1,905 research outputs found
Sounding the dead in Cambodia: cultivating ethics, generating wellbeing, and living with history through music and sound
This dissertation rethinks the ethics of history and trauma in post-genocide Cambodia by examining how Cambodians use a broad repertoire of sounded practices to form relations of mutual care with ancestors, dead teachers, deities, and other predecessors. At its root, the dissertation is the study of an ethical-religious-aesthetic system by which Cambodians recall predecessorsâ legacies, care for the dead, and engage ancestors and deities as supportive co-presences. Traditional and popular musics, Buddhist chants and incantations, whispers, and the non-acoustic practice of âspeaking in the heartâ (niyÄy knung citt) are among the primary sounded practices that Cambodians use to engage the dead. Parts One and Two detail those sounded practices and their social implications. I discuss how previous approaches have misinterpreted the nature and capacities of Cambodian music and other ritualized sounds through historicist, colonialist, and secular epistemologies, which cast those sounds as âcultureâ or âperformanceâ and ignore their capacities as modes of ethics and exchange with the dead. Instead, by rethinking those sounded practices as Cambodian-Buddhist ethics and exchange, I examine how Cambodians fulfill an obligation to care for the ancestors who have supported themselves. I suggest fulfilling that obligation generates personal wellbeing and provides a new model for what living with history can sound like and feel like. Taken together, in Parts One and Two, I detail the non-linear temporalities, types of personhood, ethics, exchange with the dead, and the intergenerational mode of living with history that Cambodians bring into being through music and sound.
Part Three zooms further out to discuss how sounded relations with the dead have consequences for national and international politics, which leads to larger critiques of the Cambodian governmentâs politicization of Khmer Rouge remembrance and international humanitarian efforts that attempt to help Cambodians heal from trauma. Since at least the mid-1990s, a plurality of international activists, scholars, volunteers, and development workers have concluded that Cambodians perpetuate a silence about the Khmer Rouge era that furthers their traumatization. Most observers suggest that Cambodians need to provide public testimony about that violent past in order to heal. This dissertation contests those conclusions, following work in anthropology and trauma studies that problematizes the universalization of the Western psychotherapeutic notion of biomedical trauma and its treatments. I suggest that those calls for a testimonial voice presuppose historicist modes of remembrance and knowledge production that naturalize liberal Western models of personhood, citizenship, justice, wellness, and political agency. To move away from those models, I argue that Cambodian sounded and ritual practices generate what I term âmodes of being historicalâ and âways of living with historyâ that are intimate, familial, intergenerational, engage national pasts, and can be a mode of political action. Those âmodes of being historicalâ include but are not limited to telling stories of othersâ struggles and deaths. I illustrate how Cambodians have long used a multitude of sounded practices to engage the past, grapple with lifeâs difficulties, and care for themselves and their ancestors.
This dissertation posits that sound studies and ethnomusicology can further the emerging scholarly shifts toward the culturally specific ways people cope with difficult pasts. I propose a new approach to post-violence ethics and history by arguing for the decolonizing possibilities of emphasizing the modes of being historical, ethical relations of mutual care, and ontological entanglements with the dead that Cambodians generate through music and sound
The global problem of image-based sexual abuse considered in the Irish context: An evaluation of existing legal responses with a focus on effective enforcement in the online environment
The recording and/or sharing of intimate images without consent â known as image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) â has received significant legislative attention in recent years. Various approaches to addressing the harm of IBSA have been adopted internationally and this thesis identifies a need to consider the Irish response to IBSA. Adopting a victim-centred approach, this thesis derives lessons from the Australian experience where an innovative system of redress and enforcement has been developed through the establishment of a regulatory structure supported by a statutory body, the Office of the eSafety Commissioner (OESC). The immediate importance of this research is clear. Remediating harm in the world of the internet where both identities and jurisdictional boundaries are blurred is challenging. This thesis investigates the effectiveness of the OESC in practice in order to better assess the Irish approach and the potential of the Irish Online Safety Commissioner to provide adequate redress for victims of IBSA in Ireland.
