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ABSTRACT Dadan, the capital of the kingdom of Dadan and, later on, of Lihyan, was an important trading hub and place of worship in North‐West Arabia during the first millennium BCE. Located in the AlUla valley (Saudi Arabia), with naturally available fresh water, fertile soil and relative ease of travel through it, people gathered there for trade, religious ceremonies and cultural exchange, as attested by the sanctuaries, artefacts and inscriptions in the area around Dadan. In this work, the connection of the main sacred and funerary monuments of ancient Dadan and associated neighbouring sites with the surrounding landscape and skyscape was explored from an archaeoastronomical perspective. The results suggest that the observation of particular astronomical phenomena was considered for the location and orientation of the sacred spaces included in the sample. Together with epigraphic and archaeological sources, these results offer new clues about different aspects of social and religious life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gija people in the East Kimberley community of Warmun (Western Australia) negotiate their engagement with pastoralism with varying degrees of primacy. Through ethnography and oral histories, I explore how Gija people manage pastoralism and its effects through acts of accommodation, adoption, refusal and innovation. I begin by outlining the development of the colonial pastoral industry in Western Australia, state and federal legislation that withheld and underpaid wages to Aboriginal pastoral workers and cattle‐killing practices and protective measures. I use 'Kila', the bovine species killed for local consumption, as an entry point to explore intercultural relations and Gija relative autonomy within this context. Analysing Kila etymologically and through an ethnographic case study involving its procurement, dissection, and distribution, I find that cooperation is implemented to enable the Kila event. Kila emerges as both a nexus for intercultural mutuality and as a facilitator of distinct opportunities for Gija social and cultural maintenance and recreation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the complexities of conviviality in a London neighbourhood by using primary qualitative data to analyse the implications of the (in)visibility of difference for superdiverse social relations. It develops the concept of power‐geometries to examine the implications of how social differences are produced, imagined, and experienced in the neighbourhood's public spaces. Drawing on three situated examples from a visual ethnographic research project, it explores the affective intensities of how gender, sexuality, class, and race intersect with ethnicity, religion, and migrant status to shape urban conviviality. The paper argues the way different positions and identities are layered and intersect can shape the development of 'cosmopolitan outlooks' and intercultural relations. In doing so, the analysis refines understandings of superdiversity conceived narrowly within the remit of majority/minority relations. It promotes instead more critically ethnographic explorations of the complex and varied ways difference has meaning in everyday lives in superdiverse places and shapes everyday forms of recognition and equality. The paper contributes to debates on geographies of difference, encounter, and public space by analysing how power relations affect conviviality. It demonstrates how conviviality is an ambivalent process that is punctuated by both prejudices and solidarities and is shaped by structural inequalities and wider political discourses. The paper concludes by highlighting the role of agency and space for dialogue for residents negotiating differences among urban change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Set against the backdrop of the Arab Spring uprisings, Jihadist extremism, and the neoliberal exploitation of the Global South, Mathias Énard's 2012 novel Street of Thieves (Rue des voleurs) follows the fortunes of Lakhdar, a young man from Tangier who finds himself living as an undocumented migrant in Barcelona's notorious Carrer d'En Robador, the Street of Thieves. Lakhdar's misadventures are shaped by regional and global forces which have compelled Moroccan nationals to seek political and economic asylum in Mediterranean Europe. Although Street of Thieves is strikingly contemporary, this essay explores the novel's medievalism: its contrasting of the grim present with the premodern Islamic world as an era of sophistication, mobility and cultural exchange. The essay focuses on Lakhdar's preoccupation with his fellow Tangier native Ibn Battuta, the fourteenth‐century traveler and writer whose life becomes a frame through which Lakhdar views his own. It argues that contrary to the current tendency to view Ibn Battuta's world as a precursor to modern globalised culture, Énard's novel invokes cosmopolitan Islamic premodernity to comment on the turmoil of the modern Islamosphere and the harm done to the Islamicate world by Western neo‐colonialism and neoliberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ancient Chinese beads provide important evidence of cultural exchanges. This study used a scanning electron microscope with an energy‐dispersive spectrometer to analyse the microstructure and chemical composition of faience beads excavated from Laolongtou cemetery in Yanyuan county, China. Based on the analysis results, two glazing methods (efflorescence and cementation) and two bead types (high‐Pb and high‐K beads) were identified. A comparison of the chemical compositions of samples unearthed at the Laolongtou cemetery and samples from north‐western China indicated close regional contact. Bronze wares and burial customs in Laolongtou cemetery also revealed that the Yanyuan region might be a significant node in the Southern Silk Road between the south‐western and north‐western parts of China and even in Southeast Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extant empirical evidence indicates that multicultural experiences (MCEs) are linked to numerous positive outcomes, including increased trust, reduced intergroup bias, and the promotion of large‐scale cooperation. These beneficial effects partly depend on the fact that increased MCEs enhance cultural sensitivity, which may enable individuals to better empathize with others. Therefore, we explored the beneficial effects of MCEs on empathy, along with the potential mechanisms. A sample of 1480 Chinese young adults (M = 21.40, SD = 1.86) were employed to complete anonymous questionnaires on their MCEs, positive emotions, critical thinking, empathy, and multicultural breadth. By controlling for gender and family socioeconomic status, parallel mediation analysis revealed that MCEs can independently influence individuals' levels of empathy through both positive emotions and critical thinking. Thereafter, multicultural breadth was determined as a moderator influencing this model. The results highlighted the role of MCEs in increasing empathy through their relationship with cognitive and emotional processes. This study is significant in expanding our understanding of the consequences of MCEs and has practical value in promoting more interpersonal harmony and social tolerance through enhanced empathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spanish is the second most common language among US children aged 5–17, with 26.8% speaking it at home. To foster cultural understanding and promote positive relationships, it's crucial to introduce young children to different languages and cultures. Preschool language education can cultivate respect and empathy, building more inclusive