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Using animals in sacrificial rituals and socio-religious ceremonies has a long history and is still practised in various cultures and religions worldwide. This phenomenon remains a complex issue, with deeply held cultural and religious beliefs on one side and concerns for animal welfare and ethical treatment on the other. This study aims to analyze the domestic and wild animals exploited for sacrificial practices and socio-religious purposes among the Moroccan and comprehend the symbolism of these practices. This fieldwork has been undertaken in various regions of Morocco, where we focused on visiting areas known to use animals in rituals. Ethnozoological data were gathered during field observations, visits to public markets, and our participation in ritual activities. A total of 128 wild and domestic animal species belonging to 62 zoological families were identified in this investigation as being used for various sacrificial rituals and socio-religious events. The documented animals were distributed among eight classes. It was demonstrated that the most frequently cited classes were Mammalia, with 40 species. The presence of local wildlife, cultural trends, and economic factors contribute to the sustainability and growth of the market for ritualistic animal products. However, the absence of effective monitoring and regulation poses a challenge from a conservationist standpoint. To conserve and responsibly utilize Morocco's fauna, it is crucial to possess comprehensive information about the animal species involved in sacrificial rituals and socio-religious events. By exploring folk knowledge and healthcare practices, we can gain deeper insights into human interactions with the surrounding ecosystem, leading to the development of suitable strategies for preserving natural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Columbine High School-massacre, the world continues to witness school shootings. The current state of research presents us with nuanced categories for understanding the phenomenon, such as the school shooters' use of media, their psychological features, and their intentions. Similarly, the discussion of preventive measures is equally bountiful. While there are a number of empirical studies that are related to digitalization, a gap in how we theorize the meaning of digitalization persists. Our aim is to provide an integrated synthesis needed for understanding school shootings in the digital era. Via a narrative literature review, we identified three explanatory themes, namely strain, imitation, and digital mediation. These were synthesized in order to explain more thoroughly how individuals come to participate in online school shooting subculture, possibly leading to their perpetration of school shootings. Based on this, a model is presented that excels in its focus on the ever more prominent role of digitality in everyday life as well as in its broad social science and behavioral explanations. Finally, the article provides potential venues for further research along with prevention strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Olfactory Reference Disorder (ORD) is a known clinical entity for several decades; however, it is only in ICD 11 that it has found its niche. Long considered a delusional disorder, it is currently classified as an obsessive–compulsive (OC) spectrum disorder. ORD is characterised by an erroneous conviction that the body is emitting an unpleasant smell. Patients harbour referential thinking, practise rituals to eliminate or mask the perceived odour, and avoid social interactions. While the conviction can be at a delusional level in some patients, the preoccupation has an obsessive quality in others. The level of insight can be varied. Patients present to mental health settings after traversing a long pathway of care comprising of various specialists. Medical and psychiatric conditions which can present with ORD-like symptoms need to be ruled out. Establishing a therapeutic alliance is the first step in management. There are no randomised controlled trials comparing treatment options in ORD. Antidepressants, antipsychotics, and their combinations have been used with varying degrees of success, in addition to psychotherapy and electroconvulsive therapy. Data on prognosis is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asylum determinations are highly complex and difficult decisions. At the heart of this decision lies a credibility assessment of the asylum claimant's narrative, which confronts the decision-maker with a seemingly straightforward question: do I believe this person's story? To uphold legitimacy of this assessment, semi-legal criteria have been established internationally. However, these criteria have been criticized for relying on inaccurate and simplistic assumptions about human behavior, autobiographical memory, and communication. In light of this contestation, I ask how the legal-administrative practice of assessing credibility of asylum applications gains legitimacy in the eyes of the public, policy-makers, and legal professionals despite resting on highly disputable assumptions? To answer this question, I draw on interviews, observations, and written judgements from the Swedish administrative courts to explore how symbolic messages are tacitly conveyed through the use of judicial language, activities, and objects. The analysis suggests that cohesive, albeit tacit, messages about credibility assessments being accurate (rather than arbitrary), objective (rather than subjective), professional (rather than lay), and just (rather than unjust) are produced to both near and distant audiences. The study contributes to the literature on credibility assessments by offering a theoretical perspective that can unpack the relationship between symbolic communication in courts and perceived legitimacy for disputed practices within asylum determinations and migration control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rituals of territorial belonging as established practices of inclusion improve dynamics of belonging and coexistence. They are particularly significant in the city where people need rituals to trust each other. But what happens when rituals disappear? The Covid-19 pandemic is an experiment on a societal level on the role of rituals. We will analyze three canceled or strongly modified traditional events in Geneva, Zurich, and Turin. We conclude that these cancellations of rituals in urban public spaces generated a lack of territorial belonging and produced mistrust and anger, but at the same time pushed people to develop new dynamics to fill this void. Frustration over the cancellation was transformed into agency. This sense of emptiness was filled