Accountable Language: Holding Medieval Governors and Officers to Account in Flanders

The Jerunei, a wooden carved funeral pole used by the Melanau’s, is a key mediator of the deceased person's transition from the physical to the spiritual world. While past studies have discussed Jerunei as a significant artifact of Melanau funeral ritual, its deeper symbolic meaning, specifically its articulation of Melanau cosmology and social stratification, has not been thoroughly explored. This research seeks to fill the gap by exploring the Jerunei as material object and spiritual mediator, with specific focus on its symbolic functions and aesthetic qualities. Through ethnographic source analysis, visual culture analysis, and heritage studies theory, the paper explores how the Jerunei testifies to Melanau worldview in relation to death, the afterlife, and social ranking. Moreover, the paper considers the Jerunei's function in postcolonial identity and heritage preservation in the face of globalizing forces that would seek to erase indigenous cultural practice. This research also considers how gender roles intersect in Jerunei construction and use, shaping Melanau ritual knowledge from a postmodern perspective. The paper therefore contends that the Jerunei is not just a funeral object but an exquisitely crafted articulation of Melanau cosmology, social identity, and constant negotiation of indigenous cultural heritage.

This Special Issue features 22 contributions that examine the interplay between population diversity and social inequality, thereby addressing the causes and consequences of socio-economic status (SES) differences in demographic behaviour. Among these 22 contributions, six are invited Debate articles that discuss selected contemporary challenges linked to population inequalities, including their measurement and assessment. These articles cover topics such as digitalisation, skills gaps, household arrangements, widow-hood, mortality inequalities and subnational population dynamics. A striking example underscoring the need to consider demographic developments in conjunction with social inequality is the correlation between longevity and education, income and wealth. The observation that socio-economic status (SES) determines how long we live is not only rele-vant for understanding demographic patterns, but is also highly pertinent for policymakers aiming to reduce social inequalities. The link between demographic processes and social inequality is also evident in research on family behaviour, which, for example, explores the extent to which growing labour market inequalities shape disparities in fertility and family dynamics. Migration has an obvious connection to social inequality and social stratification research, particularly regarding the unequal opportunities in income and education migrants face within receiving societies, as well as in migrants’ demographic behaviour and its relation to SES. This Special Issue seeks to emphasise the importance of linking research on demographic diversity and social inequality. Demographic research contributes by providing hard numbers on population structure and societal change, and showing how these relate to social inequality. In doing so, this research informs policymakers about the areas where action is needed.

The Holi festival, primarily celebrated within Hindu society, manifests as a vibrant realm of performance that dissolves social hierarchies and boundaries through communal participation and collective joy. Grounded in performance theory, this paper interprets Holi as a dynamic cultural event that embodies the ideas of Mikhail Bakhtin, Jacques Derrida, Peggy Phelan, and Clifford Geertz. Drawing on Geertz’s notion of “blurred genres,” the study situates Holi at the intersection of ritual, art, and social performance—where the aesthetic, the sacred, and the everyday intertwine. Contrary to critiques that associate the festival with harassment or environmental disruption, this research argues that Holi’s enduring value lies in its capacity to create a liminal space where established norms are momentarily suspended. Through an analysis of mythic narratives and performative practices, Holi emerges as a living, evolving artistic phenomenon that bridges tradition and modernity. As a “Festival of Colors,” it becomes a powerful performance site expressing happiness, transgression, and transformation. The article engages with Mary M. Anderson’s The Festivals of Nepal, Bakhtin’s concept of the carnival, Derrida’s theory of hauntology, Phelan’s ontology of performance, and Geertz’s interpretive anthropology to reveal how Holi blurs the boundaries between sacred and profane, individual and collective, and past and present—transforming cultural ritual into a performative dialogue of identity and renewal.

This paper reimagines love not merely as a romantic notion but as a strategic and actionable force for social justice, particularly within rural Sri Lankan communities. Deep-seated class divisions, ethnic tensions, and cultural disparities continue to shape the lived realities of marginalized populations across the island. In this context, the proposed LUVORA model (Love, Uniformity, Virtue, Openness, Resilience, and Acceptance) provides a novel psychosocial framework for empowering these groups, fostering emotional resilience, and promoting sustainable community development. Through a narrative review of interdisciplinary literature, this paper integrates perspectives from social work, positive psychology, and liberation psychology to examine how love-driven social interventions can dismantle systemic inequality. It also emphasizes the significance of community empowerment as a key sub-theme aligned with the broader goal of building a resilient and just future for all. The discussion is set within Sri Lanka’s post-conflict, post-colonial socio-political landscape, highlighting how emotional and relational healing can be utilized to strengthen the fabric of rural society. Although the LUVORA model is presented conceptually in this paper, it has not yet been tested empirically, which limits the ability to confirm its practical efficacy; future research will address this through pilot implementations.

