Research Topics: Sociology Essay Samples

HUMAN RIGHTS AND WOMEN: A STUDY OF MUSLIM WOMEN IN BARAK VALLEY OF ASSAM

HUMAN RIGHTS AND WOMEN: A STUDY OF MUSLIM WOMEN IN BARAK VALLEY OF ASSAM             South Assam is Barak Valley which consists of three districts. In one district, there is around forty percent Muslims while in the two districts, majority of Muslims abound.  The huge population of Muslims in the Barak Valley of Assam consists mostly of women. Women surpass men in headcount in almost any Muslim community.             Correct female behavior is said to originate to the laws as set in 200 B.C. by Maru. Among these are [I]” in childhood, a female must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband, when her lord is dead to her sons; a woman must never be independent”, “by a young girl, by a young woman, or even by an aged one, nothing must be done independently, even in her own house”.             Following the above dictum, it can be said that the lives of women are up to this modern times shaped by centuries old customs. From the moment of birth, the female gender is already discriminated against and this will only end in death.             The family system is patriarchal and women are not at liberty to claim property even from dead husbands; they can only make use of their dowry if allowed.  In Assam, it is almost very rare to see a woman in any decision-making body in any institution.             A woman who deals with economic activities for the family and who manages the household and its occupants, even working up to fifteen hours daily, is not valued and given importance as the man of the household. They can be at times given the freedom to decide on certain family matters as house improvement, education and health care, marriage negotiations, but only upon the permission of the husband.             In urban areas, education and exposure provides women with more opportunities but often, companies that employ women remain very limited and if ever there are openings, women are forced to accept the job at a much lower salary wage than men.  Women can decide on their own how to take care of their body, they can cook what they want and can buy jewelry on their own. However, they cannot go wherever they want to go  even if only to their parents and siblings, relatives and friends unless given permission by the man of the household. A very minimal number  of them have personal money. Dowry is still practiced in Muslim marriages in Barak Valley, as in the other parts of the country. Certain issues are taken into consideration to agree on a dowry, whether the bride-to-be is black or fair-skinned, literate or illiterate, short or tall, etc. Dowry that is not paid on time may incur the wrath of the in-laws, even the groom. It is believed that the higher the dowry is, the higher the social position in society.               The majority still exists in ignorance and deprivation. In work output  alone, it is said the women’s position is the worst. According to NSS 55th Round data, the Assam Rural and Urban Female Participation Rate is only around ninety-seven as compared to the average rates of one hundred seventy-five, much lesser in extent than Male work Participation Rate of around five hundred.  Female literacy rate in 2001 was 56.03 percent while male literacy rate was 71.83 percent.             In rural Assam, it is alarming to note that 79.5 percent of infant girls die before they reach the first year of birth. Anemia is rampant among married women rising up to 69.7 percent. Women’s life expectancy is only 60 years as compared to the national average of 76 years.                      Girls who drop out of school is very high, reaching as high as 77.92 percent. The national average for drop outs is 70.60 percent. Among the reasons cited why girls drop out of school are due to the necessity in participating in household domestic and economic activities, lack of female teachers, and inadequate or lack of facilities for girls as toilets and water.             However, studies show that Muslim women in Assam, although under the shadow of customary laws still  can be said to be better than their counterparts in other Muslim communities. Researchers also found out that they enjoy certain limited high status and freedom as compared to other Muslims in the more advanced parts of the country.                                                                                           	   		 		 		 		[i] www.assamtribune.com Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

HUMAN RIGHTS AND WOMEN: A STUDY OF MUSLIM WOMEN IN BARAK VALLEY OF ASSAM

HUMAN RIGHTS AND WOMEN: A STUDY OF MUSLIM WOMEN IN BARAK VALLEY OF ASSAM South Assam is Barak Valley which consists of three...

