Keywords: abjection; psychoanalytical mechanisms; cleanness as an enigma;
The author analysis the psychoanalytical mechanisms which produce the human need for cleanness. Cleanness is being investigated as an enigma which has a central role in the process of subjectivisation.
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Keywords: Dečani monastery; christian culture; military; Balkan languages; The Balkans;
Reviews of the books: Histoire du peuple serbe, éd. Dušan T. Bataković / Manastir Dečani by Branislav Todić & Milka Čanak-Medić / New Jerusalems. The Translation of Sacred Spaces in Christian Culture / Guns for the Sultan. Military Power and the Weapons Industry in the Ottoman Empire by Gábor Ágoston / A Small Dialectological Atlas of the Balkan Languages / Development of Ethnic Structure in the Banat 1890–1992, eds. Thede Kahl & Peter Jordan / Developing Cultural Identity in the Balkans: Convergence vs. Divergence, eds. Raymond Detrez & Pieter Plas / Balkans into Southeastern Europe: A Century of War and Transition by John R. Lampe / The Balkans: From the End of Byzantium to the Present Day by Mark Mazower / The Balkans since the Second World War by Richard J. Crampton / Heavenly Serbia: From Myth to Genocide by Branimir Anzulovic.
More...Keywords: mass-production; consumption; conspicuous consumption; consumption society
Prior to the spread of mass production goods, luxury products (which signified a high social status) were mostly made out of expensive materials and their costs were determined by the physical properties they had. Such goods were expensive in the truest sense of the word and they did not have any less expensive analogues, made out of cheaper materials. Everyday things of the upper class were usually out of reach for the lower social strata. That is why until the spread of goods of mass production, the difference between the goods used by the upper class and those used by the lower social strata emphasized various social group distinctions, and social status was recognized by socially corresponding products. Moreover, before the spread of goods of mass production, the lower social strata did not have an op¬portunity to take fashion tendencies into account and change their clothes, furniture and other household goods. They would use the things until they were completely worn out. Changing things according to the “fashion” as well as demonstrating a possibility of spending funds on luxury products was a common practice amongst the cultural elites. Slowly the attitude of the lower social strata towards consumption started to change, and a demand for manufactured, store-bought items began to rise. The purchasing and consumption habits of the less fortunate in the society began to be influenced not only by the functions or physical properties of the products, but also by the supposed social importance of the usage of them. Such products (in most cases this did not depend on its quality) were increasing the social rank of an individual in the society as well as emphasizing their lifestyle and wealth. Quite often the unique characteristics of a product and conveniences it provided in housekeeping, were less important than the cultural importance it provided to the owner. The ability to buy some housekeeping-related products provided greater comfort as well as new and good quality items, changed the consumption habits reaching a higher level. Expenditure on goods amongst the lower social strata acquired a representative social value and became means for demonstrating the financial standing and standard of living.
More...Keywords: Mesoamerica; Mexico; architecture; ruins; revalorization; symbols; Eliade.
Though Mircea Eliade’s use of the term of “revalorization” is only intermittent in his written work, it is arguably a central theme in his understanding of the ways in which religious traditions invariably “make meaning” by retrieving and refashioning ideas and practices from previous traditions. His History of Religious Ideas, for instance, directs attention to the creative and interested, if often poorly informed, means by which religious communities undertake this sort of resuscitation of earlier traditions, which they inevitably warp and wedge to their current purposes. I extend – or “revalorize” – the term, moreover, to address the creative if sometimes poorly informed ways in which scholars have appropriated concepts from Eliade, and then put those formulations to service (or maybe disservice) in their own interpretive projects. In that spirit, I reutilize Eliade’s notion of revalorization, together with his ample comments on religious symbols, as a means of respecting the ever-shifting, still-emergent usages and meanings of centuries-old Mesoamerican ruins. On the basis of that exercise, I conclude that Eliade’s variously revered and maligned corpus, when engaged in suitably inventive and strategic ways, remains relevant, challenging and useful in the extreme.
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Keywords: monastery; cenobium-lavra; hesychasm; late medieval northern Balkans; kellia; triconch church
At the end of the fourteenth century and through the first half of the fifteenth century, during the rule of Prince Lazar and his son Despot Stefan Lazarević, a great number of hesychasts found their last safe havens in Serbia. It is not widely known that many monasteries and anchoretic cells were founded in the northeastern region of Serbia, in the mountainous area of the Crnica River Gorge and further north in the Gornjak Ravine. The followers of Gregory of Sinai founded these cells; they came from both Bulgaria and Mount Athos and were known from written sources as Sinaites, albeit most had never visited Sinai. My paper will focus on hesychasts in these regions. I must inform the readers that in early 80s the monastery of Lešje was still awaiting archaeological excavations. Since then, the complex has been thoroughly rebuilt by the monks who unfortunately devastated the existing medieval remnants. Therefore today the monastery’s architecture is not authentic.