After the Opium War, the number of treaty ports surged from five to dozens, with foreign goods extending inland along the Yangtze River while domestic exports expanded from Guangzhou to multiple competitive ports. The traditional "tribute-gift and merchant vessels" system collapsed, silver depreciated, and tax revenues flourished, triggering a domino effect across finance, markets, and society. Foreign trade evolved from peripheral mutual markets into a transformative force shaping national destiny. Each shift in commodity composition, settlement methods, or shipping routes triggered reconfigurations in domestic industries, regional hierarchies, and social stratification. The late Qing economy thus integrated into the global capital system — not passively, but through profound adjustments on its existing foundation, forging a unique industrialization and commercialization trajectory characteristic of a semi-colonial society.

ABSTRACT This article presents discussions about interactions and dynamics established in three private groups of women on the social network Facebook, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. Groups formed by women in digital environments have emerged as powerful spaces for mutual support and for challenging the authoritarian and conservative policies of the Bolsonaro government during the pandemic. The research involved six semi-structured interviews were conducted with women living in 4 regions of the country (RS, SP, DF, RN) from divergent social strata and living conditions. The analysis was conducted based on Foucaultian Discourse Analysis and Intersectional Feminism, considering social markers of difference. A network of women showing solidarity with each other through policies of friendship and care, although marked by tensions with competitiveness and moral judgment, understood in light of neoliberal logic and the concept of ethical-political suffering. The active presence of women in these groups points to the production of gendered political subjectivities and the strengthening of progressive agendas in defense of social justice and against gender inequality.

ABSTRACT The courtyard, by definition, is a space enclosed by a building and open to the sky. Earlier studies have documented the history of the courtyard and its significance in the context of traditional Indian architectural styles, but the reading of the “space” within a culturally and architecturally eclectic city, such as Calcutta, has remained largely overlooked. This research addresses this gap by employing a diachronic cultural–historical method to analyze the transformation of Calcutta’s courtyards from colonial to postcolonial times. Using Lefebvre’s spatial theory, literary analyses, archival research, and architectural history, this study demonstrates that Calcutta’s courtyards historically operated as a microcosm of the city’s use of everyday spaces. This analysis reveals three critical findings: first, colonial era courtyards served as sites of class negotiation and display of social hierarchy. It was also a space where the elite Bengali families performed their cultural identity through festivities that temporarily dissolved spatial boundaries. Second, the spatial history of the courtyard reflected the changing social aspirations and European influence on Bengali domestic practices in colonial Calcutta. Third, the study examines how the Calcutta courtyard is transformed by reoriented post-independence spatial practices. It also assesses how contemporary urbanization threatens its existence, relegating it to memory and nostalgia, representing a vanishing heritage that embodied the microhistory of Calcutta’s urban environment. This study recommends an active role for private and public players in restoring and facilitating the adaptive reuse of existing courtyards as an essential path for preserving Calcutta’s courtyards.

This classroom ethnography study identifies the dialectical relationship between global citizenship education models and localised pedagogies in three English-medium elite schools in Lahore, Pakistan. This research used ethnographic fieldnotes as the main source of data to investigate the ways in which concepts of global citizenship are put to practice, negotiated, and recontextualised in everyday classroom interactions. This study questions the tension between universalist global citizenship education (GCE) discourses propagated by the global curriculum system and the local realities of Pakistani classrooms, where national identity, Islamic ideals, and social stratifications are used to inform citizenship education. Classroom observations recorded approximately 80 hours of teacher-student interactions and pedagogy strategies, curricular content, and the micro-politics of citizenship identity formation in the fieldnotes. Results indicate that elite schools serve as institutions of the process of "glocalization" in which teachers plan to mediate between the global skills required by international curriculum, and the local levels of sociocultural expectations. The paper shows that citizenship praxis in these classrooms both reinforces elite privilege and provides possibilities of critical involvement in transnational issues. Such an ethnographic narrative can lead to the understanding of global educational agendas being translated, opposed, and changed in postcolonial contexts to demonstrate the complex strata of global-local citizenship identities between the educational elite in Pakistan.

