Cultural Milieu Research Articles

Al-Ghazali and his Interpreters: The Case of the Emperor Aurangzeb

The integration of South Asia into a Persianate world or “Persianate cosmopolis” has proven to be a particularly popular framing of the study of South Asian history. In Venture of Islam, Marshall Hodgson describes the Persianate as follows: The rise of Persian had more than purely literary consequences: it served to carry a new overall cultural orientation within Islamdom. Henceforth, while Arabic held its own as the primary language of the religious disciplines and even, largely, of natural science and philosophy, Persian became, in an increasingly large part of Islamdom, the language of polite culture; it even invaded the realm of scholarship with increasing effect. It was to form the chief model for the rise of still other languages to the literary level … Most of the more local languages of high culture that later emerged among Muslims likewise depended upon Persian wholly or in part for their prime literary inspiration. We may call all these cultural traditions, carried in Persian or reflecting Persian inspiration, “Persianate” by extension.Much of the subsequent theorization and conceptualization of the “Persianate” owes a significant debt to Hodgson's framing. Scholars have emphasized different aspects of the “Persianate,” with some choosing to frame it as a cultural milieu and others as a linguistically connected region. Here, “Persianate cosmopolis” refers to a geographical area whose major cultural foundation are the stories, ideas, and motifs expressed in New Persian literature. The circulation of such New Persian texts has supplied the primary content of the “Persianate cosmopolis.”

Holocaust memoir literature after 1945 in Slovak and Italian cultural milieus

The paper is focused on the Holocaust memoir literature published after 1945 in Slovak and Italian cultural milieus and on the interliterary relations between these two literatures. The first part of the paper discusses the specifications of the memoir literature as a genre, presenting definitions by significant Slovak, Czech and Italian literary scholars. The second and the third parts explain the developement of the topic of the Holocaust within the Slovak and Italian cultural milieus and extends it in the Slovak-Italian interliterary context, pointing out some concrete examples of the contacts between the two literatures.

Following the steps of the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ in the Ottoman world. I: Insights from three universal histories

Abstract This article is a first step in a project to study the influence of the Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ in the Ottoman world. We argue that, at least from the end of the fourteenth century until well into the second half of the sixteenth, the knowledge presented in the encyclopedic Rasāʾil was a conspicuous scholarly source for the Ottoman cultural milieu, especially at the dynastic court, and played a significant role in forming their epistemological perspective. This argument is developed with reference to three universal histories: (1) in Turkish, the İskendernāme (Book of Alexander) of Taceddin İbrahim İbn Hızır Ahmedi (d. 1413) written between the last quarter of the fourteenth century and the first quarter of the fifteenth; (2) in Arabic, the Naẓm al-sulūk fī musāmarat al-mulūk (The ordering of ways for the conversation of kings) by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Bisṭāmī (d. 1454), a prominent intellectual and expert in occult sciences, protégé of Sultan Murad II (r. 1421–44, 1446–51); (3) in Persian, the first volume of Shāhnāmā-yi Āl-i ʿUsmān (Book of kings of the house of ʿUsmān) by the Sufi intellectual and litterateur Fethullah Çelebi (d. 1561/62), better known by his pen-name ʿArif. The choice of these three histories enables us to mark the time period for the influence of the Rasāʾil, stretching it (in both directions) further than is accepted in present scholarship. These histories enable us also to draw attention to the proximity to the Ottoman dynasty of the cultural milieu attuned to the Rasāʾil, and highlight the relationship between history and knowledge that is central both for the texts under study here and the Rasāʾil.

Jesus in African tradition: the spirit of Christ in the Asante pre-Christian religio-cultural context

The history of Christian expansion has revealed that whenever the Christian gospel enters a new cultural milieu, new questions are asked that have to do with the nexus between the gospel and human cultures. A major question that arises whenever the Christian gospel enters a new cultural context is: How should new converts relate to their cultural past? Or, how far can the gospel be adapted to fit into a culture without losing its essential message? This has been a major issue African Christians have had to grapple with upon their conversion.

