bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Social Barriers in Physical Recreation
Authors: Kunicki Bogdan J.
Published: March 2007

This article is a synthesis of research on social barriers to giving physical recreation in Poland a mass character. In contradistinction to the large number of empirical studies looking for the sources of the limited range of recreation in objective and external conditions (e.g. organizational, infrastructural, financial or personnel-related), the author's aim is to find the factors in human consciousness and ideas. He sets apart three kinds of barriers: ideological, cultural and psychological. Despite the fact that this research is related to Polish society, which from the cultural point of view is specific, the author thinks similar barriers can also be found in other countries.
Sociology of Sport in the United States
Authors: Coakley Jay
Published: March 2007

This paper updates and extends previous analyses of the sociology of sport in the United States. It provides a chronology of major events in the history of the field as well as a description of the social context in which the field emerged and grew. Then a review of data from both sociology and physical education leads to the conclusion that the sociology of sport in the United States continues to lack full legitimacy and a critical mass of members in both disciplines. In fact, there are reasons to conclude that the continued numerical growth of those calling themeselves sport sociologists has peaked and will not change significantly in the immediate future. Finally, a content summary of papers published in the first 14 issues of the Sociology of Sport Journal reveals the priorities given to research topics and research methodologies among those Americans doing some of the more significant work in the field.
Financial Dependence and Organizational Autonomy: The Economy of Voluntary Sport in Denmark
Authors: Rskjaer Soren , Nielsen Klaus
Published: March 2007

In Denmark, as in most other Western European countries, sport has always been organized as a non-profit, voluntary sector, but the pattern in Denmark has changed significantly during the last decades. The traditional position between market and state is affected by changes in the financial structure and particularly by increasing public subsidies. As a result, the prescriptive autonomy of voluntary organized sport is threatened. Consequently, voluntary sport has developed a remarkable similarity with public provision of services.
Gender-Specific Research Premises for the Promotion of Women's Sports
Authors: Bodenstedt A.A. , Wasmund-Bodenstedt U.
Published: March 2007

Female involvement in sport has increased considerably, yet women's sport is placed second to men's. Sport sciences have contributed to perpetuating this situation. The methodology of comparing biological or physical factors of performance and capacity confirms male domination in sport. Quantitative differences are used to reconfirm ontological and evaluative statements about gender. Moreover, socio-psychic variables are rarely integrated into biological frameworks. Sex-specific role socialization becomes instrumental to physical capacity gaps between girls and boys at times when biological tests reveal different achievement levels. Interpretation neglects the broad range of overlapping performance results of the sexes.
Physical Contact in Women's Basketball: A First Interpretation
Authors: Rail Genevieve
Published: March 2007

This study investigated the phenomenon of physical contact, as experienced by female basketball players. Denzin's (1984) social phenomenological method was used and understanding of physical contact was reached through content analysis of in-depth, open ended interviews with members (N=14) of a women's university basketball team competing in Canada. The study unraveled the interrelationships, meanings and essential properties of the physical contact phenomenon. The present article focuses on the results of the deconstruction and reduction phases of the social phenomenological method used in the study. These results provide a new understanding of some of women athletes' crucial experiences in basketball.
Incorporation of Resistance?: Towards an Analysis of Women's Responses to Sexual Oppression in Sport
Authors: Dewar Alison Mackenzie
Published: March 2007

A feminist critique of sport in the cultural studies tradition is argued for in this paper. As a first step the paper examines the ideological positions adopted in existing research on gender issues in sport. This analysis identifies the ways in which different kinds of research accommodates to, and is incorporated within or challenges masculinist definitions of sport. The assumption is that by understanding the dynamics of different strategies to male defined sport and their consequences, it may be possible to challenge the orthodoxy and develop anti oppressive sporting practices and structures.
The Politics of Cultural Representation: Visions of Fields/Fields of Visions 1
Authors: Cole Cheryl L.
Published: March 2007

In this paper, I address the current debates around ethnography and propose a critical feminist ethnography which depends on the alternative narrative strategies suggested by experimental ethnography and the conceptual achievements offered by feminist standpoint epistemology and minor discourse theory. I argue, as have others, that the traditional scientistic-narrativc techniques associated with ethnography actively constrain theoretical knowledges, mystify power relations embedded in the text, while constructing Authorities with totalizing and omniscient vision. Experimental ethnography offers important textual interventions and revisions which challenge the orderliness and constructed Authorities imposed by realist narratives useful for those feminist projects which attempt to deal with the multiplicity of differences/domination. Postmodern feminist standpoint epistemology and minor discourse theory are concerned with recovering and representing historically repressed local knowledges and visions in ways that do not simply translate them into or through dominant critical/feminist theories. Such projects require ongoing critical dialogue among local voices, theory, and the ethnographer in which what counts as knowledge remains contestable and is contested. I argue that textual constructions of such projects must remain heteroglossic (representing multiple visions to readers) in order to potentially revise critical/feminist theory and practice.
Sport in the Era of Structural Changes: the Example of Eastern Europe
Authors: Krawczyk Zbigniew
Published: March 2007

