Exploring the soundscape and the atmosphere of the Gigli di Nola cultural festival in Italy

The Gigli di Nola is an Italian folk ceremony featuring a shoulder-borne procession celebrating the feast of Saint Paulinus. Despite its cultural significance as a UNESCO site, the soundscape and atmosphere of the festival has scarcely been explored. This study examines how the physical and spatial arrangement of Nola shapes the enactment of the festival's soundscape, atmosphere, and behavior of its participants. It further investigates how the rhythmic qualities of the music are related to bearers' spatial maneuvers and to non-bearers’ participation in the festival. Through the use of rhythmanalysis and a mixed method approach, the results reveal the festival to be deeply connected to Nola's urban fabric and community life. The spatial arrangement of the historic streets with their nodes and boundaries, forge body–space relationships that indicates place, people, and music, are interconnected in the Gigli festival. The soundscape dominates the atmosphere of the festival, which in turn affects non-bearers and bearers' behavior. These rhythmic qualities also guide the parading of the Gigli festival for its participants. We conclude by pointing to a lively view of culture to promote UNESCO's management of cultural festivals.     

Protecting Sexual Minority Youth from Research Risks: Conflicting Perspectives

We describe the dilemmas we encountered in the informed consent process for an HIV prevention project targeting Black gay, bisexual, and non-gay identified young men. We highlight the complexities of applying informed parental consent procedures to sexual minority youth and identify some of the challenges that researchers who work with sexual minority youth face when they must balance the needs and rights of this population against the needs and rights accorded to parents by federal guidelines for protecting minor participants in research.     

Comparing to perfection: How cultural norms for appearance affect social comparisons and self-image

Theory and research suggests that cultural norms for appearance present unrealistic standards of beauty which may contribute to women's body dissatisfaction. In Study 1, women described their appearance more negatively than men and made more upward social comparisons about their bodies, but not about other domains. Women also compared more than men with unrealistic targets (e.g., models). In Study 2, we explored the role of cultural norms for appearance in social comparisons with relevant (peer) or irrelevant (model) superior targets. When cultural norms were not salient, participants judged a peer to be more relevant, compared more with the peer, and were more negatively affected by the peer. However, when cultural norms were salient, participants judged a professional model to be equally relevant, compared more with the model and felt worse after exposure to the model. We discuss the powerful role of cultural norms in determining social comparison processes and self-appraisals.     

Sharing food with infants in Hadza communities in Tanzania

By analyzing mealtime interactions of Tanzanian Hadza infants with their interactional partners, we explored how two foundational schemas, namely giving/sharing and autonomy are realized and fostered in infants. We focused on three aspects of the mealtime interactions, namely how the infants’ share was protected, whether independent eating was fostered by the infants’ interactional partners, and how infants were encouraged to share food. To answer these questions, we also considered the settings that were created for infant eating, persons involved, and characteristics of the foods. Hadza infants (N = 24) between the ages of approximately 6 and 27 months were video recorded in mealtime situations. The videos were analyzed qualitatively and revealed the following patterns: First, infants’ shares were protected by eating meals in secluded places or providing infants with separate dishes. Second, independent eating was situational. It can be limited according to the child’s interest in the food or by the interactional partner. Some caregivers subtly enhanced independence by appearing unaware of infants’ signals. Third, sharing was encouraged and supported when it occurred spontaneously. Infants were also asked to share and occasionally tricked into sharing. Tolerated scrounging seemed to be generally accepted by both infants and caregivers. However, we also observed conflicts in competitive situations and somewhat overwhelmed infants. These results are discussed in light of hunter-gatherers’ foundational schemas and livelihood changes observed in the Hadza.     

《文化演化与宗教》

社会学家贝拉(Robert Bellah)在其颇具影响力"宗教演化"的文章中,根据广泛的人类经验提出了一个检验文化和宗教互动的模式。贝拉在其雄心勃勃的计划中还是保持相当的谦虚,他警觉到其所用的例证源于历史文献,而模式本身则不是历史。模式是"一种思考的工具":一个用来指导思考的理论性框架,而非基于田野调查的经验性描述。在我们下面的讨论中,我们将使用贝拉的"思考工具"的基本模式,将包括来自贝拉本人和其他宗教学者研究中的一些修正和补充的内容。     

The effect of cultural values on pro-environmental attitude in the context of travel mode choice: A hierarchical approach

