Socio-cultural Significance Research Articles

Definition of a didactically expedient continuum in informatics for future primary school teachers

The article analyzes modern preconditions that determine specific features of a future primary school teacher's Informatics training, which is necessary for teaching Informatics to younger students. An approach to determining the content of a future primary school teacher's Informatics training, focused on understanding the socio-cultural significance of modern digital technologies for sustainable development of society and sufficient for the assimilation of Informatics concepts and procedures that are directly related to the content of the school Informatics course and its methodological support is substantiates in the article. The necessity of focusing the attention of future primary school teachers on information technologies that are widespread in everyday life and significantly simplify the achievement of program learning outcomes. The necessity of mastering by teachers the skills of handling algorithmic procedures, the use of block diagrams for the visual presentation of algorithmic procedures, the use of simple categorical syllogisms and inference rules in the construction of inferences, reference to evaluative procedures and legal norms of information interaction is argued.

Menarche's Experience In Adolescents Scoping Review

Menarche is a sign of physical maturity and fertility. The preparation has an impact on the menarche experience in adolescents. Menarche is seen as a transitional period associated with religious and socio-cultural significance. The purpose of this review is to describe the menarche experience in adolescents. This review uses arksey O'Malley framework with 5 stages namely: identifying questions, identifying relevant articles, selecting articles, mapping charting data, compiling, summarizing and creating reports. The results of 6 literatures were selected with two themes that appeared, namely positive and negative attitudes and changes that occurred in adolescents with menarche.

Eco-friendly status, religious distinction, and socio-cultural significance of Binsar Mahadev shrine 'Mahadev of Dudhatoli' in Central Himalaya, Uttarakhand, India.

Eco-friendly status, religious distinction, and socio-cultural significance of Binsar Mahadev shrine 'Mahadev of Dudhatoli' in Central Himalaya, Uttarakhand, India.

The hooting past. Re-evaluating the role of owls in shaping human-place relations throughout the Pleistocene

Previous research concerned with the significance of animals in early human evolution has overwhelmingly focussed on large mammals – especially the iconic suite of herbivores and carnivores once inhabiting the Eurasian Mammoth steppes. Building on earlier work of the author, this paper addresses the underrated importance of owls for human life throughout the Pleistocene – predatory birds which only occasionally feature in Palaeolithic visual culture and have hitherto attracted scholarly attention mainly as taphonomic agents. We argue that Pleistocene strigiformes had a crucial role to play in the formation, consolidation and perpetuation of the human sense of place, contributing vitally and in various ways to evolving ideas of landscape and the human spatial experience. By reviewing the archaeological evidence before the dawn of the Holocene warm period, we show that two consecutive phases of early human-owl interaction can be distinguished: a pre-Upper Palaeolithic phase during which hominins and owls shared similar locales, yet cohabitation was essentially non-contiguous; and an Upper Palaeolithic phase during which human-owl relations became increasingly variable and region-specific, so that some strigiform others could emerge as meaningful neighbours. The paper demonstrates how the contextualisation of instances of Upper Palaeolithic owl imagery can clarify the entanglement of these birds with early place-making practices. These data add to the appreciation of deeply interlaced, co-evolutionary human-animal trajectories shaping the human condition. Despite their often-peripheral sociocultural significance, owls must be acknowledged as an irreducible part of the animal context through which the making of humanity was ultimately made possible.

Impression management of South Korean sports stars through image-based social media

This study used netnography and interviews to explore the sociocultural significance of South Korean sports stars’ impression management using social media. The study investigated Instagram, a widely used image-based social media platform. Through netnography, the study analysed Instagram content, and then it conducted interviews with stars for deeper interpretation. The results showed that the impression management strategies used are multifaceted. Some stars use social media to maintain personal connections, through which they create intimacy by sharing details from their daily lives and engaging in ‘self-expression’ to empathize with and relate to fans, which in turn helps them promote sponsored products or companies. Others intentionally create distance by uploading posts related to their economic and sociocultural capital. Sports stars also engage in ‘role model’ and ‘modesty’ strategies by presenting themselves as good examples on and off the field and uploading posts that promote their humility, appealing to South Korean social values.

Vulnerability as a palimpsest: Practices and public policy in a Mexican hospital setting.