More...It is not jokes the White Queen is telling. This fragile character, no more queen than Alice, is pointing out the necessity of exercising our imagination. Nothing in Looking Glass country is what it seems to be, so you need to believe things to make them exist. The only being the artifact environment can pretend to is such a fictitious one that its objective existence cannot, in itself, achieve anything beyond its artificiality. A few chapters further in the same book, Humpty-Dumpty falls off the wall and no earthly power can restore him to life. Two essential features of manmade world are expressed here. First, creation by humans is but illusion2 as nothing we make lives; second, once the spell is broken, we can do but little to “put [it] in his place again”
More...Keywords: alcohol consumption of students; narrative analysis; myth; social marketing; advertising; comedy; romance; tragedy; irony
If the marketing profession is outstanding at relying on or creating new myths in order to attain commercial goals then the question follows whether myths could also be used for social marketing campaigns. The aim of this article is to introduce what alcohol consumption means for today’s university students and what their related stories are like. We argue that the motifs found in authentic texts can be used when designing and implementing social marketing actions. Consequently, the present research primarily draws on narrative analysis. 146 alcohol consumption stories and 134 alcohol advertisement narratives were analysed. The article presents a structural analysis of students’ alcohol consumption stories, using Northrop Frye’s taxonomy of mythoi to assign consumer narratives to four categories: comedy, romance, tragedy, and irony. Although we are in possession of a large amount of knowledge about how science and logical thinking works, we know little about how to construct good stories. In this article a didactic introduction of Frye’s system will follow, whilst we will continue to look for ‘good’ stories. This study aims to provide the reader with a structured tool inventory (charts, stories), from which one will be free to choose, but at the same time one should take care to retain one’s own creativity and produce credible stories.
More...Keywords: relationships between the state; the elites; law enforcement and organised crime
After 1989 the nature of relations between economic agents in Bulgaria changed fast while the public institutions designed to protect property rights followed this development at a much slower pace. While transition to market economy entailed widespread transfer of state owned assets into private hands, this transfer was not matched with either the social and legal norms or the state institutions protecting the integrity of market transactions and property rights (Hill, 2003: 8). According to Stanchev, more than 80% of businessmen interviewed in 1995 were of the opinion that private property rights were not clearly and firmly defined and protected (1996: 7). In addition, Bulgarians had little market experience by 1989 and “there were no existing norms within the business community regarding appropriate behaviours for the new circumstances” after 1989 (Koford and Miller, 1995: 15). Informal institutions, such as business associations and reputation-based mechanisms in the regulation of business transactions were yet to develop. In this environment extra-legal protection in the form of quasi law enforcement practices emerged. Thus, private security firms linked to organised crime became the main alternative to formal mechanisms for the protection of property rights. In this paper I first look at the demand for extra-legal protection following 1989 and the role of private security firms and criminal organisations in supplying services such as dispute settlement, debt collection and guarantees to business deals. The discussion is structured according to the most common arrangements and provisions. I then explore whether and how the elites in post-communist Bulgaria furthered the social conditions necessary for mafiastyle organisations and extra-legal protection to flourish. The paper looks at the individual involvement of representatives of the elites and law enforce ment with organised crime and examines the broader relationships between the state, the elites, law enforcement and organised crime. The evidence, which I explore in the paper, suggests that mafia-style organisations would not have become so powerful (and extra-legal practices so widespread) in the 1990s had they not benefited from close association with members of the economic and political elites in Bulgaria.
