This unique volume offers unprecedented insight into the typical day, interests, and familial, social, and cultural lives of Middle Eastern teens. Each chapter includes a resource guide to teach teens more about the 11 profiled countries: Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestinian territories, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Numerous photos accompany the text. This book provides teen readers in the West with a window into the everyday lives of their counterparts in the East, fostering a better understanding of both their similarities and differences.

The current population of the Middle East is young, and their future is critical in our worldview. Teen life in the Middle East is marked by extremes. In some countries, especially those that are Westernized, teens share the benefits of globalization with material and social comforts such as private schooling and vacations abroad. In other countries, political instability, religious and cultural repression, war and occupation, earthquakes, and poverty are ongoing crises. Many teenagers must endure a difficult, and sometimes nearly impossible, path to adulthood.

Yezidism is a fascinating part of the rich cultural mosaic of the Middle East. Yezidis emerged for the first time in the 12th century in the Kurdish mountains of northern Iraq. Their religion, which has become notorious for its associations with "devil worship," is in fact an intricate syncretic system of belief, incorporating elements from proto-Indo-European religions, early Persian faiths like Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism, Sufism and regional paganism like Mithraism. Birgul Acikyildiz offers a comprehensive appraisal of Yezidi religion, society and culture. Written without presupposing any prior knowledge about Yezidism, and in an accessible and readable style, her book examines Yezidis not only from a religious point of view but as a historical and social phenomenon. She throws light on the origins of Yezidism, and charts its historical development -- from its beginnings to the present -- as part of the general history of the Kurds. The author describes the Yezidi belief system (which considers Melek Taus -- the "Peacock Angel" -- to be ruler of the earth) and its religious practices and observances, analyzing the most important facets of Yezidi religious art and architecture and their relationship to their neighbours throughout the Middle East. Richly illustrated, with accompanying maps, photographs and illustrations, the book will have strong appeal to all those with an interest in the culture of the Kurds, as well as the wider region.

This book is a one-stop comprehensive guide to geographical inquiry. A step-by-step account of the hows and the whys of research methodology. Introduces students to the complexities of geographical perspective and thought, essentials of fieldwork, formulation of research topics, data collection, analysis and interpretation as well as presentation a

Dr. Lonnie Woods, Esq. resides in the Dallas- Fort Worth area. Dr. Woods graduated from Texas Christian University with a B.A. in Political Science with honors and later the University of Texas School of Law, where he obtained his law degree. He later received his Master of Divinity from Brite Divinity located on the campus of Texas Christian University and his Doctorate of Ministry from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. Dr. Woods has provided the Dallas Fort Worth community with over twenty years experience in the areas of ministry and in the practice of law. The Woods Law Firm specializes in handling legal matters related to Real Estate law, personal injury, business law, criminal law and the development of corporate legal and tax infrastructure. Dr. Woods has capitalized on his passion and commitment to spreading the gospel with his skill as a legal expert in developing his ministry. His first ordination was at East Dallas Christian Church where he currently assists in the Education Ministry as a board member and instructor. He is a former Chaplain of the Dallas- Fort Worth Regional Airport. He currently serves as Associate Pastor at Bexar Street Missionary Baptist Church, Dallas Texas under the tutelage of Rev. C.C. Robertson, current president of the National Mission Baptist Convention. Dr. Woods is also a faculty member of Southern Bible Institute in Dallas Texas. Dr. Woods has established the L.E. Woods Ministries where he serves as consultant to Senior Pastors in the Dallas Fort Worth Community and surrounding areas while assisting them with church development. His expertise is in training faith- based organizations in leadership training, foundation development and economic empowerment. He has done extensive research on economic development and empowerment of men. Dr. Woods focus is "Providing Hope, Creating Ministry."

While White parents raising Black children has become increasingly salient in the last 20?30 years, the experience of those who grow up in these cross?racial families is much more complicated. Indeed, much of the adoption studies literature has privileged White parent voices, further silencing crossracially raised Black?identified children. "Is That Your Mom?" challenges the dominant narrative that love trumps race (and racism) in family dynamics, and reasserts the need for critical voices of those most impacted by being cross?racially raised: the very people who face extreme racism that is both similar to, and uniquely different from, that faced by people of color more broadly. "Is That Your Mom?" centers the voices of Cross Racially Raised individuals of the African Diaspora to illustrate that racial socialization is a process in which individuals have agency in their racial development. In this book, Cross Racially Raised adults, both those who were adopted and those who were raised in cross?racial birth families, share their stories regarding experiences with racism in the following three ways: (1) encounters with racism within and beyond educational settings, (2) perceptions of parents or guardians' efforts toward racial socialization, and (3) strategies used to navigate racially hostile environments (which sometimes are the families themselves). The voices of the individuals in this book illuminate a deeper conceptual understanding of how racial socialization practices are linked with one's ability to cope with racism and ways of addressing racism, particularly among those families that contradict monoracial assumptions of racial socialization processes. The book concludes with a discussion of how schools, educators, and parents can help Cross Racially Raised children and youth develop skills necessary to cope and remain resilient in the face of racism, particularly if the immediate family is not offering those supports.

