Latin Culture Research Articles

Confidants for life: Examining sibling relationship positivity and disclosure in U.S. Latinx college students while considering the role of familism

Familism is a central facet of Latin culture, yet there has been little work examining its role within the sibling relationship. Importantly, young adulthood provides a unique context where sibling dynamics may shift as independence increases and one begins to solidify their personal beliefs. During this time, sibling relationship quality remains influential. One mechanism to encourage positive sibling relationships is by teasing apart disclosure content. Therefore, we posited the following research questions: Is disclosure content associated with sibling relationship quality? Are there differential associations between familism dimensions (referent, support, obligations, and respect for family) and sibling relationship quality? Do these familism dimensions moderate the association between domain-differentiated disclosure and sibling relationship quality? To address these questions, via online surveys, 186 Latinx undergraduates ( M age = 21.35, SD = 1.79) reported on frequency of disclosure to their closest-in-age sibling, sibling relationship quality, and endorsement of four familism values. Findings revealed that more frequent engagement in personal disclosure (e.g., “How I spend my free time”) was associated with more reports of sibling positivity. With prudential disclosure (e.g., “Whether I smoke cigarettes”), more frequent disclosure was associated with less sibling positivity. All four dimensions of familism were associated with more sibling positivity. For personal disclosure, across all familism models, its association with sibling positivity was magnified under average to high levels of familism endorsement. For prudential disclosure, its association with sibling relationship quality was magnified under high levels of familism endorsement for all models except for respect for family. Within the respect for family model, when endorsed at low levels, multifaceted (e.g., “Whether I stay out late”) disclosure was associated with more sibling positivity. Our study highlights the particularly positive implications of siblings disclosing about personal domain issues compared to other topical domains. Our work also suggests familism is positive for sibling relationships, but interestingly, when it interacts with disclosure, the findings are mixed.

Examining Differences Among Latinos Not Adherent to Cancer Screening Guidelines: A Latent Class Analysis

Cancer screening rates are low among Hispanic individuals. We examined subgroups of Latinos not adherent to cancer screening guidelines, using latent class analyses, to identify how different facets of cultural identity and risk factors might coalesce. Analyses of 2,873 Hispanic/Latino individuals revealed six latent classes: Connected Immigrants, Bridging Locals, Rooted Locals, Bridging Immigrants, Isolated Locals, and Connected Locals. Multinomial regression analysis also was used to examine sociodemographic and health care predictors of belonging to each latent class. Results show that the Connected Immigrants group, who are highly connected with their Latin culture and Spanish language dominant, stood in stark contrast to Rooted Locals, US born and English language dominant with non-Hispanic/Latino friendship groups. Rooted Locals also were more likely to have a usual source of care and less likely to have visited a doctor in the past year. These differences could shape health messaging beyond common variables such as ethnicity and language.

Literary theory and its role in modern and contemporary criticism: A critical approach

This research aims to identify the relationship between the concepts of "literary theory" and "literary criticism"; as a crisis was formed in reaching an agreement between the critics on defining the concept of these terms. Thus, the research seeks to identify these two terms and examine their implications in the modern literary lesson. The research takes an analytical and investigative approach based on how to use terms, understand them and apply them in research writing. The research has found that there is a discrepancy in the use of terms and their understanding and invocation in research writing. These terms came to us from Europe, which took them from the Greek and Latin cultures. The research concludes that there is a difference between critics and writers during the literary study about basic concepts, which requires them to go through them by definition, commentary, and deduction, such as the concept of literature itself, creativity, reception, criticism, literary history, literary schools, and others.

