A&S in the News – October 29-November 4

Check Your Ageism, Science. It’s Unbecoming
Psychology Today – Oct. 30
As a PhD student of Clinical Psychology of the scientist-practitioner tradition, I am trained in the art and science of psychology. The art being clinical practice— the science being the research. Of course, and ideally, the primary purpose of this scientist-practitioner model is to produce clinicians who are consummate researchers and researchers who are also consummate clinicians. Because a good psychological science is one that studies what it practices and practices what it studies. (Christina Pierpaoli is a third-year graduate student in the Clinical Geropsychology doctoral program at the University of Alabama)

The Not-So-Spooky History of Halloween
Netscape ISP – Oct. 31
Halloween has not always been defined as warty-nosed witches, ghouls, goblins, princesses and clowns stalking neighborhood streets upon nightfall begging for the sweet taste of candy. But it does have a decidedly witchy beginning! Halloween started as one of the European harvest festivals, such as the Wicca holiday of Samhain … It was a time of year when the temperatures dropped and cold winds blew harder. The crops had been harvested, and the fields turned brown. The days became shorter and the nights longer. The leaves on the trees turned colors and then died. And that made people think about the dead, says Dr. Michael J. Altman, an assistant professor of religious studies at The University of Alabama.

Giant kites to celebrate the dead in Guatemala
CNN.com – Nov. 1
Massive, colorful, kites soar across the skies in Sumpango and Santiago — both in the region of Sacatepequez, Guatemala — as hundreds of people roam to cemeteries to honor their dead. The tradition, which takes place on the first and second of November of each year, is part of the All Saints’ Day celebrations … “The weavings and kites are important cultural symbols and tied to specific ethno-linguistic Mayan identity in Guatemala, with designs depicting specific family stories, including, at times, government oppression and economic conditions ,” wrote professor Michael K. Steinberg, from the University of Alabama, in a report about the Guatemalan traditions.

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