communities. Culturally responsive education equips children with skills to value diversity, creating a harmonious cultural climate. This article highlights the importance of learning another language (e.g., Spanish) and introduces Language Learning Circles (LCC) for preschoolers. Research indicates ages 3–6 are optimal for language acquisition, emphasizing the need for early exposure to enhance learning, and cultural appreciation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing in part on the work of Édouard Glissant, this article explores how the Raizal population of the San Andrés Archipelago in the Caribbean mobilises the concept of maritorio as an archipelagic geopoetic vessel with emancipatory potential. This concept disrupts dominant land/sea binaries that result from and are rooted in geopolitical mechanisms and colonial fantasies. The San Andrés Archipelago is administratively and politically part of Colombia, but the Raizal people of the Archipelago share a long colonial and postcolonial history with Black Creole people elsewhere in the Anglophone Caribbean, especially the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, based on diverse forms of economic, familial, and cultural exchange and marine mobilities. For many years, the status of the Archipelago was the basis of a dispute between Nicaragua and Colombia at the International Court of Justice, who ruled in 2012 that the islands were in fact Colombian while Nicaragua gained 75,000 km2 of sea. This ruling was devastating for the Raizales, fragmenting their maritorio and further thwarting Black mobilities and cultural exchange across the region. Legal‐geopolitical dislocations applied to the islands and the sea exacerbated structural conditions of racial and environmental injustice, while geopoetic responses by Raizal people to this state of affairs serve to confront colonial dispossession, ecological damage, and the ideological fixities of the Eurocentric nation‐state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human genomics research with indigenous peoples has often been characterised by tension between the ‘western’ science ideologies and indigenous peoples’ cultural beliefs in relation to their human genetic resources and data. This article explores this tension from the lens of the concept of indigenous peoples’ human genomic sovereignty and tests the applicability of the concept in Africa. The article achieves this by first highlighting the tension between ‘western’ science and indigenous peoples through three case studies from Canada, the USA, and South Africa. It then analyses indigenous peoples’ human genomic sovereignty in the USA and Canada and compares it with the notion of indigenous peoples’ sovereignty in Africa. The article concludes by highlighting lessons that indigenous groups in Africa can draw from the USA and Canada in their quest for human genomic sovereignty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses campaign reports and memoir literature to explore tsarist officers' views of masculinity—both their own and that of their opponents—during the conquest of the Caucasus, focusing particularly on the Nicolaevan era. It frames conquest as a form of cultural exchange and argues that tsarist officers' understandings of the gender order of both their own and combatant societies were a critical component of this cultural exchange. In particular, stereotypically feminine traits like mercy and gentleness were important to the cultural script of conquest in the Caucasus. To offer mercy implied the right to punish, a right which had to constantly be reasserted; the assertion of authority was deeply gendered and necessitated the subordination of local men. A case study of ritual humiliation during the conquest of the Caucasus illustrates how this worked in practice: disrupting the customary gender relations of a combatant society to remove opposing men from their authoritative role and installing an imperial officer at the top of the hierarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Directionality in translation traditionally refers to whether translation occurs from the translator's second language into their first or vice versa. This paper seeks to broaden the concept of directionality in translation by examining China's “outward translation” (i.e., the translation of works for readers outside of China), and goes beyond linguistic inquiries to encompass multifaceted dimensions related to global cultural exchange. By exploring outward translation within the Chinese context, this study contends that research on directionality should transcend mere linguistic considerations and embrace a more comprehensive analysis. Drawing insights from the Chinese perspective and employing a spatial conceptualization, this paper posits that outward translation operates within a dialogical space characterized by mutual exchange and engagement between the source culture and the target culture. Within this dynamic space, translation agents (including translators, publishers, patrons, and so on) from both source and target cultures interact, fostering reciprocal relationships and facilitating cultural dialogue. In conclusion, the paper argues that outward translation should be better defined and understood as an area of research with the potential to address the imbalanced global translation flows from English to other less‐translated languages, thereby facilitating more diverse and inclusive global knowledge production and dissemination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common explanation for the success of populists is that they rhetorically shift blame for their followers' hardships toward "elites," therefore creating a culpable outgroup. However, we argue that there are two confounded effects at play here: shifting blame toward an outgroup and shifting blame away from oneself. Therefore, we theorize that above and beyond elite blame, victimization rhetoric heightens leader support because it specifically relieves followers of the pressure of having to take responsibility for negative life outcomes, especially when they subscribe to neoliberal competition ideology. Supporting our predictions, we show via a survey that victim rhetoric increases leader support while controlling for elite blame, especially among people subscribing to neoliberal competition ideology. In a subsequent experiment, we replicate the findings causally and show that the effect works by reducing perceived personal responsibility for negative life outcomes. Our results indicate that populist rhetoric involves shifting blame toward others and away from oneself. This can explain some of the conundrums that have plagued the literature, such as why elites also fall for populist rhetoric. We discuss our findings in relation to cultural differences and differences in left‐ versus right‐wing populism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Northern Fennoscandia entered Christian Dotremont's (1922–1979) imagination in 1956. The Belgian avant‐gardist was comfortable in Central‐European artistic milieus through his involvement in CoBrA (1948–1951), but a total of 12 journeys to Sápmi between 1956 and 1978 had a profound effect on his creative work, especially the logograms he is best known for. This article studies Dotremont's travel writings and logograms as site‐specific forms of writing, which can be seen as precursors to ecopoetic approaches. Dotremont's journeys took place at a cultural turning point, when ethnographers had made their field trips but mass tourism was still in its embryonic state in Sápmi. His Sápmi‐inspired travel writings reveal how the idealism related to a hyperborean north initially intrigued him while he sought to elude modernity. Dotremont's