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Keywords: American propaganda; American Embassy; American Reading Room; Voice of America; Pregled
During the Cold War propaganda played an important role in the battle for the “hearts and souls” of ordinary people. American propaganda was practiced on several levels, the important one being the so called “public diplomacy” that was spread through official institutions. This form of propaganda was spread in Yugoslavia by the USA Information Service, American Reading Room, the propaganda magazine Pregled and the Voice of America – all presenting the desired picture of American society to the people of Yugoslavia. Although it did not directly attack the Yugoslav system or communism, it did underscore the values of American society with the aim that those exposed to this form of propaganda could conclude that the American dream is a reality for American citizens and that it could also become accessible to others. It is interesting to note that except in the period before the conflict with the Soviet Union, there was no serious opposition to this kind of American propaganda, which was certainly a consequence of the general Yugoslav foreign policy. Certainly this kind of propaganda could not turn Yugoslavia into a country that looked like America nor change its citizens into Americans but it could indicate that a different life existed and instigate a desire for it. The furniture in the flats on the newly built housing estates did not look the same as the modernly equipped American apartments in high rises, the houses in the Yugoslav villages did not look like the ones on American farms, the small Fiat cars (called fiće) produced in Yugoslavia driven on the old roads full of holes were not the same as the Buicks on the Amеrican highways … However, even if the plowing fields in communism did not look like the ones on American farms, the Yugoslav workers did not have the modernly equipped houses with large cars in front of them, Yugoslav surgeons did not have the facilities that Michael DeBakey had, the image of America as apromised land stayed forever inscribed in the minds of the people of socialist Yugoslavia largely due to the influence of American propaganda.
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In the houses and homes of Dubrovnik and the way of lifе of its citizens, few traces of material civilization and long associations with the Тurkish Empire have been left despite the proximity of the frontiers in the 16th and 17th centuries. Though no objects of the craftsman's art of oriental origin have been preserved in the town, several records and documents kept in the archives of Dubrovnik contain data and accounts showing that such objects played an important part in the lives of the inhabitants.
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Ottoman Turkey was a land of refuge ever since it was first created in the early years of the fourteenth century. It was in fact an empire of refugees from the start, for both Turks and non Turks were fleeing into the Middle East from attacks by the Mongols in Central Asia and Transoxania. The founder of the Ottoman dynasty, Ertugrul himself, and his Turkish followers from the Göktürks entered the Middle East and came to Anatolia as refugees from the expansion of the Mongol Empire from China across Central Asia. When the Ottomans conquered the Byzantine Empire, and in particular its capital Constantinople, and transformed it into their capital as Istanbul starting in 1453, they rescued those of its inhabitants who were not members of the Greek and Armenian Orthodox faiths from the persecution which they had suffered at the hands of the Byzantines, in particular the Jews of Byzantium who had been persecuted by the Orthodox church since ancient times. As Istanbul was being built into the Ottoman capital by Sultan Mehmed II Fatih, the Conqueror, in the later years of his long reign, people from all over the Empire were settled in various places around the capital as refugees from the turmoil from which they had suffered since the decline and fall of the Byzantine Empire and its successor states during the previous century. As a result, from the fourteenth until the twentieth century, the Ottoman Empire continued its role as haven from persecution for peoples of all ethnic origins and all religions. Over the centuries people of almost every religion and race found refuge in the Ottoman dominions.
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Keywords: Corporate growth; firm age; mobility; economic growth; ownership structure; Spanish firms
The objective of this work is to analyse firm mobility among the different sectors of the Spanish economy according to a statistical classification of economic activities at the 1-digit level. Some of the stylised facts that we find are: an inverse relation between firm growth and age; an increase in new entrants’ average relative size in terms of sales compared to established firms among the different industries and cohorts; the importance of the firm's initial size in entrepreneurial activity; the favourable impact of the economy on firm growth; and a positive relation between non-concentration in the ownership structure and greater mobility. In this context, an efficient corporate governance system may prove as a significant policy tool for the investment and growth prospective of the Spanish economy. The regulatory framework of the Spaniard capital market has been coordinate with the EU standards. The challenge is now mostly for the firms to adopt the appropriate corporate governance structures, in order to achieve real convergence, in terms of productivity and competitiveness, with other developed economies.
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Keywords: history of archaeology; Antoni Zaborski collection; letters to Erazm Majewski; Ludwik Krzywicki; Pašušvys (Pol. Poszuszwie); Kėdainiai District
The article tells about the ‘keen collector’ and amateur archaeologist, Antoni Zaborski, a resident of Pašušvys (Pol. Poszuszwie) (now Kėdainiai District). He had collections of archaeological objects, medals, coins, artwork, weapons, early editions, armour, china, and glass as well as an interesting ethnographic collection and a bibliological collection. A. Zaborski’s unexpected encounter with archaeology and the awareness of his own ignorance in this field persuaded him to seek out people who could help him remedy these shortcomings as well as offer support and expert advice. He corresponded with Erazm Majewski, the best known archaeologist in the Kingdom of Poland, and made many requests for specialist literature, tips, and advice. The texts of these letters are given in the Appendix.
