bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The right to understand the right of silence: a few comments. (A commentary on discussions on the right of silence which appeared in issue 7(1))
Authors: Kurzon Dennis
Published: March 2015

In this short note, I would like to relate to the discussions on the right of silence which appeared in the last issue of the Journal of Forensic Linguistics 7(1) (Cotterill 2000; Russell 2000). Instead of dealing with details of research in the field, which have been more than adequately covered by the two authors, I would like to stay at a more general level, and address two issues: the need for such a set of rights, and alternative ways of getting the message across.
Coming Down from Above: Prophecy, Resistance, and Renewal in Native American Religions, by Lee Irwin, Foreword by Philip J. Deloria. University of Oklahoma Press, 2008, 528 pp. Hb $75.00, ISBN-13: 9780806139661.
Authors: Rigal-Cellard Bernadette
Published: March 2015

.
Turning Aliens into Socialists
Authors: Moberg Jessica
Published: March 2015

Immediately after the Second World War Sweden was struck by a wave of sightings of strange flying objects. In some cases these mass sightings resulted in panic, particularly after authorities failed to identify them. Decades later, these phenomena were interpreted by two members of the Swedish UFO movement, Erland Sandqvist and Gösta Rehn, as alien spaceships, or UFOs. Rehn argued that ‘[t]here is nothing so dramatic in the Swedish history of UFOs as this invasion of alien fly-things’ (Rehn 1969: 50). In this article the interpretation of such sightings proposed by these authors, namely that we are visited by extraterrestrials from outer space, is approached from the perspective of myth theory. According to this mythical theme, not only are we are not alone in the universe, but also the history of humankind has been shaped by encounters with more highly-evolved alien beings. In their modern day form, these kinds of ideas about aliens and UFOs originated in the United States. The reasoning of Sandqvist and Rehn exemplifies the localization process that took place as members of the Swedish UFO movement began to produce their own narratives about aliens and UFOs. The question I will address is: in what ways do these stories change in new contexts? Texts produced by the Swedish UFO movement are analyzed as a case study of this process.
Great Freedom and the Concept of Awareness
Authors: Norman Alex
Published: March 2015

Great Freedom is new socio-religious movement centring on the teachings of American Candice O’Denver. It teaches that Awareness – the space of individual existence observable between thoughts and emotional responses – is the true location of individual identity for all human beings, and the beginning point for acceptance of the self. The group, which was founded in 2003, conducts meetings and short courses at which the teachings are promoted and described in detail. The group’s website (www.greatfreedom.org) also hosts many written publications, audio, and video teachings free to the public. The core of the Great Freedom teaching revolves around the explanation that the human condition is one of frustration, angst, and constant searching for psychological and emotional relief, though not because such things have become ‘uncoupled’ or ‘free floating’. Instead, Great Freedom argues that these sensations arise in the face of a lack of knowledge about the permanent comfort available in Awareness. Modern life is understood to have become saturated and overly self-improvement oriented, implying that happiness and wellbeing are states to be searched for. The realisation of the nature of Awareness is believed by the group to bring psychological relief. This belief is examined in light of David Lyon’s (2000) argument of a shift in the parameters of religious thinking and engagement towards ‘secularised’, individuated, and highly subjective modes, and that modern religiosity is bricolage in response to the postmodern fragmentation of identity. Following from this, Great Freedom is read as a response to an understanding that modern life is highly saturated, in Kenneth Gergen’s (1991) sense, and, as Anthony Giddens’ (1991) notion of a ‘project of the self’ intimates, overly self-improvement oriented.
Conversion by Infection
Authors: Laycock Joseph P
Published: March 2015

The Omega Man (1971), starring Charlton Heston, is a film adaptation of the book I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. Matheson’s novel tells the tale of Robert Neville, the last man left alive after germ warfare has infected humanity with vampirism. The Omega Man differs from the original novel and its other adaptations in several ways: The most notable is that it imbues Heston’s character with obvious Christ-like symbolism. A more significant change went largely unnoticed: instead of vampires, those infected with the plague become part of a militant group called “The Family.” Although The Family is never overtly described as a religion, the antagonists speak to a popular fear of new religious movements that emerged in the 1960s. By pitting a medicalized Christ against a disease-like religion, The Omega Man helped to engender a dual perspective of deviant religion as simultaneously medical and heretical. This dual perspective would shape the discourse of the “cult wars in the United States for decades, from the abductions carried out by cult “deprogrammers” to the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.
Significance and Purpose of the “Anti-Cult Movement” in Facilitating Disaffiliation From a New Religious Movement
Authors: Coates Dominiek
Published: March 2015

