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Keywords: Buddhist philosophy; Madhyamaka; Nagarjuna; Western; Indian and Far Eastern interpretations of Nagarjuna’s teaching; Tibetology
This article discusses the causes of great interest to Nagarjuna in the West in the second half of the twentieth century and highlights the main trends in the interpretation of his philosophy. The main reason was the general intellectual and spiritual situation of the Western world, and especially religious world crisis, the general disappointment in metaphysics and philosophical systems, common philosophical criticism. In this situation, it began to grow interest in the Eastern teachings, including Buddhism, especially to the mystery aspects. Another reason is that in the writings of Nagarjuna provides a systematic theory in the Western sense of the word «philosophy», which expresses the unique content of the doctrine of “historical” Buddha. The author also discusses the fallacy of European interpretations of Madhyamaka (Jaspers, Jacobson, Shcherbatsky, Faton, Betty), Indian interpretations (Dasgupta, Radhakrishnan, Murthy, Narain), writes about the distorted interpretations of Madhyamaka in the Far Eastern Buddhism. In the author’s view, with the advent of high-quality translations of Tibetan texts and Buddhist studies made by Ruegg, Thurman, Hopkins, Kapstein, Garfield, Cabezon the West has had an opportunity to better understand the philosophy of Nagarjuna.
More...Keywords: interpretation; cultural heritage; artistic interactions; visual research; аugmenteed reality; visual interactions
The interpretation of the cultural heritage is presented in the context of the possibilities of ICT for the promotion of tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Examples for the use of Augmented reality (AR) for the presentation of European cultural heritage are explored. There were presented opportunities for interpretation of the cultural heritage through visual research with information and communication technologies (ICT) in real “in situ” and museum environment by examples from Bulgaria for the use of the “Method of interaction of the arts in interpreting and presenting the cultural heritage through Information and Communication Technologies “and in particular with the use of augmented reality, introduced with the dissertation work “Protecting Bulgaria’s cultural heritage in the context of the synthesis of architecture and Fine Arts” (Nenov 2016). The possibilities of the method are discribed in the projects for “Revitalization of Ancient and Medieval fortress Hotalich Sevlievo” and a project for virtual presentation of the archaeological sites of the cultural heritage with category “national significance” – “Ancient and Medieval Fortress in the Horizon neighbourhood” and “Temple of Kibela Balchik” – an interactive and children’s museum in open and indoor, created by a team with head arch. Ivelin Nenov. These sites have created an environment for interpretation and presentation of the cultural heritage through visual interactions in a real “in situ” and museum environment. The specific methodology used by the team to investigate the examined objects could serve as a basis for a new approach for documention, exhibition, preservаtion and socializiation of ruinous cultural heritage. The Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that have been used are presented as an extremely flexible tool for the promotion of tangible and intangible cultural values among a wide range of target groups of local and foreign socio-cultural communities.
More...Keywords: Roman provinces; Moesia Inferior; colonia; municipia; legio; legati augusti, duumviri
In the Roman provinces of Moesia Inferior and Thrace, created at the beginning of the 1st century AD, there is a mutual penetration of the traditions of government, culture and religions of the Thracians, Greeks and Romans. This creates a specific basis for the development of legislation and the legal framework of a number of institutions specific to this region, especially in the province of Lower Moesia, which was not urbanized before the arrival of the Romans. Despite the few sources of data for this period, historical science in Bulgaria as well as other research for the region has had significant successes in reconstructing the political, economic and social situation in this Roman province. However, less attention is paid to provincial law, which poses a challenge for Bulgarian Romanists.
