In the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in northern India the speech styles of men and women differ markedly in a number of ways. One mode of communication, tuneful weeping, is exclusive to women. This behavior is distinguished from spontaneous crying caused by pain, and is used only in certain prescribed social situations, and not necessarily in…

Traditionally, social psychology has conceptualized sex and gender as subject variables with sex as a biological substrate and gender as a sociocultural consequence of sex. These ideas rest on the assumption of two distinct biological categories. However, gender is better thought of in dialectical rather than oppositional terms. Gender is both…

Colonial printers were more or less forced to take sides during the Revolutionary era. As they did so, their social status changed from that akin to mechanics to that of spokespersons of a social movement. From this time on, the gradual separation of editor from printer formed a social basis for defining a journalist's tasks as editorial, not…

This report examines trends in the world of work and the economy that affect families. Part 1 presents a futurist's perspective on the changing world of work and how it affects families. Topics include finance capitalism in a global economy, values, work force, compensation and employee benefits, employment and unemployment, government,…

Divorce and remarriage may pose special problems for the grandparent-child-grandchild relationship. The kinship relationships after divorce have not been institutionalized; there are not generally accepted forms of behavior. To examine the role of grandmothers in the divorce of their children, 50 parent-grandmother pairs were interviewed. The…

This booklet, which is designed to help parents make informed choices about the games and toys they purchase for their children, uses manufacturers' descriptions of their products to inform parents about the themes of toys intended for use in violent pretend play, and provides information about alternatives to excessively violent toys. Briefly…

In this paper changes in labor force participation for women in North Carolina are examined and projected into the future. The projections demonstrate that the number of employed females, especially mothers, will be much greater in the future than at present. Thus, the issues related to female labor force participation will be even more salient in…

A comparative analysis of the five universal problems of cultural orientation: 1) human nature, 2) social relations, 3) man and nature, 4) time, 5) space, as they are reflected in German and American culture. (PP)

This article describes a proposed civilization course for German high school students learning French. The subject was chosen with the idea that exposure to current sociocultural issues would enhance motivation. Materials from actual public media could be used as opposed to those streamlined for pedagogical use. (Text is in German.) (TL)

A great variety of authentic cultural elements may be introduced in the foreign language classroom, not at the expense of language learning but as an interrelated system. (Author)

Written in response to T. G. McGee's recent discussion of the "peasants in cities" paradox (see EJ080361), this article argues that a modified version of Eric Wolf's definition of "peasants" is the most useful one currently available. (Author/KM)

T. G. McGee responds to Barry Isaac's article (RC501590), which discusses McGee's earlier article (see EJ080361) defining "peasants in cities". (KM)

Sociolinguistic patterns of India are discussed. (LG)

The author offers his observations on how the language learner achieves a full command of a second language in its sociocultural context. (PP)

Anthropologists study not only man's behavior in groups but also man's relationship with his environment. A conceptual framework for environmental education is proposed which adopts an anthropological approach. Suggested are ways in which this approach may be useful in developing a coherent methodology in environmental education. (JP)