The current study investigates the experiences of 23 former members of New Religious Movements (NRMs) or cults with anti-cult practices and discourses in Australia. All the participants in this study report some involvement with anti-cult practices and/or engagement with brainwashing explanations of NRM affiliations; however, they describe the significance of these anti-cult resources for their sense of self in different ways. The findings suggests that for some former members anti-cult resources, in particular the brainwashing discourses, merely served as a convenient account through which to explain or justify their former NRM affiliation and manage embarrassment or possible stigmatisation, while for others these resources served an important identity function at a time of loss and uncertainty. These participants describe their involvement with anti-cult practices as a much needed identity resource in which they could anchor their sense of self following the dramatic loss of identity associated with NRM disaffiliation. To make sense of the variations in the way in which anti-cult practices and discourses informed the participants” sense of self Symbolic Interactionist understandings of the self are applied.
The Divine Life of Sri Sri Sitaramdas Omkarnath, by C. Varadarajan, fourth edition. Kinkar Rameshananda (Calcutta), 2010, Rs. 100, 89 pages.
Authors: Petsche Johana J.M.
Published: March 2015

Book review
Modern Paganism in the Holy Land
Authors: Feraro Shai
Published: March 2015

Israeli Pagans are a small and relatively new spiritual community, that have taken root in country in recent years. This article will analyze the contemporary discourse maintained by Israeli Pagans when discussing questions of organization and of religious-political rights. As such it will deal with the complexities of identifying oneself as a (Jewish-born) Pagan in Israel, the nation state of the Jewish people. I will argue that although Israeli Pagans may employ a community-building discourse, they constantly fear the perceived negative consequences of public exposure, and see the bond between (Jewish) religion and the state in Israel as a main factor in the intolerance and even persecution that they expect from the government and from members of the Haredim (Ultra Orthodox) religious group.
Emblematic Architecture and the Routinization of Charisma in Scientology
Authors: Rothstein Mikael
Published: March 2015

Departing from a comparative overview, and based on Weber’s theory of charismatic routinisation, this article explores the cult of L. Ron Hubbard in the Church of Scientology with regard to the Church’s developing investments in real estate and impressive buildings. It is argued that Hubbard’s charismatic authority has been transferred to the buildings, and that these potent items of religious hardware (the various constructions), have pushed aside the otherwise attention demanding question of Hubbard’s possible reincarnation, and thus presence in another human body. This focus on buildings and their use, it is argued, allows Scientology’s leadership to rule without being challenged by potential Hubbard-claimants.
Spiritual Entrepreneurship in the High North
Authors: Fonneland Trude
Published: March 2015

In order to frame the relationship between tourism and New Age spirituality, I identify actors in the tourism sector who draw inspiration from New Age as spiritual entrepreneurs. A spiritual entrepreneur is a tourist entrepreneur promoting a New Age philosophy and spiritual values such as ‘self-development’, ‘holism’ and ‘deep-values’, and who present a vision of crossovers between religion, local development and tourism, combining local traditions with global trends. The article is an analysis of two chosen spiritual entrepreneurships, namely Polmakmoen Guesthouse and the pilgrimage ‘The Seven Coffee Stops’ in Tana municipality in Finnmark, northern Norway. The article’s aim is to examine how values central within New Age here emerge as key terms in the production of unique experiences.
Spiritual Tourism and Frontier Esotericism at Mount Shasta, California
Authors: Duntley Madeline
Published: March 2015

Mount Shasta City, California (pop. 3300) is the gateway to this region’s major attraction, a 14,179 foot volcano that is a sacred site for tourists seeking spiritual ascension, a mystical practice rooted in the Theosophical Society and the Saint Germain Foundation and the post-1950s associational offshoots of these traditions. Analysing 150 years of pilgrim narratives in the Mount Shasta Collection of the College of Siskiyous library, this study charts spiritual tourism and the central role pilgrims play in the foundation and promotion of key esoteric associational groups and concepts in the United States. Pilgrim accounts of encounter and ascent at Mount Shasta effectively create and reaffirm its sacred status. Spiritual tourists transmit and ascribe new metaphysical meanings to the mountain using an ever-expanding repertoire of cosmic attributes and esoteric signifiers.
Team decision making in the workplace
Authors: Halvorsen Kristin
Published: March 2015

