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This article relates to the process of adaptation of Czech citizens to Turkish culture. The article explores the perception of Turkish culture by Czech citizens, problems they encounter in the Turkish society and the ways of their adjustment to the host culture. The empirical research on 10 Czech citizens was conducted using the method of semi-structured interviews. The article addresses the most important issues connected with the process of cultural adaptation.
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In the present article two cases of a doll usage in ritualistic and rite contexts in frames of contemporary Latvian culture are analyzed. Doll is a part of so called „object code” of traditional and contemporary culture; it is manifested in different play and ritualistic practices. Because of sacral meanings of traditional culture partly gone lost and with open-type ( contemporary) culture development new traditions begin to form. In analyzed cases the gearing of a doll with symbolic meaning mainly occur owing to an idea of anthropomorphism that is inherented in a doll. In this aspect doll becomes a person’s symbolic double in fest rites, confirming vitality of ritualistic practices in contemporary Latvian culture. Rite and ritualistic contexts, offering by postfolklore ( in terminology by S. Nekludow) society, appeal to symbolics of traditional culture. Not less significant in its symbolism is fest poetics that is characteristic of doll installations. The aesthetic motivations for the usage of the dolls reveal the hidden ritual forms, passive and unconscious with the respondents at the moment. However, at any time these latent ritual functions of dolls can be brought into focus
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Ne namjeravam naširoko govoriti o tome kako je Jože Pučnik osobno utjecao na noviju slovensku kulturu i politiku, napose na njihovu međusobnu povezanost i ulančavanje, koje je s druge strane ipak bitno u vremenu kad se veličina političkih osobnosti mjeri posebno baždarenim barometrima.
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Tematika ovog rada posvećena je kulturnim slojevima i obilježjima gostoprimstva u epu Ženidba Smailagina Sina i u kurtoaznom romanu Priča o Graalu. I savremena urbana i ruralna tradicija poznaju gostoprimstvo kao običaj i društvenu odliku, kao odnos jedinke prema jedinki, smještajući ih u strogo društvene okvire koje one imaju jedna naspram druge. Popularna grčka mitologija nam daje brojne primjere odnosa domaćin – gost: primjer odnosa Admeta naprama Apolonu; Nausikaje prema Odiseju; Didone prema Eneji; primjer Penelope i Telemaha prema proscima, neka imena da spomenemo. Južnoslavenska usmena epika daje značaj ovoj temi uglavnom u onoj mjeri u kojoj ga nalazimo u prvoj verziji zabilježene pjesme o Mehi Smailagiću Kraussovog guslara Ahmeta Šemića. (Moramo naglasiti da se izdvajaju po karakteru poruka usmene pjesme izrazito mitološkog karaktera, kao i slučajevi primjera usmene epike romaneskne razrađenosti.)
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GABRIELA KILIÁNOVÁ, JURAJ ZAJONC: 70 rokov Ústavu etnológie Slovenskej akadémie vied: kontinuity a diskontinuity bádania a jednej inštitúcie (70 Years of the Institute of Ethnology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences: Continuities and Discontinuities of Research and of One Institution). Bratislava: Veda, 2016, 287 p.
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The article represents a sketch about the life and work of not so widely known poet Roal’d Charl’sovich Mandel’shtam (1932–1961), one of those who is considered to be the father of the Russian poetic underground. His creative work is remarkably infl uenced by the Silver Age culture, and his unique poetry is marked by the liberal combination of lyricism and tragic character, heroic spirit and subtle irony.
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This paper develops the concept of a posthumanist, more-than-human collective by focusing on conflictual relationships between humans and sewer rats. I propose to look at the absence of empathy in urban rat control programs through the framework of a necropolitics of war and colonization. I seek to examine how an interspecies community may be organized to simultaneously protect human interests and meet the requirements of animals' well-being. I analyze the reasons why the idea of a reduction in animals' suffering does not exist in public discourses on rat eradication. I claim that to create an interspecies collective composed of populations in conflict it is necessary to consider ideas of animal liberation and reconstruct cultural codes concerning rats.
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In 1897, in Russia was carried out a national census, which covered the whole empire including Yakut region. There was collected the unique data on the population of the state. The materials of the population census allow a reconstruction of the socio-economic development of the region. For the first time, there was collected sufficient data on the indigenous population of Yakutia, about traditions, about the lifestyle, the changes taking place in this area.