Through the use of doctrinal and comparative analysis and the conducting of interviews with key stakeholders in the area of online regulation, this thesis identifies the key needs of victims of IBSA and identifies numerous mechanisms designed to address those needs, at least in part. This victim-centred approach underlies the in-depth analysis of the Australian system and is used to inform the policy recommendations made in this thesis. Particular attention is afforded to whether the Irish approach should include an individual complaints mechanism. By drawing inferences between the Irish and Australian situations, a clearer picture is drawn as to the optimum remit, structure, functions, and powers of the Irish OSC in order to effectively address the harms of IBSA
The Monumentalization of the Past: German Humanist Patriotism and Source Use, 1488â1582
The development of a patriotic discourse among German Renaissance humanists emerged from a humanist desire to memorialize the past by gathering information from the sources of German history and geography. Prevailing scholarly arguments explain the emergence of this discourse as a result of cultural conflict with Italian humanists who reproached the Germans for their barbarity. This explanation, which I call the Conflict Model, is inadequate as a means to explain the phenomenon of this patriotism because it relies on too few sources. This dissertation rests on a far more expansive source base in which cultural conflict is a limited but vocal theme; the major motivation for the German humanists was monumentalization, that is, the recording and preservation of knowledge about their homeland, Germania, and their ancestors, the Germani, in written form. Since the patriotism and the ways that the humanists used sources were inextricably bound, I also demonstrate that the supposedly âmodernâ scholarly methods the humanists developed were neither modern nor methodical, but rather a product of scholarship in an age of transition
Indigenous Territorial Autonomy and Self-Government in the Diverse Americas
Across the Americas, Indigenous and Afro-descendent peoples have demanded autonomy, self-determination, and self-governance. By exerting their collective rights, they have engaged with domestic and international standards on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, implemented full-fledged mechanisms for autonomous governance, and promoted political and constitutional reform aimed at expanding understandings of multicultural citizenship and the plurinational state. Yet these achievements come in conflict with national governmentsâ adoption of neoliberal economic and neo-extractive policies which advance their interests over those of Indigenous communities.
Available for the first time in English, Indigenous Territorial Autonomy and Self-Government in the Diverse Americas explores current and historical struggles for autonomy within ancestral territories, experiences of self-governance in operation, and presents an overview of achievements, challenges, and threats across three decades. Case studies across Bolivia, Chile, Nicaragua, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Ecuador, and Canada provide a detailed discussion of autonomy and self-governance in development and in practice.
Paying special attention to the role of Indigenous peoplesâ organizations and activism in pursuing sociopolitical transformation, securing rights, and confronting multiple dynamics of dispossession, this book engages with current debates on Indigenous politics, relationships with national governments and economies, and the multicultural and plurinational state. This book will spark critical reflection on political experience and further exploration of the possibilities of the self-determination of peoples through territorial autonomies
Examining the Relationships Between Distance Education Studentsâ Self-Efficacy and Their Achievement
This study aimed to examine the relationships between studentsâ self-efficacy (SSE) and studentsâ achievement (SA) in distance education. The instruments were administered to 100 undergraduate students in a distance university who work as migrant workers in Taiwan to gather data, while their SA scores were obtained from the university. The semi-structured interviews for 8 participants consisted of questions that showed the specific conditions of SSE and SA. The findings of this study were reported as follows: There was a significantly positive correlation between targeted SSE (overall scales and general self-efficacy) and SA. Targeted students' self-efficacy effectively predicted their achievement; besides, general self- efficacy had the most significant influence. In the qualitative findings, four themes were extracted for those students with lower self-efficacy but higher achievementâphysical and emotional condition, teaching and learning strategy, positive social interaction, and intrinsic motivation. Moreover, three themes were extracted for those students with moderate or higher self-efficacy but lower achievementâmore time for leisure (not hard-working), less social interaction, and external excuses. Providing effective learning environments, social interactions, and teaching and learning strategies are suggested in distance education
Disinformation and Fact-Checking in Contemporary Society
Funded by the European Media and Information Fund and research project PID2022-142755OB-I00
THE DECADENCE OF THE BET-ÊŸASGĂDĂ ARISTOCRATIC SYSTEM AND THE EMANCIPATION OF THE TÇGRĂ (1890-1948)
Per secoli gli altopiani settentrionali dell'Eritrea hanno ospitato gruppi di immigrati di diversa
origine. Nel sedicesimo secolo ci fu il reinsediamento della famiglia di BÊŸÇmnĂ€t (á„á„ááá”), in
seguito noto come Bet-ÊŸAsgĂ€dĂ€ (á€á” áŁá”áá°) dopo una delle migrazioni di suo figlio a SahÇl
(áłáá). Partirono da ÊżAdi-NÇfas (ááČ ááá”), di កamasen (áááŽá) insieme a numerose famiglie e
persone di varie professioni e si stabilirono negli altopiani del SahÇl. A causa della geografia
e del clima, i vari antichi abitanti dell'area del SahÇl conducevano una vita pastorale. Si
spostavano stagionalmente dagli altopiani alle pianure costiere a est, e dalle pianure occidentali
fino allâattuale Sudan. La piccole dimensioni e la natura mobile dell'organizzazione sociale
nomade avevano reso i clan vittime di qualsiasi forza bellica organizzata. La lotta per il potere
della famiglia BÊŸÇmnĂ€t e l'economia sedentaria in patria diedero loro una relativa superioritĂ
guerriera e organizzativa sui clan ospitanti TÇgrĂ€ (á”ááš). In nessun momento i Bet-ÊŸAsgĂ€dĂ€ si
sono imposti come signori della terra e del popolo nella regione, con la responsabilitĂ di
difendere eventuali incursioni e diritti di pascolo, in cambio i sudditi offrivano gabelle e servizi.
