However, auto-ethnographers should avoid some dangerous pitfalls that could undermine the credibility and usefulness of their work. Chang identifies the following: "(1) excessive focus on self in isolation from others; (2) overemphasis on narration rather than analysis and cultural interpretation; (3) exclusive reliance on personal memory and recalling as a data source; (4) negligence of ethical standards regarding others in self-narratives; and (5) inappropriate application of the label autoethnography".
Cape Girardeau, Missouri
Cape Girardeau is a city in eastern Missouri. It is next to the Mississippi River.
Homo sacer
Homo sacer (Latin for the ‘sacred man’ or ‘accursed man’) is a phrase taken from Roman law. It is
used to describe someone who is banished, and may be killed by anybody but not used in a religious killing
(sacrifice). Described by Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben in his book "Homo Sacer"; ‘sovereign
power and bare life’ as a person who is living a ‘naked life’ and is an outcast of society.
Someone becomes Homo Sacer by breaking a legal agreement or oath; people who
illegally cross the borders between countries have often been referred to and treated as Homo
Sacer. In Shahram Khosravi’s book "Illegal traveller" he talks about how someone
forced to leave their country to find a better life elsewhere can become ‘homo sacer’, which can
lead to a feeling of separation from the rest of society.
This makes the person an outlaw; they have no civil rights and lose their protection
from the state. They are often victims of abuse and unfair treatment both through this loss of rights
but also from everyday citizens.
Ireland at the Olympics
Ireland has been at the Summer Olympic Games since 1924, and at the Winter Olympic Games since 1992. Before 1922, Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Irish athletes at earlier Games are counted as British in Olympic numbers.
The following tables include medals won by athletes on Irish teams together with one poet. All medals are from the Summer Games. Ireland's best result at the Winter Games was fourth, by Clifton Wrottesley in the Men's Skeleton in 2002 at Salt Lake City.
Rites of passage
Rites of passage are rituals performed by human beings, individually or collectively as a social group, that symbolically acknowledge the departure from one phase of life and the arrival into another.
All people in every society and culture experience rites of passage but, these often happen differently, for diverse reasons and, at special times depending on what society or culture the person comes from. Rites of passage celebrate and protect the person or people who are changing. They communicate shared ideas of socially expectable behavior and responsibility, and they signify the transformation from one social status (e.g. coming of age), place (e.g. crossing a national border), condition (e.g. recovering from sickness), time (e.g. celebrating the new year), to the next.
The French social scientist Arnold van Gennep (23 April 1873 – 7 May 1957) most famously defined the concept of rites of passage in his book "" ("The Rites of Passage"), first published in 1909. Van Gennep studied ethnographic reports from various parts of the world that described rites of passage. He concluded that they are universally structured even if the rites of passage themselves differ significantly in character between societies and cultures.
Rites of passage are ordered into three phases.
By acknowledging the various ways different societies and cultures perform rites of passage we observe cultural diversity. Learning about rites of passage cross culturally can help us to understand others and ourselves. An awareness of cultural diversity is essential to form an open-minded, tolerant and accepting view of people who are not from the same society or culture as our own.
Israel at the Olympics
Israel has been at the Olympic Games as a nation since 1952. Its National Olympic Committee was formed in 1933 during the British Mandate of Palestine. As the team represented the Jewish community, it boycotted the 1936 Games in Germany in protest of the Nazi Party's anti-Semitic policies. Israel has sent a team to each Summer Olympic Games since 1952 (except the 1980 Summer Olympics) and to each Winter Olympic Games since 1994. In 1972, 11 members of the Israeli delegation were murdered by Black September terrorists.
The eleven members of Israel's 1972 Olympic team killed during the Munich massacre:
Totemism
Totemism is a belief about the relationship between people and nature. The term totem comes from an Ojibwe word meaning “a relative of mine”. It was first written about in 1791 by a trader, James Long. It has been recorded across native tribes of America, Africa and Australia. It has been the subject of much research into ethnic groups. Usually, totems of a kinship group will be animals or plants. They will be represented in sacred objects and will belong exclusively to them.
Totemism was considered a primitive religion by many European thinkers in the 1800s. It was thought to be related to beliefs about food and incest taboos. In 1869, John Ferguson McLennan said that "there is no race of men that has not come through this primitive stage of speculative belief". Early thinkers had the idea that beliefs in totemism came from indiginous clans being uneducated about the difference between humans and animals. This is not still talked about as true in modern discussions on totemism.
Totem poles are carved with symbols on large trees, mostly cedar or spruce, by native northwest North American clans. Totem poles are also found in Alaska. They are not for worship, but early missionaries had them burned down. This was a mistake because the poles just tell stories about the clan they belong to. Eagles or ravens are carved at the highest level. Lower down the pole are carved beavers, foxes, bears and frogs. A carving of a person is located on top. He is the watchman, who warns about approaching danger in the village.
Émile Durkheim said in 1915 that totemism was just a way of thinking about groups in society. Durkheim decided this because he spent time working with Aboriginal Australian clans. Each clan had its own totem, which could be any natural feature such as animals, plants or rivers. These totems and symbols of them were worshiped and protected. This was because only as long as the totem was healthy would the clan stay healthy. Durkheim decided that the worship of the totems was a type of self-worship for the clan.
Claude Lévi-Strauss published "Totemism" in 1962. In this book he says that totemism is a way that humans tend to classify people into similar groups. Once a population has made rules like exogamy (marrying outside the group) it becomes important to keep the clan different from others. But humans themselves do not have different features like wolves or birds do, so giving the identity of an animal to the clan makes its member distinctly different. This makes social boundaries.
Italy at the Olympics
Italy at the Olympics is a history which includes 50 games in 23 countries and 4,000+ athletes. Since 1896, Italy (ITA) has contributed to the growth of the "Olympic Movement".
The Italian National Olympic Committee was formed in 1908. It was recognized by the International Olympic Committee in 1915.
Italy's team first competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens.
Italy has been at most of the Olympic Games, missing only the 1904 Summer Olympics. Italian athletes have won 550 medals at the Summer Olympic Games and another 106 medals at the Winter Olympic Games. Italy has won a total of 236 gold medals which makes them the 5th most successful country in Olympic history, below USA, Soviet Union, Germany and Great Britain.
Fencer Edoardo Mangiarotti has won the most medals for Italy.
Leading in that sport
Italy has hosted the Games three times:
Neocolonialism