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This study investigates the existence of various social types in a young gay community (I 7-24 age group) located in the southeastern United States. The social types are identified “emically” through the use of a specific domain of knowledge, gay argot. Gay terms and expressions are grouped using a method similar to factor analysis to locate specific dimensions of behavior in this community. A central concern of this paper is to determine how the concept of “binary opposition” operates among the resulting social types. Binary opposition, which has been identified in studies constructing other folk taxonomies (classification schemes created from the participants' perspective), means that for every entity created in the taxonomy there must be an opposite to that entity (an example would be the “butch-femme” distinction among lesbians). Next, through interviews we investigate the specific attributes that define each of the resulting social types. Finally, we employ componential analysis to determine if there is any logical scheme operating among the types.

This paper proposes a theory of minority-group politicalization in an attempt to link the politicalization process to conflict with authority in prison. Using path-analytic procedures, moderate-to-high support was provided the proposed theory of politicalization. It was determined that the “best” model of politicalization was the one using “importation” variables as exogenous and “race consciousness” as the endogenous politicalization variable. It was suggested that not only is politicalization a determinant of conflict with authority in prison, this attitude set may be related to various indices of conflict with authority in society such as crime rates and assaults on whites and police. With respect to the amount of variance explained in the two politicalization variables, race consciousness and class consciousness, importation variables again emerge as most important, collectively explaining over twice the amount of variance in both types of consciousness as the set of deprivation variables. Finally, race-ethnic identification was found to be most highly related to race consciousness, thereby lending support to the colony model of increased minority awareness.

Religious nonaffiliates who have high certainty in the existence of God or a higher power (theistic nones) have grown rapidly in size in the U.S. in the last 30 years, and are now the fourth largest American religious or secular category. This subgroup has been overlooked in prior research on religion, secularism, and health. We build on recent work on religion and health by distinguishing between atheists, agnostics, and nonaffliliated theists when examining the link between religious or secular identification and self-rated health. Specifically, we advance research on the heterogeneity of secular individuals and health by splitting nonaffiliated theists into two subgroups: those who report certainty in their beliefs about God or some higher power (i.e., theistic nones), and those who are less certain about their beliefs in God (i.e., doubting nones). We analyze 13 waves (1988–2018) of pooled data (N = 15,349) from the General Social Survey (GSS), a large, recurring, and nationally-representative sample of U.S. adults conducted on a periodic basis. Using the GSS, we assessed self-rated health across religious and secular categories in a well-controlled model. When compared with conservative Protestants, theistic nones and atheists had significantly higher levels of self-rated health, whereas agnostics and low-certainty nonaffiliated theists (doubting nones) did not report significantly higher levels of self-rated health. This study adds to previous research by differentiating between theistic and doubting nones among nonaffiliated theists in relation to overall health differences. The results suggest that the level of certainty in beliefs about God or a higher power are an important factor among religious nones for predicting health outcomes. These findings highlight the necessity of analyzing heterogenous subgroups within secular populations in studies of health and well-being.

The lives of kings, poets, authors, criminals and celebrities are a perpetual fascination in the media and popular culture, and for decades anthropologists and other scientists have participated in 'post-mortem dissections' of the lives of historical figures. In this field of biohistory, researchers have identified and analyzed these figures' bodies using technologies such as DNA fingerprinting, biochemical assays, and skeletal biology. This book brings together biohistorical case studies for the first time, and considers the role of the anthropologist in the writing of historical narratives surrounding the deceased. Contributors theorize biohistory with respect to the sociology of the body, examining the ethical implications of biohistorical work and the diversity of social theoretical perspectives that researchers' work may relate to. The volume defines scales of biohistorical engagement, providing readers with a critical sense of scale and the different paths to 'historical notoriety' that can emerge with respect to human remains. Brings together scholarship on a variety of biohistorical cases at different scales of historical significance, and includes a thorough synthesis of the biohistorical literature Examines the ethical implications of biohistorical research, exploring questions about 'legitimate' research, permission, and the rights and interests of the deceased Provides a reflexive look at the practice of forensic biohistory, critically analyzing methods and approaches used in a variety of cases. / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1267/thumbnail.jpg

Deviance Management examines how individuals and subcultures manage the stigma of being labeled socially deviant. Exploring high-tension religious groups, white power movements, paranormal subcultures, LGBTQ groups, drifters, recreational drug and alcohol users, and more, the authors identify how and when people combat, defy, hide from, or run from being stigmatized as "deviant." While most texts emphasize the criminological features of deviance, the authors' coverage here showcases the diversity of social and noncriminal deviance. Deviance Management allows for a more thorough understanding of strategies typically used by normalization movements to destigmatize behaviors and identities while contributing to the study of social movements and intra-movement conflict. / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1279/thumbnail.jpg

Forensic biohistory is the analysis of human remains of the famous and infamous dead from historical (which is to say usually non-medicolegal) contexts, typically for the purposes of establishing positive identification of the remains as belonging to a specific individual (Komar and Buikstra 2008). Whether or not an inquiry can be “forensic” and not medico-legal is subject to debate.1 However, we use the term “forensic” here to differentiate the subject of this chapter from other uses of the term biohistory (cf. Boydon 1990; Brooke and Larsen 2014; Rankin-Hill 1997). For example, unlike Rankin-Hill’s use of biohistory to frame her analysis of the everyday lives of African American individuals from the past, forensic biohistory focuses on the superlative (note that in this context even knowing or suspecting a name associated with a body establishes that superlative quality) and that which engages public imagination. We acknowledge that these are not entirely discrete areas; both present opportunities to contribute to historical consciousness and debate. That said, forensic biohistorical inquiries can involve three different lines of investigation [...]

Book Summary: Based in the idea that social phenomena are best studied through the lens of different disciplinary perspectives, Empty Churches studies the growing number of individuals who no longer affiliate with a religious tradition. Co-editors Jan Stets, a social psychologist, and James Heft, a historian of theology, bring together leading scholars in the fields of sociology, developmental psychology, gerontology, political science, history, philosophy, and pastoral theology. The scholars in this volume explore the phenomenon by drawing from each other's work to understand better the multi-faceted nature of non-affiliation today. They explore the complex impact that non-affiliation has on individuals and the wider society, and what the future looks like for religion in America. The book also features insightful perspectives from parents of young adults and interviews with pastors struggling with this issue who address how we might address this trend. Empty Churches provides a rich and thoughtful analysis on non- affiliation in American society from multiple scholarly perspectives. The increasing growth of non-affiliation threatens the vitality and long-term stability of religious institutions, and this book offers guidance on maintaining the commitment and community at the heart of these institutions.

Book Summary: This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online. For more information, please read the site FAQs.

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