Research on the Contemporary Value and Realization Path of Integrating Red Resources into College Dance Teaching in the Internet Era

Abstract In higher education, there is a strong emphasis on integrating ideological resources into the educational process. For majors in dance art, incorporating elements of Latin culture into the curriculum is a significant pedagogical challenge. This study utilizes the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) approach to explore the contemporary relevance of red dance education and its determinants. Using PLS-SEM, we analyzed how red dance education in higher education impacts political identity, cultural self-confidence, and expressive capabilities related to red art among teachers and students. A questionnaire survey was conducted to assess the efficacy of a newly developed teaching resource library for red dance in fostering a deeper integration of red cultural elements into dance education. The findings indicate that red dance teaching positively affects contemporary values related to political identity, cultural self-assurance, and artistic expression, with β coefficients exceeding 0.23 and significance levels at 0.05. The use of the red dance teaching resource library Received positive feedback from 80% of students, with either “relatively approving” or “highly approving” responses. This research provides theoretical support and innovative pathways for the profound integration of red cultural elements into collegiate dance education, thereby enhancing the educational value of red culture within this field.

Latin Jewish Families and Their Educational Choices: Navigating Multiple Identities

ABSTRACT This study explores how Latin Jewish families navigate their intersecting identities as they make educational and other socialization choices for their children regarding heritage language and culture. Using a qualitative approach, the study focuses on six women, all mothers of young children living in San Francisco/Bay Area, who have chosen to transmit Jewish and Latin cultures and Spanish language to their children. Data analysis involved thematic coding and a grounded theory approach. The findings suggest that parents’ (in this case, mothers’) diasporic and minoritized cultural experiences play a large role in shaping their views, goals and practices for transmitting multiple diasporic cultures to their children. Understanding their choices offers Jewish educators and institutional leaders a critical view into better serving this Jewish demographic.

Editorial

In this editorial, Hancock discusses the future of the journal Fashion, Style & Popular Culture (FSPC). He outlines the historical topics the journal has featured such as ‘Cultural Appropriation’, ‘Black Lives Matter’, ‘Latin Culture’, ‘LGBTQIA’, ‘Queer’, ‘Sexuality and Erotica’, ‘Porn’, ‘Body Diversity’ and twice for ‘Retail and Merchandising Technologies’; revealing how FSPC has been in sync with the zeitgeist following Intellect’s publishing motto of original ideas and thoughts. This issue is dedicated to Jude Tallichet, a colleague and close friend whose complex, funny, profound and moving art encapsulates the same spirit animating our journal. We appreciate and admire your dedication and love from your friend Joy Sperling and your family at Fashion, Style & Popular Culture (FSPC).

Witchcraft: A Survey of Medieval Ecstasy

The article examines the phenomenon of witchcraft in medieval Europe, focusing on the role of ecstasy as a key element of the witch’s experience. It shows how witchcraft was conceived as a heretical and demonic activity that involved flying through the air, having sex with devils, and joining in night-time gatherings. It also analyses the historical and religious factors that influenced the formation and expression of witchcraft beliefs, such as the impact of classical mythology, folkloric traditions, Christian theology, and popular superstition. Moreover, it investigates the legal and theological reactions to the alleged danger of witchcraft, such as the papal bull of 1484 that authorized the persecution of witches, the influential treatise Malleus Maleficarum that established the witch stereotype, and the various trials and executions that occurred across Europe. The article uses various types of evidence, such as literary works, court documents, and theological writings, to demonstrate the richness and diversity of medieval witchcraft conceptions and discourses. It also explores different regional and temporal variations of witchcraft, such as the differences between Germanic and Latin cultures, or between early and late medieval periods. The article aims to provide a comprehensive and nuanced overview of witchcraft in medieval Europe, as well as to highlight its relevance for understanding the social and psychological dynamics of pre-modern societies.

