I am spending my Christmas holidays in Rome. Thanks to my dearest friends Tyron and Marzia I have been able to taste Paneforte or ‘strong bread’. It is a delicious, candied confection, more than a cake. It is a traditional Christmas cake from Siena in Tuscany. It dates back to the Crusades and it is a predecessor of modern day fruitcake. Also, I tried another typical Christmas Italian sweet, Panettone, made with raisins and dry fruit.
With my friends, I have wandered about the Eternal City centre revisiting such antique monuments as the Colosseum, Capitol Hill and its Roman Museum, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona with its stands selling handicraft Cribs, The Monument to the Fallen at Piazza Venezia, and the lift that exists there which takes you to the very top of the monument and its breath taking sights of the city, etc. All under the new light shed by being in the company of my friends which showed me their city as only a local can. Again I thank them for this wonderful experience which has given me new knowledge of Rome.
This is a list of vocabulary items related to social sciences
Society A society is a population of humans characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals that share a distinctive culture and/or institutions. More broadly, a society is an economic, social and industrial infrastructure, in which a varied multitude of people are a part of. Members of a society may be from different ethnic groups.
Antisocial Antisocial (against society) is often used in colloquial speech to mean unfriendly or not sociable (asocial). In scientific use, antisocial refers more specifically to a person who is harmful or hostile to others, or to society in general.
Social exclusion Social exclusion relates to the alienation or disenfranchisement of certain people within a society. It is often connected to a person's social class, educational status, relationships in childhood and living standards and how these might affect access to various opportunities. It also applies to some degree to people with a disability, to minority men and women of all races, to the elderly, and to youth (Youth Exclusion). Anyone who deviates in any perceived way from the norm of a population may become subject to coarse or subtle forms of social exclusion.
Here are some definitions of Social exclusion :
“Social exclusion is about the inability of our society to keep all groups and individuals within reach of what we expect as a society...[or] to realise their full potential." "Whatever the content and criteria of social membership, socially excluded groups and individuals lack capacity or access to social opportunity. Social class Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions (or stratification) between individuals or groups in societies or cultures.
People may be part of lower, middle or higher classes.
Minority A minority or subordinate group is a sociological group that does not constitute a politically dominant voting majority of the total population of a given society.
A minority group can be defined as:
"a group of people who, because of their physical or cultural characteristics, are singled out from the others in the society in which they live for differential and unequal treatment, and who therefore regard themselves as objects of collective discrimination." Examples of minority groups include emigrants, blacks, ...
Social solidarity Social solidarity refers to the integration, and degree and type of integration, shown by a society or group.
Association A voluntary association or union (also sometimes called a voluntary organization, unincorporated association, or just an association) is a group of individuals who voluntarily enter into an agreement to form a body (or organization) to accomplish a purpose for the good of society.
Examples of association include associations for the defence of human rights, minorities, the disabled ...
Multicultural Society A society in which there is a cultural diversity.
Health care Health care, or healthcare, is the prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of health through services offered by the medical, dental, nursing, and allied health professions. Health care embraces all the goods and services designed to promote health, including “preventive, curative and palliative interventions, whether directed to individuals or to populations”.
Voluntary work Voluntary work is done by volunteers for the benifit of a community or society.
A volunteer is someone who works for a community or for the benefit of environment primarily because they choose to do so. Volunteers do not normally get paid.
Homelessness Homelessness is the condition and social category of people who lack housing, because they cannot afford, or are otherwise unable to maintain, regular, safe, and adequate shelter.
People who are part of this social category are called homeless people.
Poverty Poverty is the deprivation of common necessities such as food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, all of which determine our quality of life. It may also include the lack of access to opportunities such as education and employment which aid the escape from poverty and/or allow one to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens.
Citizenship Citizenship is membership in a political community (originally a city or town but now usually a country) and carries with it rights to political participation; a person having such membership is a citizen.
Gender Roles A gender role is defined as a set of perceived behavioral norms associated particularly with males or females, in a given social group or system. It can be a form of division of labour by gender.
Domestic violence Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or spousal abuse) occurs when a family member, partner or ex-partner attempts to physically or psychologically dominate another. Domestic violence often refers to violence between spouses, or spousal abuse but can also include cohabitants and non-married intimate partners.
Novel: THE PAINTED VEIL by William Somerset Maugham
Summary: Kitty Fane is a beautiful young woman whose mother has raised her to make a suitable match. But Kitty refuses a number of suitors; several years pass and eventually she is reduced to marrying Walter, the colonial bacteriologist in Hong Kong. Walter is a shy and awkward man who loves Kitty passionately, but has no idea how to express it; Kitty is charming and socially adept, but vacuous. In Hong Kong Kitty engages in a yearlong affair with Charles Townsend, the assistant colonial secretary, and a married man whose celebrity potential far eclipses Walter's stolid scientific work. The novel opens when Walter discovers his wife's infidelity.
Kitty believes that Townsend is madly in love with her and prepared to divorce his wife and sacrifice his career to marry her. Walter, who suffers from a broken heart, gives Kitty an ultimatum--either Townsend must promise to divorce his wife and marry her, or Kitty must accompany Walter to a city in the interior where he has volunteered to go to fight the cholera epidemic. Townsend demurs; Kitty is crushed; and the desperately unhappy pair travels to the cholera-ridden city, where they move into the house of the newly-dead missionary.
There, Walter (who is also a medical doctor) sets to work, day and night, to institute public health measures and care for dying patients. Meanwhile, Kitty meets Worthington, the British consul, a cynical alcoholic, who is at heart a good and honest person; and the French nuns, who labor tirelessly to care for orphans and the ill. Impressed by the nuns' selflessness, Kitty begins to devote herself to assisting them and trying to understand their spirituality.
When he learns that Kitty is pregnant, Walter asks if it is his child; Kitty responds, "I don't know." This completes the destruction of Walter's heart, and he soon dies of cholera--presumably as a result of experimenting on himself to find a cure. Kitty learns that the nuns, the soldiers, and all the people of the city consider Walter a saint, who has sacrificed himself for their welfare. However, while Kitty has learned to respect her husband, she could never love him.
Kitty stays only briefly in Hong Kong before returning home to London. Shortly before her arrival, she learns that her mother, whom she believes is responsible for her (Kitty's) shallowness, has died. The novel ends with Kitty vowing to bring up her daughter as a strong and independent woman, and preparing to move with her father to the Bahamas, where he has recently been appointed Chief Justice.