More...Keywords: historical linguistics
Translated by Tamás Kisantal
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Keywords: mechanical automata; State Hermitage Museum; automaton Peacock; James Cox; G.A. Potemkin; Catherine the Great; Duchess of Kingston; I.P. Kulibin.
Статья посвящена истории и символике механического автомата «Павлин» работы английского мастера XVIII века Джеймса Кокса. Один из самых популярных экспонатов Государственного Эрмитажа, «Павлин» традиционно считается часами. Конструкция этой удивительной игрушки действительно включает часовой механизм, встроенный в головку гриба. Однако второстепенность фигурки гриба на фоне роскошной композиции, а также анализ работы часового механизма и очередности движения фигур позволили автору придти к заключению, что «Павлин» – это игрушка для увеселения, лишь приводимая в движение часовым механизмом. Сделанный по заказу князя Григория Потемкина для подарка Екатерине II, «Павлин», как показано в статье, наполнен сложной символикой, отражающей и любовную историю князя и императрицы, и восточную политику России, и идею наследования традиций Византии. Символика «Павлина», предназначавшегося, по мнению автора, для тронного зала Зимнего дворца, также отражала личные достоинства Екатерины Великой и прославляла ее деяния во славу государства.
More...Keywords: Stakeholders;
The study investigated the Namibian School Counselling Programmefrom the perspectives of selected stakeholders in terms of objectives of theNamibian School Counselling Programme, the services they considered to becharacteristics of the programme, the resources available in the schools forthe implementation of the programme, the beneficiaries and effectiveness ofthe school counselling programme and the programme services recipients’satisfaction. The study employed mixed methods approach hence bothqualitative and quantitative data were collected. The population of the studyconsisted of two hundred and eighty eight (288) learners, one hundred andforty two (142) principals, sixty eight (68) teacher-counsellors and five (5)parents from schools in Ohangwena region. Questionnaire and interviews(in-depth individual one-on-one semi-structured interview and focus groupsdiscussions) were used to gather data. Quantitative data were analyzed byusing Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), while qualitative datawere analyzed by the use of themes and coding. The study found out thatteacher-counsellors had no counselling rooms to conduct individualcounselling, no separate budget for school counselling programme and thatfile cabinet and display boards were only available in very few school,inadequate school-counsellor and lack of information on school counsellingactivities.Therefore, it is recommended that the government allocate separate orspecial budget to school counselling programme; post, teacher-counsellors tothose schools where vacant posts are not yet filled and awareness raisingactivities on school counselling programme services be held regularly.
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Az első 300 év Magyarországon és Európában: A Domonkos-rend a középkorban [The first 300 years in Hungary and Europe: The Dominican Order in the Middle Ages]. Edited by József Csurgai Horváth. Hatalom, adó, jog: Gazdaságtörténeti tanulmányok a magyar középkorról [Power, tax, law: Studies on the economic history of medieval Hungary]. Edited by István Kádas and Boglárka Weisz. The Noble Elite in the County of Körös (Križevci) 1400–1526. By Tamás Pálosfalvi. Keresztesekből lázadók: Tanulmányok 1514 Magyarországáról [From crusaders to rebels: Studies on Hungary in 1514]. Edited by Norbert C. Tóth and Tibor Neumann. The Teutonic Order in Prussia and Livonia: The Political and Ecclesiastical Structures 13th–16th C. Edited by Roman Czaja and Andrzej Radzimiński. Alchemy and Rudolf II: Exploring the Secrets of Nature in Central Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. Edited by Ivo Purš and Vladimír Karpenko. ‘Das Fluidum der Stadt…’ Urbane Lebenswelten in Kassa/Košice/Kaschau zwischen Sprachenvielfalt und Magyarisierung 1867–1918. By Frank Henschel. A Modern History of the Balkans: Nationalism and Identity in Southeast Europe. By Thanos Veremis. Staatskunst oder Kulturstaat? Staatliche Kunstpolitik in Österreich 1848–1914. By Andreas Gottsmann. Dealing with Dictators: The United States, Hungary, and East Central Europe, 1942–1989. By László Borhi. A magyar sajtó és újságírás története a kezdetektől a rendszerváltásig [The history of the Hungarian press and journalism from the early years to the political transition]. By Géza Buzinkay. Gendered Wars, Gendered Memories: Feminist Conversations on War, Genocide and Political Violence. Edited by Ayşe Gül Altınay and Andrea Pető. Jeanssozialismus: Konsum und Mode im staatssozialistischen Ungarn By Fruzsina Müller.
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