Cultural Divides Research Articles

Evidence from sperm whale clans of symbolic marking in non-human cultures

Culture, a pillar of the remarkable ecological success of humans, is increasingly recognized as a powerful force structuring nonhuman animal populations. A key gap between these two types of culture is quantitative evidence of symbolic markers-seemingly arbitrary traits that function as reliable indicators of cultural group membership to conspecifics. Using acoustic data collected from 23 Pacific Ocean locations, we provide quantitative evidence that certain sperm whale acoustic signals exhibit spatial patterns consistent with a symbolic marker function. Culture segments sperm whale populations into behaviorally distinct clans, which are defined based on dialects of stereotyped click patterns (codas). We classified 23,429 codas into types using contaminated mixture models and hierarchically clustered coda repertoires into seven clans based on similarities in coda usage; then we evaluated whether coda usage varied with geographic distance within clans or with spatial overlap between clans. Similarities in within-clan usage of both "identity codas" (coda types diagnostic of clan identity) and "nonidentity codas" (coda types used by multiple clans) decrease as space between repertoire recording locations increases. However, between-clan similarity in identity, but not nonidentity, coda usage decreases as clan spatial overlap increases. This matches expectations if sympatry is related to a measurable pressure to diversify to make cultural divisions sharper, thereby providing evidence that identity codas function as symbolic markers of clan identity. Our study provides quantitative evidence of arbitrary traits, resembling human ethnic markers, conveying cultural identity outside of humans, and highlights remarkable similarities in the distributions of human ethnolinguistic groups and sperm whale clans.

The “Aliens” in Post-Yugoslav Cinema

AbstractThis research explores how the post-Yugoslav film-makers, in particular Nebojša Slijepčević, Goran Dević, and Srđan Keča, investigate the dilemma of ethnic identity and face the cultural division in the post-conflict societies. The article aims to discuss cinematic representations of the other and conduct a deeper textual analysis of the film Srbenka (2018), in comparison to After the War (2006) and Imported Crows (2004). Also, the article bridges the gap between more conceptual literature on transnational cinema (Stephen Crofts, Steven Rawle, Saša Vojković), nationalism studies (Benedict Anderson, Rogers Brubaker, V.P. (Chip) Gagnon Jr.), as well as history (Tara Zahra) and more empirical analysis providing examples from the contemporary post-Yugoslav cinema. Therefore, the article demonstrates how applying theories from different disciplines enrich film analysis when investigating the otherness.

Partisan polarization, historical heritage, and public health: Exploring COVID-19 outcomes.

When the COVID‐19 virus first arrived in the United States in early 2020, many epidemiologists and public health officers counseled for shutdowns and advised policymakers to prepare for a major pandemic. In 2020, though, US society was rife with major political and cultural divides. Some elected leaders promoted policies at odds with the experts, and many people refused to heed the public health‐based communications about the coming pandemic. Additionally, the capacity to respond to a pandemic was distributed in the country in a highly unequal fashion. This paper analyzes the noteworthy geopolitical patterns of COVID‐19 illnesses, subsequent demands on hospitals, and resulting deaths. This description is based on a snapshot of archival data gathered in the midst of the pandemic during late January and early February of 2021. Demographic data, indicators of political party support, indicators of citizen attitudes, and public health compliance behaviors are combined in a multivariate analysis to explain COVID‐19 outcomes at the local government (county) level. The analysis suggests strongly that regional political culture and local demographics played a substantial role in determining the severity of the public health impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic.

Psychological Characteristic Expressions of Different Human Beings as Shown in the Collection of Short Stories ‘Appa Vaasam’

The literary form of the short story is one of the most creative literary forms in today's literary world. The short story is the most appropriate literary form that is very easy to explore social issues. The short story format is optimal for recording thoughts like characteristics, behaviors, feelings, psychology, etc of an individual. In that aspect, Meenasunder's short story collection 'Appavasam' registers several community-based issues. In these community-oriented stories, much space is given to individual feelings. It gives prominence to individual sense and behavioral characteristics. It refers to individual psychological messages as well. In this way, the study sets out to record the traits and qualities of human beings that are manifested due to human mental perceptions in the collection of short stories ‘Appa Vaasam’ based on diverse research sites. On behalf of the Adithravidar Welfare Department of the Government of Tamil Nadu, under the Arts and Culture Division, the work was selected as the best work of the year 2010 and awarded the prize-winning work.

