bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The United Arab Emirates and Japan: Diversifying Bilateral Relationships and Challenges in the Context of Japan’s New Foreign Policy Focus and US-Japan Relation
Authors: Nishizaki Sumiyo
Published: August 2013

In this article, I analyze the Japan-Middle East-U.S. triangle relationship. Japan’s Middle East policies, the author contends, have been influenced by its energy needs and relationship with the United States. Fully aware of its status as a country with hardly any energy resources, Japan has engaged in energy diplomacy and investment in oil fields in the Middle East. This article describes how, despite pursuing an energy strategy largely independent of the United States, Japan has constantly needed to take into account its relationship with the Americans, and Japan has slowly shifted toward more frequent support for American policy especially after the Gulf War in 1990. At the same time, Japan’s Middle East policies have been influenced by its domestic politics. For example, former Prime Minister Koizumi’s post-September 11 plan to let Japan’s military forces play a more prominent role in the War on Terror was crushed by his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). This article explains that LDP politicians were afraid that supporting the war would undermine Japan’s economic interests in the Muslim world and how the Democratic Party of Japan which took office this September has attempted to pursue a more independent position in its relations with the United States. This article also explores the shifts in Japan’s Middle East policies under the new administration and their implications on US-Japan relations.
The Vicissitudes of Japan-Saudi Relations
Authors: Penn Michael
Published: August 2013

The article presents an outline of Japan’s relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since the late 1930s. The Japan-Saudi relationship deserves attention because it has been one of the world’s most important economic axes for decades: Saudi Arabia has been the world’s leading exporter of crude oil and Japan has been the major industrial economy most directly dependent on Persian Gulf oil. The author shows how the pattern of Japan-Saudi relations has in fact been rather curious to the extent that while the bilateral oil connection has remained generally stable, the political relationship has gone through remarkable cycles of boom and bust. This Japan-Saudi relationship began strong in the late 1950’s but was tried when Saudi leaders responded to Japan’s refusal to take a clear stand on the Palestinian issue and other matters of concern to the Arab world. Tokyo was finally forced to come off the fence during the 1973 Oil Crisis, and paid due attention to oil diplomacy for about a decade. The author analyzes how this relationship develops further through the Kuwait War of 1990-1991, the discontinuation of the Arabian Oil concession in Khafji in 2000, the Iraq War, and the massive PetroRabigh project on the Red Sea Coast.
Transcending Multilateral Conflicts in Eurasia: Some Sustainable Peaceful Alternatives
Authors: Kaw Mushtaq A.
Published: August 2013

In this article I argue that notwithstanding intermittent conflicts and wars among the nomadic and sedentary peoples since early times, the Asian and Middle Eastern region has been characteristic of relative peace and prosperity. This region has been known for the boom in energy trade, globalization and amalgamation of local, national and global economies during the post-Cold War era. I show how, at least in part, the gradual improvement in the indicators of social sustainability, human security and economic growth, was the natural concomitant of the historical position of this region. Yet, speedy progress in the region, this article shows, is impeded by divergent geo-political, geo-economic and geo-strategic agendas of the regional and global powers; these find manifestation in the conflicts in Middle East, Caucasia, Afghanistan, Indian Kashmir, Chinese part of Turkistan (Xinjiang) etc. The conflicts are diverse in nature, time and space, and are pre-emptive of enormous malice, hatred and heart burning among the contending parties. To downs-size one another, they perpetually build military capability and enhance defense expenditure, in hundreds of thousands of US dollars at the cost of public works, human security and precious national resources. I conclude that the conflicts can be overcome through peaceful means rather than use of force. Several alternatives are warranted for the purpose: (i) engagement of conflicting parties in composite dialogue for generational sustainability, (ii) promotion of regional and economic integration while marginalizing ethno-national, ethno-geographic, ethno-religious and ethno-sectarian disputes, (iii) revival of the region’s rich tradition of multiculturalism and human co-existence, and (iv) glorification of peace message in Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and other religions. The objective is simply making history relevant to the contemporary society, and bolstering peace efforts of the nations, philanthropists and civil society in an otherwise war-torn and conflict-ridden Asian and Middle Eastern space.
The naþf, the sophisticate, and the party girl
Authors: Adkins Madeleine , Davis Jenny L.
Published: August 2013

Expanding upon research that has explored the reproduction of hegemonic gender norms in foreign language education, this paper analyses the stereotypes of gender and sexual hegemony, as well as a potentially subversive counterexample, in a Breton language web-based video comedy series designed to celebrate and promote the language, and explores the potential impact of these norms in this critically important endangered language revitalization context. Given that there is almost no intergenerational transmission of the Breton language, and that only a limited number of young people are educated in immersion and bilingual programmes, the Breton language has already largely disappeared from everyday life in Brittany; in response to this reality, Breton language media outlets have been established to reach out to the younger generation of speakers and encourage them to maintain interest in Breton after leaving school. This study offers insights into the complex interweaving of tradition, gender, and modernity in language revitalization efforts, and discusses the impact of such programming upon the Breton language community in Brittany and the Breton diaspora.
Language revitalization and the (re)constituting of gender
Authors: Ahlers Jocelyn C.
Published: August 2013