Branded content and motivations for social media use as drivers of brand outcomes on social media: a cross-cultural study

Social media are increasingly popular for delivering branded content to consumers worldwide. A central task for researchers is to understand what consumer brand-related motivations and brand appeals drive consumer engagement and benefit brand outcomes across different cultures. Based on the Uses and Gratifications theory, this study explores how individuals’ motivations for social media use and branded content reflecting these motivations affect three focal consumer brand responses (viral behavioral intentions, click intention, and purchase intention) across different cultural contexts, namely Western European (i.e. Austria, Belgium, Sweden) and Latin (i.e. Brazil, Chile, Portugal) cultures. Our results exhibit significant positive effects of motivations (Remuneration) and branded appeals (entertainment appeal) on consumer responses that prevail in both Western European and Latin cultures. Managers implementing cross-cultural social media marketing can use the insights of this paper as a guide to target audiences with brand appeals, enhancing the effectiveness of their brand communication activities on social media.

Samorząd w myśli Feliksa Konecznego

The article contains an analysis of Feliks Koneczny’s views on local governments and the necessary conditions for its functioning. According to him, their development is only possible in Latin civilization, as it alone allows the active participation of all members of the state community in social and professional life without discriminating them. Its foundations are based on the Catholic personalist worldview, according to which every person is treated as a full member of the community with all his rights and duties. Non-personalistic civilizations originating from other philosophical traditions and created in other social and historical conditions than Latin civilization limit human freedom. Participation of the individual in social life is limited, and self-government in practically non-existent.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOURCES OF THE CRIMEAN NATIVES’ RELIGION AND CULTS IN THE EARLY IRON AGE

in the Early Iron Age
 Scientific information about the natives of Crimea, in spite of more than a century of investigations, is quite limited. Perhaps the least clear in the archaeological and cultural-historical constructions of the Crimean societies of the final Bronze Age — Early Iron Age is still the sphere of religion and cults.
 The only thing that in any way indicates the religion of the population of Crimea — is a set of symbols on ceramics, which demonstrates the dynamics of change of signs. In addition to images of signs in the culture, images of faces are also known — on a vessel from Uch-Bash and on phallic-shaped ceramic figures from the pre-Greek layer of Chersonesos.
 We assume that the social order of the tribes of the younger pre-Taurian period was destroyed due to the invasion of nomads. The old economic system in the northern Black Sea coast ceased to function, contacts collapsed, and the remnants of the local tribes formed a new society, in fact, on fire and together with the remnants of other tribes. In such a situation, the beginnings of a new ideology were probably destroyed along with their bearers. The tribes adopted a primitive ideology that was not characteristic of earlier Crimean societies. Why this happened and where this ideology was borrowed from, or whether it was characteristic of the tribal Bronze Age tribes living on the peninsula, remains unclear.
 In general, characterizing the tribes that inhabited the Crimea during the metal ages, only in the final of Bronze Age and turn to Iron Age and later during the emergence of Greek centres we can talk about the tribes of farmers, where the cultivation of cereals accounts for a significant share in the economy. This is important because only the agricultural tribes have a common lunar calendar, which was determined by observations of celestial bodies, and therefore needed a sanctuary-observatory. There are no signs of such sanctuaries in the Crimea. The tribes of pastoralists had simpler ways of observing the sky, which probably occurred on the basis of the movement of the sun through the firmament, embodied in temples and sacred places on certain elevations — mountains, stone remains etc., or the construction of special structures — pyramids, ziggurats, mounds, obelisks, menhirs. We observe the simplest forms of worship in the Crimea — cemeteries under mountain ranges, mounds, menhirs. Sanctuaries and cults of the pre-Taurian periods of the Kyzyl-Koba culture are not known to us, except for a small set of signs on ceramic vessels. This antropomorthous signs have earlier analogies in Eastern Mediteranian and show features of changing in ideology of native population in different lends in process of transition from the Bronze to the Iron Age. This features appearances in anthropomorthous signs. All the known sanctuaries of the Crimean Mountains dated from the Roman time and they did not connect with Kyzyl-Koba culture. The burial custom of the tribes of the Taurian period is rows of stone cists, located under the ridges of the mountains; in some graves were installed menhirs. This custom is more in line with the population with the main component of livestock in the economy. The sanctuaries of the Crimean Mountains appear in the already formed form with an established custom and have nothing similar in the rites of Kyzyl-Koba tribes.
 More and more evidence is now being gathered in favour of the emergence of a completely new phenomenon for Crimea — military cults, which may be associated with a new wave of people who found themselves in the Crimea in connection with the spread of Latin cultures to the east. Preconditions, in particular, the transition of the Tauri population to the customs of the Scythian tribes, developed on the peninsula in the late 4th — early 3rd century BC. Thus, nothing contradicts the formation of syncretic military cults in the barbarian population of Crimea in the 2nd century BC and the emergence of such phenomena as the sanctuary of Gurzufske Sidlo in Roman times.