The Effective a Native Teacher of English Language in Saudi Arabia EFL Classroom

This research study attempts to find out the best practices that can make a Native English teacher an efficient and effective teacher in Saudi Arabia and the cultural difference that can effect students’ learning process. English teaching by native English teachers is preferred due to their high fluency and proficiency on the language, however they bring their own set of cultural norms and perspectives in the classroom that they value the most. Cultural milieus must be given much attention, when a foreign language is taught, as children are still in the early stages of internalizing their own culture and values. A mixed approach was utilized for the study. A questionnaire on a 5-point scale was distributed to students to understand their perceptions on the effectiveness of native English teachers in the classroom. A semi-structured interview with open ended questions was also conducted with native English teachers to understand how they perform in classroom. Three themes were generally focused on teacher effectiveness, cultural difference, and preferred language in classroom. Overall, the students were satisfied with the teaching capabilities of NESTs having neutral opinions about cultural difference. Cultural barrier was considered as a hurdle by the teachers but at the same time teacher’s nativity was reflected as significant in learning. Where students’ preferred bilingual methods in the classroom, teachers considered the use of mother tongue an impedance in English learning and therefore should be avoided.

Urban-semantic computer vision: a framework for contextual understanding of people in urban spaces

Increasing computational power and improving deep learning methods have made computer vision technologies pervasively common in urban environments. Their applications in policing, traffic management, and documenting public spaces are increasingly common (Ridgeway 2018, Coifman et al. 1998, Sun et al. 2020). Despite the often-discussed biases in the algorithms' training and unequally borne benefits (Khosla et al. 2012), almost all applications similarly reduce urban experiences to simplistic, reductive, and mechanistic measures. There is a lack of context, depth, and specificity in these practices that enables semantic knowledge or analysis within urban contexts, especially within the context of using and occupying urban space. This paper will critique existing uses of artificial intelligence and computer vision in urban practices to propose a new framework for understanding people, action, and public space. This paper revisits Geertz's (1973) use of thick descriptions in generating interpretive theories of culture and activity and uses this lens to establish a framework to approach evaluating the varied uses of computer vision technologies that weigh meaning. By discussing cases of implemented examples of urban computer vision—from LinkNYC and Numina's urban measurements to the Detroit Police's use of DataWorks Plus's facial recognition technology—it proposes a framework for evaluating the thickness of the algorithm's conclusions against the computational method's complexity required to produce that outcome. Further, we discuss how the framework's positioning may differ (and conflict) between different users of the technology, from engineer to urban planner and policymaker, to citizen. This paper also discusses how the current use and training of deep learning algorithms and how this process limits semantic learning and proposes three potential methodologies toward gaining a more contextually specific, urban-semantic, description of urban space relevant to urbanists. This paper contributes to the critical conversations regarding the proliferation of artificial intelligence by challenging the current applications of these technologies in the urban environment by highlighting their failures within this context while also proposing an evolution of these algorithms that may ultimately make them sensitive and useful within this spatial and cultural milieu.

In search of teacher professionalism: TVET teachers' "dual narrative" of professionalism

Teachers in public sector technical and vocational education (TVET) colleges in South Africa have recently moved into the 'required to be professionally qualified' category. Required professionalism differs from enacted professionalism, so the research study on which we report in this article sought to understand how National Certificate (Vocational) (NC(V)) lecturers in Engineering Studies and Business Studies comply with, accommodate, or resist the institutionalised professional culture(s) of their colleges and classrooms. We gathered data through surveys and focus group interviews from 205 lecturers in 10 TVET colleges in five provinces for this study. We found a "dual narrative" of professionalism. NC(V) teachers aspire to a distinctive vocational pedagogy that confirms their status as professional TVET teachers, but it is beyond their reach when institutionalised professional cultures constrain rather than enable. They, therefore, describe the cultural milieu of college and classroom in terms of idealised educational values (as they would like them to be rather than as they are) to enable, potentially, an enacted professionalism that allows them to cope with restrictive and assessment-dominated professional cultures as currently experienced.

