How men and women interact, the respect young show old and old show young, and who doffs their hat to whom provides a telling window on American cultural history. Bowing To Necessities is the chronologically most wide-ranging study, covering the long period of 1620 to 1860, of its kind. Working through two centuries of conduct literature, Professor Hemphill provides a wonderful retelling of American history to the Civil War, illuminating crucial connections between evolving class, gender, and age relations along the way.

By exploring indigenous people's knowledge and use of sea ice, the SIKU project has demonstrated the power of multiple perspectives and introduced a new field of interdisciplinary research, the study of social (socio-cultural) aspects of the natural world, or what we call the social life of sea ice. It incorporates local terminologies and classifications, place names, personal stories, teachings, safety rules, historic narratives, and explanations of the empirical and spiritual connections that people create with the natural world. In opening the social life of sea ice and the value of indigenous perspectives we make a novel contribution to IPY, to science, and to the public

Departing from an ethnographic collection in London, From Storeroom to Stage traces the journey of its artefacts back to the Romanian villages where they were made 70 years ago, and to other places where similar objects are still in use. The book explores the role that material culture plays in the production of value and meaning by examining how folk objects are mobilized in national ideologies, transmissions of personal and family memory, museological discourses, and artistic acts.

It has been said there are more Chinese learning English than there are Americans. We all have a sense that the first decades of the third millennium, including the effects of the global financial recession, signal dramatic changes to the shape of the world to come. China's emergence as a superpower is one of the few certainties in this rapidly changing world. What is less well realised is the critical role which China's decisions about English will play in the world's communication profile. This unique volume explores this question looking at the debates on identity, cultural values and communication practices. Taking a wide-ranging view and uniquely blending both Chinese and Western perspectives the volume explores the critically important cultural consequences of mass English learning in today's world.

The pictorial turn in the humanities and social sciences has foregrounded the political power of images and the extent to which historical, political, social, and cultural processes and practices are shaped visually. Political iconographies are taken to interpret norms of actions, support ideological formations, and enhance moral concepts. Visual rhetorics are understood as active players in the construction and contestation of the political realm and public space. The twenty-one articles by scholars from Europe and the United States explore the political function and cultural impact of images from the perspectives of Art History, American Studies, Visual Culture Studies, History, and Political Science. The contributions in particular address the complex interplay between agent and addressee in the public space as well as issues of national identity, discourses of inclusion and exclusion, and the designation of political spaces within transnational contexts. The publication is part of the interdisciplinary research initiative "Perceiving and Understanding: Functions, Perception Processes, Forms of Visualizations, Cultural Strategies of Pictures and Texts" at the University of Regensburg.

This book is a landmark in contemporary cultural psychology. Ernest Boesch's synthesis of ideas is the first comprehensive theory of culture in psychology since Wilhelm Wundt's Volkerpsychologie of the first decades of the twentieth century. Cultural psychology of today is an attempt to advance the program of research that was charted out by Wundt-yet at times we are carefully avoiding direct recognition of such continuity. While Wundt's experimental psychology has been hailed as the root for contemporary scientific psychology, the other side of his contribution- ethnographic analysis of folk traditions and higher psychological functions- has been largely discredited as something disconnected from the scientific realm. As an example of ""soft"" science-lacking the ""hardness"" of experimentation-it has been considered to be an esoteric hobby of the founding father of contemporary psychology. Of course that focus is profoundly wrong-the opposition ""soft"" versus ""hard"" just does not fit as a metalevel organizer of any science.Yet the rhetoric discounting the descriptive side of Wundt's psychology is merely an act of social guidance of what psychologists do-not a way of creating knowledge.

This exciting new and original collection locates dance within the spectrum of urban life in late modernity, through a range of theoretical perspectives. It highlights a diversity of dance forms and styles that can be witnessed in and around contemporary urban spaces: from dance halls to raves and the club striptease; from set dancing to ballroom dancing, to hip hop and swing, and to ice dance shows; from the ballet class, to fitness aerobics; and 'art' dance which situates itself in a dynamic relation to the city.

