Recently there have been intensifying efforts to improve the understanding of Indonesian cultures by large language models (LLMs). An attractive source of cultural knowledge that has been largely overlooked is local journals of social science, which likely contain substantial cultural studies from a native perspective. We present a novel text dataset of journal article passages, created from 151 open-source Indonesian social science journals, called IndoSoSci. We demonstrate an effective recipe for injecting Indonesian cultural knowledge therein into LLMs: extracting the facts related to Indonesian culture, and apply retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) with LLM-generated hypothetical documents as queries during retrieval. The proposed recipe yields strong performance gains over several strong baselines on the IndoCulture benchmark. Additionally, by combining IndoSoSci with Indonesian Wikipedia, we set a new state-of-the-art accuracy on the IndoCulture benchmark.
Collective foragers, from animals to robotic swarms, must balance exploration and exploitation to locate sparse resources efficiently. While social learning is known to facilitate this balance, how the range of information sharing shapes group-level outcomes remains unclear. Here, we develop a minimal collective foraging model in which individuals combine independent exploration, local exploitation, and socially guided movement. We show that foraging efficiency is maximized at an intermediate social learning range, where groups exploit discovered resources without suppressing independent discovery. This optimal regime also minimizes temporal burstiness in resource intake, reducing starvation risk. Increasing social learning range further improves equity among individuals but degrades efficiency through redundant exploitation. Introducing risky (negative) targets shifts the optimal range upward; in contrast, when penalties are ignored, randomly distributed negative cues can further enhance efficiency by constraining unproductive exploration. Together, these results reveal how local information rules regulate a fundamental trade-off between efficiency, stability, and equity, providing design principles for biological foraging systems and engineered collectives.
This research presents a computational social science approach to preserving Telugu Chandassu, the metrical poetry tradition representing centuries of collective cultural intelligence. We develop the first comprehensive digital framework for analyzing Telugu prosodic patterns, bridging traditional community knowledge with modern computational methods. Our social computing approach involves collaborative dataset creation of 4,651 annotated padyams, expert-validated linguistic patterns, and culturally-informed algorithmic design. The framework includes AksharamTokenizer for prosody-aware tokenization, LaghuvuGuruvu Generator for classifying light and heavy syllables, and PadyaBhedam Checker for automated pattern recognition. Our algorithm achieves 91.73% accuracy on the proposed Chandassu Score, with evaluation metrics reflecting traditional literary standards. This work demonstrates how computational social science can preserve endangered cultural knowledge systems while enabling new forms of collective intelligence around literary heritage. The methodology offers insights for community-centered approaches to cultural preservation, supporting broader initiatives in digital humanities and socially-aware computing systems.
Este documento se obtiene de las entrevistas realizadas entre el 26 de febrero y el 15 de abril del 2024 a Andoni Ibarra Unzueta por Adrián Almeida Díez en la sede de la UPV/EHU en Ibaeta, Donostia
History (General), Ethnology. Social and cultural anthropology
Understanding susceptibility to online influence is crucial for mitigating the spread of misinformation and protecting vulnerable audiences. This paper investigates susceptibility to influence within social networks, focusing on the differential effects of influence-driven versus spontaneous behaviors on user content adoption. Our analysis reveals that influence-driven adoption exhibits high homophily, indicating that individuals prone to influence often connect with similarly susceptible peers, thereby reinforcing peer influence dynamics, whereas spontaneous adoption shows significant but lower homophily. Additionally, we extend the Generalized Friendship Paradox to influence-driven behaviors, demonstrating that users' friends are generally more susceptible to influence than the users themselves, de facto establishing the notion of Susceptibility Paradox in online social influence. This pattern does not hold for spontaneous behaviors, where friends exhibit fewer spontaneous adoptions. We find that susceptibility to influence can be predicted using friends' susceptibility alone, while predicting spontaneous adoption requires additional features, such as user metadata. These findings highlight the complex interplay between user engagement and characteristics in spontaneous content adoption. Our results provide new insights into social influence mechanisms and offer implications for designing more effective moderation strategies to protect vulnerable audiences.
