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According to a widely accepted model, America’s pre-Columbian people are of Asian descent. The current a priori rejection of the possibility of trans-ocean travel in Antiquity results from a failure to take into account the diffusion of ideas and from postcolonial political correctness and the prevailing paradigm of progress. Not only has considering the possibilities of pre-Columbian migration to America by sea now been abandoned, but clear evidence of such contacts has also been rejected. Undertaking research in this field is met with reluctance by the scientific community, especially in America. The anthropological evidence of pre-Columbian African-American contacts is of three types: 1) iconographic representations bearing the characteristics of the Black Variety, 2) human bone remains, the structure of which indicates belonging to the Black Variety or its hybrids with other varieties (White or Yellow), 3) Black Variety traits found among the Native American peoples, which are the result of pre-Columbian mestization. The second type of material is the most important, although also in the case of the first one we are dealing not with individual features of the physical structure but with a whole set of them, which statistically cannot be the result of chance or artistic stylization. The most important evidence, which unfortunately should be treated as preliminary and incomplete, comes from two regions: ancient Mexico and ancient Peru. In the first region it consists of archaeological finds associated with the Olmec culture or the pre-Olmec era (skulls indicating the population of the Black or mixed Black and White Varieties, as well as sculptures and bas-reliefs with features of the Black Variety, or mixed Black and White ones). For ancient Peru, the evidence is predominantly the ceramics of the Moche culture. The article presents mainly the results of osteological and iconographic research carried out and published by Andrzej Wierciński and the author. As the influence of the African and European populations was found, this suggests that the overseas visitors probably came from the contact region of both population massifs, i.e. the western Mediterranean, most likely from the Bronze Age. The results of the research prove beyond any doubt that Africans visited America before Columbus.
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The memory of slavery appeared in the political discourse of Benin in the 1990s. This was related to the change of the state system and an attempt to involve the African-American diaspora in the development of the country and the revival of cultural tourism. The article presents the memorialization of internal slavery through new ritual complexes, then looks for reasons for the silence surrounding the slave trade. Finally, it goes to the heart of the political debate of the 1990s, showing how slavery was used to build communication with the diaspora either on the basis of Vodun cults or on the basis of repentance and reconciliation. The fact that the ancestors participated in the slave trade in the past does not affect the descendants’ sense of identity.
More...Intersubiektywność wzorów kulturowych społeczeństwa Senegalu
The aim of this study is to show how the conceptualization of female beauty can be an example of intersubjective interpersonal relationships preserved by social practices. It analyzes and compares four models of Senegalese beauty: diriyanké, signares, disquettes and jongoma. The sources of the article come from my fieldwork research conducted intermittently in Dakar and Saint-Louis in 2017–2020. The fieldwork observations, interviews and surveys made it possible to recreate the public discourse on the discussed issues. In the course of the analysis, I point to the genesis of different cultural patterns of female beauty in Senegal. I discuss the ways of women’s self-creation, influencing their social perception (the myth of “seductive power”) and creating the stereotypes and distinctions that separate them. From an anthropological perspective, the category of female beauty appears here as a phantasm of the mind, as a set of qualities dependent on subjective evaluation but located in a broader social and cultural context.
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This paper discusses the complex history behind today’s African dresses, especially those used in the context of African Christianity in contemporary Ghana, where the author conducted ethnographic fieldwork. The history of clothes and fabrics used broadly to dayas markers of African identity reveals the hybrid and changing character of fashion. The first part of the paper focuses on the history of nakedness as a concept framed by the missionaries’ imagination and the colonial hegemonic gaze on the “African body”. Then the process of “inventing clothes for Africans” is discussed with a special emphasis on the development of the African wax print. In the final part, examples of contemporary “African dresses” are analyzed in the context of today’s post-missionary lived Catholicism in Ghana. Clothes are used as markers of religious and ethnic identities; they also express hierarchies and form gender roles. Additionally, they are intimately connected with individual bodies, shaping them as tools in religious practices.
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The article presents the essence, functions and meanings of the traditional veil – safsari/sefsari, and the Muslim veil – hijab, worn by women in Tunisia throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. The stages of the veils’ acceptance and abandonment were presented, and the reasons for their return. Contexts of wearing veils were indicated, as well as their polysemy related to communication as a distinguishing form of social behaviour.