Across the world, there has been a polite uprising to the perceived meaninglessness and stress of our accelerated and consumer driven lifestyles. Described simply as the slow phenomenon, this new brand of living entails not simply slowing down, but an embracing of alternative activities that promote meaning, thoughtfulness, engagement and authenticity. Whether it is through different practices of food production and consumption, alternative modes of transportation such as cycling through to our intimate relations with others, this new ethic of living has grown immensely in popularity. In this volume of work, key authors from across the world have been brought together to illustrate these alternative approaches to modern lifestyles by analyzing them empirically and theoretically. Through rigorous debate and insightful commentary, this book presents a compelling case for seeing the slow phenomenon as a significant cultural practice in contemporary society.

From the outset, Silvio Berlusconi's career was expected to be short, and he has been considered finished several times, only to have reemerged victorious. This fascinating political and historical study shows that Berlusconi's success and resilience have lain in his ability to provide answers to longstanding questions in Italian history.

The practiceof archaeology has many different facets: from academia, to government, tocultural resource management, to public media.

Considering the place of archaeology in society means understanding the rolesthat archaeology has in the present day and a sense of the contributions thatit can make in each of these areas, both now and in the future. Archaeologistscome to the field to pursue a variety of interests: teaching, examininghistory, preserving the environment, or studying a specialized time period orinterest. The outside world has a number of other expectations of archaeology: preservation, tourism, and education, to name but a few.

From a broad and varied background, the editors have compiled a rare group ofcontributors uniquely qualified to address questions about the current state ofarchaeology and its relevance in society. There is no single answer to thequestion of how the field of archaeology should develop, and what it can do forsociety. Instead, the authors in this volume lay out the many ways in which archaeology isrelevant to the present day - considering, for example, climate change, energyexploration, warfare, national identity, the importance of stories and how theyare told, and how and why opportunities to engage with the past throughmuseums, digs, television, classes, and the print media have the formsthey currently do - creating a state-of-the-art tool for archaeologists, policymakers and the public alike to understand thework of many in the fieldand address the challenges we all face."

View the Table of Contents. Read the Introduction.

"Staiger's" Blockbuster TV" artfully balances formal analysis, inflected with and informed by various theoretical perspectives, of four different sitcoms with an examination of their reception. "JUMPCUT"

"Staiger offers a radical counter-approach to traditional film-centered analysis."
--"Jump Cut"

Archie Bunker. Jed. Laverne and Shirley. Cliff Huxtable. Throughout the entire history of American prime-time television only four sitcoms have been true blockbusters, with Nielsen ratings far above the second- and third-rated programs. Weekly, millions of Americans of every age were making a special effort to turn on the set to see what Archie, Jed, Laverne, and Cliff were doing that week. The wild popularity of these shows--"All in the Family," "The Beverly Hillbillies," "Laverne & Shirley" (and its partner "Happy Days"), and "The Cosby Show"--left commentators bewildered by the tastes and preferences of the American public. How do we account for the huge appeal of these sitcoms, and how does it figure into the history of network prime-time television?

Janet Staiger answers these questions by detailing the myriad factors that go into the construction of mass audiences. Treating the four shows as case studies, she deftly balances factual explanations (for instance, the impact of VCRs and cable on network domination of TV) with more interpretative ones (for example, the transformation of "The Beverly Hillbillies" from a popular show detested by the critics, to a blockbuster after its elevation as the critics' darling), and juxtaposes industry-based reasons (for example, the ways in which TV shows derive success fromplacement in the weekly programming schedule) with stylistic explanations (how, for instance, certain shows create pleasure from a repetition and variation of a formula).

Staiger concludes that because of changes in the industry, these shows were a phenomenon that may never be repeated. And while the western or the night-time soap has at times captured public attention, Blockbuster TV maintains that the sitcom has been THE genre to attract people to the tube, and that without understanding the sitcom, we can't properly understand the role of television in our culture.

How can we understand consumption in a region known for its cultural richness and vast inequalities? What do Latin Americans consume, and why? Examining topics from tango and samba to sex workers in Costa Rica, from eating tamales to selling ice in the Andes, and from building and moving houses to buying cell phones, this collection brings together original research on some of the many forms of consumption and consumers that contribute to Latin American cultures and histories. Contributors include sociologists, anthropologists, media and cultural studies scholars, geographers and historians, showcasing diverse approaches to understanding Latin American consumption practices and consumer culture.