through the multiplication of personal and social rituals, through the rediscovery of the city's territory alone or with their groups of affiliation, and through new digital rituals linked to the urban ritual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on two indigenous healing rituals from Kerala, the South- Western state of India. The first one is uzhinjuvāngal, a ritual of warding off evil spirits. It is practised as part of the mantravāda healing tradition, at pūṅkuṭil mana, an ancestral house belonging to brahmin priests. The second is, gaddika, a ritualistic art form practised as part of ritual healing by the Aṭiyān, a scheduled tribal community residing in the Wayanad district of Kerala. These faith healing practices are conducted complementary to biomedical treatments and provide relief to patients. This must be understood in their rich cultural context. As an alternative to modern medicine, unique traditional healing rituals are used to provide specific treatments based on the antiquity and integrity of beliefs and practices. Significant aspects including phenomenological and narrative influences which contribute to the efficacy of these practices were observed from ethnographic data collection after the emerging narratives were analysed thematically. Certain similarities can be found between narrative therapy and how these faith-healing practices employ narratives. Deriving from primary research, this paper argues that these practices go beyond the limitations of narrative therapy, employing metaphors, embodied ritualistic experiences and fictive imagination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, most of the discussions in Confucian political theory have concentrated on whether Confucianism is compatible with local political practices, such as liberal democracy. The question of how Confucians view global distributive justice has not yet received critical attention. This essay aims to fill this gap. I will first describe a contractualist methodology, which aims at deriving substantial political principles from a formal conception of the person. Then I will discuss what conception of the person Confucianism assumes. Finally, I will use the contractualist methodology to derive three principles of global distributive justice. These three principles form a distinctive conception based on ideas that are usually ignored in the current discussions of global justice, such as virtues, community, and rituals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmers have developed indigenous knowledge (IK) on predictive and adaptation strategies to sustain water security. The objective of the study was to determine factors that influence the integration of IK and conventional knowledge (CK) to ensure water security for livestock. Focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews were used to gather data. Farmers in Musina and uMhlabuyalingana use IK indicators to predict rain for water security. Farmers in uMhlabuyalingana predicted rain using wind movement more than their counterparts in Musina (P < 0.05). Taboos were used (P > 0.05) in both Musina and uMhlabuyalingana to ensure water security. Cultural prohibitions were used more in uMhlabuyalingana to cope with water shortages than in Musina (P < 0.05). Boreholes, home taps and municipal water were not properly maintained (P > 0.05). Socio-economic factors had greater influence on the integration of IK and CK. Males were 2.24 times likely to support integration of IK and CK compared to women. Adults were 7.1 times likely to support integration of IK and CK compared to those that were younger. Farmers were open to the integration of conventional and indigenous knowledge to ensure water security. Promoting the integration of IK and CK enables stakeholders to gain access to valuable information which can, in turn, promote sustainable community development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hajj is the most important one of the Five Pillars in Islam. Islam makes the Kaaba as the orientation of daily prayers (salat), and hajj as the linkage to maintain the global Muslim faith community. The sanctity of hajj rituals is of positive significance for global pilgrims to transcend the boundaries of countries and ethnic groups. In the era of globalization, hajj quota has long been a scarce resource. It is difficult for most Muslims to obtain hajj permits from Saudi Arabia in a short term. Even non-Muslims are full of concern about Islam, especially the hajj. Then, the "virtual hajj," which is similar to the real hajj in the sacred city Mecca, came into being. It is mainly divided into several types: (1) building the real scenes of Kaaba and other hajj sites, and Muslims participating in the "virtual hajj" through role-playing; (2) the "virtual hajj" apps developed through 3D digital technology and their upgraded versions; (3) the "virtual hajj" live broadcasting the real hajj to non-pilgrims through the pilgrim's smartphone with the 5G network technology; and (4) the "virtual hajj" software developed by VR and AR technology in the Metaverse era. The main functions of "virtual hajj" are embodied in four aspects: protest against Saudi Arabia, Islamic education, universal effect, and the COVID-19 fighting. All types of "virtual hajj" have positive effects on both the Muslims and non-Muslims. However, there are different voices from religious circles on how to treat "virtual hajj." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by actor-network theory, this research uses an operationalized archaeological actor-network approach to characterize and examine human-object relationships associated with ritual caching deposits (votive bundles of objects) at the site of Cerro Maya (formerly Cerros), Belize. Designed to be broadly applicable for archaeological studies, our archaeological actor-network approach made it possible to inductively examine, characterize, and diachronically compare the complex arrays of human and nonhuman relationships. In contrast to previous studies that characterized caches mainly in symbolic terms, we treated caches as traces of the small-scale actor-networks that emerged during the production of ancient Maya caching events. More specifically, our actor-network methodology made it possible to characterize caches and caching events in terms of the relationships between materials, temporality, objects, places, and groups of people, their intentions, and actions. The inductive and diachronic focus of approach also allowed us to compare arrays of caching actor-networks over time while considering the social affect that caching events had on subsequent caching events and the site's social development. This approach demonstrates that even simple artifact clusters can be viewed