Radical social changes in sport in Eastern Europe are a result of a break-up of the social and economic system, defined as real socialism. However, there are also autonomical origins for such changes, particularly economic incapacity, conceptional and ideological inadequacy, organizational and institutional disfunctionality, as well as inefficiency of the sport's managing elite. An attempt of an analysis and interpretation of these four problem areas was therefore made in this article.
The Culture Wars of the Montreal Olympics
Authors: Kidd Bruce
Published: March 2007

The Montreal Olympics are often remembered for their extravagant mismanagement and unfulfilled expectations, usually attributed to the city's flamboyant Mayor Drapeau. But this paper argues that the difficulties of the Montreal organizers must be understood in the context of a bitter clash of nationalisms and a deep-rooted debate about the purposes of sport, both of which served to divide the governments responsible for funding Canadian sport and undermine public confidence in the Games. The events themselves were quite successful, and the social investment in staging them contributed significantly to the long- term development of sports and fitness in many parts of Canada, but those accomplishments continue to be clouded by the contending nationalisms. While the Montreal Games created a brief moment of festive intercultural celebration, they did not unblock the dominant cultural rigidities of the host community.
The conflict between Tradition and Modernization in a Sport Organization: A Sociological Study of Issues Surrounding the Organizational Reformation of the all Japan Judo Federation
Authors: Saeki Toshio
Published: March 2007

This study examines the conflict between tradition and the movement towards modernization in sport organizations. Specifically the paper focuses on the issues surrounding the structural reformations of the All Japan Judo Federation(AJJF). In con junction with the widespread development of international competition modern-day sports organizations are under increasing social pressures to produce higher standards of performance. As a result, the need for modernization arises and conflicts with the traditional values of the organization. This study attempts to cast some light on the internal dissention of the AJJF during the period 1983-89. The paper demonstrates that the crisis was in essence a conflict between some members of the AJJF trying to maintain the traditions of the iemoto system with members of The All Japan Student Judo Federation sought to modernize the organization.
Is there any Value in Sports? About the Ethical Significance of Sport Activities
Authors: Bockrath Franz , Franke Elk
Published: March 2007

The question of a possible validity of competitive action is discussed in form of a pro-contra dialogue. With reference to the basic differentiation between value and norm ethical questions, F. Bockrath disputes an original value-relation of sport activities in a deontological sense. Amongst other points of reference, he justifies his argumentation by pointing out to the axiological differentiation of "object of values" and "values of objects". In this context he also denies the assumption that the moral significance of sport activities may be deduced from the rules of competition alone as regulative conditions of their existence.

In his replication, E. Franke develops the idea of a contractual validity of competitive actions. One of its ethical significant features of construction is the "agonal principle". The conditions of competition correspondingly are not merely an external, formal limitation of action but have a specific constitutive meaning - they make it possible to compare competitive actions to non-verbal performative acts.
Ethics and Top-Level Sport - A Paradox?
Authors: Volkwein Karin A.E.
Published: March 2007

The apparent crisis in top-level sport with its "winning-at-all-cost-mentality" stands in contrast to ethical and moral behavior. It is argued that the so-called "unethical" practices (i.e. doping, cheating, violence) are an expected outgrowth of top-level sport in modern society. Since sport is interwoven with the socio-cultural norms and values of a given society, generic sport ethics cannot help to solve the problems in top-level sport. Rather, codes of ethical conduct have to take into account the particular social and cultural framework.
Prevalent Values in Young Spanish Soccer Players
Authors: Cruz Jaume , Boixadós Mercè , Valiente Lourdes , Capdevila Lluis
Published: March 2007

The effects of sport participation on moral development of young people will depend on the directions made by the child's significant others as coaches, parents and friends. In this study we try to identify the dominant values in a sample of 40 Spanish male young soccer players (12-16 years old), through a semi-structured interview. The interview presents three different soccer situations, each situation allows to a dilemma. Content analysis of the answers and its justifications allowed to an identification of the underlying values of the player's responses. According to that subject's responses were grouped in 13 categories. As a whole, the players' more frequent values were: Winning, showing skills, usefulness (acting against the rules in order to obtain advantages for the team) and equity or justice. It must be followed from qualitative studies like this that a questionnaire has to be developed to easily assess the prevalent values on players of different sports, ages and levels of competition, as well as in their coaches. Such a questionnaire and some others observational tools, could also be useful to assess whether strategies applied to enhance fairplay have been successful.
Use of Art and Play Therapy in Pediatric Oncology
Authors: Walker Carolyn
Published: March 2007