Vulnerability is a concept associated with the effects of social inequities to access health care services. On a hospital level, vulnerable populations must be identified and favored over others. The aims of this study were the analysis of the conceptions and practices of social workers regarding vulnerable patients, and the identification of theoretical elements of vulnerability given by academics. Hospital ethnography and a focus group were implemented. Social workers related vulnerability to the social needs of each patient; however, they state that they have dilemmas to identify a person in a vulnerable condition; these dilemmas are related to social differences and deservingness. Academics indicated that the vulnerability should refer to the lack of access to health services offered by the institution. Academics agree with social workers regarding the importance of considering the overlapped social and individual circumstances in each patient to recognize their vulnerable condition, regardless of belonging to any of the pre-established vulnerable groups. Finally, taking into account the way of conceptualizing vulnerability and how public policy on the identification of vulnerable patients in the hospital has been implemented, these two elements are explained using the palimpsest model, which is a figure of thought that can be applied to analyze the sociocultural significance of this complex issue, as well as other social dynamics.

ISSUES OF STAGE SPEECH IN THE PROCESS OF SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT

This article provides information about the role of stage speech in the spiritual development of society, its socio-cultural significance, the history of the development of science, the scientific and creative activities of teachers who created the methodology of science.

ПРОЕКТ ПНЮА — ДЕСЯТЬ ЛЕТ: «ПОД НЕБОМ» И «НА ЗЕМЛЕ» ЮЖНОЙ АЗИИ

The paper marks the tenth anniversary of the interdisciplinary project ‘Under the Skies of South Asia’ implemented by the Centre for Indian Studies of the Institute of Oriental Studies RAS and headed by Dr. Irina Glushkova. At present, following the pilot volume Death in Maharashtra. Imagination, Perception and Expression, four more volumes have been published, each based upon new methodological ‘turns’ in the humanities: Visual, discussing social perceptions of artefacts; mobile, focusing on various activities performed by individuals and societies in motion; spatial, centered around territories and various human activities to appropriate, acculturate, protect it and legitimize various kinds of interconnections with it, from political to emotional; communicative, exploring historically and ethno-culturally specific means of communication and expression of positive and negative perception of the surrounding world. The fifth volume, at present with the publisher, will discuss emotional / affective turn, which attaches socio-cultural significance to human emotions, previously viewed as physiological reactions common to all people. Two more volumes are planned to deal with the problems of household servants and material turn in the humanities. The project motto ‘Not in General, But in Particular’ symbolizes the contributors’ exclusive attention to the real living conditions of the peoples of the region under study, contrary to the Orientalistic heritage of generalization which viewed India and other countries of South Asia ‘in general’, ignoring regional, ethno-cultural and social specificities of the peoples inhabiting the subcontinent.

ГЕОГРАФИЯ МУЗЕЕВ И ПЕРСПЕКТИВЫ РАЗВИТИЯ МУЗЕЙНОГО ТУРИЗМА В САМАРСКОЙ ОБЛАСТИ

Due to the growing socio-cultural significance and economic activity, museums are arousing research interest of specialists from various scientific fields. Close interaction of museum organizations with the tourism and recreation sphere gives relevance to research into the role that modern museum forms play in the formation of certain types of tourism, into regional features of museum placement, the impact that museums have on the economy and spatial organization of territories. A comprehensive study of the regional set of museums and the museum tourism development in the Samara region shows that the current state of museums, the lack of major museum destinations and funding for new high attractions do not allow the region to compete successfully for cruise tourists and in the framework of the interregional tourist project The Great Volga River Route. In the placement of Samara museums, one can trace the influence of agglomeration processes occurring in the region. This is manifested both in the concentration of museum activities in the center of the agglomeration and in the weak use of museum resources, growing risks of losing monuments on the boundaries. Under the existing conditions, the creation of new museum offers and the development of museum tourism in the Samara region is supposed to involve the following: the use of positive effects of agglomeration and overcoming of infrastructure constraints; increased readiness to compete on the basis of clustering and transfer of modern museum technologies from the central federal museums represented in Samara to regional museums, and from those to municipal and rural ones; innovative search for effective development models, integrated solutions and financing mechanisms.

Роль украшений и аксессуаров в традиционном женском русском костюме XVI–XVII вв.