Modern work life is increasingly characterized by a shift from the traditional, hierarchical organization to more collaborative forms, often referred to as ‘the post-bureaucratic organization’. Within this setting, team decision making is becoming a crucial activity for managing the complex and multiprofessional processes at play. The study of organizational decision making has had a long tradition in the social sciences, but largely without attending to the micro-analytic level of organizational interaction. This article provides a systematic review of discourse analytic studies on team decision making in professional settings such as healthcare, social work, education and business. The procedures used for identifying eligible studies included online database searches such as JSTOR, ISI Web of Science, ERIC, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, as well as searches in reference lists in scientific papers and books on discourse and decision making. Findings show that there are few discourse studies that explicitly deal with team decision making and that these are located empirically in different professional domains. A majority of the studies use ethnographic insights to supplement their analyses, but without analysing discourse outside the context of the meeting. The discussion will focus on discourse strategies related to assessing information, reaching agreement, managing disagreement, as well as how organizational hierarchies influence the use and effect of these strategies.
The discursive construction of creativity as work in a tertiary art and design environment
Authors: Hocking Darryl
Published: March 2015

Central to most research in the field of creativity is the perception that creativity is an external and essentialist phenomenon. Recent studies, particularly in the area of art and design education, are beginning to question this understanding and seek alternative methods for exploring creativity. This paper takes the view that perceptions of creativity are historically and discursively constructed and that cultural shifts in the early twentieth century have more recently constituted the western understanding of creativity through a discourse of work. As an example, the paper will use a multi-perspectival analytical approach to explore the discursive construction of creativity as work in the situated context of a tertiary art and design studio environment. The paper concludes with a discussion of complications that may arise in the tertiary art and design environment as a result of the potential ambiguity created by the discourse of creativity as work.
Research on transnational Yucatec Maya-speakers negotiating multilingual California
Authors: Whiteside Anne
Published: March 2015

This project combined methodologies from linguistic anthropology, participatory action research and interactional sociolinguistics. Data was collected from participant observation, four case studies, extensive interviews and a language and literacy survey. Multilingual conversations were recorded and analyzed with Conversation Analysis, with a focus on actions and identities as they emerge through enacted stance. The analysis was informed by concepts taken from the anthropology and sociology of transnationalism. The study shows four Maya-speaking individuals negotiating highly multilingual social worlds, where English, when it appears, is more often lingua franca than dominant code, and where participants use their various languages strategically and contingently to accomplish their various goals. These choices are constrained by their status as workers at the bottom rung of a social field characterized by undocumented status and the persistence of colonial discourses. Recommendations for research and practice based on research findings include: (i) reconsideration of second language pedagogies for such immigrant populations (ii) the use of stance in the analysis of multilingual conversations (iii) more research on undocumented status and how it contributes to the silencing of minority language populations and (iv) the use of participatory research methods in studies of undocumented and indigenous communities.
Family mediator neutrality and impartiality in practice
Authors: Hill Chris
Published: March 2015

Family mediation is an interactional encounter in which there are three or more participants. In their institutional role, mediators are required to conduct themselves in a manner which is neutral regarding outcome and impartial regarding process. The discourse often includes the needs of absent others, that is the children of the couple. This paper draws on pragmatics and applies the pragmatic of discourse roles and complex illocutionary acts to the language of family mediators and their clients. It focuses on a discourse role which I have termed ‘reflecter’ and its relationship to mediator neutrality and impartiality.
Sociocultural discourse analysis
Authors: Mercer Neil
Published: March 2015

This paper describes a methodology for the analysis of classroom talk, called sociocultural discourse analysis, which focuses on the use of language as a social mode of thinking – a tool for teaching-and-learning, constructing knowledge, creating joint understanding and tackling problems collaboratively. It has been used in a series of school-based research projects in the UK and elsewhere and its use is illustrated with data from those projects. The methodology is expressly based on sociocultural theory and, in particular, on the Vygotskian conception of language as both a cultural and a psychological tool. Its application involves a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods and enables the study of both educational processes and learning outcomes.
The value of reconstruction in revealing hidden or counter cultures
Authors: Holliday Adrian
Published: March 2015

Reconstruction is a facility for distilling diverse qualitative data within consolidated texts. This is especially helpful for the management of data which represents hidden and counter cultures and has a panoramic complexity and emergent realities that are difficult to capture in more established forms of presentation. Reconstruction helps to represent the original coherence of the data while showing the interconnectedness necessary for thick description, and addressing the difficult interplay between the principles of submission, emergence and the personal knowledge of the researcher. This paper explores how this might be done in the case of visual and descriptive data. In this endeavour, lessons can be learnt from alternative attitudes to research and data in mainstream education and fine art.
Literacy and health
Authors: Dray Susan , Papen Uta
Published: March 2015

Much has been written about the significance of patientsâ€™ literacy and language skills in the healthcare process, but there has been little critical analysis of the theories of language that underpin research and policy in this field. Discussions of the research methods and approaches that inform studies on patientsâ€™ reading and writing in healthcare settings are scarce. This paper presents a framework for studying the role of written language provided by healthcare institutions. It suggests an alternative to the narrow notions of health literacy that currently dominate the field. In order to illustrate this framework, the paper offers a detailed analysis of one particular case â€“ the role of a patient information leaflet in the diagnostic process. The approach that is suggested draws on a combination of critical discourse analysis with ethnography.
Evaluative expressions in analystical arguments
Authors: Mei Wu Siew , Allison Desmond
Published: March 2015