Play enhances a child's physical growth and development and contributes to the mastery of language and social skills. It is essential for the child's psychological development and maturation. An overview of the field of play and art psychotherapy is presented with an outline of the function of play for the physically ill child. Techniques of play and art therapy that nurses can use for children with cancer, including therapeutic play, are described.
Pragmatics, "Situated" Language, and Business Communication
Authors: Limaye Mohan R. , Cherry Roger D.
Published: March 2007

The first part of this article identifies several variables from speech act theory and conversation analysis that might be applied to the study of business com munication. Recent work on politeness (by R. Lakoff, and Brown and Levinson) is found to be particularly relevant and useful. The second part of the article presents an exploratory study that examines several business let ters in order to see how principles derived from linguistic studies of politeness might advance the methodology used in business-communication research. The study indicates that theoretical work on politeness provides useful tools for analysing written discourse in business environments.
Teaching Attribution Theory With Graphical Displays of Performance Comparisons
Authors: Brown Karen A. , Mitchell Terence R.
Published: March 2007

This article describes a classroom exercise that is designed to demonstrate the applicability of attribu tion theories to performance diagnosis. Specifically, it shows how three information cues (consistency, con sensus, and distinctiveness) may be used by a super visor in determining the cause of a performance prob lem. These three cues provide comparisons across time, people, and tasks and are presented graphically in the exercise. Courses for which the exercise may apply include organizational behavior, personnel, managerial decision-making, and operations management.
Monitoring Strategies for Embedded Agents: Experiments and Analysis
Authors: Atkin Marc S. , Cohen Paul R.
Published: March 2007

Monitoring is an important activity for any embedded agent. To operate effectively, agents must gather information about their environment. The policy by which they do this is called a monitoring strategy. Our work has focused on classifying different types of monitoring strategies and understanding how strategies depend on features of the task and environment. We have discovered only a few general monitoring strategies, in particular periodic and interval reduction, and speculate that there are no more. The relative advantages and generality of each strategy will be discussed in detail. The wide applicability of interval reduction will be demonstrated both empirically and analytically. We conclude with a number of general laws that state when a strategy is most appropriate.
How Spatial Heterogeneity Influences Population Dynamics: Simulations in SEALAB
Authors: Le Page Christophe , Cury Philippe
Published: March 2007

The influence of nest site selection on population dynamics is explored by considering two reproductive strategies. The first one, described as opportunist, is the most common in ecology. It postulates that an individual tries to select and track the optimal environmental conditions that maximize its total reproductive output. The second one, described as obstinate, comes from a generalization of "natal homing" recently proposed by Cury (1994). It assumes that a newborn individual memorizes early environmental cues that later determine its reproductive environment. We use an individual-based model named SEALAB to track artificial fish in a heterogeneous environment displayed as a lattice of hexagonal patches. The effects of two components of the lattice structure—namely the composition (amount of each patch type) and the configuration (spatial arrangement of patches)—on the success of the searching behavior are examined. For the obstinate strategy, whose searching behavior is characterized by a simple random walk, a spatial redundancy index seems sufficient to account for the spatial heterogeneity influence, whereas for the opportunist strategy, more subtle indices are needed. We develop a quantitative measure of spatial local optima that could apply to any searching behavior based on local hill-climbing or local gradient information. Our results indicate how heterogeneity causes opportunist individuals to get stuck in local spatial optima. The use of a spatially explicit individual-based model such as SEALAB is justified by the possibility of carefully estimating simultaneously the value and the sensitivity of global parameters in relation to the spatial heterogeneity of the environment.
Adapting the Environment Instead of Oneself
Authors: Kirsh David
Published: March 2007

This article examines some of the methods used by animals and humans to adapt their environment. Because there are limits on the number of different tasks a creature can be designed to do well in, creatures with the capacity to redesign their environments have an adaptive advantage over those who can adapt only passively to existing environmental structures. To clarify environmental redesign, l rely on the formal notion of a task environment as a directed graph in which the nodes are states and the links are actions. One natural form of redesign is to change the topology of this graph structure so as to increase the likelihood of task success or to reduce its expected cost, measured in physical terms. This may be done by eliminating initial states, hence eliminating choice points; by changing the action repertoire; by changing the consequence function; and, lastly, by adding choice points. Another major method for adapting the environment is to change its cognitive congeniality. Such changes leave the state space formally intact but reduce the number and cost of mental operations needed for task success; they reliably increase the speed, accuracy, or robustness of performance. The last section of the article describes several of these epistemic or complementary actions found in human performance.
Learning to Adapt to Changing Environments in Evolving Neural Networks
Authors: Nolfi Stefano , Parisi Domenico
Published: March 2007