A feminist engagement with Spanish modernism: the social objects of “las Sinsombrero”

ABSTRACT Spanish archives house hundreds of documents related to avant-garde male poets who wrote during a period of cultural effervescence known as the Silver Age of Spanish literature (1898–1936). Feminist researchers like Tània Balló and Nuria Capdevila-Argüelles have successfully brought attention to the smaller corpus of archival materials related to modern women artists and writers, known as “las Sinsombrero”, who rebelliously took their hats off in public. Scholars working with female subjects must confront the inaccessibility of material documentation to address the historical absence of modern Spanish women. Balló's three Las Sinsombrero documentaries exemplify the wealth of non-material documentation about the lived experiences of women within cultural networks. I argue that Maurizio Ferraris's theory of documentality provides a key methodology for examining non-material social objects, such as gatherings of women at the “Academy of Witches,” as legitimate objects of study that can better represent the cultural milieu of Silver Age Spain.

Local Community Care-based Activism and Civic Engagement Among Canadian Arab Youth

Youth today are engaging in civic-oriented activities in ways that differ from previous generations. Civic engagement refers to volunteerism and service-oriented activities and programs that expand community, ground social networks, help people, and make civil society possible. We find from this study that Canadian Arab youth give considerable service back to their communities, especially within the communities of their own cultural milieu, but also significantly within their wider Canadian municipalities, and that, on balance, they have higher rates of engagement than the wider Canadian youth population. In this paper, we problematize and substantiate many arguments about ethnic minority youth political participation through an analysis of the local community-care activism and civic engagement of Canadian Arab youth.

Exploring the Nexus between Masculinity and Men’s Mental Health: Case of Goromonzi Peri Urban Mashonaland East Zimbabwe

The heavy politicization of masculinity within societies has magnified help seeking skepticism and presents a major public health challenge. While previous studies have focused on efficacy of interventions, less has been done with regards to the recipients of services. This has spurred the rationale for this study which sought to explore the nexus between masculinity and men’s mental health. Courtenay’s relational theory of gender and men’s health was used in this study. A convenient sample of 50 respondents were purposively and randomly selected from across the various ranks of the population of the study. Sampled were 5 boys, 5 girls, 20 men and 20 women who were later involved in both Focused Group Discussions and interviews. Extra data was obtained through in-depth interviews conducted with both females and male in Goromonzi staff. The interview results identified and outlined themes on the health-seeking behaviour amongst men in the peri urban areas of Goromonzi. The paper argues that despite availability of health centres, men still resent or detest consulting on health issues. Findings showed that health promotion programs go a long way towards promoting a change in individual behavior including health seeking tendencies. Results shows that cultural milieu, masculinity and cultural norms remain major influencers of men’s health-seeking behaviour. This study concludes that being a man takes on a universal status, generalisable and immutable. Aggression, reason, a need for control, competitiveness, and emotional reticence. From the above conclusion, the study recommends robust health education, sensitization and campaigns to enhance health-seeking behaviour amongst men in communities. Further recommendations include addressing cultural norms, supporting community health care workers as well as employing the multi sectoral approach at community level.

Satyajit ray’s detective fiction and its socio-cultural impact in 19th century Bengal

Satyajit Ray invented the fictional Kolkata-based private investigator known as Bengali Sleuth Feluda, whose real name is Pradosh Chandra Mitter. He frequently has two sidekicks by his side: Lalmohan Ganguly, a clumsy crime fiction author who goes by the pen name Jatayu, and Topshe, his cousin Tapesh Ranjan Mitra. There is no readily documented legendary genesis story for Satyajit Ray's private eye Feluda, yet it is also not a case of accidental artistic whim. The prehistory of Ray's favourite detective character may be determined by carefully examining his intellectual and cultural milieu. Ray has given Feluda some characteristics that make him different from the stereotypes. In addition to taking down smugglers in Bombay, Feluda exposes a conspiracy and pursues a criminal who is trying to desecrate Indian temples across the country. The study explores the sociocultural imprint Satyajit Ray left in Bengal in the nineteenth century through his detective fiction, Robertsoner Ruby (Robertson’s Ruby) Hatyapuri (The House of the Death). It reframes writings and the repeating ideas and motifs they include within a larger social and historical framework. This essay also makes an effort to highlight Ray's singularity in terms of his background, methods of detection, and narrative tactics. By borrowing Bengal's rich cultural heritage, Ray localised the genre and used his protagonist to try to solve the unanswered mysteries.

