![Николай Ненов /Съст./, Бета Хараланова, Татяна Щерева. Страдание и спасение. Паметта на еврейските общности в Русе, Шумен и Варна. Русе, 2015](/api/image/getissuecoverimage?id=picture_2016_28297.jpg)
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In the last decades, despite some pessimistic prognoses, shamanism is experiencingrevival. In the course of this process, shamans are adapting their practices to theclients’ expectations and new profile; as a result their own traditional view of theБългарска етнология, world is undergoing significant changes. One of the newly-emerged features ofcontemporary shamanism in Buryatia is dividing the inhabitants of the sacred worldinto „prestigious“ and „non-prestigious“ and offering them gifts corresponding tothis new status, all this with the active participation of the shamans themselves. Thearticle presents such practice which the author observed and assumes that there is alsoa process of transmission of respective ideals and values in the sphere of the sacredworld.
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The Areca nut is one of the products found in South Asia, Southeast Asia, andSouthern China. In China, being an exotic product that can be grown only in tropicalclimate, the Areca nut used to be highly appreciated and considered as a precious giftamongst the nobles in the past, especially during the Tang and Song dynasties. Whilein Vietnam, throughout its history, the Areca nut, because of its inherent spiritualvalue, has been an indispensable object of sacrifice in Vietnamese ancestral worshipas well as their lifetime rituals such as weddings, funerals and during childbirth. Apartfrom being an essential offering in rituals and ceremonies, the Areca nut traditionallywas also a means of mobilizing Vietnamese people’s social interactions (includingcourting between young boys and young girls).After doing a short description on how the Areca nut was used as a gift and as asacrificial object respectively in China in the past and in Southeast Asia, this article,from a historical point of view and with the author’s first hand materials from herfieldwork in Vietnam, attempts to show and explain both why and how the Arecanut has been functioning as a core indispensable object in sacrifices as well as ritualsand also as a means of social interaction in Vietnam. Thus, the article emphasizesthe important role that the Areca nut plays in Vietnamese people’s spiritual life andculture.
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The article analyses the process of choosing different strategies of identification bythe Bulgarians in Ukraine. The present state of the “identification processes” againstthe background of the “war of memory” and the “invented traditions” places themamong the priority problems of science and politics.The subject of analysis are the specifics of the formation of collective memorywhich are at the root of the choice of identification strategy: commemorative practices,mechanisms for memorialization of the past, the correlation between the localgroup history and the national strategies of Bulgaria and Ukraine. The conclusionis that the choice of identification behaviour is influenced by the efficiency of thesocial adaptation under the specific historical circumstances. The social resources atdisposal of the group in any particular moment influence the choice of vectors of thecollective memory and predetermine the formation of defensive practices aiming topreserve the group.
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According to Wahrig Deustsches Woerterbuch the concept of the “road” refers to a place which you have to walk in order to obtain your wish, to change some life situation in a positive or negative way; there the desired result of the act is achieved. Therefore, in our traditional culture the road is the place where people most often perform all sorts of magical actions including “white” and “black” magic. The crossroad has the same meaning; in a sense, it outlines the model of the horizontal division of the world which finds expression in four main directions – east, west, north, south. The article shows some of the most common “white” magical actions which aim at positive results – mostly various healing practices against diseases such as “gorska mayka” and “vankashna bolest” as well as customs dedicated to the mythical master-guardian of the village such as “Kokosha cherkva” and customs against drought. The article also examines some “black” magical actions aiming at doing harm: “binding” of newlyweds, stealing the milk of somebody else’s cows.
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The paper examines different forms and intensity of censorship in culture in socialist Serbia and Yugoslavia. Since Yugoslavia was a country that tried to promote a third path between the Western capitalist and Eastern real-socialist social models from the mid-1950s, censorship had to be more subtle in culture and had some peculiarities, unwritten and often not very, well-defined rules.