The paper conducts analysis of decor, accessories and jewelry in the context of traditional Russian costume of the 16th–17th centuries; it consists of an introduction and two parts. In the introduction, the authors note the importance of preserving and structuring information about ancient Russian accessories and costume jewelry for modern creative activity. The paper identifies socio-cultural significance of the ensemble of jewelry and costume in traditional Russian society. It examines the clothing of the South Russian and North Russian women's clothing complex, reflecting the specifics of the regions of Russia-from the Volga region to Siberia. The second part addresses the examples of the use of accessories and jewelry in the structure of traditional folk women's costume, depending on the regions of Russia including the clothes of the Orel, Kursk, Voronezh, Ryazan, Tambov, Tula, and Kaluga provinces belonging to the South Russian complex. The North Russian complexes of women's Russian clothing reflect the specifics of the regions. Headdresses, which are traditionally an integral part of women's folk costume, are represented by kokoshniks, kichki, and crowns. Earrings, rings, and chains are introduced by various schools of master jewelers. The characterization of signs by purpose, materials and method of making jewelry, allowed to clarify the order of classification construction of the scheme of using jewelry in the costume system. The main sections of the paper are illustrated with photos depicting costumes and complementary accessories from various regions of Russia. The authors also display costume ornaments that have long been out of use, but are valuable for research. The paper is of interest to ones studying costume design, accessories, and jewelry. It allowed for concluding about the importance of studying the elements of the costume as artifacts made of natural materials that serve as a precious source of information about the unique Russian decorative and applied art and costume.

ФЕНОМЕН ПОДКАСТА В СИСТЕМЕ РЕПРЕЗЕНТАЦИИ МЕЖКУЛЬТУРНЫХ И СОЦИАЛЬНО-ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИХ ЯВЛЕНИЙ

This article analyzes the podcast as a research subject of modern political and sociological science. The purpose of the work is to consider podcasting through the prism of the thematic nature and groups of texts (mainly socio-cultural and political), their narrative structure, functions in public communication of the digital media environment, and other significant aspects. The methodology of the research is focused on the typological analysis of the functional and content characteristics of the podcast as a polycode formation in terms of matching the choice of the current format (podcast-monologue, podcast-conversation, podcast-series, etc.), topics, issues, rhetorical techniques, markers of attracting attention. A conclusion is made about the specifics and prospects of podcasting development, and a general algorithm for analyzing the podcast as a cultural and socio-political phenomenon is proposed, taking into account significant “markers”. It was also concluded that the development of the podcast sphere in the world indicates the high socio-cultural significance of this phenomenon of Internet communication and the need for its comprehensive understanding at the levels of political and sociological analysis. The field of application of the results is political theory, sociology, cultural studies, history, and journalism. The analysis of podcasts allows us to identify the features of their functioning as social phenomena. First of all, this is a high level of the author’s response to events, which is reflected directly on the air and can be determined through the topics and issues of the publication’s information policy. There is also a saturation of the podcast content with a variety of opinions. The main “body” of the media product is formed by expert opinions in the formats of conversation, commentary, and interviews, which include so-called “situational elements” in the media texts: letters, quotes, audience comments, questions, and even life hacks. There is a management of the attention of consumers of information with the help of accuracy, relevance in the choice of a particular topic by podcasters (podcasts act “point-by-point”). It is due to this effect that consumer activity is not only retained, but also increases, and audience interests grow in the process of conscious, rather than random, work with certain audience “layers”. We can say that a podcast is a kind of socio-cultural and political strategy, which is based on a situational choice of the subject of discussion with certain accents

Studies of Urban Identities in Siberian Urban History

This article considers the main results of identity research on Siberian urban history. The author identifies the seven most extensively developed topics in studying the history of urban identities. The first topic focuses on the formation of a city’s general identity in the initial stages of its formation. Historians aim to reveal the mechanisms of general city identification, as well as the sources, criteria, and values underlying the identity of a particular city. The second topic includes studies of the drift of urban production and industrial identities in the context of industrialization: quite often, it was industrial markers that determined the direction of a city’s identification. The third topic covers the study of ethnicity in urban spaces. Historians reveal the reaction of ethnicity to processes of adaptation and acculturation. The fourth issue concerns the study of gender identity in the context of the masculine orientation of urbanisation processes. Historians focus on the study of mechanisms underlying the dominance of masculine culture in the urban environment and the development of the socio-cultural significance and functions of women, their limitations and emancipation. The fifth topic concerns the identification of social stratification in urban systems. Urban history gains new knowledge through studies which examine urbanisation as a factor of differentiation in urban society and classical structures of society (estates and classes), as well as in works on the identification of the middle class, social mobility, the formation of marginal groups, and vernacular culture. The sixth topic is expanded by works dealing with the historical imagology of the city. Images are forms of identity representations in cultural and public discourses. Therefore, in studying them, urban history today makes a practical contribution to the development of modern urbanism. The seventh topic focuses on the historiographical analysis of the identification research strategies of urban historians themselves. In the process of revealing urban identities, the research model should be based on a wide range of sources of a predominantly narrative nature and the anthropological approach. It seems appropriate to use the potential of memoirs, oral history, periodicals, fiction, and journalistic literature. Studies on the identity palette of Russian urban history go beyond purely historical issues and are based on deep interdisciplinary interaction.