More...Keywords: immersive listening; qualitative analysis of places; recorded sound in use; media of urban heritage transmission; affect;
The paper focuses on various kinds of urban field recordings produced during research and artistic practices which apply auditory immersion in the qualitative analysis of places. Showing why and how urban field recordings might be used in locally guided placemaking practices, I propose to consider them as a sensitive resource of urban cultural heritage. A reflection on the sensitive quality of urban field recordings — a quality which stems from their susceptibility to the workings of time and their capability to transfer local affects — is realized in four parts. Part one posits the question of the relationship between urban sound and place, showing perspectives which arise from an application of listening in the qualitative analysis of places. Part two studies aspects of using, archiving, and sharing of field recordings produced within research, artistic and museum projects, accentuating the need to connect institutionally based practices with the promotion of audible culture in the pro-cess of establishing the notion of field recordings as a medium of urban heritage transmission. Part three proposes a shift from an interpretive to a performative approach in grasping the ontological status of urban field recordings, discussing them as samples of a place which are capable of transmitting local affects. Finally, part four recalls the idea of acousmatics to reflect upon the role of metadata in the reception of urban field recordings, which safeguards them from losing their cultural legibility. I argue that the lack of accompanying commentaries, which blurs the relation of recording with the place of sound sampling, does not erase the affective influence of the sound source transmitted by the sound sample. Such an observation leads to the conclusion that urban field recordings elude their framing in a single definition of heritage.
More...Keywords: urban assemblages; families; homelessness; Housing First; randomised controlled trial
Using the example of a Rapid Re-Housing project, this article aims to open up a more general social-scientific debate within the context of critical discussions about ending homelessness in the Czech Republic. It at the same time seeks to refine the usage of the 'urban assemblages' concept in sociological and anthropological research. A Rapid Re-Housing project was piloted in Brno in 2016-2018. Its objective was to house 50 families in need of housing in municipal apartments and to provide social support in the form of intensive case management. The project included a randomised controlled trial and a qualitative evaluation. This research showed that the effects of the intervention were positive for the vast majority of indicators monitored, with some of the intervention families experiencing significant changes in their financial situation. Discussing the effects of the Brno 'housing first assemblage' we respond to to the reservations that have been voiced about the practice of housing First programmes. We base our responses here on empirical data and the concept of 'relations of exteriority' and show that even projects based on solving 'only one component' can initiate broader socio-material transformations of contemporary societies.
More...Keywords: nanotechnology; structural color; emergent order;
This article emphasises the need of calming our heart and mind in line with the writings of the philokalic authors. This can be done by contemplating the little things like the color of the sky and of the stained glass, the irisations of a peacock tail and of the opal, the glow of beetles and of gold nanoparticles, the smell of incense and myrrh, the structure of the lotus leaf and of a wax comb. In a grain of sand we can find the essence of the world and we can find ourselves
More...Keywords: relative mass of the organs; increase in the body weight; high-fat diet; milk thistle;
The impact of excess fat and high-calorie intake on the human body is an acute problem for many economically developed countries. Modelling the effects on the health of rats of supplementing their diet with crushed seeds of Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench and Sylibum marianum (L.) Gaertn was carried out in a laboratory experiment. In the control group of animals, body weight increased by 700 mg/day, with the addition of E. purpurea seeds – by 1394 mg/day and with the addition of S. marianum seeds – by only 155 mg/day. A hypercaloric diet supplemented with E. purpurea caused a significant decrease in the relative weight of the liver, thymus, spleen, stomach, and brain. The supplementation with S. marianumseeds to the diet of animals significantly reduced only the relative weight of the thymus. Adding E. purpurea to the diet caused a strong increase in blood alkaline phosphatase activity, an increase in the cholesterol content, and a sharp increase in the atherogenic index. The seeds of S.marianumincreased the alkaline phosphatase activity, reduced the glucose concentration, and triglycerides, significantly reduced the atherogenic index and lowered the C-reactive protein concentration in the rats’ blood when compared with the control group. The seeds of E. purpurea contributed to an increase in the erythrocyte and lymphocyte number in the blood, and the seeds of S.marianum – to a decrease in the thrombocyte concentration. The research results show the possibility of wider use of S. marianumfruits as a dietary supplement in the diet of patients with hypertension and impaired liver function.