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This article aims to show that Herta Müller's life is depicted as one of perpetual uprooting and to portrait elements in her novels where the writer deals with major universal themes, connected to the topic of exile and fundamental to understanding the turbulent 20th century in Europe. Her denunciation of the horrors of totalitarianism, against which she opposes a cry for freedom and against oblivion, stands out for its capacity for reflection, its originality and its poetic sensitivity, in such a way that it manages to traverse this arid terrain with original images of great beauty.Herta Müller in exile, the claw in the heart
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This study analyses the relationship between failure and success from two perspectives: creative psychology and sociology of creation. By starting from Angelo Mitchievici’s recent book, “Farmecul vieților distruse. Câteva reflecții despre ratare” [The Charm of Failed Lives] (2022), which explores one of the favorite themes of decadent literature and art (failure), I aim to highlight the most relevant existential postures in a writer’s life: the anti-bourgeois aristocratic posture (the dandy) and the proletarian-democratic posture (the bohemian). It is not by chance that Mitchievici dwells on the works the Romanian-French writer Emil Cioran, who tried to build an image of a secluded writer, close to anonymity, avoiding to cultivate both the bohemian and the dandy style, by adopting a lifestyle shaped by the cult of work and discipline, in the spirit of the Protestant ethics theorized by Max Weber. Mitchievici explains very convincingly how, once he emigrated to Paris, Cioran completely abandoned the Romanian language, in which he was convinced he was failing as a writer, in order to devote himself exclusively to writing in French, with the idea of conquering global glory. In addition to Cioran, the authors in focus are Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Shakespeare, Voltaire, Flaubert, Dino Buzzatti, Mihail Sadoveanu, Mircea Cărtărescu, etc., which provides the critic with the opportunity to reconnect with his former books (e.g. “Decadență și decadentism în contextul modernității românești și europene”, 2011) and to show a refined and mature essayist’s vein.
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The author’s thesis in the article is that the process of state capture by the United Right is of a different nature than the actions undertaken by the political parties in power before 2015. A project of a illiberal counter-revolution is being implemented in a planned and consistent manner. The rejection of liberal democratic values involves the replacement of political and intellectual elites and attempts to impose and make dominant, with the support of institutions and resources at the disposal of the state, traditional values.
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Universities can offer their master’s students who want to improve their language skills different learning environments. They can range from traditional classes to online programmes equivalent to an on-campus experience or reaching beyond it. Learning technical English through a curriculum that is inspiring and stimulating due to authentic materials used in a gamified setting can result in positive learning outcomes and increased satisfaction levels among lecturers and students. The former can find new challenges helping prevent burnout, the latter have the chance to develop hard and soft skills, including analytical, reflective and critical thinking, through context-specific language. Interactions structured around online activities which involve searching for information in authentic resources and completing activities that allow for progress to the next level can effectively prepare students for challenges they will encounter in their professional life. They can also capture imagination and unlock the creative potential of the educators involved in their development and of participants bored with school routine and textbooks. Thus, a gamified language course for specific purposes can become a highly motivating environment, in which young people develop their creativity, language proficiency and knowledge of technological advances not only in the fields of their interest; they are also exposed to new learning practices due to the application of game-design elements. The ideas presented above will be supported by students’ opinions and attitudes expressed during a pilot Moodle course in a gamified format conducted at Gdansk University of Technology in the summer semester of 2021/2022.
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The article is a critical reflection on the situation that European museums of art were confronted with in 2022 on the acts of activism on art museums paintings. Following the act of the Just stop oil girls in London October 2022 the world started talking on the topic of „vandalism on art” and „activism in museums”. The article has 3 parts, first with describing facts, a short view of the situation, second with an art historian’s critical views and analyses of then and third with the activist views on the problem. All the reflections are adapted to the Romanian context, so the article both describes the context and gives some opinions on the present situation.
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Documentation and specialized articles are among the main means of improving stylistic classifications of the works belonging to an art museum’s heritage. A museum’s heritage is also dynamic, although most museums have a well-developed collection of works dating from before the 1990s. As the heritage is enriched, it must also be documented, and volumes of monographs on lesser-known artists are very useful in this process. This is also the case of the volume entitled „The Bednarik Family in Romanian Art” which is the subject of this review. Following the personal and professional career of the members of this family of artists, the Bednarik family monograph is a valuable document for the history of art in our country and a useful tool for specialists in art museums.
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The present study focuses on the relationship of the Bulgarians in Bessarabia with Bulgaria. These relations of the Diaspora with the metropolis are examined in the text through the prism of a museum object: a Gospel from the collection of the Regional Archaeological Museum – Plovdiv. The authors focus the analysis on museology as a methodology. Some approaches to the study and interpretation of the facts from Bulgarian and foreign authors with extensive experience in the study of museum objects and collections are also examined. In general, the study offers a detailed analysis of the informational potential of a museum object in order to trace the relationship of the Bulgarians from the village of Banovka in Bessarabia (today located in Odesa Region – Ukraine) with their compatriots in the village of Chehlare, Plovdiv region during the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 21st century.
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This article is about philosophy as a path, leading man, a civilised being, to re-establish communication with what Gilles Deleuze calls “primordial nature.” This foundational phenomenon, being the primary reservoir of life energy, underpins the existence of the human civilised world. However, by the same token, this phenomenon, since exempt from conditioning and subject to no restrictions or constraints, can disrupt the functioning of this world. Thus, disengagement from primordial nature is the fundamental purpose of the existence of civilization. Unfortunately, its development over time excessively diminishes that connection, deepening alienation, frustration and aggression in social life. I will undertake to demonstrate that the practice of philosophy can be one of the basic ways of coping with that inevitable civilisational impasse.
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