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Topic Review
Plaçage
Plaçage was a recognized extralegal system in French and Spanish slave colonies of North America (including the Caribbean) by which ethnic European men entered into civil unions with non-Europeans of African, Native American and mixed-race descent. The term comes from the French placer meaning "to place with". The women were not legally recognized as wives but were known as placées; their relationships were recognized among the free people of color as mariages de la main gauche or left-handed marriages. They became institutionalized with contracts or negotiations that settled property on the woman and her children and, in some cases, gave them freedom if they were enslaved. The system flourished throughout the French and Spanish colonial periods, reaching its zenith during the latter, between 1769 and 1803. It was widely practiced in New Orleans, where planter society had created enough wealth to support the system. It also took place in the Latin-influenced cities of Natchez and Biloxi, Mississippi; Mobile, Alabama; St. Augustine and Pensacola, Florida; as well as Saint-Domingue (now the Republic of Haiti). Plaçage became associated with New Orleans as part of its cosmopolitan society. In recent years, at least three historians (viz. Kenneth Aslakson, Emily Clark, and Carol Schlueter) have challenged the historicity of plaçage and have referred to many of its features, including quadroon balls, as "a myth".
  • 431
  • 01 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Etiquette in Technology
Social etiquette in real life is ingrained into our social life, although etiquette in technology, colloquially referred to as netiquette, is a fairly recent concept. It is a term used to refer to the unofficial code of policies that encourage good behavior on the Internet which is used to regulate respect and polite behavior on social media platforms, online chatting sites, web forums, and other online engagement websites. The rules of etiquette that apply when communicating over the Internet are different from those applied when communicating in person or by audio (such as telephone) or videophone. It is a social code that is used in all places where one can interact with other human beings via the Internet, including text messaging, email, online games, Internet forums, chat rooms, and many more. It can be a challenge to communicate on the Internet without misunderstandings mainly because input from facial expressions and body language is absent in cyberspace. Therefore, several rules, in an attempt to safeguard against these misunderstandings and to discourage unfriendly behavior, are regularly put in place at many websites, and often enforced by moderation by the website's users or administrators.
  • 423
  • 01 Dec 2022
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
The Post-Pandemic Transformation of Art and Architecture Libraries
This entry considers the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the processes and functions of art and architecture libraries in North America and distinguishes between temporary changes and those that will endure and are here to stay. COVID-19 impacted all aspects of human life, placing tremendous stress on institutions and individuals globally. Academic libraries responded to the crisis by bringing resources to communities remotely and keeping constituents engaged to maintain a sense of normalcy. While libraries in schools of architecture, art, and design, responded similarly to other academic libraries, they also had unique needs. This entry is informed by two surveys of art and architecture library staff and faculty, alongside a preliminary literature review. The results of the first survey were published in Art Documentation and the results and analysis of the second survey are forthcoming. Both temporary and long-standing changes were implemented to ensure uninterrupted service in academic institutions. Temporary solutions included extending loan periods, quarantining materials, enforcing social distancing, and expanding document delivery. Changes that will endure post-pandemic include the increased acquisition of digital materials, remote instruction and reference consultations, increased resource access, and the utilization of a vast array of technologies.
  • 454
  • 01 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Meet the Flintstones
"Meet the Flintstones", also worded as "(Meet) The Flintstones", is the theme song of the 1960s animated television series The Flintstones. Composed in 1961 by Hoyt Curtin, Joseph Barbera and William Hanna, it is one of the most popular and best known of all theme songs, with its catchy lyrics "Flintstones, meet the Flintstones, they're the modern Stone Age family".