cultural exchanges in Sápmi were non‐artistic but manifested in his art and writing. Sápmi brought about an ecological awakening through awe that was not sublimated but a lived experience. Dotremont immersed himself in Sápmi, with fundamental repercussions to his creative exploits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anecdotal evidence for several developing countries suggests that foreign direct investment and multinational enterprises (MNEs) may be an important conduit of cultural exchange. Recent work in economics has explored the role that MNEs play in transferring gender equality around the globe, but with mixed results. In this paper, we consider the implications of increased foreign direct investment in Brazil on the transmission of high‐quality gender policy and practice. In particular, we investigate whether workers with experience at multinational firms, now employed in domestic firms with no foreign influence, help to change gender‐specific outcomes at their Brazilian companies. We next ask whether it matters from where the foreign direct investment originates—that is, do workers with experience in MNEs with headquarters in relatively gender‐equal countries transfer best practices toward women better than do workers with experience in MNEs from relatively more gender‐unequal countries? Increasing the share of workers with MNE experience modestly improves the gender earnings gap in some specifications. Additionally, workers in management positions offer the strongest positive contributions to closing gender gaps. However, despite the many theoretical reasons and suggestive empirical evidence from previous literature to expect differential implications across FDI‐source countries, our data fail to support this notion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introductory article presents the framework and contributions of the special issue Paratexts, Dissemination, and Book Market in Early Modern Venice (1500‐1650). This volume aims to shed a new light on the publishing activity of poligrafi and other figures operating in Venice and its area of cultural influence. In this context, the use of paratexts simultaneously serves to disseminate knowledge, portray self‐fashioning strategies, and respond attentively to the market's and readers' needs. This collection of essays highlights how paratexts can provide valuable insights for analyses grounded in different disciplines and methodologies. Indeed, the present issue brings together studies that examine paratexts from a literary, historical‐cultural, and linguistic perspective. The authors explore aspects of early modern culture that are relevant but still neglected in modern scholarship and thereby advance our understanding of writing and publishing as a complex modality of cultural exchange from the Cinquecento to the beginning of the Seicento. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a collection of presentations from a symposium on diversity in graduate clinical psychology and counseling programs. The symposium emphasizes the importance of diversity in training and highlights efforts to recruit and retain minority students and faculty. It also discusses the involvement of students in organizations that promote diversity and the need for culturally appropriate instruction and training. The presentations cover topics such as multicultural pedagogy, immigrant experiences, and global outreach activities. Additionally, the document includes presentations from psychologists in South Africa who discuss the unique challenges they face in their work and the importance of addressing adolescent bereavement and promoting healthy relationships in schools. Finally, there are presentations on diversity ideologies and intergroup bias in Russia and interethnic attitudes in Serbia. The text discusses various research studies and presentations on topics related to social identities, diversity, and intergroup relations. The studies explore issues such as interethnic attitudes in Serbia, social identities in Russia and Bulgaria, intercultural relations in Crimea, and the impact of power, privilege, and oppression on well-being. The presentations focus on topics such as intersectionality, compassion practice, and the role of women of color in leadership. The research and presentations aim to provide insights into these complex issues and promote understanding and inclusivity. This study examined the perceptions of school educators working with immigrant pupils in Russia using the DOPA (Diversity in Organization: Perception and Approaches) model. The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 53 teachers and analyzed the data using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The [Extracted from the article]

Robert Wilson's The Three Ladies of London (ca. 1581) is the earliest extant Turk play that features one of the earliest instances of direct anxieties regarding Anglo‐Ottoman encounters. Contemporary with the 1580 Ahdname (capitulations), the play provides a local point‐of‐view of the newly established Anglo‐Ottoman commercial relations. We observe how seemingly overpriced Turkish goods, such as perfumes and jewels, metaphorically conquer the English market and pose a threat to local businesses. The play's multi‐national commercial exchange is marked by how the Italian intermediate cheats both his Ottoman suppliers and his English customers. The play is usually studied for its use of allegory, its references to the anti‐usury proclamations, how it stood apart from the staging history of Jews on the early modern English stage and how the positive attitude might have reflected the emerging Anglo‐Ottoman relations, which have been analysed as separate entities. Yet, there is a need to focus on how the intersections of race, gender, class and early modern performance practices overlap and conflict with each other in order to have a comprehensive view about the anxieties about dominance within the Anglo‐Ottoman context. Therefore, using a critical race theory framework this essay aims to analyse Wilson's The Three Ladies of London and re‐examine how the anxieties about Anglo‐Ottoman commercial and cultural exchanges were reflected on the early modern commercial stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important site of cross‐cultural exchange, theatre translations performed in Britain form key routes for international writers to be introduced to, and to influence, British audiences and theatre‐makers. This article introduces Jack Thorne's 2017 adaptation of Woyzeck by Georg Büchner, performed at the Old Vic Theatre in London, as a case study to trace how British theatre practitioners and institutions frame and utilise German texts and playwrights to construct an image of German (theatrical) culture in Britain. I will focus on institutional practice in the first instance, tracing how the Old Vic Theatre framed this production as appealing to two different 'crowds' and how Woyzeck relates to the Old Vic's stated institutional aims. This will be combined with performance and textual analysis that draws out the ways in which the production thematises borders and cultural difference. While theatre in translation can be seen as a bridge between different national cultures, I ultimately argue that this Woyzeck adaptation highlights, and indeed propagates, divisions between British and German (theatrical) cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pierre Bourdieu argued for the existence of general properties and even laws of social fields. In contrast to spaces of class relations and patterns of cultural lifestyles, however, almost no systematic comparative research exists on the homologies of national social fields of a more specialised