Death salience moderates the effect of trauma on religiosity

Objective: Previous research has shown contradictory evidence for the relationship between religiosity and trauma; exposure to traumatic life events has been associated with both increases and decreases in religiosity over time. On the basis of a long theoretical tradition of linking death and religious belief and recent empirical evidence that thoughts of death may increase religiosity, we tested whether one determinant of trauma's influence on religion is the degree to which it makes death salient. Method: Using longitudinal data from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, a unique population-representative birth cohort, we tested whether the relationship between trauma and religiosity depends on whether the trauma involves death. Participants reported their private, ceremonial, and public religious behaviors at ages 26 and 32 and, at age 32, whether they had experienced any of 23 traumatic life events since age 26. Results: Experiencing the death of a loved one (but not an equally traumatic event not involving death) predicted a future increase in private religious behavior (e.g., prayer) among those already practicing such behaviors, and an increase in the importance of religious ceremonies among those with relatively little prior interest in them. On the other hand, experiencing a death-unrelated trauma predicted a future reduction in public displays of religiosity among those previously so inclined. Conclusion: The study represents a significant step in understanding religious responses to trauma, and emphasizes the importance of considering not only the nature of a trauma, but also the dimensions and practices of a victim's religiosity prior to it

Caddoan Ceremonial Sites of the Caddoan Cultural Area of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas: Draft Caddo National Landmark Nomination

Since 1997, we have been working on the development of a National Historic Landmark (NHL) cover nomination for Caddoan ceremonial sites - earthen mounds in the Caddoan cultural area of southwestern Arkansas, northwestern Louisiana, eastern Oklahoma, and northeastern Texas. Such a nomination establishes the historic context within which all similar cultural properties can be evaluated for significance according to the NHL criteria, as it establishes the research and other criteria by which a cultural property may be identified as a significant archeological resource

From Mounds to Monasteries: A Look at Spiro and Other Centers Through The Use of Metaphor

Previous study of the extensive and elaborate funerary offerings at the Spiro site have explained their presence by an exchange system with Spiro functioning as a gateway center. More recently, Schambach has argued extensively and passionately for Spiro’s role as an entrepôt redistributive center. However, this argument fails to account for much of the accumulation of funerary items present at Spiro. As an alternative, I propose that some ceremonial centers such as Spiro functioned solely as religious centers, much like the monasteries of medieval Europe with parallels in the use of architecture, economic support, relics, and the treatment of individuals at death. A model based on the metaphor of monastic life provides greater explanatory potential than that of the economically-driven entepôt

Acts or events? A perspective from the marketing mix

La literatura existente en torno a las relaciones píublicas, el ceremonial y el protocolo alterna como sinónimos los términos actos y eventos. A través de una revisión teóricoconceptual, el principal objetivo de este trabajo es demostrar que ambos términos obedecen a realidades diferentes. Los resultados demuestran que, mientras que la organización de actos responde, desde la perspectiva de las relaciones públicas, a las necesidades comunicativas de las organizaciones; los eventos son herramientas que, desde la perspectiva del Mix de Marketing, permiten satisfacer las necesidades económicas, fundamentalmente, de las empresas.The existing public relations, ceremonial and protocol literature alternates the terms acts and events as synonyms. Through a theoretical-conceptual revision, the main objective of this work is to demonstrate that both terms obey different realities. The results show that, while the organization of acts responds, from the perspective of public relations, to the communicative needs of the organizations; Events are tools that, from the perspective of the Marketing Mix, allow meeting, mainly, the economic needs of companies

Comments on Caddo Origins in Northwest Louisiana

This paper presents some of my thoughts on the issue of Caddo origins from the perspective of the Red River drainage in northwest Louisiana. These ideas were assembled prior to the Caddo discussion group meeting held in December 2008 and have been only slightly modified here. The paper was not given as a formal presentation, but I attempted to introduce the main points during the group discussion. Development of better chronological controls is crucial for addressing problems of Caddo origins, and I discuss this issue first. Although much has been settled since the early Krieger-Ford discussions, a finer-grained chronology is necessary to answer questions that are now of interest. We remain largely dependent on our understanding of changes in ceramic assemblages and how we can tie these to chronometric scales based primarily on radiocarbon dating. I next review the cultural taxonomic units that have been used to classify the pre-Caddo archaeological record in the Trans-Mississippi South. Rather than taking the view that one or more of these cultural entities transformed into Caddo culture, I suggest that Caddo origins might be better viewed as the development of social and economic behaviors that linked relatively small-scale social units previously only loosely and sporadically associated. I then discuss the possible importance of the development of ceremonial centers, the appearance of elite mortuary traits, and the circulation of finely engraved ceramic vessels for understanding changes in social and economic integration that took place in the Trans- Mississippi South between approximately A.D. 900 and A.D. 1050. Finally, I offer a list of some basic questions that I feel are important for furthering our understanding of Caddo origins

Cutting Through the Ranks: the Navy’s Forgotten Legacy

The bearer of this sword was a member of a United States Navy that rapidly grew in power during the Civil War, increasing its enlistment 500% and developing the first ironclad ship. However, even as the Navy was in the midst of its transition, one thing remained in place: The U.S. Model 1852 Navy Officer’s Sword. The sword is still used in the Navy today, albeit for ceremonial purposes. Yet, for all that this sword symbolizes, very few scholars have given much attention to it or the sailors who used it in the Civil War. The common soldier has received much more attention than the common seaman and his officers. While there were considerably more men serving in the Army than the Navy (the Navy started the war with 7,600 sailors and grew to 51,500 by the end, whereas the Union Army boasted about 2.2 million enlisted men), the Navy was still an important part of the Union war effort and therefore deserving of attention. An analysis of the U.S. Model 1852 Navy Officer’s Sword provides a window into the complicated power dynamics between naval officers and enlisted seamen. [excerpt