Ni Made Emmi Nutrisia Dewi, Ni Komang Prasiani, Ni Komang Desita Rahayu
In the era of globalization, the integration of local cultural elements into modern architecture is becoming increasingly important to maintain cultural identity. Bali, with its rich culture and architectural traditions, offers a variety of elements that can be adapted to enhance the aesthetics and functionality of modern buildings, including bank offices. The main focus of this study is to analyze how Balinese organizational values ??and cultural heritage are reflected in the physical design of bank offices, including layout, building materials, and architectural ornaments to enhance customer interaction and service creativity. The research methods used include a qualitative approach, case studies of bank offices in Bali, field observations, and interviews with architects, bank employees, and customers. The results show that cultural integration in the architectural design of bank offices can strengthen corporate identity, enhance customer experience and interaction, and encourage service innovation. In conclusion, this study emphasizes the importance of considering cultural aspects and organizational values ??in architectural design as an effective way to create an environment that supports service innovation and enriches customer experience and also contributes to cultural preservation. These findings confirm that architecture that reflects organizational culture and local traditions can be an innovative strategy to improve the image and competitiveness of banks in the era of globalization.
Keywords: representation, architecture, culture, Bali, organization, office, bank, service, public
This essay explores how traditional arts impact the lives of older adults, especially those recognized as inheritors of an Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). Through the work of elder Bai artist Mrs Zhao Huaizhu, I consider how traditional hand-icrafts and cultural knowledge enhance elder wellbeing and foster intergenerational connections. Mrs Zhao is a master of buzha, a traditional Bai art form where embroidered silk items are filled with wormwood and other aromatic herbs. Recognized as an ICH inheritor, Mrs Zhao invests her silk creations with Bai folklore, local history, and personal narratives. She uses her creations to convey cultural values and impart her individual identity. Engaging in this expressive practice not only gives Mrs Zhao’s life purpose and meaning, but also allows her to contribute to the economic and cultural vitality of her Bai community. This case study underscores the reciprocal relationship between ICH practices and the elders who practice them. Blending folklore methods with gerontological perspectives, the essay makes clear that traditional arts and cultural performances can work to support the quality of life of older adults. While elder artisans may be vital for sustaining traditional knowledge and practices, active participation in these cultural productions also enhance their emotional, psychological, physical, and social wellbeing, which is seldom a consideration in scholarly and governmental conversations about the value of ‘heritage’ conservation efforts.
AbstractThe article sets to present the historical and current developments in ethnology and anthropology of Serbia. The first part is devoted to the historical overview which portrays the development of the discipline from the late 19th to the early 21st century. It ends with an explanation of the use of the concept “ethnology” and “anthropology” in present-day naming of the discipline. In the second part, the most important institutions, professional societies, and anthropological journals are presented. The third part is devoted to the advancements of the University of Belgrade Department of Ethnology and Anthropology, focusing on the period since 2006, when the implementation of the Bologna Process reforms started in Serbian universities and when the significant publishing activity was invigorated. This part presents major projects, conferences and publishing activities, as well as the course curricula implemented in the 2014–2022 period by the Department at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels.
Toxicity and abuse are common in online peer-production communities. The social structure of peer-production communities that aim to produce accurate and trustworthy information require some conflict and gate-keeping to spur content production and curation. However, conflict and gate-keeping often devolve into hierarchical power structures which punish newcomers and lock out marginalized groups through entrenched cultural norms. Community administrators often focus on content quality, rather than consideration for all user safety, to promote community growth and survival. Once toxic cultural norms dominate a peer-production community, it is very difficult for community administrators to stop these behaviors from undermining inclusive peer-production. We propose developing a "handbook of intelligent system design" that attempts to frame design protocols to better read user-community culture and accurately distinguish toxic negative interactions from beneficial conflict.