More...Keywords: innovative modern chairs; furniture design; student projects; wood and wood products; experiments;
The wooden chair is an object as much present in our lives as it is fascinating. Modern examples of good practice are worth researching and continue to inspire the creativity of designers. The research starts with the study of notable historical references from the modern period and of the way in which the experiments of furniture makers and of the adjacent industry have changed not only the shape of the chair but also people’s perception of the interior and of the objects inside it. Innovative examples of wooden chairs, some of the objects made by Michael Thonet and his sons, by Alvar Aalto and Aino Aalto and by Charles Eames and Ray Eames, are analyzed. Some of the student experiments required by the “Reversed design vs Re-new design: the wooden chair” university project are subsequently described. Most of these examples have as a starting point the works of the designers mentioned above. The freedom offered to the imagination by university workshops can lead to original and valuable solutions, which later on can be constructed with the help of the industrial environment to the ultimate benefit of the user. The examples detailed in the article demonstrate both the use of wood (and its derivatives) as a means of communicating synchronic social values and the innovative resources of sitting furniture design. As society changes over time so do its needs and demands. Furniture (with the chair as its most representative item) has been and always will be a mirror/tool for society’s needs. For this reason, experiment as a vector of innovation cannot be absent from furniture design or from academic research.
More...Keywords: Corpus Hermeticum; Dacians; death; Dracula; immortality; Zalmoxis;
The knowledge existent at present, which generates the need for a new approach to the myth of Dracula, refers to an almost unanimous reception based on the novel published in 1897 by Bram Stoker and on the tens of the subsequent portrayals which have induced a social and cultural paradigm standardized as commercial kitsch. Within this fictitious construct Dracula has been expounded in manifold keys. However, to ordinary perception, his figure is reduced to the semi-caricatural vampire character, the living-dead craving for blood. This article aims to answer a series of questions about the representations of Dracula and their relevance to the fields of cultural and literary studies: Which is the “real” Dracula? Which are the psychological, cultural, social and historical impulses determining the actions of the character and the established myth? To what extent the deeds of the personage can be accounted for through the instrumentality of psychological impetus and by the agency of cultural, philosophical, esoteric, and occult principles? Thus can the “real” Dracula be integrated into an ampler context of culture and civilization, where his alienation and his monstrosity belong less to the paradigm of “the other”, of “the stranger” and refer more to the revealing of some of “our” intimately repressed human features?The article proposes a critical examination and reinterpretation of Dracula’s image, starting from the novel Jurnalul lui Dracula (Dracula’s Diary) (1992) by the Romanian writer and academic Marin Mincu. Original responses are being suggested to the questions defined previously – through several writing and literary theory techniques, including references to Corpus Hermeticum.By comparing and contrasting the hermetic philosophical text and the Romanian novel, the essay aims at finding out whether the entire construct of the myth of Dracula can be explained through two cultural and philosophical aspects, namely death and immortality. It also offers a new reading, another conceptualization of a familiar but debatable subject, which reinterprets and even rejects the mainstream view. The work by the extremely well-informed Romanian academic, which was first published in Italy, has nothing in common with Bram Stoker’s (“vampiric falsification”, asserts the author in the preface…), but vividly portrays the “real” Dracula, the Prince Vlad the Impaler, imprisoned in the underground cave of a castle under the Budapest Danube, writing a journal between February, 2nd, 1463 and August, 28th, 1464. In his diary the character recalls his historical fate and legendary destiny through references to aspects of Romanian culture and civilization considered in a European context. For instance, the study approaches topics such as: the religion of Zalmoxis as the philosophical and existential foundation of the Romanians; Dacians’ attitude towards death, as described by Herodotus, which might have influenced Pythagoras, Socrates, the Eleusinian and the Orphic Mysteries; the boycott of history by the Romanian people (an echo from philosopher Lucian Blaga’s writings); the orality of the Romanian culture (as opposed to the written culture of the western Europe); the oral folkloric creations, the ballad Miorița (The Little Ewe) and the fairy-tale Tinerețe fără bătrânețe și viață fără de moarte (Youth without old age and life without death), etc. All of these are put forward within the humanistic, Renaissance context of the epoch, given that Dracula was a friend of Marsilio Ficino, Nicolaus Cusanus, Pope Pius II, Cosimo de’ Medici, etc. Researchers will discover new speculative themes and directions with regard to the seemingly exhausted myth of Dracula.
