No / This article starts from recognition that child sexual abuse is perpetrated in all communities, but appears to be under-reported to varying degrees in different communities. It acknowledges that children who have been sexually abused will usually benefit from services designed to assist them in moving on from this experience and to provide future protection from perpetrators. It notes, in particular, the apparent disproportionately low take-up of relevant services by members of Asian communities in Britain. It places this in the context of reported responses to child sexual abuse in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh and explores the likely impact of factors arising from cultural norms in relation to family structure and role relationships. It reports on work begun within Asian communities in Bradford to increase awareness of and appropriate responses to child sexual abuse which hopefully address issues which are or relevance elsewhere. In particular, it discusses responses to a preliminary questionnaire, discussions with community groups, a consultation event held in April 2003, and a multilingual information booklet produced as a result. It urges respectful dialogue with women, men, children and young people in Asian communities as being essential to progress regarding appropriate responses to child sexual abuse

Thesis (M.A.)--Stellenbosch University, 1955. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: no abstract available / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: geen opsomming

This study analyzed intercultural communication competence between Malays and Chinese in organizational and social settings in Malaysia. Two groups: Malays and Chinese in organizations in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), were studied. The intent of this study was to find similarities and differences in Malays and Chinese' communication styles. A total of forty-six respondents were surveyed: twenty-three Malay executives and twenty-three Chinese executives, in organizations in Malaysia. The organizations were selected based on their function, size, number of employees, ethnic composition, and location. The open-ended questionnaire was written in English and pretested. The revised questionnaire was sent to Kuala Lumpur to be administered by two interviewers who were from each ethnic groups. All of the responses from the questionnaire were interpreted and categorized by two Malay and two Chinese individuals who acted as coders. This study used thematic content analysis to analyze the responses from the two groups. Respondents' descriptions and explanations of their perceptions on conflict were studied. Coders from both ethnic groups were asked to recall a conflict situation in both organizational and social settings. Each group varied in their definition and perception of conflict. The results showed some similarities in their perception of appropriate and effective verbal and nonverbal messages in organizational and social settings. The results also showed some similarities and differences in their perceptions of inappropriate and ineffective verbal and nonverbal across ethnic group lines. The similarities can be explained by shared orientations to uncertainty, large degrees of power distance and collectivism. The differences may be due to cultural dimensions that are situationally variant. The findings showed both groups' preference for clear and explicit verbal messages in task orientations, and for nonverbal messages in relational-orientations. / Graduation date: 1993

University of Macau / Faculty of Law

This thesis is based on fieldwork carried out m Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China. The main focus of the work is the Dai people, one of China's fifty-five so called 'Minority Nationalities'. I aim to paint a picture of the complex processes through which Dai ways of being and images of them are created and recreated. This is not to suggest that the Dai constitute a bounded group. Although Chinese official discourse presents a static, rigid picture of the so-called 'Minority Nationalities', I hope to have demonstrated that the everyday experiences of those in Banna are governed by a fluid and dynamic relationality. Images of 'Minority Nationalities' abound in China, these images are multiple and often contradictory. The Dai are known throughout China for their beauty, a beauty often portrayed as highly erotic. In this thesis I explore the implications of this image and the role of the Dai in its formation and continuity. With this in mind I examine the ways that the striking Dai aesthetic is used in the intricate power plays of Xishuangbanna. This work examines aspects of the Dai lived aesthetic and as such it has chapters on tattoo, architecture and feminine beauty. Dai aesthetic knowledge is interlaced with strands of moral, philosophical and cosmological insight, thus this work also includes a chapter on morality, autonomy and cooperation. The penultimate chapter uses vivid ethnography of the Water Splashing festival as a example of play of identities in Xishuangbanna. The Conclusion reiterates that the processes by which images, identities and aesthetic understandings are generated, and by which limits are explored and transgressed in Xishuangbanna are dialogic in character.

Thesis (MA (History))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / This study intends to investigate a facet of the race relations of the town of Stellenbosch within the context of state ideology and the reaction of the various local communities towards these policies. Against various internal and external forces, certain alliances were formed but these remained neither static nor constant. The external forces of particular concern within this study are the role of state legislation, Municipal regulations and political activism amongst the elite of the different racial groups. The manner in which the external forces both mould and are moulded by identity and the fluid nature of identifying with certain groups to achieve particular goals will also be investigated. This thesis uses the case study of the Muslim Communities of Stellenbosch to explain the practice of Islam in Stellenbosch, the way in which the religion co-existed within the structure of the town, how the religion influenced and was influenced by context and time and how the practitioners of this particular faith interacted not only amongst themselves but with other “citizens of Stellenbosch”. Fundamental to these trends is the concept of “belonging”. Group formation, affiliation, identity, shared heritage and history as well as racial classification – implemented and propagated by both political discourse and communal discourse - is located within the broader context of Cape history in order to discuss commonalities and contrasts that existed between Muslims at the Cape and those in Stellenbosch.

