Creation of a Satisfactory Culture. Traits of the Development of Archeoastronomy in the Soviet Era

Rahuldava kultuuri loomine. Arheoastronoomia arengujooned nõukogude ajal

Author(s): Mare Kõiva / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 30/2005

Archeoastronomical field work and research conincided in the 1960s-1990s with the national awakening movement and helped construct a satisfactory history and national identity within the Soviet system. Myths, folklore and mythological motifs were related by people to ancient sky picture and time reconing, the calendar, timekeeping system; holy sites, rock paintings were studied, the symbols and markings were decoded. Art and documentaries on the topic became very powerful media influencing mentality and culture also outside Estonia. Central to the movement were charismatic persons. Research interdisciplinary in its nature was conducted outside of institutions, allowing for liberal choice of topics, interpretations and methods.

The Development of Children's Knowledge: The Sky, the Earth and the Sun in Children's Explanations

Laste teadmiste areng. Taevas, Maa ja Päike laste seletustes

Author(s): Eve Kikas / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 30/2005

The paper analyses the development of knowledge in children and the problems children face in the process of constructing this knowledge. The results of the empirical studies, carried out on Estonian preschool and school children are described and the reasons for difficulties analysed. Knowledge about the world is mediated by senses and by various mental and material tools. Infants rely on perceptual information, but, additionally, certain perceptual and conceptual structures (beliefs) help them to interpret and integrate pieces of this information. When children grow older, their learning about the world will be increasingly based on language. Children synthesise information from different sources and form their own interpretations and models. Vosniadou and her colleagues have studied astronomical concepts among children of different age and cultures using interviews and drawings. They have shown that children first construct initial models (e.g. flat disc or quadrangle model of the earth) and afterwards synthetic models (dual, flattened and hollow earth models). Similar models have been found while studying Estonian children (e.g. in their drawings). However, in studies carried out in Estonia, these integrated models were found in the minority of children. The articles present examples which illustrate children's difficulties in understanding the earth as a planet. It is even more difficult for children and adults to understand the reasons for seasonal changes. Several factors influence the changes of temperature: these are taught at school as separate subjects; also, diagrams, which interpretation is not taught to students, also inhibit understanding. A wide-spread explanation behind seasonal changes is `the distance theory', which states that the temperature in summer and winter differs because the distance between the earth and the sun is different during these seasons. The schoolchildren's difficulties in explaining the reasons for seasonal changes are illustrated with examples from interviews and discussions.

The Commune of Thousand Islands on the Land of Thousand Lakes: Åland Impressions

Tuhandete saarte lään tuhande järve maal. Ahvenamaa impressioonid

Author(s): Ülli Tõnissoo / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 30/2005

Åland is an island commune of Finland in the middle of the Baltic Sea. The tourist industry makes use of the unique history and nature of the region to attract numerous tourists and thus tourism is the most profitable branch of economy in the area. Next to other tourist sights, the area is famous for historical festivities, such as the Gustav Vasa Days held each summer near the castle of Kastelholm. With its natural surrounding and performances the event is a powerful tourist magnet. The "island state" is filled with history and most tourist events are the staged reflections of older or more recent events.

Taive Särg Defended Her PhD Thesis on the Relation of Prosody and Text in Estonian Kalevala-Metric Songs

Taive Särg kaitses doktoritöö regivärsi teksti ja viisi seostest

Author(s): Žanna Pärtlas / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 30/2005

Introduction of ethnomusicologist Taive Särg's PhD thesis Eesti keele prosoodia ning teksti ja viisi seosed regilaulus [Estonian Prosody and Words/Music Relationships in Estonian Old Folk Songs] defended in June 2005 at the University of Tartu by Žanna Pärtlas.

On Supreme Sky God from the Aspect of Religious History and in Prehistoric Estonian Material

Taevasest üliolendist usundilooliselt ja muinaseesti aineses

Author(s): Tarmo Kulmar / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 30/2005

According to basic religious-phenomenological principles a supreme being resides in heaven or is the heaven, an omnipotent creator, who is often assigned the function of thunder, is called either Father or Grandfather, is sacrificed the primal offering, and has turned into deus otiosus. Comparative linguistics has revealed that the earliest conception of a Balto-Finnic and Estonian supreme god dates back to the Finno-Volgaic etymological stratum, to the Neolithic period (3rd millennium BC), in archaeological terms. This is evidenced by the Estonian word juma(l) [face?/god], which had formerly signified heaven, but also the Indo-European loan taevas [heaven] in the Estonian language. The divergence of the conception of thunder god Uku or Ukko apparently took place in the 1st millennium BC; this is also indicated by archaeological data. According to the 13th-century Henrici Chronicon Livoniae and other chronicles the thunder god of the coastal Estonians has also been called Taara or Tooru, which may be a derivation of the Old Scandinavian Thor.

