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Article

Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls  

Jodi Magness

In 1946–1947, the first Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered by accident near the site of Qumran. This discovery led Roland de Vaux to undertake an expedition to Qumran, including excavations at the site and the exploration of the surrounding caves. Eventually, the remains of approximately one thousand scrolls were found in eleven caves surrounding Qumran. De Vaux’s excavations indicate that the site was inhabited in the 1st century bce and 1st century ce (until 68 ce) by members of a Jewish sect—apparently the Essenes—who deposited the scrolls in the nearby caves. They believed the end of days (eschaton) was at hand or perhaps already underway. Members conducted their lives as if the community were a virtual Temple or Tabernacle and observed the same strict regulations governing purity including immersion and purity of food, drink, and dishes as those required for the Temple cult. Qumran’s distinctive features are physical expressions of the community’s observance of biblical laws and their adoption of a priestly lifestyle. These features include the large number of miqva’ot (Jewish ritual baths), deposits of animal bones, a large adjacent cemetery, communal dining rooms with adjacent pantries of dishes, numerous workshops, and an unusual ceramic repertoire including the same type of distinctive cylindrical jars in which the first scrolls reportedly were found. It appears that the sect observed and enacted the laws and lifestyle of the wilderness camp with the Tabernacle in its midst. Approximately 2 miles (3 km) to the south of Qumran, excavations were conducted at Ein Feshkha by Roland de Vaux in 1958 and by Yizhar Hirschfeld in 2001. The remains at the site include a farmhouse and industrial installations by brackish springs on the shore of the Dead Sea. De Vaux considered Ein Feshkha “an agricultural and industrial establishment used to benefit the community of Qumran.” However, the archaeological evidence does not demonstrate that the two sites are related or that Ein Feshkha was a sectarian settlement, as it lacks many of the distinctive features found at Qumran.

Article

Arts and Ethics: Overview  

Iain Robertson

The art market has changed significantly since its modern inception in the Renaissance. It has grown into a global industry. There are a number of crucial concepts that have become points of disagreement and discussion: authentication, restitution, repatriation, the distinction between the work of art and the creator, and the moral rights of artists. Notions surrounding authenticity have changed significantly over time. By the 18th century, authorship became inseparable from value, whereas it carried less importance in earlier periods. The degree a work has been altered or restored is also key to ascertaining its authentication. The restitution of a work of art is distinct from its repatriation; restitution refers to individual claims most commonly asserted today with reference to the period of the National Socialist government in Germany. Attitudes toward trophies of war changed in the early 20th century, and repatriation is today a much more acceptable notion than it once was. Whether the impression or value of a work of art is affected by the misconduct or immoral nature of the creator or collector is a contentious issue. There are numerous examples of immoral artists, collectors, and dealers; but it is a different matter to attach their immorality to a work of art created, collected, or dealt by these protagonists. The moral right of artists does just that. It argues for the work of art to be considered an inalienable part of the creator, which suggest that the character of the artist is extended to include the work of art.

Article

The 1972 Asian Expulsion in Uganda and the Framing of Ethno-Racial Discourse in the Post-Colonial Press  

William Tayeebwa, Charlotte K. Ntulume, and Adolf E. Mbaine

The social-cultural and political history of Uganda since British colonial rule (1894–1962) to the present offers several manifestations of ethnic and racial confrontations. The first major racial skirmishes in the 1940s and 1950s played out against the Asian business owners and the British colonial masters. Native resentment of Ugandan-Asians reached a peak point leading to their expulsion by President Idi Amin in 1972. In recent times, there have also been increasing reported incidences of xenophobic confrontations between nationals and immigrants and refugees due to the high immigration pressure the country faces from troubled neighboring countries, such as Rwanda, South Sudan, Republic of the Sudan, and Democratic Republic of the Congo. There have also been recent incidences in which Asians have been attacked in the country. However, the most prominent case of xenophobia in the national psyche, which was also a major international media story, remains the expulsion of Asians by President Idi Amin in 1972. In this article, content analysis is used to present the media framing of the Asian expulsion as a manifestation of ethno-racial and xenophobic violence in Uganda. The findings show that the expulsion was framed predominantly as an “economic war” for the “economic independence” of Uganda. Asians were framed as “foreigners” who were “exploiters,” “tricksters,” and, during the expulsion, as “arsonists” and “saboteurs.” Idi Amin was framed as a “brave liberator” and a “patriotic nationalist.” Based on increasing tensions between nationals and a new Asian business class increasingly dominated by Chinese, the historical data provides insights as to what might lie ahead if local grievances are not properly addressed.