The axiological aspect of Uzbek and English proverbs is examined in this article, with special focus on how moral standards and value judgments are represented linguistically in paremiological units. The study views proverbs as culturally ingrained linguistic structures that combine semantic meaning with evaluative orientation, drawing on the theoretical frameworks of comparative paremiology and axiological linguistics. A corpus of proverbs expressing moral judgment in both languages is subjected to a qualitative semantic-pragmatic analysis. Honesty, diligence, patience, humility, generosity, justice, and social duty are among the fundamental moral categories identified by the research, which also examines their pragmatic role in discourse and metaphorical realization. The results demonstrate the coexistence of cultural-specific evaluation patterns and universal moral norms. While Uzbek proverbs promote collectivism, communal harmony, religious-ethical principles, and respect for social hierarchy, English proverbs typically emphasize individual responsibility, pragmatism, and self-control. The work advances the fields of axiological paremiology and international linguistics by showing how proverbs act as normative linguistic processes that control conduct, communicate cultural knowledge, and uphold collective value systems.

Raymond Williams, an important British Marxist literary theorist, coined the term “Structure of Feeling” to analyze the shared personal feeling and experiences of people during specific historical periods. This framework reveals unstructured yet pervasive social mentality and emotional responses, offering a unique perspective for interpreting literature from social transition periods. Based on this theory, this study compares Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist (1838) and Charlotte Brontë’ s Jane Eyre (1847), two iconic Victorian-era (1837-1901) works, to explore the shared emotional tensions in 19th-century British industrialization and urbanization. The research demonstrates that both novels sharply criticize structural injustices like the Poorhouse system, class divisions, and gender oppression while compromising with mainstream ideology and values through magic solutions such as kinship redemption, unexpected inheritance of fortune, and marital order. These narratives modes reflect the dynamic tension unique to Victorian era’s transitional period between old and new values. This contradictory nature mirrors Williams’ “Structure of Feeling”, revealing the complex interplay between individual experiences and social structures, as well as the collusion between critical demands and ideological frameworks during social transformation.

The article deals with the influence of gender factors on the formation of the traditional model of branch formation and substantiates the concept of law desubstantialization as a methodological approach that overcomes the notion of neutrality and ahistoricity of the legal system. It is shown that gender structures of thinking determine not only the criteria for dividing law into branches, but also the hierarchy of legal knowledge within the legal doctrine framework. Branch division is not a purely technical or logical classification, but is a manifestation of the hierarchy of social relations, where public law occupies a symbolically “higher” position compared to private law. Examples of changes in the ratio of public and private in certain areas, in particular in family law and environmental law, are given. The concept of law desubstantialization is revealed as a refusal to search for “objective” criteria for branch division and recognition of the social and historical conditionality of the legal system itself. In this context, it is shown that the notion of legal neutrality is an ideological fiction legitimizing existing discourses of power, in particular gender discourses. Feminist criticism of law is considered as an attempt not only to “include” women into the legal system, but rather to deconstruct the logic that reproduces asymmetry. Turning to judicial practice, in particular to the case of Bradwell v. State of Illinois (1873), it was possible to show that even formally neutral norms and decisions can reproduce gender selectivity. The court decision in this case illustrated how law can entrench social hierarchy under the guise of an “objective” interpretation of constitutional guarantees, determining who has access to public status and professional activity. This allows us to reveal that the legal substance – the concepts of field, competence, and legal status – is not gender neutral, but reflects the power structures of society. As a result, the desubstantialization of law is considered as a strategy that opens up the possibility of critically rethinking the legal system not as a closed logical construct, but as an open process of social articulation of power. Gender in this approach acts not only as a social, but also as an epistemological category that reveals the limits of legal thinking.