To study learning as an adaptive process, one must take into consideration the role of evolution, which is the primary adaptive process. In addition, learning should be studied in (artificial) organisms that live in an independent physical environment in such a way that the input from the environment can be at least partially controlled by the organisms' behavior. To explore these issues, we used a genetic algorithm to simulate the evolution of a population of neural networks, each controlling the behavior of a small mobile robot that must explore efficiently an environment surrounded by walls. Because the environment changes from one generation to the next, each network must learn during its life to adapt to the particular environment into which it happens to be born. We found that evolved networks incorporate a genetically inherited predisposition to learn that can be described as (1) the presence of initial conditions that tend to canalize learning in the right directions; (2) the tendency to behave in a way that enhances the perceived differences between different environments and determines input stimuli that facilitate the learning of adaptive changes; and (3) the ability to reach desirable stable states.
The Influence of Light-Dark Adaptation and Lateral Inhibition on Phototaxic Foraging: A Hypothetical Animal Study
Authors: Bertin René J. V , van de Grind Wim A.
Published: March 2007

Vision did not arise and evolve merely so that individuals might "see" things but rather so that they might act on and interact with their habitat. Thus it might be misleading to study vision without looking also at its natural coupling to vital action. Here we investigate this problem in a simulation study of the simplest kind of visually guided foraging by a species of two-dimensional hypothetical animal called the (diurnal) paddler. In a previous study, we developed a hypothetical animal called the archaepaddler, which used positive phototaxis to forage for autoluminescent prey in a totally dark environment (the deep sea). Here we discuss possible visual mechanisms that allow (diurnal) paddlers to live in shallower water, foraging for light-reflecting prey in ambient light. The modification consists of two stages. In the first stage, Weber adaptation compresses the retinal illumination into an acceptable range of neural firing frequencies. In the second stage, high-pass filtering with lateral inhibition separates background responses from foreground responses. We report on a number of parameter studies conducted with the foraging diurnal paddler, in which the influence of dark-light adaptation and lateral inhibition on foreground-background segregation and foraging performance ("fitness") are quantified. It is shown that the paddler can survive adequately for a substantial range of parameters that compromises between discarding as much unwanted visual (background) information as possible and retaining as much information on potential prey as possible. Parameter values that optimize purely visual performance, such as foreground-background segregation, are not always optimal for foraging performance, and vice versa. This article shows that studies of vision might indeed require more serious consideration of the goals of vision and the ethogram of the studied organisms than has been customary.
Anytime Learning and Adaptation of Structured Fuzzy Behaviors
Authors: Bonarini Andrea
Published: March 2007

We present an approach to support effective learning and adaptation of behaviors for autonomous agents with reinforcement learning algorithms. These methods can identify control systems that optimize a reinforcement program, which is, usually, a straightforward representation of the designer's goals. Reinforcement learning algorithms usually are too slow to be applied in real time on embodied agents, although they provide a suitable way to represent the desired behavior. We have tackled three aspects of this problem: the speed of the algorithm, the learning procedure, and the control system architecture. The learning algorithm we have developed includes features to speed up learning, such as niche-based learning, and a representation of the control modules in terms of fuzzy rules that reduces the search space and improves robustness to noisy data. Our learning procedure exploits methodologies such as learning from easy missions and transfer of policy from simpler environments to the more complex. The architecture of our control system is layered and modular, so that each module has a low complexity and can be learned in a short time. The composition of the actions proposed by the modules is either learned or predefined. Finally, we adopt an anytime learning approach to improve the quality of the control system on-line and to adapt it to dynamic environments.

The experiments we present in this article concern learning to reach another moving agent in a real, dynamic environment that includes nontrivial situations such as that in which the moving target is faster than the agent and that in which the target is hidden by obstacles.
Administrators' Beliefs About the Role of the Public: the Case of American Federal Executives
Authors: Aberbach Joel D. , Rockman Bert A.
Published: March 2007

Faced with the steady growth of technological operations in government, to what extent and in what way can citizen participation in administra tion be preserved? A century ago the distinction between citizen and official was slight, passage from one status to the other was easy. Now inexpert participation in whole blocks of administration has become im possible, the distinction between official and citizen is more definite and permanent, a bureaucracy has emerged out of the conditions of modern government.... The reconciliation of democratic institutions and a pro fessionalized bureaucracy ... is one of the major perplexities of the future. 1
The Double Language Boundary in Cross-Cultural Surveys
Authors: Naroll Raoul
Published: March 2007