Article

Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonine Movement  

Carlos Almeida

In 1704, on Mount Kibangu, near the mouth of Mbidizi river, Kimpa Vita, a woman apparently from the Kongo aristocracy baptized as Beatriz, proclaimed that Saint Anthony appeared to her while she was deeply ill. He urged for the recomposition of the Kongo political entity through the reaffirmation of the centrality of Mbanza Kongo, its symbolic capital, then known as São Salvador. Kimpa Vita’s prophetic call, deeply rooted in local cosmologies, incorporated a complex reinterpretation of Christian figures, rituals, and symbolic elements, visible from the outset in the veneration of Saint Anthony, anointed as the savior of Kongo. This reflected a long relationship with Christianity and Europe, which began two centuries earlier with the baptism of mwene Kongo Nzinga Nkuwu in 1491. The rapid growth of the movement launched by Kimpa Vita is inseparable from the warfare in the region at the time. The Atlantic slave trade multiplied, and, with it, the fear associated with transoceanic travel and an uncertain fate marked by violence, the rupture of all social ties, and submersion into the complete unknown. In a sense, without ever mentioning it expressly, Beatriz Kimpa Vita’s appeal gave voice to these popular concerns, challenging the different segments of the aristocracy who benefited from this unstable and fearful context, fighting amongst themselves to conquer spheres of power and influence, and precipitated the evolution of political forms in the region. The Antonine movement, as it is known in historiography, had a short life. On July 2, 1706, Kimpa Vita was burned at the stake on the orders of Pedro Afonso Água Rosada Nusamu a Mvemba, known as Pedro IV, with the direct participation of Capuchin priests in Kongo at the time who classified her as a heretic. Echoes of the movement, however, carried across space and time. Artifacts of material culture, such as the Toni Malau figurines, and similar prophetic appeals involving expressions and figures of Christianity, including St. Anthony, crossed the ocean aboard slave ships and emerged in slave revolts in the Americas led by Africans from that region. The influence also spread to prophetic movements in the 20th century.

Article

Behavioral Decision Making and Game Theory Methods  

Georgios Christopoulos

Behavioral decision making and game theory (BDMGT) is the umbrella term for a set of methods aimed at recording the choices and eliciting the decision preferences of individuals (organizational agents like managers, employees, entrepreneurs, investors, or consumers). BDMGT comprises a set of well-defined decision problems that, in contrast to surveys or questionnaires that rely on self-assessment, evaluate actual behavioral choices with well-defined outcomes and choice parameters. Additionally, in contrast to idealized models, BDMGT focuses on actual decision-making processes. BDMGT allows for dynamic and complex decision scenarios that are nevertheless computationally tractable and have lower linguistic demands (thus making inter-group and cross-cultural comparisons easier). BDMGT decision problems can be broadly categorized as either individual (i.e., where the agent acts against nature or luck, and all outcomes return to the agent) or social (i.e., where [at least one] another agent—“the partner”—is involved). Social decisions can be further defined as either non-strategic (i.e., where the partner makes no decisions, but some of the outcomes can be returned to them) or strategic (i.e., where the partner makes decisions that can affect the final outcomes returned to the agent). Examples of generic research questions for individual decision tasks include how risk influences decisions (i.e., measuring risk preferences) or (for social decision tasks) how agents interact with each other (i.e., how they allocate resources, what they consider fair, how they build trust, or how they coordinate to achieve common strategic goals). The present entry focuses on the methodological aspects of BDMGT. There are major methodological considerations and common pitfalls associated with BDMGT that can bias results and their interpretation, including incentives and how participants should be paid, anonymity, double-blinding (and when this is not enough), social desirability, how the “partner” participant is explained, or what issues may arise with repeated decisions or trials. The field has also seen the introduction of newer but well-established developments in the field, such as computerized testing, decision neuroscience, and augmented and virtual reality.