More...Keywords: Brzeszcze-Jawiszowice; labour camp; barracks; World War II; Auschwitz; tiles; glass
The paper presents the results of rescue archaeological excavations carried out at the site of the former German forced labour camp KL Jawischowitz, a sub-camp of KL Auschwitz-Birkenau. It discusses the historical material related to individual phases of use of the building complex as well as the camp architecture and the accompanying technical infrastructure. The remains of architecture connected with two blocks of flats and the camp infrastructure functioning in the years 1942–1945 and also used later were discovered. Movable historical objects obtained during the research in the form of fragments of ceramics (porcelain, tiles, and construction ceramics) and glass, connected with the functioning of the German forced labour camp, were also analysed. Between 1945 and 1950, the camp was used by the authorities of the Polish People’s Republic as a forced labour camp for German citizens, members of the NSDAP and the Hitlerjugend, Volksdeutsche, and people suspected of disloyalty to Poland. The last stage of the operation of the former camp complex took place after 1950, when it was converted into a workers’ housing estate. Since the demolition of the housing estate in the 1970s the area has been used as a park, which is currently undergoing revitalisation.
More...Keywords: Julia Dickstein-Wieleżyńska; Raffaele Pettazzoni; transcultural mediation; women’s archives in translation; agency in translation; “translaboration”
Julia Dickstein-Wieleżyńska (1881–1943) – a historian of literature and philosophy, poet, publicist, social and educational activist, as well as a translator of fiction and scientific literature from many languages – is still an under-appreciated figure in literary studies. The paper focuses on the general characteristics of Dickstein-Wieleżyńska’s activity as a transcultural mediator and translator, as well as on the role of translation against the background of her numerous interests and activities. Her unpublished correspondence with an anthropologist and historian of religion, Raffaele Pettazzoni (1883–1959), allows to see her translation work in a personal and sociological perspective, as a collaboration or translaboration (Alfer) between various agents of the translation process. Dickstein-Wieleżyńska’s lettersto Pettazzoni also show the limitations encountered by a female intellectual in the literary and scientific world of the first half of the twentieth century.
More...Keywords: Memorial; Nobel Prize; civil rights; historical memory
The present article offers a brief history of the Russian non-governmental organisation Memorial, a recent winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, from its origins in the 1980s to the present day. It also proposes an attempt to create a bibliography which could be used for a larger monographic volume, a more detailed work capable of going into more detail about the founding instances of the most important cultural movement of resistance in Russian and post-Soviet society. The nearly simultaneous invasion of Ukraine and the banning of Memorial make the publication of such a work urgent. It would not only outline the organisation’s development but also become a manifesto of concrete common action for a new Europe arising at the end of the conflict, which could thrive on the shared themes of historical memory and the defense of civil rights.