Language is the most widely proposed criterion for operational culture- bearing units used in cross-cultural surveys. The double boundary method eliminates the need to define exact language boundaries. The solution pro poses : (1) choosing a particular local community, at a particular point in time, as the sampling unit; (2) checking its linguistic affiliation in Voegelin and Voegelin's "Languages of the World" (keeping in mind that if two units belong to the same language group, one must be discarded from the sample unless there is clear evidence that they are obviously mutually unintelligible); and (3) checking each focal unit for linguistic heterogeneity. When time focus follows colonial administration, Naroll proposes possible measures to control for colonial influence.
Cross-Sex Patterns of Kin Behavior: A Comment
Authors: Goody Jack , Buckley Joan
Published: March 2007

Murdock's recent analysis of standardized behavior associated with pairs of cross-sex kin emphasizes the "nearly identical distribution" throughout the world. While recognizing the broad similarities, the authors point to certain differences between continental areas that are related to specific social factors, including the structure of descent groups and the nature of marriage arrangements.
Urbanization and Other Dimensions of Socioeconomic Development: A Cross-National, Longitudinal Analysis
Authors: Hill Robert H.
Published: March 2007

Previous research is organized into two distinct approaches, the cor- relational approach and the overurbanization thesis. Each of these is re viewed and criticized. The major deficiencies of each approach are related to the failure to explore more fully the different relationships between the major variables for nations at different levels of socioeconomic development, in different geocultural regions, and in different time periods. This paper presents the results of some research which is directed at exploring these differentials.
Significance of the Father for the Son's Masculine Identity
Authors: Kitahara Michio
Published: March 2007

The significance of the son's insufficient contact with his father during infancy in regard to circumcision and segregation at puberty was examined. It was found that among polygynous societies in which each co-wife lives in a separate quarter with her children, where they have limited contact with their father, males are significantly more likely to be circumcised or segregated. The arrangement of separate quarters for co-wives appears to be a key factor in explaining a long postpartum sexual taboo, circumcision, and segregation. It is not the long postpartum sexual taboo but the separa tion of each co-wife that is instrumental in bringing about circumcision and sepreeation.
On the Origin and Extension of the Incest Taboo
Authors: Ember Melvin
Published: March 2007

This paper presents new evidence and a model which are consistent with the theory that the prohibition of familial mating became universal and may have originated because of the problem of inbreeding. The new evi dence has to do with why the incest taboo may be extended to first cousins; of all the available theories, only that of inbreeding seems to explain the cross-cultural variation in cousin marriage. The model described here gen erates estimates of reproductive rates that might have obtained in earlier hypothetical populations. These estimates suggest that the differences in re productive rates between familial and nonfamilial matings may have been great enough for people to have recognized the disadvantage of inbreeding and to have consciously prohibited it.
Using Date of European Contact for Time-Lagged Variables in Cross-Cultural Surveys
Authors: Divale William Tulio
Published: March 2007

A new technique for causal analysis of cross-cultural surveys is presented. The epistemological assumption is that for any given sociocultural process, the ethnographic universe contains societies that were at different stages of the process when they were ethnographically described. To set up a causal design, one must logically deduce the different stages through which a particular society undergoing the process would pass. Thus, instead of making a series of diachronic measurements of the variables in each society, the diachronic changes in the variables would be represented by a series of synchronic measurements made in different societies at different stages of the process. Two examples of the use of this technique in previous research are presented, and, as a further example, it is suggested how the technique could be used to test Wallace's theory of Revitalization Move ments.
Female Status and Cultural Evolution: A Study in Ethnographer Bias
Authors: Divale William Tulio
Published: March 2007

The theory that female status will increase with societal complexity is tested. Two independent measures of female status are compared with a measure of societal complexity. Both tests produce significant results, but in a direction opposite that of the hypothesis. With increases in societal complexity, there is a decrease in female status. Four data quality control factors were routinely applied to test for the presence of systematic eth nographer bias. The DQC tests suggest that the negative relationship be tween female status and complexity is a spurious one, which can be plausi bly explained by the ethnographer's sex, length of jield stay, and ability to speak the native language, as well as the century in which the fieldwork was done. Further analysis suggests that unbiased reporting of female sta tus is possible by female ethnographers and by male ethnographers who have worked under optimal field conditions (field stays of over one year, plus native language familiarity). Among this group of observers, the orig inal hypothesis receives support: high female status is found at all levels of complexity, while low female status is found primarily among less com plex societies.
Entailment Theory and Method: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Sexual Division of Labor
Authors: White Douglas R. , Burton Michael L. , Brudner Lilyan A.
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this paper is to explore a more precise form for theoretical propositions in certain types of cross-cultural problems and to develop and explicate an accompanying statistical method. An inductive application of the method of entailment analysis has led us to formulate a new and power ful theory of the sexual division of labor.
Social Integration and Suicide: A Test of Durkheim's Theory
Authors: Masumura Wilfred T.
Published: March 2007

