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Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) employees use the invisible character of their sexual identity to adopt strategies that reveal or hide their sexual orientation at work. Previous research has focused on environmental and individual factors that play a role in the disclosure process of LGB employees, yet cultural factors that may also impact this process have remained practically ignored in the literature. In this study we analyze the disclosure process of 15 Spanish and 15 Ecuadorian LGB individuals through in-depth semi-structured interviews. The results suggest that some cultural elements in each country, such as religion and gender role norms, make the experiences of the participants dissimilar. The consequences of adopting different disclosure strategies have been found for both the individual (e.g., relationship with colleagues, well-being) and organizations (e.g., performance). This study highlights the need for research to find effective measures to include LGB people in organizations and encourages researchers to adopt a cultural approach when studying the process of disclosure at work., Author(s): Sara Corlett [sup.1] , Donatella Di Marco [sup.1] [sup.2] , Alicia Arenas [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.9224.d, 0000 0001 2168 1229, Department of Social Psychology, University of Sevilla, , [...]

Cross-cultural experiments find that belief in moralistic, knowledgeable and punishing gods promotes cooperation with strangers, supporting a role for religion in the expansion of human societies. See Letter p.327 In [...]

Comprehending violence among bioarchaeological and historical groups is a topic of recent interest among biological anthropologists. This research examines trauma among African American and Euro-American males of low socioeconomic status born between 1825 and 1877. A total of 651 male skeletons from the Cobb, Terry, and Hamann-Todd anatomical collections were macroscopically evaluated for skeletal trauma, based on the presence of fractures and weapon-related wounds, and statistically analyzed according to ancestry, birth (Antebellum, Civil War, Reconstruction), combined ancestry-birth, and collection cohorts. Results indicated that African Americans and Euro-Americans expressed ethnic differences in regard to interpersonal violence. To interpret these disparities, documentary data were used to reconstruct the socioeconomic and cultural environment of these individuals. This research emphasizes the importance of evaluating skeletal data within the context of class, culture, and environment so that behavioral patterns observed in the skeleton can be better understood. Keywords: interpersonal violence, trauma, African American history, 19th-century history, fisticuffs DOI: 10.1111/j.1548-1433.2010.01278.x

This article shows that attitudes towards and behaviours involving the consumption of alcohol in New Zealand have long been problematic. It provides an historical account of social, economic and legislative factors which have influenced the development of the New Zealand drinking culture. Accordingly, it tracks a combination of local and global alcohol-related influences and documents the inter-relationships amongst these factors. In particular, it proposes that the liberalisation of alcohol licensing laws and advertising/sponsorship regulations, alongside the growth of the alcohol-based hospitality industry have promoted the normalisation of an alcohol-based leisure lifestyle. Against this backdrop, the growth of consumer culture , tertiary student culture and the New Zealand drug culture, along with the development of new alcohol products and the establishment of commercial and social-networking websites have conjointly enabled the growth of a culture of intoxication, which is characterised by drinkers intentionally drinking to intoxication and viewing this behaviour as socially acceptable.

Psychiatric and anthropological collaborations have produced robust literatures on varied topics but there are challenges in the working relation between these two fields. A research into how cultures deal with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders in Afghanistan is discussed to highlight the challenges in the working relations between psychiatrists and anthropologists.

Increasing globalization in the form of greater international trade and immigration has both costs and benefits. Market institutions and secure private property rights are conducive to higher economic growth, but some point out that higher growth must be weighed against alleged social instability and, perhaps, cultural degeneration. However, globalization may increase stability and cultural output. Polling data suggest that anti. trade, anti-migration views pose a political challenge to economic and cultural exchange. People are skeptical of the rapidity of change coming with globalization, which leads to backlashes that slow the process. Negative effects of globalization include increases in prostitution, for example, and perceived alienation from the global culture. There are tensions between economic change and cultural vibrancy. Nonetheless, greater international integration and accompanying economic growth increase cultural diversity.

Karl Jaspers coined the term the 'axial period' to refer to what he saw as the simultaneous development in several different and separate societies--China, India, Iran, Israel, Greece--of 'a new departure within mankind.' What he meant has been characterized as 'a kind of critical, reflective questioning of the actual and a new vision of what lies beyond.' While it is true that people in each of these separate cultures began to develop new ways of talking about the cosmos, ethics, and community, Jaspers's approach and description of these phenomena were, I shall argue, highly defective. This has led to serious misunderstandings of what was involved.

