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Although the Declaration of Independence stated that "[a]ll men are created equal," due to the institution of slavery, this statement was not to be grounded in law in the U.S until after the Civil War. Often, American blacks looked to the courts to protect important social values and when the courts ruled in favor, there was always a backlash and resistance to judicial fiat. This paper makes a historical analysis of the South's response to judicial social change. For instance, when Brown v. Board of Education of Tepeka was decided in 1954, school boards in portions of the country actively resisted the court mandated school integration. Thus, the paper argues that social change should be a gradual process and not a forced enterprise by the courts or indeed, any governmental structure since an assertive judiciary can spark a political and cultural backlash that may hurt, more than help, progressive values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along the coast of northwestern Alaska, architectural wood remains are well preserved in the Birnirk and Thule coastal sites of the early 2nd millennium CE. These structural wood elements are unique archives for documenting climatic variations and cultural transformations during this key development period of Inuit culture. Along this treeless Arctic coast, driftwood accumulates from the subarctic forests of interior Alaska. Except for northwestern Alaska, regional tree-ring chronologies are too short (at best 350–400 years) to successfully date archaeological wood remains from Birnirk and Thule coastal sites using conventional dendrochronology. This paper examines the potential of tree-ring derived δ 18O signal to annually date eight architectural wood samples from the Rising Whale (KTZ-304) site at Cape Espenberg, northwestern Alaska. We developed a δ 18O master chronology, covering the period 935–1157 CE, using five wood samples from the KTZ-304 site. Blind isotope cross-dating of individual series belonging to this δ 18O master chronology (one against the other four) showed conclusive dating and a very strong coherence of the isotopic signal. We, then, used the δ 18O master chronology to cross-date three other wood samples for which we knew, from previous 14C wiggle-matching procedure, the first measured ring to be in this time interval, within a ± 18 to 30-year precision. Oxygen isotope dendrochronology provided a plausible date for one of the samples (the first measured ring at 1073 CE). This preliminary study encourages us to acquire additional data to extend in time and strengthen the δ 18O master chronology of northwestern Alaska (NWAK18O) and help refine our understanding of climate and culture change during the 2nd millennium CE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The far-right identification of Jews with modernity has been noted by many scholars, yet most analyses have fallen short of offering a properly dialectical account of antisemitism, one that will scrutinise the antinomies at the heart of the antisemitic discourse and trace their relations to the contradictions of modernity itself. In this paper, I will make modernity as movement the focus of the analysis.Modernity, philosophically underpinned by the Enlightenment, and politically ushered in by the French Revolution of 1789, was seen by its reactionary and fascist opponents both as a time of great upheaval, constant change and social disruption, but also as the setting-up of an era of stasis and degeneration. It was paradoxically decried, sometimes simultaneously, as both helplessly nomadic and incurably sedentary. And in both respects ‘the Jew’ and ‘the Jewish spirit’ were often placed, no matter how spuriously, at the very centre of attacks. Qua ‘wandering’ or ‘eternal’, the Jews were seen as embodying the spirit of restlessness and lack of roots, undermining tradition and fixed national and racial identities; their dynamic role as revolutionaries, conspirators and rabble rousers was ritually denounced.Jews were also condemned, however, as a major obstacle to movement and expansion, the arch-enemies of imperialism, seeking to establish a realm of universal brotherhood, peace and egalitarianism. By attacking the Jews, reactionaries and fascists thus attempted to settle their scores with a modernity that they feared and loathed in equal measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the endeavors of Christian missions seeking converts from an indigenous society. It places the concept of "cultural change", often promoted by Christian missions, against the concept of "cultural adaptability". Taking the case of the Zo people of the India-Burma borderlands, this paper argues that the ascendance of the Christian God within a traditional Zo cosmology was not simply an outcome of missionary endeavors. Rather, the stringent efforts of the missionaries, who sought to missionize by opening the "hearts and minds" of the native people through the tools of education and health services, faced serious challenges and opposition from the indigenous Pau Cin Hau movement. However, it was the attack on the lesser spirits by the indigenous movement which paved the way for the Christian God to be easily fitted into the upper tier of the traditional cosmology, and consequently led to the spread of Christianity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buddhism is often said to be an environment-friendly religion, but this thesis is rarely investigated. In this paper, we employ a mixed-method approach to examine this thesis in the case of Taiwan. We use data from the Taiwan Social Change Survey (TSCS) and apply qualitative content analysis to examine practices among major Taiwanese Buddhist organizations. The findings suggest: (1) Buddhists in Taiwan engage significantly more in environment-friendly behavior than other religious members, and (2) members of different Buddhist organizations display similar levels of engagement in environment-related behavior. However, (3) Buddhist organizations engage very differently in environment-related activities. (4) Buddhist organizations engage more in nonpolitical environmental activities than they do in politically sensitive ones, and (5) among the four major Buddhist organizations, female-led Buddhist organizations show a higher level of environment-related practices than male-led organizations. 摘要: 在这篇文章中我们结合定性与定量的研究方法检验了一个流行的看法，即佛教是个对环境友善的宗教。我们使用了台湾社会变迁基本调查(TSCS)的调查数据以及收集了台湾主要佛教团体的环保实践与论述。本研究发现：(1)台湾佛教徒相对于其他宗教成员参与更多环境友善的行为;（2）不同佛教团体的成员呈现参与环境相关行为的不同；（3）不同佛教团体参与非常不同类型的环境相关活动；（4）佛教团体参与非政治的环境活动多于政治敏感类环境活动；（5）台湾四大佛教团体里，女性领导的佛教团体参与环境相关活动多过男性领导的佛教团体。 