During the 1967 fieldwork season directed by D. Berezovets at the VSС-III, horse burial No. 4 was investigated. A distinctive feature of this interment was the presence of a niche-like structure in the northwestern end wall of the grave pit, measuring 0.9×0.5 m and 0.4 m in height. Inside this niche, a compact cluster of artifacts was recorded: an iron rim of a wooden bow case, two harness ornaments made of silver and bronze, a set of iron three-bladed arrowheads, and two bone overlays from a complex Saltiv-style composite bow. In 2020, under the direction of V. Skyrdna from V. Karazin Kharkiv National University, the horse burial No. 4 was reexamined and determined to be part of an integral funerary complex, associated with catacomb No. 1 (excavated in 2020). The burial of the horse was located directly above the central section of the human grave chamber. Catacomb No. 1 contained the remains of an adult woman, whose skeleton bore evidence of intentional postmortem destruction in antiquity. Among the disturbed human remains were: a cast bronze mirror; fragments of a birch-bark mirror case; six stamped bronze jingling bells; a cast bronze toggle; bronze wire spirals; and three beads. Based on the associated finds, both burial assemblages are dated to the second half of the 8th – 9th centuries AD. Horse burial No. 4 (1967) and Catacomb No. 1 (2020) constitute a single funerary complex, consisting of the burial of a woman in the catacomb and a horse burial, which – based on the associated grave goods – should be interpreted as a cenotaph linked to a deceased man. The burials of the woman and the man were associated. The niche (side recess) in the end wall of the burial pit finds analogies in the graves of the prominent Netailivka cemetery of the Saltiv culture, located on the left bank of the Siverskyi Donets River, directly opposite VSC. Therefore, it can be assumed that the cenotaph (horse burial No. 4) belonged to a man—likely a representative of the pre-boyar social stratum – while the catacomb burial (No. 1) contained the remains of a woman of Alanic origin.

The flourishing of the phenomenon of Optina eldership, which manifested itself most eloquently during the service of Elder Ambrose (Grenkov), was characterized, among other things, by the synthesis of contradictions between the ecclesiastical and secular, worldly and monastic in a society divided into classes. At the same time, the situation of synthesis itself arose as a result of the penetration of the tasks of spiritual guidance of monastics, assigned to the figure of the elder for a long period in the history of the Russian spiritual tradition, into the “toolkit” of spiritual guidance of the laity. In some cases, this practice led to the equality of methods of spiritual guidance for both monastics and laity. It is the elder’s service of St. Ambrose that most vividly demonstrates this dynamic. Using his spiritual heritage as an example, the article will show that the elder’s openness was directed equally to representatives of different social strata of the Russian people, and in questions about the path to salvation it was predominantly universal in nature. Elder Ambrose paid special attention in spiritual life to the experience of bearing external sorrows of both monastics and laymen as an essential stage preceding “inner Christianity”. At the same time, the outcome of the path of salvation is determined, according to the elder, not by achievements at the “external” and “internal” levels of spiritual life, but by the mercy of God.

Abstract This paper presents a study examining the pragmatic strategies employed by Zeng Guofan in his renowned family letters to craft qici ( 启辞 , ‘salutation’), as well as the potential relationship between social hierarchies and the specific wording used in these opening phrases. The study reveals that, across 1,449 letters containing salutations, Zeng Guofan deployed seven distinct patterns of salutation. Significant differences were observed in his use of third-person address terms, ticheng yu ( 提称语 , ‘elevated address terms’), verbs, self-address terms, and expressions of good wishes and well-being, depending on the recipient of the letter. These variations suggest clear metapragmatic efforts to maintain respect and deference in his communications, providing evidence that certain patterns of polite salutations were shaped by the perceived social status between the addresser and the addressee in ancient China.

How do social hierarchies affect patterns of discrimination in democratic contexts? While studies of identity politics in diverse societies often focus on relations between groups formed around parallel identities like ethnicity, these same societies often feature hierarchical identities that rank individuals into stratified groups. This paper examines how culturally embedded caste identities, inherited at birth, continue to shape everyday life. Drawing on an original survey of 2,160 Senegalese citizens, we show that caste remains a salient axis of perceived discrimination despite its formal abolition over a century ago. Individuals from occupational caste and slave-descended backgrounds are significantly more likely to report experiences of exclusion such as the denial of basic services. Most respondents attribute caste-based discrimination to cultural norms rather than economic competition, religious instruction, or biological differences. Moreover, we find that high-status individuals systematically overreport tolerant attitudes in face-to-face interviews with lower-status enumerators, suggesting that social desirability can obscure the extent of status-based attitudes. These findings shed light on the persistence of caste hierarchies and their impact on citizenship in societies otherwise considered tolerant and democratic. These findings contribute to research on identity politics by highlighting the need to distinguish between ranked and unranked forms of social difference.