Autorzy recenzowanego czasopisma podejmują refleksję na temat wolności religijnej jako szczególnego aspektu wolności z perspektyw badawczych poszczególnych nauk humanistycznych i społecznych. To zróżnicowanie form i treści, a także metod i naukowego doświadczenia poszczególnych autorów widoczne jest w pierwszym numerze recenzowanego czasopisma. Pomimo tych różnic w naukowej wnikliwości prezentowanych badaczy redaktorzy czasopisma postanowili je opublikować, wychodząc z założenia, że chociaż autorów różnią zainteresowania i podejście metodologiczne, to jednak łączy ich przede wszystkim tak potrzebne różnorodne spojrzenie na problem wolności religijnej. To szerokie pole badawcze, tak warsztatowe, jak i kulturowe (oraz geograficzne) ma tutaj fundamentalne znaczenie, gdyż wymusza wcześniej czy później interdyscyplinarny charakter badań, holistyczny ich charakter i w pewnej mierze metodologiczny kosmopolityzm. Tytuły pierwszego tomu wskazują na aktualność zawartych w nim badań, stanowiąc dość reprezentatywny przegląd aktualnych zainteresowań polskich badaczy.
Ethnology. Social and cultural anthropology, Practical Theology
Machine learning (ML), being now widely accessible to the research community at large, has fostered a proliferation of new and striking applications of these emergent mathematical techniques across a wide range of disciplines. In this paper, we will focus on a particular case study: the field of paleoanthropology, which seeks to understand the evolution of the human species based on biological and cultural evidence. As we will show, the easy availability of ML algorithms and lack of expertise on their proper use among the anthropological research community has led to foundational misapplications that have appeared throughout the literature. The resulting unreliable results not only undermine efforts to legitimately incorporate ML into anthropological research, but produce potentially faulty understandings about our human evolutionary and behavioral past. The aim of this paper is to provide a brief introduction to some of the ways in which ML has been applied within paleoanthropology; we also include a survey of some basic ML algorithms for those who are not fully conversant with the field, which remains under active development. We discuss a series of missteps, errors, and violations of correct protocols of ML methods that appear disconcertingly often within the accumulating body of anthropological literature. These mistakes include use of outdated algorithms and practices; inappropriate train/test splits, sample composition, and textual explanations; as well as an absence of transparency due to the lack of data/code sharing, and the subsequent limitations imposed on independent replication. We assert that expanding samples, sharing data and code, re-evaluating approaches to peer review, and, most importantly, developing interdisciplinary teams that include experts in ML are all necessary for progress in future research incorporating ML within anthropology.
Yelena Mejova, Jisun An, Gianmarco De Francisci Morales
et al.
The United States have some of the highest rates of gun violence among developed countries. Yet, there is a disagreement about the extent to which firearms should be regulated. In this study, we employ social media signals to examine the predictors of offline political activism, at both population and individual level. We show that it is possible to classify the stance of users on the gun issue, especially accurately when network information is available. Alongside socioeconomic variables, network information such as the relative size of the two sides of the debate is also predictive of state-level gun policy. On individual level, we build a statistical model using network, content, and psycho-linguistic features that predicts real-life political action, and explore the most predictive linguistic features. Thus, we argue that, alongside demographics and socioeconomic indicators, social media provides useful signals in the holistic modeling of political engagement around the gun debate.
Fighting the ongoing COVID-19 infodemic has been declared as one of the most important focus areas by the World Health Organization since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the information that is consumed and disseminated consists of promoting fake cures, rumors, and conspiracy theories to spreading xenophobia and panic, at the same time there is information (e.g., containing advice, promoting cure) that can help different stakeholders such as policy-makers. Social media platforms enable the infodemic and there has been an effort to curate the content on such platforms, analyze and debunk them. While a majority of the research efforts consider one or two aspects (e.g., detecting factuality) of such information, in this study we focus on a multifaceted approach, including an API,\url{https://app.swaggerhub.com/apis/yifan2019/Tanbih/0.8.0/} and a demo system,\url{https://covid19.tanbih.org}, which we made freely and publicly available. We believe that this will facilitate researchers and different stakeholders. A screencast of the API services and demo is available.\url{https://youtu.be/zhbcSvxEKMk}
Koniec roku 2021 zapisał się w sposób szczególny w historii Spycimierza – 16 grudnia w Paryżu spycimierskie i opolskie kwietne dywany, układane na procesję Bożego Ciała, zostały oficjalnie wpisane na Listę reprezentatywną niematerialnego dziedzictwa kulturowego ludzkości UNESCO. Istotną rolę na drodze tych starań odegrało włoskie Stowarzyszenie „InfiorItalia”, z którym Spycimierz współpracuje od blisko dekady. Okoliczność wpisu na światową listę oraz jubileusz 20-lecia „InfiorItalii” przypadający na rok 2022 skłaniają do opisania współpracy między gminą Uniejów, stowarzyszeniem spycimierskim i „IniorItalią”, którą dziś można nazwać przyjaźnią, a także do scharakteryzowania po krótce obszaru działalności włoskiego stowarzyszenia oraz roli, jaką ono odegrało w kontekście spycimierskiej drogi do wpisu na listę niematerialnego dziedzictwa UNESCO.
