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One hundred fifty-nine male African adults from the Belgian Congo were given a paper-and-pencil perceptual task devised by A. Rey and consisting of drawing lines between randomly arranged black dots so as to isolate simple geometrical figures. A practice task, where the perceptual difficulty was reduced by printing in different colors the dots corresponding to the different figures, was always given first. Both tasks were given without time-limit. Scores were number of correct patterns on the black test, and time taken to complete each of the two tasks. Both time scores were combined by Hotelling's principal components method. Two independent variables were obtained, one of which (J) expresses the general tendency to be slow on both tasks and the other the tendency to be slower on the (difficult) black patterns than on the (easier) color ones. The relationship of these components to accuracy on the black patterns was determined. Africans were compared on both time components with Belgian Ss at the same accuracy level. (It was necessary to use children because European adults are too accurate en this test.) It appears that, for the same degree of accuracy, Africans are always slower on J, but no difference is apparent on B. It is concluded that, as far as these tasks are considered, the slowness of the Africans--defined by comparison with Europeans of the same level of accuracy--is not related to task difficulty. This finding is more easily explained by a general lack of interest in speed performance than by a slower operation of mental functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statistics of struggling and failed mega projects testify that the impact of cultural complexities on mega project implementation over the years has become a talking point that needs a deeper understanding. This is pertinent with mega projects as strategic alliances exacerbate culture and national cultural differences which would require more harmonising to effect utmost success. The possibility of cultural disruptions in implementing Mega Construction Projects (MCPs) in South Africa using Medupi and Kusile coal plant projects as cases for this study was explored with the intention of enlightening project stakeholders in order to assist developing countries achieve their sustainable develop- ment objectives and overcome the challenges that hinder the successful development of MCPs. Based on the findings, the study results reveal that there are cultural disruptions that can be found in implementing mega construction projects, ignoring and mismanaging these cultural differences could lead to massive project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the Asian presence in South Africa through the work of Ronnie Govender. One of its concerns is how fictional worlds based on real-life experiences become a means to counter the discourses of apartheid that insisted upon the incommensurability of cultural difference as regards Asian and African communities. In this light, the paper references how a white hegemony sets about compromising an already fragile co-existence that existed between the Black, Coloured, and Asian communities and considers the body of Govender's work as a repository which aids future generations to connect with the traumatic nature of apartheid so as to reconnect with the era's lost possibilities. Throughout the analysis of Govender's texts, the Group Areas Act emerges as a silent actor that casts its shadow upon his writing. This paper notes how these Acts were detrimental to conviviality and shows how Govender creates textual cartographies that counter the surveilling and controlling of ethnic groups under apartheid. Regarding the Indian presence within South Africa, the paper presents how Govender adapts an Afro-centric position as regards the configuring of this identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the benefits of performative ethnography as a methodological intervention. The intervention discussed in this paper utilizes the persuasive power of aesthetics and performance to attain participation amongst a broad spectrum of research interlocutors and to challenge my own power and positionality in the fieldwork, whilst rendering me invisible as a participant observer. The performative ethnography discussed in this paper took place in the central business district (CBD) of Bellville, in the Cape Town area in South Africa, and consists of two performances, curated by the author, that took place at the same time. One is a painting performance through which Somali participants were invited to express their emotional experiences of living in Cape Town, and their memories, nostalgia and attachment to their land of origin. The painting performance revealed Somali diversity, multiple belongings and a politics of making cultural difference. The second performance was staged to overlap, in ways unanticipated by the participants, and consisted of a South African minstrel troupe walking through Bellville CBD, attaining a moment of conviviality through the unmaking of cultural difference. Beneath this methodological intervention is an exploration of the politics of difference and the conviviality of Bellville CBD's everyday multiculturalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dostoevsky, Mandela, and others have long noted that prisons expose social realities, often hidden, particularly inequality and gaps between policy and practice. Prisons symbolize, mirror, and shape the communities and countries in which