Suchergebnisse

With the growing economic rise of Asia most of the international spotlight has focused on the rapid growth and industrialisation spearheaded by China and India, with little attention on the role of India's robust religious tourism market that remains a vital part of its economic growth. In recent years, the development and promotion of religious circuits has become a cornerstone of India's tourism marketing campaign that aims to capture both domestic and foreign exchange earnings. To explore the relationship between tourism and India's religious circuits further, this article examines the role of India's Buddhist circuit and how a series of sacred places have become part of a larger commoditised itinerary and networked geography. The article also looks at some of the tensions surrounding the ritual activities associated with Buddhist pilgrimage, how the government looks to regulate and reproduce a sacred geography, and the role of cross-border cultural and economic processes in shaping Buddhist heritage in the early twenty-first century.

AbstractCentral to the modern rebirth of Bodh Gaya as the place of Buddha's enlightenment is the growing influence of Buddhist missionaries and transnational religious networks on this pilgrimage landscape in North India. Although this process began in the late nineteenth century, it was not until after India's independence that Buddhism became an integral part of the nation-building project and a key site of post-colonial diplomacy with neighbouring Asian countries. Symbolic of these international and diplomatic ties are the increasing numbers of foreign Buddhist monasteries and temples that have acquired land around Bodh Gaya. This paper seeks to document the historical and transnational religious processes that support the growing globalization of Bodh Gaya and to survey the institutional means through which monasteries have elevated the Buddhist memory of the site. In tracing these different national and regional networks of Buddhism, I argue that there is an underlying tension between Buddhist culture anchored in the national polity and the forces of globalization and religious experience that seek to transcend it.

This comment takes the example of the Dietzinger case and considers it from the perspective of the law in the UK, where the case has received virtually no attention. The credit guarantee issues raised by the Dietzinger case are resolved in the UK by reference to common law and equitable principles, notably concerned with undue influence. By contrast the avenue that has been explored to resolve these issues in German literature and case law if the application of the Doorstep Selling Directive. While the approach of the courts in the UK is not in itself problematic - particularly as many cases deal with the guarantee of business loans, which the European Court of Justice has confirmed are not covered by the Directive - the potential impact of the Directive on private law should not be ignored.

Award date: 7 December 1999 ; Supervisor: Prof. Y. Kravaritou ; First made available online on 16 December 2019 ; The traffic in women for the purpose of sexual exploitation has occurred throughout history and is not a new phenomenon to Europe. Indeed, in the sixth century BC, Solon of Athens is reputed to have conscripted slaves to serve as prostitutes in brothels. For almost a century international instruments have been in force with the specific aim of eliminating this pernicious activity. That efforts to put a halt to trafficking began in earnest at the dawn of the twentieth century, the century when human rights and respect for the individual blossomed, seems fitting. Yet, strangely, it is in the last decade of this century that the Member States of the European Union have witnessed an upsurge in trafficking. Far from eliminating the trade in women, it is the abuse of women and girls which has grown to alarming proportions.

Biologists have known for decades that many traits involved in competition for mates or other resources and that influence mate choice are exaggerated, and their expression is influenced by the individuals' ability to tolerate a variety of environmental and social stressors. Evolution of Vulnerability applies this concept of heightened sensitivity to humans for a host of physical, social, psychological, cognitive, and brain traits. By reframing the issue entirely, renowned evolutionary psychologist David C. Geary demonstrates this principle can be used to identify children, adolescents, or populations at risk for poor long-term outcomes and identify specific traits in each sex and at different points in development that are most easily disrupted by exposure to stressors. Evolution of Vulnerability begins by reviewing the expansive literature on traits predicted to show sex-specific sensitivity to environmental and social stressors, and details the implications for better assessing and understanding the consequences of exposure to these stressors

Beginnings -- Natural selection and the evolution of sex -- Sexual selection -- Sexual selection and life history -- Sexual selection in primates and during human evolution -- Evolution of fatherhood -- Choosing mates -- Competing for mates -- Evolution and development of the human mind -- Sex differences in infancy and at play -- Sex differences in social development -- Sex differences in folk psychology -- Sex differences in folk biology and folk physics

Abstract
While the memory of the ancient Nalanda University has often been invoked in recent years as a symbol of educational excellence and pan-Asian unity, particularly with reference to the creation of a new international university in Bihar, India, these discourses often overlook and erase the significance of Nava Nalanda Mahviahra that was created in India's postindependence period as an institute devoted to the study of Buddhist texts and languages near the archeological site of the ancient university. This article looks at the Indian Buddhist scholar Jagdish Kashyap and his role in creating the state-sponsored institute, the symbolism of cultural revival it represented, and the excitement it generated in international Buddhism, attracting monks and lay students from around the Buddhist world. The article also discusses the institute's links to China and its sensitive relation to the dynamics of the Cold War in the 1950s and '60s. It then discusses how these two Nalanda insitutions speak to issues of heritage diplomacy and the politics of revival in contemporary India and beyond.