While many authors have investigated the processes by which children are socialized into gender roles within their communities of practice, and others have taken up an examination of the ways in which gender is a consideration in language endangerment and revitalization, the process of gender socialization in communities working towards language revitalization has been less well examined. The purpose of this paper is to examine gender role socialization in the context of Native California language endangerment and revitalization. The goal is to gain a deeper understanding of the ways in which the ideologies linked to gender roles in the traditional cultures associated with endangered Native California languages of heritage are expressed and understood, particularly as they interact with gender ideologies from a surrounding, dominant society. The particular focus of this paper is an examination of the impact of those ideologies on the deployment of silence as a salient attribute of women’s speech in contexts which are framed as traditional and closely tied to Native California languages of heritage.
Reframing language reclamation programmes for everybody’s empowerment
Authors: Leonard Wesley Y.
Published: August 2013

Although indigenous language reclamation programmes can empower their participants, they can also inhibit those who do not identify with the cultural values or practices that these programmes promote. I theorize that this occurs because ‘reclamation’ programmes evoke an essentialist notion of culture whereby participants feel pressure to act, think or speak in certain ways, particularly those that are deemed to be ‘traditional’. However, since participants have also been socialized into the norms of the dominant society, various identity conflicts can arise. This paper investigates this issue through the example of how gender roles are manifested, understood and promoted in the context of Miami language reclamation programmes. I demonstrate how inhibition can arise in the context of these efforts, locate this phenomenon in larger issues of identity and indigenous language reclamation, and conclude with proposals for how reclamation programmes can be framed differently so that they can empower the entire target community.
On-line constructions of metrosexuality and masculinities
Authors: Hall Matthew , Gough Brendan , Seymour-Smith Sarah , Hansen Susan
Published: August 2013

The relatively recent growth of identity categories for men participating in non-conventional masculine activities can be linked to contemporary consumption and lifestyle opportunities (Gill et al., 2005). While there have been various studies pertaining to media representations of ‘metrosexuality’, ‘new’ masculinities, and the marketing of health and beauty products to men, we currently know little about how men define, ascribe to and disavow contemporary identity markers such as ‘metrosexual’. The existence of on-line forums dedicated to the discussion of metrosexuality provides an obvious opportunity to examine contemporary masculinities. In this paper we report on a study of one such internet forum, using membership categorisation analysis (Sacks, 1972, 1992) to investigate the deployment of metrosexuality and related identity categories. Our analysis highlights the masculinised parameters through which metrosexuality is taken up (and rejected), which include notions of vanity, conspicuous consumption, professional status and sexual prowess. The continued influence of hegemonic forms of masculinity in this context is discussed.
‘That is the dad and this is the mum’
Authors: Ericsson Stina
Published: August 2013

Based on a corpus of everyday adult-child conversations in Swedish, the study uses interactional linguistics to explore how sexual identity is managed by adults and young children. The five children are studied longitudinally, from about one and a half to three and a half years of age. The management of sexual identity is shown overwhelmingly to concern the management of heterosexuality, the conversations showing a strongly heteronormative view. Two areas are identified through which adults and children recreate heteronormativity. The first of these is romantic attraction, through comments and discussions concerning attractiveness, weddings and marriage, kissing, and handholding. The second area involves heterosexual couples and families, such as a speaker talking about a neighbouring couple or family, or speakers creating a ‘play family’ using stuffed animals. The analysis shows how the normalising of the heterosexual nuclear family starts early in life for the children involved, and how it is part of ordinary everyday activities. The analysis also indicates a gender difference, in that talk concerning romantic attraction is mainly found in conversations with girls, and the construction of pretend families during make believe and playing only exists in conversations with girls.
Talking translation
Authors: Zethsen Karen Korning , Askehave Inger
Published: August 2013

It is a well-known fact that most translators are women and it is a fact which is often mentioned in translation discourse: translation is a so-called female occupation. But is this also a relevant fact and in which ways? In this article we aim to investigate how male and female translators talk about their occupation and whether gender is a relevant factor in how translators perceive their work. Our data consists of 18 narratives written by 9 male and 9 female non-literary professional translators who have been asked to write about their occupation as translators (in a semi-structured way). The data will be analysed and our findings structured by means of Greimas’ actantial model. A general conclusion is that whereas male and female translators choose to talk about the same themes they sometimes talk about them in different ways emphasising different aspects.
Feminist translation and feminist sociolinguistics in dialogue
Authors: Ergün Emek
Published: August 2013