nature. Also, the large majority of research is done on Western countries, raising concerns about the relevance of the concept for less differentiated societies. Using the field of journalism as a case, typical structures of 67 national fields (n = 27,567) are in this article investigated using a reverse approach: First, the subjective spaces of journalists' experienced constraints and imperatives in their jobs are sketched as a proxy for field structure using variants of multiple correspondence analysis, and second, the distribution of the social and professional properties of journalists are used to suggest capital structures. The results suggest great stability in the fundamental organising principles of fields of journalism around the world, although with considerable variation in their autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State‐promoted and market‐oriented horticultural production has fundamentally reshaped land use and agricultural economy in peri‐urban Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. This paper examines two scenarios amidst this transformation. In the first, peri‐urban land has been valorised for vegetable production through the erection of greenhouses and the introduction of agronomic science. However, Tibetans refrain from participating directly, preferring to lease the land to Han migrants, and citing structural inequalities between Han and Tibetans and Tibetan work ethic as explanation. In the second, the municipal government is more proactive in introducing agro‐science and providing technical training to enrol Tibetans. However, the participation of Tibetans is selective and partial, contingent on the same non‐market rationalities that Tibetans invoke to justify non‐participation in the first scenario. This paper explicates the diverging modes of participation for Tibetans by engaging with the Callonian approach on economisation and marketisation, and interrogating how socio‐technical relations established among humans, material infrastructure and agro‐science culminate in variegated calculative and non‐calculative agencies. Focusing in particular on the structural relations and cultural conventions that frustrate the unilinear enactment of a market order, this study contributes to the geographies of marketisation in two ways. First, it works with an analytical framework centred on the ongoing dynamic of framing, overflowing and reframing to argue that the marketisation approach can be expanded to account for the encounters between market agencements and local socio‐cultural contingencies. Geographically, second, it also contributes to the agenda of interrogating diverse market variants and the richness of economic differences in real space‐times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Russia has been a powerful ally in Venezuela's complex crisis, having developed political, economic and cultural relations with the Venezuelan state by employing various foreign policy instruments such as mutual support in multilateral fora, foreign aid, loans, commodity trading, military support and cultural diplomacy. What explains this support, despite Venezuela's severe political and economic crisis? Different perspectives have contributed to discussions on shifts in Russian foreign policy towards Latin America since the end of the Cold War. However, studies subscribing to traditional international relations theories have occasionally focused on a single issue or dimension. Such a focus may be problematic when analysing the multifaceted portfolio applied to Russian foreign policy. Based on the Two‐Good Theory approach, its focus on change and maintenance of the status quo, and the concept of substitutability, this research paper elaborates on Russia's foreign policy strategy towards Venezuela to explain policy priorities by examining the alliance with the Venezuelan Maduro regime. Furthermore, the paper highlights the link between the tangible characteristics of energy security and arms sales and intangible aspects, such as cultural diplomacy, which are important explanatory factors of Russian support for Venezuela. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a personal reflection by Bruno Bernet on his experience as a member of the Vasella Group, led by Andrea Vasella. Bernet recounts how he joined the group in 1975 and highlights Vasella's mentorship and expertise in organic chemistry with carbohydrates. The group's research focused on various aspects of carbohydrate chemistry, including the synthesis of sugars, glycosylation, and the development of new methodologies. Bernet also mentions the group's use of computers for manuscript preparation and their contributions to the field of oligonucleotide analogs. Throughout his time in the group, Bernet emphasizes the cultural and scientific exchange among coworkers from different countries. He concludes by expressing his gratitude for his years in the Vasella Group and the impact it had on the renaissance of carbohydrate chemistry. [Extracted from the article]

Racism from one's partner is a highly sensitive phenomenon that has received little research attention. The current research introduces the concept of "intimate racism" to refer to racism from close others. The manifestation of intimate racism in intercultural romantic relationships was explored with a sample of 92 racialized minorities who were currently, or previously, in an intercultural relationship. An online survey enquired about the experience of racism from their partner, and responses were coded and analyzed using thematic content analysis. More than 50 different manifestations of intimate racism emerged and these were grouped into eight categories: explicit racism, microinsults, microinvalidations, positive stereotypes, racial fetishization, partner abuse, defensiveness, and others. Co‐occurrence analyses revealed links between intimate racism with negative, neutral and positive experiences, which were connected to participants' responses to racism (e.g., confronting, disengaging) and to stressful identity experiences. The present work opens a new field of study to examine intimate racism and its implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When do people react negatively versus positively to other groups' adoption of their culture's traditional products? Extending research on social identity theory and cultural appropriation, we predicted that consumers would respond less positively to others' adoption of products from their culture when they felt their ingroup's status was relatively low. In Study 1, Indian participants induced to think of their country as low (vs. high) in status exhibited less positivity toward Westerners' consumption of traditional Indian clothing and evaluated such clothing more negatively themselves; these effects were mediated by reduced perceptions of consumers' psychological investment. In Study 2, we experimentally manipulated perceived psychological investment to further establish causality. Specifically, among racial/ethnic minority participants in the United States, the relationship between low perceived group status and feelings toward cultural appropriation (and, indirectly, evaluations of traditional cultural products) was attenuated when participants recalled instances of others being psychologically invested in the products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the scholarly journal "Early Medieval Europe," covering European history from the 4th to the 11th century with a historical perspective and utilizing diverse source materials such as archaeology, numismatics, and literature. Topics include the evolution of European societies, cultural exchanges, and the impact of political changes during this period.

