Michael Gavin, associate Professor of human dimensions of natural resources researches biological diversity, and discusses the importance that history, language and tradition have in the preservation of culture.
Anthony Seeger, Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of California, Los Angeles, discusses the main focus of his career - the music of the Suyá Indians of Central Brazil He gives a quick but fascinating lesson in their musical folkways, the central role that music plays in their culture and society, how the Suyá use music to structure their sense of time, their instrumentation and use of voice, the place that music education plays in the raising of their children, and their reluctance to adopt the instrumentation or techniques of other cultures even as they gladly appropriate their songs. In addition, he sings one of the songs the Suyá perform during rainy season.
Introduction to the work of Edward B. Tyler, Lewis Henry Morgan and Franz Boas and his ideas of cultural relativism and its limitations.
SABA F. SAFDAR is an Iranian-born Canadian-educated Associate Professor. Her research primarily examines the wide range of factors that could help to understand adaptation processes of immigrants. She studies the influence of the psychological resilience of immigrants, of their beliefs and strategies, and of their ethnic and national identities on their adaptation in a new society. In addition to her research on immigration, she is interested in examining the academic, psychological, and social adaptation processes among international students.
Many will find that they might like to focus on the module and in that case the resources on this site can be read or listened to later in the programme when prompted by your tutor.
Markus discusses how our cultures shape our selves, and our selves feed into the cultures of which we are a part. She illustrates that belongingness requires a match between one’s view of self and the contexts in which one lives and works. Most universities, for example, promote an independent view of self. In “Our Cultures, Our Selves: The Sources of Belongingness” Hazel Rose Markus, examines how the self is shaped by the social world and how the self organises thought, feeling, and action.
Schein's iceberg model in found on page 27 of "Understanding an organisation means understanding its culture."
Photographer Phil Borges shows rarely seen images of people from the mountains of Dharamsala, India, and the jungles of the Ecuadorean Amazon. In documenting these endangered cultures, he intends to help preserve them.