Durkheim's proposition that suicide varies inversely with social inte gration is subjected to a holocultural test, using three indicators of social integration. Contrary to Durkheim's thesis, suicide is found to vary directly with societal integration. An explanation of this finding is offered, em ploying a distinction between the integration of the group as a whole and the integration of individuals within groups.
Cargo Cults and Relational Separation
Authors: Knauft Bruce M.
Published: March 2007

Colonial disruption of indigenous norms of equivalence has caused se vere cultural stress in Melanesia. Decrease of culture contact highlights Melanesian dependence on Westerners and increases the indigenes' need to explain the origin of cargo. It is hypothesized that the disruption entailed by a cargo cult (as distinct from a cargo movement) varies di rectly with the degree to which indigenes became separated from agents of Western culture directly prior to the cult outbreak. The hypothesis is supported by empirical analysis of twenty-one cargo cults. A relative absence of contact between a social unit and another social unit upon which it is dependent is here termed relational separation. In many social situations extreme relational separation promotes markedly erratic or atypi cal behavior. Collective relational separation seems a significant precipitant of cargo cults and possibly of other large-scale millenarian movements.
Ethnographer Oversight in Reporting of Sex Differences in Aggression Training
Authors: Minturn Leigh , Guthrie Pamela
Published: March 2007

This study measures sex differences in reward for aggressive behavior in children, punishment for aggressive behavior in children, and frequency of aggressive behavior in children. We used ethnographic reports from the Human Relations Area Files as a basis for measuring these variables. The results indicate that ethnographers report sex differences in reward and punishment for aggression and in frequency of aggression when the amount of these behaviors is high, and fail to report sex differences in these be haviors when the amount is low. This systematic oversight in reporting renders a substantive test of hypotheses impossible.
Using the Outline of Cultural Materials as a Basis for Indexing the Content of Ethnographic Films
Authors: Kreiss Laura , Stocktont Elizabeth
Published: March 2007

We indexed and coded footage from the Smithsonian Institution and the National Institutes of Health according to the Outline of Cultural Materials (Murdock et al. 1961). We modified the indexing and coding to increase the utility and specificity required by the users. We indexed down to in dividual frames and sequences in order to permit rapid identification of required and relevant footage. We found that uniform systems and practices of film referencing enable users to examine diversified film footage for cross-cultural research, and help them to cross index written and visual information.
Totem and Taboo, Purity and Danger ... and Fads and Fashion in the Study of Pollution Rules
Authors: Carroll Michael P.
Published: March 2007

Although most sociologists and anthropologists have some familiarity with that portion of Freud (1918) that deals with the incest taboo and totemism, his discussion of pollution rules there has generally been overlooked. I test here three hypotheses with data from the Standard Cross Cultural Sample: one is derived from Freud (1918); a second from Stephens (1962); and a third from Douglas (1966). Only Freud's hypothesis is supported.
Male-Female Relationships in Cross-Cultural Perspective: A Study of Sex and Intimacy
Authors: Broude Gwen J.
Published: March 2007

The relationship between the sexual and nonsexual aspects of male- female interaction across cultures is explored. Results indicate that societies are neither entirely consistent nor entirely arbitrary in their patterning of heterosexual relationships. Three clusters or dimensions of opposite-sex interaction were isolated so that variables within a cluster were highly correlated and variables in different clusters were largely unrelated. This research suggests that sexual relationships, nonsexual intimacy, and male sexual orientation are not highly related to each other.
The Quality and Quantity of Data for Cross-Cultural Studies'
Authors: Ember Carol R.
Published: March 2007

This paper was delivered as the Presidential Address at the 15th annual meeting of the Society for Cross-Cultural Research, February 16, 1986 in San Diego. It reviews two major points of view about data quality represented by Murdock and Naroll and suggests some solu tions for dealing with problems about data quality. To improve the quality and quantity of data available for cross-cultural work, it is recommended that the Society for Cross-Cultural Research actively undertake to create and publish miniature data banks containing qualitative and quantitative data not previously available in the public record.
Moral Reasoning in Radical and Non-Radical German Students
Authors: Gielen Uwe P.
Published: March 2007