Collective idea generation and innovation processes are complex and dynamic, involving a large amount of qualitative narrative information that is difficult to monitor, analyze, and visualize using traditional methods. In this study, we developed three new visualization methods for collective idea generation and innovation processes and applied them to data from online social network experiments. The first visualization is the Idea Cloud, which helps monitor collective idea posting activity and intuitively tracks idea clustering and transition. The second visualization is the Idea Geography, which helps understand how the idea space and its utility landscape are structured and how collaboration was performed in that space. The third visualization is the Idea Network, which connects idea dynamics with the social structure of the people who generated them, displaying how social influence among neighbors may have affected collaborative activities and where innovative ideas arose and spread in the social network.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police has sparked protests and riots around the world. The policing of the pandemic reveals the racial biases inherent to law enforcement and state-led discipline, laying bare ongoing infrastructural inequalities that render racialized subjects more vulnerable to premature death at the hands of police and public health systems alike. With the video embedded in the article, we guide readers through thirty-nine seconds of rioting in Los Angeles on May 31, 2020, shot on a mobile phone and circulated virally on Twitter. The affected body of the witness indexes both the intensity of the event and the embodied experience of the witness, establishing a relation between the two. The experiential aesthetics of the video exceeds the content and this affectivity circulates with its mediation and movement through networked platforms. Such forms of affective witnessing allow for an attunement to political struggle that occurs through what Hortense Spillers would call the analytic of the flesh. Thinking at the intersection of Black studies, affect theory, and media studies, we argue that the flesh is an affective register crucial to the building of global anti-racist solidarities towards abolition.
Thilini Wijesiriwardene, Hale Inan, Ugur Kursuncu
et al.
The convenience of social media has also enabled its misuse, potentially resulting in toxic behavior. Nearly 66% of internet users have observed online harassment, and 41% claim personal experience, with 18% facing severe forms of online harassment. This toxic communication has a significant impact on the well-being of young individuals, affecting mental health and, in some cases, resulting in suicide. These communications exhibit complex linguistic and contextual characteristics, making recognition of such narratives challenging. In this paper, we provide a multimodal dataset of toxic social media interactions between confirmed high school students, called ALONE (AdoLescents ON twittEr), along with descriptive explanation. Each instance of interaction includes tweets, images, emoji and related metadata. Our observations show that individual tweets do not provide sufficient evidence for toxic behavior, and meaningful use of context in interactions can enable highlighting or exonerating tweets with purported toxicity.
Online advertisements that masquerade as non-advertising content pose numerous risks to users. Such hidden advertisements appear on social media platforms when content creators or "influencers" endorse products and brands in their content. While the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires content creators to disclose their endorsements in order to prevent deception and harm to users, we do not know whether and how content creators comply with the FTC's guidelines. In this paper, we studied disclosures within affiliate marketing, an endorsement-based advertising strategy used by social media content creators. We examined whether content creators follow the FTC's disclosure guidelines, how they word the disclosures, and whether these disclosures help users identify affiliate marketing content as advertisements. To do so, we first measured the prevalence of and identified the types of disclosures in over 500,000 YouTube videos and 2.1 million Pinterest pins. We then conducted a user study with 1,791 participants to test the efficacy of these disclosures. Our findings reveal that only about 10% of affiliate marketing content on both platforms contains any disclosures at all. Further, users fail to understand shorter, non-explanatory disclosures. Based on our findings, we make various design and policy suggestions to help improve advertising disclosure practices on social media platforms.