Evaluative language is widely recognised as contributing to the quality of written argumentation, although investigation in this area is more prevalent in professional academic writing (e.g. Hunston, 1989 and Hyland, 2002) than in student texts. This study investigates evaluative expressions in argumentative essays written by first-year undergraduates in the discipline of English Language at the National University of Singapore. Aspects of the Appraisal framework, especially the engagement system, were used to analyse the evaluative expressions in the stages of argumentation outlined by Callaghan and Rothery (1988). The analysis revealed that high-rated and low-rated essays differ in the frequency of the use of the stages of Thesis and Reiteration to construct more or less effective arguments. Also, within the stages, evaluative expressions contributed to arguments that are more or less persuasive.
Creating and validating assessment instruments for a discipline-specific writing course
Authors: Stoller Frekricka L. , Horn Bradley , Grabe William , Robinson Marin S.
Published: March 2015

This paper reports on a sustained interdisciplinary effort between applied linguists and chemistry faculty to create and validate writing assessment instruments for an advanced-level Write Like a Chemist course, one component of a much larger interdisciplinary project. The article describes a multiple-year effort to form valid analytic and holistic assessment instruments to be used by chemistry faculty to assess the writing performance of chemistry majors. Emphasis is placed on the joint contributions of applied linguists and chemists in (a) the identification of meaningful writing criteria, (b) the development of assessment scales with distinct score points and descriptors, (c) socialization sessions that prepared chemists to help build the assessment instruments, and (d) the validation of assessment instruments with other chemists. Outcomes exemplify the mediating role that applied linguistics can play in the design of a discipline-specific course, instructional materials, and assessment instruments that support the development of disciplinary expertise. The results also demonstrate the positive consequences of crossing disciplinary boundaries for both subject-area faculty and applied linguists
Faculty Evaluation as a Genre System
Authors: Chen Rong , Hyon Sunny
Published: March 2015

This article analyzes evaluation reports in the genre system of a university's retention, promotion and tenure (RPT) process. We first discuss how intertextuality in the report genre is mandated by the RPT genre system and analyze how writers use strategies that reflect institutional values of fairness and objectivity as well as different kinds of power in the system. We then consider how RPT report writers express stance about negative information in a faculty member's file in ways that show interpersonal sensitivity toward multiple audiences, including themselves. The study lends further understanding to how texts within genre systems balance intertextual and interpersonal concerns in order to achieve different functions in an institution.
Repertoires or Nodes? Constructing meanings in Bible-study groups
Authors: Todd Andrew
Published: March 2015

This paper grows out of research into the way people in local churches read and interpret the Bible. It considers a particular Bible-study group, paying attention to the kind of talk that occurs there, and the way in which meaning is achieved in the interaction between participants. Initial data extracts are taken to suggest a tension between deference to the authority of the Bible, and an alternative approach, concerned with ‘what the text says to me/us’. This latter approach is inclusive of different viewpoints. This initial analysis gives rise to the hypothesis that there might exist within this Bible-study talk two ‘interpretative repertoires’. In comparison with scientific talk, as considered by Gilbert and Mulkay (1984), these are labelled as ‘canonical’ and ‘contingent’ repertoires. This hypothesis is tested through examination of further data. The paper concludes that the hypothesis does highlight a distinction between more canonical and more contingent talk, and enables an examination of the construction of these ‘repertoires’. However, the term ‘interpretative repertoire’ tends to overemphasis the boundaries round these constructions, and to downplay the lexical and other connections between them. The paper concludes that the term ‘discursive node’ provides for a better characterisation of these patterns of discourse.
Clinical Governmentality
Authors: Brown Brian , Crawford Paul , Mullany Louise
Published: March 2015

The introduction of clinical governance policies in the UK offers an opportunity to explore the links between organizations, politics and language in health care. This paper attempts to theorise the links between symbolic and ideological formations and health care practitioners’ accounts in one mental health care trust as a clinical governance initiative was implemented. Drawing on Fairclough, Foucault and Bourdieu, we attempt to situate the practices, formulations and identities of health care staff in a way that allows us to show the links between policy, professional identity and language. The data suggested that whilst there was widespread acceptance of the clinical governance concept this had resulted in little change in practice with clients. However, the major reconfigurations seemed to have taken place in personal and professional identity and the identities preferred amongst the clients. This had to do with ‘feeling listened to’ whilst the process of implementation was left to ‘grow organically’ and was what they were ‘supposed to be doing anyway’ whilst the clients were increasingly asked to be experts on their own care. The implementation of the policy thus involves reorganising symbolic capital so that adopting clinical governance represented a recapitalisation of the self with new experiences, skills, ideas and practices. This highlights the importance of drawing on critical theories and notions of identity and governmentality in doing applied linguistic analysis in health care institutions.
Bureaucratic Rituals in Health Care Delivery
Authors: Cicourel Aaron
Published: March 2015