Navigating Cultural Divides via Identity Work: Bulgarian Migrant Entrepreneurs’ Tactics in the UK

ABSTRACTThe changing geopolitical landscapes and increased migration flow across the world call for a fresh perspective on the sociocultural and economic integration of migrants in their new ‘homes’ and ‘communities’. In this qualitative process study, we provide insight into the identity work dynamics that underlie interfirm cooperation in the new business context. We see a sample of Bulgarian migrant entrepreneurs as knowledge boundary spanners who employ identity work tactics for the development of shared norms and values that facilitate knowledge exchange between their home culture and the UK host culture context. This study suggests that knowledge boundary spanning is enabled by a temporal identity work process, characterized by a series of inward and outward identity work tactics. The interplay between inward and outward identity work tactics occurs over phases of identifying identity differences, adopting identity cues, and finally, realizing hybrid identity. This article contributes to the identity work and migrant entrepreneurship literature by exploring the underlying mechanisms for realizing knowledge boundary spanning by migrant entrepreneurs.

Cultural divisions and time: Mapping diachronic homologies using class-specific MCA (CSA)

In this article, we present an alternative approach to study dimensional stability and change in cultural divisions across time. Drawing on recent developments in Geometric Data Analysis (GDA), we combine the use of two distinct statistical techniques: Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) and Class Specific MCA (CSA). Specifically, the approach allows for the systematic investigation of three key aspects: (i) whether and how the dimensionality and the structure of primary axes of geometrical spaces have been stable or subject to change; (ii) how the oppositions depicted by the axes of such spaces have become weaker or stronger; and (iii), how the connection between cultural divisions and class divisions has developed over time. Our exemplary case is Norway and the data stem from five different rounds of The Culture and Media Survey, conducted by Statistics Norway between 2000 and 2016.

Addressing educational disadvantage in Northern Ireland 1921–2021: a history of squandered opportunities?

ABSTRACT A century after partition, this article presents a critical reflection on efforts to address educational disadvantage in Northern Ireland using a Foucauldian genealogical theoretical framework. Beset by religious, political and cultural divisions from the very formation of the state in 1921, the article charts the history of opportunities heralded and then lost, including the initially ambitious though arguably naïve vision of the first Minister of Education, Lord Londonderry; the post-war egalitarian promise of the 1947 Education Act; and the introduction of the common Northern Ireland Curriculum in 1989. It is argued that, historically, education and in particular addressing educational disadvantage has not been a key policy priority for successive governments in Northern Ireland, whose attention has instead too often focused on political power struggles. Set against such a context of political instability and intransigence, the article critically examines the latest and perhaps most promising of all opportunities presented by the publication of A Fair Start, the final report and action plan of the Expert Panel on Educational Underachievement in Northern Ireland, established under the terms of the New Decade, New Approach political settlement of January 2020 and published in June 2021.

Religion and international humanitarian law

AbstractThis article explores the interface between religion and international humanitarian law (IHL), and the degree to which they might complement and reinforce each other. It examines some of the challenges inherent in regulating armed conflict and the understandable limitations of IHL in this respect, and argues that re-engagement with IHL's religious roots can help to alleviate them. Engagement with religious circles mobilizes the vast resources of religions to increase knowledge of IHL and corresponding religious norms, thereby enhancing their legitimacy across religious and cultural divides. This is most effective when comparative study of IHL and religious teachings stimulates mutual learning and debate, in which both correspondences and differences are embraced. In the absence of a strong legal enforcement regime, religions can reinforce military ethics by tapping deeply into the identities, motivations and moral values of many belligerents, and possess powerful means to socialize the rules of war and improve voluntary compliance. Introspective religious practices encourage the moral self-reflection that is most effective at internalizing norms in this respect, as well as providing belligerents with the spiritual and psychological support needed to bolster their resilience and enable them to perform with precision and restraint.

Feeling into empathic poetry … through the prison poems of Mahvash Sabet

ABSTRACT In this essay, I offer a response to conclusions in affect theory that empathy inspired by the reading of a text is unlikely to result in direct action for change. I balance my understanding of empathy and activism in poetry with Lévinasian theories of ethical relationality and moral responsibility. I discuss the unique quality of a collection of prison poems by Persian poet and Bahá'í leader Mahvash Sabet, revealing her remarkable acts of compassion for her fellow prisoners. I explore how her poems awakened my own voice as a poet and an advocate, taking into account the problematic power hierarchies of geographical distance and cultural difference. Finally, I reflect on the way empathic poetry can provide a shared language capable of reaching across geographical and cultural divides.

France in the Times of COVID-19

This article examines the role of the public humanities in France during Covid-19 for self-preservation, coping with isolation, understanding an upended world, creating a sense of connection and belonging, and cultivating empathy for others. For instance, in dealing with the existential angst of confinement and economic woes, one of the novels that resonated the most in France and globally was Albert Camus’s The Plague. At the very moment that France enforced measures to restrict access to places of culture, many French people turned to the humanities for comfort and perspective. The pandemic accelerated the need for libraries, galleries, bookstores, museums, concert halls, opera houses, theaters, cinemas, and nightclubs, as well as places of dialogue like cafés and bistros. Dialogue and the cocreation of physical and virtual communities were needed as the spread of false information relating to science, vaccines, and nation exacerbated pre-pandemic divisions in French culture.