More...Keywords: German aggression on Poland; Nazi propaganda; Associated Press;
Wbrew temu, czego można by się spodziewać, dotychczas w badaniach historycznych nie poświęcono zbyt wiele uwagi aktywności zagranicznych korespondentów akredytowanych w Berlinie w okresie istnienia III Rzeszy. W centrum zainteresowania znajdowała się „druga strona dziennikarstwa”, czyli relacje państwo–społeczeństwo oraz aparat propagandy nazistowskich Niemiec i jego czołowe postacie, jak np. Joseph Goebbels. Jest to szczególnie zastanawiające, gdyż zagraniczni dziennikarze pracujący w Berlinie w znacznej mierze kształtowali postrzeganie narodowosocjalistycznych Niemiec na arenie międzynarodowej i istotnie przyczynili się do poszerzenia wiedzy o nich na całym świecie. Co więcej, mało kto dziś pamięta, że na początku II wojny światowej amerykańscy reporterzy towarzyszyli jednostkom wszystkich stron konfliktu, ponieważ Stany Zjednoczone pozostawały neutralne aż do grudnia 1941 roku. Artykuł prezentuje czołowych amerykańskich dziennikarzy pracujących w Berlinie – Louisa Lochnera (AP), Williama Shirera (CBS) i Sigrida Schultza („Chicago Tribune”) – którzy przez jakiś czas towarzyszyli oddziałom Wehrmachtu lub mieli możliwość na przełomie 1939 i 1940 roku pojechania do Polski pod nadzorem Niemców. Jak wyglądała ich praca? Co opisywali (a co pomijali) w swoich reportażach? Jaki wpływ ich teksty wywarły na północnoamerykańską i międzynarodową opinię publiczną? Wreszcie, w jakim stopniu wizyty organizowane przez niemieckie ministerstwo propagandy kształtowały ich audycje radiowe i artykuły? W nawiązaniu do mojego odkrycia archiwalnego z 2017 roku, które dotyczyło tajnej współpracy Associated Press z nazistowskimi Niemcami w latach 1942–1945, część artykułu będzie poświęcona amerykańskiemu dziennikarstwu fotograficznemu z lat 1939–1940.
More...Keywords: Carpathian Ruthenia; Subcarpathia; Transcarpathia; Zakarpattia; First Vienna Award; Ung County; Arrow Cross Party
There are many aspects of the history of Transcarpathia between 1938 and 1944 that are still under-researched, including the history of the far-right movements after the First Vienna Award. With the present study, I undertook to examine the activities of the Arrow Cross Party in a local scene in Ung County, using documents held in the Berehovo branch of the State Archives of Transcarpathian Oblast. The Arrow Cross movement practically arrived in the county with the territorial revision, and Uzhhorod was the first settlement where the first local branch of the party was established, during the period of military administration. The situation of the movement was largely determined by the restrictive measures taken by the local authorities until the German occupation of Hungary. The political changes at the national level and the control of the authorities brought the party almost to the brink of cessation in the county by 1943. After the German occupation, however, the movement was revived and became active in Ung County.
More...Keywords: altar painter; Carl Siegmund Walther; art; paintings;
This article discusses the altar design of Lutheran churches in the first half of the 19th century through the work of the artist Carl Siegmund Walther, who painted 27 altar paintings for churches in Estonia and Livonia, making him the most productive altar painter in Estonia’s history. A recent discovery in the collection of the Tartu Art Museum reveals that Carl Siegmund Walther was not only an altar painter but also a designer of retables.
More...Keywords: Latvian exile in the US; identity; diaspora; belonging; painting;
The article focuses on the question of what it meant for Latvian exiled creative personalities to be included in the artistic and cultural processes of the US in the second half of the 20th century and how their forced absence from their homeland firstly affected the scope of their creative work and, secondly, how their creativity was influenced by issues of belonging and cultural identity. The article does this by examining artists’ creative paths and prospects for inclusion in the processes of their new home country in interaction with both the Latvian diaspora and the US art and cultural context in the 1950s and 1960s. The focus is on painters who were educated from the beginning of the 20th century until 1944 in art educational institutions of the Russian Empire, in Latvia, or in some cases in Europe, and as a result of the Second World War fled and came to the United States. The overall processes in exile show that national particularity and the separation of the self as an ethnic group dominated as a conceptual basis for constructing ideas about creative practice. The experience of art in the US was identified as alien to Latvian artists, but the idea of a national art school and creativity as a mission to preserve and maintain its values became essential. This was done by continuing the ideas of the first Latvian Free State, which ideologically combined the national-patriotic overlays of democracy and the authoritarian regime of Kārlis Ulmanis, but artistically maintained the myth of the Latvian Art Academy School and 1930s neo-realism.
