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The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about significant changes to the life of most individuals, worldwide. This study explores the cultural factors influencing decision-making during the pandemic, and is part of the CORNER Project, funded by the Research Council of Norway, aimed at understanding institutional response in the early phases of the Covid-19 emergency in Norway, Sweden, and Italy. Semi-structured interviews with key political-administrative leaders in Italy (N = 35) were conducted and content-analyzed, allowing the identification of the underlying cultural dynamics that played a role in these decisions. Thematic analysis was used to assess the influence of cultural factors on the crisis management and early reaction of institutions and citizens to the spread of Covid. In line with previous studies, and as expected, the individualism vs. collectivism dimension can explain differential health outcomes during the outbreak. In this paper we argue that individualism-collectivism cultural values can also play a pivotal role in public compliance with Covid-19 restrictions, and psychological responses during the pandemic.

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The chrono-cultural sequence of the Levantine Upper Paleolithic went through several major revisions during approximately a century of focused research, each revision contributing to shedding light on the mosaic of cultural entities and the complex social and cultural dynamics composing the Levantine Upper Paleolithic. The current state of research suggests the co-inhabitance of two cultural groups: the Early Ahmarian and the Levantine Aurignacian. Two other cultural entities, the Arkov-Divshon and the Atlitian, are regarded as younger manifestations and were tentatively suggested to relate to the Levantine Aurignacian. This paper presents a research synthesis of two case studies: Manot Cave, located in western Galilee, Israel, and Nahal Rahaf 2 Rockshelter in the Judean Desert. The application of high-resolution excavation methods, alongside detailed documentation of the stratigraphy and site-formation processes and wide-scale radiocarbon-based absolute dating, marked these sites as ideal for chrono-cultural study through the analyses of flint industries. The results indicate a clear distinction between the Levantine Aurignacian and the Arkov-Divshon/Atlitian industries and a chronological overlap between the Arkov-Divshon, Levantine Aurignacian, and possibly with the Early Ahmarian. Subsequently, we suggest another revision of the currently accepted chrono-cultural model: not two, but at least three cultural entities co-inhabited the Levant at ca. 40-30 ky cal BP. This study further suggests an evolvement of the Atlitian flint industries from the Arkov-Divshon and stresses the foreign cultural features of the Levantine Aurignacian. These results were used to construct an updated model of migration and possible interaction patterns.

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BACKGROUND: Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) refers to behavior by an intimate partner that can cause physical, sexual, or psychological harm; is a common global public health issue requiring immediate attention. IPV is the most common form of violence in rural areas of Punjab, Pakistan. METHODS: This qualitative phenomenological study collected 46 in-depth interviews from married women who experienced IPV in the rural areas of South Punjab. A semi-structured interview guide was used for data collection. These women were selected through a snowball sampling technique from October 2018 to March 2019. Researchers accessed the study setting with the help of gatekeepers (Lady Health Workers and Village Heads). The interviews were audio-recorded in the local language (Saraiki) and were translated into English. The data were analyzed using the thematic inductive analysis technique. RESULTS: The study has presented multifaceted factors of IPV by using the socio-ecological framework in rural areas of South Punjab, Pakistan. The current study introduced culturally contextualized terminologies of "protection," "physical submissiveness," "mental delicacy," and "social security". For married women, culturally embedded terms became the primary cause of IPV. In addition, the study also highlighted some of the cultural terminologies (such as run-mureed, watta-satta, beghairat, izzat, etc.) that are ubiquitous in the local context that sometimes intensifies IPV in the family and community sphere. Furthermore, the study discussed how gender-based inequalities trigger a status quo that ultimately creates power discrimination between spouses, which perpetuates violence in the domestic context. CONCLUSIONS: Gender-prejudiced roles and expectations imposed by orthodoxy, misinterpretations of Islamic teachings, and dominant patriarchy can be contested through awareness campaigns among the public, and gender sensitization drives among public institutions of police and judiciary. Education and employment-based can lead to women's empowerment and help to challenge the orthodox anti-feminist societal norms and the role of kinship-based networks in the family and community sphere.

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Ideologically committed minds form the basis of political polarization, but ideologically guided communication can further entrench and exacerbate polarization depending on the structures of ideologies and social network dynamics on which cognition and communication operate. Combining a well-established connectionist model of cognition and a well-validated computational model of social influence dynamics on social networks, we develop a new model of ideological cognition and communication on dynamic social networks and explore its implications for ideological political discourse. In particular, we explicitly model ideologically filtered interpretation of social information, ideological commitment to initial opinion, and communication on dynamically evolving social networks, and examine how these factors combine to generate ideologically divergent and polarized political discourse. The results show that ideological interpretation and commitment tend towards polarized discourse. Nonetheless, communication and social network dynamics accelerate and amplify polarization. Furthermore, when agents sever social ties with those that disagree with them (i.e. structure their social networks by homophily), even non-ideological agents may form an echo chamber and form a cluster of opinions that resemble an ideological group. This article is part of the theme issue 'The political brain: neurocognitive and computational mechanisms'.