Primjena storitelinga u političkim odnosima s javnošću

Storytelling is one of the techniques in public relations. Its application is based on man's need to transpone life into stories and psychological mechanisms that make people think through metaphors and share a common experience through mythical and archetypal motifs deeply embedded in their collective unconscious. Sociological observations of narratives emphasize the important role of stories in the construction of the self and collectivity, in the establishing and maintenance of social authorities, while treating the story as a critical and even liberating discursive form. Global insecurity and modern technologies have increased the use of webcasting in various media, which, in the era of information blizzard, identity hyperproduction and the tribal character of the Internet, turns out to be an effective tool for the promotion of political candidates, for which this research offers a number of illustrative examples from different political and cultural milieus.

"¿Tengo que comer gato?" Racial Stereotype in Quan Zhou Wu's Gente de aquí. Gente de allí. Ensayo gráfico sobre migrantes y españoles

Abstract: Quan Zhou Wu's 2020 graphic essay, Gente de aquí. Gente de allí. Ensayo gráfico sobre migrantes y españoles ironizes racial stereotypes present in the twenty-first century Spanish cultural milieu to question the role of whiteness as an enduring signifier of national belonging in Spain. Throughout this work, which unites sociological research on race, identity, and immigration in Spain with graphic hyperbolization, Zhou Wu both draws, and draws on, offensive caricatures to parody and problematize the practice of defining national identity solely by race. In reifying visual and verbal discourses of difference, Zhou Wu reappropriates her own racialized identity as a multicultural Chinese Spaniard as a space from which to critique and contest constructs of whiteness held as fundamental to contemporary Spanish national racial imaginary. This graphic essay directly responds to the urgent need to affirm the marginalization and racialization of immigrants and Spaniards of color; at the same time, it requires its readers to bear witness to psychic damage done by a nation that maintains whiteness as an essential element of Spanish identity. Through its application of racial stereotypes, Gente de aquí subverts a cycle that would maintain an arbitrary hierarchy of humanity and thus the paradoxical binarization of racial and national identities, in which skin color is ascribed the power to dictate and define national character. Zhou Wu calls upon readers to unmake their assumptions about racialized Spaniards like herself and instead locate them within a national imaginary that, crucially, is inclusive of all who identify as Spanish.

ЛОКАЛЬНА ТА РЕГІОНАЛЬНА ІДЕНТИЧНОСТІ В КУЛЬТУРНОМУ ПРОСТОРІ ПОКУТТЯ

This scientific article delves into the analysis of the intricate relationship between local and regional identity within the cultural milieu of Pokuttia. It sheds light on the processes of differentiation and identification that occur within this particular region. Notably, the understanding of the terms "local" and "regional" is contingent upon the scales of the spatial plane where these phenomena are juxtaposed within the realm of cultural geography. A pioneering interdisciplinary approach in cultural regional studies has brought forth a comprehensive examination of various cultural peculiarities specific to the Pokuttia region. These peculiarities encompass elements such as toponyms and the local language prevalent in the Pokuttian area, and their intricate interplay with other social aspects of the region's vibrant life. Through this multidisciplinary lens, a deeper understanding of the intricate tapestry of the region's cultural landscape has been attained. The essence of the discourse is the pivotal role that place assumes as the spatial foundation of local identity. Place emerges as a significant constituent imbued with its own set of symbolic, historical, and ideological attributes. It serves as a profound backdrop against which the nuances of local identity are shaped and expressed. Consequently, the profound interconnection between place and identity becomes a cornerstone for comprehending the complex dynamics within the Pokuttian cultural space. Moreover, this research affirms the inseparable link between local identity and the individual as the principal agent of spatial social reality. The individual, by infusing meaning into a particular place, distinguishes it as either "one's own" or "foreign." This dichotomy is primarily informed by a profound sense of uniqueness and a conscious choice in self-identification within the overarching global context. The interplay among place, individual, and society emerges as the fundamental constituents representing the fabric of local identity – an intricate construct encompassing both personal and collective consciousness within the broader paradigm of cultural space. The insights provided in this article offer valuable contributions to the understanding of the intricate interplay between local and regional identity within the unique cultural context of Pokuttia. Scholars and researchers in the fields of cultural studies, geography, and related disciplines will find these findings pertinent to their exploration of identity dynamics and cultural diversity in various regional contexts

