Members of the Christian sect Jehovah’s Witnesses do not accept blood transfusion. This restriction is mandated by the religious doctrine and has been in existence since 1945. The rationale is that life is God given and that human agency shouldn’t intervene in its termination. Hence, in all medical situations, including emergencies, the faithful are prohibited…
Category: Society
Bronislaw Malinowski’s importance to Cultural Anthropology
Bronislaw Malinowski has made important contributions to the field of anthropology, especially during the discipline’s formative years. Though qualified to be an economist, he brought his best intellectual resources to bear on anthropological study, beginning with studying social exchange patterns among Australian aborigines. Born in Poland in 1884, Malinowski made vital anthropological discoveries either side…
Why it is important for police officers to understand cultural differences?
What can police agencies do to better prepare police officers to understand diverse backgrounds and improve communications with people who are not native speakers of English? As societies increasingly become more urban and cosmopolitan, it becomes imperative for police officers to understand cultural idiosyncrasies and sensibilities. It is an acknowledged fact that the history of…
Cultural Theory and Images
The three images perused for this exercise do provide the viewer with broad interpretative scope. When looked at without cognizant of the title or the context in which they were made, the range of possible meanings contained in them grows. Take, say, the imaged titled Egon Schiele, Self-Portrait with Spread Fingers, 1911. Self portraits are…
How will current world wide economic downturn impact our lives?
Structuralism as a social science discipline offers key insights in how social, historical and political contexts shape the lives of individuals and communities. Octogenarians living in America will recall the acute poverty and disarray that their parents faced during the Great Depression. Likewise, Baby Boomers will reminisce on the economic prosperity and social progress that…
Mass Media Critical Analysis: Family Guy
The animated sitcom series Family Guy, which began broadcasting on American television channels in 1999, has always courted controversy. The perceived crude humor and lack of inhibitions in the characters of the show have offended the conservative sections of American society. At times unfavorably compared to The Simpsons, an animated family comedy which preceded it,…
Why has freedom of religion become a controversial issue in our nation?
Our nation is quite advanced in terms of religious freedoms it affords its citizens. Often billed as the melting pot of religions and cultures, the nation exhibits a truly cosmopolitan ethos. Yet, religious tolerance, prejudice and discrimination do crop up in public affairs. Christianity being the religion followed by a majority of the population, there…
Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don’t have for things they don’t need
Commercial advertising is a phenomenon closely associated with capitalist consumer culture. The ubiquitous ad space that engulfs urban human habitation has no parallels in terms of its reach and influence. Advertising performs a key role in industrial economies and its infiltration into both print and online formats is unlikely to abate. With ad spends always…
A Socio-psychological study of Seamus Heaney’s poems The Grauballe Man and Strange Fruit & Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot
Both Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney display an acute understanding of human pathos, which is manifest in their works. This essay peruses Waiting for Godot by Beckett and the poems The Grauballe Man & Strange Fruit by Heaney to illustrate the social awareness contained in them. Social awareness (sometimes also referred to as social consciousness)…
Television Show Analysis: Mad Men
Mad Men is one of the most acclaimed television series to have emerged in recent years. Produced by Matthew Weiner (who was earlier the executive producer of The Sopranos), this richly made drama series depicts the New York advertising world of the early 1960s. The punning title can be taken to mean Madison Avenue which…