Typology of cultures: theoretical analysis

The purpose of the article is to theoretical analysis of typologies of culture. Methodology. In achieving this goal, the following research methods used: comparison, systematization, and generalization of the problem under study, made it possible to rationally comprehend the diversity of cultures, and to obtain a holistic understanding of the images of specific cultures. Revealing and characterizing the types of culture made it possible to build its typology. Scientific Novelty. A theoretical analysis of the typology of cultures and a generalized understanding of the images of specific cultures are carried out. Conclusions. A typology of culture is created through a comparative study of different cultures and their systematization. The typology can be based on various criteria, in particular: belonging to the historical type of society, regional affiliation, common religion, ethnic characteristics, type of activity of society, common territory, etc. At the present stage, there is no unambiguous view of understanding the typology of culture, but two main approaches can be distinguished: historical (universal) and regional (local). There is also a geographical division of cultures by type: East-West. In the West, pragmatism, materialism and rationalism prevail, in the East collectivism, spirituality, idealism and a certain passivity are characteristic. In the process of interaction of cultures, their interpenetration and cultural synthesis take place, as a result of which new elements appear, existing types are enriched and new forms and types of cultures appear.
 Key words: types of cultures, typology, classification, culture.

Language: Charioteer of culture and development

Giving a complete definition of culture is a very difficult task. There is a saying in English that civilization is what we have, culture is what we have, in other words, culture is related to the soul, whatever is helpful in the progress of the soul, is the tool of all culture. Music and various arts are the tools of all culture, the culture of the interest of the mind. The means and tools by which all of them come in the field of culture. Civilization Where there is intellectual development, culture is where there is mental development. Man will become human only by having mental development. Man is the only such species in the world. By itself, human values are greater than ourselves, and are always committed to protect them. Culture is concerned with the human-made mental environment. Culture is the expression of our intrinsic nature in our way of living and thinking. Two divisions of culture can be said. physical and non-material. Material culture is related to the subjects that we call our civilization, and are related to the physical aspects of our life, such as our clothes, food, household items etc. Non-material culture is related to ideas, ideals, feelings and beliefs. The people of any country are identified only by their specific cultural traditions.

“Turning Their Back on Kids”: Inclusions, Exclusions, and the Contradictions of Schooling in Gentrifying Rural Communities

In this ethnographic case study of amenity-driven rural development, we illustrate how the school as a local institution can provide social, cultural, and educational privilege to some students while systematically withholding it from others. Rural gentrification, although representing new resources to historically struggling places, can exacerbate existing inequalities or create new ones, or both. This study not only challenges more communitarian visions of the rural school-community relationship, but also underscores the complexities and contradictions of rural development that can often inadvertently create, reproduce, or deepen social, cultural, and economic divides. These issues assume a particular saliency at a time of pronounced spatial, social, and economic division in the United States given that local institutions like public schools play vital roles in either bridging or widening these divides.

Integrated Academic, Research, and Professional Experiences for 2-Year College Students Lowered Barriers in STEM Engagement: A Case Study in Geosciences

Two-year community college (CC) students face many barriers for recruitment and retention into Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields and vertical transfer to 4-year universities (4YUs). Experiential learning, mentoring, and cohort building are effective mechanisms for increasing STEM recruitment and retention, and close collaborations between CCs and 4YUs leverage complementary opportunities, supporting vertical transfer. We present a case study incorporating these concepts for a year-long Geoscience Education and Outreach Program (GEOP), a collaboration among a CC, a 4YU, and a non-profit science center, where 20 CC students participated in integrated academic, research, and internship components over three years. We present program design, implementation, revision, and outcomes for both students and institutions. Cohort-building activities encouraged professional conversations and built peer connections that addressed imposter syndrome, cultural divides, and other personal barriers to vertical transfer. The academic component had the highest completion rate, and a majority of respondents in exit interviews reported the internship as the most valuable experience, with half naming research or aspects thereof as most valuable. The vertical transfer exceeded typical CC rates, with 70% of GEOP students transferring to a 4YU, all in STEM disciplines. Successful implementation of GEOP required multi-institutional coordination, effective mentor-mentor and mentor-student communication, and continued program flexibility. Based upon our experiences, we provide several recommendations for implementations of similar programs.

Rural Society, Democratic Exclusion, and the Cultural Divide: Moving Towards a Research Agenda of the Study of Ruralness

This paper contends that rural communities in the United States and Europe broadly have been mainly studied as a dichotomy to their urban counterparts. The focus on cities and urban centers and an inculcation of myths and assumptions regarding ruralness have led to knowledge gaps, misperceptions, and missed opportunities in public administration and policy studies. This paper interrogates misconceptions about ruralness and refutes them. It identifies a gap in research agendas, knowledge, and scholarship about ruralness; explores issues with the design of policies and, therefore, policy implications concerning rural communities; and describes how the misconceptions, the lack of scholarly knowledge, and policy implications coalesce to drive a feeling of marginalization and exclusion in rural communities, fuelling a “culture war” dynamic. The conclusion offers potential directions for establishing a research agenda that prioritizes studying rural society as a subgroup with unique needs and belief systems.

