Cultural Defense Research Articles

Georgian Path to Secularism: A Case of ‘Cultural Defense’

ABSTRACT This article intends to understand the dynamics and particularities of the Georgian path to secularism by analyzing whether equal respect for all religions and freedom of conscience -principle of secularism- are fully realized in post-Soviet Georgia and whether state’s neutrality towards minority religions and church-state separation -operative modes of secularism- is truly secured. Employing the data obtained from interviews conducted in Tbilisi and Batumi in 2015–2017 and the related literature, it inquiries into concerns about ineffectual realization of principles of secularism due to the weaknesses in the operative modes of secularism. Research data revealed that weaknesses in the separation between the Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC) and the state and the state’s neutrality towards minority religions are the result of the power of the GOC caused by its historical significance and ‘cultural defense’, exacerbated by a perception of threat to territorial integrity and national identity. Weaknesses in the operative modes of secularism and cultural defense both conduce to the unequal treatment of religious minorities, which is reflected in the legal framework and newly established institutions, leading to the Georgian path to secularism.

Introduction

Introduction

State budget of USSR in 1950s — 80s: dynamics and structure of expenditures

The structure of the state budget expenditure of the USSR in its historical dynamics during the 1950s — 1980s is considered. The sources were statistical collections published by the Ministry of Finance of the USSR in the period under review, on their basis the electronic database “State Budget of the USSR” was created, according to which all the calculations presented in the article were carried out. It is noted that the dynamics of the state budget expenditures of the USSR during the entire period of the 1950s — 80s was positive. It is indicated that there was a constant increase in expenditures, which had an average annual value of about 6.5 %; in total, during the period under study, the expenditure part of the state budget increased by 11.6 times, and in per capita terms only by 7.3 times. It is shown that the structure of expenditures of the state budget of the USSR in the 1950s — 1980s included expenditures on the national economy, social and cultural events, public administration and defense. The author concludes that the construction of a welfare state in the USSR in the 1950s — 1970s, along with the burden of military spending, became a heavy burden on the budget system, limiting the government’s room for maneuver in the context of the budget crisis that broke out in the second half of the 1980s.

Hmong ‘Marriage by Capture’ in the United States of America and Ukuthwala in South Africa: Unfolding Discussions

‘Marriage by capture’ among the Hmong people in the United States of America and ukuthwala in South Africa both take the form of the mock abduction of a young woman for the purpose of a customary marriage. The noteworthy point about these two customary marriage practices is that, although Hmong marriage by capture takes place in the context of a minority community in a liberal state, and ukuthwala occurs in a postcolonial state, courts in these jurisdictions convert these marriage practices to the common law offences of rape, assault, and abduction. This article reflects on the accused-centred approach in the case of People v Moua, in which the court invoked the cultural defence, and the victim-centred approach in Jezile v S, which severed cultural values from the rights of the woman. It questions whether the two communities in question, in their respective liberal and postcolonial settings, influence the attitudes of the courts in cases involving rape, assault, and abduction charges. The main argument proffered is that both approaches may encourage communities to continue marriage abduction practices without bringing them to the attention of investigative organs, with adverse human rights implications for the women and girls affected. The ultimate purpose of this conversation, therefore, is to show how the approaches of the courts to the recognition or non-recognition of these customary practices affect the rights of girls and women who encounter institutions of law that alienate people belonging to minority cultural groups, and often perpetuate injustice.