Article

Best Practices for Supporting Transgender Youth in Schools  

Patrick Mulkern, August Wei, and Maggi Price

Transgender youth are those whose genders do not align with their sex assigned at birth. Transgender youth are increasingly visible and frequently encounter discrimination and a lack of understanding from others, especially at school. As a result, they experience profound mental health challenges, with one in five transgender youth attempting suicide. However, such youth who are adequately supported do not experience serious mental health difficulties. Accordingly, promoting school support for transgender youth is critical. While school staff know how to help youth generally, many want more guidance on how to help transgender youth. However, few resources provide clear and actionable best practices for school staff to help transgender youth. Best practices for supporting transgender youth in schools include verbal, behavioral, and visual skills that all school staff can use. Research shows that when these practices are used, transgender youth experience fewer mental health challenges, feel more connected to their school community, and do better academically. There are at least 20 best practices for supporting transgender youth in schools supported by empirical and practice-based literature; they span four categories: (a) language to use and avoid, (b) coming out at school, (c) creating a supportive school environment, and (d) preventing and intervening in bullying. Examples include sharing pronouns, advocating for, and sharing the location of gender-inclusive facilities, and intervening in gender-based bullying. School staff—including school social workers—can and should use this set of easy-to-implement, research-informed best practices to improve transgender youths’ mental health.

Article

Child Protection  

Brett Drake and Melissa Jonson-Reid

All children require a safe and nurturing environment for optimal development. Child maltreatment is among the most serious societal problems, with severe behavioral, health, and economic costs. Preventing and responding to child maltreatment is therefore among the most critical services a society can provide. Child protection in the United States is handled by many agencies in a general sense, including law enforcement and health departments. The main agency tasked with protecting children is the Child Protective Services (CPS) system, which is charged with supporting the safety and well-being of children who may be at risk of child maltreatment. Child maltreatment is a common societal problem, with various national studies suggesting that up to a third of children may experience maltreatment before turning 18. CPS contacts about 4% of all children in the United States each year. Among children contacted, about one fifth are substantiated and a very small proportion of all children reported are placed in foster care. CPS serves poor persons at higher rates than wealthier persons, consistent with the higher need for protection faced by those under economic stress. Similarly, Black children are contacted by CPS at a rate almost twice that of White children, consistent with increased risks and stressors faced by that population, largely associated with historical and current racism, particularly as manifested in economic racial stratification. Child welfare practice innovations include, among other things, the increased use of “differential response” programs, in which situations presenting fewer safety risks are handled with less emphasis on investigation, and an increased awareness of the need for preventative services, including services aimed at supporting those under severe economic stress.

