Abstract Gender is essential to the organization of labor, especially among non-state societies. Cross-culturally, craft production is socially prescribed by gender; depending on the cultural group, either men or women dominate a particular craft’s production. This is true for pottery and textile-related crafts such as weaving and basketry. However, the production of cordage (synonymous with rope, string, twine, and yarn), the most basic unit in weaving, is typically not considered a craft product in and of itself in deference to the view that it is ‘merely’ raw material to produce other objects. Using the electronic Human Relations Area Files database, I here examine the evidence for gendered cordage production cross-culturally from ethnographic research over the last 150 years. Based on a sample of 120 cultural groups with data on plant—and animal—based cordage production, cordage production is a gendered task, with female-dominated production characterizing 57.5% of the sample. Only 12.5% of the groups surveyed document men as the producers of cordage. For 30% of the sample, when both men and women make cordage, they primarily do so using different technologies and raw materials or have different applications and end products in mind. Interpreting these data is challenging owing to uneven data quality and sample size, but despite these limitations, new questions about gendered cordage production suggest a need for renewed attention to cordage production both on its terms and concerning scholarship on gendered textile-related craft production.
Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) within the cultural tourism framework has opened up space for reconsideration of the ways in which living heritage, the tourist market, and target tourist groups are intertwined, and how their interaction affects the identity constructs of members of local communities. By including specific domains of living cultural practices in tourist offers, a kind of seesaw has emerged, with economic interests leading to the improved existence of practiced heritage on one side and the fact that ICH becomes a commodity primarily driven by the need of every tourist to literally experience heritage in the same way, becoming an exceedingly marketable commodity, on the other. The living tissue of tourism and ICH, in any case, represents one of the significant resources within which it is possible to realize UNESCO's guiding idea of heritage as a global point of encounter for different cultures. Both of these concepts are in constant processes of reconsidering what has been achieved and are attempting, through upcoming activities, to avoid dead ends and poorly implemented solutions.
Since the beginning of archaeology as a discipline, the control of time, or in other words the placement of specific phenomena in a certain time frame has represented the basis of all research. Despite criticism of the concept of time in archaeology as limitedand linear, it is still prevalent. Absolute dating methods, as they are becoming more precise and available, are being widely used to thepoint that, no matter the subject matter, there are practically no scholarly articles that do not present in detail the results of dating multiplesets of samples. Simultaneously, methods of relative dating are not losing significance, so typology still represent the mainmethodological procedure with which archaeological finds are culturally and chronologically identified. On the other hand, however,scientific questions of the past are becoming more complicated. Numerous processes (which can either be long-lasting or relatively short episodes) are inextricably linked with dating, but it is not always clear how it contributes to the complete understanding of saidprocesses. This is where processes of technological innovation and of cultural transmission, which, in addition to temporally, can be spatially limited, come to light. This is why it is important to question the nearlyuniversally received stance, according to which dating methods have interpretative potential and, relating to that, whether they are always crucial for understanding the mechanisms of cul- tural processes. In other words, do the results of dating represent an illusion of scientificity as a substitute for weakness in interpretation.
The article analyzes certain moments of life and mentality peculiarities of two outstanding sons of the Tatar people – Gaziz Gubaydullin and Galimjan Ibragimov, who have taken an important place in world historiography with their talent, scientific, literary and journalistic activities. Along with the analysis of individual creative achievements of the individuals under study, the main emphasis in the work is on examining the series of events associated with the socio-political and ethno-cultural realities of the 1920s–1930s. Moreover, the defining characteristic of the activities of the described people is the problem of their relevance, since it is this factor that serves as an attractive moment for studying their lives. The presented episodes of private life in the biography of the declared individuals, favourable or tragic occasions become significant and of particular interest in the light of the characteristics of the national mentality specifics of the Tatar political discourse.