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Marek Hendrykowski’s study deals with the semiotics of interpersonal proxemic relationships in today’s world. When analyzing this issue, the author puts forward three research hypotheses. First, interpersonal relationships that are connected with social space are not on the margins of systems of culture, but constitute a very important characteristic of each such system. Secondly, the traditional ways of defining proxemics, which emphasize the existence of interpersonal barriers, present the complex issues related to this field of science of signs and meanings too narrowly and usually in a schematic manner. And thirdly, the profound changes in proxemic relationships that are taking place in the macrosystem of contemporary culture have a major influence on the functioning of culture itself as well as on how individuals, groups and communities participate in this culture. When analyzed in terms of the proxemics of interpersonal relationships, the cultural ecosystem is not an abstract model but an operating system which governs the daily living conditions of individuals, groups and communities.
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This article examines Gobeklitepe, the first temple built in Minor Asia, dating back to Neolithic Period. This temple is one of the oldest temples of mankind, according to the archaeologists. Gobeklitepe provides us with crucial information about the religious beliefs of hunter-gatherers - lacking urban life and agricultural production. This temple shows us that archaic people did not lead a life away from religion and beliefs, instead it proved that they had beliefs and constructed temples to observe their beliefs and employed rich religious symbols. Gobeklitepe is a sign that people started to build a temple first to meet their religious needs, even before adapting a settled life, constructing houses, domesticating animals, and starting agricultural production. This article deals with Gobeklitepe, the first temple built in Minor Asia, dating back to Neolithic Period. The archaeological excavations, commenced in 1995 near Sanliurfa, have changed the way we view history, offering us to validate the information we have about history. Gobeklitepe showed that the information we have about the beliefs and views of archaic people does not reflect the realities. People, thought to have led their lives as hunter-gatherers, lacking religious and abstract thinking, even not knowing how to make pottery, not having discovered agriculture and settled life, have profoundly affected scientists with their ability to build sophisticated and symbolically rich temples. Summary: The most interesting components of Gobeklitepe temples, which are the twenty circular structures in total with the span of 10 to 30 meters, are the T-shaped stone pillars with embossed abstract symbols and animals’ pictures. In the centre of the circular structure are two pillars encircled by ten to twelve T-shaped pillars, making up to about two hundred in total. When these T-shaped pillars are analysed in detail, and when the religious beliefs and temple cults of the ancient Minor Asian and Mesopotamian civilizations are studied, we can see that these pillars symbolize gods. Gobeklitepe, encircled by the children and smaller gods, centred by a couple gods – god and goddess – is the sacred place for gods’ pantheon. Gobeklitepe, as well as being a temple, stands as the most important representative of a belief system waiting in the darkness. Gobeklitepe, dating back to the early days of Neolithic Period, when no written resources existed and limited archaeological data survived, shows us the world of belief and thoughts of archaic people from that period. The structural features and forms of this megalithic construction prove that archaic people were not that primitive, as commonly supposed.Gobeklitepe presents us very important information about the birth and progress of religion. It shows that the theories - based upon evolutionist and positivist views claiming that religions originated from simple and groundless ideas like wizardry, soul, fear and ancestor worshipping, and then were transformed into complicated and organised belief systems – do not reflect the truth. Researchers thought that religions were born as a result of the quest for the solution to the problems in the new societies - raised by the transition from hunter-gatherer societies to the settled life and agricultural production. In other words, organised religions were viewed as the product of and consequence of complex social life. However, Gobeklitepe showed that religious beliefs could be traced back to former periods, and they could be more advanced and organised as well despite the common belief.Gobeklitepe is claimed to be the oldest and first temple yet known. This megalithic structure, at least 5000 years older than known ancient temples, clearly indicates how significant and influential religious beliefs could be in the development of civilizations. Klaus Schmidt, leading the excavation for many tears, stated that human’s need to believe is highly important and also prioritized in their genes, by uttering these words, “… first temple was built, and then the city.” Gobeklitepe also indicated that human constructed impressive and complex buildings before their basic needs such as housing, agriculture and pottery, showing that these were induced by the strong sense of belief amidst archaic human communities. The need to worship engraved in human genes inspired man to build temples in the first place.We can see how rich and effective