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The basis of this study is the view that social ritual practices embody and reinforce the moral order of communities. It takes a step towards providing more empirical research on the ritual practices in lesser studied languages by examining ethnographic data collected during marriage ceremonies in Tehran. Extracts taken from marriage ceremonies and a film extract are examined in terms of recurrence, liminality, embodiment of the moral order and emotivity, elements identified in Kádár’s definition of ritual (2017). The paper makes a theoretical contribution by showing that ostensivity can also be considered an important facet of ritual. In ritual practices connected with marriage, ostensivity is experienced by participants and observers as a means of maintaining the moral order. The paper proposes future areas of research for the theoretical refinement of the concept of ostensivity and further examination of the relationship that ostensivity has with ta’arof (Iranian ritual politeness) and face.

espanolEn este trabajo se identifican estrategias de descortesia modalizadas deonticamente en ambientes laborales argentinos en contacto interlinguistico espanol-ingles e intercultural argentino-estadounidense en la Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires durante 2012–2014. Se lo hace poniendo el foco de atencion en la descortesia producida a traves de correos electronicos empresariales con propositos laborales escritos en ingles en un medio fuertemente regulado que privilegia, fundamentalmente, funciones transaccionales y procedimentales para asegurar la maximizacion de sus fines lucrativos. En un corpus natural de 148 correos electronicos (agrupados en 22 secuencias, con aproximadamente 17.000 palabras), se identificaron cuatro estrategias de descortesia modalizadas deonticamente: ataque por atribucion de la responsabilidad, contraataque por impugnacion de la responsabilidad, contraataque por acatamiento forzado de la responsabilidad y ataque o contraataque por naturalizacion de la responsabilidad. A traves de estas estrategias, se des-idealiza, desvaloriza y disminuye la imagen social con el proposito ulterior de reconstituir el orden moral que afianza el statu quo de los ambientes laborales estudiados. EnglishIn this paper we identify deontically modalized strategies of impoliteness in Argentine work environments with a Spanish-English interlinguistic and an Argentine-American intercultural contact in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires during 2012–2014. We do this by focusing our attention on the impoliteness produced through corporate emails with work-related purposes written in English within a strongly regulated environment that primarily privileged transactional and procedural functions to ensure the maximization of their lucrative purposes. In a natural corpus of 148 emails (grouped in 22 sequences, with approximately 17,000 words), we identified four deontically modalized strategies of impoliteness: attack by attribution of responsibility, counterattack by challenged responsibility, counterattack by forced compliance of responsibility and attack or counterattack by naturalization of responsibility. Through these strategies, face is de-idealized, devalued and diminished with the ultimate purpose of reconstituting a moral order that strengthens the status quo of the studied workplaces.

Because opinions on marriage, sexuality and gender vary widely in contemporary culture, church and theology, the question naturally arises: Can Christians assume a moral order of creation or are Christian views of marriage and sexual orientation merely social and moral constructs? This article considers the implications of identifying an aspect of social life as ‘creation’ and argues that the biblical view of sexuality is framed by the way God goes with the fallenness of humanity. The article concludes with reflections on what this specific perspective of marriage and sexuality implies for our contemporary discussions.

Critiques of consumption frequently assume moral undertones, with the effect of obscuring the moral foundations underlying consumer practices themselves. The articles in this collection offer compelling and ethnographically rich evidence of the moral tensions that inform consumer preferences in post-socialist Europe. Consumer behaviors and discourses have historically played an important role in the region, determining grounds for social inclusion under socialism as much as under capitalism. This makes post-socialist settings particularly rich sites for ethnographic studies of the intersection between consumer culture and the moral order, as it allows us to trace how the criteria for full social membership – a chance to be seen, heard, and treated with respect – relate to consumption under different economic and political regimes.

Politeness, Impoliteness and Ritual: Maintaining the Moral Order in Interpersonal Interaction by Dániel Z. Kádár (2017)

Relations between play and ritual are notoriously problematic. While play tends to produce doubt, uncertainty and paradox, ritual instead clarifies, authenticates and refines the moral order. Focusing ethnographically on a celebration for the Divine Holy Spirit ( Divino Espírito Santo) in the Brazilian state of Maranhão, in this article I nonetheless move away from this common juxtaposition of ritual and play as mutually exclusive conceptual frameworks. I argue that we can instead imagine play and ritual as dynamic, processual experiences, which frequently merge when they are enacted together in highly symbolic public events. Seen in this light, ritual and play do not necessarily differ as rigid, predefined, conceptual frames, but rather as experiences that unfold in different forms: the experiential dynamic of play-scenarios is felt as horizontal deregulation, while the experiential dynamic of rituals converges towards and linear hierarchization. I consequently suggest more broadly that such dynamic terms as ‘pulsation’, ‘intensity’ and ‘rhythm’ better explicate the enduring social effects of public events in which the unequivocal and the ambiguous incessantly reconstitute each other.