PhD Thesis on the Stereotypy of Estonian Kalevala-Metric Folk Songs on the Example of Kodavere Parish

Väitekiri regilaulustereotüüpiast Kodavere näitel

Author(s): Kristi Salve / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 30/2005

Folklorist Liina Saarlo's PhD thesis entitled Eesti rahvalaulude stereotüüpiast: Teooria, meetod ja tähendus [The Stereotypy of Estonian Runo Songs: Theory, Method and Meaning], defended in 2005 at the University of Tartu, is introduced by Kristi Salve.

On the Context of Time and Space of Moon-related Beliefs

Kuu-uskumuste aegruumilisest kontekstist

Author(s): Jaak Jaaniste / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 30/2005

The article explores the laws in the seeming movement of the moon and which aspects of this need special consideration while interpreting ethnoastronomy. The examples used refer to the Estonian geographical latitude 58-60 degrees north. The classical worldview originates mainly from the area of 40 degrees latitude. If we consider the three main economic regions of the world - Europe, the USA and Japan-China - all these remain roughly on the latitude of the Mediterranean region. Since most science and pedagogical theories originate in these regions, the one-sidedness of textbooks is quite understandable. There are no long-term changes in the movement of the moon. The precession of the orbit (the node shift) and the repetition of eclipses (the Saros) fall into a cycle of less than 20 years. Secular changes (such as the precession of the axis of the earth) do not influence the seeming movement of the moon. On greater latitudes (55 to 70 degrees) the moon's axis is usually perpendicular to the horizon. Thus, the full moon is always seen in the same position and figures seen on its surface should be stabile. The uniqueness of northern folklore, its astronomical aspects included, has enchanted researchers for more than a century.

"Looking at the Past": How to Study Family Narratives?

"Pilk minevikku": kuidas uurida perepärimust?

Author(s): Tiiu Jaago / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 30/2005

Overview of Finnish folklorist Pauliina Latvala's PhD thesis Katse menneisyyteen: Folkloristinen tutkimus suvun muistitiedosta [A Glimpse into the Past. A Folkloristic Investigation into Oral History of the Family] defended on June 10, 2005 at the University of Helsinki by Tiiu Jaago.

William Whiston, the Universal Deluge, and a Terrible Spectacle

William Whiston, suur veeuputus ja kohutav spektaakel

Author(s): Roomet Jakapi / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 30/2005

William Whiston (1667-1752) was an English divine, mathematician and astronomer. His works nicely reveal the close relationship between science and religion in the early modern period. The paper aims to characterize Whiston's way of thinking in the light of his Astronomical Principles of Religion, Natural and Reveal'd (1717). In the 17th and early 18th century cosmologies, the location of Hell in the universe was a major issue. This horrible place of punishment could be located beneath the earth or on the sun. Whiston's view on this issue relies on the juxtaposition of biblical descriptions of Hell and scientific evidence regarding comets. Research for this paper was supported by Estonian Science Foundation grant no. 6099.

Three Weeks in the Cab of a Truck

Kolm nädalat rekkakabiinis

Author(s): Asta Niinemets / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 30/2005

Long-distance drivers are a special kind of people. There are not many who find this kind of job acceptable or even agreeable. Still, thousands of road trains are daily racing along the roads, taking goods to the destination. A cursory glance at the work of truck drivers may suggest that their life is romantic and adventurous: they load on the cargo, enter the destination address in the computer and race to the destination, harassing smaller vehicles on the way. A better insight into the life on the road and the minds of truck drivers can be obtained from the truck drivers' log books. Two cargo travels on the highways of Europe (one from Sweden to France, and the other to Spain) offer an altogether different travel experience than can be obtained on a guided tourist trip.

Mt. Ocharovatelnaya and Mt. Sinyukha in Altai: Legends and Reality

Legendid ja tegelikkus Altai mäestiku Otšarovatelnaja ja Sinjaja mägi

Author(s): Leonid Marsadolov / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 30/2005