A study was conducted to present evidence regarding the relationship between national culture and social institutions. A testable hypothesis about the rule of law, corruption, and democratic accountability is generated. The study found out that relative stability of cultural orientations is indicated by the use of cultural profiles of a previous generation as an instrument.

Cultural interactions in central Russia are famously complex, but of very wide significance. Within the social changes they imply are contained key matters for Europe and Asia: the introduction of Indo-Europeans and other languages, the horse and the chariot, and the transition towards nomadism. Of crucial importance to future research is a sturdy chronological framework and in this contribution the authors offer 40 new radiocarbon dates spanning the conventional Bronze Age in the southern Urals. Keywords: Bronze Age, Russia, Ural mountains, AMS dating, Andronovo, Sintashta, Introduction The prehistory of the Eurasian steppe region has become a renewed area of interest following the opening of the political borders of the former Soviet Union and an increasing [...]

This paper addresses how the notion of 'culture' has been understood and employed by both epidemiologists and anthropologists with respect to the literature on HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. It examines the shift towards non-biomedical understandings of the epidemic. The concept of 'culture' has been 'bandied about' [Schoepf, B.G. (2004). AIDS, history and struggles over meaning. In E. Kalipeni, S. Craddock, J.R. Oppong, & J. Ghosh (Eds.), HIVand AIDS in Africa: Beyond epidemiology. Oxford: Blackwell.], and yet no authors in the literature reviewed here attempt a more systematic account of the 'bandying about' itself. This paper thus attempts to address and close this gap. For biomedical researchers and epidemiologists, broadly speaking, 'culture' appears to compromise intervention, whilst for medical anthropologists, 'culture' is often seen as having the potential to assist intervention. 'Culture' comes to be multifaceted and laden with varying assumptions, which range from 'culture' being bounded and timeless, to 'culture' being linked to macroprocesses, historically shaped, and contested. In turn, 'culture' has variously been understood as both the cause of, and solution to, the epidemic. It is also understood as having structured local interpretations of, and responses to, the epidemic. At the same time as noting the apparent dichotomy between the biomedical and social approaches, however, the models may inadvertently share certain assumptions about 'culture' as an essentializing signifier of difference. To this extent HIV/AIDS research could be improved by incorporating wider anthropological debates about the problems of the 'culture' concept. Keywords: Sub-Saharan Africa; HIV/AIDS; Intervention; Culture; Epidemiology; Anthropology

Three studies support the proposal that need for closure (NFC) involves a desire for consensual validation that leads to cultural conformity. Individual differences in NFC interact with cultural group variables to determine East Asian versus Western differences in conflict style and procedural preferences (Study 1), information gathering in disputes (Study 2), and fairness judgment in reward allocations (Study 3). Results from experimental tests indicate that the relevance of NFC to cultural conformity reflects consensus motives rather than effort minimization (Study 2) or political conservatism (Study 3). Implications for research on conflict resolution and motivated cultural cognition are discussed. Keywords: culture, need for closure, conflict resolution, reward allocation

Key Words Adaptive expertise * Culture and cognitive development * Natural givens To bring out Giyoo Hatano's contributions to the understanding of culture and cognitive development, we note first his special style--thoughtful, inventive, and always focused on central issues and on combining theory with data--and then, for three areas, some of the conceptual advances he proposed. The areas have to do with ties between cognitive and social development (links between skills and identity provide the selected advance), the nature of expertise (adaptive expertise is the selected advance), and the place of what is 'naturally given' (selected is the emphasis on specifying what is biologically given, what is culturally ready-to-hand, and their interconnections). He will be missed both as a scholar and a person.

This examination of osteoarthritis in Siberia's Cis-Baikal region focuses on the reconstruction of mid-Holocene mobility and activity patterns with particular interest in an alleged fifth millennium BC biocultural hiatus. Five cemetery populations--two representing the pre-hiatus Kitoi culture (6800-4900 BC) and three the post-hiatus Serovo-Glaskovo (4200-1000 BC)--are considered. The objective is to investigate osteoarthritic prevalence and distribution (patterning) within and among these populations in order to reconstruct mobility and activity patterns among the Cis-Baikal foragers, and to test for possible disparities that may reflect differing adaptive strategies. The data reveal that levels of activity remained relatively constant throughout the mid-Holocene but that mobility and specific activity patterns did not. Although results are consistent with the current understanding of distinct Kitoi and Serovo-Glaskovo subsistence regimes, specifically the lower residential mobility and narrower resource base of the former, they also draw attention to adaptive characteristics shared by all occupants of the Cis-Baikal. KEY WORDS degenerative joint disease; Middle Holocene; forager