religious systems and realm of ideas represented in Gobeklitepe were, and thus influenced the Minor Asian and Mesopotamian civilizations which emerged in the same region at least 5000 years later. The structures of temples and religious ideas of latter peoples coincide with this megalithic structure. When shedding light to the less known parts of these civilisations, Gobeklitepe offers an unrivalled opportunity to the researchers.When this megalithic structure was unearthed, it resounded well and drew the scholars’ attention. This temple complex, about which much is said in visual and printed media, has been claimed to be the Gardens of Eden, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, a Shaman temple, or even the centre of aliens. As more information about Gobeklitepe was revealed in parallel to the archaeological excavations, it was shown that this place is a temple for rituals. The structural formation of Gobeklitepe showed in the first place that this place is definitely a temple. Not only its pillars in circular form but also its strategic location on a top hill away from the residential areas strengthened this idea. It will be more likely approach to state that Gobeklitepe is to be regarded as a sacred place where the hunter-gatherer communities worshipped, sacrificed animals for their gods, observed religious festivals and feasts at certain times of a year, and where these people experienced sacredness in a place in which gods resided. It is a great cultural and economic opportunity for our country that Gobeklitepe has always served a centre for beliefs throughout history and emerged in Urfa, formerly Edassa, known as the city of prophets. This megalithic construction, proving the cultural wealth and ancient mosaic of Anatolia, has been visited by many local and international researchers and scholars since it was unearthed. The first and the oldest temple in the scientific literature, Gobeklitepe is a temple complex inherited by the archaic communities to the contemporaries with mysteries going back to the dawn of man.
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The aim of the article is to increase awareness of conceptual metaphors and their role in reflecting emotional life. The article presents a systematic overview, based on the cognitive metaphor theory, of the images (metaphor, metonymy) used in Estonian to conceptualise emotions, also highlighting the use of hyperbole and absurdity. The most significant aspects in figurative descriptions are intensity, cyclic character, existence inside the experiencer, bodily changes, complicated controllability, coping, subjective suffering, usefulness. One of the main aims of the article is to highlight the diversity of cognitive projections about emotions, occurring in Estonian in a latent state, which enables the speakers to relate to emotions in different ways. The author argues that when describing feelings and emotions, many more aspects can be observed than just good and bad, which makes it possible to understand a phenomenon more diversely.
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Date: October 13-16, 2016
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The author considers transformation of the meaning and symbolism of the two state Russian holidays celebrated on February 23 and March 8. Besides gender theory, the author draws from the ideas of M. Bakhtin about the feast as an integral part of the culture, P. Bourdieu about symbolic politics and E. Hobsbawm about the invention of a new (and acceptable to the authorities) traditions. The holiday on February 23 was established in the Soviet era as the Day of Red Army’s Victory over the troops of Germany (1918). Interesting in this case is not the holiday itself, but the fact that it is based on the political myth about the victory of the revolutionary army over the external enemy. As recent research has shown, in reality the Red Army had no victories to speak of at the time. The invention of the legend of the Red Army’s Victory and the tradition of celebrating this day belongs personally to Stalin. In 2002 in Post-Soviet Russia the State Duma renamed the holiday on February 23 into the Day of the Fatherland’s Defender. In the political discourse this holiday is associated with the recognition of the “Great Russian Victories” and the with the men’s masculine roles as a warrior-defender-winner. Historically, March 8 is associated with the famous German communist and feminist Clara Zetkin who proposed to establish the “International women’s day for the rights of women” (1910). In pre-revolutionary Russia, the first International Women’s Day was celebrated in 1913, the next celebration of International Women’s Day was held on March 8, 1921 in memory of the women’s strike in Petrograd in 1917. After the 1917 revolution, the idea of an international women’s solidarity was eliminated thanks to the symbolic power politics. In modern Russia’s political and public discourse March 8 is considered “women’s holiday of spring and love”. Thus, this holiday has lost its original meaning of the struggle for gender equality and gained the opposite and very traditional value of a “feminine fest”. The author comes to the conclusion that these holidays are symbolic constructs with variable meanings. They are formed and supported by state institutions as they serve to provide suitable pictures of the past and present; they also serve to produce and reproduce traditional gender ideology and strengthen the dichotomy of gender roles. This is consistent with the declared policy of the authorities to return to traditional values.