as proxies for highly complex networks of interlinked social relations that play roles in shaping important historical interactions and social orders over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans first appeared on the planet about 3.5 million years ago and like most biota, they settled near wetlands because of the availability of food and water. The ancestors of our species understood and knew that water, wetlands, and healthy landscapes were essential for life. In Taiwan, the indigenous people have a long history being a part of and managing the natural resources, including wetlands in their respective habitats. Water and wetlands still play a substantial and significant role in the manner that the Tayal, an indigenous group of people in Taiwan use, preserve, care, protect, respect, and share the habitats and natural resources within which they live. The evolution of Taiwan’s tribal cultures, and probably most cultures on the planet are closely entwined with the resources present in each tribe’s habitat, especially water and wetlands. DNA results indicate 2 lineages of people migrated to Taiwan between 11,000 and 26,000 years ago and gave rise to 9 ethnic groups (Tajima et al. 2003). Today 16 indigenous cultures/tribes are recognized with each occupying different regions of Taiwan’s diverse landscape. Each tribe has its own language and culture and occupies its own geographic region, which contributes to Taiwan’s rich cultural history and diversity. The Tayal tribe is one of the larger tribes with about 88,000 people and the Smangus people are a subset of the Tayal tribe with a culture that is at least 6,000 years old. Culturally, the Tayal people consider themselves to be an element of the environment and their culture is defined by their relationship and interactions with the environment, including all of the other biotic, abiotic elements present in their habitats. In this paper we provide an overview of Tayal culture and philosophy, which determines how the Tayal people manage and protect their natural resources, especially water and wetlands following the tenets of Utux and Gaga that comprise the entirety of their core cultural values. The cultural and language variations, nuances, environmental interpretations, and management techniques are specific to tribal groups and differences in geographic location and environmental settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I argue that it is rational and appropriate for atheists to give thanks to deep impersonal agents for the benefits they give to us. These agents include our evolving biosphere, the sun, and our finely-tuned universe. Atheists can give thanks to evolution by sacrificially burning works of art. They can give thanks to the sun by performing rituals in solar calendars (like stone circles). They can give thanks to our finely-tuned universe, and to existence itself, by doing science and philosophy. But these linguistic types of thanks-giving are forms of non-theistic contemplative prayer. Since these behaviors resemble ancient pagan behaviors, it is fair to call them pagan. Atheistic paganism may be part of an emerging ecosystem of naturalistic religions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the question of how higher vocational education and training programmes socialise participants for future work, where the occupational pathways they are to embark on are weakly defined. The analysis focuses on organisational rituals as a means to understand individual and collective transformative processes taking place at a particular intersection of education and labour markets. Building on organisational and sociological theories of rituals, as well as drawing empirically from a longitudinal qualitative interview study of a cohort of students in Swedish higher vocational education for work in digital data strategy, I explore how rituals are enacted in a vocational education and training setting and what these rituals mean to the aspirants who partake in them. The findings illustrate how rituals initiate, convert, and locate the participants in a team. These repeated encounters with rituals socialise, cultivate and build vocational faith amongst participants, despite the nascency and unstable nature of their education-to-work pathways. However, while rituals can serve as a catalyst to ignite processes of collective identification and vocational socialisation, they are not always successful. The paper discusses implications of faith-building in weak-form occupational pathways when the labour market is strong and conversely, when the economy is in recession. The text concludes by advocating the need for examining the power of educational institutions in shaping transitional experiences of participants in vocational education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents research notes on an oral history project on the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on Jews over the age of 65 years. During the first stage of the project, we conducted nearly 80 interviews in eight cities worldwide: Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Milan, New York, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, and St. Petersburg, and in Israel. The interviews were conducted in the spring of 2020 and reflect the atmosphere and perception of interviewees at the end of the first lockdown. Based on an analysis of the interviews, the findings are divided into three spheres: (1) the personal experience during the pandemic, including personal difficulties and the impact of the lockdown on family and social contacts; (2) Jewish communal life, manifested in changed functions and emergence of new needs, as well as religious rituals during the pandemic; and (3) perceived relations between the Jewish community and wider society, including relations with state authorities and civil society, attitudes of and towards official media, and the possible impact of COVID-19 on antisemitism. Together, these spheres shed light on how elderly Jews experience their current situation under COVID-19—as individuals and as part of a community. COVID-19 taught interviewees to reappraise what was important to them. They felt their family relations became stronger under the pandemic, and that their Jewish community was more meaningful than they had thought. They understood that online communication will continue to be present in all three spheres, but concluded that human contact cannot be substituted by technical devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current article focused on examining the potential benefits of the End-of-Life (EoL) informal caregiving, communication, and ritualistic behaviors in adaptation to the conjugal bereavement across two different cultural-background