Subculture And Style

SUBCULTURE AND STYLE   Subculture is a relative concept. The term suggests subordinance to a dominant culture, implying that a sort of superiority is inherent in the mainstream and recognizing mainstream culture as a more legitimate, valuable, or simply, “right” way to live (Smith, 2002) . This is ironic in that a subculture only exists in relation to popular culture, and consequently, a movement once defined as a subculture may cease to have that classification if and when the subcultural practices in question are embraced and practiced by a more heterogeneous audience. It is significant, however, to note that the essence of the original subculture is unquestionably transformed as it is adopted by a mainstream audience. Despite the problems which can be associated with ‘subculture’ the term continues to be widely used as a centrally defining discursive trope in much sociological work especially on the relationship between youth, music and style. Thornton (1996) examines three distinct cultural hierarchies: the authentic versus the phony, the ‘hip’ versus the ‘mainstream’ and the ‘underground’ versus the ‘media.’ According to Thornton (1995), ‘authentic’ subcultures are largely constructed by the media, members of subcultures acquiring a sense of themselves and their relation to the rest of society from the way they are represented in the media. Thornton (1996) states that the best definition of a subculture is, “a social group that has been labeled as such” (162). Moreover, since some practices are labeled “subculture” and some are not, and since this label or lack thereof is in fact quite arbitrary when examined objectively, the only reason a particular practice is a subculture is that the media named it so (Thornton, 1996). Antonio Gramsci’s theory of hegemony provides the most adequate account of how dominance is sustained in advanced capitalist societies. The theory addresses the seemingly naturally occurring qualities and properties of social hierarchy because, hegemony suggests the complex process by which domination is transformed into civic cooperation (Deetz, 1995). In 1977, cultural studies expert Stuart Hall commented that the term hegemony refers “to a situation in which a provisional alliance of certain social groups can exert ‘total social authority’ over other subordinate groups, not simply by coercion or by the direct imposition of ruling ideas, but by ‘winning and shaping consent so that the power of the dominant classes appears both legitimate and natural’” (Hebdige, 1979, 15-16). The few in control of money, legislation, and mass communication simply aspire to convince the many to conform to a “natural” normative structure that those in power promote to assure their continued position of dominance in the future. Additionally, Hebdige (1979) points out that challenge to hegemony which subcultures represent is not issued directly by them; rather it is expressed obliquely, in style. The objections are lodged, the contradictions displayed at the profoundly superficial level of appearances. The styles associated with, for example a rave culture, are misunderstood, largely because the media and non-participants wrongly associate every object that represents rave culture with drug use. It is possible that this representation is purposeful and designed to thwart the realization that, “Style in subculture contradicts the myth of consensus” (Hebdige, 1979).   The classic misconception surrounding youth subcultures is basically the notion that they are a culture based not on style but on the use of certain illegal drugs. In reality, drug use is not limited to youth subcultures, rather it is simply a part of modern society. Moreover, other subcultures such as skinhead, punk, rockers, new wave, rave and gangster have been associated with deviancy. This is so because of their images. According to Brake (1974), style is made up of three main ingredients: image, which includes costume and accessories; demeanor, which includes gait, posture and practice; and argot, or the use of a distinct vocabulary. With such identifying characteristics or style in mind, Brake described the early British skinheads as: “Aggressive working-class puritans in big industrial boots, jeans rolled up high to reveal them, hair cut to the skull, braces, and a violence and racism [that] earned for them the title “bovver boys,” “boot-boys” on the look out for “aggro” (aggravation). Stylistically they have roots in the hard moods, forming local gangs called after a local leader or an area. Ardent football fans, they were involved in violence on the terraces against rival supporters. They espoused traditional conservative values, hard work, patriotism, defense of local territory, which led to attacks on hippies, gays and minorities. They became a metaphor for racism …. “Puritans in boots,” they opposed hippy liberalism, subjectivity and disdain for work, attempting to “magically recover the traditional working-class community” (75-76). Style is an essential and distinguishing part of subculture. It is often a form of communication between members of a subculture with each other and with the mainstream. According to Hebdige (1979), the confusion surrounding different subculture objects and practices provides a perfect illustration that the conflict between hegemonic culture and subordinate culture can be encapsulated in a single object, so the tensions between dominant and subordinate groups can be found reflected in the surfaces of subculture- in the styles made up of mundane objects which have a double meaning. Hebdige (1979) adds that objects “warn the ‘straight’ world of a sinister presence- the presence of difference… On the other hand, for those who erect them into icons… these objects become signs of forbidden identity, sources of value” (2-3). Members of different subcultures express themselves and communicate their membership allegiance through style. Particular aspects of style often function to give new meaning to ordinary objects or practices. Such commodities are indeed open to a double inflection: to ‘illegitimate’ as well as ‘legitimate’ uses. These objects can be magically appropriated; ‘stolen’ by subordinate groups and made to carry ‘secret’ meanings: meanings which express, a form of resistance to the order which guarantees their continued subordination (Hebdige, 1979). These new meanings are usually only available to and understood by members of the subculture, and non-members often misunderstand the new meanings. Hebdige (1979) refers to this as the subversive implications of style. The related concept of ‘lifestyle’ provides a useful basis for a revised understanding of how individual identities are constructed and lived out. ‘Lifestyle’ describes the sensibilities employed by the individual in choosing certain commodities and patterns of consumption and in articulating these cultural resources as modes of personal expression (Chaney, 1996). Certainly, there are numerous instances of lifestyles which are intended to reflect more ‘traditional’ ways of life, notably in relation to class background. For example, British pop group Oasis and their fans promote an image, consisting of training shoes, football shirts and duffel coats, which is designed to illustrate their collective sense of working classiness. All of this is not to suggest that ‘lifestyle’ abandons any consideration of structural issues. Rather, ‘lifestyle’ allows for the fact that consumerism offers the individual new ways of negotiating such issues. Thus, as Chaney (1996) observes, ‘the indiscriminate egalitarianism of mass culture does not necessarily reproduce the structured oppressions of previous social order. Or rather . . . these oppressions can more easily be subverted by the very diversity of lifestyle’ made possible via the appropriation of selected commodities and participation in chosen patterns of consumption (1994:81). In critically evaluating ‘subculture’ as a valid framework for the sociological study of youth, music and style, Bennett (1999) have identified two main issues. First, there is a problem of objectivity as subculture is used in increasingly contradictory ways by sociological theorists. Secondly, given that in studies which use ‘subculture’ in relation to youth, music and style there is a grounding belief that subcultures are subsets of society, or cultures within cultures, such a concept imposes lines of division and social categories which are very difficult to verify in empirical terms. Indeed, at the most fundamental level, there is very little evidence to suggest that even the most committed groups of youth stylists are in any way as ‘coherent’ or ‘fixed’ as the term ‘subculture’ implies. On the contrary, it seems that so-called youth ‘subcultures’ are prime examples of the unstable and shifting cultural affiliations which characterize late modern consumer-based societies.   References Bennett, A. (1999) Subcultures or neo-tribes? Rethinking the relationship between youth, style and musical taste. Sociology, Vol. 33. Brake, M. (1974) The skinheads: An English working class subculture. Youth and Society, Vol. 6, pp. 179-200. Channey, D. (1996) Lifestyles. London: Routledge.   Deetz, S. (1995) Transforming Communication, Transforming Business. Hampton Press.   Hebdige, D. (1979) Subculture: The Meaning of Style. London: Routledge.   Smith, E. M. (2002) From the war on drugs to a war on subculture: media, law and the future of rave. Thesis presented to Newcomb College Tulane University.   Thornton, S (1996) Club Cultures: Music, Media, and Subcultural Capital. New England: Wesleyan University Press.   __________ (1995) Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital. Cambridge: Polity.   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Subculture And Style

