Mary Douglas argues that, ‘There are some things we cannot experience without ritual.’ Ex-prisoner reintegration may be one of them. The punishment process involves an inordinate amount of ritual behavior, from the drama of the courtroom to the elaborate de-individuation processes involved in institutionalization. Durkheim argues that these rituals serve a distinct purpose for society: engender...

Addressing integrative possibilities between psychology and anthropology, this paper aims to design conceptual linkages between semiotic-cultural constructivist psychology and the anthropological theory of Amerindian perspectivism. From the psychological view, it is the interdependence between the structural and processual dimensions of the personal culture that makes parallels with Amerindian ...

Engel's biopsychosocial model, Cassell's promotion of the concept "person" in medical thinking and Pellegrino's and Thomasma's philosophy of medicine are attempts to widen current biomedical theory of disease and to approach medicine as a form of human activity in pursuit of healing. To develop this approach further we would like to propose activity theory as a possible means for understanding ...

Anthropology has striven to adequately understand what human living conditions were like 10000, 20000 or 100 000 years ago. Stone Age (usually divided into the Old Stone or Paleolithic Age, and New Stone or Neolithic Age) extended until some 6000-7000 years ago (Hours, 1982). Agriculture appeared some 10 000 years ago; the first cities some 6000 years ago; the first civilizations about 5000 yea...

The source of activity of every individual or group is to a great extent determined by the necessity of interaction with other individuals or groups (Afanasiev, 1990), i.e. with the diversity of anthropological surroundings. This manifests itself in the participation of individuals in the organization of their ecosystems, including the ethnocultural and physical conditions of life (Sukharev, 19...

Anthropological demography is a specialty within demography which uses anthropological theory and methods to provide a better understanding of demographic phenomena in current and past populations. Its genesis and ongoing growth lie at the intersection between demography and socio-cultural anthropology and with their efforts to understand population processes, mainly fertility, migration, and m...

Background: One of the most important issues that requires more attention is the role of philosophy in individual and social life. Although sciences such as psychology and sociology propose their theories based on philosophical foundations, the role of philosophy as a field which can be influential in solving humans’ problems is not paid due attention. One of the sciences where philosophy can h...