Ethnology. Social and cultural anthropology, Folklore
The paper contains excerpts of a MA thesis that was defended in 1962 in Poland. Its author was an educator and a teacher in the State Educational Center for children-refugees in a town of Police. The thesis, which includes the problem of national awareness of Greek and Macedonian children and their mutual relations, constitutes an important source for research on children-refugees from the Greek Civil War in Europe.
In 1720, Don Diego Morcillo Rubio de Auñón, then archbishop of La Plata, was named viceroy of Perú for the second time, at the end of Prince Caracciolo’s term. During his last term as viceroy, Morcillo was elevated to the Metropolitan Archbishopric, thus holding both powers, religious and political. Several pamphlets were published accusing the Viceroy of severe irregularities, such as embezzlement, nepotism, greed, corruption, bribery, etc. Pedro de Peralta Barnuevo, a criollo intelectualclose to the viceregal power, wrote two texts defending him from his enemies: Templo de la Fama Vindicado ([1720] 1996), y Diálogo político. La Verdad y la Justicia ([1724] 1996). In this article, I analyze both of these texts and examine the rhetorical devices used in their double function: as defense of the viceregal authority, and as part of the rhetorical and performative position of the criollo intelectual under Bourbon power.
Ethnology. Social and cultural anthropology, Latin America. Spanish America
Uno de los personajes fundamentales del siglo XIX mexicano es Agustín de Iturbide. Pese a ello, ha sido olvidado en las conmemoraciones de la independencia debido a las difíciles circunstancias que enfrentó su efímero gobierno imperial . A lo largo de las décadas que siguieron a la consumación de la independencia las disputas políticas entre diversos proyectos de nación utilizaron a Iturbide como bandera de tendencias opuestas, hasta llegar al abierto enfrentamiento entre dos proyectos: liberalismo y conservadurismo. En este trabajo se hará un análisis de la figura de Iturbide en los textos de sus contemporáneos.
History (General), Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
The article focuses on the cult of the Virgin Mary in the village of Popovo, Pernik region, and the way that cult becomes a factor in maintaining the local memory of the community that experienced traumatic changes in Bulgaria at the beginning of the socialist period. The villages of Popovo and Krapets were displaced because of the intensive industrialization of the Pernik region in the early 50s of the twentieth century and the building of the Studena dam. The population was moved near the newly-built state-owned metallurgical plant named after V.I. Lenin (now Stomana Industry), where the building of the largest quarter of the town started. Access was prohibited to the villages and the settlers’ need to adapt to the new conditions resulted in looking for compensatory mechanisms in maintaining the community life and local memory of the two previous settlements. The building of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary Church in the new quarter named after Lenin (now Iztok) is perceived as a kind of continuation of the destroyed village churches, and its patron saint’s day is celebrated up to the very present by the previous inhabitants of Popovo and their descendants. The study is based on field research among the settlers from the two villages, as well as on observations on the restored village feast in Popovo after 1989, and on the celebrations of the Day of the Virgin Mary in the Iztok quarter of Pernik.
Political centers of power in societies often try through different forms of nationalism to regulate gender roles of individuals. In this sense, in the Republic of
Macedonia in the period 2006-2017, through various projects, the Government attempted to influence public notions on the role of women in the family and in the state. The representations are mainly in relation to the idea of increasing and strengthening the nation. At the center of this discourse is the “Macedonian” woman, who, by becoming a mother and giving birth to more children, will contribute to the nation’s growth.
In this study, the existing body of knowledge related to the mechanisms of cultural evolution is analyzed in view of the role of artefacts in cultural transmission. It is focused primarily on the vertical transmission without inter-personal contact. Particular attention is given to the comparison between unit of culture and artefacts as its material expression, as well as to the studies of analogy between replication in genetic transmission and cultural transmission. It is found that retrieving cultural information from an artefact in absence of original transmitter still shows the principal characteristics of cultural transmission. This type of cultural transmission is of lower fidelity than synchronic transmission with inter-personal contact, since it relies on an artefact as a transmission medium, but can provide for cultural persistence and lay ground for adaptive modifications over time.
