Irish society c. 700: II Social distinctions and moral values

This article argues that task-specific measures of the division of household labor form a gender hier archy that reflects dimensions of meaning in the organization of household work. We contrast these measures to the commonly used time-share and Likert scale measures, which assume all tasks are interchangeable. Using Guttman scaling, we test the unidimensionality of this task hierarchy. Using odds ratios, we measure relationships between spe cific tasks, and using logistic regression, we see differences in correlates of husbands' participation by task and interrelationships among tasks that persist, controlling for gender ideology and socio economic factors. This should encourage de velopment of measures of change in the segrega tion of household tasks by gender. Many studies have found that women, even when employed, remain responsible for housework (Eng land & Farkas, 1986; Lennon & Rosenfield, 1994). The actual division of housework by gender has been less clearly conceptualized and measured (Blair & Lichter, 1991). Even though researchers no longer assume that all housework is work by definition, the possibility that specific tasks might change gender assignment-the way specific occupations have done-is not explicitly addressed in the literature. Investigating the gender meanings of specific tasks has largely been left to qualitative research (DeVault, 1991; Hochschild, 1989). We suggest several different quantitative approaches to measuring the similarity and differences in household tasks, and we show that the factors that explain husbands' participation differ, depending on the task. We argue that such measures of task hierarchy can complement qualitative research by improving our understanding of both where and why change already is occurring and what task-specific resistances and obstacles to greater participation by husbands exist. Our argument is grounded in the literatures of the gender perspective and occupational sex segregation. LITERATURE REVIEW In the past decade, the literature on the division of household labor has increasingly become guided by the awareness that gender itself plays an important role. Previous has clearly established that despite entry into the labor force in increasing proportions, wives remain disproportionately responsible for household maintenance (Baxter, 1992; Blair & Johnson, 1992; Ross, 1987; Shelton & John, 1993). Moreover, gender-neutral, resourcebased approaches, although important, are not sufficient to explain the unequal division of labor (Ferree, 1990; Thompson & Walker, 1989). The gender perspective offers one explanation for the continuing lopsided division of household labor. From this perspective, performing housework certainly produces material results such as clean clothes and hot meals, but the gendered division of household labor also produces proper gender relations (e.g., Blain, 1994; DeVault, 1991; Fenstermaker Berk, 1985; South & Spitze, 1994) and social identities (Fraser, 1989). Researchers in this perspective argue that all work, including done at home without pay, is dual aspect activity (Fraser) and takes on symbolic meaning, part of which is gendered meaning. From this perspective, both labor-market and household are divided less from considerations of skill, time, or talent, than from efforts to establish boundaries between men's and women's work. Such boundaries affirm and reproduce masculinity and femininity, and doing the sort of defined as inappropriate for one's gender produces demands for accountability or justifications for why such a transgression of normative expectations is warranted (Gerson & Peiss, 1985; West & Zimmerman, 1987). On the one hand, gender boundaries such as those that structure the paid labor market are constructed, in part, through the labeling of specific skills and interests as appropriate for men or for women (Acker, 1990; Reskin, 1993; West & Zimmerman, 1987). …

Since it was framed 20 years ago, Syed Farid Alatas's theory of academic dependence has made a long‐lasting impact within the global social science field, and has elevated the previous discussion on academic dependence. In this essay, we critically examine his theory of academic dependence with an original dataset that contains 22 top sociology institutions in East Asia, including China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. We further engage the data, and theory within the global higher education ranking system, a theme that had not yet emerged when he framed his theory of academic dependence. Our findings suggest that (1) higher rankings do not create job opportunities for locally trained PhDs; (2) emphasis on the number of publications is still prevalent; (3) adopting the standards set up by the ranking agency re‐enforces the existing global division of academic labor. Overall, sociology in these societies after 20 years is now more dependent, rather than autonomous from, the Western academic center.

Since it was framed 20 years ago, Syed Farid Alatas's theory of academic dependence has made a long‐lasting impact within the global social science field, and has elevated the previous discussion on academic dependence. In this essay, we critically examine his theory of academic dependence with an original dataset that contains 22 top sociology institutions in East Asia, including China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. We further engage the data, and theory within the global higher education ranking system, a theme that had not yet emerged when he framed his theory of academic dependence. Our findings suggest that (1) higher rankings do not create job opportunities for locally trained PhDs; (2) emphasis on the number of publications is still prevalent; (3) adopting the standards set up by the ranking agency re‐enforces the existing global division of academic labor. Overall, sociology in these societies after 20 years is now more dependent, rather than autonomous from, the Western academic center.

In this study the authors investigated the effects of three independent variables, personal status (high, low, neutral), group status (high, low, neutral) and private collective self-esteem (CSE), on three dependent variables: ingroup favouritism, self-favouritism, and the difference between these two measures — ‘self versus ingroup favouritism’. Personal and group status were manipulated by providing bogus test feedback to 225 school children aged between 13–15 years. It was found that subjects with high CSE showed greater ingroup relative to self-favouritism (‘self vs ingroup favouritism’) than subjects with low CSE but only when group status was neutral or high. When group status was low there was little difference between high and low CSE subjects. A second study on the validity of private collective self-esteem found that it was moderately correlated with Jewish identification, and not correlated with subtle racism.