Fifteenth-century Castilian travel accounts as an example of relations between representatives of the christianitas latina and the Asian East

Long before the conquest of the New World, Castilian envoys and travellers had been exploring the Middle East and Central Asia. The accounts of their journeys, known as libros de viajes, are a valuable source of information on the culture, ethnography, and geography of the areas they visited and a manifestation of the broad political horizons of the Castilian kings. The author of this article intends to outline the role played by these late medieval travel accounts in the history of Castile, and to discuss their impact on the interest in the Middle East and Asia among representatives of the Latin culture (christianitas latina). Ruy González de Clavijo’s travel account is particularly valuable here - his chronicle of a journey to Samarkand is one of the few testimonies of the presence of representatives of the Latin culture in the territories conquered by Timur and at his court. This article also analyses the differences between these libros de viajes and earlier texts written by, among others, Franciscan and Dominican missionaries and merchants who travelled to Central and East Asia.

“Español Moderno” for Chinese: The Influence of Colonial Thought on Spanish-American Cultural Discourse

During two years of analysis of thesis projects for the graduation of bachelor’s degree in spanish language, deficiencies have been found in the students of the Spanish faculty of Hebei International Studies University, China, to assume and reproduce the idea of Spanish America as a heterogeneous conglomerate, therefore it was determined to study the idea of cultural diversity disseminated by the books for the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language in China. In this case, the Español Moderno 1 Student's Book and the Español Moderno 1 Reading Books were selected because they are the most widely used in universities and constitute the first learning section. Software-assisted qualitative analysis was used, establishing a coding system for the cultural information that made it possible to identify the cultural information with which the idea of the Hispanic American subject and society is constructed. Together with the ethnographic work with the students, it was concluded that the cultural information is dispersed, incoherent and superficial. It offers a vision of Hispanic America equated to Spain, understanding this as a region of Christian society, Spanish-speaking population and Latin culture with peculiar details and touristic landscapes. The book offers an inconsistent cultural education environment, which puts students at risk of making cultural mistakes during immersion in any Spanish-speaking cultural context. The Hispanic American cultural reality needs to be presented in a respectful and accurate manner. This implies decolonizing the perception and understanding Hispanic America from Hispanic America and not through colonial filters that seek to perpetuate a constricted vision, fertilized by ethnocentric analysis and denial of reality.

Własność i cywilizacja łacińska. Dystrybucjonizm w myśli polityczno-prawnej Feliksa Konecznego