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Community-based social protection systems have a long history in Africa, and due to the weakness of many states as institutions, they have not disappeared but have adapted their forms of functioning to the new tools of governance of the domains they cover and the new organization of social life. In this paper, I will aim to present grassroots social security systems that respond to environmental and economic problems as well as cultural challenges in contemporary Zimbabwe. These systems are institutionalized, often not in the sense of state-registered activities, but of sanctioned and socially stabilized forms of assistance. They can take the form of exchange of material goods, micro-investment support, mitigation of drought shocks, assistance with illness or burial, or mutual care for children. An important component of any form of aid organization is the remittances of economic migrants, so this form of support will receive more attention. I will try to identify the reasons for the systems’ resistance to changes taking place in social life (modernization) and the social and cultural effects of their progressive commercialization.
More...Prawo do dysponowania nieruchomościami w obliczu krytycznej zmiany
The right to dispose of real estate has unique properties in the countries of the Sahel, a result of an overlapping of local and postcolonial traditions. The features and dynamic of this phenomenon determine the economic development in the region as well as the spatial changes taking place there. Analyzing the legal codifications of the Sahel states of Niger, Burkina Faso and Senegal, and two Burkina Faso case studies – the Sawadogo forest in Ouahigouya and the Pazaani district mosque in Wagadugu – the author discusses the operation of the existing laws and their adaptation to the local economic and natural circumstances. Law-imposed restrictions on the disposal of real estate are also pointed out. The analysis shows that the tradition enshrined in law has impeded economic growth in the conditions of liberal economy. The current legal practice in this field has been evolving following the example of developed economies, which has brought with it both opportunities and threats.
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Somaliland has survived a period of complete isolation and financial blockade associated with being cut off of the SWIFT system, owing to emigrants residing in the UK, Canada, Australia and the Scandinavian countries, who assisted their families in the country of origin via the money transfers of the hawala system. The income from the seaport of Berbera and a tax on khat sales are sources of enrichment for the major Somaliland clans. During the sanctions period, transnational know-how was developed, which allowed for the creation of a modern, autonomous system of certified money transfers. As in the case of hawala, the success was based on the capital of trust and on customer networks. The internal market of Somaliland uses the GSM cell phone network for daily money transactions. In practice, the plan for independent cashless transactions has been fulfilled. Somaliland has made a digital revolution in line with the sharia law, defending its financial sovereignty.
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The article discusses the methodology behind "Other voices, other votes. Ethnographic radio play", which was co-produced by the author and non-professional Malawian actors. Their collaboration drew from the ethnofiction method formulated by French-Nigerien anthropologist and filmmaker Jean Rouch. The radio play examines the understanding of fieldwork as a collective process whose outcomes are significant to all contributors. Its first part, a monologue of Martin Kaphukusi, proves that cultural reflexivity is not restricted to professional researchers. The second part, a comment on the elections in Malawi, is a critical juxtaposition of local perspectives and voices.
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The article gives a brief overview of the changes that have occurred in recent years (2015–2021) in the practice of “traditional” medicine in Tanzania and of the network of not always obvious links that led to these changes. I will walk the reader through the law to which traditional medicine practitioners are subject, the dynamics of its enforcement, and the direct impact that the recently deceased President John Pombe Magufuli has had on this and other aspects of social life in Tanzania. The article is based on fieldwork research conducted in 2015–2021, Tanzanian legal documents, and press reports on the political situation in that country.
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The mystical experience is not something reducible simply to the private experience sphere. The force of the Mystery that is revealed in the subject opens up to the need to understand and communicate that experience. This helps us to perceive the levels inherent to the mystical experience until it transforms into communication. And so, we speak of two ways of language linked to the mystical experience: written language, with its peculiarities and creative connotations, and anthropological language, communicable through the experienced transformation and the way of life of the subject.