Ninety-one West German university students responded to Kohlberg's moral judgment interview, Q-sorts, TATs, and questions about background, political attitudes, and behavior patterns. Morally conventional Ss gave fewer liberal, non-authority-bound decisions on the moral interviews, were politically conventional, were less involved in political protests, went to church more often, studied practical applied subjects, had steady partners, and described themselves as relatively calm, fair, self-controlled, and orderly. Ss who were transi tional between conventional and principled morality were often politically radical, had tense relationships with parents, had been involved in physical fights, studied law or the humanities, lived alone, scored lower on n Affiliation, and described themselves as rebellious, argumentative, restless, doubting, and aloof. Principled Ss participated in radical activities, studied law or humanities, had tense relationships with parents, were less likely to live in dormitories, often lacked steady partners, and described themselves as talkative, genuine, authentic, self-confident, and yet tense. Considerable similarities exist between these results and findings in American studies.
Some Correlates of Maturity of Moral Reasoning in Finland
Authors: Helkama Klaus , Ikonen Merja
Published: March 2007

The relationship of Kohlberg's stages of moral reasoning to various forms of social participation, family size, and responsibility-related responses to moral judgmental and projective story completion tasks was studied in two samples of Finnish preadolescents, adolescents, and young adults. Peer-rated leadership, number of leadership roles, and number of siblings were found to be associated with advances in moral stages for all age groups. Persons at each higher stage of moral structure more often attributed responsibility for the consequences of inaction in their moral judgments and in projective guilt responses and saw their consciences as being more active. Projective guilt over inaction was more clearly related to moral stage in females than in males. Females also showed greater guilt over cheating than males at all stage levels. The intensity of guilt over cheating increased up to Stage 3, but not beyond it, for both sexes. The results are interpreted as supporting both Kohlberg's theory and the existence of an orientation to responsibility in women, as suggested by Gilligan (1982).
Male and Female Age Organizations and Secret Societies in Africa
Authors: Ericksen Karen Paige
Published: March 2007

Despite the considerable research and theory that have been devoted to age organizations and secret societies on the African continent, neither of these institutions has been operationally defined, nor has the role of either one within the larger society been investigated empirically. This research presents definitions of both types of organi zation for both males and females, and a set of explicit codes for each of their major sociopolitical roles within African cultures. Ratings on a sample of societies from the 113 African cultural clusters produce statistical patterns that suggest a number of hypotheses for future empirical investigation. Age organizations for females as well as for males are more widespread than previously assumed. The wide prevalence of secret societies, many of which include females, suggests that the examination of their social significance has been seriously neglected. The development of a set of explicit codes provides a necessary first step in the cross-cultural analysis of these organizations within Africa as well as in other world regions.
Bibliography of Cross-Cultural Research Methods
Authors: Ember Carol R.
Published: March 2007

This bibliography is part of a larger effort at the Human Relations Area Files to compile and consolidate information on cross-cultural compar isons. The present bibliography focuses largely on papers and books which are primarily methodological or have substantial methodological components that address regional or worldwide comparisons of societies based on secondary sources. I have also included articles which propose a cross-cultural sample.

Because I consider this to be an on-going effort, I welcome readers to offer additions and update their work. It would be most helpful if individu als could send reprints of their articles; the Human Relations Area Files maintains an archive of cross-cultural research studies. I wish to thank the National Science Foundation for partial support of this project (BNS- 8911173) and all those authors who have already responded to requests for verification and updating. At the Human Relations Area Files, I wish to thank Victoria Crocco for her help with correspondence and typing, as well as Melvin Ember, David Levinson, M. Marlene Martin, and Timothy O'Leary.
. Differences in Exploration of Toys By One-Year-Old Children: a Korean and American Comparison
Authors: Hupp Susan C. , Fong Lam Shui , Jaeger Janice
Published: March 2007

This study compared the play of Korean and American one-year-olds, to determine differences in behaviors reflective of mastery motivation. The two groups of children exhibited similar levels of mastery behavior (goal-directed exploration); however, the American children used general exploration significantly more than did the Korean children. There were significant differences as well in parental behavior during the play sessions. The two groups of parents also differed with respect both to their percep tions of their children's play and to their child-rearing attitudes.
Warfare, Aggression, and Resource Problems: Cross-Cultural Codes
Authors: Ember Carol R. , Ember Melvin
Published: March 2007

This paper presents and discusses codes for the Murdock/White (1969) sample societies. The codes measure warfare frequencies (internal, external, and overall); land and nonland resources taken during war; individual and socially organized aggression (homicide, assault, theft, trespass, suicide); and unpredictable and pre dictable resource problems
Street Children in the Developing World: A Review of Their Condition
Authors: Aptekar Lewis
Published: March 2007