Ziggy was here: Tom Wilson’s newspaper comic, World War II, and the role of graffiti in sequential art

ABSTRACT This essay offers a new perspective on the creative origins, aesthetic qualities, and socio-cultural significance of Tom Wilson’s newspaper comic, Ziggy. More specifically, I point out the ways in which Tom Wilson’s well-known character from the closing decades of twentieth century contains elements of visual, thematic, and cultural overlap with an equally well-known figure from the middle portion of the century: Kilroy. Placing Ziggy in dialogue with Kilroy brings together two iconic figures from the history of American cartooning, inviting us to reconsider them both. While much has been written about the important role that the Second World War played in U.S. comics, these discussions have largely focused on the influence of comic books. The suggestive echoes between Ziggy and Kilroy call attention to the role that individual characters who circulated outside of the floppies played in the rise of sequential art during this era. More specifically, given that the figure of Kilroy was scrawled on walls, tanks, and barracks, it highlights the important but long overlooked role of modern graffiti in contemporary comics.

The museum as a cultural universal

In the era of the information society and postmodern culture, the concept of cultural heritage has changed, the discourse on the meaning and prospects of the museum has been updated. The relevance of addressing the study of the fundamental cultural foundations of the museum phenomenon is associated with crisis phenomena in culture; modern global problems of mankind stimulate the formation of new cultural universals. Despite the large number of museological literature, from a philosophical point of view, the problem of the museum was rarely considered. The sociocultural significance of the museum is obvious, but the question of its essence remains open - the abundance of museological and cultural definitions of the museum does not add clarity. The work raises the question of the possibility of analyzing the phenomenon of the museum through the problems of universals, worldview universals.

The Mountain as Mandala: Kūkai’s Founding of Mt. Kōya

This article considers the sociocultural significance of Kūkai’s understanding of Mt. Kōya as a mandala. Locating the context for his formulation of this understanding in his efforts to found Mt. Kōya in the mid-Kōnin era (809–823), it seeks to elucidate its disclosive function. The interpretation is put forward that Kūkai’s mandalic understanding of the mountains disclosed the possibility of a disembedded form of Buddhist life, one in which the human agent is understood to exist outside the social world of the Heian court and the divine cosmos on which it was believed to be grounded. Particular attention is paid to the sociopolitical effects of this disclosure, suggesting specifically that it contributed to the differentiation of religious authority from political power in Japan. To elucidate this process, Kūkai’s founding of Mt. Kōya is situated in a genealogy of monks who founded mountain temples that operated relatively autonomously vis-à-vis the state. Kūkai’s erstwhile collaborator, Saichō, is given special consideration.

Sport, masculinity and gender relations

The ideological and cultural approach towards sport has changed over time and must be linked with the changes in gender relations especially in the Western society. Therefore, the present paper brings to attention the relationship between men and exercise and discusses sport as an important practice for the cultural and physical construction of masculinity. The paper is a narrative analysis of the concept of sport and its socio-cultural significance over time, all presented in the context of gender relations. The analysis is based on information from European documents regarding sport and on statistical data at European level regarding the engagement of men and women in physical activities, with special attention paid to the case of Italy. Over time, the construction of masculinity has been subjected to many changes especially in Western Europe. Mainly, the transition was from the traditional dominant male figure, to the “new man”, interested in health and self-care. The social significance of sport has changed and participation in physical activity is no longer seen as a typical masculine practice being widely open to women as well. In this context, gender relations changed and masculinity now implies new dimensions.

‘Orderinge Things Accordinge to his Majesties Comaundment’: the funeral of the Stuart queen consort Anna of Denmark

ABSTRACT Based on untapped archival material, this article analyses the political significance of the expenditure, display, and ceremonial of the funeral of the queen consort, Anna of Denmark (1574–1619), wife of James VI and I (1566–1625). Contextualised within the wider framework of Stuart dynastic and diplomatic policy at the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ War, it argues that James harnessed the funeral as an opportunity to further his bid for a Stuart–Habsburg marriage that he believed would secure European peace. It shows how care was taken to emphasise the wealth, power, and international Protestant connections of the House of the Stuart, and to highlight the prominence and legitimacy of the marriageable heir, Prince Charles (1600–1649). This article thereby demonstrates the strength and value of material and visual culture as a political tool, and reaffirms the political, dynastic, and socio-cultural significance of the figure of the queen consort.

