CULTURAL STUDIES & COMMUNICATION
Year:2010 | Volume:6 | Issue:18|Papers Count:10

Traditionally, humanists and social scientists believe that religion enforces the application of some stringent practices on the body. It is argued that the body must be controlled by the believer by applying the religious practices and those of the rituals. In order to arrive at an accurate perspective on this subject we need to investigate the relation between religion and the body in different religions. This article probes the relation between the body and religion to see what position the body takes in different religions such as Islam and Christianity. For responding to this question, the article embarks on a comparative study concerning the position of the body in religions.

Reading books and Journals as a cultural activity is considered to be one the effective factors for ranking consumption rate of cultural goods in any society. This study deals with the relationship between life style of Tehran's inhabitants and their consumption of books and Journals. In other words based upon the rate of reading academic books (aid books), non-academic books, the Internet texts, newspapers, magazines, the holy Quran and prayers, an assessment concerning the inhabitants method of use is presented in the form of three styles including Knowledge-based, middle and leisure –based styles. And also based on the three factors of the media consumption, leisure activities and individual tastes, peoples' life styles have been categorized into three life styles of traditional, middle, and modern ones.This study uses survey-research method and its statistical population consists of all inhabitants of Tehran. Sampling has been conducted through multi-stage cluster technique, and the sample size is 1231 persons. In order to implement this research, in pursuit of stages of indicator construction, and considering the questions in hand, technique of the questionnaire is used. All variables are valid credible. According to results obtained, the total average of reading time of participants is equal to 22.9 minutes per day. In addition, a meaningful relationship was found between life style and books & journals consumption. A more precise investigation indicates that those participants who read the Quran and prayers texts most often, are actually of a traditional life style, and those who read academic books (aid books), non-academic books, the Internet texts, newspaper, and magazines, belong to a modern life style.

This research tries to gain some understanding about the behaviors of the addressees in the area of one of the most popular domain of literature, i.e., popular romantic novels. The theoretical approach of the research is that the addressee is an active individual who has his/her own intention and motivations for inclining towards a romantic work. In this view, the addressee of popular works can also have his/her understanding of these works with regard to his/her own experiences, information and socio-cultural environment and thus to embark upon an interpret.In this view, the addresses of popular novels not only are not expelled but also their reasons for inclination towards these works are studied, because in this attitude, it is assumed that the addressee actively and consciously has selected these novels, based on his/her demand. This research has been conducted by using the theory of uses and satisfaction. Learning about the individual features of readers, the addresses' interests in connection with novel and reasons for inclination of readers to the romantic works from their own viewpoints have been among the objectives of this research.

In addition to presenting a description of the amount of social, economic, and cultural capitals among the youth of Paveh County, this study aims to weigh how much of an effect economic and social capitals can bear on the cultural one. We have utilized the theory of Pierre Bourdieu here. This is a survey-method research and the study’s data has been collected through the interview which included 410 of the youth between 15-29 years of age who resided in urban section of the Paveh County. Descriptive results show that the degree of youths’ social capital is high while the degree of cultural and economic capitals is medium. Moreover, the analytical results indicate that among the different variables of social capital, the variable of knowledge and paying attention to social, political and public affairs; and among the different variables of economic capital, the variable of enjoying welfare facilities had the most explanatory effect on the cultural capital.

This article attempts to show that religious travels reinforce cultural communication among Shiite communities. The survey has been undertaken in Mashhad on a sample of 598 pilgrims from four nations that include Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain. The results showed that two features of religious travelers: ‘travel duration’, and ‘previous travels’, bear a significant effect on cultural communications (pilgrim-host cultural and communal relationships). The issue of language seen as a barrier, however, seems to limit cultural communication, yet it does not make it impossible. Nonetheless, having had statistical control over the language barrier, the effect of travel on communal and cultural relationships remained significant and positive. This finding indicates that firstly, pilgrimage as a religious practice provides opportunity for making nonverbal cultural communications between the guest and the host communities. Secondly, despite language and cultural differences, pilgrimage and religious travels can provide a potential for different kinds of social ties to be developed among followers of a religion belonging to different societies.

The topic of life style attracted the attention of theoreticians and researchers in human and social sciences within the last decades because it has been induced by profound cultural and social movements that have enhanced shares of males and females in different political, cultural and social fields of the modern world. Considering great role of the youth in construction and reproduction of youth-oriented consumption (life style) behavior and patterns the present study focuses on the youth as its statistical population. The study attempts to conduct a survey study on the life style of the youth based on their gender, status, age and so on. The sample size is 380 boys and girls between15 and 25 years of age residing in the city of Bablosar City. The results show that boys and girls have a higher tendency toward complying with consumptive behaviors of modern culture, as compared to the traditional ones. Moreover, consumptive behaviors (dimensions of life style) between boys and girls in cultural consumption, leisure time activities and body management dimensions are different. Finally, boys and girls exhibit a significant difference in their life styles.

Soothsaying has always existed in mankind’s life as a common lore in society. In recent years, due to some reasons such as the prevalence and variety of ways of soothsaying, the elite’s entering the field, and utilization of a scientific discourse to refute soothsaying, this area has received a momentum. Using the theory of disciplined discourse of Focault and discourse analysis, the present paper attempts to examine the formal-scientific nature of soothsaying and then, using the discourse of agents of this field, tries to compare the cognition offered by soothsaying and its precautions with scientific discourse. Included in the Focault-like formal-scientific discourses to reject the soothsaying is negation and interpretation. According to these mechanisms, soothsaying is an abusive, fictitious, and an act of swindle, and its precautions are of little scientific insight, whereas agents of informal discourse, many of whom are elite and literate, note the benefits of soothsaying in the daily life.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the role of mass media and socio-cultural status of families on students’ familiarity with Satanist cults. The sample of this study included 324 female and male students from Humanities, Engineering and Medical science faculties of Isfahan University. The researcher made questionnaire was validated by using explorative factorial analysis method. The reliability of questionnaire was calculated by Alpha-Cranach’s coefficient (0.76). Findings indicated that male and female students were meaningfully different regarding general familiarity with Satanism. Male students were more knowledgeable about Satanism and its related terms and symbols. The sources of their familiarity were new technologies such as satellite, cell phones, internet and visual media such as cinemas, T-shirts, jewelries. The students of engineering faculties compared to other students had more familiarity with Satanism terms and symbols. Big source of their familiarities was related to mass media with western massages such as satellites and Internet. There was a meaningful relation between socio-economic status of families and the students’ general familiarities rate of Satanists’ cults, terms and symbols.