미국 형사절차상 문화항변과 우리 형사절차에 있어서의 적용여부

우리 사회가 다문화사회인가 하는 문제는 단언하기 어렵다 하더라도 이미 많은 결혼이민자와 외국인노동자들이 국내에 체류하고 있고 이들과 관련된 다수의 범죄가 발생하고 있으며, 그 죄명도 다양하게 나타난다고 할 수 있다. 그러나 이들 이민자들이나 외국인들의 범죄는 자라온 문화환경이나 교육과정 등이 우리나라의 그것과 동일하다고 할 수 없고 따라서 이들의 범죄를 다룸에 있어서는 이러한 문화적 요소들을 고려하여야 할 것인가의 문제가 제기되는데 그것이 바로 문화항변(Cultural Defense)의 인정여부에 대한 문제라고 할 수 있다.BR 미국이나 캐나다와 같은 문화적 다양성이 활발한 다문화국가의 경우 오래전부터 이러한 문제에 대한 검토가 있어 왔으나, 아직 우리 형법은 이와 관련된 규정을 두고 있지 아니할 뿐 아니라, 이러한 사건에 대한 판례도 축적된 바가 없다.BR 따라서 본 논문에서는 미국의 문화항변과 관련된 판례에 대하여 그 사실관계 및 판결이유 등에 대하여 세밀히 살펴보고, 우리나라 형법체계상 이를 적용하는 것이 타당한 것인지, 적용한다면 어떤 범위에서 할 것인지에 대하여 보기로 한다.BR 형법이 지향하는 형사절차는 피고인의 책임에 부합하는 처벌인 개별책임의 원칙이라고 할 수 있으며, 사회 구성원들이 자신의 법이 도덕적으로 올바른 가치를 구현한다고 믿을 수 있을 때 사회는 그 구성원들을 쉽게 법에 복종하도록 할 수 있을 것이다. 따라서 다른 문화환경에서 자라고 교육 받은 사람들은 그들의 문화규범에 따른 법규범에 익숙할 뿐 아니라, 그러한 자신들의 도덕적 의무감을 가지게 된다고 할 수 있으므로 주류사회의 법규범이 그들의 문화나 도덕규범에 반하는 경우 자신들의 문화규범과 상충되는 법규범에 대한 순응이 더욱 어렵게 된다고 할 수 있다. 이러한 요소들을 고려하지 아니하고 주류 문화규범에 기초하여 입법화된 법률규범을 동일하게 적용하는 경우 오히려 사회적 갈등과 법제도의 경시현상을 초래할 수 있을 것이라는 점에서, 이민자나 외국인 개인의 문화적 배경이 형사절차에 고려되어야 더 공정하고 정당한 사법체계로 자리 잡을 수 있을 것으로 생각된다.BR 따라서 우리 형사절차에 있어서도 문화항변의 제도적 도입 필요성을 강조하고자 한다.

Solidarity, Religious Freedom and COVID-19: The Case of the Ultra-Orthodox Sects in Israel

The paper discusses the tension between social solidarity and religious freedom as demonstrated by the refusal of the ultra-Orthodox sects in Israel to comply with Covid-19 regulations. The paper provides a detailed description of the refusal to comply with the regulations restricting mass prayer services in synagogues and studying Torah in the yeshivas, thus interfering with the ultra-Orthodox religious life. The paper suggests possible explanations for that refusal, based on either religious beliefs or a socio-political claim to autonomy, and discusses whether the polity should be willing to tolerate such a refusal on the basis of the cultural defence. The paper concludes that the drastic restrictions which the regulations posed on religious life were justified by the need to reduce the spread of the pandemic. Under such circumstances, the enforcement of social distancing regulations must be given priority over religious freedom.

Autorrepresentación y autodeterminación: Sarayaku y la apropiación del audiovisual para la defensa territorial.

This text analyzes the process of audiovisual production of the Kichwa Sarayaku People of the Ecuadorean Amazon, as part of a politics of a positioned, relational and dynamic representation, with which they have reconfigured their strategies of struggle, for territorial and cultural defense and self-determination, this process also permitted them to use media, not just to denounce, but also to subjectivize and enunciate their ways of being in the world.

Autorrepresentación y autodeterminación: Sarayaku y la apropiación del audiovisual para la defensa territorial.

This text analyzes the process of audiovisual production of the Kichwa Sarayaku People of the Ecuadorean Amazon, as part of a politics of a positioned, relational and dynamic representation, with which they have reconfigured their strategies of struggle, for territorial and cultural defense and self-determination, this process also permitted them to use media, not just to denounce, but also to subjectivize and enunciate their ways of being in the world.