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1.1. Definice - Manželství je společensky akceptovaný vztah dvou osob, stvrzený uzavřením sňatku. Očekává se od něho sdílení domácnosti, vzájemná pomoc a podpora partnerů, sexuální soužití, výchova dětí a společný majetek. 1.2. Manželské formy – terminologie • Monogamie – sňatek mezi dvěma partnery, obvykle mezi mužem a ženou. Tato forma je nejrozšířenější. • Sériová monogamie – po zániku monogamického svazku (rozvod, smrt) jedinec opět uzavře nové manželství s jedním partnerem. • Polygamie – manželství více než dvou osob. • Polygynie – manželství 1 muže a více žen. • Polyandrie – manželství 1 ženy s více muži. Více manželů mají např. ženy v Tibetu. • Křesťanství, hinduismus a judaismus se vyslovují pro monogamické svazky, buddhismus se k monogamii nevyjadřuje, v islámu je mnohoženství. • Levirát – příbuzenské pravidlo, které přikazuje muži oženit se s vdovou po zemřelém bratrovi. • Sororát – pravidlo, při kterém má muž po ovdovění právo (či povinnost) uzavřít manželství se sestrou své ženy – anebo sestra zemřelé má právo (či povinnost) provdat se za jejího muže. • Sňatek duchů (v Číně) – pokud během zásnub ženich zemřel, sňatek se uzavřel se zesnulým. Následně bylo možné adoptovat dítě a tím zajistit zachování rodové linie.
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Osud je v čínské kultuře vnímán jako daný, určený dobou zrození člověka. Přesto může mít různé podoby naplnění a je možné jej pozitivním způsobem ovlivňovat a vědomě utvářet. Existuje mnoho způsobů, jak ovlivnit běh života, které obvykle vycházejí z lidového náboženství a kosmologických představ. Jsou založené na starověkých představách, ale přesto si vydobyly své místo i v dnešní, moderní čínské společnosti. Patří mezi ně čínský horoskop sledující lidskou povahu a budoucnost, různorodé léčitelské a léčebné techniky a fengshui 风水 pracující s úpravou prostoru.
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The relation between the folk and the stylish culture was solved by both ethnography (ethnology) and history of arts. Primarily, these issues were monitored on folk art and in relation of folk and style architecture. At the beginning, the ethnography focused on the timbered house that was considered an expression of autochthon folk architecture. In the inter-war period, it was art historians (Z. Wirth, V. Mencl) who devoted themselves to this theme. They overrated the influence of historical styles and considered the rural house to be an unoriginal rusticated form inspired by high culture. The representatives of Czech functionalism and structuralism (K. Šourek, K. Honzík) took a more complex opinion. After the war, the research was aimed at the documentation of surviving masonry buildings with the terrain echoes of styles as well as at the analysis of decorative elements and their authors (V. Bělík, L. Štěpánek, I. Minář). These issues were extensively monitored in Southern Bohemia, where one speaks even about ”Rustic Baroque”. Based on architectural development, source archives materials and planned documentation, the above issues are solved by M. Ebel and J. Škabrada.
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As to sacral building, ethnography (ethnology) devoted itself especially to timbered churches and small sacral buildings that were an integral part of rural countryside and country seats since the 18th century. In the Czech professional literature, devoted to the above issue, a terminology problem appears which is connected with confusing the terms “zvonice – bell tower” and “zvonička – small bell tower”. Independent tower-like buildings to hold bells, which have been a part of church areas from the Middle Ages, should by called “zvonice- bell tower”, but small structures and constructions in villages, built especially in connection with the so-called “Fire Patent” of Maria Theresa (1751), should be called “zvonička – small bell tower”. Because of the importance and occurrence, many researchers devoted themselves to the above cultural phenomenon in the Czech lands. In our contribution, we deal with small bell towers in Western Moravia based on field researches made about 2005.