The socio-cultural significance of mineral licks to the Maijuna of the Peruvian Amazon: implications for the sustainable management of hunting

BackgroundThe overhunting of wild species is a major threat to biodiversity in the Amazon; yet, managed, sustainable hunting is widely considered part of the solution to conserving wildlife populations. Hunting is both a culturally important activity for Indigenous people and provides an important food source. Mineral licks, a focal point of hunting in Amazonia, are naturally occurring areas in the forest where animals come to obtain essential minerals or clays that are thought to neutralize plant-based alkaloids. We sought to better understand the socio-cultural importance of mineral licks to the Maijuna Indigenous group to inform the sustainable management of this habitat and associated wildlife populations.MethodsSemi-structured interviews, focus groups, and participatory mapping were carried out with hunters to assess the significance of mineral licks and their associated animal resources as well as to determine how the relationship that the Maijuna have with mineral licks has changed over time.ResultsMineral licks are culturally significant and useful to the Maijuna in a variety of ways. Hunters target these areas year-round both during the day and night, and animals killed are consumed for subsistence and sold to generate income. The spatial use of mineral licks across the landscape is determined on the generational family level, with families maintaining exclusive use of selected mineral licks and excluding access by other hunters. The Maijuna also have traditional beliefs for why animals visit mineral licks, which is linked to the traditional Maijuna story of the creation of the first tapir. The relationship that the Maijuna have with mineral licks has changed considerably over time, which is observed through changes in hunting technologies and methods as well as the loss of traditional knowledge and beliefs.ConclusionsTraditional and current Maijuna hunting conventions, in which families maintain exclusive use of selected mineral licks, likely reduce the probability of overexploitation of animal populations. Community-based management plans for mineral licks in Maijuna lands and beyond must incorporate and account for the multiple cultural and economic needs of local communities while also striving toward ecological sustainability. Country-wide strategies to conserving forests and using them sustainably should aim to ensure land tenure for rural peoples and encourage management that incorporates traditional sustainable hunting conventions.

Siddi marriage: re-signifying contract, transactions and identities

ABSTRACT This article contributes to new pathways towards the socio-cultural significance of Africa – South Asia dynamics, by focusing on Siddi ‘love’ (when two people choose their own partner) and ‘arranged’ marriages (when family members select one’s life partner with their attendant bride price/dowry obligations). Largely, to Siddis, marriage is literally and symbolically aimed at propagating or continuing the life of their families beyond their own generation. The analysis thus draws on Corrine Kratz’s concept of ‘complex agency’ to investigate how Siddi brides and grooms use the discourse of marriage to negotiate their identities, ratify and embody the ideals of society, while at the same time insinuating their own notions on gender relations, zones of influence, responsibilities, and accountability. The discussion focuses on Siddi marriage as a context and process for exploring the multiple ways in which today’s Siddis remember, forget or re-articulate practices and ideas that make them both Africans and Indians in South Asia. This essay hopes to demonstrate that despite changes that have occurred among Siddis over the centuries, there are rituals of words and actions that undergird their marriage that are part of their faiths, rights, and moral obligations (including hiriyaru: ancestral veneration).

The Lifecycle of Pottery Art Processes and Production in Mpraeso, Ghana

The production of traditional earthenware is a prehistorical/archaeological and historical practice among women in Mpraeso, in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Although pottery has been a vibrant industry in Mpraeso since prehistorical and historical times, there is little known research or published literature regarding the raw materials used, the lifecycle of the production process, the tools of potting, and the socio-cultural and economic importance of the art. This study investigated the raw materials used, production techniques, and the socio-cultural and economic significance of pottery in Mpraeso to elucidate knowledge on pottery production by women and the symbolism and taboos around making pottery in Mpraeso. The cross-sectional study utilised qualitative techniques to collect data from women potters. The results are presented based on themes related to production processes. Production tools are local rudimentary objects, mostly of wood and metal, and production materials are of two kinds: clay materials and grog extracted from the locality. Pots are formed by the coiling method and open-fired. The pots are used for many domestic chores and for funerals, among other uses. Potting is a primary economic activity for women in Mpraeso. The industry needs to be developed in view of the role it plays in Mpraeso, as it promotes the transmission of culture and the art of pottery production and stimulates the local economy of Ghana.