contexts: France and Togo, West Africa. The investigation adopted a transnational approach including a total of 235 bereaved spouses. Despite the variation in the length of time since death, no significant difference was found between the Togolese and French bereaved with respect to the level of complicated grief symptoms. However, the Togolese bereaved perceived a significant postloss growth, fostered by EoL communication with the dying and the performance of ritualistic behaviors. In the French sample, bereaved individuals who had experienced more intimate communication with their dying spouse reported a high level of postloss growth. Moreover, findings showed that EoL caregiving without ritualistic support or communication is associated with poor postbereavement outcomes. These findings suggest a clinical need to promote informal caregiving to the dying, communication with the dying, and ritualistic support during the process of dying as entangled components of EoL care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtue ethics is widely recognized as one of three major approaches in contemporary moral philosophy and arguably the most influential normative theory in business ethics. Despite its rich pedigree in Western and Eastern philosophy, most work in contemporary virtue ethics is part of the Western tradition. The purpose of this Thematic Symposium is to foster dialogue between Western and Eastern conceptions of virtue in business and engage them with questions about the nature, justification, and content of the virtues in each tradition. This Editorial offers a brief introduction to the problem, a summary of Western and Eastern varieties of virtue ethics, an overview of the six articles included in this Thematic Symposium, and a section with five common themes for further exploration and future collaborative research (namely, the centrality of rites and rituals, the normative status of social relationships and organizations, role modeling, the analogy of families and communities to define the business corporation, and the definition of social responsibilities). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a commentary on the special issue articles on rituals and exploration in mathematics teaching and learning. It explores the question of whether and how we can learn from research on rituals and ritualization, when these are typically associated with poor or even no learning of mathematics. The papers in the special issue show there is indeed much to learn, and the commentary reflects on this learning together with the quandaries that arise from such engagement, in particular the quandaries of understanding and deficit discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue comprises seven studies and a commentary piece, which relate to various aspects of rituals and the "ritual-exploration" dyad in learning, teaching and learning-to-teach mathematics. The theme of the special issue arose from Sfard and Lavie's (Cognition and Instruction, 23(2), 237–309, 2005) "ritual" vs. "explorative" dyad, on which a Working Session was held during the PME conference in 2016. Three central themes are addressed in the papers of this special issue: (1) the logic of ritual, and why rituals are so persistent in mathematics classrooms; (2) the co-existence of rituals and explorations, including the question of whether rituals and explorations are a binary or a continuum; and (3) alternative theoretical conceptualisations of the ritual-exploration dyad, focusing in particular on what can be learned about rituals from social and critical theory, as well as socio-linguistics. In this introduction, we first give an overview of each of the papers and its unique contribution. We then synthesise the answers given by the papers to the three themes described above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examined the impact of frequency of ritual participation on sense of community and social well-being of a minority community in India, the Sikhs. We looked at a unique ritualistic practice of the Sikhs, seva. Rituals are known to contribute toward social solidarity and cohesion as well as physical and mental well-being. In particular for a minority community, rituals help group members establish and maintain strong community networks and a unique group identity. A total of 156 members of the Sikh community (85 males; 71 females) participated in the study. Frequency of ritual participation was positively related with social well-being and sense of community. Furthermore, sense of community was found to mediate the effect of frequency of ritual participation on social well-being. Results are discussed in the light of the importance of studying rituals in minority groups, the frequency of participation in a ritual activity and the importance of addressing social well-being in ritual research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Results derived from the analysis of small carnivores from a burial chamber at the Late Neolithic Çatalhöyük (TP Area) shed light on the socioeconomic significance of stone martens (Martes foina), red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), and common weasels (Mustela nivalis). All of these are fur-bearing animals, though only the stone marten remains to show evidence that this animal was exploited for its pelt. The evidence consists of the observed skeletal bias (only the head parts and foot bones were present) and skinning marks. Two of five sets of articulated feet are most likely linked with an almost completely preserved human infant skeleton, one of two well-preserved skeletons that were interred on the burial chamber floor. In contrast to these, other human skeletons were found mostly incompletely preserved, though with evidence of articulation. It seems that the articulated forepaws were deliberately incorporated into the structure, most likely as a part of burial practice and ritual behavior. These distinctive deposits, along with rich grave goods, emphasize the uniqueness in the entire Anatolian Neolithic of the assemblage from the burial chamber, which is decorated by a panel incised with spiral motifs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains the Sufi shrines which hold great importance in Pakistani society. The Shrines inhabit a vital position in the cultural and social as well as religious and culture life of rituals, Saints, traditional belief, sounds, trance, dance, music in ethnic healing, and spiritual illness/disease. It is not only a place of belief and devotion based on Sufi shrines but a place where Muslims and non-Muslim take part in happiness activities together. The design and architecture of the Sufi Shrines have local as well as worldwide influences, representative spiritual, belief