Understanding Religious Change in Africa and Europe: Crossing Latitudes; The Christianization of Jukun of Nigeria and Celtic Irish in Early Medieval Europ

This chapter discusses the connection between Irish and Eastern folly. Early Christian Ireland had the most thoroughgoing monastic Church in Christendom. Folly became a feature of its spirituality and fools the regular companions of monks. The constant association of monks with fools, lepers, and outcasts preserved a sense of monastic marginality, a fervent resistance to conformity to the wisdom of the world. This is one of the key elements in Eastern folly, and it may be this generalized sense, rather than a completely developed hagiographical category of ‘holy fool’, which is most characteristic in early Irish Christianity.

abstract: Breatnach 2016 provides a comprehensive inventory of the many legal and literary instances of cétmuinter and concludes by suggesting that his linguistic analysis of the word proves that polygyny in early Christian Ireland did not exist. This paper reviews Breatnach's work; re-examines the early Irish marriage laws more generally; puts those laws within their larger medieval European context; and concludes that the situation in medieval Ireland is not as clear-cut as Breatnach would suggest.

A wealth of political writings survives from early Christian Ireland. While traditionally this material has been understood in terms of a dichotomy between "pagan" and "Christian," recent scholarship has borrowed the category of the "secular" from late antique studies to make sense of early Irish intellectual culture and its political discourses. This article builds on this trend to reveal, through close examination of seventh-century Irish writings, a multitude of differently Christianized discourses existing simultaneously, sometimes even within a single text. Just as the boundary between the "pagan" and the "secular" was not fixed, so too the boundary between the "Christian" and the "secular," giving rise to many different ways late antique Christians (in Ireland and elsewhere) could speak about politics. Much late antique scholarship on the "secular" assumes it was a passing phase ending in Christianization, but this research argues that "secularity" retained its importance in societies where Christians constantly debated and disagreed over where the boundaries of the "Christian" lay.

This book provides a fully documented history of Ireland and the Irish between the fourth and ninth centuries AD, from St Patrick to the Vikings - the earliest period for which historical records are available. It opens with the Irish raids and settlements in Britain, and the conversion of Ireland to Christianity. It ends as Viking attacks on Ireland accelerated in the second quarter of the ninth century. The book takes account of the Irish both at home and abroad, including the Irish in northern Britain, in England and on the continent. Two principal thematic strands are the connection between the early Irish Church and its neighbours, and the rise of Uí Néill and the kingship of Tara.

Reviewed by: Artisans in Early Imperial China Anne P. Underhill Artisans in Early Imperial China by Anthony J. Barbieri-Low. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2008. Pp. x + 394. $60.00. Barbieri-Low’s engaging book, Artisans in Early Imperial China, tackles an important topic that has not been adequately addressed by historians, art historians, or archaeologists: the people behind the production and distribution of hand-crafted goods during the Qin and Han periods, 221 b.c.e.–c.e. 220. Whereas other scholars often discuss the finely made art objects from this era in isolation, Barbieri-Low breathes life into them, revealing their hidden human dimensions. He argues convincingly that “one cannot truly understand the visual and material cultural remains of early imperial China without understanding something about how they were made, who made them, and under what social and economic circumstances they were fashioned” (p. 26). Barbieri-Low succeeds in demonstrating the effectiveness of adopting a multidisciplinary approach to investigating ancient artisans and their products. He uses historical texts and inscriptions on objects to uncover information about the lives of artisans and the division of labor in production, art history to analyze the artisans’ creations, and anthropology to analyze the socioeconomic context. His aim is to employ historical, art historical, and anthropological (including archaeological) data in equal measure. He has, moreover, organized the chapters of his study to highlight the lives of artisans from different perspectives; he examines artisans in society (Chapter 2, which covers the topics of social status and social mobility), in the workshop (Chapter 3, which covers production methods, division of labor, work conditions), in the marketplace (Chapter 4, which deals with the organization of official markets and marketing methods), and at court (Chapter 5, which discusses the role of art objects in palaces and the organization of palace workshops). Chapter 6, “Artisans in Irons” examines non-free artisans, such as convicts, who were forced to produce for the state. His analysis of texts and inscriptions especially provides an illuminating view of the lives of artisans and the objects they made during the early imperial era. [End Page 491] Readers should know that anthropologists have long employed a holistic approach to research on craft goods, analyzing goods within systems of production, distribution, and consumption, rather than in isolation. For these scholars (including myself), the focus has always been the people behind the artifacts, revealed through the study of such topics as social identity, labor organization, craft specialization, exchange systems, consumption patterns, and regional economic systems.1 Research projects have included the production, distribution, and use of craft goods (especially ceramics, stone objects, textiles, metal objects) in prehistoric and early historic societies. Relevant publications exist for most world areas, including societies comparable in social complexity and scale with early imperial China such as the Inca empire.2 Considering the anthropological literature on these topics, I offer suggestions here for future research on early China. My intention is not to replace the productive multidisciplinary approach advocated by Barbieri-Low, but to discuss how one might amplify the anthropological component even further to provide more information on the producers and consumers of craft goods in early China. [End Page 492] The bulk of Barbieri-Low’s book treats the term “artisan” as a highly trained and skilled person who makes fine objects by hand. His book thus implies that such beautiful objects, works of art, were produced primarily for elite consumers. While recognizing that objects of beauty can be made for more than one type of consumer, the anthropological literature also distinguishes between various craft goods on the basis of class, status, gender, and ethnicity of the consumers. Researchers investigate how certain kinds of goods may bring prestige or wealth to consumers. They focus on how people actively use different kinds of goods in a social system. Also worthy of future investigation is the impact that consumer demand in early China had on the production of various kinds of craft goods. Consumer demand affects the production of both prestige-bearing goods and the common goods used in daily life. Barbieri-Low provides clues about variation in the social and ideological aspirations of consumers during the Qin and Han...