Bloggers around the world produce material for local, national and international audiences, yet they are developing in ways that are distinct from the U.S. model. Through case studies of blogs written in English, Chinese, Arab, French, Russian, and Hebrew, this book explores the way blogging is being conceptualized in different cultural contexts. The authors move beyond the most highly trafficked sites to shed light on larger developments taking place online, calling into question assumptions that form the foundation of much of what we read on blogging and, by extension, on global amateur or do-it-yourself media. This book suggests a more nuanced approach to understanding how blogospheres serve communication needs, how they exist in relation to one another, where they exist apart as well as where they overlap, and how they interact with other forms of communication in the larger media landscape.

With the growing interest in the great number of culturally, linguistically, and ethnically different families entering the United States, it is essential for researchers and mental health practitioners to acquire a working knowledge that can aid in a healthier adjustment of these families. Although it is impossible for any therapist to understand the traditions, values, and languages of all immigrant groups, a therapist may be guided by a conceptual operational principle that can be implemented across diverse groups and circumstances. Dr. Gopaul-McNicol introduces a model for assessment; the techniques and strategies proposed by this model range from cognitive behavioral interventions to multimodal and multisystems approaches to treatment.

The book covers historical and contemporary perspectives of the influence of culture on an individual's functioning. Assessment issues include intellectual, educational and visual motor assessment and its applicability with culturally diverse clients. The author also highlights ways of misassessing the personality of culturally different individuals and examines the major treatment approaches in counseling the culturally different.

Nineteenth-century fiction writer and journalist Rebecca Harding Davis (1831-1910) is best known for her novella Life in the Iron Mills. Its publication in 1861 launched her stunning fifty-year career that yielded a corpus of some 500 published works, including short stories, novels, novellas, sketches, and social commentary. Davis's unique mode of writing anticipated literary realism twenty years before the time usually associated with its genesis. Today, her life and work continue to figure prominently in the study of American literature and culture. Rebecca Harding Davis: Writing Cultural Autobiography is the annotated edition of her 1904 autobiography, Bits of Gossip, and a previously unpublished family history written for her children. The memoirs are not traditional autobiography; rather, they are Davis's perspective on the extraordinary cultural changes that occurred during her lifetime and of the remarkable - and sometimes scandalous - people who shaped the events. She provides intimate portraits of the famous people she knew, including Emerson, Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, Ann Stephens, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Horace Greeley. Equally important are Davis's commentaries on the political activists of the Civil War era, from Abraham Lincoln to Booker T. Washington, from the ""daughters of the Southland"" to Lucretia Mott, from Henry Ward Beecher to William Still. Whereas Bits of Gossip expands our understanding of Davis as cultural critic and observer of life, the family history offers new information on Davis's early life and the influences that led her to become one of the nineteenth century's pioneering Realists and cultural commentators. Together they bring a human voice to the nineteenth-century American milieu.

In this wide-ranging study of the politics of memory in Northern Ireland, Brian Conway examines the 'career' of the commemoration of Bloody Sunday, and looks at how and why the way this historic event is remembered has undergone change over time. Drawing on original empirical data, he provides new insights into the debate on collective memory.

This edited collection outlines the accomplishments, shortcomings, and future policy prospects of the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, arguing that the Convention is not broad enough to confront the challenges concerning human rights, sustainability, and cultural diversity as a whole.

An exploration of the rich complexity of the worship of the deity Inari in contemporary Japan. The work covers institutional and popular power in religion, the personal meaningfulness of religious figures and the communicative styles that preserve homogeneity in the face of factionalism.

In the dense rainforest of the west coast of Vancouver Island, the Somass River (c uuma as) brings sockeye salmon (mi aat) into the Nuu-chah-nulth community of Tseshaht. C uuma as and mi aat are central to the sacred food practices that have been a crucial part of the Indigenous community's efforts to enact food sovereignty, decolonize their diet, and preserve their ancestral knowledge. In A Drum in One Hand, a Sockeye in the Other, Charlotte Cote shares contemporary Nuu-chah-nulth practices of traditional food revitalization in the context of broader efforts to re-Indigenize contemporary diets on the Northwest Coast. Cote offers evocative stories of her Tseshaht community's and her own work to revitalize relationships to ha um (traditional food) as a way to nurture health and wellness. As Indigenous peoples continue to face food insecurity due to ongoing inequality, environmental degradation, and the Westernization of traditional diets, Cote foregrounds healing and cultural sustenance via everyday enactments of food sovereignty: berry picking, salmon fishing, and building a community garden on reclaimed residential school grounds. This book is for everyone concerned about the major role food plays in physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness.