Has moral globalization, in particular the spread of human rights, the ‘new global ethics of our time’ strengthened the ‘ordinary virtues’ of trust, tolerance, forgiveness, reconciliation, generosi...

Among the most significant impact of the ongoing conflict in Aceh is the weakening of law enforcement in society. Indeed, thius result is emergence of what is known as ‘people court” (pengadilan rakyat). According to the information provided by the Human Rights Commission of Aceh Branch (FP HAM), there were at least eighteen cases of people court that took place in the region within the period between September 1999 and January 2001. Indeed, this is an interesting phenomenon to be studied, especially when it is seen from Islamic legal perspective. As it is known, in Islam both formal and informal institutions are to play their significant roles in maintaining law and moral order, a concept discussed under the topic of wilayat al-tahkim. However, this study shows that the Acehnese cases are indeed far from the Islamic judicial system.

This paper focuses on one of Tischner’s last and little-known essays on the issues concerning work in the era of free market and the hegemony of the laws of economic calculation. In a discussion with Dominique Meda and Andre Gorz, Tischner diagnoses various threats to contemporary forms of work. Tischner criticizes above all the one-sided—that is, only objective—conception of today’s work. Referring to his own and original anthropologico-ethical project of work, the Polish scholar draws the reader’s attention to the need to promote the subjective model of work to be construed as interhuman dialogue. In work, thus construed, Tischner discerns a guarantee of the moral order of contemporary societies. His anthropological-ethical concept of work successfully inscribes itself in some of the models of work of the future, which are very much promoted today.

The book that has most stimulated my life in the law over the past year is Michael Ignatieff’s The Ordinary Virtues: Moral Order in a Divided World.1 I write “stimulated” rather than “inspired” because some of its claims are disorientating, others are disputable, and the most important are disconcerting. Despite, or rather due to, that provocation I find the book more engaging. The Ordinary Virtues is a self-described moral progress report amid globalization and as such is a work of sociology, anthropology, and philosophy. However, Ignatieff’s report implicates many important topical issues of international and constitutional law. It should, I believe, inform the thinking of legal scholars on global ethics and public policy today.

The consent to abuse made by consumers reflects a particular normative order which constitutes part of a socially accepted moral order. It constitutes a specific market regulator because the wide acceptance of unethical behaviours can hinder the functioning of legal and other formal institutions, while the lack of such acceptance can support them and make them more efficient. The paper presents the results of a periodical research project aimed at reconstructing this order in the financial area. The project, entitled “The Financial Morality of Poles”, includes a survey of a group of 1000 Polish adults from the whole country. The survey has been conducted on a yearly basis since 2016. The main result of the project is a map of Poles’ moral permissivism in the area of finance. The map is based on questions the respondents were asked about the level of justification of consumer activities which are illegal or which violate moral norms. Ethical standards for judging consumers’ behaviours vary considerably, from behaviours that are condemned by the overwhelming majority to behaviours deemed justifiable by more than half of the respondents. It was assumed that, based on the results obtained in individual questions, an estimate of consumer reliability on the financial market can be made. This estimate results from averaging the responses which accept the behaviours described in the questions and is defined as the acceptance index for unethical financial behaviours.

This article reviews Politeness, Impoliteness and Ritual: Maintaining the Moral Order in Interpersonal Interaction 978-1-107-05218-5.

Scholars have long debated the relationship between morality and the market. Some argue that morality tempers market interests, while others argue that the market has its own moral order. Meanwhile, feminist scholars have argued that a false binary between altruism, family, and intimacy on the one hand, and the cold calculus of the market on the other, is based in gender ideologies. Norms around motherhood, in particular, emphasize self-sacrifice, love, and altruism in opposition to self-interested market logics. Commercial surrogacy blurs the line between family and commerce and is therefore an ideal setting for studying tensions between altruism and profit. Drawing on ethnographic research and interviews with 114 actors in the Mexican surrogacy industry, I demonstrate that treating altruism and commercialism as dichotomous can further market interests by preserving the moral palatability and profitability of the industry while perpetuating power asymmetries rooted in gender, race, class, and nationality between surrogate mothers and intended parents.

Background: Drugs are likely to be legalised in the near future, potentially leading to increased consumption especially among adolescents, given the reduced prices and easier access. However, litt...

Chapter 15 of the Xunzi stands as the most comprehensive account of the early Confucian analysis of warfare. Unlike a range of other early, non-Confucian discussions on warfare, particular ...