AbstractThis special section of Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East ties together a series of modern histories and contemporary ethnographies of Buddhist spaces spread across the Indian subcontinent. Underlining each of the four essays is a concern for the modern fashioning and reimagining of India as a Buddhist "homeland." In the past century and a half, Buddhist homeland discourses in South Asia have fostered heightened contact between national leaders, Buddhist royalty, entrepreneurs, artists, monastics, and pilgrim-travelers in ways that build upon historical and ritual precedents while simultaneously crafting new paradigms within a transnational, postcolonial arena. Taking inspiration from this translocative orientation, the contributors explore precolonial histories of Buddhist movement alongside more recent networks of Buddhist restoration in the subcontinent, with particular focus on the role of social memory and material culture in shaping the modern episteme. The essays gathered here further these inquiries by exploring how these connections have changed in the context of modern India and how the textures of these encounters cut across national, ethnic, religious, linguistic, and doctrinal lines.

The extent of sex differences in psychological traits is vigorously debated. We show that the overall sex difference in the pattern of adolescents' achievement and academic attitudes is relatively large and similar across countries. We used a binomial regression modeling approach to predict the sex of 15 and 16 year olds based on sets of academic ability and attitude variables in three cycles of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data (N = 969,673 across 55 to 71 countries and regions). We found that the sex of students in any country can be reliably predicted based on regression models created from the data of all other countries, indicating a common (universal) sex-specific component. Averaged over three different PISA cycles (2009, 2012, 2015), the sex of 69% of students can be correctly classified using this approach, corresponding to a large effect. Moreover, the universal component of these sex differences is stronger in countries with relative income equality and women's participation in the labor force and politics. We conclude that patterns in academic sex differences are larger than hitherto thought and appear to become stronger when societies have more socioeconomic equality. We explore reasons why this may be the case and possible implications.

This stimulating volume assembles leading scholars to address issues in children's cognitive, academic, and social development through the lens of evolutionary psychology.Debates and controversies in the field highlight the potential value of this understanding, from basic early learning skills through emerging social relationships in adolescence, with implications for academic outcomes, curriculum development, and education policy.Children's evolved tendency toward play and exploration fuels an extended discussion on child- versus adult-directed learning, evolutionary bases are examined for young learners' moral development, and contemporary theories of learning and memory are viewed from an evolutionary perspective.Along the way, contributors' recommendations illustrate real-world uses of evolution-based learning interventions during key developmental years. Among the topics covered: The adaptive value of cognitive immaturity: applications of evolutionary developmental psychology to early education Guided play: a solution to the play versus learning dichotomy Adolescent bullying in schools: an evolutionary perspective Fairness: what it isn't, what it is, and what it might be for Adapting evolution education to a warming climate of teaching and learning The effects of an evolution-informed school environment on student performance and wellbeing Evolutionary Perspectives on Child Development and Education will interest researchers and graduate students working in diverse areas such as evolutionary psychology, cultural anthropology, human ecology, developmental psychology, and educational psychology. Researchers in applied developmental science and early education will also find it useful

AbstractLearning of the mathematical number line has been hypothesized to be dependent on an inherent sense of approximate quantity. Children's number line placements are predicted to conform to the underlying properties of this system; specifically, placements are exaggerated for small numerals and compressed for larger ones. Alternative hypotheses are based on proportional reasoning; specifically, numerals are placed relative to set anchors such as end points on the line. Traditional testing of these alternatives involves fitting group medians to corresponding regression models which assumes homogenous residuals and thus does not capture useful information from between‐ and within‐child variation in placements across the number line. To more fully assess differential predictions, we developed a novel set of hierarchical statistical models that enable the simultaneous estimation of mean levels of and variation in performance, as well as developmental transitions. Using these techniques we fitted the number line placements of 224 children longitudinally assessed from first to fifth grade, inclusive. The compression pattern was evident in mean performance in first grade, but was the best fit for only 20% of first graders when the full range of variation in the data are modeled. Most first graders' placements suggested use of end points, consistent with proportional reasoning. Developmental transition involved incorporation of a mid‐point anchor, consistent with a modified proportional reasoning strategy. The methodology introduced here enables a more nuanced assessment of children's number line representation and learning than any previous approaches and indicates that developmental improvement largely results from midpoint segmentation of the line.