Following Roberts (1964), D’Andrade (1981; 1989; 1995), and Hutchins (1995), cultures and communities therein can be viewed as socially distributed cognition and socially organized knowledge systems (Schütz, 1962). The paper focuses on Western medical practices we will call bureaucratic ‘rituals’ that rely on folk knowledge and evolving, socially organized conceptual systems and technical activities we call ‘science’ and ‘technology’. All information processing involves expanding and compressing or limiting the processing capacity of individuals and collectivities. Cultural myths or beliefs about the origin of illness and possible cures persist despite what Max Weber (1968) called the rationalization of society. Bureaucratic rituals take on a life of their own and can create extensive technological domains of limited intelligibility for patients. It is, however, the patient, at least initially, who is the key source of information for triggering loosely coupled networks of oral and written or electronic communication and miscommunication. Patients’ ability to understand medical information can be hampered if they have anxiety-producing doubts about the care they receive, or fear that they may possess a serious or terminal illness (Crawford, 2005).
The L2 motivational self system from a Chinese perspective
Authors: Magid Michael
Published: March 2015

This mixed methods study compares the Second Language (L2) Motivational Self System of 1,154 middle school and university students from mainland China with a multi-group structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis and ten case studies of university students from mainland China. The main findings are that the issues of family, face, responsibility and pressure that are discussed in the interview data clarify the motivational role of the Chinese family and explain the main relationships of the L2 Motivational Self System identified by the SEM analysis as well as the relationship between the two types of instrumentality and the Ideal L2 Self. Differences in the motivational orientation of the two sub-groups demonstrate the ability of the system to represent different age groups. A comparison of the findings with recent motivational studies in Hungary reveals similarities in terms of the impact of the Ideal L2 Self, Ought-to L2 Self and attitudes towards learning English on the amount of effort that the participants invest in learning English.
English ‘if-clauses’
Authors: Nall Shu Pin , Nall Timothy
Published: March 2015

Utilizing binomial and chi-square testing on a pool of representative genres, we identify and discuss variations in the distributional patterns between initial and final if-clauses within and across genres. The frequency of if-clauses in each genre as well as contextual factors that might influence the frequency and appropriateness of the placement of if-clauses are also taken into consideration. In contrast to the consensus view, we found a rhetorically motivated preference for final if-clauses in three of the genres examined, while in three others these two clause types are equally distributed. There is substantial variation along lines of communicative purpose, since some written genres pattern more closely with spoken genres rather than other written ones. Written genres (especially the press genres) tend to have higher frequencies of final if-clauses than spoken genres – but also have significantly greater variation in the frequency of their relative use. Mediums of communication may not be as important as communicative intent. In some genres, female users tend to use statistically significantly more final if-clauses than male speakers. In business correspondence, sellers tend to use statistically significantly more final if-clauses than buyers.
Mediating intercultural bureaucratic encounters
Authors: Firkins Arthur S.
Published: March 2015

Governments throughout Australia have deployed Aboriginal specific positions within government departments in an effort to improve access to government services for Aboriginal people. This small-scale study uses a qualitative interpretive interview approach to explore the communication strategies that enable two Aboriginal staff to act as mediators between the bureaucracy and Aboriginal communities. The paper also reveals unique types of professional pressures, which may not be evident in the wider public service. Although focused on Australia, the findings may have implications for other intercultural communication contexts that involve interaction between indigenous people and government bureaucracies.
Asylum interviews as interrogations to unmask bogus refugees
Authors: Gomez Diez Isabel
Published: March 2015

This paper examines the interaction between officers and asylum applicants in admissibility interviews by analyzing twelve interviews recorded during my fieldwork in the Belgian Immigration Department (ID) between 2004 and 2007, their corresponding records, and the ID's decisions. This paper focuses on some officers’ practices during the interview, suggesting that they categorize the applicants as bogus refugees from the very beginning of the interview. In those cases, their main objective becomes one of unmasking them as bogus refugees and eliciting elements that may be used by the asylum agencies in order to arrive at a negative decision. To this end, the officials employ interrogation techniques that may well cause the applicant to become confused and thus jeopardize the construction of the climate of confidence needed in an asylum interview.
Nekopejte do nás, ješt? nejsme mrtví / Don't dig into us We are not dead yet (2011)
Authors: Hertlová Monika , Hirt Thomas , Hollerová Lenka
Published: March 2015