With the development of international social facilitation brought about by the technological progress of various social media, games are spread internationally as a key application for entertainment and social interaction. At present, my country has introduced more than tens of thousands of games from abroad. There are cultural differences and grammatical differences between different countries. The introduced game dubbing and NPC subtitles are not completely the same as the meaning of the country of origin of the game. The result of the incomprehensible words usually makes the game player unable to understand part of the game in the game, while affecting the game experience; it also hinders international cultural exchanges and curbs the strategic expansion of game companies. Big data technology is an inevitable product of the rapid development of data science. It uses various data collection, data storage, and data analysis tools to provide data-based decision support for users in need. The data plane provides tool support for translation. IoT technology relies on various sensors and microdevices to collect status information of different things. IoT devices all have a central server. Currently, game companies translate overseas games through teamwork. Using IoT devices, teams can translate status and progress information, stored in the server to support the progress control of game localization translation. This paper firstly conducts a survey on the questionnaires issued by the translation team leaders of multinational game companies, conducts statistical processing on the collected data, analyzes and summarizes the difficulties existing in the current game localization translation, and finally designs a corresponding game based on big data and Internet of Things technology. In localization translation strategy, through follow-up investigations on companies that have adopted the strategy, it is found that the dilemma of game localization translation has been solved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ferrero introduces the life of ibn Khaldun and his Prolegomena to History, relying on William Mac Guckin de Slane's French translation of the work. Ferrero is one of the first Europeans to define ibn Khaldun as a sociologist and an original theorist of the concept of civilization as a sociological category. Ferrero's attention to the Khaldunian notion of the "spirit of the body" helps us understand what drives conflict and social change when nomadic and barbarous tribes come into contact with civilized peoples. Ferrero admired and saw contemporary value in ibn Khaldun's analysis of the mechanism behind the rise and fall of empires. Nations and groups are motivated by the zeal to obtain and protect their luxuries; heavy taxation to maintain the wealthy classes lays the ground for corruption and discontent, making societies vulnerable to invasion and control from an outside group, thus regenerating the cycle of civilizational history again. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Indian Ocean peace engagements during the late Cold War period and their outcomes for Australia's foreign relations with Sri Lanka. Using archival materials and secondary sources, it explores Australia's growing bilateral relationship with Sri Lanka at a time of heightening tensions in the Indian Ocean. Australia had vocalised support for Indian Ocean peace initiatives such as the Declaration of the Indian Ocean as a Zone of Peace, which was initially proposed by Sri Lanka at the United Nations. Australia's support failed to materialise for this initiative, however, due to its reluctance to challenge the US defence expansion. What emerged was a militarised peace in the Indian Ocean that strengthened Australia's relations with Sri Lanka, evidenced through trade, aid donations, cultural exchanges, and diplomatic missions. The strengthening bilateral relationship during the 1970s and 1980s reflected Australia's attention to smaller island states in the Indian Ocean, such as Sri Lanka, which became vital for its foreign policy turn to Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article furthers the understanding of cultural congruity in relation to extension evaluations of corporate heritage brands. The extension of corporate heritage brands remains challenging, due to their unique identities around heritage—typically fostering a narrow spectrum of product‐cultural domain. Drawing on the concept of cultural congruity, this paper puts forward the notion that one effective way to break the deadlock of a brand's heritage is to expand into product categories that share the unique cultural heritage in ways that are meaningful, not merely symbolic. Based on data from a large survey on time‐honored brands in China, this paper demonstrates that cultural congruity does not only influence extension evaluations directly, but also indirectly through perceived fit. The findings further indicate that brand cultural heritage positively moderates both direct and indirect effects. This study enhances the concept of product fit from the lens of cultural congruity and opens up a new avenue for managing corporate heritage brands in the marketplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the in-depth exchanges in various aspects such as global politics, economy and trade, and cultural exchanges, improving the cultural status of the Chinese nation has become a major strategic goal of the Chinese nation. In order to better pass on Chinese culture and to truly improve the effectiveness and influence of Chinese culture in international publicity, Chinese culture needs to gradually explore effective cross-language cultural communication methods and strategies to comprehensively improve Chinese culture in cross-language cultural exchange strength on the stage of global traditional cultural exchange. On the basis of analyzing the current situation of cross-cultural communication, the article studies the promoting effect of complex networks on cross-cultural communication. The results of the article show that (1) the influence of complex networks on cultural communication is relatively significant, and the complex network communication model is used. After that, the communicative competence of the three groups has been greatly improved, and among them, the group with the rapid growth of cultural level has the greatest room for growth. (2) The point-degree centrality of organizational relationship is 10, which is relatively high, indicating that organizational relationship is in the middle position among the influencing factors, and the value orientation has a strong mediating effect. (3) The propagation efficiency of the complex network model is the highest. With the increase of the time series, the propagation efficiency will also increase. The propagation efficiency of the complex network propagation model can reach 85%. When the number of nodes is 5000, the propagation efficiency of cultural information can reach 80%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I explore approaches in establishing cross‐cultural relations between indigenous people and internal migrants in the district of West Seram (Maluku, Indonesia). According to current data, the number of people from other islands exceeds the local population but the district government neglects the ethnic issues. Emerging inequalities are becoming a challenge for internal migrants, especially in the areas of leadership and land tenure. I argue that the sense of exclusion among 'outsiders' impacts on growing social tensions and creates immobility within the social structures, giving less room for negotiations and dialogue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks back at more than 70 years of ecumenical formation at