The emergence of complex cultural practices in simple hunter-gatherer groups poses interesting questions on what drives social complexity and what causes the emergence and disappearance of cultural innovations. Here we analyze the conditions that underlie the emergence of artificial mummification in the Chinchorro culture in the coastal Atacama Desert in northern Chile and southern Peru. We pro...

Prior research on the management of IT offshore outsourcing projects has focused on crosscultural issues or on project and relationship management issues. However, there is still a lack of understanding concerning effective management practices that help to overcome the challenges of client-vendor cultural distance in IT offshoring relationships. Therefore, the goal of this research is to incre...

Goal preferences indicate intentions to achieve or avoid particular states. We examined whether Curacaoan and Dutch students differ in goal preferences related to school and whether goal preferences are associated with students' evaluation of the classroom climate. Measurement invariance of the instruments was also tested between samples. Participants attended vocational high schools in Curacao...

Pekka Sulkunen ABSTRACT Theoretical attempts to formulate cultural theories of drinking and drug use have traditionally stemmed from norm-theory or functionalism. These tend to reduce drinking and drug practices to intoxication alone or to neglect intoxication altogether.. The semiotic turn in the 1980s brought “meaning” to the focus of cultural studies. This article proposes, following Bruno L...

In Cambodia, cassava is mostly grown with little or no fertilizer inputs, but the magnitudes of nutrient balances are not known. This study was conducted to assess nutrient balances for cassava cultivation in Kampong Cham province in Northeast Cambodia. Forty five households in four cassava production zones were interviewed in relation to their cultural practices and crop residue management...

In order for global software to be marketed successfully, the design of interfaces should accommodate users’ cultural differences. This study examines users’ culturally specific design preferences, and evaluates the attitudinal and behavioural consequences of satisfying or not satisfying such preferences. Participants consist of 206 international students , plus a control group of 38 Australian...

BACKGROUND Empirical evidence shows that the relationship between health-seeking behaviour and diverse gender elements, such as gendered social status, social control, ideology, gender process, marital status and procreative status, changes across settings. Given the high relevance of social settings, this paper intends to explore how gender elements interact with health-seeking practices among...

This paper examines a range of problems centring on the theorization of cultural identity and cultural property by reference to debates about the appropriation of the Maori tattoo, or ta moko, and the authenticity of contemporary Maori tattooing practices. Through a consideration of the relationship between cultural identity and tattooing, and the question of whether tattooing is an effect of a...