SUBCULTURE AND STYLE Subculture is a relative concept. The term suggests subordinance to a dominant culture, implying that a sort o...

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Belonging to a Nuclear Family

THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF NUCLEAR FAMILY         The Nuclear or biological family is the smallest unit of society that we belong. They consist of father, mother and children who loved and lived together to form a home.  All over the world the nuclear family has been given value and importance that makes a family stand up from problem and opportunities that may come. It is in the family that we can adopt our personality, sense of pride, character formation, identity and social upbringing.  Most of the time family relation formation is dependent in our culture. In Asian countries who have a very close family ties to the highest extent that bonds until up to the point that parents would support their children after their marriage, while in American and European culture most likely they are dependent when reach a certain age. Although family bonding is also being exercise but basically they separate upon maturity of children.       Our family is the one who taught us to learn to walk when we are children and they are the one to help us stand up when we are down. No matter how much our situation they will always be there to support every family members, they are the ones who gave us our physical needs during our childhood and we can depend on them even when we grow old inherently we help them if they ask. They are also the one to encourage us to reach our dreams and they will be there to reach us if we fall, they are the sources of our strength and understanding. Sometimes we live our life and inspiration to dedicate them our achievements but we are ready to accept everyone even if they fail. No amount of hardship is ever enduring if there is a foundation of love and respect that unites the family even more. A family is not just a house that is constructed by marbles and steel but a home that consists of loving and nurturing mother, respectable father and obedient children that strengthens the family relationship. There will come a time that children are going to build the family of their own and children will soon be adults, whatever lessons they have learned from their nuclear family they will soon exercise it in the family of their own. We are the reflection of our nuclear family, a person who has a family that sticks together through thick and thin will basically succeed in life and they will always return in a place that they called “HOME”. A person who has found a home may be blessed with a stable personality while the person who grows without their own family may find it hard to love and be loved simply because they have not found love if they grow lonely but this doesn’t mean they cannot learn to love, it comes naturally inside the family. The nuclear family can express the freedom to live the best life more than the material possession but freedom to choose what is right.         There are times that our Nuclear family has become the one who can destroy our personality for there are parents who lived up to the highest expectation that degrade and belittle their children who have not done well especially in school if they lack the grades expected. Also the children’s competition and jealousy about their parents love.  If we belong to a very irresponsible parents chances are we are poor that we have not given the opportunity to get the basic needs to live, they may experience fighting and beating of parents and children. In some countries including European and African nations who have the most number of family struggles and crimes, there are numerous counts of family and domestic violence especially among children who suffered most from radical and sadistic parents.       There are also forms of degrading and sexual abuse from minors reportedly having traumatic experiences of smacking, and torture brought about by poverty or vices coming from the parents themselves. Some children are neglected to live alone without anything. Mostly they are weak and spirit, always alone even with others and longing to be loved, if children does not found love at home they will seek their companions in the outside world with their peers that may result in tragedy and exploited body and mind.  They tend to escape from the reality that they are force to take illegal activities such as smoking, drinking drugs and early marital relationship that may even worsen their longing for acceptance inside the family. They rebel against each other that destroyed the family even more. This has been the disadvantages of the nuclear unfortunate family that manifested through destructive pattern and negative character development among family members especially among children who may find it hard to understand their situation, but it is there.                                            Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Belonging to a Nuclear Family

THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF NUCLEAR FAMILY The Nuclear or biological family is the smallest unit of society that we belong...

Indigenous Australian

Indigenous Australian               Problematic conditions, according to Mills (1959), have to be prepared or formulated with due attention to their conceptual and theoretical insinuations, and to suitable paradigms of experiential research and appropriate models of verifications. These models and paradigms in turn, must be created that they allow further conceptual and theoretical insinuations to be strained from their service. The conceptual and theoretical insinuations of problematic conditions should be first fully discovered.             However, to take hold the problems regarding the health status of indigenous people, you have to concentrate to four stages or sensibilities. An the first one is the elements and descriptions that, from the general awareness of topic, area, or issue of concern that you think you are going to have to take into consideration (Lavagnino, 2004). Regarding the health status of indigenous people, the main concern is the health status of indigenous people in Australia alone; this may include the definition of the issue o topic that is going to be discussed.             The second one is the reasonable relations between this elements and definitions; creating these groundwork models, parenthetically, affords the great chance for the play of sociological imagination. Social imagination is essential because it permits to grasp biography and history, and the relations between them within the theory, and this is its task and its assurance (Morgan, 1998). Moreover, it allows its holder to comprehend the larger historical scene in terms of its definition for the internal life and the exterior career of a diversity of individuals in Australia.             The important terms, which shape the basis of the sociological imagination, are the tradition, biography, private troubles and public issues. The sociological imagination entails to connect in the study of an individual’s biography, such as those indigenous people in Australia; but the place that biography in the broad perspective of the history and tradition of the society in which that individual lives. Mills (1959) suggests that a valuable way of understanding imagination is to use the “fruitful distinction” between on the one hand “the public issues of social construction” and on the other is “the personal troubles of milieu”.             The third one is the elimination of false observations due to oversights of wanted components, inappropriate or uncertain definition of terms, or unnecessary emphasis on some part of the variety and its commonsensical extensions. This stage is very fundamental but often disregarded part of any sufficient statement of the problem. The popular understanding of the problem regarding the health status of indigenous people in Australia must be cautiously taken into consideration. The scholarly statement must also be carefully observed and either finished in the summary being made or thrown out (Mills 1959). Lastly, the statement and the summary of the questions of fact that remain regarding the health status of indigenous people in Australia should be taken into account.   References: Mill C. (1959). On Intellectual Craftsmanship. The Sociological Imagination. http://www.mills.edu/SOCA/DANRYAN/pdfs/mills_OnIntellectualCraftsmanship.html. Accessed on 11. October 2004.   Lavagnino, J. (2004). AVMPUB: Modes of Publication. MA in Humanities computing. http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/ma/courses/acmpub/mills.html. Accessed on: 11. October 2004.   Morgan D. (1998). Sociological Imaginings and Imagining Sociology: Bodies, Auto/biographies and Other Mysteries. Sociology. Vol. 32. No. 4. p. 647. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Indigenous Australian

Indigenous Australian Problematic conditions, according to Mills (1959), have to be prepared or formulated with due atten...

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