Shot, edited and directed by Monika Hertlová, Thomas Hirt and Lenka Hollerová, produced by the Studio for visual ethnography at the Department of Anthropology, University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. View The Film Here
Archaeology and the New Materialisms
Authors: Witmore Christopher
Published: March 2015

This article revisits the object of archaeology in light of the New Materialisms. Orienting recent work around three propositions with respect to the reality and definition of things—that is, things are assemblages, things are participants, and things are things—it lays out the core features of the New Materialisms and goes on to address some compelling methodological issues. Ultimately, this article raises a challenge; that New Materialist perspectives reveal a self-definition for archaeology, not as the study of the human past through its material remains, but as the discipline of things, as an “ecology of practices” that approaches the world with care and in wonder.
Earthquake Archaeology
Authors: Jusseret Simon
Published: March 2015

Earthquake archaeology, also known as archaeoseismology, is traditionally defined as the discipline investigating the effects of earthquakes on ancient archaeological remains. As a research field geared towards the definition of seismic parameters for past earthquakes, earthquake archaeology’s social role is often overlooked. However, earthquake archaeology can foster earthquake preparedness by communicating to present-day communities how past populations occupying similarly threatened areas coped with seismic events. In this paper, I argue that the discipline might also fulfil this social responsibility by emphasizing the applicability of earthquake archaeological methodologies, particularly those borrowed from archaeology, to contexts struck by recent (i.e. twentieth and twenty-first century) earthquakes. By doing so, earthquake archaeology could play a crucial part in prevention and mitigation efforts. Four possible mechanisms underpinning such a socially-engaged earthquake archaeological discipline are discussed: manifestation, restoration, acting with and on behalf of affected communities and mediation between past and present.
On Faith and the Fear of Fatality
Authors: Jong Jonathan
Published: March 2015

Although speculations about the role of fear—and fear of death in particular—in the evolutionary and psychological origins of religion have been around for millennia, it is only in the last decade or so that systematic empirical investigations on the matter have been undertaken. In this paper, we review this recent body of correlational and experimental research to assess theoretical developments in the evolutionary and cognitive psychology of religion, and in Terror Management Theory. While these existing theories about the anxiety ameliorating functions of religious belief are still significantly under-determined by data, the systematic and scientific study of religion has benefited greatly from insights about the multidimensionality of religiosity, the importance of implicit levels of cognition and affect, and the dangers of biased sampling.
The Experimental Study of Religion
Authors: Sørensen Jesper , Nielbo Kristoffer L..
Published: March 2015

Within the last two decades, the cognitive science of religion has gained momentum, and this has led to a call for dedicated experimental studies addressing this level of explanation. However, what does such an experimental turn mean for the study of religion more generally? How does it affect what we study and the methods we use to study it? Does it alter with whom we cooperate, where we publish and what scholarly discussions we take part in? In this article, we discuss how the experimental study of religious phenomena changes the theoretical subject matter and how it involves a new relation between theoretical modeling, methodological reduction and generalization. We argue that, similar to all new approaches, an experimental methodology is likely to alter the study of religion in the short run, but in the longer perspective experimental approaches are likely to take their place beside other approaches that constitute the broader field of the academic study of religion.
Current Clinical Practice of Speech-Language Pathologists who Treat Individuals with Aphasia
Authors: Page Christen , Howell Dana
Published: March 2015

Little is known about the current practices of speech- language pathologists working with people with aphasia in rehabilitation settings, or to what extent speech-language pathologists incorporate evidence for aphasia in clinical practice. This systematic grounded theory study described how speech- language pathologists treating individuals with aphasia understood the major processes of their current practice. Ten speech- language pathologists were interviewed. A theory emerged demonstrating a process of connecting with patients with aphasia to meet their communication needs to develop treatment strategies. This process evolved as the clinician gained experience from empirical evidence, client perspectives, and clinical expertise. During their graduate programs, participants obtained knowledge related to evidence-based practice but reported difficulty implementing evidence during actual practice. Participants reported limited time to locate and read literature. Understanding the process speech- language pathologists used to select treatment for people with aphasia may influence the role of evidence in clinical practice.
Phonological Development in a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Authors: Nordgren Pia
Published: March 2015