the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey. The encounter of the students at Bossey shows that it is possible to develop an ecumenical space that is prophetic and critical, reflective and spiritual, in which the experiences of a diverse community – cultural, theological, and ecumenical – can be worked through. Ecumenical formation at Bossey therefore involves holding together converging and diverging interpretations of what the Christian faith means. Bossey is thus a place of ecumenical learning in the sense of intercultural and theological reflection and practice. It represents symbolically the ecumenical movement as a fellowship of learning and offers an invitation to keep alive this experience of learning in an awareness of what is held in common, despite all the differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In a Tanzanian seaside dojo, Sempai Ali Issa Hassan, a Swahili martial artist, filmmaker, and healer, offers an alternative history claiming the East Asian martial arts originate in the Afro‐Islamic world. Starting from his reaction to a visit by a Chinese Shaolin master, we trace the contours of our experience making sense of claims which both challenge and recast assumptions about Afro‐Asian cultural exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Love as an important part of human emotion has been depicted in literature, folklore, and art since ancient China. However, in archaeological settings, direct skeletal evidence for love is rare. A joint burial from North Wei Dynasty (386–534 CE) was reported, in which skeletons of an adult male and an adult female were found placed in loving embrace posture with a ring in situ on the left ring finger of the female, displaying the desire for eternal love of the couple, and the respect to their love by people who buried them as well. It is likely that the wife sacrificed herself to be buried with her dead husband, though other scenarios could not be ruled out. The free expression and active pursuit of love in Chinese culture became prominent during the first millennium. This funerary practice might have been influenced by the customs from the Western Regions and beyond through the Silk Roads and the Sinicization and assimilation of the Xianbei people. This discovery is a unique display of human emotion of love in a burial, offering a rare glimpse people's views towards love, life, death, and afterlife in northern China during a time of intense cultural and ethnic exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 71 years, the development of relations between China and North Korea has experienced ups and downs. The image of China in the North Korean media is also complicated and changeable, reflecting changes in China–North Korea relations and the situation on the Korean Peninsula. Due to the lack of international transparency in North Korea, the analysis of China‐related reports by North Korean media has more reference value. This text analyzes the China‐related reports in the North Korean mainstream media Rodong Sinmun from 2009 to 2020, and systematically analyzes the main content, reporting trends, changing characteristics, and influencing factors of the North Korean media reports in the past decade. I believe that, since 2009, the North Korean media‐related reports have shown that political topics are the most prevalent topics and that cultural exchanges are increasing, while reports on the economy, science and technology, and education continue to decrease. The reports gradually began to pay attention to environmental problems and social events in China. This report on China has shown a general trend – using a deep interpretation to shallow interpretation, then to a multi‐angle deep exploration – that the perception of China has been changing from one of intimacy to indifference and then sublimation to the "traditional friendly sincere country." Subsequently, the image of China in Rodong Sinmun lacks comprehensiveness and objectivity. It focuses more on explaining and propagating the policies and lines of the Workers' Party of North Korea. The change in China–North Korea relations is the most important factor affecting North Korean media coverage about China. Whenever relations between China and North Korea deteriorate, North Korea makes clear its displeasure with China and sharply curbs its coverage of China. And in every crisis between China and North Korea, North Korea has always maintained relations through the "traditional" way. This once again proves that the two countries are each other's important strategic partners and both sides have realized each other's strategic value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In southern Iberia, the surroundings of the Strait of Gibraltar are known as a crossroad for population movements, cultural exchanges, and trade from Late Prehistory to modern times. However, questions remain about the impact of this historical development on the environment. The settlement of La Silla del Papa, an important hillfort in southern Andalusia (Cádiz), was occupied during the entire Iron Age, replaced by the coastal town Baelo Claudia during Roman times, and re‐occupied during Early Medieval times. As such, La Silla del Papa and its territory represent an ideal location for long‐term studies on human‐environment interactions. Within the framework of the interdisciplinary project "Archeostraits," geoarchaeological investigations in the surroundings of La Silla del Papa aimed at constraining ecological conditions and human‐environment interactions during the mid‐ and late Holocene and during major human occupation phases. Our results document an early mid‐Holocene marine embayment in the lower floodplain of the Río del Cachón, rapidly turning into a coastal lagoon and later into freshwater‐dominated wetlands. After approximately 2100 BP (c. 150 BC), fluvial and alluvial deposition i600ing a high anthropogenic impact on the local landscape during Roman or post‐Roman times. Palynological results reveal fluctuating agricultural and pastoral activities and distinct periods of landscape opening during the Neolithic and Iron Age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses a collection of 28 essays by Canadian writers that explore the topic of dumplings. The essays provide personal reflections and contribute to the field of food studies. The definition of a dumpling is examined, with a focus on its common characteristics such as a wheat dough wrapper and a filling of meat and onions. The collection includes a wide range of dumpling-like recipes from different cultures around the world. The essays also touch on topics such as cultural identity, authenticity, and cultural appropriation in relation to dumplings. Overall, the collection offers valuable insights and perspectives on the subject of dumplings. [Extracted from the article]

For example, one of the most alarming arguments threading through the book suggests that globalization may have become self-sustaining or self-feeding, to an extent that even the critique of globalization does little more than reproducing and reinforcing it - even by ridiculing the fruit borne by globalization, we cannot fully escape it. In this topical and fascinating addition to the series of I Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Books i , Leo McCann explores and challenges globalization as a notoriously slippery, equivocal and contentious concept, as well as a pervasive, impactful and ostensibly irrevocable "real-life" phenomenon. Conceptual scepticism suggests that globalization is not a practicable theory but an indiscriminating umbrella term for powerful but nonexplanatory discourses which are, nonetheless, frequently used by global elites to distract attention from globalization's detrimental consequences. [Extracted from the article]