This article, focusing on Turkish and English, explores various intersections between feminist translation and feminist sociolinguistics to bring the fields into conversation and expand their intellectual and geopolitical scopes. The first section discusses the broad historical points of connection by concentrating on the critiques of sexist language. Thus, it demonstrates how the fields share a common feminist politics of language. This intersection is illustrated by an example from my Turkish translation of Hanne Blank’s Virgin. The second section explores a more specific alliance by examining feminist critiques and manipulations of pro/nominal gender systems. This discussion is supported by more examples from my translation, as well as examples from Cemile Çak?r’s Turkish translation of Leslie Feinberg’s Stone Butch Blues. The last section provides feminist sociolinguistics and translation teachers with ideas on how interdisciplinary cooperations can expand students’ political awareness of gender/sexuality dynamics with regard to language and translation. The significance of this intersection is demonstrated by a translation experiment.
Talking at cross-purposes?
Authors: Castro Olga
Published: August 2013

Following decades of feminist linguistic activism, and as a result of a greater awareness of the vital role that non-sexist language plays in achieving social equality, different campaigns were launched in many countries leading to a more frequent use of so-called inclusive language. Bringing this together with current theoretical approaches to translation studies which have been defining translation as an ideological act of intercultural mediation since the 1990’s, this article seeks to examine to what extent feminist linguistics have had any influence on translation studies. My purpose is to assess whether particular feminist linguistic interventions in vogue when writing ‘original’ texts within the realm of the source language are also adopted when (re)writing ‘translated’ texts in the target language, bearing in mind the double (con)textual responsibility that translators have towards the source and the target (con)texts. I will examine the arguments for and against the use of inclusive language in (literary) translation through an analysis of the “ideological struggle” that emerged from two ideologically disparate rewritings of gender markers into Galician of the British bestseller The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon (2003), focusing on the ideological, poetic and economic pressures that (still) define the professional practice of translation. It is my contention that the close scrutiny of these conflicting arguments will shed light not only on the existing gap between the theory and practice of translation, but may be also indicative of a possible ‘missing link’ between feminist approaches to linguistics and to translation studies.
Introduction: Gender, language and translation at the crossroads of disciplines
Authors: Castro Olga
Published: August 2013

Introduction. The fact that ‘gender is an omni-relevant category in most social practices’ (Lazar 2005:3) lies at the very core of both feminist linguistics and feminist translation studies. Admittedly, most of the scholarly works produced within these two dynamic fields in the last three decades emphasize the role that language and translation play in the construction of the social world. In particular, much attention has been paid to investigating how gender roles are discursively constructed through language and translation – both understood as social practices per se – and how gender definitions are constantly interacting with other similarly constructed parameters such as race, geography, class or sexuality, therefore having consequences at the level of material practice.
The government in contact with its citizens
Authors: Elmiger Daniel
Published: August 2013

In Switzerland, three languages are regularly used by the Federal Administration: German, French and Italian (being a semi-official language, Rhaeto-Romanic – or Romansh – is less regularly in use). Thus many official texts are translated from one official language into the others. The new Federal Language Law (Sprachengesetz, Loi sur les langues, Legge sulle lingue, Lescha da linguas) adopted in 2007 demands that official language use must be adequate, clear and intelligible as well as non-sexist. Non-sexist language has been required in the German section of the Federal Chancellery for about 15 years, whereas the French and Italian sections have shown little interest in modifying their use of language, sticking to a more traditional language use in which masculine terms are used both specifically as well as generically. In our article, we offer a brief overview of the legal and linguistic situation in multilingual Switzerland, where language use is being regulated not only on the federal, but also on the cantonal and municipal level. We will then focus more specifically on official texts that the Chancellery sends to Swiss citizens – information about legal issues, elections or votes, which must be made available as translations in every official language –. The following questions are dealt with: How does the legal context in Switzerland encourage non-sexist language use? To what degree do the official languages comply with non-sexist language use? In particular, do they admit or avoid generically used masculine forms? What differences can be observed in various translated versions of the same text?
Translating international gender-equality institutional/legal texts
Authors: Santaemilia José
Published: August 2013

Drafting international institutional/legal texts is one of the most delicate instances of social writing, as it affects our lives at personal, social and collective levels. In an era in which full equality between the sexes is promoted, international legislative and political bodies are especially encouraged to remove any traces of racial, ethnic or sexual discrimination. In this paper my primary aim is to analyse how international gender-equality texts – carefully worded and crafted in English – are translated into Spanish, one of the world’s leading languages and one of the main doors to (international) effective gender equality. Gender-equality institutional texts are highly sensitive, and their translation is not simply a linguistic matter, but rather a socio-cultural and ideological issue. The Spanish versions may be the result, on the one hand, of ideological negotiation and compromise, and on the other hand, of personal struggle to come to terms with the meaning of gender equality. Translating international gender-equality texts is a privileged site to test the various meanings of gender across cultures.
Fuck as a metaphor for male sexual aggression
Authors: Hobbs Pamela
Published: August 2013