Article

Chinese Character Processing  

Xufeng Duan and Zhenguang G. Cai

Chinese characters, as the basic units of the Chinese writing system, encapsulate a deep orthography that requires complex cognitive processing during recognition, naming, and handwriting. Recognition of these characters involves decoding both phonological and orthographic elements, where phonological information plays a crucial role early in the process, despite the inconsistency in orthography-to-phonology conversion. Research suggests that both holistic and sublexical processing strategies are employed, with the effectiveness of each strategy varying based on individual differences and the specific characteristics of the character, such as frequency and structure. Naming a Chinese character extends beyond recognition, necessitating the retrieval and articulation of its phonology. This process is influenced by lexical variables like frequency, age of acquisition, and semantic ambiguity, reflecting the intricate relationship between semantic and phonological information in character naming. The complexity of the Chinese orthography, lacking consistent phoneme–grapheme correspondences, necessitates additional cognitive efforts in naming, particularly for characters with ambiguous semantics or inconsistent phonology. Finally, handwriting Chinese characters involves a combination of central and peripheral processes. The central processes focus on accessing the orthographic makeup of a character, including radicals and strokes, based on phonological and/or semantic input. These orthographic components are stored in working memory and retrieved to create motor plans for the actual act of handwriting, which takes place during the peripheral processes. Various lexical and individual factors can influence these processes. In summary, understanding Chinese character processing illuminates the cognitive complexities of reading and writing in logographic systems, underscoring the interplay between phonological, orthographic, and semantic information. Future research is poised to explore the nuanced dynamics of these processes, especially in the context of evolving digital literacy practices.

Article

Comparative Social Welfare  

Neil Gilbert and C. Taylor Brown

Comparative social welfare or comparative social policy may be defined as the comparative study of welfare states, policies, and programs. Social workers have been instrumental in the development of the field of comparative social welfare and continue to make significant contributions to its international knowledge and practice base. With roots in Europe and the United States in the 1960s, comparative social welfare research evolved from descriptive case studies of welfare programs to causal and quantitative studies, all aimed at understanding and improving domestic social welfare policy through comparison with other nations. The 1990s marked a significant increase in the number of studies on comparative social welfare motivated largely by interest from the European Union, though the field has benefited from contributions by a global community of scholars since then. Although the field continues to evolve, comparative social welfare can roughly be split between theoretical studies of welfare state development and empirical studies of welfare policies, programs, and outcomes. Studies in comparative social welfare can be classified by their method of comparison, nature of comparison, and level of comparison.

Article

Corporate Leverage: Insights From International Data  

Özde Öztekin

Capital structure theories offer a framework to understand how firms determine their mix of debt and equity financing. These theories, such as the trade-off theory, pecking order theory, market timing theory, agency theory, and theories of corporate control and input/output market interactions, provide insights into the roles of internal company characteristics and external economic conditions for corporate financing decisions. They explain firms’ preferences for and access to different financing sources based on factors like tax benefits, bankruptcy costs, agency costs, information asymmetry costs, and market conditions. Internationally, these theories take on additional dimensions due to differences in tax regimes, legal and institutional environments, and market structures. For example, the trade-off theory, which balances the tax advantages of debt against the costs associated with financial distress, varies significantly across countries because of differing bankruptcy and tax laws. Similarly, the pecking order theory, which suggests firms prefer internal financing over external debt, and external debt over equity, is influenced by the development of financial markets and the level of information sharing in different countries. The market timing theory posits that firms capitalize on market conditions by timing their financing decisions based on market valuations of debt and equity, with its applicability differing internationally due to variations in economic cycles and investor sentiment across markets. Agency theory and theories of corporate control delve into how conflicts between managers, shareholders, and debt holders shape financial strategies, with variations arising from different corporate governance structures and enforcement levels globally. The input/output market interactions theory asserts that firms determine their capital structure based on their market position, which can vary significantly due to differing international market demands and competitive landscapes. Empirical research provides insights into how these diverse factors play out across different legal, regulatory, economic, and cultural environments. International studies have shown that leverage determinants like corporate and personal tax rates, corporate governance and ownership structure, market conditions, and institutional frameworks significantly impact capital structure decisions globally. Moreover, cultural differences also play a crucial role in shaping financial decisions, influencing managerial attitudes toward risk. These insights are critical for multinational corporations and policymakers, as they highlight the necessity of considering a broad array of factors, including tax considerations, market conditions, legal and social frameworks, corporate governance and ownership structure, investor behavior, and institutional and regulatory environments, when making decisions about capital structure in an international context. This comprehensive understanding helps in creating conducive environments for effective corporate financing choices on a global scale.