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S-a întâmplat la Graz, unde m-am oprit în drum spre sud. S-a întâmplat aproape exact pe linia pe care Churchill a trasat-o între Szczecin și Triest în 1946, botezând-o „Cortina de Fier”. Ivo Andril a traversat această linie de nenumărate ori, pentru că studia în același timp la Zagreb și la Viena, la Cracovia și la Graz - ceea ce odată era absolut normal, dar acum ar fi de neconceput. Tot aici, pe la sfârșitul anilor ’20 ai secolului al XIX-lea, un student în filosofie, Stanko Vraz, sloven, l-a întâlnit pe Ljudevit Gaj, conducătorul croat al „Mișcării ilirice”, devenind scriitor croat - ceea ce, de asemenea, e de neconceput astăzi. în aceste cercuri, în coloanele revistei Kolo, un periodic literar editat mai târziu de Vraz la Zagreb, se va naște ideea unității slavilor, ideea creării unei limbi comune cu frații sârbi, a unei federații... Mai târziu s-au scris aici și alte pagini de istorie central-europeană: Jasenovac, Vukovar... Și polonezii frecventau acest spațiu. Mi-am amintit de cafeneaua din Thonethof, unde se ofereau odată ziare poloneze, dar m-am răzgândit și m-am dus la un restaurant obișnuit cu un meniu demn de capitala Stiriei.
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As a culturally and linguistically hybrid product emerging from specific historical and political conditions, Sinophone Tibetan literature has been often overlooked in Western academic and literary circles. Still, as argued in this article, it is a plausible voice coming from within Tibet, shedding more light on the present lived reality of the region and its inhabitants and forming a multilayered minor discourse of self-representation vis-á-vis the major Han Chinese discourse regarding not only Tibetan history and culture, but, more generally, literary creation. By analyzing the various representations of present-day Tibet in short stories by Tsering Norbu, this paper provides insights into the formation of collective historical memory and transformation of Tibetan society following the economic development of the region after the year 2000. While responding to the official call for a realistic representation of the lives of ordinary people, the author has come up with effective counterhegemonic narrative strategies of resistance to the dominant forces of ideology and brutal commercialization by including elements of religion, suppressed historical memory, and social problems in contemporary Tibetan society.
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These people, who were born in the first years of the Republic, raised their children very well during the famine and poverty years. Although they were shaken by the effects of the 1939 earthquake, they lived an honorable life. Everyone who came from Tokat and Reşadiye after the 1939 earthquake tried to hold on to their new places and new lives like Hamide. Everyone from that region in the village became Hamide's relative and comrade. In those years, the deaf and dumb father, who worked with a pick and shovel by sticking his teeth in his nails, prepared the ground for the future of his children with every pick he threw. Abdurrahman Üstün, who was deaf and mute, earned double wages by working in the hardest and hardest jobs, while everyone was receiving a single wage during the Taşova – Amasya road work. In return for this honorable struggle, their children embraced life more tightly and carried their own lives to a better position. She was known as the "Wife of Ahraz" in the village of Yukarı Barak. But everyone in the family called her the Boss. When Ömer Üstün, his son-in-law, realized his leadership in the family, he wore this nickname when he was still in secondary school. Probably because he rules everything and everyone. This big-hearted woman passed away in 2013. He left dozens of laments behind. Most of them were forgotten because they were not written. We commemorate this Anatolian woman who raised her five sons with mercy and longing. May your soul rest in peace Boss Grandma...
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Organology is a discipline that focuses on the structural characteristics and functions of musical instruments. Through the science of organology, instruments provide profound insights into the diverse cultural elements they embody, thereby carrying traces not only of their role as intermediaries of music but also of historical significance. The ultimate aim of this study is to elucidate the traces of intercultural exchange by leveraging the historical development of bowed string instruments, which have also permeated Turkish culture through the cultural interactions between different geographical regions. Through organology, the structure and materials of musical instruments can be elucidated, shedding light on the socio-cultural context in addition to the climatic and socio-economic conditions of various geographical regions. This discipline entails the classification of different musical instruments into general categories such as bowed string instruments, wind instruments, keyboard instruments, and percussion instruments, with a particular focus on the development of bowed string instruments in this study. Organological research examines the structural analysis of musical instruments, encompassing a comprehensive examination of the components, materials, dimensions, and shapes of an instrument. Moreover, organology delves into the functionality and playing techniques of musical instruments, investigating how an instrument is played, the techniques employed, and the sounds produced. This encompasses aspects such as correct playing positions, finger placements, breathing techniques, and bowing techniques. Through the study of Organology, which investigates the historical development, origins, and evolution of musical instruments in different cultures, a comprehensive understanding of the cultural, historical, and sociocultural contexts surrounding these instruments is achieved. The purpose of this study is to examine the development of string instruments from past to present from an organological perspective.
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