In contemporary American society, the relaxation of social prohibitions on vulgar language, together with what some have noted to be an advertising culture that appears to demand hyperbole, combine to create an environment where much language that was formerly impermissible is now allowed. Nevertheless, a small number of words have retained their taboo status, most notably the word fuck. The word also displays our cultural ambivalence about sexual expressions and sexual activity, not only because it is considered to be obscene, but because of the question that was memorably expanded upon by comedian Lenny Bruce: If fucking is so great, then why is Fuck you one of the most offensive retorts in the English language? This paper will provide an answer to that question. I argue that the word fuck functions as a metaphor for male sexual aggression, and that, notwithstanding its increasing public use, enduring cultural models that inform our beliefs about the nature of sexuality and sexual acts preserve its status as a vile utterance that continues to inspire moral outrage.
Gender and facework
Authors: Saito Junko
Published: August 2013

This study qualitatively examines linguistic practices of Japanese male superiors in interactions with male subordinates in a Japanese workplace, focusing particularly on their use of two linguistic forms: Vroot+(y)oo (Let’s do X) and Vroot+ro/e (Do X!). The study illustrates two practices of these male superiors: first, they use Vroot+(y)oo, which is not strongly associated with normative men’s language, in interactions where normative men’s language is otherwise used. Second, they utilize a strongly male-associated form, Vroot+ro/e, in interactions that otherwise involve feminine-associated stylistic features. The analysis shows how these two linguistic forms, when used in such interactions, contribute to male superiors’ facework. Confirming a claim made in previous research, this study suggests that speakers use normative language less associated with their own gender in order to convey a specific pragmatic meaning and to achieve certain communicative ends in ongoing interactions.
Introduction
Authors: Veldman Robin Globus , Szasz Andrew , Haluza-DeLay Randolph
Published: August 2013

Although we have a large body of work on ‘religion and nature’, much less has been written about the specific question of ‘religion and climate change’. Moreover, to date much of that literature on religion and climate change is theological and prescriptive, laying out arguments for why it is legitimate for believers/adherents of one faith or another to be concerned about climate change. Comparatively little can be characterized as empirical or social scientific, examining what faiths and their adherents are actually saying or doing about climate change. To our knowledge, this special issue will therefore be the first devoted solely to beginning to answer these questions from a social-scientific perspective.
The Faithful Skeptics
Authors: Carr Wylie Allen , Patterson Michael , Yung Laurie , Spencer Daniel
Published: August 2013

Polling data has indicated that evangelical Christians tend toward skepticism about the existence of anthropogenic climate change. Recognizing that evangelical Christians compose a politically influential population, we conducted interviews with pastors and lay members of churches in Dallas, Texas to assess the relationship between their religious beliefs and their views on climate change. In-depth interviews showed more complex relationships between religious and climate beliefs than has been documented by previous survey-based research. The interviews revealed a set of interrelated religious beliefs, namely in biblical inerrancy, God’s sovereignty, human sinfulness, eschatology, and evangelism, from which evangelicals draw to describe their perceptions of climate change. Our analysis shows how common belief interpretations contribute to skepticism of human-induced climate change for many interviewees. We also describe how alternative interpretations of these same beliefs promoted environmental concern and even acceptance of anthropogenic climate change among other interviewees. Results suggest the need to account for how faith shapes the complex and nuanced environmental beliefs that evangelicals hold.
'Healing the Land' in the Canadian Arctic
Authors: Johnson Noor
Published: August 2013

Beginning in 2006, an evangelical movement called ‘Healing the Land’ was introduced to a number of Inuit communities in the Canadian Arctic. Healing the Land (HTL), which promoted an ethic of environmental stewardship through prayer and repentance of sin, also helped Inuit make sense of rapid environmental change. Rather than linking shifts in weather and plant and animal distributions to climate change, HTL leaders argued that they resulted from communal processes of prayer and repentance that miraculously restored the environment to an Edenic state of plenty. In this article, I explore the appeal of HTL’s theology and ritual practice to Inuit residents of Clyde River, Nunavut. I argue that residents found HTL’s explanations of environmental change compelling because HTL offered a vision of integrated action through which individuals and communities could address social and environmental issues simultaneously.
A Retreating Goddess? Conflicting Perceptions of Ecological Change near the Gangotri-Gaumukh Glacier
Authors: Drew Georgina
Published: August 2013