The article explores the relationship between oral narrative heritage and specific material monuments on the example of two actual objects situated near the Kolyvan settlement in Western Altai. The State Hermitage Museum's archaeological fieldwork in the Sayan-Altaic region was conducted in 1993 and 1996 on Mt. Ocharovatelnaya and Mt. Sinyukha. There is a rock precipice of zoomorphic shape on Mt. Ocharovatelnaya that has been used as a sanctuary, but possibly also for astronomic observation by prehistoric people. In one observation site, the sun can be observed as setting in the mouth of an animal-shaped rock during vernal equinox - the animal as if swallows the sun. A Christian sanctuary was later erected on Mt. Sinyukha, and a wooden cross stood there even in the early 20th century. On the foot of the mountain there was an Old-Believers' nunnery. Mt. Ocharovatelnaya rises 670 m and Sinyaya Sopka, the highest peak of the Kolyvan ridge south of Mt. Ocharovatelnaya, 1,210 m above the sea level. It is a rule rather than a coincidence that the zoomorphic pagan sanctuary on Mt. Ocharovatelnaya in the north is located twice as low compared to the Christian cross on the Sinyaya mountaintop in the south. In the Christian tradition the warmer South is more revered than the cold North. In several ancient Russian geographic maps, south was situated above and north below. The position of cultic objects on mountaintops situated opposite of each other appears to symbolise the triumph of Christianity over paganism in the 18th century.

Pseudomythological Star Charts

Libamütoloogilised taevakaardid

Author(s): Andres Kuperjanov / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 30/2005

The aim of this artice is to observe the evolution of descriptions of the starry sky. The star chart is viewed as a mental composition, a collection of symbols that allows us to orient in the starry sky by following a complete narrative storyline. Different possibilities for the emergence of such stories and the astral mythological nature of these stories are discussed. The nature and refinement of different layers of folk astronomical constellations is studied in depth. The article will be published in English in issue 31 of "Folklore. An Electronic Journal of Folklore."

Cosmic Hunt: Variants of a Siberian - North-American Myth

Kosmiline jaht. Põhja-Ameerika müüdi Siberi variandid

Author(s): Yuri E. Berezkin / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 30/2005

The mythological motif of the Cosmic Hunt (F59.2) is characteristic of northern and central Eurasia and the Americas but seems to be missing in other parts of the globe. Two distinct Eurasian versions demonstrate North-American parallels at the level of minor details which could be explained only by particular historic links between the corresponding traditions. According to the first variant, three stars of the handle of the Big Dipper are hunters and the dipper itself is an animal (elk in Siberia, bear in North America), while Alcor (a weak star near Mizar, which is the second star of the handle), occupies a special place in this picture. Its association with a dog (Orochon Evenk, Udeghe, Oroch, Lillooet, Coastal Salish, Wasco, Mohawks, Delaware, Fox) and especially with a cooking pot (Khakas, Khanty, Selkup, Ket, the northern and western groups of Evenk, Seneca, Cherokee) carried by the second hunter is highly specific and could not emerge independently in Asia and in the New World. According to the second variant of the Cosmic Hunt motif, the stars of the Orion's Belt represent three (sometimes one) deer, antelopes, mountain sheep or buffaloes. The hunter is Rigel or some other star or constellation below the Orion's Belt. Hunter's arrow has pierced the game and is seen either as the red star Betelgeuze (in Asia) or as the stars of Orion's Head (in America). Both in Asia (Hinduism, Tibetans, Kalmyk, Kazakh, Kirgiz, Tuva, Teleut, Altai, Telengit, Khakas, Tofa, Buryat, Mongol) and in North America (Gros Ventre, Cahuilla, Paviotso, Chemehuevi, Ute, Yavapai, Mohave, Maricopa, Kiliwa, Seri, Western Apache, Mescalero, Lipan), the second version of the Cosmic Hunt is localised further away from the Bering Strait than the first variant. It is an argument in favour of its slightly later introduction into the New World. Both episodes, however, probably date to the first settling of the New World; their absence in the circum-Beringian region excludes the possibility of their late spread. Unlike both these versions, the circum-Arctic one(s) (hunter or game are associated with Orion or the Pleiades) are represented by neighbouring traditions which form almost a continuous chain from the Lapps to the Polar Inuit. This version is not recorded among the Yupik Eskimo and could have been brought across the American Arctic with the spread of Tule Eskimo after 1000 AD.

The Sun, Moon and Starry Sky in the Mythology of Chukchi. The Relations of Celestial Bodies with Sacrifying

Päike, kuu ja tähistaevas tšuktši mütoloogias ning taevakehade seostest ohverdamistega

Author(s): Ülo Siimets / Language(s): Estonian / Issue: 30/2005

The article provides a short overview of the central Chukchi myths, concepts and beliefs concerning celestial bodies at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. The Chukchi starry sky is related to their main means of making a living, breeding wild reindeer. Chukchi are one of the few Siberian peoples that have maintained their own religion. Peoples of the far north, among them the Chukchi, personified the Sun, Moon and starts. Reindeer breeders today still make sacrifices considering the help or influence of a constellation or planet, e.g. sacrifying at full moon. The Chukchi believe the most important character in the sky is the Sun. They describe it as a separate being (vaœrgœn). In addition, the special (upper/higher) beings include Creator, Dawn, Zenith, Midday and Northern Star. In Chukchi mythology, the Moon is a human-creature. He is the ketlja `bad spirit' of the Sun. Several Chukchi star myths (e.g. concerning the Northern Star and the Orion) are very similar to those of other nations.