Functional bat diversity and the role of the protected areas against climate change projections across Europe.

A modification of economic analysis to incorporate incomplete information and uncertain foresight as axioms is suggested here. This approach dispenses with “profit maximization”; and it does not rely on the predictable, individual behavior that is usually assumed, as a first approximation, in standard textbook treatments. Despite these changes, the analytical concepts usually associated with such behavior are retained because they are not dependent upon such motivation or foresight. The suggested approach embodies the principles of biological evolution and natural selection by interpreting the economic system as an adoptive mechanism which chooses among exploratory actions generated by the adaptive pursuit of “success” or “profit.” The resulting analysis is applicable to actions usually regarded as aberrations from standard economic behavior as well as to behavior covered by the customary analysis. This wider applicability and the removal of the unrealistic postulates of accurate anticipations and fixed states of knowledge have provided motivation for the study.

One of the hallmarks of human agglomeration is an increase in the division of labour, but the exact nature of this relationship has been debated among anthropologists, sociologists, economists, and historians and archaeologists. Over the last decade, researchers investigating contemporary urban systems have suggested a novel explanation for the links between the numbers of inhabitants in settlements and many of their most important characteristics, which is grounded in a view of settlements as social networks embedded in built environments. One of the remarkable aspects of this approach is that it is not based on the specific conditions of the modern world (such as capitalism or industrialization), which raises the issue of whether the relationships observed in contemporary urban systems can also be detected in pre-modern urban or even non-urban systems. Here, we present a general model for the relationship between the population and functional diversity of settlements, where the latter is viewed as an indicator of the division of labour. We then explore the applicability of this model to pre-modern contexts, focusing on cities in the Roman Empire, using estimates of their numbers of inhabitants, numbers of documented professional associations, and numbers of recorded inscriptions to develop an index of functional diversity. Our results are consistent with theoretical expectations, adding further support to the view that urban systems in both contemporary and pre-modern contexts reflect a common set of generative processes.

Using qualitative case analysis, this article examines the unique relationship established between a social accelerator and nine social enterprises with high social impact, supported by the social accelerator. Using the theoretical framework of identity and social identity theories, and based on the perceptions and narratives of the social entrepreneurs, we identify the key aspects of this relationship: identity-based storytelling as part of personal identity, networking as part of social identity, and professionalization as part of role identity. An intense emotional connection between the staff of the social accelerator and social entrepreneurs is a characteristic of this unique relationship. Other social accelerators, future social entrepreneurs, and policy makers can benefit from this scheme if they want to replicate a successful formula to produce highly social, innovative, and sustainable projects.

This paper examines the representation of Indian culture and social identity in the short stories of R.K. Narayan with particular attention to class hierarchy, gender relations, superstition and the impact of Western influence. It also highlights Narayan’s artistic skill in capturing the lived realities of ordinary Indians and their everyday struggles through humour, irony and a balance between tradition and modernity while retaining the ethical core of Indianness. Narayan’s characters emerge from diverse social backgrounds such as teachers, doctors, postmen, saints, bullies, children, husbands, wives, prostitutes and even animals like dogs and snakes, each embodying the emotional complexity and cultural variety of Indian society. For a focused analysis, four short stories are selected: “The Blind Dog”, “House Opposite”, “Under the Banyan Tree” and “Wife’s Holiday”. These narratives vividly portray Indian social life where traditional values coexist with gradual social change. Through carefully drawn characters and situations, Narayan reflects moral values, work ethics and human relationships as essential components of Indian culture. His simple and profound narrative style establishes him as a keen observer and faithful recorder of Indian life, preserving its cultural essence while portraying its slow transition from tradition towards modernity.