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Humans possess limited knowledge on what generated cultural dynamics to strengthen human resilience to overcome climate-induced stresses. Although the highly developed mental ability of humans could have enabled significant human resilience in history, no study has empirically explained or has even scientifically confirmed how and when such dynamics arose. To fill the current research gap, this study therefore explores the associations among climatic conditions, the evolutional dynamics of human thinkers and their thoughts, and human ecological-socioeconomic conditions in the past 2500 years in Europe. Results from quantitative modellings and causal analyses confirm that climatic-ecological stresses led to human ecological-socioeconomic crises, and thereby dramatically increased twice of the thinkers' number and their thoughts' impact across different philosophies in truth, knowledge, and ethics for adaptation at multi-decadal to centennial temporal scales, especially in spirituality oriented mentality. The process of the stress-generated cultural dynamics displays some similarities with the stress-induced mutagenesis in organism evolution. Ultimately, climatic-ecological stresses prompt the escalation in the number of thinkers and impacts of their thoughts and flourishing of philosophy. Such stress-regenerated cultural dynamics imply that the current climate change threat may stimulate another thriving phase of cultural selection and lift humans to the next homeostatic plateau of civilization. Findings also extend the cognate scope of psychological, sociological, and civilization studies.

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Concern in one of the five camps for Congolese refugees in Rwanda about suicide attempts and death in 2017 as well as research data pointing to a relatively high incidence of suicidal ideation in this and a second camp in the same period provided the impetus for this exploratory qualitative study. The study explored factors contributing to suicidal ideation, attempts and death; existing support and referral mechanisms; and recommendations regarding prevention and care strategies. Between July and September 2018, 10 focus group discussions were conducted with refugees and representatives of stakeholders working in the camp, and 21 in-depth interviews with refugees who reported suicidal ideations in a previous quantitative survey, two refugees who attempted suicide, and family members of those who reported suicidal ideas, attempted suicide or committed suicide. Findings suggest that while all refugees have suffered from war and violence in Congo and experienced traumatic events before arriving in Rwanda, the pathway to suicidal ideations was often triggered by the circumstances related to their current situation in the context of refugeehood. Almost all respondents who experienced suicide ideations and/or attempted to commit suicide reported poor mental health, a low sense of connectedness/belonging and a high level of perceived burden, which were greater than their desire to live. Family conflicts were found to be an important starting point leading to suicidal ideations and in some cases to suicide attempts and deaths. For the adult population, family conflicts often resulted from the cultural and legal changes experienced after fleeing their home country, misunderstandings of Rwandan gender equality policies, and disagreements about family income management. For youth, a lack of hope for the future was found among boys and girls, and for some girls, suicidal ideations were triggered by poor interpersonal/family relationships due to unwanted pregnancies. Family, community and faith-based support mechanisms were reported as being available but not always culturally sensitive. Psychosocial support services should be improved and expanded to ensure effective psychosocial recovery. Family conflicts related to a lack of family communication and a misconception of gender equality policies should be tackled with attention to the cultural factors involved.

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In Europe, interest in wild forest products is increasing. Such products may be interpreted in a biological sense as deriving from autonomously growing forest species or in a biocultural sense as reflecting dynamics in human living with biodiversity through re-wilding of earlier domesticated species. In this article I elaborate the idea that the new interests reflect biocultural dynamics. First, I identify these dynamics as involving both domestication and re-wilding and characterize these processes as involving biological, environmental, and cultural dimensions. Next, I present a comparative review of two approaches to re-wilding forest production in the Netherlands: meat production from new types of natural grazing systems, and food production from plants re-introduced to the wild. The first approach is based on the stimulation of naturally occurring ecological processes and the second on the stimulation of new forms of experiencing bio-cultural heritage. The examples demonstrate that the new interests in wild forest products involve both a return to earlier stages of domestication in an ecological sense and a new phase of acculturation to evolving socio-cultural conditions.

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Community family planning programmes in South Africa arose from the controversial apartheid history of controlling the African population while encouraging the growth of European migrant population. Post-apartheid population policies shifted away from population control to aligning policies to the global agenda that placed emphasis on the link between population and development. The focus on population and development polices in post-apartheid South Africa is on social equality, justice and peace rather than controlling sections of the population. Given the shift, this paper interrogates the conceptions of contraceptive use among rural communities in KwaZulu-Natal. Our primary objective is to understand the dynamics surrounding access to and use of family planning services in peri-urban and rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal. Using focus group data, the findings of the study suggest that different social categories interact with the family planning programmes differently. How teenagers and married women perceive the value of family planning differs. Gender differences regarding the use of condoms are also evident. The paper attempts to grapple with the non-use of condoms despite the knowledge that these prevent pregnancy and provide protection from sexually-transmitted diseases. The contribution of this paper lies in its identification of socio-cultural factors and the political economy underlying the different attitudes towards contraceptive use in rural KwaZulu-Natal.