Enhancing Climate Change Education through Links to Agriculture

Anthropogenic climate change is an urgent and pervasive challenge, yet it remains a polarizing subject. In the United States, studies have shown that rural communities tend to view climate change with less urgency than urban communities, which could delay action in response to the crisis. In rural areas that are highly dependent on agricultural production for their economies, linking climate change to agriculture could be key for improving climate change education. Here we propose a three-part framework that engages student and community knowledge of a locally relevant crop system to make local-global connections, connect the system to climate change, and analyze, critique, and design actionable solutions. The inclusion of lessons that link climate change effects to agriculture could play an important role in more effectively building understanding across cultural and regional divides.

Culturally competent care in the neonatal intensive care unit, strategies to address outcome disparities

In the past two years, we have witnessed social unrest, the unequal effects of a pandemic across our society, and a focus on how systems in the United States produce unequal outcomes along racial and cultural divides. With increased national awareness, there has also been a call for change in healthcare, specifically racial inequities in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) outcomes (1). While race may be a data point used to classify outcomes, it has no basis in biology, and merely identifying it does not make it simple to address. To address these inequities we need to look past the social construct of race and to the social aspects of our care in the NICU. Focusing on small and large changes that we can make as individuals, units, and as a specialty that can improve the care and outcomes of this at-risk patient population. This perspective focuses on culturally congruent care, trauma-informed care, and other approaches to reduce disparities in neonatal outcomes.

Ocean Weaves: Reconfigurations of Climate Justice in Oceania

This article engages weaving as a model of feminist decolonial climate justice methodology in Oceania. In particular, it looks to three weaver-activists who use their practices to reclaim the matrixial power of the ocean (as maternal womb and network of relation) in the face of ongoing US occupation in the Pacific: Marshallese poet and climate activist Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner; Hawai‘i-based settler-ally weaver and installation artist Mary Babcock; and Kānaka Maoli sculptor Kaili Chun, also based in Hawai‘i. Each artist begins from a particular positionality in the ongoing open weave of the ocean and uses specific cultural ontologies of weaving and netting to address knots and gaps in climate change imaginaries. These weavers help to articulate important nuances in recent calls for working in solidarity networks at the cultural interface of climate justice activism. Their processes directly address the need for greater emotional and relational capacity across cultural and national divides, across Indigenous and non-Indigenous feminist critiques of colonial-capitalist systems and through inter-connected waters.

Pre-service teachers’ views of schools as workplaces in a system of social, cultural and religious division: to be “selfish” or to be a “hero”?

ABSTRACT Teachers seeking work in market-oriented schooling systems confront a range of settings within which they might teach. This article presents the views of ten teachers on the cusp of beginning teaching in the market-oriented schooling system of Australia, regarding the school or schools they would like to work in as teachers. Data were gathered via in-depth, semi-structured interviews and analysed with reference to Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, field, doxa and misrecognition. Key considerations of pre-service teachers are analysed as falling into two broad categories: feeling like a “professional”, and considerations of equity (with “equity” being variously defined). I argue that a habitus formed within the neoliberal doxa of the education system in Australia provides fertile ground for these new teachers to feel like a “professional” in some schooling fields more than others, with an associated tension of needing to be either “selfish” or a “hero” when thinking about where they would like to work. I conclude by highlighting some of the difficulties present in each of these positions, both problematic if schools are understood as socio-cultural institutions located in a diverse national landscape.

“The Selling of American Girls”

This article examines how white slave narratives in California helped inscribe social, cultural, and institutional divides at the U.S.-Mexico border during the Progressive Era. The predicament of American prostitution in Mexicali and Tijuana amplified fears of interracial sex, which readily translated into hysteria over white slavery throughout California. Consequently, concerned citizens decried the so-called trafficking of American girls at the border and contributed to growing demands for a more rigid international boundary. As such, this panic over white slavery and the “protection of white womanhood” helped construct both figurative and literal borders between the United States and Mexico between 1910 and 1930, an era recognized by scholars as a critical moment in the social reordering of California’s nonwhite inhabitants. Analysis of local newspapers, club records, vice reports, reformers’ correspondence, and government documents reveal that the ascription of racial difference rested upon lurid portrayals of sexual deviance in border towns—particularly among African Americans and the Chinese. Such representations colored the Mexican border, and perhaps Mexicans themselves, as menacing to both American women and the nation itself. These stories galvanized support for closing and fortifying the U.S.-Mexico line early in the century.