Od ordenja do simbola identiteta. Izložba o istarskom suveniru u Etnografskom muzeju Istre u Pazinu
Review of: "Od ordenja do simbola identiteta. Izložba o istarskom suveniru u Etnografskom muzeju Istre u Pazinu", by: Ivana Polonijo
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Review of: "Od ordenja do simbola identiteta. Izložba o istarskom suveniru u Etnografskom muzeju Istre u Pazinu", by: Ivana Polonijo
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Author deals with the problem of constructing national identity based on work of Jasna Čapo about researching of ethnic identity. He trays to speculate about ethnic and national values through three elements: constitution law, values in elections and value research in Belgium and Croatia.
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Particularly interesting from the point of view of culture studies is the situation of Kurds in post-Soviet Transcaucasia. Their original ethnic and religious composition was far from homogeneous. In Armenia, most of the Kurdish-speaking settlers in the early 19th century were Yezidis, who fled from persecution at the hands of their Muslim compatriots and the Turkish administration. Nevertheless, the Russian administration in Transcaucasia regarded them for generations as Kurds. Side by side with them, there also lived - among the Transcaucasian Azerbaijani population - Kurdish refugees of the Muslim faith. Under the Soviet rule, the Armenian Kurds enjoyed considerable cultural freedom, although at times they too fell victim to repression. In Azerbaijan, on the other hand, they were subjected to a policy of forced assimilation into the Turkish-speaking Azerbaijani population. Currently, an idea is being formed among the Kurdish-speaking Transcaucasian Yezidis to establish a non-Kurdish, religious ethnic community of their own, in opposition to Islam. Muslim Kurds in Transcaucasia, in their turn, demand the re-establishment of the Kurdish Autonomous Region, dissolved by Stalin.
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African traditional religions determine the identity of particular peoples and play a very important role in their life. The theoretical dimension of each religion reflected in the system of beliefs (doctrine) is supplemented by the religious rituals that facilitate communication between man and a sacred transcendental reality. Everywhere, human beings have a fundamental need to dramatize or celebrate their experiences or expectations through symbolic actions, that is rituals. Through symbolic words, gestures and actions traditions, norms and values controlling the human behavior (the social and moral order) are transferred and emotional desires, feelings and sentiments are expressed. This what is religion for culture is ritual for religion.
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After signing of the Brussels Agreement (April, 2013) and the beginning of the more rapid giving away of the national territory`s 15% without resistance, the government in Belgrade is facing issues raised by the public: Is the Republic of Srpska next part of the national corps that is going to be systematically renounced of, for the sake of shady promises by the West to join the European Union? Geopolitical relations in which the entire process is taking place suggest new perception of “Serbian question`s” solving. In Serbian national discourse a standing point has occurred that radicalises the public opinion additionally – national betrayal. That puts the government and the public opinion in front of a dilemma: more authoraitarianism or more rapid disorganization.
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In difficult and challenging political, economic and cultural circumstances of the present time, altruism and solidarity among people are being challenged, and troubles caused by the material and existential uncertainty often result in the insistence on one’s own particularity only, “I” imposes itself as the highest principle and the greatest good, without consideration (or harm) to another man, to a part of a community, or to the community as a whole. Modern man has accepted and internalised ruthlessness as a method used to realise one’s own interests, while extreme individualism and the concept of civil society favour and nourish such characteristics among mankind. This is when the general, national interest becomes fiction; view to the collective destiny becomes blurred due to narrow and selfish ambitions of individuals. In this paper we aim at the reactualisation of the problem of “commonalty” (“rajetinski”) mentality among Serbian people, especially among its mercenary intellectuals, as evidenced by numerous authors, from Slobodan Jovanović, Vladimir Velmar-Janković, Vladimir Dvorniković, to Mile Lompar, Đuro Šušnjić and Dobrica Ćosić. This ethnopsychological characteristics, according to Jovan Cvijić, was shaped under specific socio-political, historical and cultural circumstances and conditions, among helpless Orthodox population that was subjected to terror for centuries. Because of the incessant struggle to maintain bare survival, surrounded by suffering and fears, the servile mentality of submissive and dispirited people has developed, with distinct characteristics of insidiousness, humility, fatalism, moral mimicry, pragmatism, deceit and egoism. Have these characteristics radicalised among younger generations in the meantime, and to what extent?
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Work starting from the conceptual distinction of identity (such as diversity) and personality (as otherness), is trying to explain the dynamism of modern society by the phenomenon of producing identity as an instrument of social control. While the identity forms an organizational basis of each order, the personality by its autonomy forms a subversive political resources on a global scale. Hence, strategies, policies and models of identity as segments of social identity protection, want to break up personality and to substitute it with identity.