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La perspectiva interpretativa-simbólica es una forma de analizar las dinámicas culturales presentes en las organizaciones. La revisión de literatura en bases de datos especializadas muestra que el principal postulado de esta perspectiva es la interpretación de segundo orden realizada a los símbolos de la organización para identificar el excedente de significado, o lo que comúnmente es conocido como el sentido de los elementos simbólicos. Sobrepasa los postulados de otros paradigmas de estudio, relacionados con la forma como son materializados los valores; y la interpretación de primer orden que les damos a los supuestos básicos compartidos dentro de las organizaciones o lo que comúnmente es conocido como el significado literal de los elementos simbólicos. La finalidad del artículo es abarcar los postulados y conceptos acerca del paradigma interpretativo-simbólico y exponer un modelo que reúne los elementos trabajados sobre el tema, para facilitar la comprensión y la aplicación de esta perspectiva en investigaciones y análisis organizacionales.

The interpretative-symbolic perspective is one among many ways to interpret the cultural dynamics present within organizations. The literature reviewed in specialized data bases shows that this perspective's main postulate is the interpretation of second order performed on organizational symbols in order to identify the surplus of meaning or what is commonly known as the sense of symbolic elements. It surpases the postulates of other paradigms of study related to the way in whoch values are materialized; and the interpretation of first order we give to basic postulations shared within organizations or what is commonly known as the literal meaning of symbolic elements. The end pursued by this paper is to embark the postulates and concepts about the interpretative-symbolic paradigm and present a model which gathers the elements regarded on the subject, thus facilitating the understanding and application of this perspective to future research and organizational analysis.

A perspectiva interpretativa-simbólica é uma forma de analisar as dinâmicas culturais presentes nas organizações. A revisão da literatura nas bases de dados especializadas mostra que a principal postulado desta perspectiva é a interpretação de segunda ordem feita aos símbolos da organização para identificar o excedente de sentido, ou o que é comumente conhecido como o sentido dos elementos simbólicos . Excede os dogmas de outros paradigmas de estudo, relatou como os valores são incorporados; ea interpretação de primeira ordem damos compartilhada pressupostos básicos dentro das organizações ou o que é comumente conhecido como o significado literal dos elementos simbólicos. O objetivo do artigo é abraçar os princípios e conceitos de paradigma interpretativo-simbólica e expor um modelo que atenda aos elementos trabalharam sobre o assunto, para facilitar a compreensão e aplicação dessa perspectiva em pesquisa e análise organizacional.

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In cultural contexts in which sexist beliefs are considered traditional, shifts toward gender equality represent an example of cultural change. Polyculturalism is defined as the belief that cultures change constantly through different racial and ethnic groups' interactions, influences, and exchanges with each other and, therefore, are dynamic and socially constructed rather than static. Thus, polyculturalism may involve openness to cultural change and, thereby, would be expected to be associated with lower sexist attitudes. Four studies (both cross-sectional and longitudinal) with undergraduate and community samples in the Northeastern United States tested whether endorsement of polyculturalism is inversely associated with sexism, above and beyond potentially confounding belief systems. Across studies, for both women and men, endorsement of polyculturalism was associated with lower sexist attitudes for two classes of sexism measures: (a) attitudes toward the rights and roles of women and (b) ambivalent sexist attitudes toward women. Associations remained significant while controlling for potentially confounding variables (colorblindness, conservatism, egalitarianism, gender and ethnic identity, gender and race essentialism, multiculturalism, right-wing authoritarianism, and social dominance orientation). Greater openness to criticizing one's culture mediated polyculturalism's association with attitudes toward the rights and roles of women but not with ambivalent sexist attitudes toward women. Studying polyculturalism may provide unique insights into sexism, and more work is needed to understand the mechanisms involved.

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Cross-cultural comparison is a critical method by which we can examine the interaction between culture and psychological processes. However, comparative methods tend to overlook cultural dynamics - the formation, maintenance, and transformation of cultures over time. The present article gives a brief overview of four different types of research designs that have been used to examine cultural dynamics in the literature: (1) cross-temporal methods that trace medium- to long-term changes in a culture; (2) cross-generational methods that explore medium-term implications of cultural transmission; (3) experimental simulation methods that investigate micro-level mechanisms of cultural dynamics; and (4) formal models and computer simulation methods often used to investigate long-term and macro-level implications of micro-level mechanisms. These methods differ in terms of level of analysis for which they are designed (micro vs. macro-level), scale of time for which they are typically used (short-, medium-, or long-term), and direction of inference (deductive vs. empirical method) that they imply. The paper describes examples of these methods, discuss their strengths and weaknesses, and point to their complementarity in inquiries about cultural change. Because cultural dynamics research is about meaning over time, issues deriving from interpretation of meaning and temporal distance between researchers and objects of inquiry can pose threats to the validity of the research and its findings. The methodological question about hermeneutic circle is recalled and further inquiries are encouraged.