Przedmiot badań: Dorobek intelektualny Feliksa Konecznego cieszy się współcześnie stosunkowo dużą popularnością, inspirując twórczy dyskurs naukowy w wielu dziedzinach. Najważniejszym elementem owej spuścizny jest oryginalne opracowanie zagadnienia cywilizacji, a w szczególności cywilizacji łacińskiej, którą opisał w sposób wyczerpujący i z którą osobiście się identyfikował. Aby lepiej zrozumieć istotę jego myśli, należy spojrzeć na nią z różnych perspektyw. Przedmiotem niniejszej pracy jest próba zestawienia założeń cywilizacji łacińskiej u Konecznego z ustrojem o potencjalnie podobnej naturze, aby ukazać oba zagadnienia w nowym świetle – lepiej wytłumaczyć źródła obu systemów, jak i wytyczyć potencjalne ścieżki rozwoju.
 Cel badawczy: Celem artykułu jest umiejscowienie cywilizacji łacińskiej obok dystrybucjonizmu i zbadanie, w jakim stopniu dystrybucjonizm spełnia wymagania ustrojowe postawione cywilizacji łacińskiej przez Konecznego. Dystrybucjonizm, koncepcja ustroju społeczno-ekonomicznego opracowana przez Hilaire Belloca i Gilberta Keitha Chestertona zakłada w swojej istocie potrzebę jak najszerszej dystrybucji dóbr materialnych. Autor stawia sobie za cel opisanie, na ile ten cel jest kompatybilny z cywilizacją łacińską.
 Metoda badawcza: Autor za pomocą metody historyczno-porównawczej i krytycznej zestawia ze sobą cywilizację łacińską i dystrybucjonizm. Drogą gruntownej analizy materiałów źródłowych dokonuje określenia genez i podstawowych czynników składowych obu koncepcji, a następnie wskazuje na analogie i pokrewieństwa.
 Wyniki: Wnioskiem końcowym jest stwierdzenie wysokiej kompatybilności cywilizacji łacińskiej z doktryną dystrybucjonizmu. Identyfikacji podlegają liczne tożsame elementy: uznanie znaczenia własności i wolności ekonomicznej; postulat jak najszerszej dystrybucji własności, zwłaszcza własności nieruchomości; aposterioryzm w kształtowaniu ustroju; system prawny sprzyjający podziałowi i utrzymaniu własności; afirmacja roli Kościoła Katolickiego i chrześcijańskiej moralności w kształtowaniu społeczeństw. Uzyskane wyniki badań pozwalają postawić tezę o dystrybucjonizmie jako modelowym ustroju ekonomicznym w cywilizacji łacińskiej. Powodzenie przeprowadzonej analizy porównawczej rokuje pozytywnie na dalszą komparatystykę, mającą za przedmiot typy cywilizacji u Konecznego oraz systemy ekonomiczne opisane przez Belloca i Chestertona.

Epitaphium Ministri Generales Totius Ordinis Minorum S.P.N. Francisci From the Manuscript of the Former Bernardine Library in Karczówka (today the Diocesan Archives in Kielce)

The Diocesan Archives in Kielce keeps a manuscript unknown to a wider circle of researchers, entitled “Mortuologium seu Calendarium ...” by Timotheo Kaffka. It probably found its way into the collection of the said archives following the cassation of the Bernardine monastery at Karczówka in 1864. The manuscript, inconspicuous in appearance, contains information on the history of the Friars Minor, both the older branch – the Conventual Franciscans, the Observants (the Reformati) and the Bernardines. Mortuologium, as a work of commemorative nature, constitutes a universal type of written source, typical of the monastic Latin culture. Franciscan calendars are no exemption to this rule. Therefore, the following publication supplemented with the source appendix in the form of the list of generals OFM unpublished so far, may become both an important contribution to the existing literature on the subject and continuation of the research into the writing culture of the Polish Bernardines.

La paideia plutarchea nelle Epistole di Guarino Guarini

At the court of Ferrara, the relationship between Prince Lionello d'Este and Guarino gave an impulse to a vivid interest in Greek and Latin culture. In particular, Guarino's attention, expressed in various epistles, is directed towards the study of history, since reading the deeds of the ancients, rescued from oblivion, shows the way to learn virtue and to escape wickedness. For this reason, Plutarch's Lives fulfil this cultural need well, since in them there were many examples of virtuous characters from the past, who had served the state loyally and honestly, and served as models to be imitated. History is therefore magistra vitae, because it is through it and for it that we know the events experienced in peace and war. From such examples of the past, Lionello will be able to benefit greatly, learning, for example, to recognise flatterers.