The Gangotri-Gaumukh glacier is a signi?cant body of ice in the Indian Himalayas whose loss could cause ecological turmoil, the disruption of livelihoods, and possibly even threaten the continuity of cultural-religious practices intertwined with the sacred Ganga River into which its runoff ?ows. Although there is reason to fear for the Ganga’s longevity, the issue of its potential decline is layered with ambiguity, uncertainty, and debate. In this article, I present the science-based discourse on glacial melt, which continues to evolve, along with ethnographically documented perspectives on retreating glaciers and other ecological transformations. I demonstrate how faith in the enduring nature of the Goddess Ganga impacts interpretations of environmental change, regardless of the climate change science, and how ideas about the river’s impermanence in Hindu texts can sometimes deter conservation efforts. In doing so I offer a variety of views that enlarge discussions about the causes for and the range of responses to climatic change.
Of Rice and Men
Authors: Davidson Joanna
Published: August 2013

When Diola Christians participated in their male initiation rites despite missionary objections, the argument was framed in theological terms. But Diola actions regarding this and other religious practices can only be understood within the wider frame of ecological changes that have challenged not only their agrarian livelihoods but their very conceptions of personhood and processes of socialization. Given the decline in rain, Diola males can no longer ‘become men’ in the rice paddies. By drawing out connections among Diola agrarian culture, ideals of masculinity, current environmental conditions, and missionary pressures, I argue that this incident—and, by implication, religious change more broadly—must be appreciated not only for its theological signi?cance within Diola agrarian culture, but as enmeshed in contemporary dynamics of climate change.
Ethnobiology, Religion, Nature and Culture
Authors: Stepp John Richard
Published: August 2013

John Richard Stepp introduces this special issue of JSRNC on Ethnobiology, Religion, Nature, and Culture.
Hegemony, Identity, and Trans-Atlantic Modernity
Authors: Moret Erica
Published: August 2013

Despite a long association with brujería, or witchcraft, the Cuban government now recognizes the legitimacy of Afro-Cuban religions. These hybridized faiths, representing a combination of African and European practices, have played an important role in the alleviation of the healthcare and economic crisis of the post-Soviet era, including their use of a rich pharmacopeia of plant species for medicinal and ritual purposes. Health, environmental, and economic policies formed by the Cuban government in the post-Soviet era have continued to penalize access to medicinal plants by Afro-Cuban religious groups, despite a shift from occult and illicit to more ‘scientific’, secular, and hegemonic spheres. Interviews, participant observation, and studies of government authorized medicinal plant sales suggest that official rhetoric on these practices stems from the perceived threats represented by the new-found profitability and politicization of Afro-Cuban religions.
Contemporary Tibetan Cosmology of Climate Change
Authors: Salick Jan , Byg Anja , Bauer Kenneth
Published: August 2013

Open-ended interviews with over 50 Tibetan experts on contemporary Tibetan cosmology of climate change reveal a breadth of interpretation of and belief about developing climatic conditions in the eastern Himalayas and in Lhasa. We group these interpretations into Buddhist, pre-Buddhist/shamanistic, and modern scientific/materialistic constructions. These categories overlap and combine broadly with individual interpretations to the point where neither Buddhists nor scientific scholars would recognize their disciplines. Nonetheless, generally, there are beliefs that the climate is changing, that bad deeds have caused this, and that good deeds will mitigate it (Buddhist), fickle gods must be supplicated and appeased (shamanist), or there are material causes and solutions (scientific/ materialistic). As in our previous quantitative study on perceptions of climate change (Byg and Salick 2009), Tibetans widely agreed that climate change is happening: temperatures are rising, mountain glaciers and snows are melting, tree and shrub lines are advancing, rains are more variable, and agriculture and health are suffering. In the extreme, some Tibetans feel that their traditional culture—food, clothing, livelihoods—is no longer adaptive and that, along with their political woes, Tibetan culture is also doomed by climate change. There is increasing appreciation by climate change scientists and policy makers that indigenous knowledge and participation is important for monitoring, adapting to, and mitigating climate change. However, scientists and conservationists must offer concomitant appreciation of and respect for indigenous cosmologies that are the matrices in which indigenous thought, knowledge, and management are embedded.
Collaborative Research and Co-Learning
Authors: Spoon Jeremy , Arnold Richard
Published: August 2013

We discuss linked Nuwuvi (Southern Paiute) ecological knowledge and place-based spirituality related to federal lands in the southern Great Basin, USA. Nuwuvi or ‘the people’ are Numic speakers who consider this area to be their ancestral homeland and a close relative since the time when the world was new. The current land holdings of these six federally and one non-federally recognized Native American nations are a fraction of the pre-contact period. The ancestral territory was fragmented and knowledge transmission hindered by gradual encroachment by settlers, reorganization onto reservations, land annexation by federal agencies, relocation to government boarding schools barring indigenous languages, and more. We present two applied interpretive and resource management projects aimed at revitalizing Nuwuvi relationships with their ancestral territory currently governed by several federal agencies. Our framework considers co-learning among indigenous peoples, federal land managers, and the general public to be vital to the revitalization process. Co-learning occurs in these projects by utilizing collaborative ethnographic methods in conducting research, integrating a variety of perspectives, creating opportunities for intergenerational knowledge transmission and interactions with ancestral lands, and enhancing government-to-government consultation and public education.
Spiritual Flora of Brazil’s African Diaspora
Authors: Voeks Robert
Published: August 2013