Tale fornitura di imposte e di servizi fece sĂŹ che i signori noti anche come i Ć umaglĂ€ (áčááá)
abbandonassero la loro tradizione agricola e dipendessero interamente dai doni TÇgrĂ€.
La consolidata aristocrazia TÇgrĂ€-Ć umaglĂ€ dei Bet-ÊŸAsgĂ€dĂ€ continuĂČ con un'economia nomade
predominante. Tale classificazione e relazione binaria tra proprietari terrieri e pastori fu quasi
un'esperienza unica nel suo genere rispetto alle pratiche feudali convenzionali fino a quando
non crollĂČ definitivamente alla fine degli anni '40. Pertanto, questa dissertazione cerca di
scoprire l'indebolimento e il declino del rapporto aristocratico. Di fronte al diverso dinamismo
politico della regione, l'ordine aristocratico ha resistito fino al XX secolo. Numerose forze
politiche e movimenti religiosi si aggirarono e si stabilirono nella regione di Bet-ÊŸAsgĂ€dĂ€,
numerosi imperi regionali e viceré assoggettarono la regione ma senza alcun cambiamento
fondamentale nella natura del legame aristocratico.
Quindi, questa tesi si sforza di investigare sul perchĂ© la fine dellâaristocrazia, che ha
preannunciato l'emancipazione del TÇgrĂ€ Ăš avvenuta nel periodo britannico piuttosto che prima
o dopo? Infine, i risultati della tesi sostengono che, analogamente alla natura debole e
2 SahÇl (áłáá) Ăš la parte settentrionale dell'Eritrea. Confina con il Sudan e il Mar Rosso, rispettivamente a nord-ovest e ad est. Gli altopiani settentrionali o it territorio di Bet-ÊŸAsgĂ€dĂ€ in esame si trovano allâinterno di questa regione. Disorganizzata dei TÇgrĂ€ che mettevano in soggezione, la loro emanicipazione fu raggiunta grazie agli elementi che causarono lâinevitabile decadenza del Sistema aristocratico. Questi includevano; l'intervento capitalista formale e informale del sistema coloniale italiano, la forte resistenza e unitĂ del TÇgrĂ€ sotto la guida di individui coscienti e istruiti e la buona volontĂ dell'amministrazione britannica. Come indagine storica, questo lavoro seguirĂ gli sviluppi cronologici per dimostrare una relativa veridicitĂ di spiegazione e ricostruzione del processo del declino dell'aristocrazia Bet-ÊŸAsgĂ€dĂ€ e della successiva emancipazione delle comunitĂ TÇgrĂ€
Fictional Practices of Spirituality I: Interactive Media
"Fictional Practices of Spirituality" provides critical insight into the implementation of belief, mysticism, religion, and spirituality into worlds of fiction, be it interactive or non-interactive. This first volume focuses on interactive, virtual worlds - may that be the digital realms of video games and VR applications or the imaginary spaces of life action role-playing and soul-searching practices. It features analyses of spirituality as gameplay facilitator, sacred spaces and architecture in video game geography, religion in video games and spiritual acts and their dramaturgic function in video games, tabletop, or LARP, among other topics. The contributors offer a first-time ever comprehensive overview of play-rites as spiritual incentives and playful spirituality in various medial incarnations
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