Contemporary Indian society displays the paradox of legal recognition of queer status and rights alongside queer exclusion within families. Despite progressive legislative measures enacted in recent years to ensure equal rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) community, including decriminalizing homosexuality and providing legal recognition of transgender identities, social support systems remain inadequate. As socio-cultural norms in India regard the family as a primary institution that solidifies heteronormative ideals, any form of gender, sexual, erotic, and relational diversity that disrupts traditional family values is met with resistance and disapproval. Utilizing family systems theory, this paper adopts a conceptual approach to analyze how queer youth’s anticipation of negative reactions from family members influences the decision to (not) disclose their non-conforming gender and sexual identity. It further explores how intersecting socio-economic factors, including caste and class hierarchies, remain dominant forces that influence social standing and the acceptance of queer youth within their families. Finally, the paper discusses the complexities of caste- and class-based social stratification in determining not only family exclusion but also their access to other support systems and resources such as education and healthcare.

Shifting landscapes of Live-in Women Domestic Workers in Uttar Pradesh demonstrate the ongoing socio-economic and cultural transformations shaping urban and semi-urban areas of India. With rapid urbanization and increasing women’s labour force participation in formal sector have substantially augmented the dependence on women domestic workers in families living in urban centres of Uttar Pradesh. This paper attempts to examine how women engaged in informal sector as domestic aid are supporting women working in formal sector. Women and families working in villages as “kameens” are often paid less by their “Jajmans” and hence, they tend to look for alternative job opportunities including MNREGA in village itself. But still, they experience monetary difficulties. As a result, they get fascinated by the employment opportunities, quality of education, standard of living and financial freedom of semi-urban and urban centres. These are few pull factors that compel them to migrate to semi-urban and urban areas. On the other hand, the increasing women labour force participation in formal sector has created a vacuum in context of their daily household tasks. Therefore, the women domestic workers play a crucial role in providing help in urban households and taking over the absence by performing all the chores including care-giving and nurturing in these households. With the process of urbanisation, the families who have migrated to urban areas of Uttar Pradesh still have their economic and emotional ties with their villages. In this scenario, they strive to strengthen their rural connects and engage women for household work in urban and semi-urban localities from their native village who were earlier performing the role of kameens. These women from kameen families are often seen as reliable source of support. The present study tries to analyse the shifting landscapes of live-in women domestic workers in Uttar Pradesh through sociological lens. It scrutinizes how the intersection of caste, class and gender hierarchies shape the working and living conditions of these women. The research paper highlights how live-in domestic workers reveal the blurred lines between domestic space and workspace, care and paid labour, affection and authority within employer–employee relations. The study unwraps the continuation of traditional roles based on kinship, caste and village bonds brings access to employment and often reinforce social hierarchies with the domestic realm. Although the employers treat them like a family member, nevertheless, the deep-rooted asymmetries of power and dependence cannot be ignored. Even without formal labour rights, live-in domestic workers exercise quiet forms of resistance and everyday negotiation to assert dignity within these confined intimate spaces. Uttar Pradesh is witnessing a transition from an agrarian economy to a diversified urban centre. Historically rooted in agriculture, state’s economic profile is being reshaped by the expansion of trade, industries, and the growing service sector. Developments across all sectors have opened new avenues of employment, particularly for women. This economic expansion led to an increasing dependence on domestic workers to sustain urban lifestyles. With more women entering the formal workforce, the demand for paid domestic labour for tasks such as childcare, eldercare, cleaning, and cooking has amplified.

Ethnic stratification and structural pluralism in Guyana

Abstract The ideas expressed in literature vary according to the period and social context. Values that are lauded in one era may lose their significance in the next. The fundamental life principles that define Tamil civilization have undergone changes due to shifts in economics, social hierarchy, religion, and political transformation. Ethical codes for individual and collective life were initially established by kings during the tribal stage. These norms developed into virtues (Aram). Although virtues change over time, poets continue to express them in literature with the noble objective that people should follow them even today. Kondraiventhan and Narunthokai are two ethical texts written in different periods. The objective of this article is to analyze the ethical principles stated in these two works through a comparative approach. Key Terms: civilization - Akkam – Aram- Hospitality - Progeny