  • 387
  • 01 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Liberal Socialism
Liberal socialism is a socialist political philosophy that incorporates liberal principles. Liberal socialism does not have the goal of completely abolishing capitalism and replacing it with socialism, but it instead supports a mixed economy that includes both private property and social ownership in capital goods. Although liberal socialism unequivocally favors a mixed market economy, it identifies legalistic and artificial monopolies to be the fault of capitalism and opposes an entirely unregulated economy. It considers both liberty and equality to be compatible and mutually dependent on each other. Principles that can be described as liberal socialist are based on the works of philosophers such as John Stuart Mill, Eduard Bernstein, John Dewey, Carlo Rosselli, Norberto Bobbio, Chantal Mouffe and Karl Polanyi. Other important liberal socialist figures include Guido Calogero, Piero Gobetti, Leonard Hobhouse, John Maynard Keynes and R. H. Tawney. To Polanyi, liberal socialism's goal was overcoming exploitative aspects of capitalism by expropriation of landlords and opening to all the opportunity to own land. Liberal socialism has been particularly prominent in British and Italian politics. Liberal socialism’s seminal ideas can be traced to John Stuart Mill, who theorised that capitalist societies should experience a gradual process of socialisation through worker-controlled enterprises, coexisting with private enterprises. Mill rejected centralised models of socialism that could discourage competition and creativity, but he argued that representation is essential in a free government and democracy could not subsist if economic opportunities were not well distributed, therefore conceiving democracy not just as form of representative government, but as an entire social organisation.
  • 6.0K
  • 01 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Concepts in Folk Art
Folk and traditional arts are rooted in and reflective of the cultural life of a community. They encompass the body of expressive culture associated with the fields of folklore and cultural heritage. Tangible folk art includes objects which historically are crafted and used within a traditional community. Intangible folk arts include such forms as music, dance and narrative structures. Each of these arts, both tangible and intangible, was originally developed to address a real need. Once this practical purpose has been lost or forgotten, there is no reason for further transmission unless the object or action has been imbued with meaning beyond its initial practicality. These vital and constantly reinvigorated artistic traditions are shaped by values and standards of excellence that are passed from generation to generation, most often within family and community, through demonstration, conversation, and practice. It is these cultural artifacts, both tangible and intangible, that become the purview of the folklorist and cultural historian. They seek to understand the significance of these cultural forms within the community by studying their creation, transmission and performance, through which the values and structure of the community are expressed. It then becomes important to document these traditional acts and their meaning.
  • 1.2K
  • 30 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Legendary Salamander in Popular Culture
References to the legendary salamander in popular culture—in fiction (especially fantasy fiction), games, animation, and so on—can be categorized in three ways: as a fantastic (sometimes magical) beast with an affinity with fire, as a true fire elemental, and allusions to the salamander's fiery nature.
  • 1.4K
  • 28 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Archives of Traditional Music
The Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music holds over 100,000 individual audio and video recordings across over 3500 collections of field, broadcast, and commercial recordings. Its holdings are primarily focused on audiovisual recordings relating to research in the academic disciplines of ethnomusicology, folklore, anthropology, linguistics, and various area studies.
  • 302
  • 28 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Emotive Internet
Emotive Internet (also Emotive Web, Emotional Internet) is a conceptualization of the Internet as an emergent emotional public space, such as how it serves as a space for the social sharing of emotions. It can also denote the quality of the Internet that allows it to be used to communicate in an emotive fashion or with emotional intent. Since it is an expressive medium, it also enables users to construct and represent their identities online. This is evident in the way emotional responses have been integrated in online communication and interactions. The concept is also linked to emotional analytics and emotion-sensing applications, particularly those technologies that power the Internet of Things (IoTs) - the smart home devices that have the capability to store and process the user's emotional profile to deliver services.
  • 458
  • 28 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Reformist Left
The Reformist Left is a political term coined by Richard Rorty in his 1998 book Achieving Our Country, in reference to the mainstream Left in the United States (though the term may be applied elsewhere) in the first two thirds of the 20th century: I propose to use the term reformist Left to cover all those Americans who, between 1900 and 1964, struggled within the framework of constitutional democracy to protect the weak from the strong. … I think that the Left should get back into the business of piecemeal reform within the framework of a market economy. This was the business the American Left was in during the first two-thirds of the century. … Emphasizing the continuity between Herbert Croly and Lyndon Johnson, between John Dewey and Martin Luther King, between Eugene Debs and Walter Reuther, would help us to recall a reformist Left which deserves not only respect but imitation—the best model available for the American Left in the coming century.
  • 554
  • 25 Nov 2022
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