In this single case study with a multiple baseline approach, a five year-old Swedish boy, diagnosed with an autism spectrum condition, and having a bilingual background, was followed weekly for one year. In order to facilitate the acquisition of phonological contrasts and knowledge of symbolic representations, a training package with minimal pairs was gradually introduced. A corpus of the utterances in interaction with teachers and a speech pathologist was collected, transcribed, and analyzed. The results of the study showed a quantitative and qualitative development of sound production involving the use of new phonological feature types, new syllable constructions, and new words during the year. The delayed and deviant speech development, both concerning segments, syllables, and word boundaries in this child, is in line with studies that describe a deviant phonological development in individuals with autism.
Use of reported speech in the communicative interactions of individuals with ventromedial prefrontal cortex damage
Authors: Duff Melissa , Kurczek Jake , Miller Margaret
Published: March 2015

Reported speech (RS) is a pervasive discourse practice in which speakers represent, or re-enact, words, thoughts, or feelings from other times and/or places, and it is thought to reflect and create emotional connections among interlocutors. The current study examines the role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), a neural structure critical for social, emotional, and interpersonal behavior, in the use of reported speech. In the communicative interactions of six individuals with vmPFC damage and six healthy comparison participants, each interacting with a clinician, we compared the frequency and use of reported speech. Contrary to our predictions, the vmPFC participants did not differ from healthy participants in the frequency or use of reported speech. These results suggest that the vmPFC does not make critical contributions to the use of reported speech in conversation and furthers our understanding of neural and cognitive underpinnings of reported speech and language use.
The 'Royal Tombs' at Salamis (Cyprus)
Authors: Rupp David W.
Published: March 2015

The rich burial assemblages ('Royal Tombs') excavated in a cemetery to the west of the ancient burial city of Salamis on the eastern coast of Cyprus have attracted widespread notice. Standard interpretations of these Iron Age burials characterize them simple as ostentatious displays by a few petty kings of Salamis with a mixture of Near Eastern and 'Homeric' styles and formats. The focus of this article is a re-examination of these burial assemblages in light of the major political, social and economic changes that occurred in Cypriote society in the 8th and 7th centuries BC. These changes were stimulated and influenced by the Phoneticians and in a lesser, indirect fashion by the Assyrians. The central thesis argued here is that the assemblages should be viewed as conscious, symbolic statements of political, social and economic power by the first rulers of the kingdom of Salamis. The ideological messages contained in various components of the burials were intended to impress upon members of the highest stratum of Salaminium society the legitimacy of the new kings' power and authority in a cost-effective fashion. When this manipulation of the power base was no longer required to consolidate and manipulate the kings' position, this particular medium of ritual communication ceased to be used in Cyprus.
The Bronze Age Eruption of Thera
Authors: Manning Sturt
Published: March 2015

This paper presents and integrated chronological analysis of the archaeological, and other scientific evidence related to the absolute dating of the Bronze Age eruption of Thera, and of contemporary Aegean and Mediterranean cultures. The resulting composite interpretation is that the traditionally accepted date for the eruption ca. 1500 BC, and the traditionally accepted Aegean chronology, are both too low and must be reassessed significantly. In their place an 'earlier' eruption date, in the later 17th century BC, and a similarly 'high' ceramic absolute chronology, are proposed. The frost-ring date of ca. 1628-26 BC for the Thera eruption, suggested in 1984 by LaMarche and Hirschboeck, appears possible. These conclusions, requiring a revised 'high' Middle Minoan III to Late Minoan IIIA chronology are supported further by a statistical analysis of Middle Minoan III to Late Minoan IB Aegean radiocarbon dates (and now also by recently published Greenland ice-core and Irish tree-ring dates). In addition, such discussion may promote some rethinking of the synthetic interpretations of cultural relations between the second Millennium and Aegean and the outside world.
Ceramaic Production and Social Differentiation: The Dalmatian Neolithic and the Western Mediterranean
Authors: Chapman J.C.
Published: March 2015

Sorry, no abstract available.
Traces of Tarhuntas
Authors: Rojas Felipe , Sergueenkova Valeria
Published: March 2015

This article examines what people in Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Anatolia thought about and did with Hittite and Neo-Hittite rock-cut reliefs and inscriptions. It brings together archaeological and textual evidence that demonstrates the intensity, variety, and sophistication of interactions with Bronze and Iron Age material remains between the classical and early Byzantine periods. It also calls attention to the ways in which indigenous inhabitants and foreign visitors alike used such remains to construct or verify narratives about local and universal history. The evidence analyzed here should be of interest to those studying social memory as well as cross-cultural interaction within and beyond the Mediterranean. Editorial Note It has been brought to our attention that the authors, Drs. F. Rojas and V. Sergueenkova, did not obtain permission from Drs. C. Maner and Y. Erbil to discuss several of the sites in the wider Konya area considered in this article and for which Drs. Maner and Erbil now hold survey permits. According to accepted international academic standards such as those in the Archaeological Institute of America’s Code of Professional Standards, professional archaeologists ‘owe consideration to colleagues and project members’ (AIA Code, Section III, heading); in particular, ‘before studying and/or publishing any unpublished material archaeologists should secure proper permission in writing, from the appropriate project director or the appointed representative of the sponsoring institution and/or the antiquities authorities in the country of origin’ (AIA Code Section III.6). This note acknowledges that omission.
Early Palaeolithic on the Greek Islands?
Authors: Runnels Curtis
Published: March 2015