This dissertation explores the interrelated processes of religious community formation, changing state regulation, and literary production in early modern India by focusing on two figures of the Caitanya lineage: Mahipati Taharabadkar (1715-1790) and his predecessor Uddhav Cidghan (d. 1690). While the community of Vitthal devotees (Varkaris) came to hold a prominent and strategic place in devotional histories of the Deccan, I demonstrate that several 17th-century facets of ascetic practice and sectarian identification that Mahipati inherited were obscured in his celebrated 18th-century hagiographies, especially the Bhaktavijaya (1762, Victory of Devotees). First, I highlight the lineage’s Mahanubhav connections through a study of Marathi and Persian documentary archives. The Mahanubhavs had a crucial and fraught social presence till they were deemed criminal in 1782-83 (Chapter I). I then focus on Uddhav’s Bhaktamālikā (A Garland of Devotees) to explore the lineage’s Dasanami milieu (Chapter II-III). Uddhav tethers the lineage to a trans-regional, multi-linguistic, and supra-sectarian community that Mahipati later expands on and transvalues. Diffused forms of state support that Mahipati’s family benefited from, and his access to scribal, courtly, performative, and Ramdasi networks, I demonstrate, enabled him to achieve a large-scale reconfiguration of the lineage’s social history (Chapter IV). In doing so, he excludes the Mahanubhavs and introduces a paradigm that becomes definitive for the Varkaris: the devotee and his or her family are presented as the loci for experiencing devotion.

Chronological Bible storying generally assumes a universality of the story teller's theological perspective in selecting and shaping Bible stories interculturally. This paper argues against this approach and proposes a method of crafting contextualized Bible stories which resonate with the worldview of a receptor culture. The influence of the theological and cultural presuppositions of the story teller is reduced through the utilization of the receptor culture's worldview assumptions - those values and beliefs through which the impact of scripture is experienced. The empirical research consisted of observing the responses of Sindhi Muslim men to a reading of John 13:1-10 and then interviewing them to generate cultural expressions which revealed a relationship between their culture and the scripture passage. Analysis of the data disclosed themes which have scriptural referents and can be used as the basis for selecting and crafting Bible stories that resonate with worldview assumptions. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)

The life experiences of two first generation Hmong refugee women form the basis of this study. Through loosely structured but guided interviews, memories of their lives in Laos and in refugee camps in Thailand, as well as their perspectives, feelings, and opinions about current aspects of their lives, the effects of American culture on their family; and their engagement in the language and culture learning process are explored. An examination of the involvement of Hmong women in research and ethnographic accounts concerning Hmong culture, history, and experience, show that Hmong women's perspectives have often been overlooked or disregarded. One purpose of this study is to afford an opportunity to hear the voices of these Hmong women, whose lives are centered in the home and in maintenance of family, and whose responsibilities and cultural roles have limited their contribution to research and literature on the Hmong and their participation in refugee and immigrant resettlement and English language programs. The data for this study was collected in tape recorded interviews using an informal, loosely structured interview process: a conversational narrative rather than a formal oral history interview. This data was then transcribed and reconstructed to form both a chronological personal history and a view of the culture and current lives of the informants. The perspectives of the women in this study, revealed through the conversational narratives, are shown to reflect the informants past reality and demonstrate their attempts to adjust to a new cultural identity and environment. Moreover, conversational narratives and oral histories are shown to be potentially valuable resources for culture and language learning and suggest meaningful applications for English as a Second Language education and refugee resettlement.

Chronological Bible storying generally assumes a universality of the story teller's theological perspective in selecting and shaping Bible stories interculturally. This paper argues against this approach and proposes a method of crafting contextualized Bible stories which resonate with the worldview of a receptor culture. The influence of the theological and cultural presuppositions of the story teller is reduced through the utilization of the receptor culture's worldview assumptions - those values and beliefs through which the impact of scripture is experienced. The empirical research consisted of observing the responses of Sindhi Muslim men to a reading of John 13:1-10 and then interviewing them to generate cultural expressions which revealed a relationship between their culture and the scripture passage. Analysis of the data disclosed themes which have scriptural referents and can be used as the basis for selecting and crafting Bible stories that resonate with worldview assumptions. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Missiology)