More...Keywords: migration; prosopography; Moscow family clans; Grand Duchy of Lithuania; Gastold (Goštautas); career;
Based on the example of the Kolychev and Neledinsky families, the article discusses some forms of emigration to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the Muscovite state in the second half of the fifteenth and early sixteenth century. The main task was to trace the roots of the analysed families, determine the reason for their appearance in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and see their adaptation to the local environment. It has been proved that the Neledinskys originated from the Novgorodian Land, from Biezhetsky Verkh, and they migrated to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with the duke of Vereya. Moreover, both families were associated with the court of the dukes of Vereya at different times. The Kolychevs, on the other hand, descended from the servant nobility of Moscow, who also received landed estates in the Novgorodian Land, and their migration was originally economic. At the end of the fifteenth century, Timofiey Kolychev found himself in a situation of internal migration – because of the war with Moscow, he moved from the Smolensk principality to the Kiernov district. The Kolychevs were also connected with the court of Albertas Goštautas, as were the Neledinskys, whose relative Vasily Kobylin served as Goštautas’ court marshal. The analysis of the archival sources made it possible to establish the end date of Semen Podberesky’s term as Kiernov’s governor and the new governor’s name.
More...Keywords: fragmentology; municipal records; Regula pastoralis; Pope Gregory the Great; pregothic script; palaeography; Memorabilia by Xenophon;
The studies on medieval manuscript fragments in situ (“fragmentology”) in Poland have concentrated so far mostly on library collection. The present article shows the results of a wider search in old Polish municipal records from the State Archive in Poznań, which found over 60 municipal registers containing various fragments of older manuscripts and prints. The most interesting discovery were two flyleaves folios with a script from the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries, containing fragments of the Pastoral Rule of Gregory the Great found in a 16th century book of town bench records.
More...Keywords: Скопје 2014; јавен простор; споменици; активизам; феминизам; парк „Жена борец“; сликање; уметност; сеќавање
Во текот на последната декада проектот за урбана преродба Скопје 2014 наметна значителни промени во центарот на градот и значително го реконструира културното наследство. Овој проект го утврди, односно го зајакна родовиот концепт на националниот идентитет според кој од жените се бара да обезбедат размножување на нацијата и да бидат мајки на нацијата. Овој текст се фокусира на преговарањето помеѓу официјалното и неофицијалното наследство, сеќавањето и видливоста во последните десет години во Скопје. Текстот ги следи женските и ЛГБТКИА-активисти додека се здружуваат во спротивставувањето на официјалните, алтернативните или субверзивните артефакти на наследството, како и на јавните простори на кои им се припишува неинклузивно значење. За да го направи тоа, текстот ги носи читателите низ јавните простори на Скопје, почнувајќи од северниот брег на Вардар и понатаму до паркот „Жена борец“, во кој, и покрај името што го носи, во моментов има скулптури што ги слават главно машките херои. Во продолжение, текстот ги носи читателите во една посебна дневна соба украсена со портрети на современи хероини. Токму тука и со одредени дополнувања од авторитарното монументално сликарство, текстот ја препознава моќта на сликањето да воодушеви, да обележи и да прослави и во исто време ни открива дека галериското сликарство може да ги протне своите нишки во јавниот простор. Текстот на крајот се враќа во паркот во придружба на двоен портрет со цел да ги истражи практиките на уметниците и активистите во однос на социјалистичките споменици. На крајот се придружува на првата Парада на гордоста во Скопје, која ја следат погледите на мажествените скулптури во паркот.
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