Humans evolved in Africa and colonized Eurasia in successive adaptive radiations, establishing themselves in Europe ca. one million years ago. It is assumed that these dispersals were by land through southwest Asia, or secondarily across the Strait of Gibraltar, because early hominins lacked the cognitive faculties and technical skills needed to cross the open Mediterranean. Such crossings are thought to have occurred only at the end of the Pleistocene, after ca. 11,000 years ago. This reasoning is challenged by the presence of early Palaeolithic artifacts on the Greek islands, suggesting that hominins made sea-crossings more than 130,000 years ago, and indicating that the Mediterranean—and by implication other seas—were at times open roads rather than barriers to hominin dispersals.
The Archaeology of Cult and the Chalcolithic Sanctuary at Gilat
Authors: Alon David , Levy Thomas E.
Published: March 2015

The identification, excavation and interpretation of a ceremonial centre is one of the most challenging undertakings in archaeology today (Renfrew 1985: 1). For ancient Palestine, the Negev desert, Chalcolithic (ca. 4500-3500 BC) site of Gilat provides a unique opportunity to investigate early religion along the eastern Mediterranean seaboard. In this paper, the archaeological correlates for cult practice, the role of cult in Chalcolithic society, and some aspects of the ideology underlying cult practices are tested and presented. Finally, trade in exotic items is examined as a mechanism for promoting and reinforcing social elites associated with the Gilat sanctuary.
The Evolution of Social Complexity in Predynastic Egypt: An Analysis of the Naqada Cemeteries
Authors: Bard Kathryn A.
Published: March 2015

A large territorial state emerged in Egypt by 300 BC, but its origins are not well known. Because what we know about the Predynastic period is mainly from cemeteries, archaeological evidence for the rise of the state in Egypt is lacking. An analysis of the largest Predynastic cemetery at Naqada shows increasingly differentiated graves over time, as well as an increasing interest in elite goods. An interpretation of the cemetery analysis seems to indicate increasing social differentiation and very possibly the emergence of political roles.
Frames of Reference for the Past: Some Thoughts on Bernal, Truth and Reality
Authors: Manning Sturt W.
Published: March 2015

-
More than One, Less than Five Hundred
Authors: Edwards Phillip C.
Published: March 2015

In proposing a model for the advent of agrarian societies, Campana and Crabtree (1990) courageously advance a species of social prime mover, and predict specific material correlates in support of it. They propose that the advent of community hunting of mountain gazelle (Gazella gazella) in the Natufian period of the Levant (c. 12,500-10,300 BP) allowed human capacities of group planning and social organization to emerge sufficient to render possible the advent of agriculture in the following millennia.
Early Bronze I and the Evolution of Social Complexity in the Southern Levant
Authors: Joffe Alexander H.
Published: March 2015

The Early Bronze I period (c. 3500-3100 BC) has long been recognized as the critical transition from the village-level society of the Chalcolithic to the 'urban' society of the Early Bronze Age II in the Southern Levant. Most models, however, have tended to stress exogenous influences and/or catastrophic explanations for this period and have failed to provide a clearly stated theoretical perspective. This paper presents a model of indigenous development from the Chalcolithic through the Early Bronze Age I, with the important exceptions of stressing the problematic presence of Egyptian 'colonies' in the Southern Levant and the lack of substantial contacts with the Syro-Mesopotanian world to the north. The theoretical context of this paper seeks to understand the collapse and rise of small-scale social formations that exist in juxtaposition to large ones, and to view the Early Bronze I period in terms of the overall trajectory of social evolution in the Southern Levant. This trajectory differs profoundly in terms of scale and international relations, from other societies in ancient western Asia, and is brought into sharper focus by an examination of its origins in the Early Bronze Age I.
The Neolithic Labyrinth
Authors: Broodbank Cyprian
Published: March 2015

Neolithic Crete has long been portrayed as a slow-moving backwater. Analysis of data from the large tell site at Knossos challenges this view by demonstrating that the Neolithic settlement underwent a period of rapid growth and sudden cultural change during the earlier fifth millennium. These phenomena are most convincingly interpreted as indicators of an internal transformation in Knossos's social structure, and they suggest the emergence of a Neolithic community of some complexity. The methods and conclusions of this study may have implications for approaches to later social change in Bronze Age Crete.