A cultural pluralism climate values differences between groups and fosters learning about different cultures. This study investigated the relation between four facets of cultural pluralism climate (learning about multicultural topics, learning about intercultural relations, interest shown by teachers, interest shown by non‐immigrant students) and immigrant students' self‐esteem, academic self‐concept, achievement and perceived discrimination. We furthermore tested whether academic self‐concept, self‐esteem, and perceived discrimination mediated the relation between the four facets and achievement. Relying on a sample of 700 immigrant students (Mage = 12.62 years; SD = 1.12; 45.4% female) from 87 Austrian secondary school classes, all effects were estimated at two levels (L1, individual student level; L2, classroom level) in multilevel mediation models. It was shown that learning about multicultural topics and intercultural relations, and interest shown by teachers positively predicted academic self‐concept and self‐esteem at L1. Learning about intercultural relations negatively predicted discrimination at L1. At L2, learning about intercultural relations positively predicted academic self‐concept and negatively predicted perceived discrimination. None of the facets predicted achievement at L1 and L2. However, academic self‐concept (positively) and self‐esteem (negatively) fully mediated the effect of learning about multicultural topics, learning about intercultural relations, and interest shown by teachers on achievement at L1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of learning a second language, the passing on of cultural information as a means to further the development of intercultural competences is primarily viewed as being unidirectional—the "native‐speaking culture" passing on information to the language learning student. However, in EFL (English as a foreign language) environments, the most relatable cultural norms available to the learners tend to be those associated with their homeland—the place they presently reside. As such, teaching language learning students using a unidirectional cultural frame ignores the wealth of cultural knowledge that such language learners possess. Offering cultural exchanges between groups of different language learners is one way to facilitate cultural learning in a bidirectional manner. In this study, 11 university students, six Japanese and five Taiwanese, took part in a cultural exchange project using the videoconferencing application Zoom. Findings from the data suggest that such telecollaborative video activities are mutually beneficial for exchanging local cultural information. We conclude that such exchanges develop intercultural competences via increased verbosity, the application of polite language, and of the utmost importance, by building interpersonal relationships. For language teachers who ascribe to a belief in the value of intercultural exchanges, applications like Zoom open up avenues for student interactions that are real, meaningful, and culturally rich. The Challenge: During challenging times, restrictions on movement close some opportunities but may open up other avenues of research with the help of telecollaborative tools. Could such tools be a global key for language learning students to further the development of their intercultural competences? In this small project, we used Zoom as a tool to connect Taiwanese and Japanese students in the hopes of fostering a mutually beneficial intercultural exchange. The study examines the students' telecollaborative discourses for clues as to how intercultural competences might develop when students are given the opportunity to share their own local cultural knowledge with one another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: In order to understand contacts between cultural spheres in the third millennium BC, we investigated the impact of a new herder culture, the Battle Axe culture, arriving to Scandinavia on the people of the sub‐Neolithic hunter‐gatherer Pitted Ware culture. By investigating the genetic make‐up of Pitted Ware culture people from two types of burials (typical Pitted Ware culture burials and Battle Axe culture‐influenced burials), we could determine the impact of migration and the impact of cultural influences. Methods: We sequenced and analyzed the genomes of 25 individuals from typical Pitted Ware culture burials and from Pitted Ware culture burials with Battle Axe culture influences in order to determine if the different burial types were associated with different gene‐pools. Results: The genomic data show that all individuals belonged to one genetic population—a population associated with the Pitted Ware culture—irrespective of the burial style. Conclusion: We conclude that the Pitted Ware culture communities were not impacted by gene‐flow, that is, via migration or exchange of mates. These different cultural expressions in the Pitted Ware culture burials are instead a consequence of cultural exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The study goals were to (a) characterize the cultural model of fatherhood among the BaYaka, a community of egalitarian foragers in the Republic of the Congo; (b) test if BaYaka fathers' quality in relation to the cultural model predicts their children's energetic status; and (c) compare the variance in BaYaka children's energetic status to that of children of neighboring Bondongo fisher‐farmers, among whom there is less cooperative caregiving, less resource sharing, and greater social inequality. Methods: We used informal interviews to establish the cultural model of fatherhood, which we used to build a peer ranking task to quantify father quality. Children's energetic status was assessed by measuring height, weight, and triceps skinfold thickness. We then tested for associations between father quality scores derived from the ranking task and children's energetic status using ordinary least squares regression. Equality of variance tests were used to compare BaYaka and Bondongo children's energetic statuses. Results: The BaYaka described fathers as responsible for acquiring resources and maintaining marital harmony, welcoming others to the community and sharing well with them, and teaching their children about the forest. Agreement on men's quality in these domains was high, but father quality did not significantly predict children's energetic status. BaYaka children had lower variance in energetic status overall compared to Bondongo children. Conclusions: We suggest that the core BaYaka values and practices that maintain egalitarian social relations and distribution of resources help buffer children's health and well‐being from variation in their fathers' qualities in culturally valued domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The American Psychiatric Association has requested additional studies examine risk, protective, and cultural factors in relation to Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD). The present study aimed to explore the association between stress as a potential IGD risk effect, the possible exacerbating role of cultural orientation (vertical individualism [VI]), and how this may vary between genders. Methods: The sample included adult gamers from the USA, UK, and Australia. Analyses were conducted via linear regression, moderation, and moderated moderation. Results: The results suggested that higher stress symptoms act to increase IGD risk. Gender and VI also influenced this association. Discussion: Males presenting with higher levels of stress and VI were at greater risk of IGD compared to females who exhibited a reduction in IGD‐related behaviors. This demonstrates a need for more research to determine how culture and gender can act to mitigate or worsen the risks associated with excessive gaming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Oral health literacy (OHL) is associated with oral health outcomes. Aim: To validate the Brazilian Portuguese version of the Hong Kong OHL Assessment Task for Paediatric Dentistry (HKOHLAT‐P). Design: We performed cross‐cultural adaptation of the HKOHLAT‐P. A sample of 200 pre‐schoolers and caregivers from Campina Grande, Brazil completed the Brazilian HKOHLAT‐P (BOHLAT‐P), sociodemographic questionnaire, the Brazilian Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (B‐ECOHIS), and the Brazilian Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Dentistry (BREALD‐30). Child dental caries was assessed. Instrument reliability was measured by internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) and test‐retest (ICC). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) evaluated dimensionality. Regression models tested associations between BOHLAT‐P and exploratory variables (P <.05). Results: BOHLAT‐P demonstrated excellent reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.92; ICC = 0.95). BOHLAT‐P and BREALD‐30 scores (r =.71), number of schooling years (r =.60), and reading hours (r =.34) were positively correlated. BOHLAT‐P and B‐ECOHIS scores (r = −.22), and BOHLAT‐P scores and number of cavitated teeth (r = −.15) were negatively correlated. After controlling for confounding variables, BOHLAT‐P scores were not associated with caries or number of teeth with cavitated caries. Conclusion: BOHLAT‐P is a valid and reliable instrument to assess the OHL of Brazilian parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article advocates for the inclusion of queer and queer of color discourse into graduate curricula in North American German Studies. It presents a brief overview of major discussions in queer of color studies, proposes sample readings of queer of color texts in Germany that help graduate students develop sophisticated understandings of German cultural history in relation to the formation of globalization and nationalism discourses, and presents a sample syllabus on queer of color discourse and cultural history in Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shahr‐i Sokhta (Iran) was an important urban settlement in the Near East between the end of the fourth millennium and the beginning of the second millennium BC. It entertained trade and cultural relations with ancient sites and cultures on the Indus Plain, southern shores of the Persian Gulf and of the Oman Sea, Southwest Iran, and Central Asia. The recent discovery of a rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) burial in the cemetery of site shed new light on the exploitation of monkeys in antiquity. A young rhesus macaque—around 5 years old at death—was buried in the necropolis according to the same funerary practices used for human infants. The monkey was buried in a simple pit, together with an unpainted pear‐shaped beaker. Both its femurs were pathological, due to a sort of dystrophic calcification of the tendon or muscle insertion, that may suggest the macaque was kept in captivity and died due to physical stress. No non‐human primate species is native of Iran; rhesus macaques inhabit parts of southern and south‐eastern regions of Central Asia. A possible provenance from the Indus valley of the macaque found at Shahr‐i Sokhta can be hypothesized. Although findings of monkey remains are rare, iconographic and written sources widely testify that non‐human primates were imported to the Near East in the fourth‐to‐second millennium BC as luxury animals and symbols of power, often as gifts for the elite. This discovery represents one of the earliest examples of monkeys being kept as pets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the authors explored curricular practices of media education for North Korean refugee youths resettled in South Korea, and investigated the impacts of the media education program on their identity construction. Guided by third space theory and framed within a qualitative research paradigm, this media education program was developed by a group of North and South Korean teaching artists. Multimodal data collected throughout the first year were analyzed thematically with a focus on the discursive construction of identities of North Korean youth participants. The participants were invited to reconsider their identities and address multiple dimensions of lived challenges in a safe media education space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As our world becomes increasingly interconnected, complex global challenges necessitate cross‐cultural collaborative efforts. Thus, developing cosmopolitan literacies among students and teachers becomes ever more important. Believing that cosmopolitan literacies are central to being literate in contemporary times, the authors build on their existing project‐based inquiry model to include global themes (e.g., poverty, global water and sanitation, climate change) and cross‐cultural exchange. This theory‐into‐practice article explains the Project‐Based Inquiry Global process and six design features that enable teachers to facilitate collaborative inquiry projects with their students. As students interact during the process, they begin to practice cosmopolitan literacies by engaging in reading, writing, and inquiry with people and topics from around the world, becoming cross‐cultural difference makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To assess the genetic diversity of seven Yunnan indigenous goat populations (Fengqing hornless goat, Mile red‐bone goat, Longling goat, Ninglang black goat, Black‐bone goat, Yunling black goat, and Zhaotong goat), their population structures were investigated using 20 microsatellite markers. Results: The results indicated that the genetic diversity of these goats was rich. The observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.4667 ± 0.0243 to 0.5793 ± 0.0230, and the mean number of alleles ranged from 4.80 ± 1.61 and 4.80 ± 1.64 to 6.20 ± 2.93. The population structure analysis showed that these seven goat populations were separated into two clusters, consistent with the results from phylogenetic networks, pairwise differences, and STRUCTURE analyses. We speculate that this may have been caused by natural geographical isolation, human migration and economic and cultural exchanges. We suggest removing CSRD247 and ILSTS005, two loci identified to be under positive selection in the present study, from the microsatellite evaluation system of goats. Conclusions: The present study may provide a scientific basis for the conservation and utilization of Yunnan indigenous goats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, four women engage, talk, and write about Indigenous sovereignty in Australia's southeast—the region of Australia most devastated by colonial incursion and the site of vibrant cultural activism in the present day. We are two non‐Indigenous academics (Sabra Thorner and Fran Edmonds) working together with two Indigenous artist‐curators (Maree Clarke and Paola Balla) in a process of collaborative, intercultural culture‐making. We mobilise two ethnographic examples—Maree Clarke's backyard and the 2016–2017 Sovereignty exhibition at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art—to assert that decolonising is an ongoing process which requires that non‐Indigenous peoples acknowledge their own privilege, learn Aboriginal histories, imagine both difference and coexistence; and that the goals of decolonisation are as diverse as the activists calling for it. In both contexts, art/culture‐making, alongside storytelling, are crucial forms of Indigenous knowledge production, led by Aboriginal women via their engagements with the artworld(s) in Melbourne and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]