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The folk men’s costume is composed of various items; the hat belongs to men’s head wear, together with the fur or woollen cap and the hood. The head coverings for women reflect the woman’s aesthetic sense and skill and we distinguish several types of pieces: very thin raw silk head-kerchief, kerchief,bonnet, headdresses. The objects present: dust deposits, dirt caused by the use of the items, loss of beads, loss of fabric and stains of unknown origin. The following treatments were made: dust removal, wet cleaning, filling the embroidery elements with beads.
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The author deals with the different relation towards the notion of chivalry within the contemporary context of the Sinjska Alka, a traditional game from the region of Sinjska krajina, which originates from the mediaeval chivalry tournaments and is in itself defined as being chivalrous. The first part is dedicated to the reconstruction of the events from the 286th Alka festivity, that is, their political context and different comprehension of the notion of chivalry the participants have shown, and it is mainly based on newspapers’ articles. This is followed by a part with the discussion of the basis on which the mediaeval institution of chivalry has been founded, and which stresses out the changed meaning of the chivalry and its values. Those are being compared to the ones that can be interpreted from the Statute of the Chivalry Alka Society. The last part talks about the intensification of the usage of the notion of chivalry in Croatia from the beginning of the 1990s war, about the development of its meaning within the context of the Sinjska Alka and about its manifest characteristics.
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Chinese myths and legends, as popular cultural products, may be subjected to the analytical methods of cultural studies, which is the approach this study adopts when investigating their complex relationship with Chinese society and history. In particular, the social and political criticisms embedded in these myths and legends are studied, and this is done through exploring the reasons for the prominence of the embedded criticisms in Chinese myths and legends, and sorting out the general trend of their development. The prominence is accounted for by the harsh censorship and the influence of the Chu spirit and Taoism on Chinese culture.1 In the development of these criticisms, four stages are marked, each (cor)responding to the historical circumstances and with its own distinct feature. The study concludes with the historicity of Chinese myths and legends; the criticisms are embedded in them and they, in turn, are embedded in Chinese society and history.
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This work is point outed importance of the linking of the Serbia and the Republic of Srpska in means of education and culture as the most efficiently instrument of the creation of the Serbian spiritual space. In that process a special role belong to the intellectuals of the Serbia and the Republic of Srpska. However disruption of the former Jugoslavija and civil war after that created three group of the intellectuals in Serbia who postured total different attitudes about the civil war in Yugoslavia, Republic of Srpska, Deyton agreement, special relationships between Republic Serbia and Republica of Srpsk, about Serbian spiritual space.
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There is a hierarchy of the senses, where the vision and hearing dominate, and smell is neglected. Language can be transcribed both visually and phonetically, however it cannot possess the aspect of smell. Similarly one can find many synonyms for "see" and "hear" but the amount for "smell" is more restricted. Additionally, there are social categories for persons with visual and hearing disabilities, but there is no social category for those who have difficulties with their sense of smell. In order to understand why smell is the neglected sense, the establishment of the hierarchy of the senses is analysed through Jacques Lacan's model of development of the psyche. It is argued that the exclusion of smell originates in the phases of development of the imaginary and symbolic psyche, where logic prevails to develop a strong connection of the senses, "to see", "to hear", and "to say", with the human psyche. By applying the Lacanian theory of the four discourses: the Master, the University, the Hysteric and the Analyst, the question of how perfume fits into a culture dominated by images and words is addressed. It is concluded that perfume, in a spontaneous fashion, strives to break down cultural bonds between images and words.
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Raksta mērķis ir atklāt jaunas iespējas starpdisciplinārajās studijās un apsvērt iespējamo humanitāro zinātņu pētnieku ieguldījumu apkārtējās vides aizstāvju un ekologu darbā, meklējot efektīvus risinājumus saistībā ar veselu biosfēru un ekosistēmu. Ekoloģija un literatūrzinātne uzsver procesu, izseko dažādām pārmaiņām vidē vai kultūras jomā, tādejādi ekokritikas ierosinājums neatdalīt dabu no kultūras šķiet pamatots un pieņemams. Galvenais ekokritikas mērķis ir "materializēt" maņas un pietuvināt vareno dabas jēdzienu. Iespējams, ka tas varētu tikt panākts ar tādu literāru tekstu palīdzību, kuri kalpotu īpašiem relaksācijas seansiem. Lasot šādus "ekoteks-tus", cilvēks pārdzīvotu noteiktas emocijas, kuras savukārt izraisītu konkrētas domas. Tādejādi sarežģītais priekšstats par ekosistēmu un visiem tās elementiem kļūtu saprotamāks.
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