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A deeper understanding of what civil societies and NGO’s are, and what they offer for the communities in which they are active, will help establish a starting point. Moving further we can attempt to identify the main ways in which they act to achieve their objectives and then apply our analysis to a few examples of NGO’s involved in the refugee crisis at the moment. In the context of a refugee crisis that puts pressure on local governments to act in managing a large influx of migrants pass through its borders, as is the case of countries such as Turkey, Serbia, Greece, Hungary or Austria, local NGO’s can face an especially strong pressure to put together a proper response in due time.
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Along with innumerable attempts to define the paradigmatic changes at the turn of the 20th/21st centuries, it is worth considering the concept off-modernity, proposed by the culture researcher Svetlana Boym who mentions the essential signs of the age: nostalgia, a search for identity in the ruins of modernity and understanding of the footprints left by the influence of time and various contingencies. The concept of off-modernity allows us to pay attention to such phenomena as the so-called identity of error, nostalgia, ruins or migrant. The paper explores the possibilities of the formation of these identity modes in Western European cultural space at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of 21st century. The paper also deals with the case of Latvia in the context of the formation of post-Soviet identity. By making use of the view point of the theory of off-modernity proposed by Boym, the paper evaluates the models of interpretation of past experience for the purposes of self-definition today with an aim to create a framework for analysis of various actual social-political and cultural conflicts in the Western world.
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The article provides an overview of the design of identities, predominantly based on the level of the individual. The purpose of this article was to identify the ethnic identity of informants, using the aspect of language choices as an instrument of linguistic identity, as well as to look at the causes of linguistic identity choices, the functions of ethnic identity from the point of view of the informant and the reasons for changing the identity over time or for consciously changing or maintaining it. It is well known that in today's world of ever-weakening national borders, multiculturalism and multilingualism are a common phenomenon. There have been no arguments for a long time over whether one has to learn several languages, or any doubts whether we should be even a little bit familiar with the culture of people from other nationalities living next to us. At the same time, multiculturalism brings along challenges and sometimes also tensions (Muldma, 2009). Self-determination, or identity, can mean all aspects of oneself, such as appearance, personality, abilities, gender, and ethnic groups. In the case of ethnic identity, it has been observed along with growing, the perceptions of children change over time. Awareness of one's nationality develops with awareness of others (Smith et al., 2008, p. 195). People's attitudes and values are largely developed in childhood, and we need time to get adjusted to everything new, all changes need internal management of the person – and some major changes need the intervention of the society. The method used to conduct the research was written interviews.
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What determines that we feel connected with certain places and attached to them, that we care for them and express warm feelings of belonging even when living far away from them for a long time? The answers to these questions inevitably lead to the fundamental issue of personal identity. The present article analyses one of the aspects of the place identity phenomenon, namely, the dynamics of the relationship of self-perception of Lithuanians with certain places. For this purpose, the latest data from the European Values Survey, completed at the end of 2017, and the data of previous waves of this survey are employed. They reveal that Lithuanians give priority to local areas (first of all, to their own city, to Lithuania, and somewhat less to their own region), meanwhile their identification with Europe and the whole world is not so strong. However, the empirical data confirm the theoretical assumption that local and global self-awareness cannot be opposed: the comparison of the strength of place identities in different socio-demographic groups and among respondents with different value orientations has shown that the boundaries of places important for a person’s self-awareness are intertwined in a very complex way.
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The article is devoted to Plato’s Alcibiades I and explores its main question: what is your proper self? The author pays special attention to the concept of “ayto to ayto”, which he takes to mean “selfhood”. This concept is analyzed as the first fundamental philosophical form of understanding of human identity, which Plato viewed as a soul. Plato fundamentally distinguishes essence of a person (ayto to ayto) from things that belong to a person, the attributes of human being (such as his body and material property). The author explores the Platonic understanding of human identity in the context of ancient ontology and anthropology, which includes an analysis of the relationship of a single person and universal being, authentic and inauthentic Ego, the soul (mind) and the body, the significance of “care about self” (epimeilea heautou) and “cognition of self” (gnothi seautou), etc. The concept of Plato represents the first experience of comprehending the human identity ("ayto to ayto" as soul) which appears as impersonal subject and media Being, but realized in perspective of self-correlation "care of self" and "cognition of self" by particular man.