systems, economic, and esthetic dimensions of Muslim social institute. Therefore, Muslims’ association with the Sufi Shrines has much importance from traditional, political, social and economic perspectives. Centered on an ethnographic illustration, this research aims to highlight the use of Sufi Shrines space and Peoples’ Perceptions about Visiting Sufi shrines in the ethnic perspective of rural and urban Sindh. In addition to discuss the socio spatial interactions about the Sufi shrines, this study has discovered that majority of the people and visitors have strong belief systems upon the blessings of Sufis and they visit shrines to fulfill their social, economic, physical, mental and spiritual wishes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Water Margin is a great Chinese classical novel; Wu Song’s 武松 killing of his sister-in-law, Pan Jinlian 潘金蓮, is one of the most popular episodes of the novel. It depicts Wu as the hero and defender of traditional values, and Pan as the adulterous woman. In contemporary discussion, there has been a dearth of ethical analyses regarding Wu’s killing of Pan. How should we judge the moral status of his action? Does the killing signify Wu Song’s ethical achievement or his ethical failure? What does the killing tell us about Wu’s character or his virtues? Does our appraisal of Wu’s action square with our modern belief regarding the treatment of women? I will examine these questions in the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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James Luna's multimedia performances are largely rooted in his culture and daily experience as a Pooyukitchchum (Luiseño) Indian living on La Jolla reservation north of San Diego, in Southern California. Informed by a polyphonic style, they interweave, converse and collide with various personal, collective, fictional, and non-fictional stories and discourses. This fluid and yet fractured approach incorporating visual, aural, written, and body language directly engages contemporary viewers through the resonances and dissonances of present and past, the physical presence of the artist's acting body, and through the immersive environment they are invited to share with the artist in the here-and-now of the performance site. This article is based on the performance Native Stories: For Fun, Profit & Guilt that James Luna presented in October 2014 in San Francisco during the Litquake festival featuring Sheila Tishmil Skinner and followed by a spoken-word monologue by Guillermo Gomez-Peña. It aims to highlight how Luna senses today's native people's experiences and how he mediates California's present and historical past. The play with metamorphosis, distortion, and dissonances, the slippages in various personae, along with the combination of technology-mediated devices, are some of the strategies he uses to trace the complexities of contemporary indigenous people's realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study is to explore the medieval concepts on the voluntary death of severely sick people, as they emerge through the endura (endurance) of the heresy of the Cathars in France (twelfth to fourteenth centuries). The endura was the prerequisite act of repentance that would allow the fallen soul to return to heaven. The endura was a necessary act of repentance, after the performance of a ceremonial purification of the soul ( consolamentum), and consisted of the patients' voluntary abstention from vital food. The consolamentum and endura could be performed in the final stage of a disease with the consent of the patients or their relatives. The role of the Cathar physician was only to determine the severity of the disease and the forthcoming death of the patient. The physician was not allowed to take steps that would deprive the life of the patient, and the performance of the ritual endura was duty of the spiritual leaders of the community. The modern ethical approach to this subject is dictated by the medieval belief on the salvation of the soul and tries to answer the question of whether the endura could be seen as a medieval concept of a ritual euthanasia or fell within the theological sin of suicide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New ritual practices performed by Jewish women can serve as test cases for an examination of the phenomenon of the creation of religious rituals by women. These food-related rituals, which have been termed 'amen meals' were developed in Israel beginning in the year 2000 and subsequently spread to Jewish women in Europe and the United States. This study employs a qualitative-ethnographic methodology grounded in participant-observation and in-depth interviews to describe these nonobligatory, extra-halakhic rituals. What makes these rituals stand out is the women's sense that through these rituals they experience a direct connection to God and, thus, can change reality, i.e., bring about jobs, marriages, children, health, and salvation for friends and loved ones. The 'amen' rituals also create an open, inclusive woman's space imbued with strong spiritual-emotional energies that counter the women's religious marginality. Finally, the purposes and functions of these rituals, including identity building and displays of cultural capital, are considered within a theoretical framework that views 'doing gender' and 'doing religion' as an integrated experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This interdisciplinary study combines anthropological and economic theories and methods to understand how Mexican-Americans' collectivist cultural values affect their savings behavior and their preparation for retirement. Mexican-Americans are the fastest growing immigrant group in the United States and they are both younger and expected to live longer than other groups. Yet they are the most insecure in relation to funding retirement. Even when Mexican-American workers are eligible to participate in retirement savings plans at work, they have low participation rates. We analyze data from a Chicago area survey in light of broader anthropological and economic scholarship to argue that Mexican-Americans' collectivist values influence the choices they make about how to build assets and resources differently from other Latino groups. Latinos are a diverse group by national origin, citizenship and immigration status, characteristics that strongly influence their employment prospects, asset building and retirement savings and security. Financial policy makers need to understand the heterogeneity of financial behavior within the Hispanic community. The collectivist informal economy of Mexican immigrants and their children is at odds with the formal defined contribution retirement savings system, which is