual processes involved in learning physical techniques inevitably entail a concurrent entanglement with, and development of, values.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Acushla Deanne O'Carroll

<p>Haka and hula performances tell stories that represent histories, traditions, protocols and customs of the Maori and Hawai'ian people and give insight into their lives and the way that they see the world. The way that haka and hula performances are represented is being tested, as the dynamics of the tourism industry impact upon and influence the art forms. If allowed, these impacts and influences can affect the performances and thus manipulate or change the way that haka and hula are represented. Through an understanding of the impacts and influences of tourism on haka and hula performances, as well as an exploration of the cultures' values, cultural representations effective existence within the tourism industry can be investigated. This thesis will incorporate the perspectives of haka and hula practitioners and discuss the impacts and influences on haka and hula performances in tourism. The research will also explore and discuss the ways in which cultural values and representations can effectively co-exist within tourism.</p>


Author(s):  
Massimiliano Aragona

AbstractThe way somatization is expressed—including the actual somatoform symptoms experienced—varies in different persons and in different cultures. Traumatic experiences are intertwined with cultural and social values in shaping the resulting psychopathological phenomena, including bodily experiences. Four ideal-typical cases are presented to show the different levels involved. The effects of trauma, culture and values may be pathofacilitating (creating a social context which is necessary for the experience to take place), pathogenetic (taking a causal role in the onset of the psychopathological reaction), pathoplastic (shaping the form such a psychopathological reaction takes) or pathointerpretive (different interpretation of the same symptoms depending on the patient’s beliefs). While the roles of trauma and culture were already well recognized in previous accounts, this chapter adds an exploration of the importance of values, including cultural values, in the aetiology, presentation and management of somatization disorders. As a consequence, the therapeutic approach has to be adjusted depending on the way these factors intervene in the patient’s construction of mental distress.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-53
Author(s):  
Mark Honegger

This article will advocate for the use of Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) Theory to research cultural values in Education. It will demonstrate how NSM research can be conducted as it provides explications for the word education. NSM is a research agenda that has identified 65 semantic primes, words that are found in every language of the world and which cannot be defined in terms of any simpler words. If you try to break down a semantic prime like good, you might describe it in terms of words like “positive, pleasing, valued,” all of which turn out to be more complex than good itself. Because primes cannot be decomposed and are universal to every language and every culture, they provide a basis for carrying out cross-linguistic comparisons of meaning and for identifying the cultural perspectives that inform our language and its thought structures. More complicated words, the bulk of any language, are social constructs that are culturally laden, providing deep insights into the way a society thinks.


Antichthon ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 156-172
Author(s):  
James S. McLaren

AbstractDuring the late republic and early principate the Jews who called Rome their home occasionally found themselves in the public gaze. Some of their customs and aspects of their ways of life also attracted occasional comment, often for their apparently strange and foreign manner. At no stage, however, during this period did they feature prominently in the public sphere of life in Rome. The aftermath of the war of 66-70 CE brought about an abrupt change in circumstances for the Jews living in Rome. Apart from the immediate visual celebration of the triumph, there followed a number of substantial monumental and numismatic commemorations of the Roman victory. In this article the purpose and function of those commemorations and the possible consequences for the Jews who lived in Rome are examined. In particular, the impact of the public profiling of the war on Jewish identity and of how the writings of Josephus are to be read in this setting is explored. Rather than regard Josephus as a supporter of the Flavian rulers, writing an account of the war that encouraged fellow Jews to collaborate with Rome, it is argued that he was offering Jews in Rome a counter-narrative to the way the war was being publicly commemorated.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (103) ◽  
pp. 118-125
Author(s):  
TATYANA E. VLADIMIROVA

The focus of this article is on the integral unity of language and culture, which predetermined the evolution of the person speaking . An appeal to the ancient holistic methodology revealed the trinity of psychological intention and speech itself in the correlation with cultural values. Consequently, teaching a foreign language, focused on active communication with native speakers, is also an object of polyparadigmatic research, which should precede the development of new teaching technologies. The undertaken consideration made it possible to single out a synergetic approach as combining the teaching of a foreign language, culture and the way of beingness formed on their basis with a personal need for self-development and self-realization.


2019 ◽  
Vol 79 ◽  
pp. 01009
Author(s):  
Junyan Yang ◽  
Fangyuan Zhang ◽  
Beixiang Shi

The open space in urban centers is not only the element to beautify the landscape of urban public centers, but also bears multiple functional needs and reflects cultural values. Based on the classification system of the open space in urban centers, this paper sorts out the concept of the open space of urban centers, analyzes the evolution mode of its scale and shape, explores the way of cultivation and construction, and then puts forward a number of planning points for reasonable planning and to protect the open space in urban centers.


2005 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niall Hayes ◽  
Lucas D. Introna
Keyword(s):  

Paragraph ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-71
Author(s):  
SABINE HILLEN

In our contemporary society one would be tempted to see solitude as the result of individualism. The most striking idea Barthes developed in Comment vivre ensemble was the way in which solitude could be lived as a collective experience. This collective enterprise was not the result of a selfish retreat devoted to personal preoccupations. It fulfilled itself rather as an action dedicated to the other. In front of this singular way of seeing, the question arises how Barthes conceived this culture of distance as a ‘social’ action. Is it correct to present this ideological pathway as a form of courtesy, implying that others do not need to be confronted with the inner life of the individual? Taking these preliminary thoughts as a keystone, my article explores the content Barthes gives to his so-called socialisme des distances and how texts of early mystical societies develop this notion of distance.


1997 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lesley Farrell

THE focus of this paper is on the role that culture plays in shaping the way examiners arrive at assessments of candidates' relative academic ability in tertiary entrance examinations. In attempting to understand this process, I call on notions of ‘Discourse’, especially of the kind developed by Gee (1991, 1992, 1994). When examiners ‘make grades’, they call on culturally specific understandings of what counts as a ‘literate essay’, a ‘relevant’ argument, and an appropriate relationship between candidate and examiner. I start with a discussion of tertiary entrance examinations, move to a discussion of Discourse and conclude with an analysis of one set of examiners' reports. Examiners use underlying discourse structure as the basis on which they make their judgements about academic merit, and that these judgements are culturally situated and do, therefore, realise cultural values. However, although they are clearly culturally situated, they gain their legitimacy in the public arena by an appeal to the universality of standards of academic merit.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document