This research examined whether people from collectivistic cultures are less likely to seek social support than are people from individualistic cultures because they are more cautious about potentially disturbing their social network. Study 1 found that Asian Americans from a more collectivistic culture sought social support less and found support seeking to be less effective than European Americans from a more individualistic culture. Study 2 found that European Americans' willingness to seek support was unaffected by relationship printing, whereas Asian Americans were willing to seek support less when the relationship primed was closer to the self. Study 3 replicated the results of Study 2 and found that the tendency to seek support and expect social support to be helpful as related to concerns about relationships. These findings underscore the importance of culturally divergent relationship patterns in understanding social support transactions. Keywords: culture; social support; relationship; stress

Background: During a four-month period, the authors provided group psychotherapy combining psychodynamic, supportive and psycho-educational approaches. The aim was to investigate whether this approach would enable parents of patients with schizophrenia to re-establish their psychic balance and the balance of the whole family system by reducing high expressed emotion. Methods: The following tools were administered: a socio-cultural questionnaire, MMPI and PIE psychological tests and two questionnaires for group evaluation. Results: The socio-cultural questionnaire showed that the group of parents is heterogeneous. MMPI profiles showed truthful answers and well organized thinking; there were no psychopathological symptoms. The PIE test showed increased dimensions of sociability and trust. The dimensions of fear, sorrow and anger were decreased. Combinations of primary emotions (marked sociability and high self-protection) show that the parents are cautious, responsible and tend to feel guilt. The parents evaluated the group work as interesting and helpful and the group as a place where the parents can overcome the stigma of the disease that affects them, get information, find help and friends and find a way out of their social isolation. Conclusion: This combined approach changes the emotional profile of parents, reduces high expressed emotions (fear, sorrow and anger) in parents and helps re-establish their psychic balance and the balance of the whole family system.

Children constantly encounter signs during cultural practices, although many theories do not fully acknowledge sociocultural aspects of semiotic development. The author examines research on cultural practices and contexts in which children learn to produce signs involving representational drawing and pretend play. This work is contrasted with more individualistic views of semiotic development that fail to adequately address sociocultural aspects of semiotic functioning to varying degrees. The author also presents a theoretical model for understanding the structure of any sign system and for comparing semiotic systems, using examples from the drawing and pretense literatures. It is proposed that the sign-making practices in which children participate are shaped by a complex hierarchy of conventions. Keywords: culture, semiotics, drawing, pretend play

Recent writing that identifies the United States as an empire has focused overwhelmingly on its political-economic underpinnings, without questioning the cultural making of value or examining empire as more than an elite project. This writing has not drawn on ethnographic work that would reshape it in more adequate, less economistic forms, make the human face and frailties of imperialism more visible, and, in so doing, make challenges to imperial practice more likely. Focusing on military institutions, and via some examples from U.S. imperial projects in the Philippines and elsewhere, I suggest where ethnographies of empire might be done and what vulnerabilities they might explore. [empire, imperialism, United States, military, Philippines]

The authors hypothesized that whereas Japanese culture encourages socially engaging emotions (e.g., friendly feelings and guilt), North American culture fosters socially disengaging emotions (e.g., pride and anger). In two cross-cultural studies, the authors measured engaging and disengaging emotions repeatedly over different social situations and found support for this hypothesis. As predicted, Japanese showed a pervasive tendency to reportedly experience engaging emotions more strongly than they experienced disengaging emotions, but Americans showed a reversed tendency. Moreover, as also predicted, Japanese subjective well-being (i.e., the experience of general positive feelings) was more closely associated with the experience of engaging positive emotions than with that of disengaging emotions. Americans tended to show the reversed pattern. The established cultural differences in the patterns of emotion suggest the consistent and systematic cultural shaping of emotion over time. Keywords: culture, emotion, self

Published in 1955, Personal Influence is a study of how middle America made political and consumer decisions in small primary groups and how ordinary people were both influenced and influencing. The Vietnam War challenged the paradigm as a new generation of scholars turned to larger units--state and society--and the power the media might have in reinforcing class structure. Part II of this article examines the application of the paradigm in voting studies from Waiter Lippmann as the prototypical cosmopolitan to the locals of Decatur. The conclusion raises questions about the future based on globalization and the decline of the nation-state. Drawing on Dayan and Katz's work in studying televised events, this article shares their perspective based on aesthetics, which would give more attention to culture. Keywords: decision making; primary groups; nation-state; globalization; culture