Education has never been non-partisan. Buffeted by economic, political, and social influences, education, educators, and various stakeholders have taken sides to provide institutionalized instruction to child and adult learners. Instruction that is right or wrong, ethical or unethical, just or unjust, can be just that, depending on where one's education and schooling takes place in the world. Education alone can be construed as a first step towards indoctrination into a community and nation's way of life. Despite divergent views, the ultimate goal of serving students has remained paramount. At the same time, the work of educators has placed them at the forefront of numerous debates and controversies that have beset the profession. The process of informing oneself professionally and personally in the midst of such educational deliberations may not be an easy task, but may be a necessary one given the impact of one's decisions and stances on learners. This book focuses on contemporary and critical topics of debate that educators face in American educational settings. The book's distinctiveness rests on its Socratic approach to the content. Each chapter begins with the examination of an issue of interest and concludes with a series of related questions. Readers are asked to ponder the materials individually and with others to enable all to draw their own conclusions. This book will interest and benefit educational professionals along all points in their professional careers from new professionals and students-in-training to those with extensive experiences across educational disciplines.

This book compares the Korean diasporic groups in Japan and the United States. It highlights the contrasting adaptation of Koreans in Japan and the United States, and illuminates how the destinies of immigrants who originally belonged to the same ethnic/national collectivity diverge depending upon destinations and how they are received in a certain state and society within particular historical contexts. The author finds that the mode of incorporation (a specific combination of contextual factors), rather than ethnic 'culture' and 'race,' plays a decisive role in determining the fates of these Korean immigrant groups. In other words, what matters most for immigrants' integration is not their particular cultural background or racial similarity to the dominant group, but the way they are received by the host state and other institutions. Thus, this book is not just about Korean immigrants; it is also about how contexts of reception including different conceptualizations of 'race' in relation to nationhood affect the adaptation of immigrants from the same ethnic/national origin.

Language policies in Southeast Asia have been shaped by the process of nation-building on the one hand and by political and economic considerations on the other. The early years of nation-building in Southeast Asia generated intensive language conflicts precisely because state policies privileged the idea of a monolingual nation and thus endeavoured to co-opt or even do away with troublesome ethnic identities. In recent years, language policies are increasingly influenced by pragmatic considerations, especially globalization and the awareness of a linkage between language and economic development, such that Southeast Asian states in varying degrees have become less insistent on promoting monolingual nationalism. This book evaluates the successes and drawbacks of language policies in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar, especially the ways in which these policies have often been resisted or contested. It is an invaluable primer on this linguistically complex region and a resource for scholars, policy-makers, civil society activists and NGOs in various parts of the world facing equally challenging ethnic/language issues.

This book is a study of the centrality of racism in the construction and maintenance of class-based societies in Britain, the United States, and Western Europe. It combines analysis of historical and contemporary material to provide the reader with a better understanding of contemporary forms of racism.

The essays challenge assumptions of both racial superiority and inferiority and of "natural" racial antagonism. The book is intended for those readers concerned with understanding and changing our increasingly unequal and unjust societies as well as for those studying the issues of race relations, social structure, and equality in an academic setting.

In this groundbreaking study, Ana Hernandez offers an in-depth analysis of the social and cultural influences in the Latino community and its effect on the development of Latino racial identity from clinical and therapeutic perspectives. Her book addresses what it means to be a "Latino" in the United States, including the origins of the term and its use to describe individuals from Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. It makes distinctions among race, ethnicity, and culture and describes common terminologies used to denote individuals whose origins lie in the south of the Western Hemisphere. An Evolving Racial Identity discusses mental health consequences that can result from varying racial identities and examines the sociocultural contexts that explain the prevalence of diverse racial identities and the racial experiences in the United States. The study employs a research lens from data collected on 206 self-identified Latino young adults to evaluate experiences of racial discrimination and parental racial socialization in addition to what happens when individuals from Central, South America, and the Caribbean are confronted with the harsh realities of race in the United States. Hernandez deftly describes the ways in which individuals cope with North American racial discourse while simultaneously grappling with their own countries' racial socialization and colonization histories, which are often unacknowledged and unaddressed in the U.S. mental health field. This sociocultural context has important implications for mental health. This book offers strategies for mental health practitioners from the perspective of couples and family therapists. It also offers a Racialized Identity Framework to guide researchers and clinicians on how to best understand and alleviate the phenomenon of racial identity within the Latino population.