Il codice delle Enarrationes in Psalmos miniato da Michelino da Besozzo

This article studies an illuminated manuscript of St. Augustine’s Enarrationes in Psalmos: Vat. lat. 451 (Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana). The manuscript was commissioned by the bishop Giovanni Capogallo, when he was in Lombardy in close contact with the court of the duke Gian Galeazzo Visconti. The article examines the cultural milieu of Pavia in the early 15th century, highlighting the role of the Order of the Hermits of Saint Augustine in the monastery of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro. The two incipit pages ff. 1r and 239r, illuminated by Michelino da Besozzo, are an example of the International Gothic style and this article analyses not only their stylistic aspect, but also their allegorical meaning, as an interesting case of decoration of a patristic text.

Joseph Smith: History, Methods, and MemoryProphetic Authority: Democratic Hierarchy and the Mormon Priesthood

Joseph Smith: History, Methods, and MemoryProphetic Authority: Democratic Hierarchy and the Mormon Priesthood

A Compassionate Correspondence: On the Humane Killing of Street Dogs in Istanbul

In lieu of an abstract: Located in the Istanbul Research Institute Library archives, this original autographed document is a typewritten letter from Nazım Kıbrızlı, the president of the Turkish Society for the Protection of Animals (Türkiye Hayvanları Koruma Cemiyeti) throughout the 1940s.1 It is a reader’s letter directly addressed to Fikret Adil (1901–1973), a prominent figure in Istanbul’s cultural milieu from the early republican period onward.

A Comparison of the State-Favored Religions in Turkey and Hungary

Is it possible to establish a radical separation between religion and politics in constitutionally secular states? Is religion a private or political matter? In many countries, religious people are becoming activists, involving politics, trying to change the policies based on their beliefs or get a share of the state power. Their claims sometimes fall within the democratic structure of the country, and sometimes outside of it. This paper provides insight into the relation between state and religion by focusing on the religious politics of two countries, Turkey and Hungary This study is, in essence, a crossregional and cross-religious comparative study, presenting the very first comparison of the state-religion relationships in the two countries. Ninian Smart’s concept of dimensions of religion will be used as a framework to extract a pattern for each country. These dimensions exist in social systems and reflect the cultural and social milieu in which people socialize and build their own beliefs. Our goal is to present and prove that the religious features of Turkey and Hungary are comparable and show similarities along each dimension of Smart. Exploratory qualitative analysis will be employed to collect and analyze qualitative data in order to generate new concepts and generalizations. The data will be collected from open sources, such as newspapers, statistics, and survey results in Hungary and Turkey, to find the answer to the research questions. The main results of our comparative analysis are, first, evidence for substantial similarities regarding the presence of religion in the public sphere in each Smartian dimension, although in countries that are very different in terms of religion. Second, our systematic and structured analysis provides a strong and impartial invitation for further comparative research from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives. This study is going to provide data collected from open sources such as newspapers, statistics, survey results in Hungary and Turkey, in order to find the reply to these questions.

Sayyid Qutb: An Intellectual Biography

Sayyid Qutb: An Intellectual Biography

Multiple Island Temporalities

This paper seeks to explore the notion of “island time” as a metaphor for addressing the multiple island temporalities emerging in the community of Sali, the biggest settlement on the southern shore of Dugi otok. In general, temporalities are conceived as the mode and the rhythm of being, entangled within the thick web of social, cultural, spatial, economic, gendered, and ideological transformations. The concept of “multiple temporalities”, inspired by the time studies and the anthropology of thime theoretical framework, points to the processes of diverse temporal frames and rhythms overlapping, intertwining, and coexisting. The focus of this paper is on the emergence of linčarnica, a triangular slope in the port of Sali. Based on ethnographic research, the paper will address the problems involved in the social and cultural creation of “island time”, popularly known as time moving at a slower pace. By problematising the concept of temporality at the crossroads of Mediterranean studies, island studies, time studies, and Balkan studies, the paper will address questions of specific, island-triggered, and socially performed atmospheric “island time” rebranded for the purpose of tourism and imagined within the specific cultural and social milieu of Dalmatia.