geared toward both autonomous individuals and higher-income workers who benefit from the program's tax deductions. Since these plans penalize participants who withdraw funds before retirement age, they can be deleterious to those who expect both to loan funds to and to borrow money from members of their collectivist social networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamics inherent to the life activity of all living systems presents itself in the form of regular patterns viewed by the observer as taking place in an extended timeline. Routines, rituals and celebrations, each in their own way, are defined by the typical cyclical behavioural patterns exhibited by individuals embedded in specific semiospheres. The particular nature of these semiospheres will determine the distinct patterns of behaviour to be adopted in different life contexts so that existential functions are fulfilled. The restricted and protected family circle normally provides the initial learning environment where the definition of the individual's Umwelt (von Uexküll , ; Ferreira, Biosemiotics 3(1):107-130, , ) his/her meaningful world, starts to take shape. This learning process comprehends the progressive identification of distinct physical entities, the development of basic patterns of physical and social behaviour- the incorporation of basic routines and the assignment of meaning to particular events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Psychodrama und Soziometrie is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Foucault's concept of governmentality, and its attending modalities of biopower and disciplinary technologies, provides a useful conceptual schema for the analysis of the role of religious and quasi-religious institutions in contemporary society. This is particularly important in the study of those neoliberal democratic states where religious organizations constitute an important presence in the civil society. As religion is thoroughly involved in the reproduction of social structure in most societies, an appraisal of the social and political importance of religious institutions is needed to understand the articulation and exercise of governmentality. This is not just limited to partnerships between state agencies and faith-based organizations in providing for social services, but also in rituals and other religious group activities of these organizations that play a vital role in shaping and molding the social and political subjectivities of the adherents. We argue that synergy between the scholarship on governmentality, and sociology of religion would allow for a more nuanced understanding of the politics and culture of post-secular societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical scholarship suggests that a robust cult of the saints may have helped some European regions to resist inroads by Protestantism. Based on a neo-Durkheimian theory of rituals and social order, I propose that locally based cults of the saints that included public veneration lowered the odds that Protestantism would displace Catholicism in sixteenth-century German cities. To evaluate this proposition, I first turn to historical and theoretical reflection on the role of the cult of the saints in late medieval history. I then test the hypothesis with a data set of sixteenth-century German cities. Statistical analysis provides additional support for the ritual and social order thesis because even when several important variables identified by materialist accounts of the Reformation in the social scientific literature the presence of shrines as an indicator for the cult of the saints remains large and significant. Although large-scale social change is usually assumed to have politico-economic sources, this analysis suggests that cultural factors may be of equal or greater importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Monatsschrift Kinderheilkunde is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Psychodrama und Soziometrie is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Previous studies on the hillside farmers of northern Thailand often focused on their swidden (slash-and-burn) agriculture of upland rice and cash crop cultivation and paid little attention to livestock production and consumption, including that of pigs. I describe the household-level pig production and consumption in terms of the number of pigs slaughtered and the number of pigs supplied to others, or acquired from others, in a Hmong village of smallholders in northern Thailand. Study results are based on pig consumption in 17 selected households over two years (January 2005 to December 2006). The number of pigs slaughtered in each household ranged from zero to ten, with an average of 2.4 pigs per household per year. Pigs were slaughtered mainly for ritual events, particularly for annual ancestor worship and New Year ceremonies. A total of 80 pigs were slaughtered, with 78% being killed during ritual events including Christmas and 22% for non-ritual events including children moving up a grade in school. Most Christian households stopped slaughtering of pigs in ancestor worship conducted by a shaman, but continued to do so in Christmas and New Year rituals. A total of 23 pigs were supplied to others, of which two were given to people outside the village, while of a total of 37 pigs acquired, 17 were obtained from outside the village. A total of 80 pigs were slaughtered, including one improved-breed pig that was killed during a marriage ceremony soon after it was acquired from the city. The following changes in pig consumption are inferred to have taken place due to recent socioeconomic changes: (1) diversification of the type of events in which pigs are slaughtered as a result of the introduction of Christianity and the national educational system; (2) active pig acquisition from outside the village as a result of the use of motor vehicles; and (3) the acquisition and slaughtering for events of improved-breeds of pigs which are not kept and used for breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restricted, repetitive behaviors (RRBs) are heterogeneous ranging from stereotypic body movements to rituals to restricted interests. RRBs are most strongly associated with autism but occur in a number of other clinical disorders as well as in typical development. There does not seem to be a category of RRB that is unique or specific to autism and RRB does not seem to be robustly correlated with specific cognitive, sensory or motor abnormalities in autism. Despite its clinical significance, little is known about the pathophysiology of RRB. Both clinical and animal models studies link repetitive behaviors to genetic mutations and a number of specific genetic syndromes have RRBs as part of