"N=omai" dance drama, an artistic expression combining sacred, communal, economic, and cultural spheres of community life in the district of Higashidorimura, is a performing tradition that provides an identity to agriculturally based villages. It has retained features characteristic of the music, drama, and sacred practices of medieval Japan. "N=omai" singing exhibits traits linked to Buddhist chanting. The instrumental music originates from folk Shinto. This study highlights the social and cultural value "n=omaii" has for the residents in villages that perform it by providing the historical context in which it is examined, as well as its current performance practices.

As this work explores the aspects of agricultural Japanese society, revealed through a dance drama, it will appeal to music and drama scholars as well as students of Japanese culture and history. After establishing the historical lens from which to view "n DEGREESD=omai" drama, the theatrical and musical aspects are discussed in detail. Photographs and musical examples enhance this thorough, well-organized study.

In the wake of the Mexican-American War, competing narratives of religious conquest and re-conquest were employed by Anglo American and ethnic Mexican Californians to make sense of their place in North America. These "invented traditions" had a profound impact on North American religious and ethnic relations, serving to bring elements of Catholic history within the Protestant fold of the United States' national history as well as playing an integral role in the emergence of the early Chicano/a movement. Many Protestant Anglo Americans understood their settlement in the far Southwest as following in the footsteps of the colonial project begun by Catholic Spanish missionaries. In contrast, Californios--Mexican-Americans and Chicana/os--stressed deep connections to a pre-Columbian past over to their own Spanish heritage. Thus, as Anglo Americans fashioned themselves as the spiritual heirs to the Spanish frontier, many ethnic Mexicans came to see themselves as the spiritual heirs to a southwestern Aztec homeland.

The coal fields of West Virginia would seem an unlikely market for big band jazz during the Great Depression. That a prosperous African American audience dominated by those involved with the coal industry was there for jazz tours would seem equally improbable. "Big Band Jazz in Black West Virginia, 1930-1942" shows that, contrary to expectations, black Mountaineers flocked to dances by the hundreds, in many instances traveling considerable distances to hear bands led by Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Andy Kirk, Jimmie Lunceford, and Chick Webb, among numerous others. Indeed, as one musician who toured the state would recall, "All the bands were goin' to West Virginia."

The comparative prosperity of the coal miners, thanks to New Deal industrial policies, was what attracted the bands to the state. This study discusses that prosperity as well as the larger political environment that provided black Mountaineers with a degree of autonomy not experienced further south. Author Christopher Wilkinson demonstrates the importance of radio and the black press both in introducing this music and in keeping black West Virginians up to date with its latest developments. The book explores connections between local entrepreneurs who staged the dances and the national management of the bands that played those engagements. In analyzing black audiences' aesthetic preferences, the author reveals that many black West Virginians preferred dancing to a variety of music, not just jazz. Finally, the book shows bands now associated almost exclusively with jazz were more than willing to satisfy those audience preferences with arrangements in other styles of dance music.

At its core, the Civil War was a conflict over the meaning of citizenship. Most famously, it became a struggle over whether or not to grant rights to a group that stood outside the pale of civil-society: African Americans. But other groups--namely Jews, Germans, the Irish, and Native Americans--also became part of this struggle to exercise rights stripped from them by legislation, court rulings, and the prejudices that defined the age. Grounded in extensive research by experts in their respective fields, Civil War Citizens is the first volume to collectively analyze the wartime experiences of those who lived outside the dominant white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant citizenry of nineteenth-century America. The essays examine the momentous decisions made by these communities in the face of war, their desire for full citizenship, the complex loyalties that shaped their actions, and the inspiring and heartbreaking results of their choices-- choices that still echo through the United States today. Contributors: Stephen D. Engle, William McKee Evans, David T. Gleeson, Andrea Mehrlander, Joseph P. Reidy, Robert N. Rosen, and Susannah J. Ural.