Editorial

Shakespeare’s interest in ancient Rome spans the whole of his dramatic career, from Titus Andronicus to Cymbeline, while Roman history and Latin culture permeate the whole of his work, well beyond the explicitly ‘Roman’ plays and poems. Critical interest has to some extent shifted from the historicist Roman plays based on Plutarch, Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra, and the pseudo-historical Coriolanus, to the outlying Roman plays that evidence greater generic diversity and stylistic innovation, the early Senecan tragedy Titus Andronicus and the late ‘British’ romance Cymbeline. In these latter plays, the complex interactions between past and present, that are the main subject of the formal histories, are presented with even more aesthetic flexibility and creative improvisation than the ‘Roman plays’ proper.

Neo-Latin Epigrams on Milton by Peder Winstrup, Bishop of Lund, and the Rothenburg Jurist Georg Christoph Walther

This article brings attention to some previously unknown Neo-Latin epigrams on John Milton from the 1650s by Peder Winstrup, the Lutheran bishop of Lund, and the Rothenburg jurist Georg Christoph Walther. Translations of the epigrams and brief commentaries are supplied. Responding principally to Milton’s Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio (1651), which won its author fame throughout Europe, these epigrams offer new evidence for the early reception of Milton’s Latin prose and further testimony to the impact of the Defensio on the Latin culture of mid-seventeenth-century Europe.

Body satisfaction of lesbian and bisexual Brazilian women: Indicators of self-esteem, physical appearance perfectionism, and identity processes

This article examined the association between body satisfaction and sexual identification among lesbian and bisexual women, since these factors help to understand the cultural background of the objectification of female bodies in Latin cultures. Women who identify as lesbian (N = 239) and bisexual (N = 60) completed demographic data and measures of self-esteem, physical appearance perfectionism, lesbian and bisexual identity difficulties, and body satisfaction. We performed a three-stage hierarchical multiple regression to explore how variables relate to body satisfaction. The results suggest that self-esteem plays a key role, explaining 20.4% of the variance in body satisfaction. We discussed the psychosocial and cultural aspects involved in the relationship between the variables, and social and aesthetic pressures on women’s bodies. This study contributes to discussions on psychosocial aspects associated with body satisfaction among Brazilian lesbian and bisexual women.

‘Last of the Schoolmen’: The Young Marx, Latin Culture, and the Doctoral Dissertation

ABSTRACT This article examines Marx’s earliest writings, especially his doctoral dissertation on “The Difference Between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature” and the notebooks he kept while preparing it. Previous commentators on this material have tended to take one of two approaches: either they have used it to associate Marx with an expansive and abstract Western Tradition of philosophical inquiry, or they have located it in the narrow context of the intellectual culture of the German Vormärz. Here I seek to mediate between these extremes. These documents, I argue, suggest that Marx was less a part of a Western Tradition, or a set of abstract normative debates that ostensibly stretches from the ancients to modernity, than of what I call Latin Culture, or a Latin-speaking culture that was inscribed in practices, norms, and institutions, and that persisted in Europe from late antiquity into the nineteenth century. Placing Marx’s early writings in this context helps explain some of the tensions that characterise his thought and to clarify the practical consequences of what might otherwise appear as purely theological and metaphysical speculations.

The Value of Truth and Citizens’ Panels - from Philosophical Roots to Practical Consequences of the Governance Concept

In recent years, instruments of governance, including citizens’ panels (citizens’ assemblies) have gained interest all over the world, including Poland. The danger of its application stems from the fact that they assume the desire to allocate more and more political power to partners at the expense of legitimate authorities. Hence, the purpose of this article is to examine the axiological foundations of the instruments of governance, focusing on the value of truth. In the conclusion of the research, it was stated that the implementation of the citizens’ panels in Gdańsk leads to violations of the value of truth, one of the pillars of Latin civilization.