Candomblé was introduced to Brazil by enslaved and free West Africans in the early nineteenth century. One dimension of the religion is a profound association between a pantheon of deities (the orixás) and a pharmacopoeia of magico-medicinal plants. This article explores the means by which the black diaspora was able to organize an African-inspired spiritual ethno-flora in the Americas. I argue that a cornucopia of esculent and medicinal plants had diffused back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean centuries before the arrival of most African slaves. Thus, while the primary rainforests of Africa and the Americas would have had little in common biologically, the increasing presence of exotic edible and medicinal cultivars and weeds contributed over time to their botanical similarity. This transatlantic ethnobotanical conversation greatly facilitated the ability of Brazil’s African diaspora to reconfigure their plant-based spiritual traditions in what was otherwise an alien floristic landscape.
'Gumboot Religion'
Authors: Ghiloni Aaron , Shaw Sylvie
Published: August 2013

Environmental disasters bring about a palpable intersection of religious, natural, and cultural forces. Following the Queensland floods of 2011, we conducted in-depth interviews with leaders from a wide range of religious traditions. We found that religious responses to the flood were more pragmatic and civic than theological or liturgical. Faced with an extreme weather event, religions offered a robust level of practical support but focused less on questions of doctrine and scripture. They viewed their work as acting for the common good rather than for traditional religious loyalties. Although environmental issues were seen as theoretically relevant to the faith traditions, the flood itself was not understood in terms of either the doctrinal teachings of a religion or the ongoing climate change debates in Australia. An unexpected foil to religious leaders’ understanding of the flood was provided by political leaders who used theologically laden language to explain the crisis. Occurring at the nexus of religion, nature, and culture, Queenslanders’ responses to the flood provide a tangible example of how civil religion is manifested in a disaster event.
Into the New Age
Authors: Taylor Bron
Published: August 2013

Bron Taylor introduces the latest issue of JSRNC.
Gandhi’s Agrarian Legacy
Authors: Sanford A. Whitney
Published: August 2013

M.K. Gandhi’s social and environmental thought continues to shape the contemporary practices of Brahma Vidya Mandir, an intentional community in Paunar, Maharashtra. Since its founding in 1959, members have wrestled with the practical implications of translating Gandhian values such as self-sufficiency, non-violence, voluntary simplicity, and public service into specific practices of food production and consumption. Members of Brahma Vidya Mandir and associated farmers imagine and enact their responses to contemporary agrarian failures in religiously inflected language drawn from the Bhagavad-Gita, a central Hindu text, and they use this text as a guide to develop agricultural practices that they deem non-violent. Brahma Vidya Mandir’s existence and the counternarrative prompt our imaginings of what it means to enact alternative agricultural and social practices and help us envision new possibilities of adapting and applying these ideas to other social and geographic contexts.
The Symbolic Quest Behind Today’s Cities of Light— and its Unintended Ecological Consequences
Authors: Berry Geoff
Published: August 2013

The symbol of light has commonly represented human desires for goodness, order, truth, perpetual abundance, and the transcendence of earthly limits. Modern practices of artificial light cultivation remain associated with a symbolic promise to banish darkness and its corollaries— lack, death, ignorance, disease, and chaos. In today’s global and increasingly urbanized world this association is most notably emblematized in the modern city, which is lit up at night in a technologically brilliant display that ironically also conveys the deepening ecological disaster of anthropogenic climate change. Responding to German philosopher Hans Blumenberg’s essay ‘Light as a Metaphor for Truth’, this article seeks to uncover the ways that technological figurations of light transform an ancient association with freedom into dangerous practices of fuel fetish and over-consumption. Increased awareness of such habits of overconsumption could help to decrease urban light pollution and the ecological danger that it signifies.
Native American Traditions, Depth Psychology, and Postcolonial Theory
Authors: Greenberg Joy H.
Published: August 2013

Vine Deloria, Jr., C.G. Jung and the Sioux Traditions: Dreams, Visions, Nature, and the Primitive (ed. Philip J. Deloria and Jerome S. Bernstein; New Orleans: Spring, 2009), xvii + 226 pp., $25.95 (pbk), ISBN: 978-1-882670-61-1.