Although sex role ideology (i.e., beliefs about the proper roles for men and women) is linked with self-definition and male--female interactions, researchers have rarely examined such beliefs among U.S. immigrants. This study examined the cultural (ethnic identity, self-construal) and demographic (gender, age, years in United States) correlates of sex role ideology among 170 (88 male, 82 female) East Asian immigrants using psychometrically established measures. Male participants who endorsed ethnic identity and interdependent self-construal were more likely to report traditional sex roles; female participants who lived for a longer period of time in the United States and who endorsed independent self-construal were more likely to report sex role equality. Clinicians should consider assessing sex role ideology to reduce the likelihood of stereotyping their immigrant clients. Keywords: sex role, culture, gender, Asian, immigrant

This article provides a focal summary of procedures on the proper adaptation of a test for cross-cultural purposes. This is directed to potential and current users of measurement instruments that have been developed in one culture and are intended to be adapted to another culture. Attention is directed to the absolute necessity of complying with the International Test Commission Principles of Test Adaptations.

Relatively high prevalence of coresidence between older parents and adult children in Japan is generally interpreted as a structural manifestation of traditional family norms; however, recent socioeconomic changes in Japan have called this into question. This study analyzes national data from older people in Japan to examine the reciprocal relationship between two types of intergenerational coresidence and normative beliefs about traditional stem-family living arrangements. Two-stage least squares regression analysis reveals that coresidence with married children and traditional normative beliefs mutually reinforces each other, whereas coresidence with unmarried children strengthens normative beliefs, but not vice versa. The authors argue that the composition of multigenerational households of older people in Japan is shifting toward a type where instrumental concerns of both generations take precedence over traditional cultural ideology. Traditional norms still motivate the formation of stem-family households but are also used to justify instrumentally driven living arrangements with single children. Keywords: family; values; culture; living arrangements

In the past decade, cultural differences in perceptual judgment and memory have been observed: Westerners attend more to focal objects, whereas East Asians attend more to contextual information. However, the underlying mechanisms for the apparent differences in cognitive processing styles have not been known. In the present study, we examined the possibility that the cultural differences arise from culturally different viewing patterns when confronted with a naturalistic scene. We measured the eye movements of American and Chinese participants while they viewed photographs with a focal object on a complex background. In fact, the Americans fixated more on focal objects than did the Chinese, and the Americans tended to look at the focal object more quickly. In addition, the Chinese made more saccades to the background than did the Americans. Thus, it appears that differences in judgment and memory may have their origins in differences in what is actually attended as people view a scene. attention | culture | memory | eye-tracking | visual cognition

Recent research has highlighted the role of culture in emerging adulthood (age between 18 and 25 years). However, most studies have examined majority cultures (e.g., China) as well as subcultures (e.g., American ethnic minorities). Thus, work on other aspects of culture such as religion is needed given the emerging evidence that it may have an impact on development. This study explored the role of religious culture in the emerging adulthood of college students. Participants were 445 undergraduates (ages 18-20 years) from institutions that were Catholic (31 males, 89 females), Mormon (48 males, 200 females), and public (21 males, 56 females). Results found religious differences in (a) the criteria young people deemed necessary for adulthood, (b) the extent to which emerging adults felt they had achieved these criteria, (c) various aspects of spirituality including practices and beliefs, and (d) the behaviors in which emerging adults engage. KEY WORDS: emerging adulthood; religion; culture; risk behaviors.

Memory debates in the twentieth century were determined very largely by war and the aftermath of conflict. The analysis of commemorative practice in historically problematic French frontier territories after 1918 [...]

We investigate 1 factor that influences the success of ideas or cultural representations by proposing that they have a habitat, that is, a set of environmental cues that encourages people to recall and transmit them. We test 2 hypotheses: (a) fluctuation: the success of an idea will vary over time with fluctuations in its habitat, and (b) competition: ideas with more prevalent habitats will be more successful. Four studies use subject ratings and data from newspapers to provide correlational support for our 2 hypotheses, with a negative factoid, positive rumor, catchphrases, and variants of a proverb. Three additional experimental studies manipulate the topic of actual conversations and find empirical support for our theory, with catchphrases, proverbs, and slang. The discussion examines how habitat prevalence applies to a more extensive class of ideas and suggests how habitats may influence the process by which ideas evolve. Keywords: Culture, memory, retrieval, social representations

Introduction I noticed that the bibliography appended to the end of the late Anthony Richards memorial (Borneo Research Bulletin 33:25-26) omitted his short paper 'Lawai,' published in the Brunei Museum [...]