they exist. Although prisons informed and were intertwined with many of the defining moments of 1989, in the 20 years since, societies often failed to recognize the important role prison and punishment play in relationship to democracy. By not recognizing that “prison matters” in relationship to democracy, polities (whether in transition to democracy or established democracies) failed to adequately learn “prison lessons.” Starting with a case study of South Africa, this paper considers prisons during apartheid and under democratic governance. This case is connected to other comparative and international examples (including Russia, Brazil, and the USA) to identify five lessons learned and not learned concerning prison and democracy. First, policies and practices of imprisonment reflect social orders, especially structures of inequality and understandings of legitimate power and opposition. Second, countries transitioning to democracy seldom anticipate rising crime and invariably neglect the relevance of prisons. Third, nations do not adequately grapple with the role of prison in the past, especially the nondemocratic past. Fourth, in established and recent democracies, penal populism resulted as politicians defined prison as a solution to a host of social ills, ignoring the consequences of expanded punishment. Fifth, prisons shaped key substantive realities beyond their walls, from leadership to recidivism, scandals, fiscal deficits, and crises of legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I attempt a comparison between the sacred significance of fat and honey in the myths and rituals of the San peoples of southern Africa and the ancient Greeks. As Biesele (1993) and Lewis-Williams (2015) have convincingly demonstrated, the creation narratives of the diverse linguistic groups which constitute the /Xam (San) peoples of southern Africa, arguably the first peoples to call this country 'home', reveal strong links between the gathering and possession of animal fat and honey, and access to spiritual power. In ancient Greek mythology, as is well known from Callimachus and many later texts (e.g., Apollodorus and Nonnus), the infant Zeus was fed on honey by the bee-woman, Melissa. Many fundamental rites in ancient Greek religion, as reflected in texts from Homer onwards--libations, some sacrifices, ritual offerings such as the 'panspermia', and funerary rites--all provide evidence of the Greek belief in the spiritual potency of fat and honey. I thus analyse the similarities and differences between the significance of the fat-honey nexus in these two religious traditions and reflect on cross-cultural comparisons, their history, and their purpose in contemporary South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Anthropology Southern Africa (2332-3256) is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

South Africa is 15 years into democracy, but difficult dialogues about race, ethnicity, and other cultural differences are hindered when students are developmentally unprepared to handle them. Although institutions of learning have been painfully aware of the racial, cultural and ethnic divides on their campuses, no real strategies or policies have been put into place to ensure integration. This study started with problems that my colleagues in the Faculty of Science at a university in South Africa were experiencing with the lack of interaction and communication among the first year students in their large and diverse classrooms. They were also concerned that their students did not know how to deal with diversity and they wanted to graduate students who would be successful in their professional careers in a multicultural environment. This study found that using an action research approach was particularly successful in teaching Communication and in encouraging intercultural communication as lessons learned could be built upon or learned from in order to plan the next phase of intervention. The continual interactions during the various phases typical of the action research approach used, enabled the unearthing of feelings, problems and issues which would otherwise not have surfaced in the normal classroom where students are merely lectured. By transforming method and methodology, students and educators were exposed to new and different ways of being. This paper therefore reports on how a course in Communication was developed to facilitate communication and interaction between the different cultures and race groups in a Science classroom using an action research approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article compares assessment centers features in South Africa, Western Europe, and North America. The current assessment center practices are evaluated in terms of professional recommendations and trends over time are identified. More specifically, the paper focuses on the main objectives of the assessment centers, the methods for job analysis, the types of job requirements being assessed, the kinds of exercises and simulations used, the method for data integration in the final assessment center stages as well as how and when feedback is delivered to the participants and what the feedback is about. Suggestions for improving the assessment center programs overall and per region will be made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The temporal focus hypothesis (TFH) proposes that whether the past or the future is conceptualized as being located in front depends on temporal focus: the balance of attention paid to the past (tradition) and the future (progress). How