Derechos de los pueblos indígenas, pluralismo jurídico y defensa cultural en el ámbito penal. Reflexiones a partir del caso mexicano

Several national constitutions and international legal instruments recognize the right to cultural diversity as a fundamental right. At the same time, in multicultural societies there is the possibility that individuals from different cultures consider, as licit, behaviors that are criminally sanctioned by the law of the state. It is therefore discussed whether the cultural factors which conditioned the behavior of the defendant should be taken into account in the assessment of her/his criminal responsibility, both in immigration contexts and in those states where there are indigenous peoples. Focusing on the second case, the article aims to verify the feasibility and the desirability of two possible means of recognition of cultural differences in the criminal field: legal pluralism and the cultural defense. To this purpose, it considers the example of how these means are configured in the Mexican legal order. It then discusses, in a more general and theoretical perspective, the “technical” challenges posed – at the legal, institutional and even socio-anthropological level – both by the constitution of a regime of legal pluralism and by the use of the cultural defense in state courts. Finally, the most recurrent normative arguments for and against cultural pluralism in the criminal field are subjected to critical examination. The analysis leads to the conclusion that, although the identification of possible “advanced balances” between respect for cultural differences and the protection of fundamental rights in the criminal field is a difficult goal to achieve, it is not, however, impossible a priori.

Public Perceptions of Migration as a Criminal Law Issue with a Special Focus on “Cultural Defenses”

Immigration is conceived of as a primary law concern, especially one to be addressed through criminal law. Despite its descriptive accuracy of this view, criminalization of immigration has to be seen rather as putting in question the very governability of the Western states. The paper shows that in trying to tackle this global governance crisis at the domestic level, criminal law is utilized as expansion technique of authoritarian regulation, whereby aliens are implicitly considered as tentatively hostile outcast. Further, the paper shows that the proposal to introduce a system of “cultural defences” in criminal law as a tool of taking cultural attitudes of minorities’ members duly under consideration, cannot do. The reason is, the paper assumes, that, where such defences are accepted, this is so due to the similarity of the respective pleas to the stereotypes of the dominant culture itself. The paper concludes then, that the crucial issue is the need to reinvent ways for establishing a polity without social injustice.

Austrian Albanians between Cultural Integration and Cultural Defense

Abstract This study deals with the issue of cultural integration of a migrant community, i.e. Albanian community or Diaspora in the Austrian society. First, it elaborates culture as an element that distinguishes human beings from other living beings, stating that man is not born with culture but it is rather acquired, developed, cultivated, and enriched during one’s lifetime. It also emphasizes the weight that culture has in society, noting that three forces have the greatest impact on society: the state, religion and culture. The second issue treated is cultural assimilation, as a process of social and cultural fusion of groups with different identities, cultural defense, cultural isolation and ghettoization. The second is Albanian Diaspora in Austria, the history, structure and cultural apology trends. Final and most important element of this research is empirical part, namely the survey applied in the field, i.e. in Austria, with 296 respondents, selected randomly. Among the conclusions are that Austrian Albanians tend cultural self-defense, apology of their code by creating cultural islands, meeting points, being concentrated culturally, that the first generation is more hesitant in accepting the Austrian cultural values compared with the second generation that is more cosmopolitan.

A “Learning from Action” workshop in Japan

PurposeMany people in severe mentally disturbed states do not use language or other symbolic media well or coherently. Therefore, the non-verbal medium needs to be understood by workers with such people. The “Learning from Action” experiential workshop was developed in order to provide an opportunity to learn about hidden messages in the relationships and roles occurring in activities. In August 2017, a workshop was run for the first time in Japan. The purpose of this paper is to report the experience and dynamics observed by the three consultants, who are here the authors of this paper.Design/methodology/approachAfter the workshop all the staff and members, including interpreters, were invited to give feedback.FindingsAnalysis of the feedback data showed certain important dynamics, concerning especially dependence, cultural defences and the defensive role of activity in a multicultural context.Research limitations/implicationsThis is an initial experience to be followed up by later feedback and further workshops.Practical implicationsWorkers awareness of non-verbal communication within the roles of work activities is a training possibility. It faces various resistances including the mental health assumptions of meaninglessness of any communication outside the verbal.Originality/valueThis is a method of training not widely used even in European countries, and is the first in a country in the far east.