Expanding William F. Pinar's notion of autobiography from an individual to a national scale, this book takes the reader on an inner journey to explore the fragmented condition of the post-9/11 American national psyche. It excavates the many layers of the emerging social context within which multiple, conflicting national narratives of identity compete, and uses notions of democracy, nation, and citizen as signposts of contested terrain inside a troubled nation. While reminding us that the old, enduring questions remain unresolved, the book identifies and grapples with new questions that are central to emergent visions of 'educating for democracy' in contemporary America, situated now within a frenetic post-9/11 world.

Europeans are eating out in unprecedented numbers - in cafs, pubs, brasseries and restaurants. Globalization brought about changes in patterns of leisure and consumption, as well as a democratization of restaurant culture. But what if we open up this concept of 'eating out' to include any eating that takes place outside the home? What cultural shifts can we see through time? What differences can we discover about pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrial societies?Eating Out in Europe addresses such questions as it examines changes in eating patterns through time. 'Eating out' is broadly conceived to cover everything from nibbling a pizza at work to dining in an exquisite restaurant, from suffering an institutional lunch at the school cafeteria to enjoying the natural world with a picnic. The meaning of eating out clearly varies enormously depending on the setting, circumstances and significance of the meal. The contributors describe and interpret the huge changes that occurred in eating habits throughout Europe by analyzing such factors as urbanization, technological innovation, demographic growth, employment patterns and identity formation. Case studies include the evolution of the pub, the rise of the fast food industry in Britain, picnicking in nineteenth-century France, snack culture in the Netherlands, industrial canteens in Germany, the rise of restaurants in Norway and countryside traditions in Hungary, among others. Fully comprehensive and illustrated, the contributors draw on examples throughout Europe from the late eighteenth century to the present day.

A critical inquiry into postmodern anxiety, fear, indifference, obsessive attention seeking, and the disappearance of privacy and of public space, the book offers penetrating insights into what its author terms the troubled identity, and also into the cultural canon, the weakened sense of belonging, and the inflation of key political concepts. Blending political theory and philosophy of culture, the book exposes the tension between thought and action, politics and literature, power and dissent in postmodern politics and culture. A polemical book of an Eastern European, it raises the pivotal issues of present Europe's cultural identity and political existence.

"The scope of the work is broad, with European and Latin American influences well represented. Recommended for collections that emphasize fiction of the past two decades." Library Journal

In The Rhythm of Modernization, Raul Tormos analyses the pace at which belief systems change across the developed world during the modernization process. It is often assumed that value change follows the slow rhythm of generational replacement. This book, however, reports trends that contradict this assumption in the field of values. Challenging Inglehart's modernization theory, the transition from traditional to modern values happens much quicker than predicted. Many "baby-boomers" who were church-going, morally conservative materialists when they were young, become unchurched and morally tolerant postmaterialists in their later years. Using surveys from multiple countries over many years, and applying cutting-edge statistical techniques, this book shows how citizens quickly adapt their belief systems to new circumstances throughout their lives.

There could be no better homage to recently deceased sociologist Charles C. Moskos than dedicating to him this selection of the papers presented at RC01's international conference in Seoul (July 2008). It offers an up-to-date view of the panorama of social studies on armed forces and conflict resolution in a context of fast-moving change that renders many preceding theoretical previsions obsolete. Just to cite two aspects of this change, one can point first of all to how the presented studies move beyond the very concept of globalization, after which the conference had been named. It in fact emerged with clarity that the new dimensions of the context in which militaries and military policy must move are those of a constant, diffuse interaction of the 'local' and the 'global', so-called globalization. A second aspect, in the international area, is the shift towards a multipolar global order with the United States, the European Union, China, Russia, Latin America, Japan and India all manoeuvring for position, a shift that has significant consequences on military action as well.