The appearance of Volume 36 represents something of a milestone for your Editor. This is the tenth volume of the BRB that I have edited, not counting a brief stint [...]

The Observer of 7 December 2003 carried two stories that had resonance for Tynesiders. One--illustrated with a photo of three attractive but, for nightlife Newcastle, surprisingly fully-dressed young women, with [...]

Theory travels, as Edward Said taught us, and where there is travel, there is an economy of loss and gain. Cultural Studies is no exception. Born in Birmingham, UK, it [...]

A visit to the Liberty Bell has an unexpectedly penetrating effect on the author. He recasts a planned talk on the crisis of British working-class culture into a wider meditation, shaped by the metaphor of the bell, on the role of culture in popular struggles from below. The bell calls up the centrality of human labor in popular struggle and experience, from that embedded in the physical making of the bell to all the symbolic and communicative labors entailed in the grassroots cultural production of the historical meanings now condensed into it. In the past, these labors have helped to produce trade unions, abolitionist political forces and organizations, and the civil and women's rights movements. But devastating economic and social changes seem to have fractured the everyday cultural forms of today, made them invisible, and unwound their links with political organization: the bell is cracked anew. But human labors, physical and cultural, continue even in 'new times.' Ethnographic social science must recognize, record, and dignify their many forms, seeking, where possible, to make visibility a means to self-direction and repair. Keywords: culture; cultural production; working-class culture; cultural commodity; logic of practice; ethnography and cultural therapy

Cultural transmission in our species works most of the time as a cumulative inheritance system allowing members of a group to incorporate behavioral features not only with a positive biological value but sometimes also with a neutral, or even negative, biological value. Most of models of dual inheritance theory and gene-culture coevolution suggest that an increase, either qualitative or quantitative, in the efficiency of imitation is the key factor to explain the transformation of primate social learning in a cumulative cultural system of inheritance as it happens during hominization. We contend that more efficient imitation is necessary but not enough for this transformation to occur and that the key factor enabling such a transformation is that some hominids developed the capacity to approve or disapprove their offspring's learned behavior. This capacity to approve or disapprove offspring's behavior makes learning both less costly and more accurate, and it transformed the hominid culture into a system of cumulative cultural inheritance similar to that of humans, although the system was still prelinguistic in nature. imitation / teaching / assessor / dual inheritance / cultural transmission

Intelligence cannot be fully or even meaningfully understood outside its cultural context. Work that seeks to study intelligence acontextually risks the imposition of an investigator's view of the world on the rest of the world. Moreover, work on intelligence within a single culture may fail to do justice to the range of skills and knowledge that may constitute intelligence broadly defined and risks drawing false and hasty generalizations. This article considers the relevance of culture to intelligence, as well as its investigation, assessment, and development. Studies that show the importance of understanding intelligence in its cultural context are described; the author concludes that intelligence must be understood in such context.

The 1960s in America didn't begin as 'The Sixties.' Before the years of upheaval and angry division, the decade brought Americans an interlude of civility and earnest aspiration. Anything was [...]

The paper by John A. Moses 'The struggle for Anzac Day 1916-1930 and the role of the Brisbane Anzac Day Commemoration Committee,' inspired me to attempt to equal his contribution [...]

Two studies investigated the impact of culturally instilled folk theories on the perception of physical events. In Study 1, Americans and Chinese with no formal physics education were found to emphasize different causes in their explanations for eight physical events, with Americans attributing them more to dispositional factors (e.g., weight) and less to contextual factors (e.g., a medium) than did Chinese. In Study 2, Chinese Americans' identity as Asians or as Americans was primed before having them explain the events used in Study 1. Asian-primed participants endorsed dispositional explanations to a lesser degree and contextual explanations to a greater degree than did American-primed participants, although priming effects were observed only for students with little physics education. Together, these studies suggest that culturally instilled folk theories of physics produce cultural differences in the perception of physical causality. Keywords: culture; attribution; ethnic identity; physical causality