The cultural theory explains social behavior through four elementary types of cultural values consisting of hierarchy, individualism, egalitarianism, and fatalism. The knowledge of how these values influence attitudes and behaviors specifically pertain to the environment is limited. Understanding individuals’ values and attitudes should be addressed in travel mode choice based on possible impacts of transportation on the environment. This study investigates the effect of cultural values on pro-environmental attitude and the influence of this attitude on travel mode choice in light of a hierarchical latent choice model. The model is estimated using data from a random sampling in CBD (Central Business District) of Tehran, Iran. The pro-environmental attitude, which is postulated to be affected by cultural values, is considered as the latent variable directly affecting travel mode choice. The cultural values drivers of pro-environmental attitude have been seen in a hierarchical structure. The estimated results show that hierarchical cultural tendency has the strongest and positive effect on being pro-environmental. Also, individualistic culture indicates a positive trend in being pro-environmental. On the other side, people with egalitarianism value tend to report an orientation towards pro-environmental attitude. Moreover, pro-environmental attitude increases the utility of public and active modes of transportation and a negative significant effect is found on the utility of private car and motorcycle.     

Adding experiential layers to the transnational-athlete concept: A narrative review of real-world heterogeneous mobility experiences

ObjectiveWith rising mobility and greater recognition of the diversity of origins, cultures, and outlooks, there has been increasing interest in transnational perspectives in sport psychology scholarship and practice. Based on personal and professional experiences, however, we are concerned that there are diverse transnational-athlete perspectives that have not yet been explored in the literature which are also often restricted by traditional nation-based sporting policies, organisations, and events. As cultural awareness and understanding may enhance consultancy effectiveness and enable the construction of heretofore unrealised identities for athletes, in this paper we seek to expand upon the heterogeneity of athlete experiences relating to mobility by exploring real-world cases of transnational athletes and how their experiences fit into current sporting structures.DesignNarrative review and commentary.ResultsThree identity orientations that showcase transnational diversity are identified: postnational, intranational, and non-national. Key characteristics and challenges relating to these for athletes, coaches, and practitioners are exemplified and discussed.ConclusionTo enhance rapport and inclusivity, researchers and practitioners should not only consider experiences, perceptions, and constructed identities of postnational, intranational, and non-national athletes, but also seek to understand how these interact with or are influenced by environmental and structural factors.     

Feasibility of a Community Intervention for the Prevention of Suicide and Alcohol Abuse with Yup’ik Alaska Native Youth: The Elluam Tungiinun and Yupiucimta Asvairtuumallerkaa Studies

The Elluam Tungiinun and Yupiucimta Asvairtuumallerkaa studies evaluated the feasibility of a community intervention to prevent suicide and alcohol abuse among rural Yup’ik Alaska Native youth in two remote communities. The intervention originated in an Indigenous model of protection, and its development used a community based participatory research process. Feasibility assessment aimed to assess the extent to which (1) the intervention could be implemented in rural Alaska Native communities, and (2) the intervention was capable of producing measurable effects. Scales maximally sensitive to change were derived from earlier measurement work, and the study contrasted implementation process and outcomes across the two communities. In one community, medium dose response effects (d = .30–.50), with dose defined as number of intervention activities attended, were observed in the growth of intermediate protective factors and ultimate variables. In the other community, medium dose effects were observed for one intermediate protective factor variable, and small dose effects were observed in ultimate variables. Differences across communities in resources supporting intervention explain these contrasting outcomes. Results suggest implementation in these rural Alaska settings is feasible when sufficient resources are available to sustain high levels of local commitment. In such cases, measureable effects are sufficient to warrant a prevention trial.     

The development of adaptive competence: Why cultural psychology is necessary and not just nice

I argue that developmental psychologists need to view cultural approaches to cognitive development as necessary and not just nice. Cultural psychology enables one to study problems one otherwise might not be able to study and also to identify solutions to problems that might be obscured or even distorted if one looked only at results within a single culture (usually, one’s own). I describe work my colleagues and I have done around the world addressing specific problems such as what does it mean to be adaptively intelligent in various cultures, how does illness affect intellectual functioning, and what do people even mean by “intelligence” in different cultures. The results show that cognitive development can be fully understood only if one looks beyond one’s own cultural boundaries and preconceptions. The article further argues that a theory of successful intelligence can be a useful way of studying phenomena of intellectual development within a cultural framework.