Traditional religious knowledge widely incorporates traditional religious expressions and other forms of traditional knowledge, such as ecological knowledge, medicinal knowledge, elements of languages, and so on. Traditional religious knowledge is a subset of cultural heritage, of which the inheritance and spread have attracted considerable attention from the global society. A series of interna...

In Zambia, circumcision is traditionally practiced on a large scale only in North-Western Province, an area with one of the lowest HIV rates in Zambia. Few ethnic groups in Zambia conduct male circumcision as a part of religious and cultural practices. The Luvale and Lunda of Northwestern Province practice traditional universal male circumcision, though there are small groups who also practice ...

Past research has found a robust effect of prejudice against atheists in largely Christian-dominated (belief-oriented) samples. We propose that religious centrality of beliefs vs. practices influences attitudes toward atheists, such that religious groups emphasizing beliefs perceive non-believers more negatively than believers, while groups emphasizing practices perceive non-practicing individu...

Article points 1. Risk is a social phenomenon that needs to be studied within a social context since cultural values and beliefs influence risk perception. 2. Engagement with diabetes-related risk depends on how visible, imminent or tangible the risk is, and the perceived severity. 3. Models of diabetes care need to integrate socio-cultural and religious beliefs for minority ethnic groups livin...

The article provides a critical assessment of the more recent literature that relies on theoretical frameworks such as post modernism and globalization to deal with national identity, ethnicity and cultural mobility. Explaining sensitive and complicated issues such as identity requires the extensive use of the native historical, cultural and sociological sources related to the Iranian experienc...

Diverse cultural components of behavior may have significant impacts on patterns of eating, drinking, and social interaction, irrespective of socioeconomic status. For example, the major world religions prescribe or proscribe specific dietary behaviors; some of these are rooted in historical or geographical origins as well as group folklore; and they have integral roles as expressions of religi...

Culture constrains individual choice, rendering certain actions impermissible or taboo. While cultural constraints may regulate behavior within a group, they can have a pernicious effect in multicultural societies, inhibiting the emergence of unified social conventions. We analyze interactions between members of two cultural groups who are matched to play a coordination game with an arbitrary n...

The relationship between religiosity and educational attainment is an important question in the sociology of religion literature. It is widely contested whether the natural outgrowth of the spreading rational worldview and the increase of educated people can account for the decline of religious adherence. Is there any other explanation for the different opportunities of religious and non-religi...