The Cultural Defense of Nations. A Liberal Theory of Majority Rights

The Cultural Defense of Nations. A Liberal Theory of Majority Rights

J'aime ta joie parce qu'elle est folle: écrivains en fête (XVIe et XVIIe siècles) by Michel Jeanneret

Reviewed by: J'aime ta joie parce qu'elle est folle: écrivains en fête (XVIe et XVIIe siècles) by Michel Jeanneret Gregory B. Stone Jeanneret, Michel. J'aime ta joie parce qu'elle est folle: écrivains en fête (XVIe et XVIIe siècles). Droz, 2018. ISBN 978-2-600-00562-3. Pp. 232. This book draws upon a host of remarkable sixteenth- and seventeenth-century European (nearly exclusively French) writers, including the famous, infamous, marginal, and unknown, to craft an essayistic Ode to Joy—not the lofty joy of intellectual or mystical pleasure but joy as enjoyment, especially of life's material pleasures. Against the background of the Counter-Reformation's restraint of a variety of modes of freedom, Jeanneret brings to light an overlooked yet abundant element of the cultural defense of an increasingly endangered liberty: the key role played by partisans of laughter and play. As antidotes to interdiction, moral imperatives, the repression of natural instincts, and the assignment of guilt, this host of witting fools celebrates gaiety, utter lack of constraint, the unhindered pursuit of appetites, extreme eccentricity, and absolute freedom of thought, language, and lifestyle—all while violating, mocking, and deflating classicizing norms of beauty, refinement, and order. Festival or carnival for these writers is not a brief contained release of repressed energy but rather constant unregulated activity. They assume the guise of madman, buffoon, and "comedian" (in the modern English sense) both for no reason whatsoever (thus eschewing utility and purposefulness) and for a good reason—to point toward an egalitarian and tolerant social order and to re-balance human life away from aspirations of transcendence toward enjoyment and acceptance of our imperfect reality. Opening with somewhat perfunctory treatment of perhaps unavoidable giants of the sixteenth century (Erasmus, Rabelais, Montaigne), the book gains the reader's sustained interest with its chapter on Béroalde de Verville's Le moyen de parvenir—a work that, flaunting its own inanity, is a wildly inventive unrestrained mess (described by Jeanneret as a massive outburst of creative verve and linguistic innovation nearly unparalleled in French literature and as the most vast collection of gauloiseries ever compiled in France). Not a book of theses and arguments but rather an archaeology of mostly buried and often stunning curiosities, J'aime ta joie parce qu'elle est folle nonetheless does offer, in its latter half, two significant claims: first, that the vogue for undignified genres such as farce and the copious production of pornography in the first half of the seventeenth century was a final salvo of resistance to the Counter-Reformation's prudery and its designation of virtually all desire as sin; secondly, that, as the rising disciplinary regime that increasingly ostracized madness and deviance spelled the end of such institutions as the official position of fool to the king, there was a sort of return of the repressed, as that expelled official was informally reintroduced to the centers of power, in the person of scandal-provoking figures such as Molière, who performed nearly all of the once-recognized functions of the court buffoon. Jeanneret offers numerous sketches of fascinating, sometimes appealing, sometimes disgusting, often perverse rogues and bohemians (both professional and nonprofessional authors) who shuttled back-and-forth between the palaces and the [End Page 203] taverns with ease and impunity. The book is an outstanding adventurer's guide to the other side and the underside of the literature of the French Renaissance. Gregory B. Stone Louisiana State University Copyright © 2019 American Association of Teachers of French

Revealing Medan's Chinese Ethnic Identity in Advertising Grief at Harian Analisa Newspaper

