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Study Shows That, In Restaurants, Race Matters

By Guest PostApril 25, 2012Culture, Generalafrican american, anti black perception, customer, discrimination, inferior service, race, restaurant, sarah rusche, tableside racism, united states, zachary brewster

A new study from North Carolina State University shows that more than one-third of restaurant servers discriminate against African-American customers.

“Many people believe that race is no longer a significant issue in the United States,” says Sarah Rusche, a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the study. “But the fact that a third of servers admit to varying their quality of service based on customers’ race, often giving African-Americans inferior service, shows that race continues to be an issue in our society.” (more…)

Julie Hunter and the Beat of A Different Drum

By Guest PostApril 24, 2012Culturedrumming, drumming in ghana, ghanaian drumming, ghanaian women, kpegisu habobo, womens drumming

Cultural taboos have long kept Ghanaian women away from drumming. But two significant political movements began to break down those barriers in the last 60 years, bringing women into the musical fold. It is that shift — and its political, social, and cultural implications — that Julie Hunter studied to earn her Ph.D. this spring.

Drumming has always been an important part of Ghanaian culture. Long a genre reserved for ceremonial occasions, drumming became increasingly secularized after the Gold Coast claimed independence in 1957. That postcolonial period, followed by a national women’s movement in the 1980s made the culture ripe for political and social change. In this climate, drumming, once strictly reserved for men, has been adopted by women, marking a significant shift in gender roles within Ghanaian culture. It is this shift that Julie Hunter studied to write her thesis, “The Rise of Women’s Drumming in Africa: Performing Gender and Transforming Community in Southeastern Ghana.” Hunter will earn her Ph.D. in ethnomusicology this spring. (more…)

Belief in God Rises with Age, Even in Atheist Nations

By Guest PostApril 19, 2012Culture, Generalamerican, atheism, austria, belief in god, catholic societies, east germany, existence, god exists, international survey, Israel, mortality, nation, norc, organization, people, Philippines, poland, protestant population, russia, Scandinavia, slovenia, soviet states, tom w smith, united states, william harms

International surveys about the depth of people’s belief in God reveal vast differences among nations, ranging from 94 percent of people in the Philippines who said they always believed in God, compared to only 13 percent of people in the former East Germany. Yet the surveys found one constant—belief in God is higher among older people, regardless of where they live.

A new report on the international surveys, “Belief About God Across Time and Countries,” was issued by the General Social Survey of the social science research organization NORC at the University of Chicago. It is based on a comprehensive, international study of belief in God and includes information from the International Social Survey Program, a consortium of the world’s leading opinion survey organizations. Tom W. Smith, director of the General Social Survey, wrote the report. (more…)

Feelings of Immaturity Accompany Alcohol Misuse into Adulthood, Say MU Researchers

By Guest PostApril 17, 2012Culture, Generalage group, alcohol use, andrew littlefield, behavior, cocktail, data, kenneth sher, mature, mature out, peter pans, rachel winograd, sense of immaturity, university of missouri, young adult

*Discovery Could Improve Substance Abuse Treatment*

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Tipping back one too many cocktails during an individual’s early 20s doesn’t correlate to a personal sense of immaturity; however if this habit doesn’t stop as they reach age 30, young adults can feel psychologically underdeveloped, according to a University of Missouri study. Helping young adults acknowledge their mental impulse to “sober up” as they mature can improve substance abuse intervention programs.

“When a heavy drinking 30-year-old comes in for therapy and says he doesn’t feel like an adult, we can present this study and suggest that cutting back on alcohol could help him feel more mature,” said lead researcher Rachel Winograd, a doctoral student in psychology at MU. (more…)

Preserving a Language

By Guest PostApril 13, 2012Culture, Educationamerican indian, brady willette, culture, dictionary, english, eugene stillday, extinction, james parente, john nichols, larry smallwood, leona wakonabo, louise erdrich, minnesota ojibwe, native language, ojibwe, ojibwe language, persia erdrich, ponemah, preserving language, red lake indian reservation, rick moore, talking dictionary, travis zimmerman, tribal language, wade

U launches groundbreaking new Ojibwe-English ‘talking’ dictionary.

Eugene Stillday was born in Ponemah on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, where he grew up speaking Ojibwe. That is, until his public school teachers forbade him from the practice and punished him and his classmates for speaking the only language they knew.

“[So] we developed a system,” Stillday says. “We’d be talking to each other in Ojibwe, and when the teacher came nearby we’d just naturally swing into English, and when she left, you know, right back to Ojibwe.” (more…)

Do I Look Bigger With My Finger on a Trigger? Yes, Says UCLA Study

By Guest PostApril 12, 2012Culture, Generalair force office, american, anthropologist, brandishing a weapon, caulking gun, colin holbrook, craigslist, dangerous, daniel fessler, dimension, dirty harry, electric drill, handgun, jeffrey k snyder, kitchen knife, magnitude, mechanicalturk, meg sullivan, paint brush, photograph, pistol, rambo, scrawny thugs, ucla, violent conflict, website

UCLA anthropologists asked hundreds of Americans to guess the size and muscularity of four men based solely on photographs of their hands holding a range of easily recognizable objects, including handguns. (more…)

Power of Possibility

By Guest PostApril 11, 2012Culture, Education, Generalactivelon cleaning solutions, aramark, aspiring entrepreneur, Bolivia, business ownership 101, christina estrada, clinton tymes, creative ability, creative thinking, develop, east coast, franchisee, francis kwansa, ghana, hrim, ipads, iPhone, lozelle deluz, mcdonalds franchises, nuts and bolts, orbio technologies, organic natural cleaners, ownership, paul altero, personal computer, power of possibility, sbtdc, Steve Jobs, the caribbean, think the unthinkable, university of delaware

ARAMARK executive, industry experts share entrepreneurial lessons with students

Believe in the power of possibility. “Possibility for success, possibility to impact others, possibility to create jobs and contribute to your communities – the possibility of successful business ownership is real for you,” Christina Estrada told students in a keynote address at the sixth annual Hospitality and Entrepreneurship Summit held recently on the University of Delaware campus in Newark.

For Estrada, global chief diversity officer for ARAMARK, possibility is rooted in an entrepreneurial spirit that sparks creative thinking into diversification.

“As an aspiring entrepreneur you need creative thinking after the big idea,” said Estrada. “You need to understand your industry and know what your customers need that is unique, as well as what they want consistently and that is reliable. As an aspiring entrepreneur, you need to believe in the power of possibility.” (more…)

Yale Center for British Art to partner with Google on expanded Art Project

By Guest PostApril 4, 2012Culture, Technologyamy meyers, art, art project, british art, connecticut, george stubbs, Google, google art project, john frederick herring, joshua reynolds, museum, synthesis, Technology, the harvest, thomas gainsborough, thomas rowlandson, united kingdom, united states, william hogarth, yale center

The Yale Center for British Art is partnering with the Google Art Project to share the museum’s renowned collections with viewers around the world. The collaboration is part of a major global expansion of the pioneering Art Project, which now consists of 151 partners in 40 countries.

The Yale Center for British Art — which houses the largest collection of British art outside the United Kingdom — is one of only six university museums in the world to collaborate with Google. It is one of only 29 institutions in the United States and is the only museum in Connecticut to participate. (more…)

Category Archives: Culture