The article reviews the literature on street children and points out why there are street children in certain cultures and not in others. The reasons for their existence are related to poverty, abuse, and modernizing factors. Street children are defined and distinguished from working and refugee children. Details about the family struc ture of street children are given. How the children cope and their level of psychological functioning are discussed. The article gives reasons for why the children are treated with such violence and gives attention to methodological research problems that include the children's ability to distort information, the researcher's procliv ity to under- or overestimate the children's emotional condition, distortions of facts created by the press and international organiza tions, and general cross-cultural research issues.
Work Centrality in Germany, Israel, Japan, and the United States
Authors: Harpaz Itzhak , Xuanning Fu
Published: March 2007

An attempt was made to ascertain the meaning of work variables affecting work centrality in Germany, Israel, Japan, and the United States. Expressive orientation and the societal norms of obligation were found to affect work centrality consistently. Females in these countries assigned less importance to work centrality than did males; educational level also contributed negatively to work central ity. The remaining variables were less consistent yet strong predic tors of work centrality. Interpersonal relations had a negative impact on work centrality in Japan and the United States but were not significant in Germany and Israel. Instrumental orientation was a negative predictor in three countries, Germany being the exception, as was entitlement, with the exception of Israel. Finally, actual income had a positive influence on work centrality in Japan and Israel, a negative one in Germany, and none in the United States. Various cultural dimensions are presented to account for these findings.
Cross-National Comparison of Religious Conviction and the Meaning of Work
Authors: Harpaz Itzhak
Published: March 2007

This article examines religious conviction in relation to the meaning of work through representative samples of the labor forces in Ger many, Israel, and the Netherlands. Among workers with strong religious convictions in Germany and the Netherlands, the meaning of work was positively related to the variables of work centrality, obligation norms, and intrinsic orientation. However, the same workers negatively related the meaning of work to economic orien tation and entitlement norms. The picture in Israel was the opposite. Nonreligious Israelis, Germans, and Dutch people with strong religious convictions seemed to adhere to the Judeo-Protestant work ethic.
Review : Apoptosis and Spinal Cord Injury
Authors: Beattie Michael S. , Shuman Sheri L. , Bresnahan Jacqueline C.
Published: March 2007

Apoptosis is the morphological counterpart of active, genetically programmed cell death and is important in development, immune function, and carcinogenesis. Recent data suggest that apoptosis may be important in neurodegenerative disorders, ischemic brain injury, and neurotrauma as well. Here we review very recent data from our laboratory and others that show that at least some of the pronounced secondary injury that follows spinal cord injury (SCI) may be caused by apoptosis and associated intracellular death pathways. Both neurons and glia seem to die by apoptosis; the response of oligodendrocytes in long tracts undergoing Wallerian degeneration is particularly long lived and may be responsible for chronic demyelination and some of the dysfunction in chronic SCI. These findings suggest that the therapeutic window for treatment of acute SCI may extend into the chronic phase. In addition, proliferation of ependymal cells occurs in concert with cell death, suggesting that both degeneration and repair may occur at the same time. Therapies aimed at altering the balance between these cellular events may be useful for future treatments of SCI. NEURO SCIENTIST 4:163-171, 1998
Recursive Parameter Identification of a Class of Nonlinear Systems From Noisy Measurements
Authors: Moustafa Kamal A.F. , Emara-Shabaik Hosam E.
Published: March 2007

A model is proposed to identify the parameters of a class of stochastic nonlinear systems. The model structure is made up of two linear dynamic elements separated by a nonlinear static one. The nonlinear element is assumed to be of the polynomial type with known order. The identification is based on input/output data where the output is contaminated with measurement noise. The convergence analysis of the proposed recursive identification algorithm utilizes stochastic Lyapunov functions. Sufficient conditions for the almost sure convergence of the estimated parameters to the true ones are obtained.
Modeling and Control of a Manipulator Joint Driven Through a Worm Gear Transmission
Authors: May D.C. , Jayasuriya S. , Mooring B.W.
Published: March 2007

The worrnscrew gearset provides a potential advantage for some robot manipulator designs because of its simplicity, compactness, and capacity for large speed-reduction ratios. However, an oscillatory behavior has been observed in such implementations that, depending on the extension and loading of the manipulator, tends to grow as the manipulator is lowered under the influence of gravity and disappears as the manipulator is raised. The oscillations can become quite large, crippling the utility of the manipulator The growing oscillations are indicative of an instability. However, it is not immediately apparent why such a system should be unstable. The objectives of this work were to find the source of the oscillatory behavior and to determine whether feedback control can be employed to stabilize such a system.