Bernstein, Jerome S., and Nancy Cater (eds.), ‘Native American Cultures and the Western Psyche: A Bridge Between’, Spring 87 (Special Issue, 2012), 268 pp., $25.95 (pbk), ISBN: 978-1-935528-39-5.
Introduction
Authors: Taylor Bron , Greenberg Joy H.
Published: August 2013

Bron Taylor and Joy H. Greenberg introduce 7.2 (2013).
‘Our Only Heaven’
Authors: Zaleha Bernard Daley
Published: August 2013

Utilizing the Pure Pantheism/Dualistic Theism/Nihilistic Atheism sacrality scale as a heuristic, I survey sociological/social psychological studies assessing whether people’s values and religious worldviews affect the likelihood of pro-environment behavior. One set of studies divides environmental values into three types: (1) self-interest (or egoistic) values; (2) humanistic altruism, and (3) biospheric altruism. Another study analyzes three types of self-construal as pro-environment indicators: (1) independent, (2) interdependent, and (3) metapersonal. Analyzing these models in light of the tripartite social psychological model of (1) religion as means; (2) religion as an end unto itself; and (3) religion as quest, I demonstrate that both the biospheric and metapersonal orientations, and perceptions that tend toward the pantheistic end of the sacrality scale, are the strongest predictors of pro-environment behavior. Put simply, nature veneration is predictive of pro-environmental behavior. I further argue that available data make the testing of this hypothesis worth pursuing whether naturevenerating religions are growing in the United States and beyond.
The Call for a New Ecotheology in Norway
Authors: Anker Peder
Published: August 2013

The call for a new ecotheology in Norway began in the early 1970s with environmentally concerned deep ecologists and continued within the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway and the university system. Church officials and intellectuals saw ecotheology as an effective way of engaging the young in caring for the Creation. Alongside the eco-philosophical projects of redefining the natural, the deep ecologists also sought to renew religious faith. Norwegian theologians found their questioning of economic growth, technocracy, and industrialism appealing, and they sympathized with their call to save wilderness and their endorsement of outdoor life, rural communities, and modest lifestyles. Deep ecology represented for theologians an opportunity to revive the Church, mobilize a new and younger audience, and address the question of how to behave towards God’s Creation.
Let There Be Highlights
Authors: Frohlich Dennis Owen
Published: August 2013

In 2008, HarperCollins released The Green Bible, a reprint of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible that highlights in green-lettered text all verses purporting to demonstrate God’s concern for the environment. I conducted a framing analysis and criticism examining how the GB frames the Scriptures in terms of the environment and found the following frames present: anti-dominion theology, stewardship, creation care as justice, the importance of the Sabbath, Jesus’ redemption of creation, and the Bible’s usefulness as a guide to green living. I contrasted these frames with the actual green verses highlighted by the GB and found that the environmental frames created by the essayists do not consistently match the highlighted verses. Because of the inconsistent and contradictory nature of the green highlighting, I question the GB as a guide to green living, for both the environmentally conscious and lovers of the Scriptures.
Birds, Liminality, and Human Transformation: An Animist Perspective on New Animism
Authors: Taylor Brian Anthony
Published: August 2013

In many pre-modern, non-Western, and indigenous cultures, birds mediate between humans and a divine realm. In mythology and lore they are widely associated with the survival of death. Edward Tylor’s definition of animism identified a belief in spirits that survive death as a key conceptual error to be rectified by the advance of scientific rationality. Recent reconfigurations of animism as an ecological and relational worldview treat the notion of discarnate spirits as a projection of Western assumptions that locate mystery and divinity beyond the natural world. This essay responds by arguing for a degree of continuity between new animism and the spiritualist traditions denounced by Tylor. An autobiographical account of a sequence of encounters with the Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) and other birds appears to confirm their reputation as psychopomps.
The Gatherings of the Elders: The Beginnings of a Pagan International
Authors: Elst Koenraad
Published: August 2013

Since 2003, the International Council for Cultural Studies has organized a five-day “International Conference and Gathering of Elders of Ancient Traditions and Cultures” every third year. Participants include spokesmen of the Maori, Yoruba, Maya, Lakota, etc. religions, as well as neo-Druids, Romuva Lithuanians, etc. Each of the conferences took place in India, with the main organizational input and sponsoring provided by the ICCS’s American chapter. The sources of inspiration for what started as a Hindu outreach to the world’s other remaining or reviving Pagans are several, but can be traced to Hindu philosopher Ram Swarup (1920- 1998). His critiques of Christianity and Islam and particularly his defence of polytheism conclude with an appeal to global Pagan solidarity and networking. The triannual Gathering of Elders has become the Pagan International that he hoped for: genuinely global, rooted in genuine religions and with a positive message.
Modern Latvian Paganism: Some Introductory Remarks
Authors: Strmiska Michael
Published: August 2013

An introductory overview to a special section of The Pomegranate featuring three articles concerning Latvian Paganism.
The Mythology of Ethnic Identity and the Establishing of Modern Holy Places in Post-Soviet Latvia
Authors: Muktupāvela Rūta
Published: August 2013