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses food as a prism to examine society and the impacts of social change at different scales, ranging from the scale of the region, through the scale of the local community, to the scale of the household. It applies an approach that combines materials gained from archival studies, a literature review, and empirical research conducted in the Western Pamirs of Tajikistan to reconstruct socio-historically and spatio-environmentally situated food-related arrangements (foodscapes) in the study region. The main characteristics addressed include rootedness, richness, scarcity , and remoteness. It makes visible both continuities and shifts that have occurred to these arrangements in the course of social transformations. The study joins the canon of ethnographic food studies, and, by presenting a regional focus on the Tajik Pamirs, complements the emerging body of food-related socio-scientific research in and on Central Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the processes taking place in the formation of a Kazakh bureaucratic elite and its integration into the Russian imperial system of administration. It developed due to certain changes in the social structure of Kazakh society during the second half of the 19th-early 20th centuries. As a new class of Kazakh officials was created, most of them became faithful executors of Russian imperial policies in the steppe. The state encouraged the activities of all kinds of Kazakh officials with awards commensurate to their rank. However, only a few of these Kazakh officials had high-achieving careers. The analysis here focuses on the biographies of the sultans Ghazi (Ghazy) Bulatovich Valikhanov, and Ish Muhamed Suyuk-ogly Abylaikhanov, which illustrate the predominance of those with illustrious origins being among the prominent Kazakh employees of that time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gig Economy platforms have become enmeshed in the fabric of urban sociality. While they have substantially disrupted conditions of labouring, participating in the platform economy has also changed social and moral norms globally. Importantly, what constitutes normative moral and prosocial interpersonal behaviour is key to making platforms function as social environments, but these norms are also constantly challenged and rearticulated through everyday practice among different stakeholders. By drawing on long-term fieldwork across gig economy platforms in urban India, we offer a typology of dynamic social and moral norms around tipping, gratitude, politeness and more that sustain platform interactions. The paper's aim is to re-centre the vitality and dynamism of everyday media practice, social relationships, and cultural values in shaping platforms. Relatedly, moving beyond binaries of exploitation/empowerment, we show how negotiations between agents with differential power contribute to shifts in platform culture that cannot be fully explained through notions of intentionality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical chronicles in Southeast Asia often designate the forest as an area where animals and spirits prowl, where heroes meditate or journey across. But the forest is neither a mere setting nor a passive witness to the unfolding of events. Using nineteenth- and twentieth-century historical chronicles from Cirebon, West Java, this article examines how the forest is storied to mediate the past. Discussion is centred around three narrative topoi: the first concerns the establishment of new settlements, as prefigured through forest-clearing; the second accentuates the forest's rhetorical function as a site of disappearance during Islamization; and the third analyses the creaturely figure Menjangan Wulung, who sabotages the Cirebonese sultanate and lurks in the wilderness. An inquisitive reading of these episodes reveals the forest to be a historiographical trope. Conceived as a topography of concealment, the forest exemplifies a withdrawn reality where contentious pasts are subdued yet sustained, preserving continuity amidst change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The universality of kinship terms means they are regarded, like much basic vocabulary, as resistant to borrowing. Kin term borrowings are documented at varying frequencies, but their role in the dynamics of change in this core social domain is understudied. We investigated the dimensions and the sociolinguistic contexts of kinship borrowings with 50 kinship categories from a global sample of 32 languages, a subset extracted from the World Loanword Database. We found that more borrowings take place in affinal kin categories and in generations denoting relatives older than ego. Close kin categories also have borrowings, but the borrowed items usually coexist with other, presumably non-borrowed variants. Colonisation and the spread of cultures and religions were main inducing forces for kin term borrowings; new terms often enter a language via bilingualism. These tentative patterns can be studied further with larger datasets in future systematic studies of kinship borrowings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1850’s and 60’s there was increasing discontent regarding the provision of school education as controlled and managed by the Church of Scotland. This led to a number of Parliamentary Bills being brought forward proposing a new national system. The Church opposed these mainly on the grounds that there was no guarantee that Religious Instruction would continue to have a place in the school curriculum. In February 1872 Lord Advocate George Young presented in the Commons an Education Bill ‘To extend and amend the provisions of the law of Scotland on the subject of education’ in order that ‘the means of procuring efficient education … may be furnished and made available to the whole people of Scotland.’ This was passed on 2nd August as The Education (Scotland) Act 1872 and transferred the full control of schools from church to state. The Act included a Preamble allowing for Religious Instruction to be taught according to ‘use and wont’. The removal of its management of school education may be seen as a major blow for the Church of Scotland, removing a historic contribution to national life. In actual fact, the consequence was the revitalising of the Church enabling it to concentrate its energy on strengthening its influence in the community and in outreach to its parishes with a new sense of social mission. Although the Church had lost its direct control of the school curriculum it continued to support Religious Instruction through its Teacher Training, its Sunday schools and its ministerial representation on school boards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The aim of this article is to identify and map innovation diplomacy actions in Denmark and Sweden using the 'functions of innovation systems' approach. Based on Hekkert et al.'s seven key system functions (Marko P. Hekkert, Roald A. A. Suurs, Simona O. Negro, Stefan Kuhlmann and Ruud E. H. M. Smits, 'Functions of Innovation Systems: A New Approach for Analysing Technological Change', Technological Forecasting & Social Change 74 (4) (2007), 413-432), the article assess the role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in meeting governments' innovation targets. The empirical analysis, including twelve semi-structured interviews with seventeen career diplomats, reveals the key initiatives that countries are taking in furthering their homeland's innovation aims or ambitions. The study also asks whether the 'diplomacy for innovation' approach of both Scandinavian MFAs are consistent with the 'whole-of-government' and 'whole-of-society' approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]