Modern Message Research Articles

Nomad Souls Across Time and Space: West African Musicians as Ethnographers

West African musicians such as Baaba Maal and Youssou N'Dour of Senegal, Oumou Sangare and Ali Farka Toure of Mali, have become known for their commitment to their constituencies back home, as well as for their appeal to non-African audiences. Fully embracing a post-colonial and post-modern sensibility, their layered musical compositions include rap, reggae, blues, and jazz at the same time as they draw on traditional instruments, rhythms, themes, and melodies. They may choose between the traditional format of praise songs of the griots and more modern messages. Cultural interpreters at home and in Europe, these ethnographers write in sound, choosing carefully their subject, rhythm, delivery, and style, depending on their audience. Equally layered, however, is the complex response to these artists in France. This paper draws on field work in Paris and in eastern France to discuss the appeal of West African music for a French audience vis a vis the mixed understanding of the purveyors of that music. West African music may open France's door to immigrants, only to shut out the musicians as they negotiate its daily life. Immigrants' individual experiences are discussed in regard to their ambivalently received personhood, on one hand, and their positively received, yet frequently exoticized, music on the other.

Promoting breastfeeding in rural Gambia: combining traditional and modern knowledge.

Sub-optimal breastfeeding practices still prevail in many countries, especially in traditional rural communities. Despite high breastfeeding initiation rates and long total duration of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding is a rare practice. In the present study, quantitative methods were used to identify current infant feeding practices in 12 rural communities in The GAMBIA: Results indicated that delayed initiation of breastfeeding, prelacteal feeding and failure to practice exclusive breastfeeding were widespread. Qualitative data further indicated that current beliefs and practices were strongly influenced by traditional beliefs and practices. These were kept very much alive by elders, both women and men, including husbands. The results also showed an unexpected support for bottle-feeding from both male and female elders who considered it part of the modernization process. A strategy for promoting early initiation of breastfeeding, feeding of colostrum and exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months in rural communities should therefore incorporate traditional beliefs and practices into modern messages on optimal breastfeeding. Traditional beliefs and practices in the study setting that could be used in this way included knowledge from the population's acquaintance with the newborns of their livestock. It also included the traditional practice of mothers taking their very young children with them when going to work in the fields. The paper suggests such a strategy by developing a matrix to establish linkages between modern and traditional knowledge on a specific practice. Such linkages facilitate the acceptance of recommendations on infant feeding by mothers in these communities. The strategy recommends an expanded target group to include elders and husbands, as the data show that these groups are highly influential in matters regarding patterns of child feeding.

The sternal saw: A historical note with a modern message

The sternal saw: A historical note with a modern message

Le clip politique

The political clip. Jean-Paul Gourevitch. The massive appearance of political television clips during the 1988 French presidential election introduced a new dimension of political communication. An analysis of the various clips leads to distinctions : there is the jingle clip, a mere attention-calling device ; the ideological clip — an idea set in images; the allegorical clip, which portrays the hero's itinerary in an epic or a lyrical style. Politicians have not yet learned to integrate the clip directly in their message, and weaken its modern message by the conventional discourse which follows it. The clip is both show and shock ; to understand its future impact, one must compare it with the televised debate, as the two forms seem opposite poles of the field of political communication. While the clip already has a clientele and perhaps a market, it must still refine its language, and needs grammarians as much as authors.

Adam Smith's Entwurf eines politokonomischen systems

There are two core elements in Smith's draft of a politico-economic system, an individual-social orientated and a society-state orientated one. Economic actions and institutions have to bring both centres together so as to perform their main functions. Coming to self-autonomy, liberty and justice would be final goals of the Smithian “system of natural liberty”, for which Smith is famous. But he did not simply trust in self-fulfilling Natural Law. The “system of natural liberty” means a faculty, by which the society could develop, if the individual initiated actions might play their leading roles due to an ethical consensus in society, and if the state would be quite aware of his ordo-political task as a constructive matter. Smith gives no recipes. The generations have to find those for themselves. Thus, Smith cannot be called a determinist, but rather an evolutionist. The most exiting results can be found in a fundamental search for Smith as a master of politico-economical methods. The learned prejudice that the “grand classic” was somewhat eclectic and contradictious is to be forgotton. The master's “faults” might be analyzed as a genuine heterogeneous ones, essential for a realistic and pragmatic political economy. This would provide an urgent and modern message.

New Wine in Old Bottles: Can Folk Media Convey Modern Messages?

New Wine in Old Bottles: Can Folk Media Convey Modern Messages?

Book Review: The Modern Message of the Minor Prophets

Book Review: The Modern Message of the Minor Prophets

The Modern Message of the Minor Prophets. Raymond Calkins

Previous articleNext article No AccessCritical ReviewsThe Modern Message of the Minor Prophets. Raymond Calkins J. Coert RylaarsdamJ. Coert Rylaarsdam Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Religion Volume 28, Number 2Apr., 1948 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/483697 Views: 2Total views on this site PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

The Modern Message of the Minor Prophets

The Modern Message of the Minor Prophets

The Bible

Journal Article The Bible Get access The Modern Message of the Minor Prophets. By RAYMOND CALKINS. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1947. viii + 205 pages. $3.00. ROLLAND E. WOLFE ROLLAND E. WOLFE Western Reserve University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Volume XV, Issue 4, October 1947, Pages 254–256, https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/XV.4.254 Published: 01 October 1947

Book Review: The Modern Message of the Psalms.

Book Review: The Modern Message of the Psalms.

The Modern Message of the Psalms. Rollin H. Walker

<i>The Modern Message of the Psalms</i>. Rollin H. Walker

Book Review: Seneca The Philosopher and His Modern Message.

Book Review: Seneca The Philosopher and His Modern Message.

Seneca's Modern Message - Seneca: The Philosopher and his Modern Message. By R. M. Gummere. Pp. xvi + 150. London: Harrap, 1922. Cloth. 5s. net.

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Seneca the Philosopher and His Modern Message

Seneca the Philosopher and His Modern Message

Seneca the Philosopher and His Modern Message. Richard Mott Gummere

<i>Seneca the Philosopher and His Modern Message</i>. Richard Mott Gummere

Book Review: Modern Messages from Great Hymns

Book Review: Modern Messages from Great Hymns