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the mass media and commodity relations of death to the Medan Chinese in the advertisement of mourning in the Harian Analisa newspaper. The method used in this study was descriptive to reveal the mass media and commodity relations of death to Chinese ethnic in Medan in the advertisement of mourning in the daily newspaper The analisa was clear. Data obtained from the results of direct interviews with speakers are qualitative data used to answer the research objectives. The results obtained were Mass Media and the Relationship of Death Commodities to Chinese Ethnicity in Condolence Advertisements in Harian Analisa Newspapers in Medan are two things that are closely related to respect for ancestors as well as the economy. These two activities were embodied by the Harian Analisa Newspaper managed by Chinese people. The Grief Advertisements in Harian Analisa , became one of the Chinese Ethnic identity markers in Medan, which distinguishes it from other ethnicities in Medan City. There are two types of death advertisements, namely Grief News and Grief. Anatomy of Grief Ads: Headline; Sub Headline; Name; Bodycopy; Family name; Photos and Frames. Chinese Ethnic Identity, seen from the presence of Condolence Advertisements in Harian Analisa Newspaper as one of the teachings that the brand is still doing to Repay Budi to People Who Ever Helped; Maintain Closer Kinship in the family; Social Bonding and Togetherness, Cultural Defense and Respect for Ancestors.

A critical evaluation of cultural defence of witchcraft in Zimbabwe and South Africa

A critical evaluation of cultural defence of witchcraft in Zimbabwe and South Africa

The Meaning and Values of Tradition Dedeng Rice Harvest as Local Cultural Defense in Timbang Jaya Village Langkat Regency

This study examines the cultural values of rice harvest dedeng in developing and maintaining the integrity of norms that are compatible with religion. Therefore, the culture that is in accordance with the community in the village of Timbang Jaya Langkat Regency is a cultural heritage deposited by the ancestors. This culture makes the basis for providing knowledge to the people in the village of Timbang Jaya to maintain the religious value of the community. The focus of this study includes the meaning contained in the rice harvest dedeng ritual that will provide knowledge, especially to young people so as not to leave the ritual. This study uses qualitative methods because it wants to get the appropriate data that occurs in the field. Data collection techniques are conducted by conducting interviews, and observation (observation). The results showed that most of the people of Timbang Jaya village of Langkat Regency were affected by the shift of cultural values that were considered incompatible with the present tradition.

Librarian and Traditional Knowledge : A Study Of Urgency and The Role Of Librarian In Traditional Knowledge

Indonesia is an island country which is rich of cultural treasure. These cultural treasure are including moral value, Knowledge and technology that is used by hereditary from local tradition. Most of these hereditary habits are done by oral tradition, so it less of documentations. Library as information center and has function to serve information, willy nilly, librarian has responsibility to preserve the knowledge of traditional culture as intellectual property. Besides of that, the documentation activity will become cultural defense of indonesia so, it can be used by the next generation for learning activity. View the significant of cultural documentation activity, in this paper want to discussion about role of librarian in traditional knowledge. This type of research is study literature research. We will use a variety of literature that discusses traditional knowledge. Then do the assessment about of the role of librarians to traditional knowledge

The Cultural Defense of Nations – A Liberal Theory of Majority Rights,written by Liav Orgad

The Cultural Defense of Nations – A Liberal Theory of Majority Rights,written by Liav Orgad

Marital rape immunity in India: historical anomaly or cultural defence?

This paper will examine the legal position India holds today with respect to marital rape. It will first study how India’s criminal law has been shaped over the years: starting with its colonial common law inheritance from England, and with the development of the criminal law through its inclusion in Macaulay’s Code and continued retention in the Indian Penal Code 1860 (IPC). Outside the IPC, the law has not stood still. There have been recent reforms seeking to advance women’s rights to be free from family violence, such as The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 (PWDVA). After tracing the history of India’s legal responses, the paper will closely investigate the influence of broader Indian culture (claims based on patriarchy and religion) on rape law reform, finally making a case for abolition of the immunity based on the fundamental principle of equality, drawing on arguments from the human rights guarantees included in the Constitution of India, and India’s international legal obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).