Age Norms And Intercultural Interaction In Colonial North America

This interdisciplinary study examines how age norms shaped the experiences of Europeans, Native Americans, and African Americans in colonial North America. It analyzes how these norms were culturally constructed and how they influenced interaction and conflict among these cultural groups.

Aging & the Life Course: Social & Cultural Contexts provides an accessible, up-to-date introduction to the study of aging and the life course from a distinctly sociological perspective. It explores the sociocultural dimensions of aging while encouraging critical thinking about the diversity of aging experiences, societal attitudes toward older adults, the politics and economics of growing old, and end-of-life resources. Throughout the text, Deborah Lowry emphasizes the relevance of the material for working with older populations, understanding social policy and policy debates, improving communities, relating to others, and understanding ourselves. Organized into four major sections, Part I introduces students to fundamental demographic, sociological, and life course concepts; part II explores the experiences and conditions of aging, especially in particular groups; and part III presents current research on older adults’ engagement in work, family, social networks, and sex. Finally, Part IV addresses themes of aging and social change.

While children are a relatively unchanging fact of life, childhood is a constantly shifting concept. Throughout the millennia, the age at which a child becomes a youth and a youth becomes an adult has varied by gender, class, religion, ethnicity, place, and economic need. As author James Marten explores in this Very Short Introduction, so too have the realities of childhood, each life shaped by factors such as education, expectation, and conflict (or lack thereof). Indeed, ancient Roman children lived very differently than those born of today's Generation Z. Experiences of childhood have been shaped in classrooms and on factory floors, in family homes and orphanages, and on battlefields and in front of television sets. In addressing this diversity, The History of Childhood: A Very Short Introduction takes a global, expansive view of the features of childhood that have shaped childhood throughout history and continue to shape it now. From the rules of Confucian childrearing in twelfth-century China to the struggles of children living as slaves in the Americas or as cotton mill workers in Industrial Age Britain, Marten takes his inspiration from the idea that the lives of children reveal important and sometimes uncomfortable truths about civilization. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

This book explores how age shaped slavery as an institution and how the aging process affected the enslaved and enslaver alike. It challenges static models of enslaved resistance and enslaver dominance by emphasizing intergenerational conflict in the American South. Key reading for students and scholars of slavery in the US.

Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title The experiences of children in America have long been a source of scholarly fascination and general interest. In American Childhoods, Joseph Illick brings together his own extensive research and a synthesis of literature from a range of disciplines to present the first comprehensive cross-cultural history of childhood in America. Beginning with American Indians, European settlers, and African slaves and their differing perceptions of how children should be raised, American Childhoods moves to the nineteenth century and the rise of industrialization to introduce the offspring of the emerging urban middle and working classes. Illick reveals that while rural and working-class children continued to toil from an early age, as they had in the colonial period, childhood among the urban middle class became recognized as a distinct phase of life, with a continuing emphasis on gender differences. Illick then discusses how the public school system was created in the nineteenth century to assimilate immigrants and discipline all children, and observes its major role in age-grouping children as well as drawing working-class youngsters from factories to classrooms. At the same time, such social problems as juvenile delinquency were confronted by private charities and, ultimately, by the state. Concluding his sweeping study, the author presents the progeny of suburban, inner-city, and rural Americans in the twentieth century, highlighting the growing disparity of opportunities available to children of decaying cities and the booming suburbs. Consistently making connections between economics, psychology, commerce, sociology, and anthropology, American Childhoods is rich with insight into the elusive world of children. Grounded firmly in social and cultural history and written in lucid, accessible prose, the book demonstrates how children's experiences have varied dramatically through time and across space, and how the idea of childhood has meant vastly different things to different groups in American society.

The Global Intercultural Communication Reader is the first anthology to take a distinctly non-Eurocentric approach to the study of culture and communication. In this expanded second edition, editors Molefi Kete Asante, Yoshitaka Miike, and Jing Yin bring together thirty-two essential readings for students of cross-cultural, intercultural, and international communication. This stand-out collection aims to broaden and deepen the scope of the field by placing an emphasis on diversity, including work from authors across the globe examining the processes and politics of intercultural communication from critical, historical, and indigenous perspectives. The collection covers a wide range of topics: the emergence and evolution of the field; issues and challenges in cross-cultural and intercultural inquiry; cultural wisdom and communication practices in context; identity and intercultural competence in a multicultural society; the effects of globalization; and ethical considerations. Many readings first appeared outside the mainstream Western academy and offer diverse theoretical lenses on culture and communication practices in the world community. Organized into five themed sections for easy classroom use, The Global Intercultural Communication Reader includes a detailed bibliography that will be a crucial resource for today's students of intercultural communication.

America in Italy examines the influence of the American political experience on the imagination of Italian political thinkers between the late eighteenth century and the unification of Italy in the 1860s. Axel Körner shows how Italian political thought was shaped by debates about the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution, but he focuses on the important distinction that while European interest in developments across the Atlantic was keen, this attention was not blind admiration. Rather, America became a sounding board for the critical assessment of societal changes at home. Many Italians did not think the United States had lessons to teach them and often concluded that life across the Atlantic was not just different but in many respects also objectionable. In America, utopia and dystopia seemed to live side by side, and Italian references to the United States were frequently in support of progressive or reactionary causes. Political thinkers including Cesare Balbo, Carlo Cattaneo, Giuseppe Mazzini, and Antonio Rosmini used the United States to shed light on the course of their nation's political resurgence. Concepts from Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Vico served to evaluate what Italians discovered about America. Ideas about American "domestic manners" were reflected and conveyed through works of ballet, literature, opera, and satire. Transcending boundaries between intellectual and cultural history, America in Italy is the first book-length examination of the influence of America's political formation on modern Italian political thought.

Books on intercultural communication are rarely written with an intercultural readership in mind. In contrast, this multinational team of authors has put together an introduction to communicating across cultures that uses examples and case studies from around the world. The book further covers essential new topics, including international conflict, social networking, migration, and the effects technology and mass media play in the globalization of communication. Written to be accessible for international students too, this text situates communication theory in a truly global perspective. Each chapter brings to life the links between theory and practice and between the global and the local, introducing key theories and their practical applications. Along the way, you will be supported with first-rate learning resources, including: • theory corners with concise, boxed-out digests of key theoretical concepts • case illustrations putting the main points of each chapter into context • learning objectives, discussion questions, key terms and further reading framing each chapter and stimulating further discussion • a companion website containing resources for instructors, including multiple choice questions, presentation slides, exercises and activities, and teaching notes. This book will not merely guide you to success in your studies, but will teach you to become a more critical consumer of information and understand the influence of your own culture on how you view yourself and others.