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The commemorative practices relating to the anniversary dates of the Tatar poet Gabdulla Tuqay (from 1918 to 2016) have been discussed. The commemorative meetings and celebrations, as well as building of monuments to G. Tuqay and a tombstone on his grave, and opening of museums have been considered as commemorative practices. The development of the image of the Tatar national poet during the 20th – 21st centuries has been also analyzed. The paper touches upon the collective memory and national identity of the Tatars. The relevance of the study is determined by the fact that the problem of anniversary commemoration has been little investigated, and there are not enough works on the cultural and historical memory of the Tatars. The image and works of G. Tuqay have been thoroughly studied by philologists, literary critics, historians, but the problem of anniversary commemoration of the poet has been raised for the first time. The paper is based on the methodology of studies on commemoration. The terms were introduced by Jan and Aleida Assmann and Pierre Nora. Since the phenomenon of commemoration represents an interdisciplinary field, various methods have been used to analyze the texts and visual sources. The paper cites a number of examples proving that the period of transition from the communicative to cultural memory becomes shorter under the conditions of the cultural change and events of the 1920s–1930s that took place in the Soviet Union. This conclusion is proved by the following facts: firstly, state holidays were arranged in honor of G. Tuqay starting from 1938; secondly, the celebrations of G. Tuqay’s birth (distant event) dominated over the commemoration of death (close event) since 1946; thirdly, the ritualization of commemorative practices and the mythologization of G. Tuqay’s image as a characteristic feature of the cultural memory can be noted; fourthly, the bearers of memories (communicative memory) turned out to be replaced by the experts keeping them (philologists, historians, literary scholars). Based on the results of the study, the conclusion has been made that we can trace coolness/consolidation of the collective memory through anniversary and monumental commemoration. The myth of G. Tuqay as of a national poet has occurred and established along with the commemorative practices, thereby determining the vision of the past and group consolidation. The results obtained are important for further studies of anniversary commemoration.
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Juliusz Słowacki is considered to be the master of the Polish drama. During the forty years of his short life, he had witnessed many significant historical events that he reflected in his verse novels. His three-act work called Kordian has gained an important place in Polish literature of the Romantic period. The drama, in which the rule of three unities is ignored and the realistic events intertwine with the surrealistic ones, takes its name from the main character called Kordian as well. Act 1 tells about Kordian’s love affair. It turns out to be an unrequited love, which leads the protagonist to a failed suicide attempt. In Act 2, he travels across Europe. This particular journey should be seen from the perspective of the fact that no one in Europe was interested in the fate of Poles forced to live in servitude. Following his successive disappointments, the main character goes through a change at the peak of Mont Blanc and becomes an entirely new Kordian. As it can be seen in most of the works of that period in Polish literature, Kordian turns to be a character putting the independence of his nation above all. Thus, fighting against the enemy becomes his passion afterwards. The reason is that the aim of the Romantic ideology in Poland was to preserve the national values. As a consequence, in Act 3 Kordian joins a group organising an assassination attempt on the tsar. In this paper, Kordian’s personality, his change and fight against the Russian tsar will be examined within the characteristics of literature of the period. Also, the Polish and the Latin meaning of the protagonist’s name will be analysed.
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Between October 2012 and September 2015, the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Zemaljski muzej Bosne i Hercegovine) closed its doors to visitors and ceased all the research and conservation activities it had performed for nearly a century. The Museum had survived many tumultuous periods— the most recent one having been the three-year siege of Sarajevo (1992–1995); nevertheless, it was unable to cope with what followed—the absence of appropriate cultural policies that would enable it to perform its primary function as a cultural institution of national relevance. Rather than considering one particular form of cultural production here, I would like to draw attention to the problem of consensus in regard to cultural valorization, and it’s financing, in post-conflict and post-socialist contexts, as is the case with Bosnia and Herzegovina. The National Museum provides an interesting case of the intersection between the formation of new class distinctions in Pierre Bourdieu’s terms, the shifts in the understanding and valorization of cultural heritage under various political and economic systems, and the place of culture in post-conflict contexts of competing identities and powers.
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This study starts from a definite stand against the threats to national and local cultures (exluding Western culture). These threats are the results of the historical transformation which is called ‘globalisation’ which we are currently experiencing. What I call ‘the threat of standardization’ can be explained as placing all different cultures under the hegemony of Western culture and trying to assimilate them. The cultures which do not take part in this face threats from the western culture that is expressed by the terms ‘the Clashes of Civilisation’, in particular, or what Hantington calls ‘green enemy’ or the ‘Islamic Threat’. Another threat is the disintegration into small pieces. This threat can be seen in two ways: First, attacks to the great cultural identity that unites all; second, revitalisation of small ethnic-sectarian identities. All these happen within the context of cultural interactions that arise in different forms. This study will concentrate on two points: The main elements of the concepts of ‘national culture’ and ‘national identity’ and the possible changes that may take place in them; ‘cultural interaction’, its kinds and the mechanism of its actualisation.
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This text investigates essential relation between national identity and cultural identity, sheding the light on its various aspects. At the first sight national and cultural identity seem as opposite categories, mutually excluding. On the other hand, more detailed analysis shows this phenomenon as front and back side of the same value. In this context author puts an emphasis on the role and importance of personal taste and national taste as indicators of cultural conditions in certain society.
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The review of: Zbornik radova «Identitet.Sloboda», Klub studenata filozofije Gerusija, Novi Sad 2006.
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The history of Serb society is a history of discontinuity, which makes defining the structure that determines collectivity difficult. The mentality of the Serb people and its mental characteristics are the product of several factors. The most impressive is the discrepancy between the pagan heritage and Christian civilization. This has resulted in the so-called dichotomy of conscience, which is manifested in the dual morality and lack of the unity of intention, which in times of crises and historical changes, could serve as a guiding-line for the majority of the nation.
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