The end of the twentieth century was a period in Latvian history marked with substantial political, social, economic, and world-view changes. When the movement for the establishment of the independent national state started, ethnic and cultural values were activated. Particularly important was the idea of the “heritage of ancestors.” These ideas were embodied in various forms, such as the renewal of local ethnic, pre-Christian religious practices, efforts to find certain meaning in traditional ornaments, search for esoteric information in folksong texts, and so on. In such a socio-cultural background new pantheistic cult sites or so-called modern holy places (MHP) gained a certain topicality. Various mechanisms and aspects influence people’s perception and attitudes toward these places, whose number is increasing. MHP visitors describe these places as “sanctuaries,” but, of course, their opinion is opposed by Latvian scholars (archaeologists, geologists, and folklorists), rationalists, or sceptics, who regard the MHP phenomenon as merely a well-developed business plan or of delirious talk. Despite many rational objections, public interest in MHP remains, so to some extent the question of why the phenomenon is popular—smart management, the complexity of the sociocultural situation in Latvia or strong personalities, who created the new mythology—still remains open.
The humorous display of transgressor feminities: ‘sharing a laugh’ in Spanish/Galician friendly talk among young women
Authors: Ferreira A. Virginia Acuña
Published: August 2013

Over the last years, research on gender and conversational humour has demonstrated, contrary to popular beliefs and social stereotypes, that this mode of discourse is not only ‘men’s work’, but it can be performed both in feminine and masculine ways; so, while there is a masculine humour which is creative, competitive and playful, focused on entertainment as a strategy to reinforce bonds, there is also a feminine humour, which is supportive, intimate and subversive in relation to gender norms, generally oriented to the construction of female solidarity. In this article, I aim to address gender crossing phenomena (Thorne, 1993) in conversational humour, by analysing excerpts from a friendly interaction among Spanish/Galician bilingual young women. The analysis places emphasis on the participants’ practice of genres and styles of humour which are masculinised, as they require a demonstration of creative and competitive abilities for verbal play, which is generally oriented to the idea of ‘sharing a laugh’ as a strategy to reinforce bonds. Thus, it is argued that female participants in this conversation produce different forms of masculine humour, and that this entails a notable break with norms of conventional femininity, a gender crossing phenomena based on this mode of discourse. Generally, this article calls attention to the multiple links that still exist between stereotypical ‘men’s talk’ and humour as entertainment, and on the power of such ways of interacting as a sound base for women’s implicit displays of transgressor femininities.
Fostering affiliation through humour in a job interview
Authors: Lipovsky Caroline
Published: August 2013

Job interviews are task-focused rather than social encounters, with the primary goal of determining the employability of prospective employees. Yet fostering affiliation is also a significant feature of the job interview. Drawing on an interview between a job applicant and her potential employer and supervisor, this paper aims to contribute to an understanding of the ways in which power relations and affiliations are negotiated between interviewers and candidates over the course of job interviews. Specifically, it analyses the participants’ uses of humorous utterances. Alongside an orientation to the explicit goal of mutual amusement, humorous utterances perform more serious tasks. The analysis explores the dynamic negotiation of the interviewer’s and the candidate’s affiliative identities over the course of their encounter. Even though each participant’s differential status is still prevalent in the enactment of and response to humour, the analysis highlights how humorous contributions act as a test of affiliation, bringing to light in-group membership and probing the participants’ future ability to work together.
Social justice through multilingual education. Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Robert Phillipson, Ajit K. Mohanty and Minati Panda (eds) (2009)
Authors: Vorstman Emmanuelle Le Pichon
Published: August 2013

Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Pp. vii + 389.
ISBN-13 9781847691903 (hbk)
ISBN-13 9781847691897 (pbk)
Actitudes hacia la variedad caló. Un estudio sociolingüístico de adolescentes andaluces. Pierre Andersson (2011)
Authors: Linna Henna
Published: August 2013

Göteborgs Universitet: Institutionen för Språk och Litteraturer.
ISBN 9789197854528 (pbk). 231 pp.
Grammatical code-switching patterns of early and late Basque-Spanish bilinguals
Authors: Lantto Hanna
Published: August 2013

This article analyses and compares the grammatical code switching patterns of 22 Basque- Spanish bilinguals. Ten of these are early bilinguals who have learned both of the languages in the natural environment of a bilingual community, and twelve of these are late bilinguals, ‘new Basques’, who have learned Basque as their L2 in a formal setting after the onset of puberty. The data is based on 22 hours of participant-observer recordings made in Basque Country in the years 2005, 2007 and 2011 and contain nearly 1500 examples of code-switching. All the informants are connected to the Bilbao Metropolitan area and were between 20 and 45 years of age at the time of the recordings. Differences between the two speaker groups are clear. Whereas the late bilinguals mainly use extrasentential and conventionalized types of code-switching, the early bilinguals present a variety of patterns. In the latter group, the intra-group differences are wide: some of the informants engage in highly intensive mixing, while others maintain the separation between the linguistic systems. These pattern differences might be attributed to different levels of bilingual language competence, but also to the degree of linguistic confidence of the speaker.