the clinical phenotype. Genetic risk factors may interact with experiential factors resulting in the extremes in repetitive behavior phenotypic expression that characterize autism. Few studies of individuals with autism have correlated MRI findings and RRBs and no attempt has been made to associate RRB and post-mortem tissue findings. Available clinical and animal models data indicate functional and structural alterations in cortical-basal ganglia circuitry in the expression of RRB, however. Our own studies point to reduced activity of the indirect basal ganglia pathway being associated with high levels of repetitive behavior in an animal model. These findings, if generalizable, suggest specific therapeutic targets. These, and perhaps other, perturbations to cortical basal ganglia circuitry are mediated by specific molecular mechanisms (e.g., altered gene expression) that result in long-term, experience-dependent neuroadaptations that initiate and maintain repetitive behavior. A great deal more research is needed to uncover such mechanisms. Work in areas such as substance abuse, OCD, Tourette syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, and dementias promise to provide findings critical for identifying neurobiological mechanisms relevant to RRB in autism. Moreover, basic research in areas such as birdsong, habit formation, and procedural learning may provide additional, much needed clues. Understanding the pathophysioloy of repetitive behavior will be critical to identifying novel therapeutic targets and strategies for individuals with autism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the value of teachers establishing rituals and traditions in early childhood classrooms. Using the lens of a particular preschool classroom, where one of the co-authors taught for many years, the article describes specific traditions that have been established over the years and how these rituals, activities, and events helped to create community among the teachers, parents, and children. The article concludes with questions designed to encourage teachers to reflect on their own memories, values, and interests to create their own rituals and traditions within their classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional cultural practices and sexual rituals have an important role in the life and structure of tribal groups within Kenya. These cultural practices and rituals also play a significant role in the spread of HIV. The purpose of this descriptive qualitative study was to document the underlying social and cultural significance of the sexual cleansing ritual and to assess its impact on HIV prevention strategies. The study participants were selected by purposive and snowball sampling. Data were collected using in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observations; they were analyzed using content analysis. The article gives detailed explanations of the meanings and symbols of the ritual in its cultural context as a ritual of social transition. Sexual intercourse is perceived as a sacred rite when performed as a ritual. It is associated with most social cultural activities like planting, harvesting, weddings and burial ceremonies. The underlying intention of this ritual is to cleanse evil spirits and to sanctify. Widows who are not cleansed are ostracized and discriminated. The continued practice of the ritual is perpetuated by a shared common belief system that affects social interactions of the community members. Widows and cleansers are believed to be purveyors of the HIV virus. The ritual encourages unprotected sex with multiple partners. These are barriers to HIV prevention strategies that are aimed at changing sexual behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Part 1 of this paper, I described the corporate and communal nature of research, teaching, and learning in urban science classrooms as both a theoretical approach to understanding, and way of viewing practices within these fields. By providing a new approach to theorizing the cultural misalignments that are prevalent in urban schools, I look to provide an informative tool for investigating under-discussed dynamics that impact science teaching and learning. In this body of work, I further expose the nature of the corporate|communal by describing practices that define communal practice. I do so conversant of the fact that synthesizing my previous work on corporate and communal practices necessarily pushes science education researchers and teachers to look for somewhat tactile explications of communal practices. That is to say, if communal practices do exist within the corporate structures of science classrooms, how do they present themselves and how can they be targeted? This paper begins a journey into such a study and focuses on student transactions, fundamental interactions and rituals as a key to redefining and attaining success in urban science classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research demonstrates that the constructive use of family rituals is reliably linked to family health and to psychosocial adjustment. This study explores the relationship between family rituals and child well-being. Two samples participated: 21 families whose adolescent was receiving psychiatric treatment and 21 families in which the adolescent was a public school student. A parent and the adolescent were individually interviewed regarding family rituals and completed standardized measures of adolescent and family functioning. Analyses demonstrated that, in addition to significant sample differences in the expected direction on measures of functioning, the non-clinical families scored significantly higher on the index of family rituality than did the treatment families; this is additional evidence that family rituals are a correlate of child well-being. Further analysis of the data pointed to “people resources” as a robust dimension in its association to adolescent functioning. The role family ritual and routine plays in defining family relationships, both within the nuclear family and with other important adults, was significantly related to clinical status. This work may point to an important, yet overlooked, dimension of family ritual life, the relational qualities of rituals and routines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construal of hand washing by OCD patients with washing rituals was examined from the perspective of Action Identification Theory (Vallacher & Wegner, 1985, 1987). Items related to the act of hand washing were classified as reflecting a low level of identification (its technical and concrete aspects) or a high level of identification (its purpose or higher goal). Twenty-five obsessive-compulsive washers rated their agreement with these