Annamaria Cacchione, Giancarla Carboni, Flavia Mangoni
et al.
L’articolo parte dalla considerazione che l’italiano contemporaneo contiene una serie di espressioni provenienti da film cult italiani degli anni ’70.’80 e ’90, comunemente usate sia nel parlato che nello scritto – ad esempio giornalistico. E’ importante che gli apprendenti intermedi e avanzati di italiano L2 ne conoscano il significato ed imparino ad usarle. Per questo, viene proposta la creazione di un’antologia online di film didattizzati per l’insegnamento/apprendimento. L’articolo propone, come base di partenza, espressioni tratte da Amici Miei, film di Verdone e Benigni, dalla saga di Fantozzi e da due film di Moretti.
Ethnology. Social and cultural anthropology, Communication. Mass media
This paper deals with the issue of the function and meaning of eating for the members of the Hare Krishna movement and follows the question what cultural specifics of eating are significant for this movement. In this paper there are also presented topics such as symbolism of food, the principles of sacrifices which are related to the principles of purity, eating habits, sacredness of cows or food sovereignty.
When doing cultural history research, the researcher can come across already established opinions of what the history is in a field. Aitologies, lists of heroes and masters, turning point anecdotes and written histories are present as more or less taken for granted within a community. This is a convenient starting-point and background material for a researcher, but can also hide more than it shows by confirming contemporary definitions, power relations, inclusions and exclusions. As an example, I analyse tendencies within Swedish Jazz History by going through interviews made at the Centre for Swedish Folk Music and Jazz Research. A conventional attitude would be to accept the collection as fairly representative: the most important musicians have been interviewed and there is a good sample across different decades. However, in a reading “against the grain” by the use of Katherine Galloway Young’s concepts of Taleworld, storyrealm and interview situation, the interviews stand forward as negotiations of what jazz styles, what musicians and what qualities should be included in the Swedish jazz field and what is to be left out. In this case, foreign born musicians and women musicians are marginalized in Swedish jazz history, as well as styles that can seem to be too commercial. The musicians chosen are either stars, or witnesses to the stars. Working against the grain of the emic Swedish Jazz history is to problematize what has been outdefined and how, to ask counterfactual questions on what could have happened if other discourses had dominated, and reflect on new questions to ask, new definitions of the research object, and the need for new and/or revised documentation.
Inspiration derived from ancient Egypt is usually expressed through the Egyptian motifs in arts and popular culture of the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as through the non-scientific interpretations of the culture, very much based upon the Renaissance ones. The number and variety of material and non-material traces of this fascination are most expressed in the countries where, along with the early support for the institutional development of Egyptology, there existed economically potent educated middle classes (Western and Central Europe, USA), but may also be traced elsewhere. The public fascination by ancient Egypt has not ceased by the times of foundation of Egyptology, marked by the decipherment of the hieroglyphic script in 1822. Until the end of the 20th century Egyptologists have rarely dealt with the prelude to their discipline, limiting their interest to the critical approach to ancient sources and to noting the attempts to interpret the hieroglyphic script and the function of pyramids. However, the rising importance of the reception studies in other disciplines raised the interest of Egyptologists for the “fascination of Egypt”, thus changing the status of various modes of expressing “Egyptomania” – they have thus become a part of the cultural heritage, registered, documented, preserved and studied. The research of this kind is only beginning in Serbia. The line of inquiry enhances the knowledge of the scope, manifestations and roles of the interest in Egypt, not limited by the national or political borders. On the other hand, the existence of the cultural heritage similar to the wider European view of ancient Egypt – short remarks by Jerotej Račanin, “Kandor” by Atanasije Stojković, the usage of architectural motifs derived from Egypt, the emergence of small private collections, to mention several early examples – all show that the research into the reception of ancient Egypt may contribute to the knowledge about the history and understanding of the complexity of the cultural life of Serbia.