general is the TFH, and to what extent can cultures and subcultures be placed on a single line relating time spatialization and temporal focus in spite of stark differences in language, religion, history, and economic development? Data from 10 Western (sub)cultural groups (N = 1198,) were used to derive a linear model relating aggregated temporal focus and proportion of future-in-front responses. This model then successfully fitted 10 independently collected (sub)cultural groups in China and Vietnam (N = 899). Further analysis of the whole data set (N = 2,097) showed that the group-level relation arose at the individual level and allowed precise quantification of its influence. Finally, in an effort to apply the model to all relevant published data sets, we included recent data from Britain and South Africa: The former, but not the latter, fitted the model well. Temporal focus is a central factor that shapes how people around the world think of time in spatial terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Republic of South Africa offers the marketer a special challenge in its clear- cut stratification in multiple cultures, modulated by stronger cross-cultural currents than most outsiders perceive. Homogenization versus heterogenization as a deliberate strategy frequently becomes a critical choice. The white minority of the population enjoys a standard of living comparable to most West European countries. The vast majority is represented by Bantu, economically better off than Negroes elsewhere in Africa. Consumer-oriented marketing management holds a key to continued rapid improvement — and self-improvement — of Bantu life. Indeed, by effective action in this regard business may importantly contribute to the bridging of the gaps between the races, a likely condition of long-term survival of the Republic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Infant Mental Health Journal is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This short article serves as a programme note forThe Songs of Madosini, contained on the CD appended to this issue of the journal. Apart from describing the composition structurally and dramaturgically, it suggests that beyond its musical effect the work's more important function is perhaps that of a ‘social intervention’ as its musical performances invariably facilitate deep intercultural exchanges, for which South Africa's society otherwise hardly provides comparable forums. The composition is based on an appreciation of musical differences as well as a conviction that these differences concern each other in ways that areconcurrently constraining and enabling. It thereby evinces systemic qualities not contained in any single style in isolation, but qualities and properties that emerge only from the interactions of stylistic juxtapositions. Striving to arrive at a uniquely local and inclusive style of performance practice, the work implicitly suggests that what might be termed a ‘specifically South African idiom’ is principally attainable only on such a systemically complex level. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The number of immigrants in Italy has doubled every 10 years from 1972 and Genoa hosts two large communities of immigrants from South America and Africa. We investigated differences in the somatic perception between immigrants and Italians and between South Americans and Africans living in the city of Genoa. During a 7 month period, an anonymous questionnaire asking for sociodemographic information and the Modified Somatic Perception Questionnaire (MSPQ) were administered to all immigrants accessing an outpatient clinic or the general practitioners offices. MSPQ mean scores were significantly higher in immigrant patients than in Italian patients, after adjusting for sex and age differences. We found no differences between South Americans and Africans in MSPQ score. The tendency to express discomfort through physical symptoms appears to be related to being a foreigner who arrived in Italy through a migratory trip and also to being a person who comes from a cultural context that is very different from the one of developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines cross-national differences in relation to software piracy between a Zambian and a South Africa student sample on components of Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory. The sample was selected based on the vastly different software piracy rates between Zambia (82%) and South Africa (35%) and the fact that software piracy rates are higher amongst student groups. The questionnaire was composed of previously developed scales measuring attitudes, social norms, intentions, incen-tives, deterrents, self-efficacy, and moral disengagement within the context of software piracy. The sample was gathered from one University in Zambia (N = 69) and one in South Africa (N = 71) in the students' final and penultimate years of study. Statistical differences were found between the two samples on the attitudes and social norms scales, with the South African sample having more posi-tive attitudes and more favourable social norms towards software piracy than the Zambian sample. In terms of the theoretical model, attitudes, social norms and self-efficacy predicted software piracy intentions in both samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I use the metaphor zebra crossing in my reflective narrative to describe my plight and struggle as a non-white person growing up and working in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the apartheid era. This article considers and compares the notions of culture, diversity and identity as I now work in a tertiary institution in Melbourne, Australia. I reflect on my teaching of African music and position myself as ‘the other’ at zebra crossings, as I create a space in multicultural Australia. By engaging in meaningful dialogue with music and culture, I contend, we do have opportunity to explore, experience and express music making and sharing globally. The inclusion and embracing of non-western music can serve as a dais for understanding and celebrating cultural difference not as distant experiences but as integral aspects of our daily lives. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The ongoing migration from the rural areas of South Africa to its cities is exerting strong influences on the language practices of the young, as they learn to cope with new living spaces where languages and cultures converge. Drawing on the theories of transcultural and transidiomatic practices (Jacquemet, 2005; Pennycook, 2007), this article looks at the attitudes and language practices reported by one group of teenagers in a newly integrated working-class township which forms part of Cape Town, South Africa. In evaluating their changing language practices, the article takes into consideration the impact of the exact part of the city where their families have settled, continued links with the rural heartland and the schools to which parents choose to send their children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although happiness as a state of mind may be universal, its meaning takes culture-specific forms. Drawing on the concept of folk theories, this study attempted to uncover lay beliefs about the nature of happiness in Germany and South Africa. To that end, 57 German and 44 black South African students wrote free-format essays in response to the question: “What is happiness to you?” Using thematic analysis the following themes were found: (1) satisfaction; (2) contentment; (3) positive affect; (4) social relationships; (5) freedom; and (6) the opposite of unhappiness. In addition, German respondents defined happiness in terms of (7) surprising events. The exact meaning content of the above-mentioned dimensions showed clear influences of individualism/collectivism. However, strong culture-specific factors, such as the influence of philosophical traditions, material living circumstances and linguistic influences, were also found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social & Cultural Geography is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

One particular aspect of the literature on preferences for female body shapes has focused on the purported universality of preferences for a low waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), despite substantial evidence of cross-cultural variability in such preferences. In the present study, we examined the effects of manipulating women's profile WHR, breast size, and ethnicity on men's ratings of physical attractiveness and health. A total of 51 African men in South Africa, 56 British Africans, and 114 British Caucasians rated 12 line drawings that varied in two levels of ethnicity, three levels of WHR, and two levels of breast size. Overall, the results suggested that there were cross-cultural differences in preferred body shape, with the preferred body configuration varying as a function of the ethnicity of the figure being rated. In addition, there was a strong positive correlation between ratings of attractiveness and health. These findings are discussed in relation to the interplay between culture and evolution in determining ideals of attractiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neo-liberalism often reduces pluralism to a social fact based on the collapse of the big ideals that once claimed to stand in for the ideal of humanity. Tolerance of inevitable value diversity is all that can be offered by the rationalized modern western state. This understanding of pluralism is completely inadequate in the post colony. Ernst Cassirer offers a philosophical understanding of symbolic plurality that allows us to respect divergent symbolic forms, including myth and religion. This understanding of pluralism opens the space for respect for the customary law and the great indigenous ideals such as uBuntu which has often been denigrated as mythical and thus outdated or, worse yet, not law at all. This denigration is inseparable from colonial violence, and demands a process of transculturation as integral to this struggle to transform the new South Africa into a society that lives up to the Constitution's call for the respect of all of its citizens. This respect can only be done if there are serious economic reforms and a challenge to the hegemonic neo-liberal capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic literature addressing the topic of business ethics has paid little attention to cross-cultural studies of business ethics. Uncertainty exists concerning the effect of culture on ethical beliefs. The purpose of this research is to compare the ethical beliefs of managers operating in South Africa and Australia. Responses of 52 managers to a series of ethical scenarios were sought. Results indicate that despite differences in socio-cultural and political factors there are no statistically significant differences between the two groups regarding their own ethical beliefs. Results thus support the view that culture has little or no impact on ethical beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]