The Theology of Exorcism of Hildegard of Bingen and its Visual Representative Context

Богословието на екзорцизма при Хилдегард от Бинген и неговият визуално-презентативен контекст

Author(s): Slava Yanakieva / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 18/2012

Keywords: exorcism; Hildegard of Bingen; Middle Ages; visual representation; theology

Logical and Philosophical Criteria in Christology According to The Treatise on the Veneration of the Holy Icons by Theodore Abu Qurra

Логико-философски критерии в христологията според трактата "Против Севир" на Теодор Абу Кура

Author(s): Smilen Markov / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 18/2012

Keywords: Logic; and Philosophy; Christology; Theodore Abu Qurra; Byzantine philosophy; Iconoclasm; Monophysitism; Nestorianism; John of Damascus; pragma

Although Theodore Abu Qurra (755–830) is not traditionally associated with Byzantine philosophy, he is recognizable as a successor of the Byzantine philosophical style. The concepts elaborated in his texts testify for a continuation of the theological synthesis that started in the aftermath of Iconoclasm. The intellectual style of Theodore is that of a mediator between the Arabic and the Christian civilizations. He works out common criteria for refuting the recurrences of Monophysitism and Nestorianism among the Greek-speaking population in Syria, living already in Arabic cultural milieu. Referring to the common Aristotelian root of both heresies and following the argumentation of Maximus Confessor and John of Damascus, he introduces the term “pragma” as a point of coherence of logical and ontological terminology. It is the ontological bearer of the essence and a logical member of the natural species. Its peculiarity, which is the existential limit of being, however, can be defined neither by ontological terms, nor by logical ones. It is noteworthy that during the 8th and 9th century Byzantine philosophy explains the personal identity not through terms, but through existential limits.

Lorenzo Valla and the Norms of Rennaissance Philosophy (review on Iva Manova, "Norm and Reform within the Renaissance Philosophy)

Лоренцо Вала и нормите на ренесансовата философия (За Ива Манова, Норма и реформа в ренесансовата философия)

Author(s): Georgi Kapriev / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 18/2012

Keywords: Rennaissance Philosoph; Norm; Reform; Lorenzo Valla; humanism

Krastyo Peykich (1666–1730) and His "Mahometanus in lege Christi instructus (1717): About the Author and the Book

Кръстьо Пейкич (1666–1730) и Мохамеданина, обучен в съгласие с Корана според Христовия закон (1717) – за автора и книгата

Author(s): Iva Manova / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 18/2012

Keywords: Mahometanus in lege Christi instructus; Krastyo Peykich; state religion;

Christ, the subject of this paper, was regarded by its author as a handbook to be consulted by those Catholic missionaries who carried out their activity among Muslims. It is intended here to offer an insight into this work, with regard to its context, content, sources, how it was to function as intended by its author and its peculiarities in respect to other writings in the same field. My analysis is meant to give an account of the Mahometanus as a manifestation and a revealing example both of post-Tridentine Catholic expansionism in Eastern Europe and of the Habsburg’s policy aimed at the religious integration of their subjects and the consolidation of Catholicism as the “state religion”. In the opening pages of the article, an overview of the scholarly studies on Kastyo Peykich and his works is offered. With respect to his biography, some new facts are reported here for the first time.

On Evil

За злото

Author(s): Thomas Aquinas / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 18/2012

Keywords: translation; Latin; evil; Thomas Aquinas

Al-Farabi’s Concept of the Active Intellect

Понятието за активен интелект при ал-Фараби

Author(s): Atanas Nanev / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 18/2012

Keywords: Al-Farabi; active intellect; intellect; human cognition; incorporeal substances; Arabic philosophy

Even though Alfarabi’s works on intellect fail to cohere into a holistic theory but rather suggest various propositions on what intellect is, they do share some common ground. On one hand, it is uniform that the development through which the intellectual perfection of the soul takes place consists in three stages: the passive or material intellect, the actual intellect, and the acquired intellect; and what makes that development possible is the active intellect, which is the last in a line of incorporeal substances bind in a cosmological chain of emanation. It is the role of the active intellect in both physical world and human cognition that different groups of texts treat differently. Of course that discrepancy is not an exception but it seems to be a focal one as the notion of intellect is discussed.