descriptors. Compared to matched control participants, OCD patients agreed more with items reflecting high identification levels and less with items reflecting low identification level. The correlation between level of identification and degree of endorsement was highly positive in the OCD group and highly negative in the control group. Endorsement of items representing high vs. low levels of identification was strongly related to OCD severity. Specifically, Y-BOCS scores in the OCD group were highly positively correlated with agreement with high-level items but highly negatively correlated with agreement with low-level items. We discuss the implications of these results to understanding the factors that maintain compulsive behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Monatsschrift Kinderheilkunde is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Thirty-one children were administered a structured interview that assessed their beliefs about magic, tricks and wishes. Children were also presented with demonstrations of magic tricks/illusions, and asked to offer explanations as to how they worked. Parents completed the Childhood Routines Inventory (CRI), a 19-item parent report measure that assesses children's rituals, habits and sensory-perceptual experiences that we have termed “compulsive-like” behavior. Results indicated that children's rituals and compulsions were positively related to their magical beliefs, and inversely related to their uses of concrete, physical explanations to describe various phenomena. In particular, children's beliefs about the effects of wishing were most consistently correlated with their compulsive-like rituals and routines. The findings extended the work on magical beliefs and obsessive-compulsive phenomena to the normative manifestation of compulsive behaviors found in typical development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In line with theme of this special issue, this article speaks to a topic in developmental psychology from a Wernerian perspective. We take a Wernerian, comparative, and orthogenetic approach in addressing rituals and other compulsive behaviors in a variety of contexts: Ritual as cultural practice, as a part of pathologic behavior, and as a normative aspect of child development. We discuss the similarities and differences in these various forms of ritual, and conclude by incorporating recent advances in the study of obsessive-compulsive disorder to shed light on the normative variant of compulsive behavior. Our goal is to emphasize the continued relevance Werner's work in light of contemporary trends in developmental psychology, developmental psychopathology, and neuroscience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the relationship between ritualistic, compulsive-like behaviors and normative fears and phobias in 61 children ranging from 1 to 7 years of age. Parents reported on their children's ritualistic habits, and perfectionistic behaviors that reflect what we have previously called “compulsive-like” behaviors. Parents also reported on their children's fears and phobias. Results indicated that various aspects of children's ritualistic and compulsive-like behaviors are correlated with children's fears and phobias. Developmental differences existed such that younger children's (< 4 years) repetitive, compulsive-like behaviors were related to “prepotent” fears such as stranger and separation anxieties, whereas the compulsive-like behaviors of older children (> 4 years) were correlated with more specific, “contextual” fears such as fears of contamination, death, and fears often associated with concerns of the inner city such as burglars, assault, etc. These findings are discussed in terms of the phenomenologic and possible neurobiological continuities between normative and pathologic rituals, fears and phobias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the predominant repetitive activities in which a large group engages to maintain and/or repair its identity. These repetitive activities constitute large-group rituals and can be divided into two general categories: (1) rituals that occur within a society that do not involve an active relationship with a contemporary “other” large group; and (2) rituals that occur through and depend upon the interaction with an opposing or enemy large group, usually a neighbor. Because “others” are used as reservoirs for unwanted parts, both at individual and group levels, and are needed to support aspects of identity and a shared sense of sameness, the first type of ritual may also include reference to shared images of “others” from the large group's past. They therefore may not be strictly domestic or indigenous. Furthermore, the intensity and content of both types of rituals occur across a spectrum depending on whether a large group is at peace, in a “hot” conflict with an enemy group, or otherwise destabilized due to crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forty-nine obsessive-compulsive ritualisers completed a double-blind controlled study of clomipramine and exposure therapy. More severely ill patients allowed higher doses of medication to be prescribed and had higher plasma levels of both clomipramine and desmethylclomipramine. Exposure instructions had a strong effect, whereas the clomipramine effect was small and short-lived. Plasma levels of desmethylclomipramine but not of clomipramine correlated with outcome at weeks 8 and 17. There was no evidence of a therapeutic window for either clomipramine or its metabolite. Patients' physical complaints before treatment correlated positively with depression and anxiety, especially sexual difficulties. Dry mouth, as a side effect, was most evidently related to clomipramine and its usefulness in monitoring drug compliance for patients on clomipramine is reaffirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AIDS and the responses and attitudes it evokes surpass the analytic abilities of standard bioethics. These responses and attitudes are explored in terms of literary and anthropological categories, such as dirt, disorder, pollution and ritual cleanliness. Implications for medical education are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a poem seeking to capture the sacredness of deep human connection, in this instance, between the author and a twelve-year-old girl whom he meets in the presence of her mother. The poem integrates these types of human encounters with biblical understandings and dynamics of divine manifestations in human beings and human relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors comment on an earlier aritice in Society by Eugene Goodheart and offer a novel hypothesis about the origins of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]